by David Hockey
Chapter 25 Maria and money
Ken was working in the shop and Lori was working on the computer when Bob walked in Thursday morning. She greeted him, moved her chair back and asked, “Do you want to sit here Bob?”
“No, thanks Lori. I think we’d better say that that’s your desk and chair now though I could use a small one. Order it and just squeeze it in a corner. So how’re we doing? What did the May sales bring in?”
“£8,890.50. Is that enough to cover all the month’s expenses?”
“No not yet, but we should be getting more in if this month’s like last month. Right now we’re using money Ken and I put in. Here are the receipts for this week’s sets. There are thirty nine altogether.”
“I’ll add them to the list. Did you go to the shops that phoned in?”
“Southampton area? Yes. I gave them five of each.”
“Okay. I’ll add that to the lists.”
“Let me look at last week’s figures Lori. I’d like to see the sheets that show what we’ve produced, given out, sold and our expenses and income.”
“Do you want me to print them out or would you like to see them on the computer?”
“The computer I think. If there’s anything I don’t understand I might like a printed copy to study.’
“All right. If you come here you can see our production and stock.”
“Ah yes. That’s very good. How about the ones all the retailers have?”
“That’s here.”
“Oh yes. That’s about what I guessed. Okay.”
“And here’s our expenses. The next page is what we have received.”
“I see. There are a few items I didn’t know about. Nothing big though. Looks like you’ve got everything under control Lori. Very good. Could you print a copy of each of these sheets, or spreadsheets, whatever they’re called, for me at the end of each month?”
“Yes of course.”
“Thanks. Well, I’ll load up for the next trip.”
Bob shouted “Hi” to everyone in the shop as he walked through to open the side door. At the van he opened the back and counted the number of sets that remained then fetched more until he had four hundred of each. All it needed now was petrol before heading off next week.
Everyone was having their tea when he’d finished and he joined the group, laughing so heartily at Craig’s jokes that Ken said, “You seem very cheerful today Bob. It couldn’t have been that bad in the rain yesterday.”
“Well,” replied Bob, “it has been a good week, after all.”
The phone rang. Ken went to the office and took the call. It was the shop teacher from the high school. He introduced himself and said, “Most of our boys want to work in a garage or in a machine shop but I’ve told them there won’t be enough openings for all of them. Perhaps because of that, or because they like working with wood, three said they might be interested in working in your shop. Can I send them over to see what you do? Since they’re looking for work the headmaster doesn’t mind them missing school.”
“Yes of course. Can they come next week? During the day? That’s when we’re working.”
“Yes that’s no problem. They could come any day.”
“Then how about Monday? If they’re here before ten they can chat with our lot during the tea break.”
“They can do that. You know they won’t be available until July? When school finishes?
“Yes.”
“All right, I’ll send them over. What’s your address? You’re in Small End, right?”
“Yes. It’s 110 Big End Road. The building’s in a farm yard. Mr. Smith’s farm. Everybody in the village will know where that is. Tell them to look for the sign Small End Wooden Toys over a door. That’s the entrance.”
“All right. Then you’ll see them on Monday. Thanks for calling the school; it isn’t easy for some of our lads to find work and we appreciate it.”
Ken told everybody that there would be three boys from the high school visiting Monday. “They might like to work here so I want you to be nice to them.”
“We’re always nice,” said Lori.
“What are their names?” asked Craig.
“I don’t know. However if they do agree to work for us there’s a problem. I’d like to put in another bench in the shop but there’s no room for one. So I’ve been thinking about shift-work. What do you think about that?”
“What kind of shift work? From nine to five and five to one? There are no buses in the middle of the night,” said Luke.
“No not those times. How does from six to one and from one to eight sound?”
“Is there a bus that would get us here at six am?” asked Luke.
“Yes I’ve checked.”
“Well I wouldn’t mind working the early shift. What about you Jose?”
“I’d do it if you would,” he replied.
“What about you Lori? Craig?” Ken asked.
“I think I’d prefer the early shift too. Could I change if I don’t like getting up that early?” Lori replied.
“Yes of course. How about you Craig?”
“I don’t mind. I’d do what ever you want. It’s easy for me to get here either time and I don’t mind getting up early. I do that when I go fishing.”
“Okay. I’ll talk to the boys on Monday and see what they say. We’ll work something out.”
All through that discussion Bob wished he could tell them that they might be able to rent the old Community Centre but he couldn’t. He hoped the committee would agree, it would solve a lot of difficulties.
Most of the day Bob worked with Ken. Luke and Jose worked together and Lori and Craig paired up. Sanding or painting changed the routine sometimes for it was difficult for two people to work in the booths at the same time, especially when handling long hedge blocks. And it wasn’t always Ken or Lori who answered the telephone; whoever was nearest the shop phone or near the office would stop and take the call. Ken didn’t mind and it demonstrated to Bob how much of a team they’d become.
As Bob entered his garden after work he saw a group of men standing near the new Centre. Sam Loring was there, talking to them. After he’d finished Bob walked over. “What’s happening now Sam? Is anything wrong?”
“No I was just giving everyone some news about the company. We’ve got another contract, a big one, so we’ll be expanding.”
“Something around here?”
“No the other side of Salisbury.”
“Oh. Well that’s good. Can I go in the Centre and have a look?”
“No. Not now they’re here. There’s a union guy with them and he hates visitors on a site. ‘It’s likely to cause an accident,’ he says. Maybe tomorrow, if I’m alone, although I don’t know when or even if I’ll be here then.”
“Okay. Is everything going well?”
“Oh yes. We’ll be done by the end of June.”
Bob worked hard in the shop all day Friday. They were going to need a lot of sets soon, he and everyone else knew that. Ken must have talked about it when he was away. But they still ended at four. He overheard Craig telling Lori he’d call for her at six thirty. ‘I wonder what’s going on there?’ he asked himself but he didn’t tell Ken what he’d heard.
Bob was tempted to knock on Jane’s door when leaving but he was with Ken, so they loaded the overalls in the boot and Ken drove him home. He consoled himself, knowing that she’d call as soon as she gets home.
He put the overalls on the kitchen table and was tempted to check the Centre. Perhaps Sam was inside but he decided not to go because Jane might call. Whilst waiting he put the overalls in the washing machine, dug some carrots and picked the last of the peas. He’d steam them later and have them with the white fish he had bought as he drove home Wednesday. Then the phone rang. It was Jane.
“Hi Bob. It’s good news, they’ll let you have the hall.”
“Oh that’s wonderful Jane. I’m so relieved. And Ken will be too. Do you know when we can have it?”
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�As soon as we have moved all our stuff to the new Centre. We’ll do that as soon as they’re finished.”
“Okay. Can we have it for a year?”
“Yes.”
“Can Ken and I visit it tomorrow and take some measurements? I’m sure Ken will want to design a workshop to fit the hall as soon as he hears the news.”
“Yes. I’ll let you in tomorrow morning. How about nine o’clock?”
“Perfect. Unless Ken can’t come. I’ll phone him now and find out if he’s free and I’ll call you if he can’t make it then. What’s the rent Jane?”
“There was quite a lot of argument about that. Some said we should charge you several thousand pounds a month. They think that you must be earning lots of money since you are expanding so quickly. Two of them said we shouldn’t charge you anything because you are providing jobs for our kids. Then others said that most of your people come from Big End, rather than Small End. Eventually it was decided to charge you five hundred pounds. That’s each month. Can you afford that Bob?”
“Oh yes I’m sure we can, especially in a month or two when money from this month’s or July’s sales comes in. Thank you Jane. Thanks for helping us out. That’s twice now, this place and your milking parlour.”
“Do you still want to keep the parlour Bob?”
“Yes we do. We’ll need both places.”
“I’ll tell Joe. And I’m glad to help. I’ll see you tomorrow, in the morning at nine or in the Crown for supper.”
“Yes. ‘Bye Jane. And thanks again.”
“‘Bye Bob.”
Bob immediately called Ken.
“Ken, guess what? I’ve some great news. We can rent the old Community hall.”
“What? We can rent the hall? How did that happen?”
Bob told him about the last two weeks, how he had been hoping for the best but afraid to say anything in case they wouldn’t let them have it. “Isn’t it wonderful Ken?”
“It sure is. When can we have it?”
“Ah there’s the rub. We can’t have it until they’ve moved all their stuff to the new hall and that won’t be finished until the end of June.”
“Oh. That’s too bad. Can we look at the place? I’d like to know exactly what we will be getting.”
“Jane will let us in tomorrow morning at nine o’clock. Can you make that time?”
“Yes. I can. Mary and I were going to Poole for lunch but we’ll change that. Tomorrow at nine will be great. Do you know how big the hall is Bob?”
“No. It seats over three hundred when full. Oh, there are forty two seats in each row if that’s any help. And when they put the chairs out they leave an aisle at each side of the hall.”
“And at the front and back too I know. I’ll play with those figures tonight and work out how many benches we could put there. That’s wonderful. I’ll see you tomorrow then. ‘Bye.”
“‘Bye Ken.”
Bob thought about the hall size as he ate dinner. It must be forty or fifty feet from the stage to the back and a hundred or more feet from side to side. They could have eight or ten benches in that space. And he guessed where Ken would put the sanding and painting booths, in the area at the back of the stage, where the scenes and props were kept. ‘I wonder if we can remove the stage? I’ll have to ask Jane that. I suppose it depends on what they decide to do with it in a year’s time. I shouldn’t be thinking about this kind of thing, that’s Ken’s job, not mine.’
He was so excited about the news that he didn’t remember until eight thirty that he would be calling Maria that night. Thoughts about her and the hall kept his mind churning as he sat in his arm chair and waited until nine. He called her apartment and the phone was picked up on the first ring.
“Hello? Is that you Bob?”
“Yes Maria. How are you?”
“I’m fine Bob. And how are you? Very busy I’m sure.”
“Yes I am. It’s lovely you’ll be coming to England and I do want to meet you. On Saturday, June 29th, you said. At what time and where Maria?”
“I’ll have to get the group through the check-in procedures to go home before I’m free. I’ll be done about twelve o’clock. I’ll go to the arrivals area and wait at the Meeting Point. Do you know where that is?”
“This is at Gatwick?”
“Yes.”
“Well I think I know where it is. I think I passed by it when I returned from Faro. I’ll find it anyway. How long can you stay?”
“Only until Sunday. I’ve arranged to catch the four o’clock plane home.”
“You said you’d like to go to a play in London?”
“Yes. I’d like to see Les Mis. Have you seen it?”
“No. I’ve heard about it. They say it’s good.”
“Well I’ll book two tickets then. It’ll be lovely to see you again.”
“That’s what I think about you too Maria.”
“Take care of yourself Bob.”
“You too Maria.”
Thoughts of meeting Maria pushed everything else out of Bob’s mind. ‘If we’re going to Les Mis we going to the centre of London. I don’t want to drive there. No, that’d be terrible. I’ll leave the car at Gatwick and we can catch the train. There must be plenty of trains between Gatwick and Victoria. Where shall we stay? I’ll let Maria decide that, maybe she’ll book the hotel. I should have asked her about that. Oh, it’ll be great to see her again.’
Bob and Ken were waiting at the Centre’s entrance when Jane arrived. She unlocked the door then crossed the corridor and opened one of the doors to let them into the main hall.
“Here. I’m sure this is what you’ll want to look at first. You’d put your work benches in here, right?”
“Yes,” said Ken. “I bet this is a hundred feet wide Bob. Here,” he took out a surveying tape, “hold this at that side and I’ll go to the other.” They separated, straightened the tape then Ken called out. “Yes. As I thought. It’s exactly a hundred feet. Now let’s measure from the stage.” Bob walked to the front of the stage and held the tape on the floor as Ken moved to the back. “Forty five feet. Perfect,” and he noted the distances in his notebook.
“Where are all the chairs?” asked Bob.
“Under the stage,” she replied.
“Do you think they’d let us work in the hall before you move everything to the new place Jane? I’d love to do that. We’d not move anything you have stored and it would allow us to start making toys immediately after you’ve taken your stuff. We’d start paying the rent from today if we could do that.”
“I’ll ask them. I think they’ll agree but I won’t know until next Friday afternoon.”
“All right. Can we look through the rest of the building?”
“Yes of course.”
They walked to the front of the hall and climbed the stairs to the stage. Ken and Bob measured the distance from the front of the stage to the outside wall. “Hmm, another twenty five feet,” said Ken. “Okay. Let’s see the other rooms, please Jane.”
They left the stage down some steps and through a door that led to the end of a corridor. On their left was a pair of emergency exit doors opening to the back of the Centre. They walked along the corridor, looking into two long meeting rooms and what used to be the games room, turned right and went along the entrance corridor, then right again and down the other side, checking the cloakroom, the toilets, the two rooms that were used by the actors as dressing rooms and another meeting room. This corridor also ended with a pair of emergency exit doors.
“We can have the wood delivered through these doors and store it in there Bob,” and Ken pointed to the room at the end of the corridor. “We could use one of the dressing rooms for our lunch and tea room. And we could store thousands of toys in the rooms on the other side of the hall and there’d still be other rooms we could use if needed.”
“Where would you put the office Ken?”
“We wouldn’t need one in this building, we’ll use the one we already have in the workshop. W
e’d have people working there too. Our only problem now is to find people who can work for us. Do you think any of your committee members would know of anybody Jane?”
“I’ll ask them. They’ll be glad to help you find workers. One of the members mentioned that newcomers have already asked about jobs. Our secretary will have their names I think. I’ll ask her to call you.”
“Thanks Jane. Oh, one last thing. We have to exhaust the dust from the workshop. That means we would want to run a duct through the back wall. Can you ask the committee if we can make a hole in it? We would re-brick it when the year was up and no one would notice where it had been.”
“Yes I’ll ask. I don’t think there’ll be a problem with that. They knew you’d have to make a few modifications if they rented the place.”
Jane locked the door as they left and they walked back with her to the farm. She left them at her kitchen door and Bob and Ken went to the workshop office.
“We’re going to need more money now Bob. We’ll need between three and five thousand to equip the hall and for the first two or more months we’d need more to pay our employees.”
“How many do you want?”
“Eight I think. That would be a bit more than four thousand pounds a month if we paid them one hundred and twenty five pounds a week. We’d have to have enough to pay them weekly for at least two months, until sales from the toys they make covers their salary.”
“I don’t have anywhere near that kind of money Ken.”
“Well we can get a business loan. Trouble is, if we go that way we’d have to prepare a business plan and show what we have done and exactly what we plan to do. That’s an awful lot of trouble and I don’t know if the bank would like the way we’re managing things.”
“There’s another way to get money?”
“Yes. You could mortgage your home. That’d be a lot easier and a bit cheaper for us I think.”
“I couldn’t pay the monthly principal and interest Ken. I’ve just enough in my savings to pay for my August holiday and a little more for emergencies. My pension wouldn’t be enough; it only covers my normal living expenses.”
“There’s a way around that too, Bob. Lets see, if we added twenty five thousand to the business you’d put in just over twelve and a half thousand pounds. You could easily get a mortgage for fifteen or twenty thousand pounds and then use the excess to pay the monthly mortgage fees. You could also ask for a mortgage where you just pay the interest each month. Don’t forget, you wouldn’t need the mortgage for very long because we’ll soon be rolling in money. What do you think?”
“Oh dear. I’m a bit scared about taking out a mortgage Ken. I’d lose the house if things went wrong. What are you going to do?”
“I’ve money in the stock market, I’ll sell some shares.”
“All right, if you’re willing to do that then I’ll get a mortgage. I can see we need the money. I’ll go to the bank this afternoon.”
“Good. I’ll phone my broker on Monday. We’re off to Poole when I get home so I’ll work on the plans for the hall tomorrow. You’re off to Bristol on Monday?”
“Yes. I’ll call you in the evening.”
“Okay. Safe trip Bob.”
“Thanks Ken.”