Bob of Small End (79 page)

They finished
the new bench at eight fifteen, locked the Centre and went to the
pub to celebrate. Bob had two pints, Ken had two double whiskies
then drove Bob home.

There was a
phone call from Dave Posser about nine-thirty Thursday morning
asking to speak to Ken or Bob. Lori fetched Bob who was in the
middle of sanding the ends of the train chimneys.

“
Hello
Dave. You have some news for us?”

“
Hello
Bob. The new catalogue was sent out on Monday and we have a few
orders for you.”

“
A few?
How many?”

“
Six,”
said Dave.

“
Six!”

“
That’s
right. It’ll probably go up each week. Most sales start slowly
unless there’s been some advertising before hand. So we’ll buy
fifty of each set. Can you deliver them today?”

“
Just
fifty! Yes of course. I’ll bring them to you this
afternoon.”

“
Can you
make it this morning? We have to send them north and our
inter-warehouse lorries leave in the afternoon.”

“
Okay.
I’ll leave now.”

Bob told Lori
what had happened then went to the shop and told Craig. They had
just put fifty train sets in one of the small vans when Lori came
out with a list of requests.

“
Can you
deliver these too Bob? They’re all between here and Basingstoke
with most being around Southampton. You don’t have to go far out of
your way.”

“
How
many shops Lori?”

“
Seven,
and they’ll all take ten of each.”

“
Did you
tell them that we have a wholesaler now and that they should call
them?”

“
Yes.
I’ve sent a letter to everyone saying that and I reminded those
that called. Actually we’ve had calls from nineteen retailers. I
told them to call
We-Have-It
Wholesalers
and asked them if they had received my
letter. They had and most said they would call the wholesaler from
now on. But six said they’d rather have us deliver if we could.
Three of those are on this list. I’ve marked them with a question
mark so that you know who they are.”

Craig
overheard this and took the trolley back into the shop coming back
with another hundred train sets.

“
I’ve
brought more in case you need them Bob.”

“
Thanks
Craig.”

He drove to
the new shop and told Ken what had happened. They collected a
hundred and fifty village and farm sets and put them in the van
with the trains.

“
We’ll
have to decide if we want to deliver to the retailers who said
they’re rather we delivered to them Ken.”

“
Yes. It
could be a problem if we did that, others might want the
same.”

“
Yes.
Well, I’m off now. I’ll check with you when I get back.”

Dave must have
told the gate he was coming because the guard jumped in the van as
soon as Bob pulled up and showed him where the delivery doors were.
The receiver did all the work and gave him a receipt when he had
finished. There was a note from Dave fastened to it. “The cheque
for these will be in the mail to you in forty business-days.
Thanks. David Posser.”

Bob stopped
for lunch at a small restaurant near the warehouse, having a
roast-beef roll and a coffee. He then drove towards Southampton. At
the shops Lori had added a question mark he asked the manager or
owner why they preferred Wooden Toys to deliver. They all said that
they liked the smiles and cheerfulness of the man delivering.

“
Was it
Gerry or Bert?” asked Bob.

“
It
didn’t matter,” said one. “Both were very pleasant. It’s nice to
see a delivery man with a grin on his face.” It was nice to hear
them say that but it wasn’t a good enough reason to continue
delivering the toys themselves. The best reason for them to deliver
would be that they wouldn’t have to give thirty percent to the
wholesaler to deliver them. However they’d have to pay Bert and
Gerry’s salaries and rent the vans. Since two thirds of the
retailers Lori spoke to then actually did call the wholesaler
there’d be fewer shops for them to cater to. They’d have to
estimate the costs of each way before they could make a rational
decision.

Bob was back
at four o’clock and stopped at the new shop to speak to Ken. The
hall looked a bit crowded with the two benches and nine people. He
wondered what it would look like if they had fourteen people or
another bench and six or seven more working on them.

He took Ken to
the office and told him what the retailers had said.

“
It’s
nice to hear what they say about Bert and Gerry. They’d probably
say that about you too, if you were doing the
deliveries.”

“
Maybe,
but we have to decide whether or not to do it ourselves Ken. As I
see it, a third of the retailers prefer us to deliver but they’re
spread all over the place. If we did deliver to them we’d have to
pay Bert and Gerry’s wages and rent the vans. I think that it would
be better if we had them working in the shop.”

“
It
would be nice to get more money but it’s more important to find
good helpers,” said Ken.

“
Okay
then, we’ll have Bert and Gerry work in the shop. I’ll tell Lori
that we’re not going to deliver any more and she’ll have to tell
the retailers.”

“
Okay.
Then we can return two of the vans. Which two, that’s the question
now. The two small ones I think. Surely we’ll soon get bigger
orders from the wholesaler.”

“
Yes, of
course we will Ken, Dave said that sales grow slowly unless there’s
some advertising.”

“
That
costs a lot of money.”

“
I know
and I don’t want to advertise until we have to,” said Bob. “I’d
like to see how they sell by word of mouth. That’s actually what’s
already happening; we didn’t advertise.”

“
You had
a booth at the conference.”

“
Yes, I
suppose that’s advertising. Maybe I should look for something like
that and do it again. There must be a conference in London now and
again. I’ll ask Leo if knows when there’ll be one. Have you told
Lori and Craig about the wage increases?”

“
Yes. I
told them about theirs after lunch. They were very pleased. Then I
told them about the wages the others would be getting but said they
weren’t to tell anyone because I wanted to announce it at the
party. They were happy that the others would be getting more too.
Now about tomorrow. Mary’s got everything organised. She expects us
about twelve-thirty. If you and I drive and if Frank can drive and
Gerry takes Bert on his bike we can get everyone there in one
trip.”

“
I told
Lori I’ll take her home afterwards and collect the new computer. I
can take others at the same time too.”

“
All
right. We’ll work out the return trip in the afternoon. Can you ask
Frank about driving tomorrow?”

“
Sure.”

Frank said
he’d take Ray, Luke and Jose, since they normally rode with him,
and that he could squeeze in another person. “I’m looking forward
to it! Jose has told me it’ll be a great picnic!”

It would have
been a great picnic if it hadn’t rained. Not continuously but
enough to force everyone indoors several times. Craig swam but
nobody else wanted to. He tried to organise a cricket match, formed
two teams of seven and had started a game on the soggy lawn when it
began raining again. So they spent most of the afternoon indoors.
Lori, Diane, Jean and Luke helped Mary in the kitchen and discussed
cooking. Luke explained how he cooked honey dampers in a frying pan
on a camp fire in Africa then Jean said she could show them how to
make Zapekanka if Mary had the ingredients. She had everything
except the sour cream for the topping so they made a butter-sugar
custard to cover the cheesecake, doubled the receipt and spent an
hour making enough for everybody to eat after their steak and
chips. The frozen chips were warmed in the kitchen oven and Ken
cooked the steaks on the barbecue in the garage. Craig, Bert and
Gerry watched and drank beer as he worked. They saw the barrel
sander he was building and he explained how it worked. Jose taught
Frank, Tiger and Nobby how to play poker and Alan spent much of the
time teaching Ray to use his PDA, an Apple Message Pad that his
American uncle had sent him for Christmas.

They crowded
into the living room to eat the steaks, chips and salads. The
custard was an immediate hit, especially when ice cream was added.
They had drunk beer and soft drinks until now but at the end of the
meal Ken opened four bottles of champagne. He, then Bob, toasted
Lori and Craig and wished them a long, happy marriage.

“
When is
it to be?” asked Diane.

“
Not for
a year or so,” replied Lori.

“
You’ve
just rented a flat haven’t you?” Jean asked.

“
Yes,
and you’re all invited to a party there as soon as we have got it
organised.”

“
When
will that be Lori?” asked Nobby.

“
What do
you think Craig, in two weeks?”

“
Better
make it three, there’s all the painting and the kitchen to
do.”

“
Okay.
Then we’ll aim for Saturday, August, err. . . “

“
August
10th” said Alan, who had his Message Pad in his hand.

“
Okay,
August 10th, unless we have to make it later.”

“
And do
we have a party at the end of the month too?” asked Nobby. Everyone
looked at Ken and he looked at Lori. “Will we meet the target
Lori?” She nodded her head. “Yes we will.”

“
Right”
said Ken. “Just choose the pub and let us know.”

“
This is
a great place to work,” exclaimed Nobby. “Parties every two or
three weeks! Alf won’t half be mad when I tell him!”

“
There’s
one more announcement. It’s about your wages. We are doing very
well. The toys you make are of excellent quality and we’re selling
lots of them. So we are changing the pay scale. This is how it’ll
work. New workers will be paid £125 a week for their first two
weeks. Then we’ll increase it to £175 for the next two months. Then
we’ll increase it to £200 a week. In addition we may give a bonus
at Christmas but that depends on year’s sales.”

“
Whoopee!” cried Diane.

“
So Luke
and I get £200 a week Ken?”

“
Starting on Monday, yes.”

“
Wow,
great. Thanks.”

“
Craig
and Lori are paid to a different scale because they are,
effectively, on the management side. That’s why I’m not discussing
their salary. Okay?”

Diane stood
up, raised her glass and proposed a toast to Ken, Bob, Craig and
Lori. Everyone rose, refilled their glasses and drank. Afterwards
they stood talking to each other about the raise and what they
would do with the extra.

There was a
sudden flash of lightning then a loud thunderclap. Everyone stopped
talking and looked out the window.

“
I think
that we should go home now,” said Lori. “It looks as if the rain
will be much worse soon. Thanks again, Mary, Ken and Bob, for a
wonderful, wonderful, engagement party.”

A fierce
rainstorm hit the house then it suddenly stopped. Everyone grabbed
their coats and rushed to the cars. Mary was left with all the
tidying but she said she didn’t mind. After dropping Luke and Jose
at their homes Bob drove Lori to the shop where she’d ordered the
computer. On the way Lori told him that they’d also have to buy the
word-processor and spreadsheet programs and asked if she could buy
one of the new printers.

“
Sure,”
said Bob. They put the boxes on the back seat and Bob drove Lori
home. Afterwards he drove to the Centre and put the computer and
other boxes in the office. ‘I’ll have a nice lazy evening,’ thought
Bob as he drove home. ‘No need to cook and it’s not five o’clock
yet. I’ll have Ron’s favourite drink, a glass of rum and coke. I’m
sure the coke I bought for Christmas is in the cupboard.’ That
brought Claire to mind and he wondered how she and her husband were
and how they were passing the time. Immediately following he
thought about Maria and that it was only three more weeks before
they’d be together again. He hoped she still felt the same way
about him as he felt about her. He hoped there was a Friday letter
waiting for him but when he opened the door there was nothing on
the mat.

Chapter 33 We-Have-It

The parlour
workshop was busy Saturday morning as Ken, Bob and Jack removed the
routers, saws and sanders. They used one of the small vans to take
them to the Centre where Ken and Bob installed them on the new
bench. Jack hung the new exhaust ducts and fluorescent lights from
the ceiling then mounted the heater fans under the bench. After a
quick lunch at the Crown they fastened the rails to the supports
then made and hung the plastic covers. They stopped at four and Ken
and Bob agreed to meet at nine on Sunday to set the heater-fan
temperature and the fan air-flow rate. Jack was glad when they said
they wouldn’t need him, his construction work had been arduous.

Bob walked
home, had a bath, put on one of the nice sweaters that Regina gave
him several years ago and sat in his chair. He had half an hour to
relax before going to the pub and quickly fell asleep. He woke at
six-thirty, hurriedly donned his mackintosh and almost ran to the
Crown.