Bob of Small End

by David Hockey

  Chapter 39 Up for sale

  Bob waited until ten o’clock on Saturday morning then drove to the bank and deposited the cheque from We-Have-It. Afterwards he walked to his favourite coffee shop, had a coffee then drove to Salisbury and parked the car at the back of the King’s Head. The receptionist told him that his room wouldn’t be ready until three so he sat in the lobby wondering what to do when Maria’s group arrived. She saw him as soon as they entered, waved, then went to the receptionist to collect a set of room keys. She handed them to the group members and they disappeared, some taking the stairs, others using the lift. Bob went over as soon as everyone had gone and kissed her.

  “You know, I can’t get my room until three. You’re lucky.”

  “Ah, I arranged for the tour group rooms to be ready by eleven thirty. They clean them first if I insist on it. We need the rooms because some want to change before lunch; I’m taking them to the cathedral at two.”

  “What time will you be free?”

  “We can have lunch together as soon as I’ve shown them where they’ll be eating but we can’t eat dinner together because there’s a farewell dinner tonight. Just let me know your room number when you have it.”

  “Yes, I will.”

  “All right, Then we’ll meet here in about half an hour?”

  “Okay.”

  He walked along the main street then went to the cathedral. It was an impressive building, one he’d taken the family to see many years ago, but there was not enough time for him to visit now. He walked back to the hotel and found Maria waiting for him.

  “Let’s find a restaurant,” she said, “I’m tired of eating in hotels.”

  They chose a small café hidden in one of the side roads, one probably none of the tour members would find. They both chose one of the several salad and sandwiches offered and drank coffee. Maria described the tour and some of the members reactions. Bob told her about Ken’s decision and that they would sell the company if a reasonable offer came. They returned to the hotel at one forty five and Bob watched them gather and leave. He then got up, planning to take another walk when the receptionist beckoned him to the desk. She gave him his room key and asked if he wanted help with his luggage. ‘No thanks,’ he said and collected it from the car. In his room he unpacked then wondered how he should spend the rest of the afternoon, finally deciding to walk the city streets and see if there were any interesting movies. He found one that had a four o’clock showing and joined the few waiting for the ticket counter to open. It felt very strange going to a movie. He tried to remember when he last did that and eventually thought it was when he was on a holiday with Betty. He had supper in a Thai restaurant then walked back to the hotel to see if the group had finished their dinner. They hadn’t but he caught Maria’s eye and pointed in the direction of the hotel bar. She nodded and joined him there half an hour later.

  They had a drink and talked about how life could be if he sold the company and had enough money to live in Portugal for half the year. Twice they were interrupted by a couple who were on the tour and wanted to tell Maria how much they had enjoyed it and who then asked questions about the flight home. They were very interested when she introduced Bob and told them he was ‘a special friend.’

  At ten o’clock Maria decided that they didn’t have to stay up any longer. “If anyone want’s me they’ll have to come to my room,” she said.

  “Then I’ll join you there,” Bob said.

  “You bet. Give me ten minutes. Don’t undress, I’d like to do that and that way you’ll have your clothes for the morning.”

  “Do I bring my pyjamas?”

  “You didn’t need them before so why use them now?”

  “In case anyone wants to see you.”

  “I’ll not let them into the room if they do. No one has wanted to see me at night on this trip so we’ll take a chance.”

  Bob dressed at six the next morning, returned to his room, showered and took his bag to the car before eating breakfast. He wondered what the maid would think of an un-slept-in bed but reasoned she’d be used to it. He read the Sunday Times in the lounge until he saw Maria putting her group on the bus then quickly joined her.

  “I don’t know when we’ll see each other again,” he said. “If I can I’ll arrange a trip to Portugal before Christmas.”

  “How about us going to Paris for Christmas?” asked Maria.

  “Oh! I’ve never had a Christmas away from the children. Let me think about that.”

  “Okay. We must go now or we’ll miss the plane.” She kissed him on his cheek, “Love you Bob.”

  “Love you too, Maria.”

  Bob checked out and drove to Small End thinking about all the things they might do in the future. Endless possibilities if only they could sell the company.

  Monday morning Ken put a notice on the cloakroom door asking everyone to go to the tea room for a meeting at nine o’clock. When they were all there Bob told them that they had decided to sell the company and then told them why they were doing so. They were, as Lori had predicted, a little upset. Bob continued and said he’d run the company after Ken had left and that he’d try to run it exactly as Ken had done.

  “But what happens when you’ve sold it?” asked Diane. “Will they run it the same way?”

  “We hope so.”

  “Will we still have a reward lunch and a half day each month?”

  “And our pay, will that go down?”

  “We don’t know any of those answers yet. We will try to have them written in the agreement but they might not want to do everything the way we have.”

  “Then we’ll form a union,” exclaimed Ray.

  “Not yet,” countered Jean. “I don’t like unions. Don’t do that until you have to.”

  “No. Let’s not do that,” Brian said, “we might not want to go on strike when they call for one and I certainly don’t want to pay their dues.”

  Lori spoke up. “Craig and I were told about this on Friday and I said we would ask everyone we know if they knew anybody who might buy it. I suggest you do the same. That way we might find someone who is compatible with our way of working.”

  “How much are you selling it for?” Alan asked.

  “Half-a- million pounds,” answered Bob.

  “Wow! Who knows anyone with that kind of money?” he asked. No one raised their hands. “I’ll talk to my Dad and see if he knows anybody but I don’t think he would.”

  “Try not to worry about me leaving the company,” said Ken. “It’ll be a change but if Bob runs the shop it won’t be much different from the way it is now.”

  “And I’ll be relying on Craig and Lori,” added Bob, “with them doing most of the organising you won’t notice any difference.”

  “That’s true,” Diane said. “Well, let’s start now or we won’t get anything done before it’s tea time.”

  Dave’s cheque for £15,450 for the August 2nd toys arrived with the mail. Lori showed it to Bob and Ken then put it in the safe.

  “After the next cheque arrives there’ll be enough to pay back your loan Ken” said Bob. “Fifteen thousand plus the interest.”

  “I don’t want the interest Bob. I probably made more by selling when I did because the stocks I sold went down in price this last month.”

  “Oh, good. Ken, I’m going to tell Joe that we’re selling the company, it’s about time he knew.”

  “Jack too, I guess. I’ll call him tonight. Maybe he’ll buy it!”

  “I don’t think he’d be able to do that Ken. Though maybe he could, by paying it off, like a mortgage, using the money that comes from We-Have-It. Lori, how much will we get this week?”

  Lori checked her computer and said, “We’ll get two lots this week unless the mail’s late. £37,500, if we get both.”

  “Then we should be able to cover the expenses and start getting back the money we originally put in. That’d be nice.”

  Bob walked to Joe’s farm after the shop closed and he found him i
n one of the greenhouses roto-tilling compost into the beds. As soon as he saw Bob he stopped the machine and sat on a bench. He looked tired.

  “Hello Bob. Did you have a good time last weekend?”

  “Yes, thanks Joe. Is that some of the compost you make from our sawdust?”

  “About half is, the rest is old manure from Ben Jackson’s farm. He lets me have it each year. You must have something important to tell me. Are you and Maria engaged?”

  “No, Joe, no, but I do have something to tell you. We’re selling the company.”

  “Selling it? Why are you doing that? I thought you were making lots of money and would keep it forever.”

  “We are making lots of money but Ken’s accepted a job in Manchester and I don’t want to run the company without him. I want an easier life. I came to let you know about it and to ask if you’d know anyone who might like to buy it. Would you, for instance?”

  “No thanks Bob. Like you, I want an easier life. And I don’t want to spend most of my time indoors. Hey, I know a couple of farmers who invest in various things; they might be interested. How much do you want for it?”

  “Half-a- million pounds. It sounds a lot but it makes more than that each year. At the moment, that is, it might not do that next year if people stop wanting to buy wooden toys.”

  “Half-a-million, eh. Okay, I’ll pass the word around. You’d better tell Len, he’ll let everyone in the village know about it.”

  “I plan to. I’ll tell him next.”

  “You’ll be telling Jack?”

  “Ken’s doing that and I bet he’ll ask if he wants to buy his house but that’s only a guess. Ken hasn’t said anything to me about that.”

  “All right. I’ll let you know if any of my friends are interested.”

  Len was very interested to hear that they were selling the company and he promised to let everybody know about it. A villager came to the counter right then and Bob quickly downed his drink and left; he didn’t want to be part of the discussion. It would be better if Len told everyone first, there would be fewer questions for him to answer that way.

  After tea Tuesday morning Ken and Bob moved to the office and talked about how they would manage the change if they couldn’t find a buyer.

  “Would you buy my share Bob? By instalments? So much every month, or every year if you like?”

  “You wouldn’t prefer to remain an absentee owner?”

  “I’d rather not. I’d only worry about how well the company was doing and I’d probably keep phoning you to find out. I’d rather sell and move on.”

  “I’ll buy it if that’s what you want Ken. I feel all this is due to you and I’m very grateful to be a part of it. So I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll buy it and pay you off as soon as I can. That is, if we don’t get anyone who might buy it first. Lori, did you find anyone who might be interested?”

  “No not yet. I’ve talked to my Dad and to my uncles. They’re unhappy that you’re selling but they couldn’t buy it. But you said that people could buy the company in instalments? I’ll have to tell them that, it might make a difference. Would it include all the toys we’ve already made?”

  “I suppose so,” said Bob.

  “You know that could be worth a lot of money,” said Ken. “Maybe it’s value should be added to the sale cost.”

  “Did Great Toys offer include the stock?” asked Bob.

  “Didn’t ask. Probably.”

  “Then we should include it in the price too, although we have much more stock now than we had then.”

  “I guess so. Okay.”

  “So I’ll tell them that the price includes the stock and that the company can be bought by instalments,” said Lori.

  “Well we hadn’t really thought about it being bought by instalments. We’d have to have some kind of guarantee that they’d pay all the money and not walk away if things went badly.”

  “I see. All right. Then if anyone seems interested I’ll tell them all that.”

  Bob got up, went to the notice board then asked “How are we doing on production Lori? I don’t see yesterday’s totals.”

  “Ah sorry Bob, I haven’t put them up yet. I’ll do it now.” She took the hand-written list she kept went to the notice board and changed the date and the totals. “We have 4,800 farms, 2,500 villages and 2,200 trains.”

  “So we won’t have to worry about filling any request now since Dave’s orders are going down.”

  “I don’t think so,” she replied.

  “Are you going to keep the same routine as before Ken? Two days of farms, two of villages and one of trains?”

  “Sure.”

  “And making fifteen hundred of each day?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay. I could design some new toys if you like and we now have time to make them. Customers used to ask if we have different ones.”

  “They still do,” added Lori. “Dave asked again two or three weeks ago about that and I’ve had two calls from clients we used to deliver to. They asked if we had already started making different kinds.”

  “We could do that but I’d rather not set up a new bench,” said Ken. “It’s better not to have an unknown product thrown into the pot when we’re selling. If the company doesn’t sell then I’ll help you set up a new bench if you decide to make new ones Bob. That would have to be over the Christmas holidays. Can we leave it until then?”

  “Yes, okay.”