| Subject: GBMO...part three |
Author:
Fairyt
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Date Posted: Thursday, October 28, 11:08:13am
In reply to:
Fairyt
's message, "News about GMBO..." on Thursday, October 21, 10:34:47am
GROOM BY MAIL ORDER
PART THREE
Michael put together some of his personal belongings and wrapped up all loose ends of whatever was left from the terrible encounter. It was Walter who told him that Paul and Renee would be working together with Perry Bauer. And Walter thought that when things got too rough on him as well, he would leave also.
When Michael got home he took the mail out of the mailbox, went inside and called for Adrian, but she was not there. He went through the mail, selected all addressed to him and went upstairs to his room. He closed the door behind him and sat on the bed, going through the mail once again. He knew all of the senders the mail originated from but one. It was the letter he got from Walter. He took that one in his hand, turned it over several times and then opened the letter. While reading, he heard his grandmother entering the house.
She calls out for him; he finishes the letter and joins her in the kitchen. When he enters, she is busy making some tea and setting the table, while she asks him:
“You’ve tied up all loose ends finally?”
“Yes”
“And how do you feel?”
“Fine.”
“You know what you’re going to do next?”
“Maybe.”
She turns to look at him questioningly, and Michael asks:
“Do you know a man called Phillip Jones?”
Adrian cocks her head and frowns.
“I might, why?”
“He wants to talk to me. How do you know him?”
“I thought I was in love with him once. He started a business and I thought he would propose to me after he’d settled. But my parents thought different about things, so before I knew, I was married to your grandfather and left the country. We never saw or heard from each other again. So what does he want?”
“I’ll have to find out yet” Michael said.
That wasn’t exactly the truth, but he decided to be careful with saying to much. First he needed to find out what kind of person this man was, what he really wanted. What kind of girl his daughter was, and did she agree with her father’s intentions? Where they in trouble or something?
“Of course,” Adrian said, “When you speak to him, give him my regards, will you please?”
“Sure.” He drank the tea and went back to his business.
Michael and Adrian decided to go to France for a short vacation. There after Michael left to England to meet Phillip Jones. Adrian and Phillip had reacquainted with each other by phone. But both the men decided not to tell her the real plans yet, because Michael wanted to know more before agreeing to Phillip’s arrangements with his daughter and to get to know the girl first. It surely wouldn’t hurt to be careful. He’d already had lost too much with being too trustful towards strangers. All Adrian knew was that Michael was offered a job.
When arriving at Phillip’s estate, Michael and Phillip had a long talk together. After that the decision was made that Michael would stay in house. It made it easier for Phillip to work with Michael, for Michael to get to know Nikita, and vice versa, and for Michael to keep an eye on Phillip.
Except for the doctors and Phillip’s lawyer, no one else knew about his illness. It had been a heavy burden on his shoulders for years, and now with Michael knowing, he at least could talk about his problems. Phillip also had sensed that Michael wouldn’t have come only to marry his daughter and inherit half of the company. But to help a man, who was dying, would be a good reason for the young man to consider. And Phillip was right. Michael had wanted to know everything about Phillip’s illness and asked only one thing about the girl: “Does she know?”
No! Of course she does not know.
Nikita knew her father expected her to come home soon. She’d pass all the exams, contrary to expectations, and graduated. But before traveling back home, she wanted to go on a trip with some of her friends. She persuaded her father to buy her tickets, even arranged for one of the teachers, Miss Belinda, to chaperone them. They went to Italy for the next two months.
Michael didn’t mind. By the time the girl got home, he hoped to be used to the idea by than. For now he had plenty of work to do. He wasn’t used to do administration all day long, even though he had the knowledge.
The intention was that Phillip would announce his coming retirement, and Michael would apply for the position of sub-manager, as very ‘distant relative’ of Phillip. But Phillip would allow another candidate, one of his employees, to apply as well. And this man was Jurgen Pruisen.
Jurgen Pruisen, blond hair, blue eyes, wearing spectacles, had a bit of hoarseness in his voice, was an employee for more than fifteen years now. He started out as head of one department, dedicated and very ambitious. Always helping out if there was a deadline to meet, working late when necessary, and sometimes he would help out in the factory where the producing of the utensils was going on. For some period Phillip had considered Jurgen to be his successor. But through the years Jurgen’s priorities changed. Gradually he stopped working over, even when necessary, gave up feeling responsible for doing his best for the company. When did this change in him occur?
Years ago, when things started to fall apart around Phillip, and he’d lost focus, Jurgen decided to put things straight. He refused to let his job dictate his life, or sacrifice more than he was willing. Phillip had been counting on him a lot and even rewarded him well for that. But Jurgen had come to know Roberta by then. Had learned that she was Phillip’s wife and started a relationship with her. Her allowance wasn’t cut off yet. So, Jurgen had developed a lifestyle way above his expenses.
They went to parties and used drugs. In Jurgen’s case, the addiction was not noticeable, but he used regularly.
Jurgen was trying to manipulate Roberta to divorce Phillip and having him arrange a settlement for her, so Jurgen could marry her afterwards and maintain his expensive way of living.
But nothing went as he wanted. Phillip never divorced Roberta and kept control of her expenses in own hands and now she had even less money to spend. So, Jurgen was back to where he’d started and he had to struggle to regain trust in his abilities.
Phillip never found out about his manager and his wife. The friends of his wife never interested him. ‘They were all the same’ he thought. ‘Good for nothing, so why border.’ He had enough problems himself. The doctors had put him on a diet and he gravely held on to it.
There was too much he had to finish yet.
The one person he thought of most was his daughter. He hoped she would try to understand his reasons, but if not, to forgive him his manipulations.
In comparison to Jurgen, Michael was at a disadvantage. As new employee he had to learn fast to keep up with the competition. So, to get accustomed and experienced in short time, he spends most of his time at work. In the morning doing paperwork and during the afternoons he kept himself busy in the production department. He learned about the machinery, the people and their ideas about the work, the production routine and the problems that occurred. He walked through the building to check out any fall into decay and other things like the layout and organization, making notes of every finding and thoughts of improvements to be made. There was much work to be done, but as he’d found out already, money would become a problem in the long run.
Back home, many companies like this had made revolutionary changes in no time, to make sure to keep up with time and competition. But here in Europe, things were going a little slower, since people were somewhat suspicious of every new and fast invention from across the ocean.
It would take some real good arguments to get some co-operation from Phillip and Jurgen.
To whom should he talk first? Phillip should be more approachable, because Jurgen had showed no sign of benevolence towards Michael. He gave Michael a feel of unease and Michael was wondering what he was really after.
Jurgen thought he had reason to be angry. Here was this Michael Samuelle, appeared suddenly out of nowhere, being big pals with Phillip Jones, thinking that he could become the big guy around here. Not in a million years Jurgen will allow this green eyed moron with his phony accent to get what was his in the first place. It was a pity that he’d been focused on Roberta. Of course he’d been stupid to wait that long since the woman didn’t have what it took to go against Phillip. But maybe he could rectify that mistake before it’s too late.
********
At home in Phillip’s house, Michael and his host were having dinner.
Phillip :“My daughter finally decided to come home.”
Michael: “What did you do to accomplish that?”
Phillip :“I have refused to send more money. She’s stayed away longer than intended, but I’m not going to tolerate her foolish behavior any longer.”
Michael: “When is she due to arrive here?”
Phillip :“She should be here in two days, if she doesn’t get any other ideas to pester me again.”
He heaved a sigh. Having his daughter home will be the least to worry about. It’s what’s to become of her when he was gone. He sure doesn’t want her to end up like her mother. That would kill her for sure. Phillip wasn’t very proud of his past and would have done many things differently if given a second chance. But as things were, the best he could do now is to arrange a marriage with Michael, or a settlement of some sort.
Michael decided to turn to another subject with the conversation and started about some of his misgivings of the company reports from the past six years. He asked Phillip if he had had problems with delivery in the past. And it occurred he had. Several times truck loads had disappeared without a trace. Even the drivers never came back. And since Phillip couldn’t provide any evidence of innocence, the insurance refused to pay for the losses.
Phillip had his suspicions but had no evidence to work with. So he had to make arrangements to transport his products by train. It had been a hard time for all of his employees. In his efforts to keep his clients he had to work day and night, arranging for the men to work in shifts and keep the machinery running day and night seven days a week. They’d managed to keep almost ninety five percent of the clients. But only because they wanted the quality products they knew Phillip produced. The other percentage seemed to have had better offers from another company that same period of time.
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