"Oh yeah. You know it. I've been waiting for all these years. In a way, I guess, I actually have. I told you before I used to think you were so hot, and I had kinda a thing for you." Shylah pulled herself up by Mark's neck and planted a deep and lasting kiss.
"Well, you got me now, and you can go back and tell the teenage you that she's gonna get what she wants one day. Maybe it'll give her more hope." Mark had a way of saying just the right things to both fill Shylah with joy and make her want to constantly burst at the seams with laughter.
"I'll get right on that. You left the time machine parked out front, didn't you?"
"Yep. Somewhere out there, don't really remember where exactly."
"I'll do that while you're gone. You won't even know it. I'll come back to right now so we can do this again." At that, Shylah gently kissed Mark back.
"While you're at it, see if you can find T.L.'s hair."
"Don't make fun of my brother! He's got enough without worryin' about hair. His hair got scared of his ugly face and ran away. That's all."
"You can make fun of him, but I can't?"
"I don't know. I guess I can let you make fun of him, too. It wouldn't be enough fun if only I did it."
"I was gonna say, you may be his sister, but believe it or not, I've known him longer than you have."
"So? All that means is that you're old. You are like what... forty or fifty now?"
"Uh huh. You keep sayin' that stuff. What does it say that you're with me then?"
"It says I like older men. There's nothin' wrong with it or with you bein' old. While you're out today, don't forget your adult diapers and your hemorrhoid creams and denture creams and stuff." With another kiss, Shylah pulled herself upward and climbed off of Mark's lap.
Before Shylah could walk away, Mark smacked her so hard on her backside that she yelped in pain.
"What the hell was that for?! Why the hell did you just hit my ass so hard," Shylah snapped.
"What are you talkin' about? I'm old. I can't remember a thing."
"Just wait. I'm gonna get you back when you least expect it, and it's gonna hurt! It's really gonna hurt!"
"I'm scared. You don't hit very hard, Shy."
"I could've let the smackin' go and maybe forgot about it, but you called me Shy again."
"It bothers you that much," Mark asked with a laugh more loud than any before it since Shylah had come to the Crady house.
"Nope, not at all, Mar."
"Mar?"
"Yep. That's my name for you now, Mar."
"That's not a name."
"Neither is Shy, but you keep callin' me that. So, now, you're Mar. If I'm Shy, you're Mar. You don't wanna be called Mar, don't call me Shy, simple as that. I stop when you stop. Til then, you're Mar."
"Ok, well, Shy, you wanna fix your man up somethin' to eat?"
"Sure, when I find him."
"Oohh! Them's fightin' words, Shy!"
"And you ain't gettin' a thing from me, Mar. You want sex, you do it yourself. This place is now like a gas station, all self-service!"
"Don't be that way, Shy, Baby."
"Oh, Mar, Baby. Mar. Mar. Mar. My man, Mar Cray. If you see Mark Crady, tell him Shylah King misses him. I'm sure he doesn't know who this Shy is."
"Ok, Baby, you really want me to stop callin' you Shy?" Mark felt a little disappointed. He was having far too much fun with the game, but he did not want to anger Shylah or keep her from showering him with her physical and verbal affections.
"Yes. Please stop. You stop, I stop. We go back to how it was a few minutes ago, no Shy, no Mar. Just Shylah and Mark."
"How about Mark and Shylah?"
"How about you fix your own breakfast?" Shylah stood before Mark, smiling a half smile, as if to display her voracious seriousness. "You know how. While you're at it, just because I know you're sorry, you can fix me some, too. Do it, and I might just let all this bad behavior of yours be put in the past. I'll be like, 'I don't remember you acting like a total asshole. I just remember you bein' all sweet as usual.' And just so you know, and I'm bein' totally real here, I don't like this, the way you were actin' last night and how you've been actin' this morning. Jokin' around with each other is one thing, but it's like you're tryin' to purposely annoy me."
"Ok. Ok. I'll stop. No more teasing. What do you want to eat?"
"You're actually gonna fix the food? Wow. I didn't think you would. Eggs, sausage, bacon, hash browns, grits, pancakes, waffles, shine, sweet tea. Can you think of anything else?"
"Nope. All of it comin' up, but it's gonna all look like eggs."
"Wow. Sausage, bacon, pancakes, and waffles that look like eggs. I gotta try it. Make my waffles over easy."
As soon as Mark and Shylah finished eating, Shylah yanked Mark out of his chair and into the bedroom. "We have making up to do, and you're not leavin' here until we do!"
In the middle of their sexual escapade, both were alarmed and disheartened to hear Mark's phone ring.
"Leave it," Shylah exclaimed as Mark stopped. "They'll leave a message. For the next few minutes, you're still mine!"
"It could be important, Baby."
"It's fine. They'll leave a message or call back later! Focus on me! Eyes down here!"
Mark ignored call after call, attempting to put his all into the task being performed, wanting to make Shylah happy as well as himself. When Mark finally checked his phone, he had four missed calls from Don Birchum but no voicemails.
Lying in bed, still nude, caressing Shylah and gently running his left hand through Shylah's hair, Mark used his free hand to return Don's call, reluctant, hesitating at first, and dreading what he might hear on the other end.
"Don, what'd you need so early in the morning?"
"Mark, I have two state inspectors down here! They're tearin' this place apart! I thought you might wanna know about it. I'm gettin' scared about what they're gonna find. We're gonna have some serious questions to answer and I'd bet, some very hefty fines to pay. We may have to kiss some serious ass to even be allowed to reopen the plant. Can you get down here?"
"Yeah, Don. I'll be there soon."
As soon as Mark laid his phone back on the nightstand, Shylah nudged him, her hand rubbing and tickling, teasing its way downward. "Why do you have to go? We just had a great time together, and you're leaving me!"
"I'm sorry, Baby. Business. I have to go. There are some inspectors at the plant, and the plant manager should be there. I can't put it all on Don."
"You don't even really know what happened down there? You only know what you were told. Please don't go."
"I have to, Baby. I have to. I will make it up to you, I promise," Mark assured, feeling as though he were making many more promises as of late than he would have liked and wondering if he could keep every one of them. "Tonight, it's me and you. I don't know if we can go out or not, but we will sometime soon. You still got me all to yourself later, all night, me and you, nobody but us."
"You promise?"
"Yes, Baby. I promise. And sometime soon, hopefully, this weekend, we'll go out somewhere, a whole night out, wherever you wanna go!"
"Ok, Babe. Go take your pills before you leave. You forgot. I know you did."
"That's why I have you," Mark stated softly, laying another gentle kiss on Shylah's head. "I'll be back just as soon as I can get away. It may not take all day. I might even bring you somethin' nice just because."
"Like what," Shylah beamed, the beautiful boisterous smile returning to her face that Mark loved so much.
"It'd be a surprise, but somethin' nice."
"Ok. You better get goin', I guess. Be careful, and think of me."
"You know I will, Baby. I always think of you. And please take it easy on the old man. He doesn't know where he is, let alone who's around or what's goin' on. Don't take anything he says too hard." With another gentle kiss, Mark rolled out from under Shylah and jumped out of bed, throwing on his clothes that lay crumpled on the floor.
"Not taki
n' a shower?"
"No time, Hon. I gotta go before Don has a heart attack. Call me if you need anything. You gonna take the test today?"
"You're really supposed to take it first thing, first pee, when the hormones are strongest, but I guess I still could. I peed when you were still eating, but I guess the second pee is good enough."
"Let me know, please, Baby."
"Ok. I will. I might wait til tonight. I don't know. And you're gonna have your hands so full today."
"Love you." Mark quickly kissed Shylah on the lips before darting out the door, leaving Shylah alone, naked, in bed, wondering what the day might bring, wondering if she could bring herself to take the test, dreading the results, no matter what they might be, and even more, dreading the comments and questions of her family if the results were positive.
Chapter 14
Mark sped to the plant, fearing the worst. By the time that he arrived, Don was beside himself, the inspectors having asked so many thorough and frightening questions, nitpicking every safety feature of the entire plant and investigating what could have caused the explosion.
"Just wait til OSHA comes in," Don cried when he saw Mark's eyes burning, Mark tapping his chin with his forefinger, both of them standing on a long, steel walkway high above the production floor, looking down on the state inspectors buzzing about, several more having now arrived. (OSHA – Occupational Safety and Health Administration – regulated workplace safety in the United States)
"How much do you figure," Mark hesitatingly asked.
"I'm no expert. We've never had anything like this happen before, but if I had to make a guess, it could be at least a million, maybe a lot more. It won't put the plant under, but it'll make things hard on us. If your dad knew what was goin' on, he'd die of the shock from losing so much money."
"Hey. That's not funny, Don."
"Not meant to be funny. I'm sayin' it as a fact. Your dad would lose his mind over this. Really, it's his fault. He never would switch out the furnaces. I know it's not right to put down a dyin' man, but I'm just sayin' that this could've been avoided. You and I have to clean up his messes all cuz he was too stubborn and cheap to do what was right and practical."
"You knew about his cancer, huh," Mark asked.
"He told me a while back."
"He told you before he told me? Isn't that just... Screw it. Whatever."
"Mark, I..."
"Don't worry, Don. I knew a long time ago my dad didn't give a damn about me."
"Mark, you know that's not true. He was probably just afraid of how you'd react. He and I went over it a million times what to do in the event of his death. He told me again not too long ago that if you didn't wanna run the plant, then I'd be in charge, just as long as you know you can't sell this place. It's your family's legacy."
"No, I know. I wouldn't dare. It's stayin' with me, and if I ever have kids, it's goin' to them. It's a Crady business, and a Crady business it'll stay. If my brother was still here, it'd be his, and I'd be lucky to even get a small piece of it. I loved my brother, still think of him all the time, but I know how he was." Mark shook his head at the thought of how his brother would run things, had he survived.
"Yeah, well, I knew your brother and what he was like. Frankly, he would never run this place half as well as you have. In all honesty, Mark, and this isn't me kissin' up, I think you're the best manager, between you, your dad, and whatever kind of manager your brother would've been. Nobody has ever had more vision for this place or loved it as much as you. I know you're gonna do great things with this place, once we get it up and running again. You are keepin' me on, aren't you?"
"Don, you think I'd fire you or anybody, for that matter? You know your job is just as secure as anybody else's. Unless this plant goes under, you're stuck here. But I plan to run things, so you're my right hand. You're gonna go back to Assistant PM. Got it? You're me when I'm not here, same as it's been. I have some ideas I wanna run by you soon, ideas to expand and improve this place, create jobs, and make us a lot more money, which means probably a raise for you and bigger bonuses."
"I'm ok with that. More money will keep the wife happy and maybe get me my fishin' boat I've been eyein' for so long. What's your ideas?"
"Not now, Don. Soon, really soon. Let's just get this day over with first, one day at a time. Let's see what kind of fines we're lookin' at. If they pull their fine-toothed combs out of our asses and crawl out, maybe we'll have a plant left to worry about. As far as I know, and I gotta check with Stan on it, but as far as I know, we'll be just fine. I think Dad's stashed away more money than we'll know what to do with. Stan could tell me more."
Don immediately took careful notice of Mark's words. Turning to his superior, Don's mouth fell agape. "What kind of money are we talkin' about?"
"I have no idea for sure, but I think that the entire estate has gotta be worth well over a hundred."
"A hundred million dollars? You gotta be wrong! But even if you're right, most of that has to be in this plant, both in property and equipment. I know there's no loans or anything like that, but still, there can't be as much money as you're thinkin'."
"If not, we borrow. We don't do anything around here without planning to take it to the next level, the level my dad never dreamed of. Spend money, make money. Expand, create jobs, make employees happy, ship bigger orders, ship through our own trucking company, bring back truckloads of cash."
"Mark," Don puzzlingly announced, "We don't have a trucking company."
"We will, Don. We will."
"Whatever it is, I'm on board. I'm sure we have nowhere to go but up."
"Exactly, Don."
"This place has always been a cash cow, but I always thought it could make so much more. We're constantly behind on orders and don't get nearly as many orders as we should."
"My thoughts, too. We have to start meeting each and every order and searching for more," Mark added. "From now on, we do everything we can to meet every demand and offer more. Whatever Pittsburg can do, we can do. We match them and then some! We push forward until we can open a second plant, and maybe, one day, even a third!"
"Don't get greedy, Mark. That's an ambitious design you got there, but it may be too much. Just think of the Tower of Babel and Icarus and all that. They learned the hard way not to reach too close to the sky. Take it slow and easy."
"I'm not talkin' about rushin' in headlong into all that. We will take it slow and easy. One day, though, you're gonna be plant manager or maybe President of a much larger company. We'll take this thing to heights my dad could never even think of! Me and you, Don, me and you. We climb, our employees climb, we all climb together."
"I hope you're not talkin' about stock options, Mark."
"Oh, hell no! This company is one hundred percent privately owned, and it's gonna stay that way forever. No stock options, not for anyone. But our employees are gonna find out that we care a lot more about them than they ever thought under my dad's leadership. We take care of them, and they'll take care of us. Now, let's go down and see what these damned big city boys have to say about all this. I'm sure they've found somethin' bad by now, somethin' to throw in our faces. Any word on OSHA yet?"
"No, Mark, no word, not since late yesterday. They're supposed to send somebody down soon. You get a ten thousand dollar fine just for not shutting one machine off properly. Imagine what they're gonna fine us for a furnace explosion that killed a man and nearly killed another. Like I said, it could be millions altogether. Just be prepared for that. I just hope it doesn't eat up the money that's left before we can even fix the damages. The last I checked, with all bank accounts together, including payroll, the plant has about twenty-eight million. I don't know where your dad stashed the rest of it, but there should be a lot more than that. I pray you find out where he put the rest if this thing comes to the worst."
As Mark and Don proceeded down the metal stairway toward the production floor, Mark began to feel very dizzied, nearly falling and stumbling downward.
He managed, after his legs gave way, to catch his hand on the railing and pull himself back up to his feet.
"You ok there, Mark," Don concernedly asked, grabbing Mark's other arm to steady him.
"Yeah. The doctor warned me I'd get dizzy from time to time, but I'm alright. I might have to find things to hold me up, but other than that, it isn't that bad."
"You maybe wanna go on home and let me handle all this, Mark?"
"No, Don. We should both be here til this blows over. I'm here as long as I'm needed."
"Alright then. Well, if you can make it, let's get down there and see if can't shoo away those vultures."
"That's an insult to vultures everywhere, Man," Mark joked as he slowly pulled his way down, both hands guiding carefully down the length of the rail.
Don laughed so hard at this remark that had he been directly facing Mark, his large stomach might have propelled Mark headfirst over the railing and onto the floor very far below.
When the two men reached the floor, they were quickly approached by one of the inspectors. Producing a large clipboard, nearly shoving it into Don's face, the man bellowed, in a very squawky, birdlike voice, "This is just what we've discovered so far. Twenty-two violations, one million four hundred fifty-five thousand dollars in total. We're sure to find more, and that's not to mention what OSHA might find when they come. If you want to reopen this contaminated cesspool you call a manufacturing facility, I suggest you start looking for a bank to back you. You're gonna be lucky if you have any money when we get done with you." The little man, squawky and annoying as he was, seemed quite pleased with himself and with his presentation.
"Rat bastard," Don said as the man stepped away. "I'd love to shove these fines right down his damn throat!"
"He really is like a vulture, isn't he," Mark remarked, not a bit of laughter or joking in his voice. "Did you hear him?" In his best squawky, birdlike interpretive voice, Mark mimicked, 'twenty-two violations, one million four hundred fifty-five thousand dollars."
Under the Cypress Moon Page 22