Bob of Small End (73 page)

“
Okay.”

Ken was
already in the shop when Bob arrived. He had used two metal strips
and a block of wood to fasten the glue gun to the bench and was
lying on the floor with a home-made wooden pedal.

“
Hello
Bob. Hold the flashlight would you. I’ve want to screw this pedal
to the floor.”

“
How
long have you been here Ken?”

“
Oh I
finished supper early and was back by six thirty.” He emerged and
grabbed a length of flexible wire. “I’m using this Bob, rather than
a rod. It’s easier to run than a rod and to adjust.” He drilled a
hole in the front of the glue guns’ plastic trigger, pushed the end
of the wire through and knotted it. Then he drilled a hole through
the bench, pushed the other end of the wire through the hole and
crawled back under the bench.

“
Tell me
what happens when I pull on this end Bob.”

“
The
trigger moved.”

“
Yes,
but how far did it move?”

“
About
half way.”

“
That’s
not far enough. How about now, how far did it move?”

“
All the
way.”

“
Good,
I’ll fasten it. Pass me the drill, please.”

“
Here
you are.”

A minute later
the foot pedal, wire and gun set-up was complete.

“
Now
let’s see how it works.” He put the old stick of glue back in the
gun, plugged it in and waited until he saw the little piece of glue
that was stuck on the side melt. He then held two pieces of scrap
wood close to the nozzle and pushed on the foot pedal. Glue emerged
and he placed it on one of the pieces then pressed them
together.

“
Yes.
That’s easy to do. And they’ve stuck already. You try it Bob.” Bob
sat down, found the pedal with his foot and pushed.

“
It’s
easy Ken, but I don’t like the bit of glue that’s been pushed out
where they join Ken.”

“
With
practice I don’t think there’ll be any. They’ll soon put just the
right amount on. However I’ll see if there’s any clear glue. It’d
be better to use that. And I’ll ask Lori to order two more guns,
one for the other side of the bench and one as a spare.”

“
And
lots of glue sticks too,” said Bob.

“
Yes.
Well that’s a good evening’s work. Fancy a beer?”

“
You
bet.”

Ken left his
car at the centre and they walked to the Crown. He asked Bob if he
could be in the old shop tomorrow. “I’ll be busy with Craig and
Luke training the new-comers.”

“
We’ll
only make trains there?”

“
Yes.”

“
And
Lori will be with me?”

“
Yes.
Ask her to make up a rotation schedule between shops, but not for
this week because we’ll have to stay where we are for training.
Have it start next week. She could move three of the new comers to
the old shop and the other three could go there the following
week.”

“
What
about swapping positions along the line?”

“
The old
group can do that anytime but the new group can start doing that
after I’m sure they can all do each operation properly.”

“
Okay.”

They chatted
with Len and another couple for half an hour then left, Ken going
back to the centre to collect his car as Bob walked up the hill to
his home.

Chapter 30 The BBC

Bob and
Lori arrived at the old shop at the same time Tuesday morning and
sat in the office to discuss the rest of the week. The first thing
Bob told her was that he wouldn’t be delivering that week. “You
see, I want to work in the shop. I think there may be a big demand
from
We-Have-It
so I’ll help
you and Jose.”

“
No
problem. Gerry and Bert can do the deliveries. We’re getting
cheques for the June sales now. We already have about three
thousand pounds. The cheques are in the safe if you want to deposit
them. The June sales should be pretty big I think, judging from the
calls I’ve received towards the end of last month.”

“
Let’s
hope so. I’ve a mortgage to pay off and savings to
repay.”

“
I’ll
add up how much we spent in June and let you know. I have all the
bills I think. It shouldn’t take long to do that. First though, I
want to order more plastic boxes, moving racks, if they have them
and the glue guns and sticks.”

“
Can you
see if they have any clear glue Lori? It’s better if we use that if
it’s available. Ask them to send us their brochure; they might have
guns that are strong enough for constant use or that are made so
they can be easily fastened to benches. Ken did that last night and
it works well. Please thank your aunt for telling us about
them.”

Bert and Gerry
walked in and Lori gave them the lists of shops to visit.

“
I’ve
made three lists but Bob won’t be able to take one so you’ll have
to do all of them. Do you want me to split them into two or four
lists? And one of you has to go to Salisbury today to collect
10,000 pasteboards. You should take the big van on that
trip.”

“
I’ll go
there and do the shops in that direction” said Bert. “That van’s
easier on my back. And you’d better make four lists Lori. All these
places will take two days for each of us to handle. Where do you
want to go Gerry, east or west?”

“
Eastwards. I’d like to go there for a holiday. Do we get one
this year Lori?”

“
I don’t
know. Do we Bob?”

“
Yes I
think so but I don’t know how long they’ll be. I’ll talk to Ken and
we’ll let you all know once we’ve decided. You’ll join us when
you’ve finished in here Lori?”

“
Yes. I
won’t be long.”

“
We’re
about half-way through making a hundred trains Bob,” said
Jose.

“
Okay
let’s go.” They cut and sanded until Lori walked in and asked Bob
to join her in the office.

“
The
June expenses come to £8,664.71 Bob. Here’s a list of them,” and
she handed him two printed pages. “The biggest expense was for the
new equipment. That’s just under £5,500. Your overnight stays were
about £1,600. When you see Ken could you ask him if he has any more
expenses. And you can see the petty cash expenses at the bottom of
the list. That’s where I took the money for the glue gun. Oh yes,
there were more cheques in today’s mail. Now the June income is
£6,993.75. So far we’ve only had cheques from about a quarter of
them, the smallest ones, too, I think.”

“
That’s
excellent news Lori. Thanks.”

“
The
glue gun people will send us their brochure and they do sell clear
and transparent glues as well as lots of different colours and
strengths. So I ordered a hundred clear sticks. They’ll mail them
and they’ll arrive this week. That’s all, so I’ll join you in the
shop now.”

“
Good.
We’re finishing the trains. Would you do the gluing?”

“
Sure.
Pity I don’t have a glue gun to use.”

It was a quiet
tea break, with Bert and Gerry delivering and everyone else in the
new shop, but it was an interesting one, for Jose asked Lori if she
was still going out with Craig.

“
Yes,”
she replied, “and he asked me to marry him last night! I’ve been
dying to tell everybody but I can’t wait until we’re all together.
Don’t say anything to the others until I’ve told them.”

“
Congratulations,” said Bob and gave her a hug.

“
That
was very quick Lori” said Jose. “Isn’t he younger than
you?”

“
Yes
he’s two years younger. Age doesn’t matter. He’s kind,
knowledgeable and knows what he wants to do in his
life.”

“
What
does he want to do?” asked Bob.

“
He
wants to be his own boss, to own a business of some kind. And he’s
so happy you’ve made him a supervisor. He thinks that will help him
to learn how to handle people.”

“
Well
he’s doing a pretty good job of that right now, as far as I know.
Ken has never complained or said anything bad about him. But Ken’s
never said anything bad about anyone in the shop.”

“
Yes,
that’s right. I think that’s one of the reasons we like working
here,” said Jose.

“
Are you
going to stay Jose?” asked Lori.

“
Well,
for now. I want to earn some money.”

“
What
about your girlfriend?”

“
You
mean Rosemary?”

“
Yes.”

“
She’s
no longer my girlfriend. Since she told me about her new friend and
stopped writing I’ve been trying to forget about her.”

“
Maybe I
can find you another. Would you like me to do that?”

“
Don’t
think so Lori. I’d rather find one for myself.”

“
Well if
I think of anyone that might be compatible I’ll invite her to our
celebration party.”

“
Will
Ken and I be invited to that?” Bob asked.

“
Of
course.”

“
When’s
it going to be?”

“
Oh
we’ve not set a date. We told our parents immediately and they
already have plans about where we should live, especially my
mother. I told her we won’t marry for a year or more. Craig and I
have to find out if we like living together before
marrying.”

“
You’re
going to live together?” asked Bob, a bit shocked.

“
Of
course. We have been looking at flats this past
fortnight.”

“
What
does you mother say about that?”

“
Oh she
thinks it is a sensible way to find out if you’re right for each
other. If one is always messy and the other wants everything to be
in its place, for instance, that could be a problem.”

“
Wow.
It’s a bit different from when Betty and I were young,” said Bob.
“You know, why don’t we have our lunch with the others today and
you can tell everybody about your engagement then.”

“
I’d
have to talk to Craig about doing that. He said I can tell
everybody about it but I don’t know if he’d like it to be a big
announcement. Wait ‘til I’ve talked to him. If I say we will
announce it, will you ask everyone to keep quiet so we
can?”

“
Of
course,” answered Bob.

The kettle was
boiling and someone had a small casserole of left-over stir-fry
warming in the oven when they arrived at the meeting room at the
old Centre. Lori grabbed Craig’s hand and pulled him into the
corridor. Three minutes later they were back and Lori looked at Bob
and nodded her head. He stood up, cleared his throat and banged his
mug on the table until everyone was quiet. “There’s some important
news for you. Although I don’t know exactly who is going to tell
you about it. I’ll hand over to Lori.”

Lori looked at
Craig and said “We got engaged last night.”

There was a
lot of cheering, the men got up and walked to Craig and shook his
hand. Jean and Diane went to Lori and wanted to see her ring. She
showed them her hand and said, “We haven’t bought it yet so there’s
nothing to show. And I don’t think Craig should buy me an
engagement ring right now, we will need the money for more
important things.”

“
We must
have a celebration,” cried Ken, “and I think we should have it at
our place. That way Mary can meet all our new people.”

“
That
would be very nice Ken. Thank you very much,” said
Craig.

The lunch
break was ten minutes longer than usual that day with people moving
about, asking and answering questions. When Ken was free Bob gave
him the June expense sheets and asked him if he could stay after
work because they need to talk about staff holidays.

“
All
right. Shall we meet here?”

“
Okay.”

Ken got up and
said it was time to return to work. “I said we’ll talk about
rotations today. This is what Bob and I have decided. We won’t
rotate between shops this week but we will rotate within shops.
We’ll start rotating between shops next week and Lori will post a
notice in both tea rooms to say who goes where and when. Okay?”

There was no
disagreement and a few nodded their heads. Everyone got up and
began washing their dishes and tidying the room.

At five
o’clock Jose and Lori walked with Bob to the new shop, Jose to join
Luke and ride home with Ray in the car pool that Frank had set up
and Lori to walk to Craig’s house because she was having supper
with his parents. After everyone had left Bob and Ken sat down in
the tea room for a chat.

“
We
should move the office to this shop I think,” said Ken. “We could
use the room next to this one. We could use the old office for
storage, there’s not enough of it over there.”

“
I
agree. We’ll have to bring a load of trains here soon. No point in
taking them to my place. Then can we swap telephone numbers? We’d
want people to call here once the office is here.”

“
Probably. Ask Lori to find out . Say, did you guess that
Lori and Craig were getting serious? I’d seen them holding hands
several times although they were circumspect about it. I knew they
were going out with each other, of course.”