Chapter 51

Steve

Ah, Friday morning, the close of a busy, crazy week. As I slipped out of bed, Sue's eyes came open and she smiled at me. I figured she would sleep a few more minutes, so I used the bathroom, put on some shorts and a T-shirt, and went out to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee.

When I went out to the patio to see if the big pot was done, I turned the lights on, which is the signal. I heard Glenda's screen door slam and soon saw her coming across the grass in her morning robe attire.

There is something very comforting in having such a good friend as Glenda and to be able to start the day with her. We hugged when she came in, she poured herself a cup of coffee, and I followed by pouring myself one, and sitting with her at one of the small tables.

"Glad you're back, Steve," Glenda said, sincerely. "It scared all of us when we heard that you and Mercy were actually involved in a real gunfight. Martin said that it is a wonder you lived through all that stuff when you first moved here, and to now have to go through that stuff again. We're just glad to get you two back home."

"It was a fluke, Glenda. Some bad guys out there were using our company to deliver drugs to their dealers. We should be free of that stuff now."

Ruth and Tiny came in, poured some coffee, and sat with us. Ruth was wearing a fairly opaque robe, but it didn't hide anything, as it wasn't buttoned or tied, and gaped open showing all of her front. She said, "Nothing like being home. It does take a trip to make you appreciate how much you enjoy being home."

A cute little redhead leading some kids came to the patio. She had them all seated with cereal, juice, and milk before grabbing a cup, filling it, then sitting on my lap. Shawna said, "I sure am glad my lap is back. I do like to wiggle my bare butt on that thing every morning."

"So where's Charlie this morning?"

"Stump left early this morning. He had to go to Atlanta with Del to pick up a bunch of bikes. Sales are down, but Charlie said that with the price Del is buying the bikes for, he should be able to turn them fairly fast."

The patio was now rapidly filling with people. Glenda got up and I noticed that my ladies were all in the kitchen with lots of kids. All of my kids were soon eating, and the ladies were fixing something for the rest of us.

Kathy came out to supervise kids and came over to me, "Don't get involved in anything this evening. Remember that it's Chuck's big housewarming party. I don't know why Brandy insisted on doing it so fast, but she's ready. They actually finished moving in yesterday and stayed in the house last night."

I nodded, thinking that it was nice that Chuck was even closer now. His family and mine seem to have meshed very nicely. It was nice to have him live next door, or at least as next door as he could be.

The morning progressed until it was time for me to go into the shop and get caught up on everyday business.

At the shop, Debbie had a stack of messages for me that she said were all bullshit stuff and nothing radically important. Before tackling the phone stuff, I made a tour through the shops and buildings. Everyone was busy, with orders on their scheduling boards showing they had plenty of work.

Abe was working with his men as they were tackling some state-owned road equipment. The state had asked us if we could rebuild their heavy equipment cheaper than them buying or leasing it new. Abe wanted to give it a shot and was deep into dismantling a large front loader. They had a couple of graders outside with tents over them as they worked on them. This was good as it was another way to keep people working.

The big lift group was always busy and had several lifts outside waiting to be worked on.

Jeff's group was experimenting with some composite molds that Honeywell had spec'd out. These were pieces for their fighter that had a higher than usual structural failure. Honeywell would test the material to see if it would remain unseen for their stealth aircraft.

As I was finishing my calls, Tiny came in and said, "Come have a look at the T-shirt factory. Since they were going to be down while the build out was being done, I had a few changes made to make the place more appealing."

We walked down the street to the big concrete building and I could instantly see some major changes. In addition to doubling the size of the original plant, the old plant had wall surgery to install giant windows on both floors around the whole building. Tiny said, "This place always made me feel as if we were hiring people to work in the salt mines, but it's now open, airy, and at least, brighter. With the new ventilation and air conditioning system, it is now actually pleasant to work here."

We walked through the building and saw that every square inch of space was being used efficiently, from the weaving machines all the way to the screen-printing rooms. Tiny bragged, "You know this place is now going to produce about two hundred dozen T-shirts a day. I think we'll exceed that in time, but that's pretty good don't you think?"

I was amazed. You never really know what to expect from an entity if you're not really involved in the manufacturing process. I looked through some of the race day T-shirts, wondering if the plant could make enough of just those, much less the contract work that was coming in.

On the way back, we stopped in at the utility body shop. The shop was building a couple of big trucks that were slated for Nevada. If we were going to provide a welding service out there, we needed to provide our initial crew with a good work truck. The manager at this shop said, "Our sales of fiberglass pickup caps have increased very nicely lately. We have both the regular caps and the bed lids with the easy lift. It was very good of Jeff to come teach my men how to begin laying their mats to build our own caps."

Back at the shop, Tiny went over figures for various entities of the company. What was nice was that he had a different man come to show figures for each entity, letting me know that Tiny was delegating, as opposed to trying to do it all himself. As we went over the figures for the factory in Ireland, he said, "Sales are down over there, but the lift plant is rebuilding at a record pace. The new lift sales are down, but not bad, and all that is happening is that we are slowly catching up on a huge backorder condition."

Tiny continued, "When you visit those plants you should keep your eyes open for cheap property. This recession won't last, and when it does break, we'll be right back to a large backlog of orders. You could probably nearly double your size and presence over there and remain profitable. Talk to your Irish friends and see if they can help."

Tiny said the Italian plants were filling orders, but still had a little backlog. He did say, "I think we can begin shutting down half of the cart plant as employees turn over. If we don't rehire for retirement and people leaving for whatever reason, we can get down to half our existing size. That way the unions won't bitch, and we realistically won't be laying anyone off."

Lunch time meant a quick trip home to enjoy lunch with my ladies, kids, and a lot of folks from the business park. All of Chuck's ladies were at lunch, promising a fun time tonight.

After lunch, all of my ladies and I went to the gym, then joined Glenda at the pool for some sun. My lunches are the best, as I'm fed, then wonderfully pampered. After my extended lunch break, I went to the airfield to see how Wes was doing.

Wes was putting together all of his aircraft to show at Sun and Fun out over at Plant City. We had reserved a large area and some huge tents to show off our aircraft and kits. Wes was going to have his two men put together a biplane kit at Sun and Fun. He hoped to be able to fly it the last Sunday of the air show.

Mark was in the hangar working with Wes' men, who were finishing up a camper that was also going out to the show. Wes said, "Mark commissioned that thing just for him right now. He wants to fly around for a month and thought it would be neat to be able to sleep in the aircraft. Wait until you see the tent he had made to attach to the aircraft. He's close to max weight when full of fuel, but he said if he loads it too heavy, he'll just have to stop for fuel more often."

The Sun and Fun is going to be our introduction to the industry. There have been industry rumors, but no one from any of the industry magazines have been out to look at our product yet. When people see what they can buy, for the price they can buy it for, we'll have to build new hangars to build airplanes.

Wes took me into his office to show me his newest design. It was an aircraft that sort of resembled the Cessna 162 Skycatcher or a Tecnam 92, but looked a little sleeker. He had a second model that was a normal four-place aircraft. He had some figures handwritten in what looked like a wish list. He was planning on a service ceiling of over 15,000 feet so he was going to have to have auxiliary oxygen, but that could be done with bottles. He had a note that said, "Retractable gear for speed." Another note said, "Should be able to get about 180 kts." This was going to be a very fast, very healthy machine.

Wes pointed at the drawing and said, "If I do this right and the engine Abe says he has is as good as he says, this can be a reality for around a hundred grand or less. Imagine that, a fully equipped, fast four seater for a hundred grand."

He flipped a few sheets of drawings and showed me his four-place, low wing design. With a smile, Wes said, "This one is going to fly at around two hundred ten to two hundred twenty knots. With some winglets, retractable gear, and the right prop, this baby is going to be a winner."

I looked at Wes and asked, "How many different aircraft are you going to build?"

He looked up at me innocently, and said, "As many as it takes to make S&S aircraft a place in the industry. I haven't even shown you my ideas on twins yet. I've been researching various designs for all types of aircraft to find out what has worked and what hasn't. Everything is very straightforward to make the aircraft airworthy, easy and fun to fly. Want to build a jet? We could do that, you know. A single engine rocket or if you like the safety factor, a twin turbine speedster. I'll bet we could build something faster than most commercial aircraft and as safe, if not safer, than anything out there. With the materials we have available to use, we can damn near build a space shuttle."

I laughed at Wes' exuberance. "You're too much, Wes. Let's slow down and smell the daisies as we rush by. Let's start on the high wing next, then you can build your four-place machine as an experimental so we can begin working on approval."

Wes said, "I've incorporated all of the paperwork and paid attention to every regulation every step of the way. We have an attorney that knows the FAA rules inside out and he reviews everything for us. He's the one who helped set up all the product liability stuff. Tiny and your father-in-law, Ben Phillips, found him."

I guess I didn't have to worry about Wes and his people. I figured that I would hear from him any day, asking for more room to build aircraft commercially. He does have some interesting aircraft planned.

I checked in with Jimmy, who had a Tampa Police helicopter torn down. Tank and Jimmy were discussing what to do about some worn parts that the city didn't want to replace. Tank said, "Hey, I'm the certified man on this bird and I say it isn't flying until those parts are replaced. If we let it out of here and it goes down, it's our fault. Let's go back to them and I'll talk to whoever is making these decisions. I'll bet it isn't anyone who flies these birds."

Joy was working on one of our 150s, doing an annual. She said 'hi' then added, "You need some more training helicopters. Why don't you and Chuck get some training helicopters with regular piston engines? They are cheaper to operate and you should be able to buy them used at some cheap prices right now. We could use at least two, and perhaps as many as four. That way we can use all the rest for charter jobs."

I told her, "You should tell this to Chuck, but I'll mention it when I see him later. He's been busy lately, and I know it's hard to talk to him when he isn't here, but catch him when you can. He acts on things quickly if it is for the benefit of the company."

Betty was standing at her schedule board and she smiled when she saw me, "Isn't it great? Every pilot we have is on a charter or giving lessons today. Even with the high price for student time in one of the cheaper helicopters, we are booked solid. Even "Big Bird" is busy almost everyday."

"That's really great, Betty. Joy was just lobbying for some more training helicopters. I suppose we should look into it."

Betty was grinning and as I left, said, "Get 'em, Steve, we'll rent 'em."

DeDe was now fully healed from her mishap and was working the office, giving lessons, and flying charters when needed. She was working at the desk with a young lady when I came in. DeDe looked up and smiled, "Steve, this is Nancy Ferrel, Nancy, Steve Sharp, owner of S&S Enterprises and co-owner of S&S Air Charter Services."

I stuck my hand out to shake and Nancy stood up rather unsteadily and shook my hand. DeDe said, "Nancy is like Chuck. She's lost a leg and is still getting used to her prosthesis."

Nancy was blushing badly and almost looking ashamed. "Nancy, don't feel bad about your leg. My wife, Sue, and I both walk funny because of past injuries and one of my best friends only has one leg. You'll meet him as he flies in and out of here almost daily."

Nancy sat back down and said, "Thanks," quietly. DeDe said, "I'll soon have Nancy up to speed so I can begin giving more lessons. We're beginning to pick up more lessons lately, so I'm out looking for instructors again. Our jet jockeys get to be too important to give lessons. It's funny, I can get any of the helicopter guys to give lessons, and they double with the jet jockeys all the time. Wonder what the difference is?"

I said, "They just haven't learned to use all of their talents, DeDe."

As I was getting ready to leave, DeDe said, "Don't forget the girls' party tonight at Chuck's new place. Brandy was out here for her helicopter lesson and stopped in to make sure that Nancy, Betty, Wes, and I were coming. She went through all the hangars telling everyone to be there."

When I was in my truck, getting ready to go back to the shop, my cell phone rang. It was Ben, my father/uncle-in-law. "Steve, do you have a few minutes to go over some figures? I want your opinion on a couple of things, as well as go over some numbers."

"Can we do it later or tomorrow? I don't feel like going downtown on a Friday afternoon."

"Oh no, Steve, I'm here at your place? I'm ready to begin the weekend and I get to visit with Beth if I come out. I've already started without you. Beth is coming with some chips right now."

"I'll see you in a few, Ben. I'm leaving the airfield now."

This was unusual. Ben usually stayed at his office until close to five on Fridays, but he was already at the house. He was beginning to take it easier, or else it was something important.

When I walked into the patio, several kids ran up to give me a hug. I listened to what they had been doing today and watched as they ran off to do something else. I gave all of my ladies a hug, then joined Ben at the bar. He was looking through a fat folder.

Mercy brought me a tall iced tea as I sat down, and Ben began. "You know we pulled out of the Mexican oil properties and did some investments in some Brazilian oil exploration. Those have been very successful. Your properties in Alaska and Hawaii are doing very well, and as Tiny will tell you, everything is getting fat."

"So what's up, Ben?"

"You know you have allowed me to speculate with a portion of Sue's and your money. We split off twenty-five percent and I've let it grow when it could, but have never been at a point to come ask you for more. Well, some of it has just made a big hit. A small mining company in Colombia needed some capital and no one wanted to get involved. The unrest has tamed down a lot this last year and people are trying to get back to work. We, and that means you, Sue, Chuck, me, and a small dab of the 401K money, invested in this mining company."

Ben took a drink, looked at some papers, then continued. "The small company dug enough gold from the mountains on a continuing basis to make a living for their men and a small profit for their investors. Last month, they began finding some heavy veins that are producing exorbitant amounts of the precious metal. Now everyone wants in on the deal, but we effectively own the company and control a hundred percent of the shares."

Ben looked like a greedy villain, rubbing his hands together. "Steve, my boy, you are once again a millionaire. Now just so you don't get crazy, I have to tell you what I've done with a lot of the profits so far. The community did not have a hospital; one is now being built. They didn't have hardly any municipal buildings, and now they have some nice office trailers. We are having the road into the community paved, plus we have dug another deep well for the area that should provide all the water they will ever need."

I was smiling, thinking that this was really generous of Ben. He continued, "We are having a new school built and have donated the funds to rebuild the old church in town. In other words, we have rebuilt the community. The people have money for their needs, and we are all profiting because of it. The mine is bringing out a couple of tons of gold a week, to give you an idea. We're probably losing a hundred pounds or so of gold a week from men carrying some off, but it would be a lot more if the men didn't think we cared for them. Do you know how much a ton of gold is worth?"

"Not a clue, Ben, how much?"

Ben actually giggled, "That's about twenty-six million a ton and we're taking over two tons a week from the dig."

"That's really something, Ben. What are you going to do with the money? Don't we both have enough?"

Ben didn't frown, but came down to ground level, "Yeah, we do have enough, but it's fun to find a winner. That's why I'm pouring so much money back into the economy down there. I've even found doctors and nurses to begin working in a portable hospital that we had shipped in. Those people are eating good, living well, and their health is being taken care of."

I sat back and thought about the find. "So, Ben, what do we do for an encore?"

He smiled and said, "Easy, we find some more ventures to get involved in. We ride this until the vein or veins run out and sell out, but by then, the community will be fixed up. We'll leave in good standing with a happy community."

"Well," I said, "I guess that calls for a drink. Let me get you another, Ben, and we'll toast your success."

I made us each a drink and we toasted, then Ben said, "I want us to go down there to see if we can do anything else for the people. We can take Juanita to help us with the language, but I think it would be good if we went there and said hi to the people, and made sure the working conditions in the mine are safe. I've hired an engineering firm to come inspect the mine for us."

"Maybe we can let someone else do that for us, Ben. Colombia still has a lot of people who make their living on the other side of the law. How about we stay here and send some relocated natives to act for us."

Ben said, "I'm going and if I ask her, Beth will come with me. Come on Steve, we'll be safe. We're giving back to the people and not taking everything for ourselves."

"You know, Ben, for a very intelligent man, you can come up with some hair-brained ideas. Have you checked to see how many kidnappings have occurred during the last twelve months, or even just in the last month? Do that and then tell me you will be safe. The kidnap rate down there about is about as much as we have druggies robbing 7-11s. I don't want you or Beth to go, Ben, and I'm going to be forceful about Beth. She's not going."

Ben was frowning, and said, "It would be so good to see people happy with what we have done. I just wanted us to see it and bask in a little glory."

"Bask here; bask in Key West; bask in Costa Rica, but don't go down to Colombia."

"Okay, okay, I won't go," Ben said, with regret. "I'll make sure the engineering company has some men go with them for security. I'll send a camera crew to photograph and film the area so we can see it up close. At least we can see what's going on there."