Laura's Big Win (10 page)

Lunch in the Windmere kitchen was
pretty much self-service as far as Doris Cook was concerned. She
posted the menu a week in advance so staff could elect to opt in or
out at will. It was easier than trying to keep track of everyone’s
travel schedule and dining preferences. The noon meal being the
main meal for the day, easily accessible food items were always
available to resident staff for self-help evening meals. Today’s
menu was a favorite: do it yourself hard shell taco’s with plenty
of spiced beef, cheese shreds, refried beans, and other assorted
taco fillings, with salsa and chips on the side for those of hardy
constitution.

Ryan, Alice and Roger arrived at the
kitchen just as Laura returned, almost as though it had been
orchestrated. That first meeting of his eyes with Laura’s told Ryan
he might not know why he was doing this, but it was clearly the
thing to do and he would not be dissuaded from keeping this woman
in the front of his mind.

Alice introduced Laura to the two men,
and the four of them, at Doris Cook’s urging, headed for the
assembly line only to be interrupted by Dennis and Franz returning
with two slightly grubby but obviously delighted children. Words
couldn’t tumble out of their mouths fast enough to tell their
mother what they had been doing, but a gentle reminder from her and
off they went to wash up a little before eating. Dennis offered to
help Amanda, while Jack handled things by himself. Laura could see
the hand washing sink in the kitchen, and it reminded her of the
previous night when she saw Amanda’s tiny hands disappear into the
ham like hands of Dennis for a thorough washing and a little water
splashing in the process. Strange, she thought, how gentle this big
man is; maybe he just doesn’t have any reason to be otherwise. That
was partially true. Laura would never see his other side to any
significant extent, but someone she knew would see it clearly
before this was all over.

The conversation as they dined was
light, mostly about favorite ball teams, things like that. It was
broad based enough that Laura could join in without having to know
a lot of details, and they made sure she was included. As lunch
came to an end, Laura noticed Amanda nearly nodding off in her
chair from all the fresh air and running about. “I think I see
someone who needs a nap.” she said, and although Mandy protested
with the practiced lines of a child’s repertoire, it was a pretty
feeble try at best. Alice seized the opportunity to move things
along, and offered to take the kids for a rest. Jack had to voice
his protest, but was assured he could check out the videos in the
room, which he did for the 30 seconds or so it took him to fall
asleep. Just as Alice and the kids departed, Doris showed up with
mugs of fresh coffee for the adults, poking a little fun at Laura
with her “no sugar, one French vanilla creamer, if you please”
line. Being gently teased made Laura feel all the more at home with
these people, although she was still in the dark about a lot of
things. ‘This Roger looks like a man in charge; maybe I’ll learn
something now,’ she thought, ‘especially about this Ryan guy.’ As
Doris disappeared, the more formal process of interviewing Laura
Nessing began.

Laura was becoming aware of just how
good a team these people played on. The experience of the past day
told her that at least they had good intentions if nothing else,
but it was very evident this experience was still evolving. She
realized suddenly that she had known these people less than a full
day, yet Alice Hamilton had just left with her two children, and
the kids had been heaven only knows where with two men, one of whom
she didn’t know at all. Nevertheless, with Mrs. Hamilton watching
the kids, and Doris Cook suddenly invisible, Laura found herself
across the table from Roger and Ryan. Roger had mentioned his wife
in the earlier conversation, but this Ryan person remained somewhat
enigmatic. Laura surmised he was about her age, and she felt sure
he was a runner, or worked out a lot, maybe both, partly from his
appearance but as much from his athletic stride when he had entered
the room earlier. Just what he did for Windmere was unclear at the
moment, but she sensed he was an important player. Although she was
still a legally married woman, with two dependent kids, learning
more about this man couldn’t hurt, his tall good looks and build
aside.

Roger opened the interview, first of
all welcoming Laura and her kids, on behalf of the staff, to
Windmere. “I know the events in your life the past few days must
have been somewhat traumatic and confusing. To some degree, I can
understand that feeling (and indeed Roger was still mildly
confused, but the boss had spoken). Please, let me assure you that,
first of all, we mean you and your children no harm. Secondly, I
understand your family looked very out of place in the shelter,
somewhat like a lost island in a sea of people. So, Windmere
management decided you needed to be relocated, at least until your
options improve. As you can surmise, Mrs. Hamilton, Alice, briefed
us on your situation. I don’t want to seem uncivil here, but
Windmere is not in the social services industry; while we like to
think of Windmere as a reasonably altruistic enterprise, we are
unquestionably a profit motivated organization. That said, let me
first brief you on what Windmere does, then we will review your
abilities and interests in comparison to our present staffing
needs. And by the way, the shelter’s A/C was repaired late last
night; we did as we said we would.

The company is comprised of three
separate operations under a single corporate umbrella. As you can
see, this location is a private, very exclusive and well protected
combination of a golf resort and meeting space, which also serves
as Windmere headquarters. When we do a facilities tour you will see
that ‘headquarters’ may seem somewhat misleading. Executive
decisions are made here, but specific functions are in more
appropriate locations, as needed. The other facet of our local
operation is to provide a place for executive meetings when a more
public venue would not be in the best interest of the participants.
And, there are some persons who simply want to kick back without
reporters hounding them; we can provide that atmosphere. I might
add that Dennis is not our only source of security; we employ some
rather high tech methods, and some older, very effective methods
that have prevailed over the years. We have, upon occasion, hosted
meetings for the federal government, particularly the State
Department. I can’t for security purposes, of course, mention any
names. I’m telling you this so you can get a better picture of
Windmere’s social operating level. The second operation is a
service we provide to other resort operators, including some
national chains you recognize. Upon request, we will send in a team
to examine their operations and see where our management expertise
and purchasing power can make them more efficient, pronounced
‘profitable’. We can also send in covert ‘hit squads’ to test and
evaluate their staff, facilities, and physical plants. Based on our
findings, we make recommendations for improvements, all this being
done virtually incognito. The third arm is direct operation of
wholly owned spas and resorts. All of these are very high end. We
maintain a list of individual guest preferences, so their needs are
considered before they arrive. It makes Windmere owned operations a
preferred destination. The other side of the coin is that we
maintain a list of persons who are not acceptable as guests because
of their behavior record. Regardless, we have little vacancy and
usually a waiting list.

All of our operations are conducted in
absolute confidentiality; there can be no other way. I have not
told you anything that couldn’t be learned on the internet, but you
won’t find our guest lists or anything like that. It would even be
somewhat difficult to locate all our facilities. Now, is there
anything I can explain better at this point?”

Laura was awed at the scope of the
operation being run from Windmere, but outwardly remained calm.
“No, not a this point. I see the nature of the operation, and how
it interfaces between functions. It seems to me that if you have a
person particularly skilled in a function, it would be good
management to apply that skill wherever needed. It assures the
performance level, and makes the various operations more
transparent and seamless. So, no questions, although I would like
reserve the right to exercise that option later. I’m with you so
far.”

Ryan and Roger exchanged glances. Not
only as this woman articulate and self-assured in spite of what she
had just gone through, but she had quickly grasped the essentials
of what made Windmere so effective as a company. Now the question
became, could they fit her into the operation, and would she be
interested beyond just needing a job? Ryan remained silent, but
inwardly his mind was considering the pleasure in just seeing her
every day; at the same time, his mind was saying ‘Stop thinking
that way, she’s a married woman with kids; behave yourself’, and he
knew he would, like it or not. Strange, he had not had these
stirrings since Mary had passed away, and he wondered that the
feelings should come back now so strongly. “Please continue, Roger”
was his only indication he was still in the conversation, but Laura
was drawn to the strong, resonate voice full of
confidence.

“Okay so far. We have become a little
concerned that our recent acquisitions and new management contracts
have loaded on demands that exceed the supply of management time.
We cannot permit that to happen. Any decline in performance would
go against everything that identifies us as unique. We need a means
of quickly identifying data relevant to a developing problem so we
can get out ahead of it with remediation measures. We understand
you have a working knowledge of data base management. Could you
clarify please?”

Doris had suddenly reappeared with a
fresh carafe of coffee, which she placed by Laura, and just as
quickly disappeared again. Laura responded to Roger’s question by
first refilling their cups to buy a few seconds while her mind
raced, then responded as forthrightly as she could: “It’s true I
have some experience in data base management. My husband sold and
managed commercial/industrial insurance and loss prevention
policies, and I ran the office end of things in our home. Mostly,
it was recording the insured assets, location, information like
that. He handled claims and so on, but I did all the prep work. As
you probably already know, I didn’t handle the cash flow. I am
embarrassed to admit that was an area I didn’t have under control,
and worse yet, I never allowed myself to suspect. But, I’m sure
you’re not interested in the blame game. To repeat, yes, I have
data base management experience, but I won’t lie to you. I don’t
know if I can handle an operation of this size and complexity. I
can tell you that I understand the need for confidentiality. What
you might consider is facility coding so whomever manages the data
base only knows some parameter is out of it’s limits and can bring
it to your attention, but doesn’t know the name of the actual
facility. It might be a little cumbersome, but from a data
management standpoint, it’s just data and whatever you name it,
it’s just still data and the system doesn’t care. Anyway, it’s a
thought. And there you have it. I guess my answer is ‘I think I
can’ but truthfully, I’m a little nervous.”

Ryan winced slightly at the words “my
husband”. As good a businessman as he was, his exact thoughts at
that moment were on a far different track, and the sharp reminder
of the existence of Laura’s husband snapped him back to reality. He
chided himself mentally; this was no way to be thinking. He had
certainly seen his share of beautiful women, some articulate and
well educated, some very interested in furthering their interests
in him, yet none had held his attention like this woman. She was
much like his Mary, yet different in many respects, and married.
That point Ryan fixed in his mind so he would be ever mindful of
the fact.

In the meantime, Roger had forged ahead
in the interview, unaware that Ryan had been mentally absent for a
few moments. Roger considered Laura’s very candid response and
respected her “cut to the chase” approach. “Other things aside for
a moment, we know some really good consultants. If we brought in a
consultant to help set things up, establish an interface network,
things like that, would you like to discuss further managing the
data base for us?”

“Other things aside, yes, I
would.”

“I should mention before we go any
farther that no job or position at Windmere is considered to be any
more important or any less important than any other. If I need to
be a bartending CEO, or help Dennis get the grounds in condition,
or Franz make airport runs, I do it. I’m telling you this so if you
are asked to serve dessert at 2 AM to some potentate to help out
Doris or Marie, it would be because the task needs done, not
because anyone else is more or less important to the organization.
We will never ask you to do anything you believe to be illegal,
immoral, or against your will, or dangerous to your being. About
the fattening aspect, that’s Doris’ problem. Shall I
continue?”

“Please do.”

“Windmere considers people to be
individuals. Employment agreements, where possible, are tailored to
the person. For instance, we are aware that for you to attend a 2
AM meeting would require childcare services. We do try to not
surprise people with those events, but we do have some really heavy
hitters for clients who like to have their way. Occasionally,
things just happen, and we cope. The other issue of financial
significance has to do with where you live if you decide to stay.
Some staff, like Dennis and Franz, and Mrs. Hamilton, live at
Windmere. Others, such as myself and Doris, live in Conyerville or
close by. It matters only to determine the starting pay level, that
is, do you need to pay rent or not. I will tell you also, in case
you were wondering, our allowance for housing is not the same as we
charge a client for an equivalent unit. So, would you care to tour
while thinking this over? Your kids are probably wondering what
happened to you by now anyway.”