Little Girl Lost 6: The Return of Johnnie Wise (24 page)

Hank looked at Lucille and said, “See, there . . . all I need is one of them there port . . . port . . . whatever she said, and I’m in business. You’ve got some money, Lucille. Come with me on this. Who knows when we’ll get another opportunity like this? It’s worth a shot.”

“I don’t know, Hank. I just don’t know. Ten thousand is an awful lot of money. I mean, what would your mama think if you lost it all?”

“I prefer to think of winning, not losing, Lucille,” Hank said. “And when I win, I think she’s gonna be proud of her son. That’s what I think. I don’t think about losing, I think about winning. That’s what Benny says when he gets into the ring. It works for him, and I think it’ll work for us, too. He says he lets his victims think about losing and how much damage he’s gonna do to ’em.”

Chapter 45

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That’s cheating me out of my fee.”

H
ank frowned and stared at Johnnie for a long minute, trying to gauge whether she was serious about being paid for managing his stock portfolio. He looked deeper into her eyes and saw her resolve and the confidence she had in her ability to not only reacquire what she had lost, but to also amass an even larger fortune. He looked at Lucille, who was standing there shaking her head with her arms folded, like she was disgusted that the young woman they had offered to help was now asking to be paid for a venture that could prove to be unprofitable and perhaps a sham. He took a deep breath, determined to work something out because in his heart, he knew she could do it again, and he wanted in on it this time. To him, Johnnie was like finding a rich vein of gold or an oil well that might never run out of oil.

“How much we talkin’ about, Johnnie?” Hank asked, stone-faced.

“Well, I spoke to Gloria Schumacher about investing yesterday, and I told her she’d have to give me a free room for as long as I’m here, a percentage of the profit, and a fee of eleven hundred dollars as a retainer for a year.”

“Didn’t you hear her say she doesn’t discuss her finances?” Hank said. “What’s the big deal, Lucille? She’s charging us less than a hundred dollars a month. That’s nothing when you look at what we could make in the future.”

“Hmph, sounds like a racket to me,” Lucille said.

“I know this is going to sound self-serving, but Hank is right,” Johnnie said. “This is business and business is about money.” She looked at Lucille. “Just yesterday you were telling me how much I would be helping you by working here to bring you more business, which amounted to more money, right?”

“Right,” Lucille said hesitantly.

Johnnie looked at Hank and said, “And you told me just a few minutes ago that you could make even more money now that people know that I’m supposedly famous, right?”

“I sho’ did say that, Johnnie,” Hank said, “I sho’ did say that.”

“Well, it seems to me that you two were willing to make money off me when I had forgotten about my inheritance check, and I didn’t care because I needed the money. Yesterday, when I came in here, all I had was forty-five dollars and eighty-nine cents to my name. At least that’s what I thought. Now that I don’t really need the job, I still showed up, and I’m prepared to keep my word to you two. Finding my grandfather’s check hasn’t changed my mind at all. I’m just saying we could all potentially make money together. It’s up to you.”

“Well, let’s see, you two were willing to help by giving me a job and paying to have my car fixed. And whatever you paid came out of my check at the end of the week, right?”

“I’ll tell you what,” Hank said. “We’re going to pay you minimum wage until we see if there’s a difference in our profit. If we make a lot more because you’re here, you’ll get that dollar, and then some.”

“Fair enough, Hank, but I get to keep all my tips, and I only work six hours a day, three days a week. Deal?”

“Six hours a day, three days a week?” Lucille questioned.

“Yes, ma’am,” Johnnie said. “If I’m going to manage Hank’s portfolio, I’ll need to have enough time to pay attention to what’s going on with the market. It’s not like I can just pick the stocks, and then never look at them again. This is a daily thing, like working from sunup to sundown, going to bed tired as hell, and then starting the whole thing all over again at four o’clock the next morning. Besides, regular stockbrokers don’t have two jobs. They have one. I have to stay on top of everything. The first thing I’m going to do is invest in a stock ticker. Then, I have to get to a library or someplace and look at some old newspapers. In other words, I have to study the market, look for new investments, and new ideas, new inventions, new trends, everything. All of that takes lots of time. I can’t be stuck in the restaurant from sunup to sundown. If I manage people’s financial portfolios, I have to have the time to do it. So, is it or deal, Hank, or not?”

Lucille put her hands on her hips and said, “Oh, so now you can all of sudden spare me now that you got a scheme to make some money, huh?”

“I sure can. And I’ll tell you why? Yesterday was about shopping for you. Today is about business, and like Johnnie said, ‘business is about money.’ I’m ready to make my fortune, and whether you know it or not, you’re gonna wanna spend what I make, right?”

Lucille smiled and said, “That’s right.”

“I can cook if either of you need to leave,” Johnnie said.

“Can you now?” Hank said. He looked at his watch. “We got about fifteen minutes before we open the doors. Grab an apron and show me what you can do. If I love it, I’ll let you handle the orders until I come back from the bank.”

“Uh, I’m the waitress, Hank,” Johnnie said, smiling. “If I have to cook, too, and miss my tips because Lucille is getting them, I’m gonna need a raise.”

Laughing, Hank said, “I like you, Johnnie. You’re alright.”

“What if I wanna get in on them investments, Johnnie?” Lucille asked. “I’ve got some money saved up, too.”

“Well . . . if you go in with your husband, I’ll just charge the eleven hundred for one portfolio. But if you decide to wait until after I get him set up, you’ll have to pay eleven hundred, too.”

“What?” Lucille practically screamed.

“Yes, ma’am. It’s the same amount of work. If a surgeon has to do two surgeries to remove a cancer, you don’t get both surgeries for one fee. He’s not working at a discount. Why should I? Why should you for that matter? I’m sure you’re charging your customers a certain amount to make a profit. I’m only doing what you do. You have expertise, and so do I. Again, this is business and business is about—”

“It’s less than a hundred dollars a month. We make more than that amount in a day . . . sometimes three or four times that a day. And if this girl can bring in the customers like we think, it could go as high as thirty or forty . . . maybe even fifty! The sky’s the limit, Lucille. Don’t you see?”

Lucille folded her arms and thought for a few seconds. Then she said, “Did you really have two hundred and fifty thousand dollars?”

“Can I think about it, Johnnie?” Lucille asked. “This is a mighty big step for me. I don’t have the adventurous spirit like Hank. See . . . his people come from Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the Greenwood area. Ever heard of it?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Well, his people had money before them crackers burned it all down like they did y’all. Every time we get a little somethin’, them crackers come and snatch it right out from under us. It’s like they’re afraid of us getting ahead or somethin’. It’s like they think they’ll end up workin’ for us, and we’ll treat them the way they’ve treated us. So, they steal everything we create, and then pass it off like they created it. They’re stealin’ our music, our inventions, everything, with no shame of what they’re doin’.”

“I know, but the one thing they can’t steal, unless we let them is our money. That’s why we’ll all manage our own investments. I’ll set everything up and tell you all what to do. And Hank, I don’t want you telling your wife what stocks I get you either. That’s cheating me out of my fee.”

“I understand. It’s no problem, Johnnie. Just make me some money, so I can retire in style!”

Chapter 46

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But it’ll cost you an additional eleven hundred, Lucille.”

L
ess than an hour later, Lucille’s was packed with customers, many of whom were white and curious about the pretty colored girl they had read and heard so much about. The sleigh bells that hung over the door seemed to ring every few minutes, letting them know they had another hungry customer. Johnnie could hear them whispering about her as she walked by their tables. She loved every minute of the unsolicited attention, offering friendly smiles in return for the compliments and money she received from the customers she served. She didn’t know that a waitress could make so much money in tips. She had plans for all those coins and dollar bills she slipped into her apron, which jingled as she walked. She had goals and a plan that she was going to stick to. She didn’t know how long it would take to get rich again, but she planned to get there, and this time on her own terms.

However, Lucille still had mixed emotions about it all, even with the unusual influx of customers, old and new. She was glad to have so many customers, particularly the new faces, hoping they would become regulars. There were so many customers that she had to run out and buy more food for Hank to cook, but at the same time, she didn’t like the fact that her regular customers where leaving Johnnie much bigger tips than they ever left her. From what she calculated, Johnnie had already made over forty dollars in tips before nine o’clock. She figured that she’d have well over a hundred dollars before she left at 11:30. And they were going to have to pay her more than a dollar an hour due to the enormous influx of people, but when it occurred to her that they had made over two hundred and fifty dollars before eleven o’clock, which had never happened, she smiled, walked up to Johnnie, and embraced her.