Chapter 7
Myles
Monday, and I’m back in the garage. I’ve had quite a few discussions with Clem about expanding the garage. The shop next door to us has closed, and it’s standing vacant. We can knock through and open two new bays, get another mechanic in and push work forward.
The work is rolling in, and sometimes we cannot get clients booked in for even an oil change on their vehicle for three or four weeks. It’s too long, and they are going out of town.
Throwing the oily rag into the disposal barrel, I turn and find Clem drinking water while leaning on the truck he’s been working on.
“Clem, we’ve gotta get help, and expand. We can’t keep going at the pace we are.”
Clem turns and looks at me while nodding. “Yeah, I think you’re right. I’ve looked at the computer this morning, and we are full of work for the next five weeks. I had to turn Mr. Bowers away this morning when he’d found oil under his Jeep.”
“Fuck…we can’t afford to do that. He’s been a customer since we opened. Let’s put an offer on next door, and even if we don’t get it, let's have another pair of hands working with us.”
Nodding again, Clem turns back to the truck. “Get a help-wanted poster outside Myles. Let’s hope we have a mechanic in town who’s looking for work.”
Walking into the office, I grab a piece of card and write ‘Mechanic Wanted—Must have Experience’ and take it out front where I pin it to the garage door. Maybe not a big enough poster, but I’ll ask Whitney because she should be able to make us a better one.
Picking up the office phone, I call Maylee. I need to ask her about what we have left in our savings account. I know she’s at work, but she’ll speak to me if she doesn’t have a client with her.
When the call is answered it's Annabelle, Maylee’s assistant, who speaks, but I don’t give her a chance to say anything. “Hi, Annabelle, it’s Myles. Is it possible for me to speak with Maylee? If she’s busy, it’s okay. I’ll catch her later.”
“Hi, Myles. Let me go check, but she’s between clients, so I think you may be okay.”
I can hear Annabelle put the phone down and walk away. Dang, I should have used Maylee’s cell instead of the office number.
“What’s wrong, Myles?” I hear a minute or two later.
“Sorry Maylee, I should have called on your cell, but I’m on the office phone and just automatically called your office,” I splutter trying to explain what’s going on.
“No problem. Now what’s up?” I can tell by the tone of her voice that she’s finding this amusing.
“The money we have in the savings account, is it for anything in particular?” I quickly ask.
Maylee doesn’t hesitate in replying, “No, what have you got in mind?”
“I have been talking to Clem for months about expanding the garage. We have clients who are going out of town because we can’t fit them in.
We have more work than we can cope with.
I’ve put a poster out in front of the garage for a mechanic.
I’ll ask Whitney if she can do something that catches the eye if this doesn’t get answered in the next few days.
But the place next door is vacant, and I reckon we should buy it, knock through and extend what we have.
We can use the space, and we can support that move financially.
” I know I’m blabbering, but I don't want her to speak until I’ve gotten it all out.
“Okay, do it,” Maylee giggles. “I don’t know why you are worrying so much. We can take a mortgage on that building if need be, and this is why I said we didn’t want a mortgage on the house. It leaves us in a position we can expand or improve or whatever.”
“Oh, okay. I’ll get back to Clem and see about moving forward with it. That’s if he wants to?”
“Look, if he doesn’t then you buy it. You then would need to put yourself at a higher percentage ownership of the business, or you have a scheme where the business pays you back with interest, so it remains a joint business venture.
Whatever is needed, Myles. I’ll speak with you later because my client is here. ”
I look at the phone as Maylee has gone, and I’m left thinking what the ever-loving… I don’t know what I ever did to deserve this woman, but I hope I never let her down.
Clem steps into the office as I place the phone down. “What’s up with you?” he asks as he throws himself into a chair.
I explain the phone call with Maylee, and Clem nods and grunts throughout.
But when I’ve finished speaking he grins.
“Come on, brother, you know I have money and I’m more than willing to put it into the business.
We go fifty-fifty as we’ve always done. Now, let me give Louise a call.
You know she’s friendly with Whitney, and she is one hell of a good realtor. ”
I head out to the reception area of the garage and pick up the keys to the Lexus I’ve been working on.
Climb inside and start her up. She’s purring now rather than making the choked sound she had earlier.
Satisfied, I reverse out of the garage and park her in front of the garage ready for the customer to collect.
Locking up the Lexus, I notice a guy reading the vacancy notice I pinned up an hour ago. He turns when I step closer to him.
“Is the job still going?” he asks as he looks over at me.
“Sure is. We’re looking for someone with experience who can jump straight in to help with the repairs and general shit that comes in.
” I grab the clean rag from my back pocket and wipe my hands again.
I’m continually rubbing my hands because Oren hates when my hands are oiled up, and I don’t want him standing away from me because my hands look filthy.
“Name’s Dan Sullivan. I moved here three months back with wife and two kids.
She is working at Walmart, but so far I’ve been struggling to get anything.
I’m a fully qualified mechanic and have worked at the same place for thirty years.
The boss died, and his son sold the place, so that left me out of work. ”
“That’s a fucker. Seems a lot of kids these days don’t want to follow on from their fathers, or mothers if it comes to that. Come on in and let’s talk.”
An hour later, and Dan Sullivan is our signed-up new mechanic.
He’s forty-nine, has been married since he was twenty-two, and his kids are twenty-five and twenty-one.
They are both in the military but come home when on leave.
Neither have themselves a permanent woman and according to Dan his wife Synthia wants to know nothing about their dalliances.
I reckon Dan will fit in perfectly, I’m sure.
I watched him check over the Ford Bronco that is here for the first time. I’m more than happy with his judgement, and it’s his first job tomorrow when he gets to work.
As we are closing for the night, Dan who has hung around and been cleaning the garage, stops working when Clem asks what his kids are called.
“The oldest is Conroy, named after Synthia’s grandfather.
But Banner is named after a banner that my wife was studying when she was pushing him out.
The shit she was being given had her thinking something or another, that nobody knows if I’m being honest with you.
She was asked what his name was, and she spluttered Banner Sullivan and that was it. ”
Now, we all laugh at the way he got his name, but it is a good name, regardless.
“It’s a good thing she didn’t see something else, or it could have been difficult for Banner to live with.
” Clem laughs, and you can bet we throw out some guesses that have us all holding our knees while tears flow with laughter.
Slapping Dan on his back, I watch as he walks away, and turn to Clem. “What happened with Lou?”
“She said to leave it with her and she’ll look into it tomorrow. She had a client with her and then she was going to show a place to someone. But she said she’d get the best deal she could for us. She’ll come around with the key for us to look before we put any offer in on the place.”
“That’s a good idea because if it has a lot of work needed it may outprice itself,” I say, and rip the sign from the garage door, throwing it into the trash as I pass.
But nod to myself that I don’t need to ask Whitney now about a sign, and it looks like we got ourselves a decent mechanic without trying.
“I reckon Dan is good for us, Myles. He knew what he was doing with the Bronco. Let’s see if he sorts it out tomorrow. Was he happy with the salary you offered?” Clem locks the office and throws my jacket at me.
“Yeah, I offered him all the standard rates that I’d seen when doing the research previously.
He’ll get health insurance too, which we all know is a biggie when you take on a new job.
If he’s as good as we think and he helps us get more work through the place, then we can increase that salary accordingly. ”
“Agree, and we both know what it's like working only for the bottom line. He has a wife to support because she’ll not be on a huge salary at Walmart that’s for sure.
But you know what we think, Myles, any salary is better than no salary.
” Clem grins, “I think we should introduce them to Whitney, Maylee and Oren. What do you think?”
“I think we want Dan to stay working for us…” we both bust out laughing at that comment, but know I’m only joking, and it’ll happen because our women are far more involved than we’d like to admit.