Without You I Have Nothing (19 page)

_{“Yippee, Jennifer
needs me.”  Peter’s shout must have almost deafened Jennifer.}

_{“Peter, behave and be
serious. Can you afford the time to take me looking for a new car on Wednesday
morning at say 9 or is your appointment book full for that day.”}

_{“My diary is full all
right and every appointment has the same name - Jennifer. Funny that. However,
believe me I'm not complaining.”}

_{“You're so sweet,
Peter. Then Wednesday morning will be all right at 9?”}

_{“I’ll pick you up at
your apartment, we’ll kick tires and if we finish early enough perhaps lunch. Then
I’ll return you to your office before taking you home.”}

_{Jennifer must have
been laughing at Peter’s eagerness. “I really intended playing hooky for the
whole day so if you could do the same then...”  Wanting more time with him, she
hoped he would be free and breathed a soft sigh of relief when he answered.}

_{Peter’s mind raced,
‘a whole day with Jennifer, now what could we do?  Ah, yes...’  Slowly he
voiced his thoughts, “That would be an excellent idea. Ted’s always telling me
I work too hard so now I have an excuse. I’ll collect you at say 8.30, and wear
‘tire kicking clothes'. We can grab a hamburger or something during the day. Promise
I will get you home safely.”}

_{Not an hour later,
Ted arrived.}

_{“Peter, clear the
decks.”  Ted marched into Peter’s office, his steely eyes gleaming with
anticipation, “I'm here to bring your books up-to-date. Now clean this place up
a bit.”}

_{Tripping over a
mudguard, he went sprawling. As he picked himself up he growled, “It’s not an
office. It’s more like a dusty spare parts' store.”  Brushing his trousers, he
regained his feet.}

_{“You're as blind as
ever, I don’t know why you bother with glasses,” was Peter’s retort.}

_{Ted always found some
spare part or other between his feet. On his last visit, he had managed to
shatter a headlamp. He was so bumble footed Peter wondered how he managed to be
such a good tennis player.}

_{“Why don’t you change
into overalls?  There are plenty of clean spares and you could pretend you're a
worker too,” Peter tried to help.}

_{Ted’s pale grey suit
was so expensively immaculate it would be a sin to get it dirty.}

_{“Better still - come
on. I have somewhere new for you to work. It’s my latest acquisition.”  Peter
led him up the stairs to the tiny flat that he had built for his late nights at
the workshop. “You can approve the expense of having it built and maybe even
get a tax deduction.”}

_{“So this is why you
work late,” was Ted’s first comment.}

_{“Wipe your feet. I
don’t want these rooms dirty.”  Peter had demanded double insulation for the
apartment so the dust and noise from the workshop would not intrude. “You
should be comfortable here. It’s air-conditioned and sound proofed.”}

_{“This is actually a
bachelor pad, eh,” Ted was impressed and went exploring. “Everything you need -
a shower and hot tub big enough for four, a stove to cook on, toilet, bed and
table. Don’t tell Bob, otherwise, he’ll want a key.”}

_{Ted grinned and his
eyes sparkled. “So this is where you bring your female customers for that
special extra service.”  Ted roared at Peter’s confusion and blushes.}

_{Peter knew he was
joking. Ted was no Bob so he tried to ignore the comment. “Use the phone to
ring through to downstairs. Anything you need, I’ll send up. Make yourself at
home.”}

_{“Just send up last
month’s accounts and receipts with your books and I’ll start. Bob’s calling at
2 o'clock so don’t eat until then.”}

_{Peter shook his head
to tell Ted he couldn’t leave the workshop but ignoring Peter’s denial, Ted
continued, “Surely you can leave someone in charge. If you can’t, you're not
doing a very good job managing this place.”  He began a lecture on staff
management. “Call in your best worker when you go down. Tell him he’s foreman
and give him $500 a week raise.”}

_{Peter allowed his
face to blanche at the lecture on staff management as he began to act out his
pretended reaction, “$500?  Who do you think I am, J.D. Rockefeller?”}

_{Then the bamboo
screen, that inscrutable face of the east, he had developed in his youth
slipped over his face to mask his true reaction. Slipping into overdrive his
mind raced. ‘I have to keep up the façade of being aware of my lack of money
and lack of business acumen. It would not do for Ted to know the truth. I am so
pleased that the seeds I planted months ago have taken root and now I am being
told what I already know’}

_{“Wipe that blank look
from your face, Old Scrooge. You can afford it many times over.”}

_{‘If only you knew the
truth, Ted, if only you knew the truth!’  Peter did not speak his thoughts. Instead
he continued his pretense of being poor. “But I still owe so much on the
business.”  Ted knew how he had started with a partner who had died in a car
accident shortly after his marriage. His widow was not pressing Peter for money
but he felt honor bound to pay her as quickly as possible.}

_{“Mavis rang me the
other day to tell me she wanted to keep an interest in the business.”  Ted made
Peter sit and listen. “She’s not short of money. In fact, she’s very well off
now the insurance has been finalized.”}

_{Wise accountant, he
continued, “She’s prepared to leave the remaining $100,000 in the firm and just
draw say 25% of the net profit each year if that’s okay with you?”}

_{Stretching across, he
patted Peter’s arm, “Can’t you see Mavis is prepared to be a sleeping
partner?”  Then Ted’s serious mood broke and he looked around. “By the look of
this flat you’ve even prepared for this to happen.”  He laughed at his own
joke.}

_{Peter returned to the
workshop floor and wandered around pleased that his plotting was bearing fruit.
Easily he slipped into the almost penniless character that he wished to portray.
His mind continued racing and inwardly he grinned - no huge debt hanging over
his head - a sleeping partner only interested in drawing a quarter of the
profit.}

_{That figure was
manageable and most fair – no one suspected that the amount owed would not even
scratch the surface of his wealth.}

_{Mavis had worked as
their secretary while they got on their feet. She and Ken had been married only
a few months when he had been killed in a car crash and she had never returned
to the workshop and their only dealings had been through Ted.}

_{“Ted wants you,” Joe
ordered Peter upstairs confident in his new role as foreman.}

_{He’d been with Peter
since he’d first opened and he impressed Peter with his workmanship, his
attitude to the other workers and the paternal care that he took with
apprentices. He was the senior in the workshop and his readiness to assist the
other workers made him a popular leader. His ability to cuss in fluent Italian
was a source of merriment and teasing.}

_{Joe believed his grey
hair gave him the right to treat Peter as a son even though he was so much
shorter and stockier than Peter. “I’ll be alright down here. I won’t rape any
female customers or burn the workshop down.”  He rumbled with laughter. “There’ll
be no strike. There’s a sense of excitement in the workshop. Everyone can sense
a change. Get up there,” he propelled Peter towards the stairs, “and see what
Ted wants.”}

_{“So, Joe is your new
foreman. I'm not surprised. You’ve made a good choice. He’s a thinker as well
as a doer.”  Ted leaned back in his chair, “Coffee’s coming, courtesy of Joe. He’s
really taken off. The best thing you’ve done.”}

_{Peter was surprised
things had changed so quickly. The coffee tasted different. Everything was
different. The sun was even shining.}

_{“Now, about
Jennifer...”  Carefully Ted assumed a pose of father as he scanned Peter’s face
over the top of his glasses and held up his hand to stop Peter’s interruption.}

_{“I'm talking to you
as one of your best friends and we, Bob and I, decided I’d be the one to give
you this lecture. Oh,” Ted read Peter’s reaction correctly, “you're surprised
we’ve been talking about you. Well, you’ve had us both worried stiff. You're
like a steam engine on the boil every time Jennifer doesn’t do what you want or
expect. You blow off steam and then, if that’s not enough, like a faulty boiler
you explode.”}

_{Leaning closer Ted
smiled kindly, “This is the first girl you’ve ever been interested in and
you’ve fallen - fallen hard without any experience on which to draw.”}

_{He grinned, “Now for
some advice.”}

_{Pausing he became
serious, “Listen carefully and get yourself together. Take it slowly, very
slowly. Be like the cat stalking the timid bird. One quick movement and the
bird will be off and away and the cat is left hungry.”  He took another sip
from his coffee.}

_{Quickly Peter
interrupted. “I want more than a quick fling. Jennifer means so much more...”}

_{“Don’t tell me your
troubles,” laughing, Ted cut Peter off. “I'm not your Father Confessor you know.
Just take it slowly and no more explosions. That green-eyed jealousy of yours
will cause a lot of trouble if you don’t stop and think.”}

_{Ted was right. If
only he could control his jealousy but Jennifer meant...}

_{Ted’s tone suddenly
changed, “Now, about your books. They're bloody disgraceful.”  Angrily he
thrust page after page under Peter’s nose, “How the hell am I supposed to
decipher your writing amidst all those greasy thumbprints?  I don’t need
glasses I need binoculars and a quick course in detective work.”}

_{Glaring fixedly at
Peter Ted announced, “You will have to get a secretary book-keeper.”  Finished,
he sat back and waited.}

_{Although inwardly
grinning at how his planning was coming to a head, Peter looked shell-shocked. Ted
had already boosted the wages' ledger but he wanted more. The news about Mavis
and the debt was good but the way Ted was spending money Peter, still in his
act of being a penniless workshop owner, believed he would be bankrupt in a
week.}

_{His alter ego had
taken over his mind as he continued to conceal his true worth from Ted.}

_{The jangle of the
phone interrupted them.}

_{“Bob’s here and wants
to see you both. He’s on his way up.”}

_{Horrified, Peter knew
that Bob would ask for the use of this accommodation when nothing else was
available.}

_{“Good Lord. So,
you’ve gone up in the world. What a pad you have here.”  All bounce and good humor,
Bob breezed in. “This is where you entertain Mrs. Williams and your other
attractive customers.”}

_{His eyes gleamed and
he licked his lips, “What a sly one you are and to think you didn’t tell me.”}

_{Slapping Peter on the
back, he continued. “You really are secretive, you old fox. A pity that you
have to come through the workshop - you slipped up there. The entrance should
be from the street.”}

_{His lecherous laugh
told Peter what he had in mind. “No beer in the fridge - that’s something
you’ll have to remedy if Ted and I are to come again - but there’s enough food
in the freezer for a buffet for hundreds. Large bed,” he bounced up and down on
it before adding with a leer, “soft too. Clothes are in the cupboards including
two sets of pajamas. You’ve thought of everything.”}

_{Then as an
afterthought, grinning he added, “Bet I know something you have forgotten.”  He
dived into the bathroom, “My God, there are 6 toothbrushes. Do you intend
entertaining a bloody harem?”}

_{Typically, Bob
equated everything with sex. He wouldn’t understand, even if Peter bothered to
explain, that the toothbrushes had been a pack left as a gift by one of Peter’s
commercial traveler customers but Bob was off again. “Come on, you two. Leave
those books. I'm starving”}

_{The lunch hour
stretched out to two hours but Ted wouldn’t allow Peter to leave, “Your foreman
is earning his wage. Work will wait. Relax. Enjoy yourself.”}

_{He and Bob were
prepared to linger but Peter was obviously nervous. Eventually, they made their
way to the workshop and Bob left, allowing them to continue with the books.}

_{“Now, the next thing
for today, you're about to call a meeting of all your workers. You're paying
far too much tax and losing too much money on recalls. The workers should’ve
done fiddly little things so the owners complained.}

_{“No matter how hard
you try, you can’t inspect every job as it is completed. The men have to do
better.”  Ted stared at Peter across the table and smiled when he saw Peter
nodding his approval.}

_{“The cure?  Make each
worker a 'job finished' inspector. You're coming downstairs now to tell the
workers they have a 25% share of net profits from today.”}