Chapter 67

Steve

We had eaten a great supper and were all relaxing on the patio when Wanda came to get me. She asked if we could go somewhere to talk. Not knowing what was up, I took her to Sue's offices in the other end of the trailer from the bedrooms.

Wanda and I sat down and she said, "Steve, I don't know what to do. I talked to Chuck this morning and he's been shot. Lisa, Nightfox, and him, were all shot. He says they're not too serious, but I'm not sure about that. When I called our base to see what he should do, I found out the entire unit, including the Station Chief, was killed in an explosion last night. I should tell Chuck's ladies, and I probably should tell Maria that Sam is hurt."

I looked at the shaken Wanda a second, and said, "If Chuck doesn't want to tell anyone, he has a reason. Don't alarm his women, and definitely don't alarm Maria. Nightfox will tell her the way he wants to. Let him do it. If they are all alive, be thankful. Go get John and have him comfort you. You could probably use a drink too, but don't betray a confidence. You know how to keep quiet."

Wanda nodded her head up and down and said, "Yeah, I do need a drink. Come on and pour me some good scotch, that'll help. I think John is still coming back on a charter. You know, I am looking forward to that sailing trip coming up, even if we don't sail the whole way with you."

We went out to the bar and I poured her some Johnny Walker Black. That should make her feel better. It does that for me, so I poured myself some.

Mercy came up to me and said, "Make me one of those. I need it after what Chuck and Lisa have been through. I don't know what they've been doing, but it's been serious. Those two are into something that's really scary lately. I really don't need this. Mom's even coming early because she thinks Chuck's getting in too deep. She doesn't know what he's into, but she's determined to get him out."

I said, "Both of you need to let Chuck do what he feels he should do. Chuck is a tough guy, and does some dangerous stuff. Nightfox and Lisa are apparently part of it, so let them be."

"It's hard to do, Steve," Mercy groaned. "Just look at little Maria. She's so lonely when Sam isn't around. The lady idolizes him. He does her, too, but he needs to be here. Man, Steve, the way I've felt lately, those three have been in some shit."

I hugged Mercy about the time Sue came up and said, "Settle her down, Steve. The lady has been bonkers these last few days. I sure hope Chuck and Lisa get back so she'll relax."

Mercy said, "And Sam Nightfox too. Just look how sad Maria looks. She really misses her man."

"That she does," Sue said, as she poured herself some Diet Coke with some rum to go with it.

Sue and Mercy were sitting next to me, when Juanita came up in front of me with her hands on her hips, "Will you look at this. You two are hogging him again." With that, she sat on my lap and gave me a kiss as she sat crossways with her legs out over Mercy's lap.

Mercy laughed, "We hog him so you just lay all over all of us? We'll get you later for this, Nita Dear."

"Oh, I hope so. We need some excitement around here."

Glenda hollered from the kitchen and family room sliding doorway, "Everyone get washed up. Supper is going to be on the table."

There wasn't a mad rush, but there was a general movement of women going in to help haul food to the tables and others to round up kids. There was the stampeding noise of little feet running through the house to get to the tables. It's really special to watch about fifty people gather for a meal like this. People are hauling food, others pouring milk and tea, still others assisting little ones in taller chairs so they can be level with the table.

When we were sitting, Phil stood and said, "Tonight, I think we need to give thanks for what we have. We should probably do this for every meal, but today is special. All of us are healthy, well-fed, clothed, and with the prospect that all of this will continue for the foreseeable future. Everyone we come into contact with seems to be able to make it and they seem to improve from where they were. I want to thank our maker for that gift. If you'll bow your heads, "Thank you, Father, for your generous gifts, and teach us to share with all others. Bless this meal, and give us the strength to do good and to help others. Amen."

Phil said, "Go ahead and eat." He paused, then continued, "A couple of weeks ago, I spoke with some people who said they were just about out of business. They were going to lay off the last of what had been nearly fifty employees. I had gone to see them as they weren't our customer and I wanted them to become one. The man and his wife poured their hearts out to me, telling me of how they had struggled to keep their business going but were just not making it. The man told me, 'Your lines have always looked good, but in good conscience I can't order anything now because there would no way I would be able to pay you.' I told him that we would give him a supply of our equipment for him to market on credit. We would consider it as being on consignment until he could get on his feet. We set him up with our way of doing business and gave him pointers as to how to market our goods."

Phil was grinning, "Well today, the man and his wife traveled from Jacksonville to Tampa to deliver a check to pay for most of the goods we consigned to him. He had an order with him for almost twice as much equipment to resupply. He told me that he had hired back six of his most recently laid off employees, and his company's future was once again looking up. The reason is not just our equipment being that much better, but there is a reason for him to be successful. It's S&S. That's us. Just having a relationship with S&S is a road to success. This company has something special to share. We have that proverbial four leaf clover to share. I'm thankful that we can help so many succeed."

Phil was almost in tears as he sat down next to Judy. She patted him on the arm and gave him a kiss on the cheek. There was silence for a few seconds, then everyone began applauding. We were applauding Phil and we were applauding each other and the significance of what Phil had said. S&S was a company that was a positive influence on those who did business with us.

Tiny and Ruth were grinning, as was Henry. I couldn't see everyone from where I was, but I'd bet even Abe was smiling at what Phil had said. The company did have a positive effect on our customers.

Sue said to me, "You know, one of my bigger customers just said the same thing. The buyer said that she hardly ever has to mark down any of our products because they didn't sell. She told me the only markdowns are one or two of an item in an odd size. She said they have consistently sold our basic blouses for several years now, and they are still selling well. We added what we call our business separates, which are suit separates, in four basic colors. These are skirts, pants, vests, and jackets that look very smart. We have made them to be very economical for our customers and have kept all but two colors the same, year around. We change the two colors for two seasons and that's it. We keep black, navy, and brown in stock all the time. The brown sells the least, but it is nice looking. The navy and black are always in demand. The buyer told me that her department was consistently one of the most successful departments in the chain."

"Your people do a good job, Sue. Your success is the quality. All of our success is our attitude. We all try to give our customers the best every day. That is our success."

Wes was near me and he said, "You know, I'm beginning to get that feeling out at the airpark. The guys building the LSAs are mostly retreads from other areas. They are so meticulous that I was a little impatient with them at first, but when they told me S&S only builds something that is perfect and when I talked to Jeff and Abe, I realized it was not only a motto, but a way of life. I think our attitude toward perfection spreads to our customers."

All this talk about our success had me smiling while enjoying a good meal. I thought to myself, 'Look around, look at these people. They came together one and two at a time, and now look at them. They are close friends, close business associates, working together, and living together. We need to see how we can help more people.'

After supper Tiny, Abe, Phil, and I were sipping some beer, when Tiny said, "Phil, you've got Steve all wound up now trying to figure out how to employ another million or so people. Your little speech was a good one and very moving. Henry and I may only be numbers people, but we've seen that same result with those we deal with. Look at the airpark and the boat charter business. Those are totally off the wall businesses that should be going belly up right now, and they are both healthy. We're not getting as many fishing charters, but enough to keep all the boats and captains fairly busy. The sailboats are all busy to the point I'm thinking of adding another small forty to fifty footer to rent out to execs that can sail. I think if we have one or two extra of those around with a price tag on them, we could probably sell a few each year."

I looked over at Tiny and said, "Well, what do you know? Now even Tiny is starting up new businesses in an economy that has the world by the balls."

Tiny said, "There is money out there, but not as much and not with the general public. If we had something for a guy to buy after he's fallen in love with it, why not make a buck on it. I think we can do it."

With smile, I slapped Tiny on the back, congratulating him again.

He said, "You know one of the things we are trying to do may not work out so well."

"What's that, Tiny?" I asked.

"Trying to open up business up in Alaska is not going to be that easy. Everyone up there seems to have their hand out. It's like Chicago, but without the unions. The Chicago method is to milk you a little at a time, kind of like an ongoing tax, but up in Alaska we're dealing with people that want a big kickback to do any kind of business."

Tiny got himself another beer and sat back down. "For instance, we found a great location in Anchorage that I thought might work, but we needed to do some heavy remodeling. When I got a couple of contractors to bid on the work, they both kept listing a big chunk of money as bear grease. When I asked what that was, I was told that you have to grease the palms of the city officials to get any kind of building permits. Without a little here and a little there, it won't get approved. We found out that in order to get a fire hydrant, you have to pay off the permitting people, the fire marshal, and the local city commissioner. Without the fire hydrant, you have to tear down the building. Parking lots are the same way, but that is a real scam. We have had to sign a year contract for snow removal for the parking lot. They don't push the snow aside, you have to have it picked up and hauled out of town. It just so happens that the commissioner has a snow removal company."

Henry said, "The reason everything up there costs so much isn't because of the cost of shipping it up there. It's because it costs so much to do business up there and to sell it."

I asked, "Maybe we shouldn't be up there. Perhaps opening dealerships up there isn't a good idea."

Tiny offered, "Oh, it's a good idea and it will be profitable, especially selling to the oil companies. The more we get our feet in the door with the oil companies, the more they will come to us in the lower forty-eight and to export to their out of country rigs."

"Well," I said, thinking about it, "I suppose that just about keeps us from building a factory up there. We might have to increase the size of the reservation plant up in Montana. We should check to see how much more manpower there is available up there."

Sue was with us now and said, "We ship a lot of basics up there and we ship a lot of some of the camouflage stuff to Wal-Mart for up there. Our insulated coveralls are very popular too. Since we don't have any outlets up there, we don't get involved in the politics. I'm sure glad of that."

Tiny said, "Why don't you get Dewey and go up there to get a feel of how business is done up there. That'll give you an idea of how aggressive you might want to be up there. If you decide to pull out, so be it."

I said, "Darn, I would hate to be one of the employment problems up there. I'd rather be one of the solutions. But, yeah, I should go up there. I'll call Dewey and see if he wants to make a trip. I should probably get Chuck to come with me so we can check out the holdings we have up there now. I wonder why we haven't heard about this wheeling and dealing before. With the hotels we have up there and the construction of hotels, I'll bet we're being hit up constantly.

Brandy came over to us and said, "I just heard from Chuck and Lisa. They said they will be home tomorrow. They said they are finished with what they had to do. I wonder if they know anything about that motor home full of federal agents that were blown up by terrorists up there. Sure hope they weren't anywhere near when that happened."

Abe said, "Yeah, I saw that on the news. That thing was totally blown apart. They only showed it that one time and haven't shown the mess it was again on television. I guess it was too gross for people to see."

Mercy quietly said, "I'll bet Chuck knows a lot more about it than he'll ever say. I'd bet on that."

I frowned at Mercy so she wouldn't expound.

Little Maria was gathering her kids. She came over and said, "Sam is coming home tomorrow. He says he's going to be home for a long time now. Isn't that great? I get to keep my man around now."

Wanda looked at me rolling her eyes. No one else saw her, so no harm, no foul.

As the evening progressed, everyone was pretty content and happy that everything would be back to normal soon. Chuck's collection of women headed home, chattering excitedly about him and Lisa returning.

When it was time for bed, I joined my ladies, plus Mickey, in the bedroom after using the bathroom. The ladies were in a mood tonight and were ganging up on Mickey. Mercy pulled away and smiled at me, holding up her arms, "Come here, Husband. Come join me or us. We all need you, but I think you should make Mickey feel good first."

That was the beginning of a lot of play with all of them. I lasted a long time, but not nearly long enough. Thank goodness they enjoyed carrying on with me as an audience of one.

The next day was busy from the beginning. It seemed that Crystal was on the phone from the moment she woke up in Hawaii. Bear and her had made some deals with local hotels similar to our prior suggestions, and were scheduling golf extravaganzas. They combined these with trips for island people to the mainland, so the airplane was paid for both ways. As soon as they started a couple of trips, more and more hotels wanted in on the deal, and they were flying back and forth daily in chartered aircraft. Crystal wanted Tiny's man to work up numbers for them to lease more aircraft instead of paying high charter rates. They also wanted higher density aircraft so more people could come at once.

I gave Tiny what information I had and told him to work on it. If he had to go to Hawaii to go, but to work it out because if we can make money during this recession, we needed to take every advantage of it. Tiny reported back that he felt he needed a lot more information and needed to make sure that this wasn't just a bubble. He had Phil convinced that they both needed to go in order to make sure of the traffic. This required both Ruth's and Judy's attention so the four were making plans for a business (yeah, right!) trip to Hawaii to get the facts straight. I thought it would be good for them to do it now before the upcoming sailing adventure.

Abe came to see me, and said he thought he should look into how the local shop's maintenance departments were doing over there. He said that the rebuilding was down and he might be able to stimulate some business. He thought he and Alice would make a good addition to the expedition. I wondered how many more would figure out what was happening and decide to go as well.

DeDe called me in the afternoon and asked, "What do you think, Steve. Should we send these folks over in a Lear or send them commercial. Chuck still has a Lear out, but his other one, the long range 55C isn't chartered. He's supposed to be back today, so we would have that bird back. If he's going to be in town, his Citation would be available. Jimmy has it back on line."

I laughed, "Send them in the 55C, DeDe. Let them have a taste of luxury for the trip. With six of them, it won't be crowded."

DeDe said, "Six? How about ten? Jeff and his wife, plus Jimmy and Angie. That's going to just about max out the Lear."

I said, "The Lear can't make it that far with a full load like that. When Chuck gets back, see if you can use his Citation. They won't be gone longer than a week, and you can use Jimmy for one of the pilots. You will need two for that long of a flight. If the Citation isn't available, use the 737 with the luxury seating. Shoot, why not. These guys are our executives."

DeDe was laughing, "I'll look at both ways and ask Chuck. The Citation would be faster, so it would be a good choice. I'll let you know, Steve."

About four, Chuck called, "Hey, Steve, we're back and I guess I'll see you at the patio. I just wanted to warn you, ah, Lisa, Sam, and I were hurt up in Detroit. Not bad, but we were damaged a little. Sam's the worst, and will be on crutches for a couple of months. I'm going to have to wear my hair like you do. Perhaps Glenda will help me with it."

"So what happened up there, Buddy? Can you talk about it?"

"The public version is that we were involved in a small skirmish with some terrorists and some of the collateral damage was to a mobile office motor home that was blown up, killing about twenty feds. The three of us were damaged in the other part of the skirmish."

I said, "I can tell there was more than that. A lot more, but you can't talk about it. I'm glad you survived and are okay. Have you told your menagerie yet?"

"They all know, and as usual, are not happy about both Lisa and I getting hurt. They are talking to Lisa right now about getting out of whatever she's involved in that would get her hurt like this. They will only glare at me in passing." Chuck was chuckling, "They'll get over it. It's nothing we haven't dealt with before."

"Thanks for the warning, Chuck. Have you talked to Mercy? She's been going nuts. Her mom is even coming in from California, if she isn't already here."

"Not yet, Steve," Chuck said. "I'll go over there and see her in a little bit. I have some drinking to catch up on. I think I'm due."