Bob of Small End (87 page)

“
Okay,
enough about those times Maria. I know where there’s a hotel near
here. Let’s check in.”

They decided
to have supper after seeing Sally and had a drink in the bar before
heading out. Sally was again propped up in her bed when they
arrived. She seemed alert and they talked about Bob’s factory for a
while then she began to nod.

“
Sally,”
said Bob, “I think you’re falling asleep. Do you want us to
go?”

“
I think
so Bob. I can’t stay awake much longer. Give me a kiss and a hug,
and you too, Maria.”

“
We
won’t be able to visit tomorrow, Sally. I have to take Maria to the
airport. I’ll try and come back in a couple of weeks.”

“
That
would be nice. I’ll expect you then. Goodbye Bob. Goodbye
Maria.”

“‘
Bye
Sally,” and they left the room.

Supper was
rather quiet. Both felt that Sally wouldn’t live much longer. In
bed Bob brought up the subject of getting married.

“
I had
thought about asking you to marry me several times Maria but I
don’t know if that’s what I really want to do. I like it the way we
are and I’m afraid that being married might spoil things. Although
I’d like it if we could see each other more often.”

“
It’s
the same for me Bob. I really don’t want to get married. I think I
know a way we can see each other more often. I can leave the agency
and become a freelance guide and a trip organiser. Two weeks ago I
phoned two companies that I have organised joint tours with to
check and they told me they frequently have to hire extra guides.
However it’s a very uneven life, a friend who does it warned me.
You earn lots of money some years and little in others. She says
one has to save money when you get it to keep you going when it’s
bad but I can do that. What do you think?”

“
How
would being a freelance guide help us to see each other more
often?”

“
I could
come to England more frequently. I could come when I don’t have any
other work, for instance, or chose tours which go to England. Or
you could come and visit me when I wasn’t working or join the tour
I would be running. There’d be all sorts of ways.”

“
I see,
but don’t do it just yet. Think about it some more. Contact others
who do it and more agencies. Make sure you know all the pros and
cons.”

“
Yes,
okay, I’ll not decide until we see each other again.”

“
In
February?”

“
Yes. I
should know what to do by then.”

“
Okay.”

They made
love, fell asleep, woke and made love again. Then slept until they
had to get up if Maria was going to catch her plane.

They said
goodbye at Gatwick at two thirty, promising to write to each other
each week. Bob spent the time while driving home thinking of his
time with Maria and about Sally. Saying goodbye to both of them
made him feel a little sad. As he turned into his driveway he
realised he hadn’t thought about work the whole time he had been
away. He almost decided to call Ken to find out if things were all
right but he decided to leave it until tomorrow. He had his supper
in the Crown for he had no milk and didn’t want to warm a pot pie.
He didn’t want to end a lovely holiday that way.

Chapter 36 Money and a mystery

Bob was in the
workshop at eight Friday, unable to wait until the others came. He
wanted to check the records and find out what had happened.

He
looked at the sheets pinned to the notice board. They had made two
thousand farms and villages and twelve hundred trains the first
week he’d been away and had already made the same number of farms
and villages this week. So they achieved their goal. Good. Then he
looked at the
We-Have-It
order list. Dave had ordered on the Friday, not during the
week, and wanted 2,500 farms, 2,500 villages and 1,200 trains. ‘I
wonder who delivered them, I hope it was Lori,’ thought Bob. ‘Wait
a minute, Dave would have ordered the sets early Friday morning and
they wouldn’t have had 1,200 trains then, if Ken made the farms and
villages from Monday to Thursday.’ Bob looked at the list for the
previous week. ‘Yes, we only had 500 trains from the previous week.
So what did they do? Oh. They didn’t work on the Saturday. Why not?
Dave’s order was the biggest we’d ever received and we have to
build the inventory. We’ll be in trouble if he orders that many
this week. Let’s see, yes, we’ve 2,800 farms, the same number of
villages and 1,200 trains. So they didn’t deliver the rest of the
trains. A back order of 500. Hmm. I wonder how Ken feels about
that.’

He left
the office and walked into the shop. Nothing different here. Still
only two sanders per bench. He checked the lists on the stock room
door. Just the same as in the office. He walked back to the office,
opened the safe and took out the accounts books. They had received
all the rest of the money, £21,351.50 for the
pre-
We-Have-It
deliveries.
The July’s gross was £27,989 and the month’s expenses were
£23,362.67. So they had paid all the July expenses with our own
deliveries. That means all the money we get from
We-Have-It
for the month is profit.
Finally he checked how much money they should have in the bank,
discovering it should be around £7,850, once they’d taken off bank
charges and other expenses not yet recorded. They’d need about
£5,000 for this week’ s salaries and supplies, although the
supplies wouldn’t be paid until the end of the month. Then they
wouldn’t have enough to pay the staff the following week. So we’ll
have to put some more money in. Bob was wishing he hadn’t already
paid off his mortgage when Ken walked in.

“
Hello
Bob. Did you have a nice holiday?”

“
Yes,
lovely, Ken. I’ll tell you about it later. How did it go
here?”

“
We were
busy and we didn’t have enough trains last week. I told Dave I
could deliver all he wanted in the afternoon but he said the trucks
couldn’t wait. He said we wouldn’t be the first manufacturer to run
short. We’ll be able to deliver all they want today, I hope. He
also said that sales will slow down now the summer’s nearly
over.”

“
Is that
why you didn’t work last Saturday?”

“
Yes,
partly, but also because everyone seemed tired on the Monday when
we did work Saturday. We made our daily quota that day but it isn’t
good to work when everybody’s tired; too likely to have an
accident, for one thing.”

“
I’ve
been looking at the books Ken. We’re going to be short of money
next week. I’ll have to take out another mortgage.”

“
Yes, I
think so. We’ll be short until mid-September, Lori tells me, when
the money from
We-Have-It
comes in. But you don’t have to take out a mortgage yet. I’ll
sell some more stock and put in £15,000. I’ll do that today and
we’ll have it next week. It should last three weeks and give you
time to arrange for a mortgage. In fact, if we are careful, we
won’t need anything from you because of the money from
We-Have-It
.”

“
That’s
nice of you. Thanks, but I’d better tell the bank I’m going to need
one, just in case. Say, the cost of taking out a mortgage, can I
charge that to the business?”

“
Yes. Of
course. I’ll take the brokerage costs too, but they won’t be much.
Oh, hello Lori, hello Craig.”

“
Hello
Ken. Hello Bob. So you’re back already. I thought you were on
holiday until Monday.”

“
Hi.
Yes, I’m back, I couldn’t keep away. How’s your apartment? All
finished?”

“
Just
about,” said Craig. “We can have the party anytime now. How was
your holiday?”

“
Excellent. Do you know the Lake District? There’s lots to
see; beautiful scenery, lots of nice places to walk and many
interesting stories about the people who used to live there. If you
haven’t been there it might be a good place for a
honeymoon.”

“
Have
you been having a honeymoon Bob?” asked Lori.

“
Sort
of. But, no, Maria and I didn’t get married.”

“
Will
you go there again if you do get married?”

“
Maybe,
but there are lots of other places to visit. I’ve just been looking
at the lists and talking to Ken. You’ve all been working
hard.”

“
Yes we
have,” answered Craig. “I’m glad we’re not working
tomorrow.”

“
We’ll
try not to work on the weekends again,” Ken said. “Last time was an
emergency but working six days a week is too much. Well, I’m going
to check the shop. Coming, Craig?” and they walked out of the
office.

“
We’re
making trains today?” Bob asked Lori.

“
Yes. We
now keep to the routine, first four days we make farms and villages
and we make trains on Fridays.”

“
Okay.
Tell me, who delivered the sets last week?”

“
I
did.”

“
I guess
you were too busy to take Craig. Did you go for lunch with
Dave?”

“
No. I
went to the office to see him. I think he’s a nice man but he was
very busy. The telephone kept ringing. We might go to lunch one
day. He’ll probably call us soon. Do you want to deliver today? Oh,
there’s another twenty thousand boxes to collect from Salisbury. We
need that many every three weeks now.”

“
I’d
like to drive for a bit. It’d give me time to switch my thoughts
back to the business. But maybe you’d like to deliver?”

“
No.
There’s a lot of paperwork to do. I can see you’ve looked at the
expenses and income accounts,” and she pointed to the books on the
desk.

“
Yes. It
seems Ken and I will have to put more money in the bank next week.
Ken’s said he’ll do that and I’ll add mine when I get a new
mortgage.”

“
I see.
I told Ken last Friday we’d need more and I was going to remind him
today. Have you already discussed it?”

“
Yes.
He’s going to add £15,000 next week and I’ll do the same in three
weeks. That should cover us until the money from We-Have-It
arrives.”

“
Yes it
should. Okay, one less thing to worry about.”

“
You
worry as much as I do Lori.”

“
I can’t
help it. I look after the books and can see what’s going to happen.
Ken doesn’t seem to worry about money as much as I do, I don’t know
why.”

“
I guess
he’s used to the way money flows in and out of a
company.”

“
I
suppose so.”

The phone rang
and Lori picked up the handset, listened for a while and wrote
‘2,000 farms, 2,000 villages, 1,000 trains’ on a piece of paper and
handed it to Bob. Then she said, “That’s less than last week, Dave.
Do you expect sales to go down much more in the future?” Bob
couldn’t hear what he replied. “Yes, we can deliver some of the
back-order, 200. Okay? We’ll deliver the rest as soon as we can.”
She listened for a few moments then said, “All right. Yes. ‘Bye
then,” and hung up the phone.

“
He
thinks sales will go down until November then they’ll pick up,
maybe a lot, when people start buying gifts for Christmas. And he’d
like the rest of the trains as soon as possible.”

“
Tell
Ken about the trains Lori. He might have to change the order we
make things next week. Well, we guessed demand would go down for a
while. It’ll help us build up our stock.”

“
Ah,
yes. I forgot to tell you Ken has asked us to work on Monday even
though it’s a national holiday. He says he’ll give us double pay
for the day and everyone agreed to do it. Did he tell you about
that?”

“
No, he
must have forgotten. It’s okay with me, I’m ready to get back to
work. I’ll load the van now, can you help?”

“
Sure.”

Bob told Ken
he was delivering and waved ‘Hello’ to everybody before leaving. He
didn’t stop to talk to Dave at the warehouse but drove to
Salisbury, collected the pasteboard, bought some sandwiches which
he ate as he was driving back and arrived at the shop just before
the afternoon tea break began. Craig helped him unload then they
joined the others and he snacked on biscuits. He was introduced to
the new girl and she told him that she wished she could work here
all the time. Everybody asked about his holiday and he described
some of it. He asked if anyone had already been to the Lake
District. Gerry said he had and Frank said he would be passing
through on his way to Carlisle in his holidays. “We’ll spend a
couple of nights there after seeing my Mum.”

“
You
were going to tell us what we would be paid during the holidays.
Have you decided yet?” asked Diane.

“
No,
sorry,” said Ken. “Bob and I’ll decide tonight and let you know on
Monday. Okay?”

“
All
right.”

It was good to
be back with everybody thought Bob, as they all headed back to the
shop. It’s a bit like being in a large family.

After work Bob
and Ken sat down in the office to discuss the holiday pay.

“
We have
to pay their normal rate Bob.”

“
I
guessed so. Then I’ll tell Lori to add it to everybody’s pay
cheques next week and they’ll have it before the
holiday.”