Chapter 6

Betsy took a seat at the head of the conference table in the modular office. Once again, she was dismayed by the barrenness of the office. There were six plain metal desks, three to each side of the room, facing the front door. The chairs were plain ‘office mega-store discount chairs’ that, in her opinion, were just plain ugly and looked uncomfortable. There weren’t any partitions to give even a modicum of privacy.

There were no personalized knickknacks or photographs on the desks. There weren’t any pictures on the walls, except for one large map. It had the locations of all of her businesses, marked by small push pins. She wished they had at least put in a plant, or something to soften the stark appearance of the room, but there wasn’t one.

The interior of the office was not her doing. In fact, it embarrassed her. She had complained about the spartan decor of the office in the past. Based on what she could see, her complaints had been ignored. Now it would be much more difficult, if not impossible, to improve the furnishings.

Everyone ... four women and two men ... was at their desks getting ready for the briefing. On each desk, a printer was busy spitting out pages of reports, complete with tables and graphics documenting the status of her business empire. Heads were down while they were furiously typing stuff into the computers on their desks. She wondered what could have prompted the frantic last minute rush.

The tension in the room was almost palpable. It made her wonder what kind of reputation she had with the people working there. She figured that they assumed she was some kind of ogre or something. She had no idea where they could have gotten that impression, unless it was from Catherine.

She then noticed that there was an exercise bike in the back corner of the room. She moved over to it, climbed on, and started pedaling. She kept up a nice easy pace that wouldn’t stress the capabilities of the bike. Replacements wouldn’t be available for a while.

Only two of the people in the room even looked up at her.

Betsy sighed. She knew they were acting that way because the big boss was there for a briefing and each of them wanted to be noticed, but only in a positive way. They were seeking praise and not criticism. She was rather disappointed. She’d rather have one of them stand up to her in confidence than bow in obsequiousness to a stupid idea.

She looked down at the speedometer, and saw that she was pedaling at forty miles per hour. She eased back her pace while trying to think pleasant thoughts. She thought about Chuck. For a few minutes, she was lost in a wonderful daydream about the previous evening spent with him. Her eyes glanced down to the engagement ring around her finger. Her smile grew so large that she looked like a maniac, grinning while pedaling madly on the bike.

The soft whoosh of the door closing interrupted her thoughts. She looked up to see Charlie, carrying a portable hard drive. Charlie was looking around the room at the frantic activity. Looking pleased with what she was seeing, Charlie was nodding her head in approval. Betsy hoped that Charlie’s management style wasn’t as harsh as it appeared.

Charlie went over to Betsy and said, “You’re early.”

“I figured that I’d spend a few minutes getting to know folks,” Betsy said.

She knew very little about the people in the room and felt guilty about that. Between her romance, work, and research, the past few months had been very busy. Living and working on Oahu meant that she didn’t have a chance to see them except on weekends and they weren’t around on weekends.

“There will be plenty of time for that,” Charlie said.

She went over to a computer and fiddled with the machine to get it started. She plugged the hard drive into it and watched while the operating system recognized it.

“Before or after the meeting?” Betsy asked.

“Either,” Charlie answered.

Betsy said, “I’d like to get to know them before we get down to business.”

“Fine,” Charlie said glancing over at Betsy.

She went over to the utility cabinet and pulled out the conference phone. She put the phone in the center of the conference table.

Betsy asked, “Can I help with anything?”

“No. Everything is under control.”

Betsy shook her head. She got off the bike and returned to take a seat at the head of the conference table. With her elbow on the table, she rested her chin on the palm of her left hand. She looked bored, but actually was unhappy with what she was seeing.

Charlie finished setting up the room for the meeting. She looked around at everyone at their desks and then up at the clock.

At exactly one minute before the hour, she announced, “Let’s get this show on the road, folks.”

Moving almost as one, everyone got up from their desks, grabbed a stack of papers, and moved over to the conference table. Betsy watched them and shook her head. Thoughts of The Stepford Wives flashed through her mind. The printers were still belching pages.

Once everyone sat down, Charlie said, “Let’s work our way across the country from east to west.”

“Let’s not,” Betsy said getting up from her chair surprising everyone.

“Why not?” Charlie asked.

Instead of answering, Betsy walked over to the supply cabinet and removed a pad of paper and a pen. She returned to her seat and started tearing off sheets of paper from the pad. After taking a sheet of paper, she handed the stack of loose sheets to Charlie and said, “Take one and pass it around.”

Betsy folded her sheet of paper lengthwise. She then wrote her name on it. She carefully placed it on the table in front of herself.

“Hello. My name is Betsy. As you can see by what I’ve written on my little piece of paper, here, you can call me Betsy. If that seems a little informal to you, then you can call me ... Betsy.”

Charlie colored a little from embarrassment. She hadn’t thought to introduce everyone and forgotten Betsy’s request even in the short time between Betsy suggesting that she have a chance to talk to everyone at the start of the meeting. She didn’t realize that Betsy didn’t really know any of them. She folded the paper lengthwise, wrote her name on it, and placed it in front of herself.

“Don’t you mean, Ms. Carter?” one of the women asked.

“No. The only name on my card, is Betsy. I don’t see Carter anywhere on it,” Betsy said while leaning over to read the her name upside down.

“Okay,” the woman said thinking this wasn’t exactly what she was expecting.

Charlie grabbed her card and scratched off her last name, before putting it back in front of her. The others around the table made little name cards with their first names on it.

Once everyone had a name card in front of them, Betsy said, “Let me introduce myself a little more formally. I’m Betsy. I’m the big cheese ... the head honcho ... the big kahuna ... the lord and master of all that I survey. I’m sure that you’ll all have nightmares about today’s meeting, for years. We’ll accept that as a given and get on to the business of introducing yourselves to me.

“Charlie, it’s nice to see you again. Tell us a little about yourself.”

Charlie stared at Betsy. She stuttered for a second and then said, “I’m Charlie. If she’s the big kahuna, then I’m the little kahuna.”

Betsy asked, “What kind of hobbies do you have?”

“Uh ... I don’t really have any hobbies.”

“Have you thought about taking up knitting? I’ve been considering it,” Betsy said.

“No,” Charlie said, looking puzzled.

“I guess I can understand why you wouldn’t. There really isn’t much of a need for sweaters in Hawaii.”

“Right.”

“Where are you from originally?”

“Ohio.”

“That’s interesting. Did you ever visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in Cleveland?” Betsy asked.

“Once. It was nice.”

“So how did a nice Ohio girl end up in Hawaii?” Betsy asked.

Charlie stared at Betsy knowing that she knew exactly how she ended up there.

She answered, “I joined the Marines, I got shot, I got sent to the hospital in Oahu, I heard about this job, and stayed here after I was discharged from active duty.”

“That’s an amazing story,” Betsy said. She turned to the woman seated next to Charlie and said, “I see that your name is Marge. Tell me a little about yourself.”

“I’m Marge and ... uh ... I work here,” Marge said.

“What did you do before coming to work here?” Betsy asked.

“I’ve been temping ever since I graduated college.”

“Where did you go to college?”

“University of Hawaii.”

“I go there, too. I’m studying sharks. What did you study?”

“Business,” Marge answered.

“Are you learning anything on this job?” Betsy asked.

“More than I ever learned in school. A lot of my professors talked and acted like they knew a lot about business, but I doubt any of them could have done a thousandth of what you’ve done, here,” Marge answered.

“Well, there’s theory and then there’s practice. You’ve got to know both,” Betsy said.

“I figured that out, real quick. I don’t think a single one of my professors ever gave a moment of thought to what would happen when money became meaningless,” Marge said.

“I don’t think anyone did.”

“You did.”

“I was lucky,” Betsy said avoiding just how much she knew, how much she had figured out, and how far off some of her guesses had been.

“I don’t think luck had much to do with it.”

Betsy said, “Who knows? Robert, tell us a little about yourself.”

“Well, I’m Robert. I was salesman at a shop in the mall after graduating from college. It was the only job I could find, at the time. I’d still be there, probably, except it went out of business about two years ago. I started temping, and landed this job here. I’ve got to admit that the day I got this job was the luckiest day of my life.”

“What kind of store?”

“What?”

“What kind of store did you work in?” Betsy asked.

“It was a mattress store.”

“Was it a good job?”

“It wasn’t that bad. Folks who came in looking for a mattress, were looking for a mattress. I would basically take the order. Most of the time it was kind of quiet. I guess it was the fact that it was quiet, is the reason the store went out of business.”

Betsy said, “That would be a safe bet.”

“Yeah.”

“Sherry, tell us a bit about yourself,” Betsy said.

“My ex-husband was a drunk. He killed a family in a car accident, and now he’s in jail. I divorced him, and came to Hawaii on vacation. I loved it here so much, that I moved here and got a job with the temp firm,” Sherry replied.

“How long had you been married?” Betsy asked.

“Two and a half long years.”

“I take it that the marriage wasn’t a happy one.”

“Nope.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Betsy said.

“Hey, I’m a lot happier now.”

Betsy said, “Hello, Carol. Tell us a little about yourself.”

“There’s not much to say. I’m a high school graduate, and got a job in an office as a clerk. The office went belly up, and I became a temp.”

“Are you married?” Betsy asked.

“No.”

“I’m engaged to be married,” Betsy said.

Carol replied, “I don’t want to be married. If I want to get laid, I go to Oahu and screw a tourist. He goes back to the mainland and brags about having bagged a local, and I go home happy that he’s not going home with me. I’m happy the way I am.”

“I guess that’s one way of looking at it,” Betsy said.

“Do I shock you?”

“Not really. I’ve heard a lot of girls in college talk the same way,” Betsy said.

“Good for them.”

Betsy said, “Ann?”

“I’m Ann and I used to work as a temp. Now I work for you.”

“Any hobbies?”

“No.”

“What do you do for fun?”

“I watch recordings of my soap operas.”

“That’s it?”

Ann shrugged her shoulders.

“Jerry, would you like to tell us about yourself?”

Jerry said, “I got a degree in English, and discovered just how much people value a degree in English. I got a job as a temp.”

“Do you have any hobbies?” Betsy asked.

“I play tennis and I read.”

“What kinds of things do you like to read?”

Jerry said, “I like to read just about everything.”

Betsy asked, “That’s good. Have you read much that would be of help in this situation we find ourselves?”

“No.”

“That’s a shame,” Betsy said.

“Literature usually deals with more human issues, than societal ones.”

“I guess so, although my brother would argue that science fiction often deals with societal issues. I’ve never really thought about it.”

Jerry said, “Outside of that, I’m a pretty boring guy.”

“I doubt that. I guess we should get on to the business part of this meeting,” Betsy said. “What do you think, Charlie?”

Charlie said, “Yes. I guess I should explain that we’ve broken your holdings into six regions. Everyone here has responsibility for one region. We have broken the East Coast into two parts, the north and south. There is the eastern region, central region, western region, and west coast. The central region also includes your international holdings. The west coast region includes Hawaii.”

“That seems reasonable,” Betsy said.