Bob of Small End

by David Hockey

  Chapter 36 Money and a mystery

  Bob was in the workshop at eight Friday, unable to wait until the others came. He wanted to check the records and find out what had happened.

  He looked at the sheets pinned to the notice board. They had made two thousand farms and villages and twelve hundred trains the first week he’d been away and had already made the same number of farms and villages this week. So they achieved their goal. Good. Then he looked at the We-Have-It order list. Dave had ordered on the Friday, not during the week, and wanted 2,500 farms, 2,500 villages and 1,200 trains. ‘I wonder who delivered them, I hope it was Lori,’ thought Bob. ‘Wait a minute, Dave would have ordered the sets early Friday morning and they wouldn’t have had 1,200 trains then, if Ken made the farms and villages from Monday to Thursday.’ Bob looked at the list for the previous week. ‘Yes, we only had 500 trains from the previous week. So what did they do? Oh. They didn’t work on the Saturday. Why not? Dave’s order was the biggest we’d ever received and we have to build the inventory. We’ll be in trouble if he orders that many this week. Let’s see, yes, we’ve 2,800 farms, the same number of villages and 1,200 trains. So they didn’t deliver the rest of the trains. A back order of 500. Hmm. I wonder how Ken feels about that.’

  He left the office and walked into the shop. Nothing different here. Still only two sanders per bench. He checked the lists on the stock room door. Just the same as in the office. He walked back to the office, opened the safe and took out the accounts books. They had received all the rest of the money, £21,351.50 for the pre-We-Have-It deliveries. The July’s gross was £27,989 and the month’s expenses were £23,362.67. So they had paid all the July expenses with our own deliveries. That means all the money we get from We-Have-It for the month is profit. Finally he checked how much money they should have in the bank, discovering it should be around £7,850, once they’d taken off bank charges and other expenses not yet recorded. They’d need about £5,000 for this week’ s salaries and supplies, although the supplies wouldn’t be paid until the end of the month. Then they wouldn’t have enough to pay the staff the following week. So we’ll have to put some more money in. Bob was wishing he hadn’t already paid off his mortgage when Ken walked in.

  “Hello Bob. Did you have a nice holiday?”

  “Yes, lovely, Ken. I’ll tell you about it later. How did it go here?”

  “We were busy and we didn’t have enough trains last week. I told Dave I could deliver all he wanted in the afternoon but he said the trucks couldn’t wait. He said we wouldn’t be the first manufacturer to run short. We’ll be able to deliver all they want today, I hope. He also said that sales will slow down now the summer’s nearly over.”

  “Is that why you didn’t work last Saturday?”

  “Yes, partly, but also because everyone seemed tired on the Monday when we did work Saturday. We made our daily quota that day but it isn’t good to work when everybody’s tired; too likely to have an accident, for one thing.”

  “I’ve been looking at the books Ken. We’re going to be short of money next week. I’ll have to take out another mortgage.”

  “Yes, I think so. We’ll be short until mid-September, Lori tells me, when the money from We-Have-It comes in. But you don’t have to take out a mortgage yet. I’ll sell some more stock and put in £15,000. I’ll do that today and we’ll have it next week. It should last three weeks and give you time to arrange for a mortgage. In fact, if we are careful, we won’t need anything from you because of the money from We-Have-It.”

  “That’s nice of you. Thanks, but I’d better tell the bank I’m going to need one, just in case. Say, the cost of taking out a mortgage, can I charge that to the business?”

  “Yes. Of course. I’ll take the brokerage costs too, but they won’t be much. Oh, hello Lori, hello Craig.”

  “Hello Ken. Hello Bob. So you’re back already. I thought you were on holiday until Monday.”

  “Hi. Yes, I’m back, I couldn’t keep away. How’s your apartment? All finished?”

  “Just about,” said Craig. “We can have the party anytime now. How was your holiday?”

  “Excellent. Do you know the Lake District? There’s lots to see; beautiful scenery, lots of nice places to walk and many interesting stories about the people who used to live there. If you haven’t been there it might be a good place for a honeymoon.”

  “Have you been having a honeymoon Bob?” asked Lori.

  “Sort of. But, no, Maria and I didn’t get married.”

  “Will you go there again if you do get married?”

  “Maybe, but there are lots of other places to visit. I’ve just been looking at the lists and talking to Ken. You’ve all been working hard.”

  “Yes we have,” answered Craig. “I’m glad we’re not working tomorrow.”

  “We’ll try not to work on the weekends again,” Ken said. “Last time was an emergency but working six days a week is too much. Well, I’m going to check the shop. Coming, Craig?” and they walked out of the office.

  “We’re making trains today?” Bob asked Lori.

  “Yes. We now keep to the routine, first four days we make farms and villages and we make trains on Fridays.”

  “Okay. Tell me, who delivered the sets last week?”

  “I did.”

  “I guess you were too busy to take Craig. Did you go for lunch with Dave?”

  “No. I went to the office to see him. I think he’s a nice man but he was very busy. The telephone kept ringing. We might go to lunch one day. He’ll probably call us soon. Do you want to deliver today? Oh, there’s another twenty thousand boxes to collect from Salisbury. We need that many every three weeks now.”

  “I’d like to drive for a bit. It’d give me time to switch my thoughts back to the business. But maybe you’d like to deliver?”

  “No. There’s a lot of paperwork to do. I can see you’ve looked at the expenses and income accounts,” and she pointed to the books on the desk.

  “Yes. It seems Ken and I will have to put more money in the bank next week. Ken’s said he’ll do that and I’ll add mine when I get a new mortgage.”

  “I see. I told Ken last Friday we’d need more and I was going to remind him today. Have you already discussed it?”

  “Yes. He’s going to add £15,000 next week and I’ll do the same in three weeks. That should cover us until the money from We-Have-It arrives.”

  “Yes it should. Okay, one less thing to worry about.”

  “You worry as much as I do Lori.”

  “I can’t help it. I look after the books and can see what’s going to happen. Ken doesn’t seem to worry about money as much as I do, I don’t know why.”

  “I guess he’s used to the way money flows in and out of a company.”

  “I suppose so.”

  The phone rang and Lori picked up the handset, listened for a while and wrote ‘2,000 farms, 2,000 villages, 1,000 trains’ on a piece of paper and handed it to Bob. Then she said, “That’s less than last week, Dave. Do you expect sales to go down much more in the future?” Bob couldn’t hear what he replied. “Yes, we can deliver some of the back-order, 200. Okay? We’ll deliver the rest as soon as we can.” She listened for a few moments then said, “All right. Yes. ‘Bye then,” and hung up the phone.

  “He thinks sales will go down until November then they’ll pick up, maybe a lot, when people start buying gifts for Christmas. And he’d like the rest of the trains as soon as possible.”

  “Tell Ken about the trains Lori. He might have to change the order we make things next week. Well, we guessed demand would go down for a while. It’ll help us build up our stock.”

  “Ah, yes. I forgot to tell you Ken has asked us to work on Monday even though it’s a national holiday. He says he’ll give us double pay for the day and everyone agreed to do it. Did he tell you about that?”

  “No, he must have forgotten. It’s okay with me, I’m ready to get back to work. I’ll load the van now, can you help?”


  “Sure.”

  Bob told Ken he was delivering and waved ‘Hello’ to everybody before leaving. He didn’t stop to talk to Dave at the warehouse but drove to Salisbury, collected the pasteboard, bought some sandwiches which he ate as he was driving back and arrived at the shop just before the afternoon tea break began. Craig helped him unload then they joined the others and he snacked on biscuits. He was introduced to the new girl and she told him that she wished she could work here all the time. Everybody asked about his holiday and he described some of it. He asked if anyone had already been to the Lake District. Gerry said he had and Frank said he would be passing through on his way to Carlisle in his holidays. “We’ll spend a couple of nights there after seeing my Mum.”

  “You were going to tell us what we would be paid during the holidays. Have you decided yet?” asked Diane.

  “No, sorry,” said Ken. “Bob and I’ll decide tonight and let you know on Monday. Okay?”

  “All right.”

  It was good to be back with everybody thought Bob, as they all headed back to the shop. It’s a bit like being in a large family.

  After work Bob and Ken sat down in the office to discuss the holiday pay.

  “We have to pay their normal rate Bob.”

  “I guessed so. Then I’ll tell Lori to add it to everybody’s pay cheques next week and they’ll have it before the holiday.”

  “So did you spend all the time in the Lake District?” asked Ken.

  “No. We drove to Filey and stayed there three nights then we went to Boston to see Sally. She’s confined to bed now and I don’t suppose she’ll live much longer.”

  Ken said he was sorry then said, “Something strange happened last Thursday. Two men called in about eleven o’clock and asked if they could look around. I didn’t quite know what to say and had said ‘yes’ before thinking that I probably shouldn’t let people do that. Well, anyway, we walked along one of the benches and I showed them what we were doing. They seemed interested but they mostly talked to the employees. They asked how they liked working there, things like that. After a while I began to think that they were representatives from some union but that changed when they asked me to lunch with them. We went to the Crown and they treated me. Eventually I asked them what they thought about the shop and they said they were very pleased that they had come. I couldn’t get any more information from them. What do you think they wanted Bob?”

  “You’re sure they weren’t union reps? Not that I’d mind. I don’t think our lot would want to pay union dues for nothing. It’s unlikely a union could improve their pay or working conditions.”

  “No. They were too polite, I think, to be from a union. One of them had an American accent. Do you think they could have come from Great Toys? Though they didn’t say anything about buying the company.”

  “Maybe they are from another company, one who’d want to buy this one and continue running it here. That could be why they were talking to the employees; they wanted to know what kind of people we had working for us.”

  “Ah yes, that could be it. I suppose they’ll contact us if they decide to do that. If they offered a half-a-million would you sell it?”

  “I don’t know. No. Hmm, actually, Ken, I think I would like to sell. It would give me all the money I’d need for holidays and, although I like working with everybody here and with you, I think I’d like to go back to the way I was before we started this business. Only, this time, I wouldn’t make toys, I’d just carve birds.”

  “Oh. Wouldn’t you soon get tired of that, after these exciting times?”

  “I don’t think so. I know Maria now and I’d like to spend more time with her.”

  “Well, you know, I wouldn’t mind selling either. I’ve had my fun, starting and getting the place going. I don’t really want to manage a factory each day. I’ve done that already. Well we’ll have to wait and see what happens. We could phone Great Toys if we really wanted to sell.”

  “No, not to them, they’ll close the place. Let’s see what these two want. They might offer the same or more and keep the factory here. Why would they visit otherwise?”

  “Okay, we’ll wait and see what happens.”

  “But I’m only willing to sell if they keep running it here.”

  “Yes, that would have to be part of the agreement.”

  “Okay.”

  Bob collected the overalls as they went out. “This extra one must be for the new girl. How did she work out?”

  “Fine. We might ask her to continue when the holiday’s over. You’ll have to do that if you think it’s necessary. Lori has her phone number.”

  “Okay.”

  “Put the overalls in my car and I’ll drive you home Bob.”

  “Good. Thanks.”

  Ken helped Bob carry the overalls to the kitchen then wished him a nice weekend as he went out the door. ‘Yes,’ thought Bob, ‘I’m still on holiday. What shall I do for the last two days?’