“Good morning Margo,” Steve said with a smile and a wave, as he hurried into an awaiting elevator. Steve was happy he was able to avoid a lengthy conversation. He was not always so lucky.
The stainless steel doors closed as Steve pressed the button for the fifth floor. He turned around to look out the glass back wall of the elevator out of habit. The elevator let out a whine and began its ascent up the side of the building.
The glass surround of the elevator offered an impressive view of Tampa Bay and the Port of Tampa. Steve stared out and surveyed the area. He spotted a large Carnival Cruise ship heading up the Harbourside channel toward the dock near the Florida Aquarium.
The building was originally designed with a conventional elevator on the opposite side of the building. Steve came up with the idea of moving the elevators to the bay side of the building and using the glass walls in the construction. The costs for the redesign increased the construction costs by almost a quarter of a million dollars, but Steve thought it was well worth it.
The scenic ride was over quickly. Steve stepped out of the elevator with purpose. He headed off to the boardroom to check out the meeting Joe had told him about. Suddenly, another thought popped into his head. The new thought became his top priority.
“The missing contract,” he muttered aloud. “I have to find that missing contract.”
The boardroom meeting would have to wait for now. Steve decided to bypass the meeting and go directly to his office. The missing contract had been annoying him for almost a week now. The contract deadlines were fast approaching. He had to find the contract now.
As Steve turned the corner toward his office, he noticed the drapes were drawn on the boardroom window. The peculiar site of the closed drapes grabbed his attention. His mind shifted gears. Higher priority was now given to the meeting that was hidden behind the closed drapes.
For all of the meetings that Steve held in the boardroom, he never once closed the drapes. Everything was open at Peterson Software. That was the way Steve liked it. There were no secrets between the senior staff and their employees. Everyone knew where he or she stood. Steve was up front about all corporate decisions.
Why would they have closed the drapes? Steve wondered. Even if they were working on ideas for new products the curtains should remain open. This was highly suspicious.
The closed drapes, which were intended to hide the treasonous actions behind them, also hid Steve Peterson as he approached. Behind the closed off wall, Tim was busy reviewing the details of the IPO proposal document with the rest of the group. He had no idea Steve was closing in on them.
Tim was startled by the loud click of the boardroom door latch. He jumped up from his seat as he heard the door opening. Without thinking, he angrily blurted out the first words that popped into his mind.
“Who is that?” Tim growled. “I gave instructions that this was to be a closed meeting.”
“It’s just me Tim, your boss,” said Steve as he poked his head into the boardroom. “That was quite a welcome you had for me Tim.”
The faces around the table became as still as stone. Tim casually reached down and slowly closed the IPO proposal report that was laid out in front of him. He closed it from the right to the left. The proposal ended up with the cover facing the table.
Tim scanned the room for some support. The blank faces indicated that the group had abandoned him. He was going to be on his own for this one. The time to sink or swim had come and Tim would have to do it all by himself.
“Sorry about that Steve, we did not expect you in the office this morning,” Tim said. He paused for a moment as he searched through his mind for a way out of the sticky situation.
“We notified everyone that we were not to be disturbed in here. You startled me when you opened the door. I am sorry for the outburst. I just reacted without thinking.”
Tim tried to change the direction of the conversation. He needed to know why Steve was there. He wondered if Steve somehow found out about his plan.
“Steve, weren’t you taking a vacation day today?” asked Tim.
Steve ignored Tim’s question. He was still reviewing Tim’s fabricated explanation of the outburst in his head. Steve was well aware of Tim’s almost daily verbal flare-ups. He tolerated his caustic personality because of his many contributions to Peterson Software.
Tim was the company’s best product developer at Peterson Software. He was solely responsible for two of the largest revenue producers for the company. Tim did his job well enough for the outbursts to be overlooked.
Steve took a step forward. He was now completely inside the boardroom. “I understand your reasoning for the outburst, but we don’t need to speak to any employee like that Tim. By the way, what’s with the closed drapes?” asked Steve, as he pointed to the closed off wall of windows.
“Oh, the drapes,” said Tim coolly. “We were starting to get a little loud in here with our discussions. We didn’t want to disturb anyone. We closed the drapes so we would be less disruptive to the employees on the rest of the floor.”
Tim was good. He was always a quick thinker on his feet. The explanation for the drapes came quickly, almost without a thought. But Tim was coming up empty for what he knew would be one of the next questions from Steve.
Why are we here? Why the hell are we all meeting in here? Tim kept repeating the questions to himself. His mind churned over and over as he tried to develop a suitable answer. He needed a response for Steve and he knew he would need it quick. His mind raced on but he was coming up with nothing.
“So Tim, why are you guys having this meeting anyway?” Steve asked as if reading Tim’s mind. “Do you guys have some top secret ideas for a new product or are you planning a corporate takeover?” Steve inquired with a slight smile.
Without knowing it, Steve handed Tim his explanation. He gave him the lie he needed, the lie he was unable to think up on his own. Tim grabbed at Steve’s question and ran with the thought.
“Yes Steve, in our new roles with the company we knew you would be expecting a lot more from us. You would be expecting more leadership and new ideas for innovative software products. We called the meeting to review some ideas we had for new products. The ideas are still in the early planning stages. We wanted to get through them when you were out of the office so we could get the details documented before we presented a report. It was to be a surprise, a kind of a thank you.”
Steve bobbed his head up and down. He was pleased at the response. He was pleased with his decision to promote Tim and the others and make them partners.
“That’s what I thought,” said Steve. “I knew you would all be excited about your new roles. I knew you would all be trying your best.”
The explanation of the meeting was given and Steve was fully satisfied with it. He was even a little excited by it. Steve decided it was time to answer Tim’s earlier question.
“Just so you all know, I was going to take a vacation day today, but decided to come in for a half-day. I need to catch up on a few things. I am also missing a contract dealing with the city of Clearwater that I wanted to look for. Did anyone happen to see it?” Steve asked, as he glanced around the room looking for an answer.
Tim jumped in before anyone else could answer. “I haven’t seen it,” he blurted out. “Has anyone in here seen this contract?” asked Tim. As Tim asked the question, his head was already shaking ‘no’ to the group.
The group stared away from Steve. No one could look him in the eye. They all shook their heads as if mimicking Tim. No one spoke.
Steve’s arrival in the boardroom was causing Kevin to panic. He tried to hide his nervousness by looking busy. He grabbed his coffee cup and drank in the last sip from his early morning coffee. The liquid was now cold and bitter. It surprised Kevin as it clashed with his tongue. He wanted to get the unpleasant liquid out of his mouth as quickly as possible.
Kevin swallowed in haste. Some of the coffee was sent down the wrong pipe and he began to cough loudly.
Several drips of coffee seeped out from the corners of his mouth and ran down his chin as he choked.
Tim leered across the table at Kevin’s display. What a goddamn jackass, he thought. He is going to give us all away with his stupidity.
“Are you okay Kevin?” asked Steve.
Kevin nodded. He wiped his mouth with a used napkin leaving several large doughnut crumbs resting on his upper lip. Tim was seething at his inept performance.
Steve felt as if he still owed the group more of an explanation of his abandoned vacation day. He didn’t want them to get the wrong idea.
“Well, like I said, I have a few things I need to take care of and then I was going to get out of here.”
Tim quickly spoke up. “If you need anything Steve, let us know. Maybe we can help and you can get done with whatever you need to do. I am sure you want to get back to your day off as quickly as possible.”
“No Tim you misunderstood,” said Steve. “I said I was going to get out of here. Now that I know you guys are into product development I really want to join your meeting. You know that product development has always been the most exciting part of the job for me. I am going to take care of my tasks and then I would like to join your meeting. I want to hear more about the product ideas you guys are kicking around.”
Tim’s body froze. His face grew pale. Steve continued with his explanation.
“I know you want to have more details for me before I see what you have. But now that I know what you are up to, I might as well get involved. How about I join you right after lunch?”
The room was silent. No one spoke. No one moved.
“After lunch sound good with everyone?” Steve asked again as he looked around the table.
Tim knew he could not say no. He was back to square one.
“Yeah, that sounds good Steve,” said Tim. “Right after lunch would be fine. We would love to have your input.”
“Great,” said Steve as he turned back to the door. Steve took a half step and then paused. He pointed toward the closed drapes.
“Hey Tim, go ahead and open those drapes up. I don’t think you will bother the rest of the floor. We don’t want the rest of the employees thinking the senior staff is keeping any secrets from them.”
“Yeah, I’ll get them,” replied Tim.
Steve closed the door behind him and headed off to his office.
Inside the boardroom Taz let out a loud sigh. “Shit. I knew this whole thing was a bad idea.”
Tim looked up and started to address the group. “The situation is not that bad. Now is not the time to panic. We just need to get Steve out of the office. We need to get him out of the building for the rest of today. It won’t be difficult if we put our minds to it. I have manipulated him before.”
“How we going to do that?” asked Kevin. His words sounded almost frantic. “You heard him. Now he wants to join the meeting after lunch. We don’t have any new product ideas to show him. He’ll find out what we are up to. We’ll all be fired. What are we going to do now?”
“We’ll just make something up,” Tim said calmly. “We need to come up with some story that is believable, something that would be sure to get him out of the office. We need a hot topic for him right now.”
Tim rubbed his chin. The wheels of his mind started to turn. “We know he is worried about that goddamn homeless shelter contract,” said Tim, as he began to think aloud. “We can tell him someone called earlier this morning from the Clearwater Planning Board. I think that’s who he deals with over there.”
Tim paused for a few seconds in case anyone wanted to challenge his idea. No one in the room spoke so Tim continued molding his idea.
“We can tell him that someone from the planning board called. They said they were going to be at the shelter around noon and he should be there… No, No. We tell him he has to be there. That will be important. We tell him we didn’t think much of it because he was supposed to be out on vacation. We just remembered it. He jarred our memory when he entered the meeting. The story can be vague, the less detail the better. You always get nailed on the detail.”
“This is all getting way too weird for me,” said Paul. “I am not so sure this plan is the right thing anymore. Maybe we should just drop the whole thing. I think I am done here. I can’t support this.”
Tim shot right back. “That is enough of that kind of talk Paul. We are not about to turn back now. This is a minor little setback. Keep in mind the money we talked about earlier. This will all be worth it. It’s going to be well worth it for all of us.”
“Well who is going to tell Steve?” asked Kevin in a most dreadful tone.
Tim glared over at Kevin. “Well it certainly can’t be you. You’d end up spitting coffee up on him. Steve will see right through the story if you tell him.”
Tim thought for a moment. “Me,” he blurted out. “It has to be me to tell him. It’s my idea so I’ll do it,” Tim said.
Tim thought a little more and had another idea. “No, wait… Better yet. I’ll give the message to his secretary. I’ll tell her that we’re busy with the meeting and she can tell him. That way we are a little bit removed from the situation.”
Chapter 10 - A Friend
Friday came quickly. The last half-day of school ended, it was now summer break. Steve Peterson raced from the school. He ran as fast as he could to get home. It was the first sign of excitement he showed in many years. The face that had been expressionless for so long now displayed some excitement.
Steve hoped he would get to meet his new neighbor. Maybe, just maybe, he would have a friend. Steve ran until his lungs were burning. He had to slow his pace in order to catch his breath.
Steve turned the last corner toward his home. He could see a large moving van parked in the road ahead. Steve thought the neighbors were moving in even more stuff until he realized the truck was in front of his house. Steve again started to run to the house.
Two burly men were busy moving items onto the back of the truck. As Steve got closer he was able to see that they were loading his bedroom set into the truck. Steve scrunched up his brow at the confusing sight. He wondered why they would be loading up his bedroom set into the truck.
Jack yelled out the front door, interrupting Steve’s thought. “Hey guys, I moved the old couch up closer to the door,” Jack called out. “It’s just the couch and one more table and then you are done here.”
Jack saw Steve standing near the back of the truck. “Hey Steve, I bought us some new stuff,” Jack yelled out to Steve. “Get in here and take a look.”
The last of the bedroom set disappeared into the truck as Steve entered the house. The old, threadbare couch was sitting upright, next to the door. Steve sidestepped around the obstacle and stared at the new living room.
The place looked great. Steve was amazed. There was a new sofa in the place of the ratty old one. The brown print on the cushions even matched the color of the wall-to-wall carpeting. Across from the couch stood a new TV stand and a brand new 19-inch color TV.
Steve looked over the new additions. “Wow,” he muttered.
“Go take a look in your bedroom,” said Jack. “There are some changes in there too.”
Steve walked down the short hall to his bedroom. Inside was his old bedroom set. It was the same set Jack had taken from Steve when he first moved into the trailer.
“I bought myself a new bedroom set so you can have my old one,” said Jack. “This one is in better condition. It is bigger than the old set that you were using. You’re lucky to be getting this.”
Steve looked around the room. He did not recognize the bedroom furniture as the set that he slept in as a child. All he noticed was the room suddenly seemed smaller and cramped. Steve remained silent.
“So what do you think?” asked Jack.
Steve turned to Jack and nodded. “Good,” he mumbled quietly.
“You should like sleeping in the big bed a lot better than the old small one you had. You’re getting bigger now, y
ou need more room.
Steve looked at Jack and nodded. “Bigger,” he muttered.
“And did you see that new TV in the living room?” Jack asked. “It’ll be a big improvement over the old set. That old one never worked anyway. I even called and ordered us some cable TV. It should be installed early next week. But remember Steve, that’s my TV. You are not to touch it without me here.”
Steve nodded at Jack’s request. “Yes,” he responded. Steve glanced around the room and then back to Jack. He slowly started to speak.
“Do you have enough money for all of this?” Steve asked.
“Sure, I got plenty of money. You don’t need to worry yourself about it,” replied Jack. “You are lucky your old Uncle has enough money to support both of us. Otherwise, you would be out in the cold.”
Jack never told Steve or anyone for that matter about the money he got from the trust fund. If anyone asked where he got his money, he would explain it was from some good investments he had made. “That was back when I had to work for a living,” he would say. Jack was telling the story for so long that even he was starting to believe it.
Steve dropped all of his school supplies onto his new bed. He picked out the two library books. “Going out back,” announced Steve softly as he passed by Jack.
“OK,” said Jack. “Hey, I loaded up the freezer with those TV dinners. You know, them big sized ones, with that steak patty and the cherry pie thing I really like. You can make one for your dinner. Soon as these movers get the rest of this old stuff loaded, I’m going to be heading out to do some fishing with the boys. I may bring them back tonight to see the new TV so no sleeping on the couch. You sleep in your room tonight.”
Steve did not respond. He opened the back door and ran as fast as he could to the old oak tree. Steve quickly climbed the tree to his favorite spot. He propped the two books in between two branches and began to survey the yard next door for any sign of activity. He noticed the new kid was sitting on one of the swings. He and the swing both appeared to be stationary. Steve could not see his mother anywhere.