Bob of Small End (69 page)

“
The
routers, sanders, saws and heaters arrived this morning and they’re
already fastened to the bench. The router jigs will need a lot of
adjusting before they can be used. I’ll do that tomorrow. Jack
installed the ducts and the fan heater today and will hang the
rails and form the plastic tunnels tomorrow. If we can get all of
it set up I’ll have Craig and Jose or Luke run some wood through
the line on Thursday. If everything works as it should I’ll ask
everybody to try it on Friday. You’ll be here by then so you should
join in too. That way everyone will have an idea of how the new
system works and, with luck, it’ll be ready for July 8th when the
new people come in.”

“
I see
what you meant about keeping the weekend free. I’d forgotten about
them starting next week.”

“
There
are bound to be problems that’ll have to be fixed before they
arrive. Oh, yes, Lori showed me the descriptions she’d written
about the toys at the tea break. I thought they looked good and I
passed them around so everybody could see. Luke suggested changing
‘bright colours’ to ‘brilliant colours,’ saying the acrylic looked
that way to him and we agreed. That’s the only change we made.
You’ll check it when you return, of course.”

“
I will.
Did she make the signs for the doors?”

“
Yes,
and she suggested we make two from wood, one for visitors, to tell
them where to park, and the other to direct deliveries to the back.
I told her I’d make them but not for a week or two.”

“
I can
make them. This weekend, if you don’t need my help. I’ve been
thinking about making another Small End Wooden Toys sign for the
new shop but I don’t know if we should put one there. We don’t want
visitors there.”

“
No,
you’re right. We could have
Small End
Wooden Toys—Workshop
, but let’s do that later. Another
thing, if I put a second bench here I’ll move the office over. Then
we might need another sign.”

“
We told
Joe we’d be using his old parlour for a year Ken.”

“
Oh
we’ll use it. Maybe it could be used to design new toys, set-up the
jigs they’d need and run trials. It can be a research
centre.”

“
I
see.”

“
Well
I’m off to bed now. It’ll be another busy day for me tomorrow.
Goodnight Bob.”

“
Goodnight Ken.”

Bob had one
last shop to visit at five thirty on Wednesday but, even though he
rushed, it was closed when he arrived. Bert or Greg would have to
add it to their next delivery. Or the wholesaler. He didn’t know
how frequently they delivered, or did they say they delivered every
two weeks? He was tired and had forgotten that kind of detail.

He was at
Shaftsbury, less than forty miles from home. He could be there in
not much more than an hour but he was so tired of driving he
decided to take a break. He didn’t fancy driving home then making
supper, even though it would probably be a pot pie, if there was
one left. He was going to eat and rest before driving on.

He drove
through the emptying streets and eventually found a restaurant on
the outskirts that had a big, almost empty, parking lot. He parked,
walked in and was ushered to a seat. Some kind of classical music
was playing softly in the background. He ordered salmon with a
creamy sauce and a glass of their house white. That and a coffee
made the meal. The bill surprised him, twice what he’d normally
pay. ‘So that’s why there weren’t many cars in the lot, the place
is too expensive.’ They probably lived on people celebrating
something or tourists or people like him who didn’t know what their
food would cost. He added a tip and paid with the company’s credit
card, wondering if Lori would say he shouldn’t include the cost of
this meal since he was nearly home. But she wouldn’t do such a
thing although a man from the income tax office might.

He felt
refreshed and the drive home afterwards was easy for there wasn’t
much traffic. He parked the van in the parking lot beside his
house, not wanting to walk home from the shop, he just wanted to go
to bed.

Lori was there
answering the phone when Bob walked into the office Thursday
morning. She waved to him and he put his bills, credit card slips
and the lists she had given him on her desk and sat in Ken’s chair,
waiting until she had finished.

“
Hello
Bob. How are you?”

“
Better
after a night’s sleep. How’s things Lori?”

“
We’ve
had lots more requests. There’s enough for another delivery this
week but they’ll have to wait because Ken wants everybody here
tomorrow, Bert and Gerry too, so he can show all of us how the new
process works. Since I’ll have to be there too I’m going to ask him
if we can buy an answering machine. Almost all our calls are from
retailers wanting more sets so I don’t want to miss any. It’d be
okay if I was sitting at my desk all day but that’d be a waste of
time, there’s not enough office work to keep me busy there while
waiting for a call.”

“
It’ll
be much easier when
We-Have-It
handles the deliveries Lori. All the calls will go to them.
Where’s Ken?”

“
At the
Centre. With Jack.”

“
Okay,
I’ll walk over and see what they’re doing. That last shop on the my
list, there, the one I’ve not ticked—I couldn’t get to it in time,
they were closed.”

“
Okay.
I’ll add it to the list for next week.”

“
Have
you received any cheques for last month?”

“
No, not
yet. I’ve got lots of bills though. Nearly £4,500, things for the
new workshop and meeting room. You know, their room is nicer than
ours.”

“
Then
maybe we should make this one better. I’ll ask everyone what they
would like to have at the break. I’m off now. Cheers
Lori.”

Ken was
dipping short pieces of wood into paint and running them through
the first drying tunnel when Bob walked in. Jack was lying on the
floor under the bench.

“
Hello
Bob. Just a minute. Higher Jack. The heat needs to be a little
higher.” He pushed the pinned holder carrying the wood he had just
painted slowly through the tunnel with a long stick, withdrew the
stick and laid it on the bench then ran to the other
end.

“
Yes.
It’s dry now. We’ll have to adjust the heat again when there are
several blocks going through. Can you set the same heat in the
other tunnels?”

“
I’ll
try. It’s not easy. Changing it on one tunnel also changes it on
the other two. I think we should have separate heaters for each
one.”

“
Yes,
you’re right. I should have thought of that. I’ll order them today.
What do you think Bob?”

“
I can
see how the line works now, better than I could before. It looks
good Ken.”

“
The
tunnels aren’t set-up properly yet. If you put your hand at one end
you’ll find that it’s hot. We have to fold in the end plastic and
increase the extraction fan rate.”

“
We’ll
have t’adjust t’ heater again then,” Jack added.

“
Yes I
know. Let’s do the next tunnel now.”

Ken moved
along the bench and Jack slid under the table next to the second
duct’s heat control lever.

“
It’ll
take a while to fix this Bob,” Ken said.

“
That’s
okay. Can I do anything?”

“
No, not
here. Just help in the shop, if that’s okay with you. We’ll do all
the tunnels then join you for tea.”

“
Alright.”

Bob helped
wrap and box until tea break. Ken and Jack hadn’t turned up so,
after everyone had filled their mug and taken their biscuits, he
asked if they should do anything to make the room better.

“
You
could change the chairs Bob. These aren’t very comfortable,” said
Lori.

“
Okay.
Anything else?”

“
More
chocolate biscuits,” said Luke. “Other kinds, not just these
digestive ones, although they are nice.”

“
Okay.
Anything else?”

“
I can’t
think of anything,” said Craig.

“
Well
the new shop has a fridge and a microwave,” said Bob. “Do we want
to have the same here?”

“
There’s
hardly room for them,” said Bert.

“
If we
had a microwave I could bring things like soup in the winter and
heat it for lunch. It’d make a nice change from sandwiches,” Lori
said. “We could get a small one. It wouldn’t cost much. But I agree
with Bert, there’s not enough room for a fridge.”

“
All
right. Chocolate biscuits, more comfortable chairs and a microwave.
Could you order them Lori?”

“
Order
what?” asked Ken as he and Jack walked in.

“
We’re
improving the tea room Ken.”

“
Oh, I
only heard ‘microwave.’ That’s a good idea, but you might have to
put it in the office ‘cos there’s not much room here.”

“
And
we’d like nicer chairs.”

“
And
different chocolate biscuits.”

“
No
trouble with the biscuits and microwave or chairs. I’ll ask Mary to
look for the chairs and I’ll arrange their purchase. Can you order
the microwave Lori? Who buys the biscuits now?”

“
I
usually do,” said Lori, “and the milk. Bob’s mostly not here to do
that any more. I carry them in from Big End. Can we have the milk
delivered?”

“
Good
idea. Yes, we could buy the biscuits, tea and coffee from the
village store and have it delivered. We should do that for the
meeting room in the new shop too. Can you look after that
Lori?”

“
Gladly.”

“
But not
right now. I’d like everyone to come to the Centre and learn how
the new production line works as soon as you’ve finished your
tea.”

“
What
about answering the phone Ken? asked Lori. There’ll easily be
another two or three shops calling before lunch.”

“
They’ll
call back later. Don’t worry about that.”

“
Could
we have an answering machine here?” she asked, “then they could
leave a message and we won’t miss anybody.”

“
Why
not. Could you find one Lori?”

“
Okay
I’ll do that Saturday.”

“
Buy it
if you find the right one and bring it in on Monday. Most of next
week we’ll all be in the new shop, learning how to run the line. We
have to be ready to train the new people when they come in.
Okay?”

“
What
about the deliveries Ken?” asked Gerry.

“
We’ll
leave that until later next week. Perhaps we’d be good enough on
Wednesday or Thursday. If so you could deliver after
then.”

They washed
their mugs in the shop sink, everyone except Jose, who said that he
didn’t see the need to do that every time he used it. His light
blue mug had a deep-brown coating on the inside. Ken locked the
shop’s doors and they walked to the Centre. Once there, Ken walked
them along the bench, explaining the function of each part.

“
The
only new part is the painting operation. I’ll show you how it’s
done.” He pushed a piece of scrap wood onto the pins of a holder,
uncovered the paint tray and dipped the wood in the paint. He then
pushed the holder onto the end of the curtain track.”

“
See?
Look at this holder,” and he held one out to them. “The hook-eyes
that we have in the old shop have been replaced by these two
curtain rollers. All you have to do is push the holder into this
gap so that the rollers slide onto the rail. Push the next holder
in and it’ll push the first one forward. That’s the way they move,
each holder pushes the earlier ones along until they get to the
end. Then they’ll fall off. Watch, I’ll do several and you’ll see
how it works. Can you switch on the heater Jack.”

Jack bent down
and closed a switch.

“
We’ll
put the switch on the bench later and you can work it from you
chair,” Ken said, “although you’ll leave it on all the time, except
for the times when the line is stopped.”

“
Chair?”
asked Luke. “We have chairs?”

“
Yes.
The painters and the sanders can sit on chairs if they want
although they can stand if they prefer that. So watch what happens
as I do several more. Now, you see, at the end of the track they
fall off and drop onto the cloth ramp and slid into the
tray.”

“
Then
someone else gives them the second coat,” said Bert.

“
Yes
that’s right. That one’s put one by a brush. Hedges will have their
second tone-coat brushed on that way too.”

“
And the
decorative lines are stamped on at the third place?”

“
Exactly. Then when they drop into the third tray they’re
ready for gluing and assembling. The glue will take a while to dry
and that’ll hold up the line a bit. I’m thinking of using a contact
cement or a fast-acting glue. Until I find the best way to do it
we’ll just use the glue we use now and put them on trays to dry. We
screw on the wheels at the end too. So now let’s give it a try.
Jack can get some wood and put it on the table; Jose you handle the
router jig; Bert you look after the band saw and Gerry, you look
after one of the sanders. Lori, you do the first painting, Luke you
take the second one and Bob, you take the last one, please. We
won’t assemble or glue any until we’ve run the line for a while.
Craig and I will walk along the line looking for problems. Okay?
We’ll go slowly to begin with. While you’re doing this think about
how you’d train someone to do the job so you’ll be ready for next
week.”