Chapter 40

As I woke, I could hear the rain pounding on the roof. It was really coming down. I thought I should probably go do bus duty and get some of the people who were far off. First stop was Nelda and Ernie, over to pick up Henry and Nancy, Susan and Kevin, then Juanita. The kids said they would drive over in the El Camino.

On the patio, the air was on low, with the fans circulating the heavy damp air. When Sue came out, she asked me, "Should I put on my swim suit for old times sake?" Everyone who had been on the patio the morning that Sue and I met had a good laugh.

Martin said to Sue, "Don't take this wrong, but your breast size is much more manageable now that you've had two little ones. You don't hardly sag, even as large as you are, but I have to say you look a lot more normal now than you did when you sported a couple of balloons on your chest."

"Thank you, Martin," Sue said. "My hubby seems very happy with them too. The kids don't seem to mind that they are smaller. I don't either. I feel very sexy in my current size. The way big Steve chases me around, I think he's content."

Mercy leaned over to me and said, "And I think they are scrumptious, delicious, and fun."

Sue heard her and gave her a hug. "I like your B's just fine too, Mercy. We all seem to enjoy all our parts."

The typical Florida weather had the rain stop and the sun out before everyone had finished breakfast. The rain band probably didn't cover much area at all. All of the raindrops on the plants glistened and sparkled, displaying the freshness of a morning shower.

Tiny said that before we went into the shop this morning, we should go out to the Aero Park to check on the building progress.

When Tiny, Phil, and I went to the Aero Park, he directed me to a mass of activity just on the other side of the park's big maintenance hangar. There were a half dozen S&S Construction Company trucks with at least four dozen men pouring concrete in one area and six big concrete trucks lined up. Just in back of that was another large expanse that was being fitted with pipes being prepared for a large slab. Across from all of this were two more distinct areas that were being staked off for more construction. Between the two areas a couple of bulldozers and graders were preparing the ground surface with shale and gravel for paving.

I looked at Tiny and asked, "Why do I get the impression that someone is building four really big hangars here?"

"They are, Steve," Tiny said with a straight face. "The new company is building four hangars that can each accommodate two Gulfstreams or several other types of aircraft. Since S&S specializes in General Steel buildings, we got a deal on four, so I just told them to go ahead and build four."

I was a little shocked. "What are we going to do with four hangars?"

"Well, we know that we need two. One for your three planes plus we're looking for another 200 and another 210. We've made arrangements for a Gulfstream V and a Lear. If we don't need the space across the ramp from the other two hangars, we can rent out one. The end one in this group is for helicopters. I have one small company with two helicopters committed to rent space, plus I think we might house one of a TV network's two helicopters. If I can find one more company with two more aircraft, that hangar will be pay for the two on that side."

Now I wasn't shocked, I was stunned. "Who's going to manage all of this?"

"Easy, Boss, your best charter pilot says he has to take it easy, as he may not pass his flight physical and would love to still be a part of us. He's lined up several flight crews, and has signed us up with a national air charter group that we can use to sell time when we don't have local charters."

While I was leaning on the front of my truck, Pete Santos, the Aero Park owner, walked up with his hand out to shake mine. "How are you doing, Steve. I can't thank you enough for expanding my little airport. Your addition out here will put us on the map. It's going to allow me to have some of the best electronics available. More and more people will be stopping by here. I'm already making arrangements for a larger fuel concession so I can begin selling bulk fuel at discounted prices, and your Glenda has the cook from your main shop opening a small snack shop in the addition to the operations building."

Pete was very animated. "I'm searching for a couple more good mechanics for the increased business I'm going to get. I've already found two men for you that Tiny asked me for. I'm glad you'll have a couple of your own men since your needs alone would swamp us. We'll still do a lot of your work, but your day to day work will be handled internally for you."

I smiled at Pete, but gave Tiny and Phil a wayward glance, "I'm glad you're happy with the construction. What do you think of all of this talk about helicopters?"

"I hate those things," Pete said. "They are scary as hell. Something without wings shouldn't be allowed to fly, but they sure are convenient for what they're used for. The company coming in here has a great safety record. All of the pilots are ex-military with a ton of hours. The mechanical crew they have is very well known and will be doing a great business in repair. Like I said, your new additions are going to be a real boon to me."

Pete came in closer to me and said, "Since you're going to have a nice office building between these two hangars, John's going to need some office help. I have a niece that has just finished business school at Hillsborough Community College. She doesn't have any office experience yet, but I'd bet she could learn to be a very good office manager for you. I know she's dependable, because she's worked for me a few summers and part time while she's been going to school. And the best thing is that John thinks the world of her."

"Tell you what, Pete, tell her to go down to the main shop and see Ruth. I'll let Ruth know she's coming. We might have to have someone work with her to set up the office, but she sounds fine for the job." I turned to Tiny and asked, "Where is this office building going to be?"

Tiny pointed toward an area between the two big hangars that was ready for the slab to be poured and said, "Right between the two hangars. It will have doors into both hangars, plus it will have locker rooms for the crews and mechanics."

"Tiny," I said in amazement, "How did you come up with all this so fast? I just asked you to do this a couple of days ago."

Phil blew it for Tiny by saying, "Shoot, he's had this planned for months. As a matter of fact, he was going to start construction a couple of days ago anyway. You gave your blessing just before he started."

Tiny looked a little sheepish but said, "We were making enough money renting out your airplanes, that I knew it was going to pay to expand the charter and rental business. If we are going to do it, we might as well jump in with both feet. We have the right people to make it work; all we needed was the tools."

"You have any other surprises, Tiny?" I asked, waving them into the truck so we could go to the shop. Pete waved at me on the way to his maintenance hangar.

At the shop, Debbie had moved into Sue's desk and her desk had been removed and replaced by a table with chairs. There was an attractive brunette that I didn't know sitting at my desk. Debbie introduced her as Annette, her new assistant, and that she was working with her closely for a few days to teach her what she needed to know.

Debbie looked at me coyly, "I put some messages for you to return up in the big office. You don't mind using that for a while do you? I need your desk down here right now."

I frowned but went upstairs to the huge office. The desk had all my stuff on it, including a framed picture of Sue, Mercy, Stevie, Mike, and Lizzy. As I was looking at everything, Debbie came in with a cup of coffee for me. "What do you think, Steve? Think you can work up here for a while? Everyone in the company wants you to be in here, so I went along with it and moved you up here."

I walked over to the big windows and looked down onto the work floors. "I hate to be so far from the activity. I know I don't do anything with them very often, but I feel like I've abandoned the men that make this place work."

"They're the ones that want you up here, Steve. Every one of them knows that you're the glue that holds us all together. You've given us all so much; we want you to have an office that's special. Maybe this will convince you to spend more time finding new things for us to do. All of us have this feeling of anticipation that something new is going to begin any second. We wait for it. We actually hunger for it. You sneaked the business park in on us, then all of a sudden, we have a huge construction company that keeps getting bigger. We never know what's next. There's a rumor you're starting a charter airline now too."

"Thanks for the confidence, Debbie, but Tiny's behind the charter stuff. Once again, I'm just along for the ride."

"Yeah, sure, Steve."

"So Debbie, where's the stack of messages that I need to return?"

Debbie was a little red-faced, but handed me a single message slip. It was from Sue. The ruse was so funny that I laughed loudly. Debbie laughed as well. My laugh must have been a signal, as Ruth stepped in the door followed by Phil and Judy. Tiny walked in behind them and said, "Son of a gun, we finally got him in his office."

Phil, Tiny, and Ruth all had cups of coffee and sat at the small conference table. Ruth and Phil both had folders in their hands.

"Has someone called a meeting?" I asked.

Ruth said, "I have a couple of questions about the new charter company."

Phil added, "I'd like to show you the idea Atlanta has."

Debbie said, "Maybe I should stay to referee."

"I'm leaving," Tiny said happily. "I have some number crunchers that need to be watched."

Ruth asked me her questions and I answered as best as possible, since I didn't know S&S had a new division for air charter service. There it was though, a folder with S&S Air Charter Service, Inc. The folder contained several employment applications with a printed sheet that listed pay scales. That would be Tiny's work. I told her about Pete Santos' niece so she wouldn't be surprised. I told her to give her to Debbie to train for a while, then to let Judy work with her to teach customer service.

Phil showed me Atlanta's plan to service the road construction companies. Previously the construction companies had to bring the equipment into their shop for repair but we were now going to have mobile repair centers for on site repair. We were offering maintenance agreements that included preventative maintenance checks. We were guaranteeing that we would keep them in business or provide a loaner if it couldn't be repaired on site. He said the idea could be duplicated throughout the company and should bring in some heavy profits.

I looked at Phil and said, "Get together with Abe and Tiny to make sure of the numbers, then make it happen. Both you and Abe will benefit from this one."

Phil said, "It's going to increase Atlanta's numbers about fifteen percent overall. It's that big."

"Make sure that where we institute the plan, the pricing is appropriate for the area," I cautioned. "Areas like Chicago need to be more to account for the unions, as well as the cold weather. The units will have a higher failure rate in that frigid climate than those in the warm areas. Remember to always use Abe's clause for customer damage."

Phil was making notes and said, "I'll get Tiny to help me come up with the initial numbers, then I'll have Ryan begin to roll out the marketing. This will be big if we can do it in all of our branches."

When Phil left, I took my cup and sat at the big desk, noticed the pink message slip and called Sue.

"Are you in your new office?" Sue asked.

"Yes, I've already had meetings with Ruth and Phil in here. I'm not sure I really like being up here. It's lonely and not full of activity like downstairs. I feel a little disconnected. You know Debbie's moved into your desk."

Sue said, "Debbie and I talked about that a while ago. You'll still have the use of the desk downstairs, but they all want you in the big office. They want that room to reflect you, so put some pictures of oil wells and oil platforms in there, maybe a model airplane, or a couple of model motorcycles. Make it look like your office."

"I guess I'm not around that much anyway, so it really doesn't make a difference. Now I know why you raised hell about your new office at the plant in the park."

"You got it. I still get to be involved, but now that the thing has been set in motion, everyone just keeps giving it a push, and the company just rolls along. Our people make it succeed. We only have to keep finding people who want to succeed with us."

There was a pause before she asked, "Are you coming home for lunch and the gym?"

"Sure, but you sound like something's up."

"I think you need to take both Nelda and Ernie to the doctor. Ernie is having a real bad day, and I've been watching Nelda. I think she's having chest pains but won't say anything."

That'll make you get a cold sweat. "I'll be right there. Call their doc and see if he'd rather us just go straight to the emergency room." I hung up and was going downstairs instantly.

I told Debbie that I had to leave, as Ernie and Nelda weren't feeling well and was in my truck, pushing traffic all the way home.

As I pulled up to the patio, there was an ambulance in front. I rushed through the house, noticing the worried look on Juanita's face in the kitchen. On the patio, Nelda was laying on a couch with a paramedic attending to her. Ernie was sitting in one of the big chairs with his shirt open and another paramedic working on him. Sue, Mercy, Glenda, and Hanna were standing ready to help any way they could. I noticed Martin sitting at the table watching with a worried look.

The paramedic looked up and said, "We need to transport Mrs. Wainwright to the hospital immediately. I've called for another unit for Mr. Wainwright. What hospital do you want?"

Sue said, "University Community Hospital. Her doctor will meet you there."

All four women had big tears running down their faces as they shifted their attention to Ernie. He was out of it. The paramedic had him hooked up to a monitor and had given him some kind of injection.

A second ambulance showed up and the paramedics rushed in with a gurney. They loaded Ernie on it and took him outside. Both of our two seniors were on their way to the hospital.

The four women began preparing to leave. Sue said, "Let's go in the Expedition and Steve's truck. That way we'll have two vehicles there." She turned to Juanita and said, "Are you going to be okay taking care of the kids by yourself."

"We'll be here to help her." The voice came from Star who was walking in the door with DeeDee. "We'll stay until you all come back."