Chapter 12

Steve

Still Thursday

Back at the shop, I went out to the fiberglass shop and talked to Jeff's assistant, Ken.

"Ken, you know the five mats you made up for us to test the strength of them?"

"You mean the five composite mats?"

"Right, those. Can you make up a few more just like them?"

"Sure, no problem. I have the mixes right here and we can do them and lay them tonight. They won't be cured and ready until Monday, though."

"That's fine, Ken, do three sets of them. I have an idea I want to try, so let me know when you have them ready. Have you considered whether we can make the mats denser? I'd love a mat that would be the densest you could make it, but still keep it the normal thickness, especially using the metallic composite."

Ken thought for a second and said, "I'll mix up a batch that is the most dense I can make and lay it in a mat mold. I'll give you three of them, as well. I don't know what you would do with it though, as it would be so dense it would be almost ... Hey, are you trying to make a mat bullet proof?"

I laughed and said, "You might be onto something Ken. Maybe you're reading my mind. Let me know when you have something."

Ken was speculating, "You know, if we could make a bulletproof composite, the military could make their drones out of the material and the little drones could fly slowly over various areas while the sand fleas shoot the hell out of them with small arms."

"Hey, that's a neat idea. Make some strong stuff and remember to write down your concoction so we can repeat the process."

"Done deal, Boss."

I was smiling as I walked back to main building. There was a tent set up behind the main building, in front of one of the race day trucks. Across the front of the tent was a big sign that announced, "Welcome NASCAR teams."

Now what? I walked over to the tent where one of the salesmen for the race day teams was and asked what was happening.

The salesman said, "We're having an open house to get teams in here to help us stock what we'll need for race days next year. We'll get an idea of where these folks will be testing and try to show up there if several teams will be there at the same time. We're trying to be their parts house away from home. The big Sprint Cup van almost needs a second truck now as we're supplying so much to the teams. Tiny said if we wanted the second truck to just ask. We're more than profitable so far."

I asked, "How many teams do you expect tomorrow?"

"We have twelve committed right now. We've rented the entire hotel for this event. Hopefully, we'll be able to fill it up. We're giving tours of the shop as well as tours out at the park. These guys also buy our truck bodies and RVs."

"How about us having them come out to the patio? We can get the big tent and throw a hell of a party for them."

"Great, Boss, do it."

"Okay," I asked, "when will these guys be coming in and what days are you having this wing ding?"

"Friday and Saturday."

"Let me get Tiny on it and set this up. Tell everyone that tomorrow night will be a party at the house."

I walked into the shop and straight upstairs to Tiny's office. Tiny looked up and said, "I know that look. What has to happen in ten seconds flat?"

"I just found out we're hosting a bunch of NASCAR race teams here to get a feel for what we need to provide next season. How about setting up the tent and caterer for a big party at the house? This is a big deal. We should put on the dog for them."

Tiny smiled and said, "I heard about the show, but didn't put together how big a deal it was. I'll get it done. Plan on a real party. I'll make sure our local guys are all there and get the road sales guys in for it. Phil will be pleased his men are invited."

"Hell, Tiny, they're always invited. They don't need an engraved invitation."

"I know, but they really don't understand that. Ryan tells them, but they don't believe him. Let me get on the horn and get this set up."

"Don't bug Ruth about it until later. She's boobs deep in trying to make the new office in the new hangar perfect. Tell her later. You can call the house though and let them know."

I went into my office and called Gene. "Hey, Gene, are you coming to the open house tomorrow? I know you're back in town, in your old building, for the winter, so are you coming?"

"Since I know you guys so well, I didn't think I would clutter up the space."

"No way, you come and give us your opinion. We depend on our best and oldest customer. We have a lot of questions and you and your crew chiefs can answer them for us. Oh, and you won't want to miss the party out at the house tomorrow night. It should be special. We'll probably have some of the best ribs and chicken known to man."

"You dog, Steve, for a good party, you know my wife and I will be there. I'll get the crew chiefs together and come by tomorrow to answer questions for the sales guys. You know we're starting the season with the same motors we ended with last year. They're still perfect. You're losing money building them so well."

"That's great news, Gene. It's a good thing your guys like to do a lot of rubbing so I get some cash out of panels."

"You have me there. They don't blow engines, but they can't keep a racecar on four wheels. I keep telling them "rubber side down," but they love to slide along on the top. Those eighteen percent stainless frames are keeping our rebuilds down too. You know last season we only built one new car. The rest of the wrecks were just re-panels."

"That's even better news. You see, I'm saving you money. That's our goal. Tell the other teams that stuff. You won enough to get into the top five. Maybe this year you'll win it all."

"Dream on, Steve, I have good cars and decent drivers, but it takes some kind of special luck to win it all."

"Well, you did it in the trucks, why not the big cars?"

"Hell, the trucks were easy. With your motor and the new suspension your guys, or rather girls, worked out for us, we blew the doors off everyone. Your girls came out and straightened out my crew on suspension, but the big cars just couldn't stay out of traffic. We have a new driver that may be an answer. We're fielding three cars in the Sprint cup this year. We're after it, that's for sure."

"Well, thanks for coming tomorrow and I'll look forward to seeing you and your lady tomorrow night. It'll be a good time."

I called Sue to tell her about tomorrow. She said, "It's a good thing the remodeling is complete up at the rec center or the kids would have been nuts. They get excited over everything. As soon as that big truck showed up here a few minutes ago and began erecting the tent, the kids went crazy. It was all the girls could do to get them back up to the rec building. It's almost time to come home, are you going to be late?"

"Nope, I think I've done all the damage I can do today. I'll do a quick walk through the shops to make sure the place is being cleaned up and be home."

It was four forty-five, so clean up should be in progress. For grins, I walked through the office cubicle area to make sure desks were being put into shape. Down in the rebuild area, guys were sweeping and mopping. Welding was putting tools away and beginning to sweep, while sheet metal was stacking and mopping at the same time. The motor room was in the beginning stages of putting stuff away, but two teams were testing engines. They were down to the last tests and comparing printouts. The two gay guys paid off the gay girls a dollar each. Big bet. They all hugged each other and began cleaning up. Shawna looked at me and winked, as one of her high school kids was mopping her area. This was a special place to work.

I walked out of the showroom and drove home in the five o'clock traffic. Since it isn't far, the traffic was not a problem. When I walked into the patio, I was hit by a half dozen critters that were mine. They all wanted hugs and to tell me something special. I sat down and listened to their stories and commented, until the last two left were Stevie and CJ. Stevie said, "Dad, CJ and I want to try to motocross. Dennis said he would help us and Uncle Kevin said he's a good teacher. Can we, Dad? Can we?"

I said, "CJ, you need to get your mom and dad in on this conversation, and I'll help you out on that. You need to talk to Charlie and Shawna the same way. Have you asked Greg whether he wants to do it too?"

Stevie jumped down and ran into the house. He brought Greg out and said, "Tell him, Greg. Tell Dad what you said."

Greg looked sheepish and said, "I asked Mom, ah, no, I mean, I told mom I was going to ride motocross." She got mad because of the way I said it. I was wrong, I should have asked."

"Have you told your mom you were wrong?"

"No Sir. I was embarrassed to talk to her about it again."

"When you're wrong, Greg, you have to admit you're wrong. Go get your mom and bring her here. Stevie, go get your moms, all of them, and CJ see if your mom is home now. We'll do this all at once."

The three took off in three different directions. Stevie was going to be sure to have permission as he brought Sue, Mercy, and Juanita back together. Greg came back, with his hand pulling Kathy. Kathy had a smirk on her face, knowing what this was probably about. CJ came bouncing into the patio dragging Shawna, who had a questioning look on her face.

The three boys stood there mute with the expectant mothers. They all looked at me to solve the riddle. I looked at Greg and smiled. He squirmed in place as if expecting me to talk for him. I finally said, "This is your show Son. Let's hear it."

Greg rolled his eyes looked up at his smirking mother, then looked back down quickly. He took a deep breath and then looked straight up at Kathy, "Mom, I'm sorry I spoke to you the way I did. I know you would give me a chance to do what I want if I had been more, I don't know the word, oh yeah, courteous. Like I said, Mom, I'm sorry."

Kathy smiled real big and said, "Good speech. Now ask me nice and we'll go from there."

You could see relief spread across Greg's face as he smiled up at his mom, "I want to try to ride motocross. I think the other guys are going to get to do it and I want to do it with them. Will you let me?"

Kathy paused, looked at me, then looked at the other moms, "Perhaps these other boys need to ask their mothers too, if they haven't already."

CJ said, "I already asked Mom and Dad and they said if you guys were going to do it, then I could."

Shawna said, "I think what I said was, if you boys were going to be taught by someone who knew what they were doing, you could do it."

"Okay, that's what you said, but it was the same thing, sort of."

Shawna smiled, "Sort of, Champ."

Stevie looked up at his four moms and said, "Dad said I could ride motocross if you said I could." He looked from Sue, to Mercy, to Juanita, to Kathy, then asked, "What do you say, can I?"

There were smiles all around. Kathy said, "You guys need to corner Dennis and Kevin so you can learn to do this safely. Dennis will be here for supper, and Kevin should be here any second."

The three boys ran from the created tension on the patio outside to intercept Kevin or Dennis on the way in. Sue said, "It probably isn't fair to Kevin to sic those three on him. Why did Stevie get all of us?"

I said, "I think he felt if he had you other three here, Kathy might be easier on Greg. You know how those guys are with each other. They constantly look out for each other. Greg probably knew he screwed up as soon as he said his piece to Kathy."

Kathy smiled, "He sure did, I looked at him with my mad look and he bolted. We really didn't get a chance to discuss it. I'll talk to him about it later but then, all of us are his moms now, so we'll all talk to him."

Shawna said, "CJ was begging his dad for a little motocross bike a couple of weeks ago, so you know this plan has been fermenting for a while. I wonder how many other kids will be involved in this by the time we begin?"

Mercy said, "The other kids are still trying to figure out how to be better soccer or baseball players. The three boys want to do everything, so they just get overly expectant of us. Their new method of being taught at a faster level probably has them thinking faster than they should as well. We'll have to temper some of their enthusiasm with some slower education. We're all trying to prove how slow the school system was teaching our kids."

Shawna was laughing, "Charlie and I never were great students, but we sure were hell raisers. When we were in elementary school, they kept trying to put us in different classes, but we always ended up together. Since I was a military brat, I would leave for a year then come back. Charlie was always my buddy right through high school. That's how we ended up in the small engine and motorcycle maintenance school together. I'm proud that CJ is so smart. But perhaps it's because his buddies are helping him learn."

Sue said, "That may be, but CJ is smart. He figures things out by himself all the time. He's very courteous too. See Shawna, you've been a good mom to all of our kids."

Juanita spoke up, "Because all of these kids have all of us for direction, I think they learn from all of us. It's just like the kids enjoy speaking to me in

Spanish most of the time, they have learned a lot from each of us and use it every day."

Charlie walked into the patio, drew a beer into his frosted mug and sat down beside me. "Looks serious, Steve. When you have five of them lined up like this you must have done something bad, what's up?"

Shawna laughed and plopped into Charlie's lap, "Our brats have decided to be motocross hotshots and Greg approached Kathy the wrong way. Steve decided to set them straight and required all of them to produce a mom. Stevie got the rest of the moms from his group and CJ dragged me over here as soon as I pulled in. What's the deal anyway, you guys have beer and I don't."