Thunder and Lightening
Chapter 45
By
Lazlo Zalezac
Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2004

Jerry stepped out of the lobby of the hotel and looked at the 
building across the street. He had a meeting with the executives of 
the company in twenty minutes. It would take five minutes at most 
to cross the street and go up to the third floor. Sighing, he decided 
that it wouldn't hurt to be fifteen minutes early. He went to the 
crosswalk and waited for the light to change. 

While waiting, he fidgeted with his new suit. Jenny had insisted 
buying it for him. Upon selling the house, she had money to spend 
on him but no idea what to get for him. Right after closing on the 
house, she had taken him shopping. After hours at the mall, she 
gave up and settled for getting him a new suit. He had resisted, but 
she had argued that he was going to be talking to the executives of 
his company. She was proud of the way he looked and wanted him 
to impress them. 

The light had just changed when he heard the unmistakable flap-
flap sound of a flat tire. He started across the street while watching 
an elderly woman turn into the drive of the office building. Her car 
was the one from which the sound originated. Reaching the other 
side of the street, he could see the passenger side rear tire was flat 
as a pancake. 

As he approached the car, the woman stepped out and asked, 
"Could you help me young man?"

Jerry froze as his mind raced through his options. He glanced at his 
watch and saw that he still had fifteen minutes. He knew could 
change the tire without being late to his meeting, but he was 
wearing the new suit. The odds were good that he'd get it dirty. 

The elderly woman repeated, "Could you help me young man?"

Knowing that Jenny would understand if he got his suit dirty 
helping out a little old lady, Jerry came to a decision and answered, 
"Yes, ma'am. Could you pop the trunk so I can get your spare 
tire?"

"Thank you," replied the woman as she walked over to the trunk. It 
took her almost a full minute to get her key in the keyhole and the 
trunk open. While she had fiddled with the key, Jerry removed his 
suit coat and laid it on the grass where it would stand a reasonable 
chance of remaining clean. 

Going over to the trunk, Jerry removed the spare tire, the jack, and 
the lug wrench. The older car used one of the classic bumper jacks. 
Jerry set the jack down and fitted the lip under the bumper. 
Looking up, he asked, "Could you set the parking brake, ma'am?"

"Oh, of course," exclaimed the woman. Flustered, she headed to 
the door of the car.

Jerry worked the jack until it was tight against the bumper. Rather 
than lifting the car, he went around to the flat tire and removed the 
hubcap. It was filthy and his hands turned black. Shaking his head, 
he loosened the lug nuts using his strength to power the lug wrench 
to break their tight hold. Once all were loosened, he used the jack 
to raise the back end of the car. 

Ten minutes later, he lifted the flat tire into the trunk and closed 
the door. His hands were filthy and his new shirt had a smear of 
dirt on it. Frowning, he looked down at his shirt and thought to 
himself that Jenny would kill him if she saw him in that state. She 
took such pride in his appearance. Looking over at the elderly 
woman, he said, "It's fixed. You can go on now."

"Let me pay you something, young man," replied the woman.

"No, that's okay," said Jerry holding up his hands in an obvious 
gesture of refusal.

"Come now. All young men tend to be short of money. Lord 
knows that was true when I was young," replied the woman.

"No ma'am. I don't need your money," said Jerry as he bent down 
and carefully wiped his hands on the grass in the miniscule hope of 
removing some of the dirt. It didn't help much. He picked up his 
suit coat by holding the label between his thumb and forefinger. 
Checking his watch, he saw that he still had two minutes to make 
his meeting. He knew that he'd be late by the time he washed his 
hands and made it up to the office. 

The woman approached holding out a five-dollar bill in a hand that 
trembled from age. Jerry shook his head and said, "Ma'am. Give it 
to your grandkids."

"You're such a nice boy," said the old woman as she nodded and 
put up her money.

Jerry smiled at being called a boy and imagined the reaction Henry 
would have when he told him the story. He headed towards the 
door of the office building with a grin on his face. He glanced at 
his watch and swore. The short exchange with the woman had 
eaten up more of his time and he was now late. After washing his 
hands and putting on his suit coat, Jerry headed towards the office.

Jerry stepped into the office and found a receptionist behind a 
simple desk. An older gentleman, who Jerry estimated was in his 
early sixties, was seated in one of the chairs in the waiting area. 
Putting on a weak smile, Jerry said, "I'm Jerry Smith. I have an 
appointment with …"

Interrupting him, the old man exploded, "You're late."

Jerry turned to face the man and noticed that he bore a strong 
resemblance to the picture of the CEO of the company. He 
stuttered and answered, "Yes, sir."

"You're clothes are dirty."

"I know."

"What's your excuse?" asked the man watching Jerry. His eyes 
narrowed as though he were judging the big man.

Jerry didn't want to use changing the tire as an excuse, since it 
wasn't really an excuse. He had stopped to help the old lady 
knowing that it was likely going to make him late and mess up his 
clothes. If the CEO was the type who wanted him to take care of 
business first and people second, then Jerry didn't think he'd care. 
Looking back at the man, Jerry answered, "Excuses don't change 
things. I was late and my clothes are dirty. I apologize for making 
you wait."

The old man looked at Jerry finding it hard to get over how big 
Jerry was. He shook his head incredulous at the answer given by 
the large man. Breaking into a smile, he said, "I owe Al three 
lunches this week because of you."

"Pardon."

"We noticed you crossing the street and saw the woman with the 
flat tire. I bet Al that you wouldn't stop to help the old woman. He 
won that bet. Then I bet that you'd take the money rather than 
argue her out of it. He won that bet. Then I bet you'd use it as an 
excuse for being late. He won that bet," explained the old man 
shaking his head at the idea that such men still existed in this 
world. Years ago he had given up hope on the younger 
generations. It seemed to him that they were all self-involved. 
Extending a hand, he said, "I'm Mike Harrington. I'm pleased to 
meet you Jerry Smith."

Jerry shook the man's hand and replied, "It's nice to meet you and 
I'm sorry for being late."

"Come onto the conference room. The rest of the executive team is 
waiting to meet you," said Mike.

The elderly man led the way through a pair of polished wooden 
double doors. As he headed towards the double doors, Jerry 
noticed an interior waterfall hanging on the wall of the lobby. He 
smiled as he remembered working on that one. They had created it 
a couple of months before he had gotten married. Amazed at the 
co-incidence of finding his own work in the lobby, he followed 
Mike down a hallway to a conference room. Entering the room, 
Jerry looked at everyone and saw how they were seated on one 
side of the conference table. Al winked at him while Mike pointed 
to a chair and said, "Have a seat."

Jerry pulled out his chair and waited to sit down until after Mike 
went to the end of the table and took his place at the head of the 
table. Al broke the silence and asked, "So how many lunches do 
you owe me?"

"Three," replied the old man with a smile. 

"Good."

Jerry sat down and faced everyone across a table feeling a little 
intimidated by the arrangement. He recognized everyone from 
pictures that had appeared in the company newsletter that he 
received every month. For the next few minutes, they went through 
the process of introducing themselves. At the end of the table was 
Mike Huntington, CEO of the company. To his right sat Mike 
Huntington Junior, the CFO of the company. His role was an 
artifact of the history of the company as a family owned enterprise. 
Seated next to him was Catherine Demmings, the Vice-President 
of Personnel. Albert Sinclair was to her right in his role as Vice-
President of Sales. Seated next to Albert was the corporate lawyer, 
Jacob Meyers. 

Mike asked, "Where's your lawyer?"

"I didn't bring one," answered Jerry noticing the look of surprise 
that crossed everyone's faces. He smiled to cover his nervousness.

"Al did tell you to bring one, didn't he?" asked Mike concerned.

"Yes, he did. I figured I didn't need one, sir," replied Jerry. He 
suppressed the urge to shrug.

A look of concern crossed Jacob's face as he said, "I doubt that you 
can handle the legal aspects of the contract. I'd suggest you get 
one."

"I don't need one," replied Jerry. He turned to face Mike at the 
head of the table. Biting his lower lip, he struggled to put his 
thoughts in order. He said, "I came here because I want to do what 
is right for the company and me. You're trying to get the wrong 
man to do the job. I'm not a CIO, sir."

"You're turning us down?" asked Mike incredulous.

"Well, in a way," said Jerry. 

Al frowned and leaned forward. He asked, "What do you mean?"

"Look. I hired Karen and she put together the system for us. I don't 
know how to put this, but I don't know anything about computers 
or modernization. I'd suggest hiring her, but she's not ready for 
such a position," said Jerry.

Mike sat back in his seat and stared off into space for several 
minutes. Everyone else around the table waited to hear what he had 
to say. Finally, he leaned forward and said, "You could have called 
us on the phone and told us that. I believe that you came here 
because you have an idea. What do you have in mind?"

"Give the job to Al and his district to me. Bring Karen here to 
work for him and transfer Mike to one of the local stores," 
answered Jerry, the words tumbled over themselves on their way 
out of his mouth. 

"Why Al?" asked Mike Junior.

"He knows what is required to do the job. Al watched over the 
whole process of exporting the system to the other companies," 
answered Jerry wondering if he had stumbled into some sort of 
corporate politics. The fact was that Jerry had been too busy as a 
new husband to follow what Mike and Karen had been doing in 
rolling out the computer systems to the other stores. All he had 
done was cover their absences in the store. 

Al raised an eyebrow at Jerry at the idea of giving up his district. 
He used that district to test sales ideas for the rest of the company. 
Being the district manager put him closer to the action and he 
wasn't sure that he wanted to give it up. He declared, "You want 
my district."

"Yes, sir," answered Jerry. He knew that district managers in this 
company stayed at their stores. It was the only promotion he could 
find that wouldn't require him to move. The money wouldn't be as 
great as becoming an executive, but he had decided the money 
wasn't as important as losing the life he had created. 

Catherine Demmings replied, "It's a fair proposal although your 
district is the smallest one in the company. What is it, one and a 
half states?"

"Yeah," replied Al wondering if he had just lost his district.

Mike Harrington looked at Al for a moment and then asked, "What 
do you know of these people he wants us to promote?"

"I've been having Karen do the installations and Mike training the 
other managers on how to use them. They are both good hard 
workers," answered Al.

"What position does Mike have?"

"He's my assistant manager," answered Jerry.

"You've had an assistant manager training managers on how to run 
their stores?" asked Mike looking at Al with a raised eyebrow.

"He's familiar with the software, understands the business, and I 
felt it was better that he and his wife travel together," replied Al 
wondering suddenly why he was trying to justify a business 
decision that had been successful.

"Now, don’t get upset. I was just wondering how an assistant 
manager knows enough to explain the business value of the 
program," said Mike.

Jerry leaned forward and in his deep rolling voice said, "All of my 
people are trained to take over the positions of the person above 
them. Mike can take over the store at a moment's notice. I've been 
taking him on sales calls and include him in all of my meetings 
with vendors."

"What about the rest of your staff?" asked Mike.

"Martin and Carlos can take over as Assistant Managers, even 
though they are two-thirds time employees. Sue has just about 
finished learning inventory control. Abe could move into sales full 
time as soon as he graduates high school. Leo has mastered his job 
and I'm thinking about training him to do a little part time sales," 
answered Jerry. 

"Let me understand this, you could leave the store today and there 
wouldn't be any problems with continuity. Your assistant manager 
would take over your position, you've got two part-time employees 
that could take over as assistant manager," asked Mike.

"That's right. Learned that was important when I was shot," 
answered Jerry.

Mike sat back and stared at the big man sitting at the conference 
table. He recalled discussions about the manager who had been 
shot while breaking up some sort of drug ring. It wasn't until Jerry 
mentioned getting shot that he had connected him with the 
incident. At the time, he had expected Al to spend several months 
at the store covering for the manager, but he'd been there for less 
than a week.

The room quieted down while Mike considered what Jerry had told 
him about his staff. Catherine shifted nervously in her seat while 
she tried to read the expression on Mike's face. After a minute, she 
turned her attention to Jerry. Little things about his operation came 
back to mind. She hadn't heard anything about his training program 
for his employees, but knew that his store had no turnover in the 
past couple of years. She recalled that his store had the best 
minority representation of the entire chain. She also recalled that 
he had instituted the employee college program.

Junior looked over at Al thinking about the reports that Jerry had 
been generating for him. Al had been justifiably proud of the 
reports that Jerry had developed. As CFO, he knew the value of 
good clear financial reports. He wondered if Jerry understood all 
that he had done for the chain. 

Breaking the silence, Al leaned forward and said, "You don't want 
to move."

"That's right," answered Jerry with quiet certainty in his voice.

Hearing a chance to negotiate, Jacob Meyers asked, "What's 
keeping you there?"

"Well, I've got a lot of ties to the area. I have the big house and the 
slum house. I'll never sell the slum house. My daughter has a house 
that she inherited from her grandmother," answered Jerry.

The lawyer knew that property could easily be bought and sold 
despite any objections that Jerry might have. It wasn't unusual for a 
company to buy a house from an executive to expedite a move. 
The reference to a slum house was a little odd, but he chose to 
ignore it. He asked, "Is that all?"

"My son is in high school and I'd hate to pull him out before he 
graduates. My wife has a business there. I even have a part-time 
business there," answered the big man.

Dealing with businesses was a lot more complicated than buying 
and selling a house. Wondering if there was a conflict of interest, 
the lawyer in Jacob fully emerged when he asked, "What kind of 
business?"

"Henry and I make interior waterfalls. You've got one of ours 
hanging in the lobby," answered Jerry with more than a little pride.

Mike re-entered the conversation when he asked, "You made that 
waterfall?"

"Yes, sir," answered Jerry. He settled back in his chair and added, 
"Henry does the framing. My son and I do the metal parts. We've 
hired a couple of the kids from the neighborhood to help Henry 
and to keep the books."

"Which neighborhood?"

"The slum," answered Jerry. 

"So you got another couple of kids in that neighborhood jobs?" 
asked Al.

"Sure. They're good kids. Didn't have much of a future there for a 
while, but they're coming along. Shauna was afraid that she'd end 
up a prostitute before we hired her. Denzel believed that whites 
were keeping blacks back. He's getting over that belief now that 
he's working for a company run by a black man. He's discovered 
that business is business," said Jerry. He barked a laugh when he 
commented on Denzel's discovery about the realities of business. 

"That makes five kids you've helped in that neighborhood," 
commented Al.

"You keep referring to that neighborhood as a slum. You don't 
really mean a slum, do you?" asked Junior.  

Al interrupted, "Yes, he does."

Mike waved a hand to get control of the meeting. Once he had 
everyone's attention, he said, "Jacob, I'd appreciate it if you'd take 
Jerry out to an early lunch. I need to talk a little with the rest of the 
team. Take him to the country club for lunch and come back 
around two."

Not used to being employed as escort, Jacob frowned as he 
answered, "Sure."

Outside, Jerry said, "I'd like to go across the street and change my 
shirt, if that is okay with you."

"That would be fine," said Jacob.

The pair of men crossed the street. Jerry led Jacob up to his hotel 
room and proceeded to change shirts. It wasn't until Jerry had 
removed his shirt that Jacob could see the scars on his back where 
he had been shot. It was an ugly wound and Jacob stared at it in 
amazement. It was one thing to hear that someone had been shot 
but quite another to actually see the evidence. He commented, 
"You were actually shot!"

When Jerry turned to face the lawyer, his stomach wound became 
obvious as well. Jerry answered, "Yes. I don't remember it though. 
Well, I remember the first one in the back and the one in the 
stomach. Can't remember the others."

"How did it happen?"

"I was part of a delegation that went to ask the owner of a crack 
house to shut down the house. When we turned to leave, one of 
them shot me in the back. After that, I don't really remember 
much," answered Jerry. There was no way that he was going to 
explain about how Mr. Atkins went there to threaten them with 
death if they didn't. He continued to put on a clean shirt. 

"Why did you do it?"

"What do you mean?"

"I take it this happened in the slum. That's where crack houses are, 
so why bother," replied Jacob. He knew it was rather heartless, but 
one had to be a realist.

"Sure, there are crack houses in slums. There are also families, lots 
of families who are trying to get by the best that they can. Having a 
crack house in the neighborhood makes it even harder for the 
families," answered Jerry. He finished buttoning his clean shirt.

"So you instigated it?"

"Me? No way, I was against the whole thing. I was there with the 
unofficial mayor of the neighborhood trying to keep what 
happened from happening. I figured a big guy like me standing 
there would intimidate everyone," said Jerry. He stepped over to 
where he had put his suit coat and picked up it. Shaking his head, 
he said, "I learned that the size of a man means nothing to someone 
holding a gun. Stupid me. At least I'm not so stupid that I don't 
learn from my mistakes."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that I won't be asking any drug dealers to stop selling 
drugs in my neighborhood," answered Jerry with a laugh. 

Jacob was still trying to make up his mind about Jerry. His first 
reaction was based on the reports about Jerry. They'd all suggested 
a very diligent and intelligent man who was revolutionizing their 
company. Then he'd seen the man and he couldn't keep from 
thinking of him as a big dumb ox. After talking to him a little bit, 
he realized that Jerry was a complex man, probably the most 
complex he had ever met.

"I'm ready," said Jerry.

"Oh, sorry. I kind of drifted off there for a minute," said Jacob.

"Do you really want to eat at the Country Club?" asked Jerry. The 
idea of going there to eat really bothered him. Joining a Country 
Club was something his ex-wife had always wanted him to do. 
He'd been to a couple of them in the past and always felt that it was 
a lot of money to spend for very little in return. 

"Not really," replied Jacob surprised that the big man didn't want to 
go to the club. Most visitors enjoyed the idea of being around the 
movers and shakers who were members. He paused for a moment 
thinking about where they could go to eat. Finally, he said, "How 
about barbecue? You could change back to your dirty shirt and 
leave your suit coat here. We'll come back in time for you to 
change and make it to the meeting on time."

"How about if you get sauce on your shirt?" asked Jerry.

"I keep a spare change of clothes in my office," answered the 
lawyer with a smile. He added, "It's an old trick."

Over a lunch of barbecued brisket, the two men talked about life, 
money, and business. Jerry told Jacob about Henry's thoughts 
concerning the minimal differences in trash between rich and poor. 
Jacob was impressed that the big man listened to insightful 
observations regardless of the social status of the source. It also 
gave him insight into how difficult it would be to convince Jerry to 
move away from his home. 

By the time the bill arrived, Jacob felt like he had a good handle on 
the character of the man seated across from him. After pulling out 
a twenty out of his wallet to cover the lunch, he said, "There's no 
amount of money that we could offer you to convince you to move 
here, is there?"

"No," answered Jerry.

"We'd have to convince you that it would be better for the 
hundreds of employees in this company for you take this job. Am I 
right?"

"Probably," answered Jerry wondering if he had just doomed 
himself. He frowned at the thought that others in the company 
would be negatively affected by his decision.

"I could probably make that argument, but I wouldn't do that 
because I doubt it would be true. You picked the right person to 
take charge of modernization," said Jacob. 

"Al is a good man and I owe him a lot. He offered me a chance at a 
time in my life when I really needed it," said Jerry thinking back to 
when Al had told him the company would pay for him to visit an 
anger management specialist. He'd taken over payment of the visits 
when his son started going to the therapist as well. 

It was difficult for Jacob to know how the other employees viewed 
the executives of the company. He imagined that most of the 
employees didn't even know who they were. Those that did, were 
either indifferent or had complaints. The only time they got much 
feedback was when there was a change in benefits. It made Jacob 
feel good that there were those in the company who had positive 
impressions of them at the home office. 

"We'll get back early enough for you to change your shirt," said the 
lawyer glancing down at his own shirt. Sure enough there were a 
few splotches of sauce on it. If he'd been wearing his tie, it would 
have caught the sauce. He said, "Looks like I'll have to stop by my 
office to change my shirt, too."

Jerry and Jacob returned to the office. They were on time even 
though Jerry had stopped in the hotel to put on clean clothes. Jacob 
left Jerry in the lobby while he went to his office to change his 
shirt and put on his tie. While waiting for Jacob to return, Jerry 
went over to the waterfall to see how well it was holding up with 
daily use. He was pleased to see that it was as good as new. 

Jacob returned and said, "They are ready for us."

"Great," answered Jerry. He hoped to be informed that he was the 
new district manager. 

The men walked down the hall, relaxed and content after their 
good meal. When they entered the room, it was clear that they 
were the only ones who were relaxed. Everyone seated at the table 
looked tired. The table was littered with the remains of sandwiches 
that had been brought in for them to eat while working. 

Jacob frowned and took his seat while gesturing for Jerry to take 
his seat. Jerry sat down looking around the room. Al looked over at 
Jerry with a tight smile. Junior was frowning and Catherine looked 
neutral. He wondered what had happened while he was out 
enjoying a good lunch. 

Leaning forward, Mike said, "The problem is that there is only one 
of you."

"I'm not sure that I understand," said Jerry.

"We argued about who would get you," said Al.

"Oh. Who won?" asked Jerry wondering what it meant that they 
were arguing over who would get him. 

Mike said, "Well, no one and all of them. Here's the deal. You'll 
get the district. It is the smallest district in the chain so that doesn't 
really help us much. Mike and Karen will move here as you 
suggested, but that will leave you a little short staffed. That's not 
really a problem, but you'll be settling into your new 
responsibilities."

Jerry smiled at having gotten everything that he wanted. The smile 
started to disappear when he realized that Mike was not finished 
laying out his decision. He asked, "And?"

"We decided to institute a new manager trainee program," said 
Mike. Turning to Catherine, he said, "Would you explain it to 
him?"

Catherine nodded and said, "I really like the way that you've 
trained your people to move up a job level at a moment's notice. 
We want you to train our assistant managers who are due for 
promotion. We'll have them work in your store for three months as 
an assistant manager and then three months as a manager."

"You want me to train people?" asked Jerry shocked by the 
suggestion. That was going to give his store a great deal of turn 
over. He said, "I can't imagine there are many people to train."

"Explain it to him."

Sighing at the magnitude of the problem facing her, Catherine said, 
"Our managers are getting older. Over the next five years, we're 
going to lose about twenty of them. We are having problems hiring 
people to work in our stores who are willing to stay in the 
company as a career. The situation is going to get worse with 
time."

"I didn't realize that," said Jerry although he did recall Al 
mentioning the difficulties in hiring people. He didn't realize the 
problem was as big as Catherine suggested.

"I like how you have been putting people through school to get 
training in business. We were discussing it and realized that hiring 
three or four college kids at two-thirds time would solve a lot of 
our problems. A few would want to stay on in management 
positions. The major difficulty would be the cost of such a program 
scaled across the entire company. We're going to have to work out 
the details, but I'm pretty sure that we'll find a solution in your 
approach some where," said Catherine. 

"So what was the argument over who got me?" asked Jerry still 
confused by the earlier statement.

Junior said, "We're not done telling you all the parts of the deal."

"There's more?" asked Jerry wondering if his visit here had been 
that good of an idea. 

"We're going to use your district to try out some new accounting 
software that Al is going to be installing here," said Junior. He 
looked over at Jerry and said, "We're going to centralize our 
accounting system."

"You now answer to three people. Catherine, Junior, and me," said 
Al answering Jerry's question before he had a chance to ask it 
again.

Jerry looked around the table for a minute wondering how he was 
going to possibly balance working for three people He sighed and 
said, "I should have brought a lawyer with me."

