Chapter 4

Shirley had been my assistant intern at the company for a week, and I had yet to show her the bedroom that was connected to my office. Part of my reason for not showing her had been the relationship that she and Ellen were forging. It wasn't that I was jealous, well, that wasn't the only reason. I was concerned at how much time they were spending with each other. They went to lunch together every day. They invited me to go with them on Wednesday and Thursday, but not on Tuesday or Friday. Tuesday, they said they needed to go shopping, and on Friday, they didn't even bother telling me what they were doing.

Between those two visiting with each other, and talking together on the telephone, I didn't really see that much of Shirley that first week. She completed all the work I assigned to her though, and she did a good job of it. I couldn't fault her for not getting her work done, or the quality of it. Still, by the end of her first week as my assistant, I would have to admit I was disappointed with our working relationship. When we did manage to talk, it was usually about something that she and Ellen had seen or done.

We were supposed to play golf together on Saturday morning, but she canceled out on Thursday, telling me she wanted to help Ellen and Edith move to their new apartment in Bolling that weekend. With Ellen making good money at the company, she and her mom had decided they could afford to move into the city, closer to their work. Edith would also be closer to Earl, and Ellen was anxious to help their relationship along. Since she had been dating Earl, Edith had cut back on her drinking quite a bit, and had also started giving Ellen more space to live her own life.

I was feeling petty for resenting Shirley's wanting to help her friend, but, petty or not, I still resented it.

Sunday evening, Shirley called me to let me know she was back home, and that Ellen and Edith were all moved into their new apartment. We were talking for a few minutes, and I asked her if she felt like going out for a drive with me.

"Ellen is spending the night here with us. Edith said she was feeling strong enough to want to see if she could survive a night without Ellen being there with her. Isn't that great? Ellen says its probably because Earl will be spending the night. She doesn't care though, not as long as she's willing to let Ellen stay away. That is an improvement though, don't you think?"

"You can't go out for a drive with me because Ellen is a guest and you don't want to leave her?"

"Yes, and plus I'm really tired. Besides, I'll see you at work tomorrow. Ellen and I will drive in together, so you don't need to come pick me up. This is a big deal for Ellen, and I don't want to just leave her here alone to go off with you."

I didn't make that much of a protest, but I felt bad about the way the whole week had gone with Shirley and me. This last rebuff was just another small addition to a long list of minor disappointments. I said goodnight, telling her that I loved her, and tried to figure out what I could do to entertain myself until it was time to go to sleep. In the end, I stayed up in my room and felt sorry for myself. I didn't wallow in self pity, but I did dab a little of it behind each ear.

Monday morning, I drove myself into work, telling Dad that I wanted to have my own car there, in case I needed to go out for lunch or something. I was really hoping that Shirley and I could go out to lunch together, just the two of us. I was in my office, trying to figure out what to do with the first item on my Dad's list of things he wanted me to do. He wanted me to select a supervisor to replace Roy Falson. Since we made the changes that resulted in letting Roy go, no one had been in charge down at the loading dock. The orders were getting picked though, and none of the route drivers were complaining too much. Dad had placed a note with his list, saying that he didn't know who should be promoted, telling me that I should go down to the loading and picking area and make a decision.

I went down there at nine o'clock, noting before I left that Shirley still hadn't made an appearance yet. I spent the entire morning down in the order picking area, watching as the people worked. I was looking to see if any of the pickers or loaders stood out to me as having leadership qualities. I did notice that several of the pickers sought out the woman I had given Steve Lusby's order ticket to when I had taken his time card. Watching, it was obvious that the people were asking her for help or advice. I saw her looking at their tickets and pointing them to an area, or explaining something to them. It was almost twelve o'clock before I approached her and introduced myself to her.

"I already know who you are. Are you going to fire me too?" She was older than most of the other order pickers, with short black hair, a heavy build and a look of obvious fear and distrust in her eyes. I'd have guessed her age at near fifty. From her accent, I'd have guessed she was from the deep South. She was a Negro lady.

"No, actually, I was wanting to talk to you about a promotion. You'll have to excuse me, but I'm afraid I don't know your name."

"I'm Cee Cee Waters. What kind of a promotion?"

"I was hoping you could take Roy Falson's job, supervisor of the order pickers and the loaders."

"Why me?"

"Why not you? I've been watching people coming up and asking you how to do things all morning. It looks to me like most people think of you as the boss already. If you're doing the work, you should be paid for it."

"A lot of them won't like you picking me to be Roy's replacement. There might be trouble about it."

"Miss Waters, you have my word that my father would deal harshly with anyone who makes trouble because of our promoting you. We decide who we want to promote, and, this time, that's you. The only problem you might have is putting in the changes that need to be made. Roy wasn't much of a supervisor, and people in this department just aren't used to having reasonable demands placed on them. We need to have a lot better performance down here."

"Getting better results won't be hard, not if you let me make some changes in how we do things down here on the floor. First thing is, there's some people here that needs their butts fired, and there are some others that need to learn that they better shape up, or they'll soon be out on their asses too."

"How many do you think actually need to be fired?"

"Least five that I'm sure of. Maybe another three, if they don't change their ways pretty damn quick."

That's a lot. I'll need to get an ad in the paper to say that we're hiring before you go ahead and let that many go."

"There isn't no need for that. We still got about twenty people from the last time that we tried to hire. I can get all the new people we need, easy as breathing. Could have them here and working by Monday if it comes to that."

"Bring in the new people and get their paperwork processed. Let the people go only when you have someone to step in for them. We need to keep filling all the delivery orders. Can't let anything prevent that. One other thing, my father told Roy he was holding open a picker job for him for thirty days if he changes his mind and decides he wants to come back to work here."

"Be a mistake if you let him come back. He was most of the reason why things weren't going better here. Those people I'm gonna fire was all good friends of his. He hired them to work here over a lot of better applicants. He comes back, I'm liable to fire his fat ass the first day he shows up on the floor."

"My Dad said he'd keep a job open for him. He didn't promise Roy that he would be able to keep it if he came back. It would be your call, but I hope you wouldn't just fire him without giving him a chance to see if he could do the work."

"Some of the people I'd be hiring are colored, is that gonna be a problem with you?"

"Only if they're green. I don't mind any of the other colors, but I don't care much for green."

"How much this new supervisor job going to pay me?"

"Roy made fourteen hundred a month, but he wasn't really that much of a supervisor. I'm expecting real good things from you, so lets say fifteen hundred to start. If it doesn't work out though, I'm going to look bad with my father. I'll be coming down in the beginning to see how things are going. Are you okay with that?"

"Money's good enough, but I don't know if I want you here second guessing everything I do. I'd rather you just let me do what I need to do, and then wait to see if things get better or they don't. This place is going to get some kind of tense before things get better. Maybe you too young to hear what needs to be said to get things like they ought to be."

"Cee Cee, I promise you I won't interfere, but I think my father would feel better about all these changes if he was getting reports on what was happening, from me. It might help too, if I was right here if someone were to try to give you some trouble."

"Boy, Cee Cee ain't worried about trouble. Don't you get it in your head that I'm scared of none of these people. I've got some good ideas for doing things different, but I don't want a bunch of you people, dressed up in your suits, looking over my shoulder every time I try to do something." I was wearing trousers and a shirt, so I wasn't sure what she meant.

"I'm talking about me, Cee Cee. Somebody has to keep my father informed about the changes you're making. You want to write him memos every time you do something different? I'll watch and learn. I'm not going to interfere."

"Suppose I say no?"

"That would be a shame. I really think you'd be the best one for the job."

"You'd pick someone else? Who?"

"I was thinking of calling Terry Klennert back. He told me he practically ran this whole department anyway." Cee Cee barked out a laugh. I waited a few seconds, my face serious, but then, I had to laugh too.

"I guess I can make do with having you down here spying for awhile, but if you're going to be here, I'm going to put you to work just like everyone else. When do I start?"

"Right now. You can have Roy's office. Call in some new people for Monday morning. Do you have their applications on file somewhere?" She looked at me and gave me a slow nod. "If you need me, ask Edith the receptionist, she usually knows how to get me." Instead of heading off to her new office, I was glad to see her go back to finishing up pulling the order for the ticket she had been pulling before I started talking to her.

I got back to my office after talking to her. The paper I'd made up for Shirley, telling her what I needed her to do, was laying on her desk, right where I'd left it that morning. I didn't want to make a big deal about her not telling me she was going to be late, but it was almost one o'clock. More than half the day was gone, and she hadn't even bothered to show up at her office, or call and leave me a message. I left my office and walked down to the phone rooms. Edith was busy on the phones, and so were the other two girls there. Ellen and Shirley weren't there though. I waited for Edith to get off the phone.

"Edith, have you seen Shirley or Ellen today?

"They took off today, Kenny. Ellen called me last night and said they were going to drive over to Holton today. Said she wanted to show Shirley my brother's pig farm. Those pigs stink so bad, I've no idea why she'd think a body would want to go there." I tried to cover up my surprise that Shirley would just take off like that and not even ask me if it was okay. I was going to really have to sit her down, and explain the difference between working and playing.