Susan looked up and said, "Good morning, Mr. Parker."
"Good morning, Susan. How are you doing today?"
"I'm doing well. And yourself?" she asked. She batted her eyelashes at him in a parody of flirting.
"I've had a wonderful morning," Dan answered with a smile.
"Excellent," Susan said.
Dan looked towards his office making sure that the door was open. He could hear the squeak from Terry rocking the chair back and forth. It sounded like she was rather nervous. Gesturing to his office, he asked, "So what is on the agenda for the rest of this morning?"
"Ah, let me check your calendar. It looks like a normal day. Let's see. Yes, it is a normal day at the office for you. There is one thing — Terry is in your office waiting anxiously to talk to you," Susan answered with a grin.
Winking, Dan said, "I suppose that I should immediately make a pot of coffee so that she and I can meet. You can't have a business meeting in the morning without a fresh pot of coffee."
"Like a dutiful secretary should, I have already made a pot of coffee, Mr. Parker," Susan answered barely able to keep from laughing. She could hear a low growl emerging from Dan's office. It sounded like Terry was about to snap.
"Excellent. Did you use the fresh spring water?" Dan asked grinning broadly.
"Why of course I did, Mr. Parker," Susan answered enjoying the game.
"Good. You can't have a good cup of coffee without fresh spring water," Dan said. Susan was hiding her face in her hands trying to keep it together. Dan wondered how long Terry would last before exploding.
From his office, Terry bellowed, "Dan, get in here before I go crazy!"
Dan and Susan cracked up laughing. He said, "I've been summoned."
"The coffee is in the carafe on the meeting table," Susan said with a smile.
"Thanks," Dan said before heading into his office.
Dan hadn't taken two steps into the office when Terry said, "You have to hire at least two new people, maybe three. This is insane."
"Good morning, Terry. How are you doing?" Dan asked ignoring her outburst.
"You left me running this place for three solid days. How do you think I'm doing?" Terry asked. She had tried calling him a dozen times and he had never answered his phone.
"You've been busy?" Dan asked.
"Look, you need to reorganize things here," Terry said.
"That's what I've been trying to tell you. I'm not growing until I can handle what we've already got," Dan said walking over to the meeting table. He poured a cup of coffee and took it over to the chair in front of his desk.
"I get it," Terry said. She wouldn't have managed at all without the wonderful assistance of Susan. That woman was a miracle worker.
"Good. Let's get to work," Dan said sitting down in the chair.
"Where do you want to start?"
Dan said, "You mentioned hiring people. Let's start there. What do we need done that requires additional people? What skill sets should we look for in the people we are to hire? Where will we find them? How much will they cost us?"
Terry should have known exactly what questions Dan was going to ask. She hadn't had time to prepare answers. She said, "I don't know. I guess the biggest problem that we have is that one of the pizzerias is underperforming. Someone needs to investigate what is going on there."
"Okay," Dan said trying not to influence her thinking.
"You should have someone tracking what is going on at the stores," Terry said. Over the past few days, she had spent hours talking to each individual manager about their sales and inventory. Although a lot of things were computerized, purchasing and delivery data had to be entered manually. They had not implemented a centralized distribution system so each store was ordering their supplies individually. When one of the managers failed to order sufficient quantities of something, they borrowed inventory from other stores. It was a mess trying to keep track of everything. Dealing with staffing questions, scheduling problems, and budget concerns required a human in the loop.
"That's a good idea," Dan said knowing that was one area where he was spending a lot of time. Even a fifteen minute phone call with each manager consumed three hours of the day when one was dealing with twelve stores. That was an entire morning. A problem at a store could end up eating the rest of the day.
"It should be someone familiar with the business. They would need to have been a manager at one of the pizzerias," Terry answered thinking out loud. She leaned back in the chair and chewed on the end of her pen thinking it through. She came up with one solution and glanced down at her list of Dan Questions. She dismissed one idea and sought another. Finally, she said, "What we need is a district manager that you can trust. How about you promote Kevin to that position?"
"That's an excellent idea," Dan said. It also coincided with what he had decided two weeks earlier. He leaned forward and said, "He's starting this afternoon."
"Isn't that a little sudden?" Terry asked a little worried that Dan was moving too fast. She added, "I was just thinking out loud. I haven't really had time to consider all of the repercussions."
"No. I told him that he was getting promoted two weeks ago," Dan said with a smile.
"Why did you put me through this?" Terry asked feeling sick to her stomach. She wanted to hit him.
"Right now, it is Dan and his secretary, Susan, trying to oversee twelve pizzerias with plans to build more. Over the past six months I've been running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Susan can't take a day off. I can't watch each store, deal with getting new stores built, and improve the overall profitability of the business all at the same time. I can't keep up with it any more. It is too much and I've known that for a long time," Dan said.
He took a sip of his coffee. He said, "You have been focused on growing the business. I'm okay with that to a certain extent. That's what I asked you to do. However, to continue forward from here we've got to have a good foundation. When I was watching over three stores, it was okay. Right now, that foundation doesn't exist. We've got to fix this mess or Parker's Perfect Pizza won't be in business much longer.
"You've never run one of the pizzerias. You couldn't cook a pizza if your life depended upon it. You haven't worked your way up through the ranks. Regardless, you know an awful lot about running a business. The feedback that I've gotten on you over the past three days has been overwhelmingly positive. I gave you a folder of checklists and you did the job despite the fact that I gave you no instructions. Susan has been watching everything you've done and she was impressed, but that wasn't enough to decide that you could really handle the job.
"I needed to know that you would come to the same conclusions as I would when given the same set of facts. If you are going to be in charge of the operational aspects of this company I need to know that you're going to be making good decisions. You just proved it. Promoting Kevin to District Manager was a good decision and it didn't take you long to come up with it. You are my second solution to my problems."
Stunned, Terry worked through what he had told her. After a second, she asked, "You're going to put me in charge?"
"That's right," Dan said. He took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. He said, "I know that you want to live in Atlanta with Tom and Amanda. I'm not going to stop you, but I am going to insist that you are here two weeks out of four. You'll be able to deal with a lot of things over the phone and internet, but a lot of things require face to face meetings. I wish you could stay in Atlanta all of the time, but I just don't see how that can be. I'm sorry."
"Let me get this straight. You're putting me in charge?" Terry said still unable to believe what she had heard.
"Yes," Dan answered enjoying the emotions washing across her face. He had a feeling that Tom was going to be sleeping alone since Terry was going to be busy with Amanda that night. Power was such an amazing aphrodisiac.
"I can't believe it," she said shaking her head.
He leaned forward and said, "You are twenty-five years old and in charge of a restaurant chain with average sales of more than a quarter of a million dollars a month. In eighteen months, if the figures that you and Mr. Harrison have been pounding into me are correct, then we'll have over half a million dollars a month in sales. I would say that for anyone your age that is a pretty good position to be in."
"You're right," Terry said still trying to wrap her mind around the fact that she was going to be in charge.
Dan leaned forward and said, "I'm going to let you think about what needs to be done for the rest of the morning. Kevin will be in and you'll need to get him up to speed on what his responsibilities will be."
"Yes, sir," Terry said biting her lower lip. There were a number of checklists that pertained to the job that Kevin would be performing.
Dan took a sip of his now cold coffee. He grimaced and then said, "You might want to call Amanda and let her know."
"Tom, too," Terry said picking up the handset of the phone.
"I'll leave you to your work," Dan said thinking that it was interesting that she had immediately added Tom to the call list.
Dan stepped out of the office and said, "Susan. I'll be leaving for the taxman in a few minutes. Could you get me the folder I prepared?"
She handed it to him and said, "Here it is. Your checklist is on top."
"Excellent," Dan said. He flipped open the folder and read the checklist while flipping through the documents. Satisfied that all was there, he put the folder in his briefcase. He said, "You know what to do."
"Of course, Dan," Susan said, "I've got the number for the temp agency right here. We'll get someone in here today until we can find her a permanent secretary. I've already set up an appointment for her with the landlord."
"Good," Dan said. He pulled out a checklist from his pocket and checked off another item. Grabbing his briefcase, he said, "I'm going now."
When Dan arrived home Tom was relaxing by the pool chatting with Sally. It was late and he was tired. Dan stepped out on the patio and said, "Tom, I didn't expect to see you here."
Tom shrugged his shoulders and said, "Another summer spent making detergents smell better has come to an end. My internship is over. Amanda and I are leaving the day after tomorrow for Atlanta."
"I'm sure that the world of odiferous detergents will miss you, but its loss is Atlanta's gain," Dan said with a smile.
Tom laughed and said, ""I'm sure that Atlanta is waiting with bated breath."
"No doubt," Dan said, "So where are Terry and Amanda?"
"I talked Amanda and Terry into having a date tonight. It will be a month before Terry makes it back to Atlanta, so I thought that she'd enjoy a night out with Amanda," Tom said.
Dan nodded his head and said, "I'm sorry about stealing Terry away from you two like this. I told her that she only needed to be here two weeks of the month."
"Don't worry about it. Terry is so excited about the opportunity you've given her that she doesn't care that she's going to be gone most of the time. The fact is that Amanda and I are going to be very busy with graduate school," Tom said.
Dan took a seat and asked, "Where is Terry going to be living while she's here?"
"Amanda's parents offered her a room," Tom answered. Dan's little speech to Amanda's mother had very far reaching consequences in the Ludwig home. Amanda's mother had cried for three days and then begged Terry to forgive her. Ever since then she doted on Terry like a second daughter. He added, "So did my parents. She's going to alternate between the two places."
"Ah, that's nice," Dan said.
Tom was silent for a few minutes and said, "I really want to thank you for all you've done for Terry. She's a remarkable woman in a lot of ways, but she'd have never gotten the opportunities that you've given her without a lot of luck."
"She earned it," Dan said. In the few days since she had settled into her new job, Terry had been a dynamo. She'd rented more office space and gotten Kevin an office with it fully furnished. She had trained Kevin in his new job responsibilities. She had revised some of the procedures that Dan had been following by placing more of the burden on the managers. She had hired a temporary bookkeeper to take care of the simple accounting needs. Things were running a lot smoother.
"What kept you so late?" Tom asked.
"I had to renew my certification on lifesaving for CERT. I had missed too many training sessions and it had expired," Dan said shrugging his shoulders. Ernie had been in the class with him. It was kind of strange seeing Ernie outside of work.
"It sounds like you were busy," Tom said. He wondered how many other things Dan was trying to balance in his life.
Dan sat back in his chair and said, "Parker's Perfect Pizza has been open for two and a half years. There are times when it feels like a hundred and times when it feels like the first day. Today it feels like I've been doing this for a hundred years."
"You're tired," Tom said.
"Yes and no. I heard a rumor that one of my managers is selling drugs out of one of the stores. I'm meeting with the lawyer tomorrow to determine what we are allowed to do about that," Dan said. He stared at the surface of the pool shaking his head wondering what he was supposed to do. He wasn't going to fire the guy based on a rumor and he wasn't going to let the pizzeria get closed down if the manager was breaking the law. There wasn't a clear cut answer to some things.
Tom shook his head and said, "That sucks. Why would someone do that?"
"I don't know. We fired a kid for stealing two days ago. He had a drug habit," Dan answered. He frowned and said, "I'd send the cops in there just to check out the rumors, but I don't want to destroy someone's career because of a rumor. I don't want my company to get a reputation as a haven for drug dealers. If the manager is selling drugs, we're going to make a big deal out of it. I'm going to tell the world that we have a zero tolerance policy concerning that kind of behavior among our employees. If necessary, I'll institute a policy of random drug tests."
Tom said, "I guess we didn't think about things like that when you started this."
"That's true. God, I sure was young and dumb back then," Dan said shaking his head.
Tom looked at Dan with a grin. He asked, "Now you're old and wise?"
"No. Now I'm older and just as dumb," Dan said with a laugh. Shaking his head, he said, "It is strange, but no matter how much I learn I just keep finding more to learn."
Tom nodded his head in understanding. He asked, "Are you still angry about your education?"
"Yes. I had a long talk with some guy who teaches education in college. He explained to me just how unfounded my complaints were. He was telling me that the goal of the public schools was to spark our interest in learning more. It wasn't to prepare us for life, but to find a direction in life. Oh, he gave me a very nice sounding argument based on pedagogical principles that I'd never heard of. It was absurd. I nearly laughed at him, but I didn't," Dan said.
"What was so absurd?" Tom asked.
Dan answered, "We were taught disconnected facts and little pieces of trivial that might win us a little money on a game show. There weren't any foundations laid. I don't believe that a disconnected fact here or there is going to spark any real interest to pursue a subject further. You get a better foundation in biology watching a one hour program on the discovery channel than you do in a one semester course in high school."
Tom nodded his head and said, "I remember back in fifth grade I was all hot about dinosaurs. I wanted to study fossils. I watched every television show and read every book I could find on the topic. One day my interest in the topic just died. I don't even know why I lost interest in it."
Dan said, "I remember watching a documentary on the Civil War. The picture that documentary painted was so multifaceted that I just couldn't help but be interested. There were times when chills went down my spine. There was something about it that really touched me.
"I remember watching it while thinking about the school lectures concerning the civil war. I remember how Mrs. Sheener explained how white men were bad because they enslaved the blacks. The entire Civil War was about slavery and oppression of the black man rather than a more fundamental division between North and South in which slavery was just the most visible issue. Everything in the classroom was so sharply defined. There was a little about some of the battles that were fought, but they were disconnected and all they really gave were numbers. Of course, we got the message that war is evil.
"In that documentary, they read letters written by the soldiers to their families back home. They wrote about the war and what they wrote about was very different than what we had learned. There wasn't a single letter about fighting so that daddy could continue to beat his slave. No, it was about maintaining the right of people to have state rule, preservation of a society, and other topics. Some of the guys didn't even know why they were fighting; it was because they were there for their community.
"The descriptions of battles brought them to life. You could see that those men had great courage. Surrounded by carnage unimaginable by today's standards, those terrified men stood their positions or charged into overwhelming forces. A lot of what happened was foolish and stupidity was in abundant supply, but there was something magnificent about the common men involved in the battles.
"I didn't get that out of high school, yet in one week of watching a single documentary I learned things about the Civil War that I remember to this day."
Tom said, "I remember that documentary. It was powerful."
"I almost considered being a historian after watching that program. I would have if being a historian hadn't involved so much reading. Nothing I learned in high school motivated me that much. I still watch history programs on television every chance I get," Dan said.
Tom said, "I remember using lemon juice as an invisible ink. I used the juice from a red cabbage to read it. In a way, that was my introduction to chemistry. It was in a book that my mother gave one Christmas. But to tell the truth, that isn't what drove me to be a scientist. It was all of those horrible science fiction movies on late night television.
"There was something about how scientists would save the world from impending doom that appealed to me. You'd see the scientists walking around in their white lab coats discussing the creatures from Planet K. They'd come up with a theory about them and in two hours build some kind of complicated experimental apparatus that destroyed the aliens. The scientists could pick up the telephone and talk to the President. The dialog was bad and the plots were stupid, but I loved those movies. I was intrigued by robots, mystery materials, frightening chemistry experiments, and all of that kind of rot.
"I'll admit that high school physics nearly killed my interest in science. It was all about memorizing this formula and memorizing that formula. I remember having to spout Newton's Three Laws of Motion. It was even on the test. They didn't want to know what the laws meant, just what the words were. I discovered recently that our physics teacher had two courses of college physics. I have no idea what grades he made in those two courses, but I doubt they were A's from the way that he talked about them. He couldn't teach the basic concepts of physics because he didn't understand them.
"Television was the only thing that saved my interest in science. I used to watch the science programs on public television. Those shows were amazing. I'd watch a program about black holes or nuclear power and think — that's real science. There would be guys in white coats showing some experiment just like in those old science fiction movies."
Dan laughed and said, "I remember you practicing your evil scientist laugh."
"That's it, make me feel stupid," Tom said grinning over at his friend.
Dan shook his head and said, "No. That wasn't stupid. I think it was a sign of just how much those movies influenced you. There's nothing wrong with that. You're becoming a scientist because of it."
"I am becoming a scientist because of those movies," Tom said.
Dan winked at Tom and said, "The next thing we know, you're going to save the world from space aliens by throwing scented soaps at them."
Tom burst out laughing. He said, "Now that is a plot for a great science fiction movie. We could call it, 'Soap Wars: Washing the World Free of Space Invaders.'"
"That is a great title," Dan said laughing and slapping his leg.
Tom said, "It used to bother me how important sports were in school. If I had been able to play a sport, I'd have gotten laid at fourteen. Of course, wearing those big framed black glasses didn't help me obtain an early and active sex life either. I was smart and smart is not good in school. You make everyone else look stupid. In college it is exactly the opposite."
Dan nodded his head and said, "Well, it was all a struggle for me. I worked hard to get through school. I had to learn all kinds of mental tricks to keep from looking even dumber. I'll admit that those tricks have helped me in business. I don't do anything without double checking my work. I'm the first to ask for help when I don't know how to do something. I never act without thinking about it first. I really listen to what people say."
"I've noticed that. I learned a lot from watching you," Tom said.
Dan said, "The really weird thing about my education was that no role models really materialized for me. Historical figures were just names, dates, and places on paper. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. Okay. Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet. So what? Nothing I learned inspired me to reach for that kind of greatness because I never grasped their greatness. There wasn't enough material presented to us to convey it.
"Ben Franklin flew a kite in a thunderstorm? Boy, you do that today and they'd lock you up and certify you as stupid. Ben Franklin, isn't he the guy on the hundred dollar bill? A hundred dollars doesn't buy you a pair of fancy sneakers. Ben Franklin was an ambassador to France? Big deal; there've been a bunch of those. Ben Franklin invented a stove? You mean they didn't have stoves before him. I don't believe that. He wrote Poor Richard's Almanac? Isn't that the book that farmers use to guess the weather? He invented bifocals? Old codger was blind as a bat.
"Every accomplishment can be denigrated. The significance of the man gets lost somehow. The brilliance of his scientific mind gets glossed over. His influence on how this country was founded and structured is ignored. His ability as a writer to convey concepts in a simplistic yet elegant manner is never mentioned. Did you know that he basically defined what are considered the goals of teaching writing? His real brilliance was never taught in school.
"Spittney Brears has a photograph of her twat in some tabloid and a dozen girls scream they want to be just like her when they grow up. A big breasted tart dies of a drug overdose and the whole nation goes crazy. It is ignorance rampant on a national scale.
"I've never heard anyone say that they'd like to grow up to be like Benjamin Franklin. It is strange that he's so famous and yet no one holds him up as a role model. I can only blame the sorry state of education for that. We worship celebrity because we don't understand real accomplishment."
Tom said, "You're being too harsh by blaming education for celebrity worship."
For the first time in the entire conversation, Sally joined in, "I think Dan is right. Twenty years ago this country was ranked highest in quality of education. Today it is ranked ninth. Kids can't find our own country on a map of the world. There is something seriously wrong here.
"Educators are promoting self-esteem at the sake of real accomplishment. Don't grade papers using a red pen because that is such an aggressive color. Use purple instead of red. Everyone who runs the race is declared a winner and gets a ribbon. The real winner is left standing there looking like an idiot for having worked hard rather than being singled out for their achievement. It dilutes everything."
"You might be right," Tom said.
Dan said, "I was told that our public education isn't intended to provide us with the basic information to live and function within our society. I'll agree that our public education doesn't provide us with that knowledge. I won't agree that it shouldn't provide us with that knowledge.
"When Granny Parker had her heart attack, Kevin and I were the only ones who knew CPR. The kids there love that woman and they were reduced to watching her die. The fact that so many of them are ignorant of how to save someone's life is criminal. They could skip one hour of running laps around a stupid football field and use that hour to teach these kids how to save someone.
"What kind of society thinks it is reasonable to raise a generation that is unable to function within that society? We graduate ignorant of the basic concepts on which our country and the economy are based. They were too busy revealing our founding fathers as hypocrites. Maybe they were flawed. So what? They envisioned a world greater than themselves and worked to establish it."
Dan paused for a moment and then said, "I find it incredible that we never had to read the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. Criminal law? Forget it. Some people think that the Magna Carta is some kind of rock thrown out of a volcano. Apparently, there's no reason to concern ourselves with English Common Law since we don't live in England. The only law they covered was labor law and civil rights. Of course, civil rights are taught in a very biased manner."
Tom wondered what television programs Dan had been watching recently. He seemed to have spent a lot of time with history. He nodded his head and said, "I was supposed to write a paper on how the demands of unions positively influenced labor laws. The teacher was not amused by some of the things I wrote in it. She was rather irritated when I said that a popular demand of the labor movement was high pay for no work. However, she accepted that I portrayed big business with the appropriate level of greediness and disdain for human dignity when I said that a popular goal of big business was free labor for hard work."
"I remember that," Dan said. He looked over at Sally and explained, "She was the union representative for the teachers union at our school and they were negotiating a new contract at the time."
"Oh," Sally said.
"She wanted one of the school's smart kids to write a pro-union paper so that she could show it off during negotiations," Tom said rolling his eyes.
"She was quite disappointed," Dan said with a laugh.
Raising an eyebrow, Sally asked, "So which side were you on? Labor or Management?"
"Neither. It isn't a black or white issue. There was a lot of wrong on each side. There are lots of things wrong with our labor laws even to this day. To write a paper praising only one side is stupid. That's what she wanted me to do. I didn't appreciate being used," Tom answered.
Dan shook his head and said, "Parents, teachers, administrators, and politicians are using the kids for political gain. They are forcing politics on the kids all in the name of educating them when in fact it is to promote a social agenda. Here's the horrible thing — it isn't one side or the other doing it. Let's sue the school because the kid says the pledge of allegiance and it has the word God in it. Let's expel the kid because he has an anti-war political cartoon on his tee-shirt. Let's sue the school because the football coach stands respectfully to the side while the team has a short prayer and that his respectful action is seen as promoting religion. Let's expel the nine year old boy because his feeble attempt to kiss a little girl was viewed as sexual harassment. While all this is going on, the kids are falling behind in math, reading, and writing."
Sally looked at Tom and said, "I'd say that he's still a little irritated at the education system."
"I'd say you're right. That man definitely needs a root beer," Tom said with a nod of his head. He wondered how long Dan would be haunted by the painful years spent in public school. He couldn't blame Dan for being bitter. Dan had suffered horrible emotional abuse at the hands of his classmates and the school had done nothing.
"I'm going to run for a seat on the School Board one of these days," Dan said. It would take a little planning, but he was pretty sure that he could accomplish it.
Lazlo Zalezac