That Was Then - This is Now Pt. 01

We chatted on for a few minutes. A germ of an idea came to me. Jim was a friend, and he'd be great in the store. "Jim, I've got an idea. Give me tonight to work on it and I'll call you tomorrow. You going to be at this number?" I had forgotten the original reason for my call.

"Yeah, I'll be here. Nowhere else to go right now. What are you thinkin' man?"

"Later. I'll call tomorrow and let you know if this works out. I don't want to get your hopes up, but really, I do have an idea."

"Okay man. Thanks for calling. Good to hear from you. Talk to you tomorrow."

"Bye Jim." I made a couple of phone calls. The others I'd make in the morning. The huge black cloud had lifted somewhat. I'd be helping myself and a buddy at the same time.

Next morning I was on the phone to the Credit Union manager. I explained to him my plan. He said that he could see no problem as far as they were concerned. Then I called my parole officer. I didn't know what he'd think of my plan, or if he'd want the extra work load. I got an appointment for that afternoon and went over to Fairview to run my plan by him.

"What I'm thinking of doing is bringing a friend in to help with my business. Problem is, he's an ex- con, same as me. Right now he's down at the coast, but I know he'd move up here if there was any opportunity for him. I gotta tell you, he's the biggest black guy I've ever met. We were cell mates and he was one of my students in that computer class I ran. He took to it like a duck to water, and I know we'd do well together."

"Okay, Evan. Give me the details," and I went on to explain what I was planning.

"Okay, Evan this sounds pretty good. Let me make a couple of calls and get back to you. Do you know who his parole officer is?"

"Nope, but I can find out."

"Never mind. I can get the info off our database. You going to be home or at the store later?"

"I'll be at the store until around 5:00, then at home."

"Sounds good. I'll let you know one way or the other later today."

"That's all I can ask. I appreciate it." I almost danced out of his office, got into my little truck and went to run some errands. I stopped in to see Gerry and get more details about what he needed for that computer program I was looking at designing for him. Over coffee we discussed several options and came to the decision that adapting an existing program would be the way to go. I told him I'd spec out a few and see about getting a developers licence.

I headed back to my store and waited for the phone to ring. I still wasn't open, but there were things I could do. If nothing else, I could dream. I went next door, got a coffee and sandwich to go, talked to Marie for a few minutes, and went back to the store. The phone was ringing when I got there.

"Evan, Tim Simpson."

"Yes Mr. Simpson."

"Please, it's Tim."

"Okay Mr. Simp...I mean Tim."

"Here's what you need to do..." and he filled me in on all the details of what Jim would need.

My next call was to Jim. I could almost feel his change of attitude over the phone when I explained to him the plan and what he needed. My biggest concern, for him and me, was being self sufficient until the business could support us. I was hoping for six months, but expecting longer. I was lucky in that Gerry had given me a retainer towards his program, and I still had some of my $5,000 left. If all went well, Jim would be working with me in about a month. He was over the moon.

I talked to my landlord and found that she had a vacancy on the second floor. It was only a one bedroom, but it would have to do. I put a hold on it on Jim's behalf. It was coming together. Soon I'd have a buddy working with me. When Jim got here, we'd have to think up a new business name, but that was for the future.

The next few weeks were hectic. I'd finally got all the government paperwork, and did open the doors. There was no big grand opening, just an advertisement in the local paper stating that a new computer service centre was open for business. I was busier than I thought I'd be at the start. The good thing was that I was able to solve every problem the customers brought in. I didn't feel that charging Vancouver rates was warranted in this town, and I was right. Word got around that I was good and, more important, affordable.

Right on schedule, Jim arrived on the Greyhound. We had a great reunion and happily chatted long into the night. He'd be bunking with me until his apartment was ready in a few days. Meanwhile, he'd have to get squared away with the parole officer and get ready for moving into his apartment. He'd start in the store the following Monday.

I called Debbie and asked if I could bring a friend to the weekly barbeque on Saturday. I told her I'd bring the wine and potato salad. She said she'd put on an extra steak. I grinned, and wondered what she would think when she saw the size of my guest. I was fairly certain she was expecting female company.

My poor little truck struggled all the way to Fairview. Jim was so big he hardly fit into the cab. All he talked about on our short trip was getting some real wheels, meaning a vehicle big enough for him to fit in. We arrived at Debbie and Gerry's, and I noticed that Barb and Wendy were already there. I saw James pull in behind me. His girlfriend wasn't with him. We later learned that he had caught her with another guy. Could I ever relate to that!

Debbie warmly greeted Jim. The look on her face when I brought Jim around back was priceless, but if he was a friend of her big brother, he must be okay. Barb and Wendy were reclined on some chaise lounges, and got up to welcome Jim as well. Gerry spoke for all of them when he came out of the house, "Christ almighty, I need more than one extra steak!" and with the ice broken by everyone cracking up, we settled easily into the weekly barbeque. As time went on, Jim would be a frequent and welcome guest, and even bring his date and future wife with him once in awhile.

Monday, Jim walked with me to the store. I took him over and introduced him the Marie. She welcomed him warmly, and said that the same discount I enjoyed would apply to him as well. We opened up and got to work. I'd had several repair jobs come in late on Friday, and promised to have them ready today. As I expected, Jim was great with the customers. If you didn't know better, you'd never guess that he had killed a man. Well, I guess that applied to me as well. It was something that had happened, we'd served our time and all that was behind us.

Over the next several months we got really busy. Our store was becoming well known for good service and reasonable rates. Word of mouth was great advertising. Jim was a better front counter man than me, so he did most of the store front stuff. I worked on developing major contracts. We both did repairs in the back. It got so busy that after some discussion we decided we needed to hire some staff. We decided that we'd hire someone to help look after the front counter, and get someone to help in back, preferably a student who was going to major in computer science.

The choices weren't easy. We had quite a few applicants for both positions. The first student we hired for the repair shop tuned out to be our landlord's nephew. Marie hadn't talked to us, but had told him to apply. Kevin turned out to be a good kid, and fit in and worked well. Marie was really happy about that since she had never mentioned him to us, so there was never any pressure.

We ended up going through five different people for the front counter work. We had to be able to trust them, and they had to be willing to learn. We ended up hiring a young woman, about 25 years old. She was part Jamaican, part white and, I thought, quite pretty. It turned out that she had had several jobs but was let go when businesses were downsizing; just an unfortunate luck of the draw. However, we were expanding, and hoped to do so for the foreseeable future. Her husband had been killed over in Afghanistan, one of the first of many that died there, and she was trying to raise 2 kids on her survivor's pension and what little money she could earn from various small jobs. We were happy to have her aboard and found Sonja to be a really nice person, hard worker, and really good with the public. Jim and I were both pleasantly surprised to find that if she didn't know about something, she wouldn't hesitate to ask. The others tried to bullshit their way through it, doing themselves and the business a disservice. I was happy that the business was doing well but I still had a nagging feeling that something was missing.