Bob of Small End (47 page)

Looking at the
addresses of the remaining thirty five retailers who’d said they
wanted toys as soon as possible he wondered how he should organise
the job. First how many sets should he give to each one? He didn’t
have enough to give five to everyone but if he gave only three he
would have to return more frequently. He eventually decided to give
five then work in the shop until there were enough to give another
five to the next group of shops.

Next, which
way should he go, west, north or east? He looked at the road map
and put a pencil cross where each of the shops were. ‘I’ll go east
tomorrow and visit Southampton and the southern shops,’ he decided.
There were eleven shops to see in that direction but he had only
enough village sets to visit six. He’d visit the remaining five
shops when he went north. There might be enough sets for him to do
that on Wednesday. After that he’d help in the shop until there was
enough to go west to do the Bournemouth area. That’d not be until
the following week. He’d leave the shops who hadn’t wanted them
immediately until he had enough toys. Yes, he could now see very
clearly why they must hire more workers. Right now he would have to
do both jobs, making and selling. ‘I hope I have the energy to
manage both.’

He remembered
to call the children that night to find out what they had been
doing and to tell them his news. He always talked to the
grandchildren but usually didn’t know enough about their everyday
activities to know what to say. Sports was usually a good topic.
They didn’t like to talk about school or exam marks. Tonight he
mostly wanted to tell Sam and Regina what he had done with their
rooms and that their beds were to be discarded. They’d have to know
that in case they suddenly wanted to sleep here. He called Regina
at nine o’clock, his usual time, and told her that he had cleaned
the house and had dumped her bed. “Is there anything in your room
you want to keep?” “No,” she replied. “Anything that’s there now I
don’t want.” Sam, when he called him next, said much the same
thing.

Chapter 18 Lori

He drove
directly to Southampton on Monday morning, arriving at the first
shop on his list at nine. As he had done Friday he chatted for a
few minutes, discussed the conference or the weather then gave the
manager or owner five of each set and collected a receipt. He told
each one that when he came next he’d bring some better-looking
boxes but couldn’t say when that would be. He had a mug of coffee
in one shop and he had visited all six shops by eleven thirty so he
drove home. He had a short rest, a quick lunch and was in the
workshop by one thirty.

“
Didn’t
expect to see you today,” said Ken.

“
I had
no more villages to give out. I went to Southampton, visited six
shops and left five sets with each.”

“
You’ll
have another hundred villages tomorrow, as soon as the last coat is
dry. Right now we have to finish the hedges, sand them, then paint
the whole set. Lori is helping us now, Lori Turner. She’s in the
sanding booth. I’ll introduce you when she comes out. I think we
have another treasure there. I’ll tell you about her
afterwards.”

“
What
can I do?”

“
Help
Craig make the rest of the hedges. I’m going to paint the houses
and other sanded parts.”

They stopped
for tea and biscuits as soon as Lori emerged from the sanding
booth. She was an attractive girl, about twenty years old. She,
like Craig, had gone to the Big End high school but she had left
when sixteen to work in a clothes shop. She had expected to manage
the shop by now but the owner had told Lori a month ago that her
daughter would become manager as soon as she finished college. So
Lori left and had been looking for a different kind of job. A
friend had seen the notice in Rose’s shop when she had visited a
week ago and told Lori about it.

“
You
live in Big End then Lori?” asked Bob.

“
Yes.”

“
Do you
think you’ll like working here?”

“
Don’t
know. It’s a lot different from selling clothes. I can tell you I
don’t like sanding, it’s too noisy in the booth. I’d rather paint.
Or even try pushing the wood through those cutters.”

“
You can
switch to painting tomorrow Lori,” said Ken. “Finish the rest of
the sanding today and it’ll be the last time you’ll have to do
that.”

“
You
promise?”

“
Yes.
However we’ll have to see how well you can paint or push wood if
we’re going to keep you. I’d suggest you wear old clothes when you
work here. You could keep them here and change in the toilet if you
don’t want to travel in them.”

“
I’ll
think about that. Do you have any work I can do in the office. I’d
like to do that most of all.”

“
Not
yet. We will when we get bigger, I expect. We’d need someone to
answer phones, keep records and that sort of thing.”

“
How do
you record what you do, what you buy and sell, at the moment? I
know how to use spreadsheets and I use a word processor at
home.”

“
We just
write what we need to record on paper.”

“
What
about inventory? For instance, you seem pretty low on
wood.”

“
We
check that by eye. Oh Bob, I ordered wood for another four hundred
of each today. As Lori said, we’ll need that soon.”

“
Well
Mr. Smith, when you want someone to use a computer please think of
me.”

“
It’ll
be a while before we buy a computer Lori. We don’t need one at the
moment.”

“
Do you
still need more help?” asked Craig. “Mum told me that the notice
was still on Tyne’s board yesterday.”

“
Yes we
do,” answered Ken. “We need another two helpers immediately. Do
either of you know of anybody?”

“
There’s
a boy I met at a concert last Saturday,” said Lori. “His family
just moved to Small End and he’s looking for a job. I’ll tell him
you have one when I see him next but I don’t know where he lives.
One place you might try is our high school. Kids who took the shop
course might be perfect; one part of it is carpentry. You might
find someone there. I didn’t take that so I don’t know anyone. Did
you take that course Craig?”

“
No.”

“
Well I
can ask my friends or you could visit or phone the
school.”

“
Thanks
Lori. That’s a good idea. I’ll do that right now,” and Ken went to
the office, adding, “You’d better get back to work now or Bob won’t
have anything to sell.”

After Craig
and Lori had left that afternoon Ken told Bob that the school said
there might be one or two boys looking for a job. “But they won’t
finish school until July. So that’s no good. It might be okay in
the future but not now. Let’s hope Lori finds the boy.”

“
What
were you going to tell me about her?” asked Bob.

“
Well
she’s already told you. I was just going to tell you where she
worked and that she’d never done any woodwork before
today.”

“
Do you
think she’s any good?”

“
Well
the sanding she’s done is okay but it’s depends on how well she can
paint and cut wood.”

“
Yes.
I’ll be here tomorrow and can help,” said Bob. “I’ll box the sets
once they’re dry and go back to the Southampton area in the
afternoon and visit the rest of the shops. Wednesday I’ll help here
until we have enough to go out again.”

“
Okay.
The wood should be here tomorrow afternoon. Leon said he kept the
amount we normally ordered on hand but our last order was a bit
unexpected. I told him to keep that quantity on hand from now on
until we told him differently. I must order more paint too. I’ll do
that tomorrow.”

“
We
don’t need to order more boxes. I’ll collect a thousand on
Friday.”

“
Yes.
We’ll have to keep a careful track of how many we use. It takes a
week, or did you say longer, to get them.”

“
More
like two weeks. I’ll keep an eye on what we’ve got.”

“
Okay.”

Bob made a
check list to track box usage when he arrived home. ‘I’m getting
too many lists. Maybe we should ask Lori to look after these kind
of things.’

Ken was
pinning houses to the holders when Bob arrived just after eight on
Tuesday. He donned an overall and joined him.

“
When do
Craig and Lori arrive?”

“
Craig
is here by nine. Lori got here at eight forty five yesterday.
She’ll probably be here the same time each day unless her bus is
late. I’ll stick to the routine we had, they start at nine and
leave at five, have half an hour for lunch and a couple of tea
breaks. Oh, we need more biscuits and tea when you’re
shopping.”

“
What do
you do about milk?”

“
Mary
buys it and I bring it in each morning. Ah, that’s Lori. Morning
Lori.”

“
Hello
Mr. Smith, Mr. Barns. Looks like rain later. I’ve brought my
umbrella.” She picked up an overall and said, “I’m painting today,
right?”

“
Yes.
Watch what I’m doing then take over. Can you guess what this is
for?” and he held up one of the holders.

“
I guess
that’s the way you paint the houses.”

“
Yes. We
dip five of them in paint at once then hang them up to dry. We
clean the needles with a cloth before using them the next time,
just the ones that need cleaning, that is.”

“
I see.
And you put the houses in that box thing there to position them
correctly on the needles.”

“
Yes,
exactly. Okay, so you do it now. Then we’ll pin the other buildings
and the hedges. After that we’ll start dipping. I’ll do it while
you watch then you can take over.”

“
What do
you want me to do Ken?” asked Bob.

“
You and
Craig start making train sets, a hundred of them. Lori and I’ll
join you when we are free.”

“
Okay.”

At their
ten-thirty tea break Lori told them she had talked to some of her
friends but those who had jobs were happy and those who were still
looking didn’t want to work with wood. “Maybe someone will change
their mind later,” she added.

“
It
would be nice if a couple did,” said Ken.

“
I’ve
been thinking about all the lists you must be keeping Mr. Smith.
You don’t need to buy a computer, you can use my old one. Dad gave
me a new one for Christmas. My old one already has a word processor
and a spreadsheet program on it so you won’t even have to buy them.
Someone will have to collect it though, and I’d like to be the one
to use it. What do you think?”

“
Call me
Ken, Lori. We might give it a try but we don’t have that many
records to keep so it won’t take up much of your time. You’ll still
be mostly working in the shop.”

“
That’s
okay. I like doing different things during the day. It’s only the
noise in the sanding booth I don’t like.”

“
Then
why don’t I drive you home tonight and collect the
computer.”

“
Okay
but you’ll have to buy a printer if you want to print the lists. I
didn’t get a new one of those.”

“
All
right, but let’s see how much we can do without one. Can Lori use
your desk Bob?”

“
Of
course. And if we ever have free time you can teach me how to use
the computer Lori. And call me Bob.”

“
All
right.”

The day passed
quickly. Lori had brought sandwiches for lunch and they were a
comfortable group, sitting around the table and chatting. Craig
soon began cracking jokes.

The third coat
of paint was dry after they’d finished their afternoon tea break.
Bob glued the parts together, Lori boxed them and then put them in
the van. He wrote 100 on the list under Village Sets and pinned it
back on the notice board while Lori watched.

“
You’ll
have trouble at the end of the year or whenever you want totals
Bob. You’ll have to keep all these lists and add them manually. If
I kept them on the computer you’d know the grand total
anytime.”

“
Yes
you’re right. Maybe we should use a computer.”

After Ken
locked the shop Bob drove home thinking about tomorrow’s
deliveries. ‘I’ve enough to visit eleven shops so I’ll finish the
east section then go north.’

Chapter 19 Jose and Luke

Delivering to
eleven shops, seven of which were in villages surrounding
Southampton, took until two o’clock and Bob felt a little exhausted
driving back to the shop. He knew he should take longer over his
lunch and take a break when he felt tired but hadn’t learned how to
do that yet.

Everyone was
busy when he arrived. Lori was fastening wheels to the engines and
carriages, Ken was shaping house blocks and Craig was cutting them
into houses. Bob waved hello then went to the office to pin the
large map he had brought that morning that showed Hampshire,
Wiltshire and Dorset on the wall. He noticed Lori’s computer and
other pieces piled on his desk. He knew enough to recognise the
screen, keyboard and mouse. He hoped Ken wouldn’t ask Lori to fix
it up or switch it on this week; they should spend all their time
on making more sets.