Bob of Small End (58 page)

“
Hello
Bob. That’s it, the one near the road,” called Charles, who was
standing at the door to his office. “Do you think it’s a suitable
size?”

“
It
looks perfect Charles. Can you open the back? I want to see how I
might separate the toys. We might have to build some kind of
walls.”

“
Open
the doors and have a look.”

“
Okay.
Ah, we’d have to build two temporary walls. Do you mind? Made of
plywood. We wouldn’t have to fasten the walls to the floor, plywood
across the bottom and top would hold them in place.”

“
You can
do anything you like as long as you remove it before returning and
don’t mark or make holes in the van.”

“
Good.
Thanks.” He closed the doors. “What’s it like to drive?”

“
Easy.
It’s automatic with power brakes, steering and windows. You’ll have
no trouble. Come and do the paperwork and you can find out for
yourself.”

After filling
the forms Bob told him they wanted to keep the smaller van for
another two months. “That would be £425, right?”

“
Yes.
£425 for the small one for two months and £350 for the big one for
one month.”

“
Would
you give us a discount seeing we are renting two vans from
you?”

“
Well I
think I could. Just for you. How about ten percent?”

“
Thank
you. So I’ll give you a cheque for how much?”

“
Let me
see. The calculator here says £1255.50.”

After
receiving the cheque he gave Bob the keys and watched as he climbed
into the cab. Bob adjusted the seat’s position and the rear-view
mirrors, checked all the instruments, switches and knobs. Then he
told Charles he would like to back it into the yard before driving
it away, “Just to be sure I understand everything.” He did that
successfully then waved ‘goodbye’ and drove slowly out into the
road. “Take it easy until you’re used to it,” shouted Charles.

Bob drove
slowly through Big End toward the lumber yard where he stopped and
bought six sheets of plywood and some four-by-twos. The van was
much smother to drive and more comfortable than the smaller van. He
parked it near the side door of the shop and walked into the busy
workshop.

“
I’ve
got the new van Ken.”

“
Hi Bob.
What’s it like?”

“
It’s
warm and comfortable. Much easier than the old one to drive. I’ve
looked in the back and we’ll have to build a couple of walls to
separate the sets. I’ve bought the wood. Can you give me a
hand?”

“
Sure.”

An hour later
the walls were firmly in place and Ken asked Luke and Jose to load
the van before going home.

“
Tell me
every time you’ve added a hundred of each please, I don’t want the
top ones to squash those at the bottom,” said Bob. “Put the farms
in the left compartment, the trains in the middle and the villages
in the right, long-wise, so they won’t roll out when I open the
doors.”

Bob told them
to stop loading after they had loaded twelve hundred.

“
There’s
twelve hundred sets in the van now, four hundred of each,” he told
Ken. “That gives me enough to go to eighty shops and give five of
each toy to each. That will be more than I need for one week since
I’ll have to talk to the owners, but it’s nice to have more. I
don’t want to run out if someone wanted a lot. Of course, if we are
just delivering we could carry another four hundred as well. All
we’d have to do is put a platform half-way up to stop the ones on
top from squashing the ones below.”

“
Great.
Well, they’ve all left now and I’m going to close the shop. Mary
and I are eating with friends tonight. You’re going east
tomorrow?”

“
Yes.
Probably be back on Thursday.”

“
Okay.
Take it easy.”

“
Will
do,” and Bob climbed into the van and drove it to the new Community
Centre’s parking lot.

He took
the tourists route toward Portsmouth Tuesday morning, stopping in
an occasional gift shop. He showed each retailer Julie’s article in
the
Gift and Toy
Association’
s newsletter which helped introduce him
and the company. They all took five of each set and agreed on a
forty percent commission. He stayed the night in the
Journey’s End
motel on the eastern
side of Portsmouth. He counted his receipts after eating supper in
a small steak house; he had eleven.

Wednesday he
continued his journey eastwards and stayed the far-side of
Brighton. Sixteen more retailers agreed to sell his toys that
day.

Thursday he
headed north, to Winchester and turned down through Eastleigh,
arriving home at 6:30. Adding that days thirteen shops gave him a
total of forty for the week. He parked in the road for there were
two lorries and a crane in the Centre’s parking lot. The crane had
probably been used to install the centre’s roof.

Bob arrived at
the workshop at nine on Friday, glad to be back. Everyone was busy
but Ken put down the block he was working on and joined him in the
office.

“
How was
the week Bob?”

“
A bit
tiring but I’m glad I’m driving the bigger van. It’s much easier
and the radio’s a great help.”

“
How
many new shops did you get?”

“
Forty.
I’ll give the receipts to Lori to tabulate.”

“
We’ve
had another 26 requests. Some of them are from shops close to, or
in, Southampton. It’s a pity you didn’t know or you could have seen
them on your way back.”

“
Well, I
could phone you each night to check. How about me doing that, would
you mind?”

“
No,
it’s a good idea. What time would you call?”

“
What
time’s best for you? What I’ve been doing is stopping at a motel
that’s near a restaurant, eating supper then going to my
room.”

“
What
about nine o’clock. Would that be all right?”

“
Yes.
That’s a good time. Okay, I’ll phone then. How many did you make
this week?”

“
It’ll
be nearly eight hundred by four o’clock this afternoon. It’s like
we are working to a rhythm—everyone pulls together. And I think
it’s time we gave everybody a raise. I’m sure we can afford to do
that now. We’ve already received £2,332 for the May sales and
that’s only from a few of our shops.”

“
All
right. Let’s do it. What do you have in mind?”

“
I’d
like to give everybody another £50 a week. That’s the profit from
only five sets for each person, if you look at it that
way.”

“
Okay.”

“
And I’d
like to promote Craig and make him a supervisor and give him an
extra £25 a week. And I’d like to make Lori a
helper/secretary/financial officer and give her an extra £25 a week
as well.”

“
What’s
a ‘helper/secretary/financial officer’?”

“
It’s
what she is doing right now. She works in the shop but also in the
office. And I’d like her to handle our expenses and income too. You
said it’s a lot of work for you at the end of each month. She can
do it daily on the computer and we’ll review it each Friday, or
each day if you like. She must have used the till when she sold
dresses so I’m sure she’ll be trustworthy.”

“
Okay,
we’ll try it, but I wouldn’t want her to sign cheques.

“
That’s
fine, though she’d have to use the credit card sometimes, when
ordering supplies from a new supplier, for instance. Do you mind
that?”

“
Let’s
not give her too much responsibility yet. Why not have her call you
if that’s needed.”

“
All
right. Then I’ll tell everyone about the raise at tea time and tell
Craig and Lori about the extra jobs we would like them to do,
separately, in the office afterwards.”

“
Why not
tell them now? Then you can tell Jose and Luke about everything
during the tea break.”

“
You’re
right. Can you take over Craig’s work and tell him to come and see
me now?”

“
Sure.”

Craig and,
later, Lori, were delighted that Ken thought so highly of their
work and that they would be promoted. The tea break was a bit
longer than normal as Ken explained why they were increasing
everyone’s’ wage and making Craig a supervisor and promoting Lori
to be the financial officer.

“
We will
have to hire more people soon,” Ken said. “Bob has another forty
shops selling for us and he is likely to have another sixty to
eighty more in two weeks time. That’s why we need a supervisor, to
teach and help the newcomers as well as doing some of the work.
And, as you know, Lori already keeps our records and she’ll be
looking after our expenses and income from now on.”

There were a
few hugs and one spilt mug of tea before they went back to the
shop. Afterwards Bob asked Ken how he was going to find more
helpers and where they would work if he found them.

“
I’ve
been thinking about that and I think we could run two shifts. One
starting at six, that’s the earliest anyone could get here from Big
End by bus. That one could end at one. And the next shift could
start at one and end at eight.”

“
Two
seven-hour shifts. Then neither will make as many sets as the
eight-hour shift we have now.”

“
No, but
we’ll get about fourteen hundred sets a day that way. I’m still
only thinking about how to arrange it, I’ve got to find more
workers first.”

Bob was
tempted to tell Ken about the chance to use the old Community
Centre but he didn’t want both of them to be disappointed if the
committee said they wouldn’t rent it. He’d tell him tomorrow if
they agreed, then they could both celebrate.

Bob worked in
the shop for the rest of the day then loaded both vans with sets.
Jack would deliver the sets that had been requested by shops in the
east and, since he was going north next week, he’d deliver the ones
that way. The requests from the west could wait until the following
week unless they were urgent.

He was sitting
in his lounge after supper, sipping a glass of port, when Jane
phoned.

“
I’m
sorry Bob. I told the committee that you’d like to rent the old
Centre for a year or more and we discussed it for nearly an hour.
Some people want to tear it down and build a small ornamental park.
It’s a good spot for that, the existing park’s mostly grass and
used for playing games. Others say we need a shopping mall, saying
that we have to cater to our new residents otherwise they’ll all go
to Big End and we’ll lose all the income a mall’s retailers might
bring us. But some said we shouldn’t discourage what seems to be a
successful business and that waiting a year might help us decide
what’s the best thing to do for the village. So we didn’t decide
what to do and we are going to talk about it again next Friday.
Keep your fingers crossed; you still might get it.”

“
I will
Jane. Thanks for asking them. I haven’t said anything to Ken in
case they say ‘No.’ I didn’t want to disappoint him.”

“
Then I
won’t say anything to anyone else either Bob. Are you going to the
Crown tomorrow?”

“
You
bet.”

After
breakfast Bob walked over to the new hall and looked through the
windows. The interior stud walls were up, ready for the electrician
to run the wires. Unfortunately, Sam wasn’t there so he couldn’t
get inside or ask if everything was still on schedule.

The rest of
the weekend followed it’s usual routine. Jane had no more news
about when the new Centre would open, Joe was still very busy and
rather tired, as he usually was this time of the year, and Jack was
glad he had a day’s work delivering toys. And the village grocer
still didn’t carry Thai sauces.

When Lori
walked in Monday morning she told Ken that she’d talked to the boy
who was looking for a job.

“
I
thought you didn’t know where he lived.”

“
I saw
him again Saturday. He lives in one of the new houses. He has a job
now and isn’t interested in changing but he’ll tell his mates at
work about this place in case they know of anybody who’d like to
work here.”

“
Oh
thanks.”

Then Lori
added, “Why not call the high school? The head will know boys who
are finishing this year and there might be some who are
interested.”

“
Ah yes.
I’ll call them again.”

When he called
the secretary told Ken that the headmaster was in a meeting, “but
he will call you back as soon as he is free,” she said. Twenty
minutes later he did. Ken told him that he was looking for four
people to help make wooden toys in their workshop in Small End. “We
have four of your graduates already,” he said, and told him their
names.

“
Oh I
remember Lori. She was an excellent student. I’m surprised she
didn’t go to college or university. All right. I’ll talk to the
shop teacher. He’ll know who’s likely to be interested. I’ll give
you a call later this week to let you know what
happens.”

Bob overheard
most of this conversation as he checked to see if there were any
northern shops that wanted more toys. For some reason there were
none so he waved goodbye to Ken and headed out the door.