The McCullen Ranch

I was honored when Randi asked me to participate in this. The theme isn't one of my stronger topics and I suggested to Randi that it may be best I step away. She threatened to come find me if I did, so I took the cowards way out and wrote this to stop her from being angry with me. My two closest friends did find one hole in the storyline and I'm hoping they are the only ones to spot it. My thanks go to Hale1, Blackrandl1958 and SouthPacific for their editing out my mistakes.

*******

Jade and I had been sitting in my office for the last hour; who got up at any time depended on when we got drinks for each other.

My boss told me that I had a very odd relationship with my secretary, one which he didn't want to bleed over into the other executives' offices. I knew what he meant, and told him I would tell Jade not to talk to them. He harrumphed and left, still unsure if I was stringing him along.

He was right, of course; I did have a strange relationship with Jade.

Just over a year ago, my own boss was effectively told he could either retire or die. He still had a family he wanted to see grow up, so he took his doctor's advice and retired, naming me as his successor. Did I see that coming? Never in a million years, but Peter Miller's retirement had caught us all by surprise. The top floor very reluctantly accepted his decision, and even more reluctantly agreed that I was going to be the guy to replace him.

The reasons why they were reluctant were all the same reasons that Pete kept me on. I was thirty-two, and now would be the youngest to hold a job at his level. I also thought outside the box on some of the tasks given to me, and that broke with tradition. If I had a dollar for every time I heard the words "we don't do things that way at Richardson & Sons," I would be a very comfortably well-off gentleman.

Amongst the things I inherited when I took over was Deidre Winters. Deidre was Pete's secretary, and knew everyone on the top floor on first name terms. She hated the fact that Pete retired, and loathed the thought of me being her boss. I tried being nice, but when she started changing wording on letters I had asked her to type up and basically reporting my every movement to some of the bosses we had...words.

She was so offended at our last stand-up row that she went sick. It left me without a secretary, but at least I wasn't looking over my shoulder any more. My boss came into the office two days later, took one look at my desk, and used my phone to call the typing pool.

"You're as good as Pete says you are, but you're buckling under all this shit. The typing pool will send someone up to help; play nice and get this sorted, because I have a job for you and you need to start in two days. Clear all this and get back to me."

An hour later Jade breezed into my office, dropped the bag she had hanging over her shoulder onto the floor, and flopped down in the seat across from my desk. I took one look at her and liked her immediately; the trouble with our company was that they had a strict dress code. Jade seemed to dress right up to the limit of that code without getting her ass kicked out of the company.

All we did for the first minute was stare at each other.

"Look, I'll make this easy for you. We both know you don't want me here, so phone down and get them to send up someone who wants to work for you."

While trying as hard as hell to suppress a smile, I did ask her what she meant. It turned out that Deidre Winters had been busy with the girls of the typing pool as well; my name was mud as far as they were all concerned. In an effort not to smile at her comment, I got up and made us both a drink; that alone made Jade frown.

"I'll make a deal with you." I pointed to the stacks of files on my desk and said, "Give me a hand for the rest of the day to clear this, and if you're still that keen to return to the pool then you have yourself a deal."

She looked at the recycled rain forest on my desk for all of a minute and then at me.

"Promise?"

I made a gesture of crossing my heart with my finger, and Jade looked long and hard at my desk once more before she nodded. Kicking her bag out the open door, where it came to a sudden stop against the desk outside, she grabbed the nearest stack before walking out and sitting at her desk.

She came back less than ten minutes later with a file in her hand, and dropped it onto my desk.

"You need to deal with that now, before you touch any of the others."

I put the file I was going through down and read what was in the one she'd brought in.

"Jade, can you get the accounts for Michel....."

As I looked up, she was already half way into the office holding a file labeled "Michelson's accounts." She put it down and walked back to her desk, still reading the contents of another report. No sooner had I dealt with that than she came back in with another folder and handed it to me. Since she had the same look on her face as she did with the Michelson file, I took it from her and read it.

I finished the file and turned to the open door, ready to call out to her with my next request. Jade was leaning against it reading another of her files.

"I've got Mr. Johnson waiting on hold for you on line two."

She then turned and sat back at her desk. It was well into the afternoon when I realized who she reminded me of. My dad was a great fan of M.A.S.H. and a little guy called Radar. I thought I'd just found the female version of that character; she was always there waiting for me to ask so she could tell me it was already done.

It was as the clock struck the final hour before heading home that I started to wonder if I should break my deal with her and keep her. But I had given my word and, with all but two of the files now dealt with, I got up from my desk to say goodbye to Jade. Her desk was empty, left as neat as it was before she got there. That saddened me, but a deal was a deal, so I put my coat on and left for home, the last two files still not even touched.

*******

The journey into work the next morning left me wondering who from the typing pool was going to hate me next. I was still halfway down the corridor when my office door opened and Fred walked out backwards. Fred was the "go to" guy if you needed anything in the building. I heard him say "yes ma'am," as he closed the door.

Fred nodded to me as we passed, but that still left me wondering who was in my office. The wicked witch of the west was still on sick leave, so that meant her replacement from the pool. That thought alone put me in a real good mood for the day: sigh. Isn't sarcasm such a wonderful thing?

I sensed myself holding my breath as I opened the door, but it sure expelled quickly when Jade smiled back at me.

"You know, for a loser on the top floor, you're not THAT bad to work for. I figured I may just hang around, so that I have plenty of stories to tell the girls when the bosses come to their senses and send me back to the pool."

So began this strange relationship. My desk was never that clear when Deidre Winters thought she was in charge. My boss called me into his office the next day and dumped Kneedon Holdings into my lap. I thanked him and left shortly after, mentally working on my résumé. Jade took one look as I returned and followed me into my office, carrying a cup of coffee for each of us.

"Well, Jade, your spell on the top floor is sure going to be as short-lived as mine."

In essence, the top floor bought Kneedon Holdings because they had to, having only wanted to buy one of its subsidiaries. The one we dealt with on a regular basis impressed the top floor so much they wanted to absorb it into Richardson & Sons to consolidate its holdings, and to make sure the talent that made up the company we dealt with didn't leave. The bosses kept their eye on the wrong ball on this deal, and quickly figured that out when the ink dried.

Kneedon Holdings was leaking money, expertise and reputation within the marketplace on a monthly basis, and the drain on our own company's finances became evident at every board meeting. Now Kneedon's file sat on my desk; it was left to me to finally decide what to do with it.

When I finished explaining and looked at Jade, she still had her cup in her hands. Eventually, she picked the file up, left my office and sat at her own desk. It was ten minutes before the end of the day when she came back, placed the file on my desk, and then looked at me.

"Well, it was fun working with you."

I nodded, and let my thoughts drift back towards touching up my résumé. Jade left on time; I stayed an hour and re-read the file and, as much as I didn't want it to, it went home with me in my head. I slept on it and was in the office an hour early. Jade already had a coffee in her hand and the report on her lap when I got there.

"I've spoken to Fred, and he's given me the key to lecture room four. It's the smallest he's got, and he's already removed it from the cleaning crew's list, so it's ours until we're done."

There was no point in asking, so I just went with the flow. Between Jade, the Kneedon file and me, we started to build up a head of steam; eventually even my own boss stopped looking in my office, and came directly down to lecture room four. He would look at everything that was pasted to the boards and then leave.

The only time he ever said anything, it was, "I'm not about to slow you two down; you've done more about this than anyone else has been able to."

Deidre Winters' friends informed her that her boss could well offer a way out of Kneedon Holdings. In a frantic effort to save face, and no doubt hang onto a few coat-tails, Deidre notified HR she would be well enough to start work again on Monday. Jade found out when she got notification from the head of the typing pool that she would return that Monday.

As politely as I could, I told my boss that Deidre Winters was nothing more than an albatross around my neck, and the company's as well; she should have been allowed to retire when Pete did. I'm not sure if I caught him in a good mood that day, but he agreed, so I got to keep Jade. He damn near choked though, when I asked that she be paid Deidre's pay rate, but that passed as well.

*******

For the next three months Jade and I traveled to Kneedon's head office, or camped out in lecture room four, ten and twelve hours a day, mostly six days a week, and gave my boss just enough in the way of updates to let him know we were making progress, while keeping everyone happy. It felt like Jade and I were pushing this whole idea uphill all on our own, until that fateful day when three separate divisional managers were invited to sit in the boardroom with the Managing Director, where they each read a file and said "yes."

It meant the end of Kneedon's, but each of the managers would merge the relevant parts into their own divisions. It wasn't a garage sale. Our company made money out of the deal: not a huge amount, but we wouldn't be losing any either. As the dust settled, Jade and I worked out that all of four people would lose jobs over the deal: two were taking early retirement, one was settling up and moving, and the last had already started looking for another job anyway.

Jade gave Fred back lecture room four and apologized for the mess, and I made sure all five cleaning ladies got a bouquet of flowers each with their names on them, resting on one of the tables. That, of course, was the reason why Jade and I were sitting in my office hugging a coffee each, so that the big bosses could sign on the dotted line, pat each other on the back and congratulate each other on a job well done. My boss came and leaned against the door frame. Jade offered him a drink, but I had my doubts about her getting it for him.

"You two did well today; you may never know it by the way the suits are talking upstairs, but I know you did. You have two days to close down any outstanding work, and then I don't want to see either of you for a month. That is courtesy of our beloved CEO."

We both thanked him, and he left. I made sure Jade left not long afterwards, and I continued to look out my office window. It hadn't been a problem for me, since I didn't have a girlfriend, but the hours and the travel we did to get this project over the line had placed a great deal of strain on Jade's relationship. Almost from the start, I had sent word down to security that Jade's partner was to be given access to the building anytime after working hours. When Connie came in, often bringing dinner, it was a welcome break for us all.

When I came in the next morning, Jade looked about as miserable as I had ever seen her.

"Okay, what's up with you?"

It took me handing her a coffee before she put it into words.

"Well, it's this 'month off' thing. Connie hasn't a problem with it, since all she has to do is open her laptop, poke around until she can find Wi-Fi, and she's at work."

The pause was longer because I was waiting; in the end I got bored.

"So that's Connie settled. What's YOUR problem?"

Jade just gave me one of those half-hearted shrugs of her shoulders before she replied. "Finding a holiday isn't a problem; it's the paying for it. I'm still using my mega-pay raise to pay off my student debt."

With that I tossed my plastic onto her desk.

"Here's the deal. I still have to put some of this stuff to bed before I can leave, so book me a holiday, preferably as far away as possible from you two. Whatever it's going to cost me you get to spend the same amount on your holiday."

For the first time that morning she actually smiled, then frowned. In an echo of that first day, she asked "Promise?"

Now why the hell would Jade think I would double-cross her? So I did what I had done once before with her. My finger went to my chest and crossed over my heart. Jade's cheeks went an adorable red, and then she smiled once again. The topic of holidays never came up again that day; we both went to work clearing my desk and, by Thursday at four o'clock, my boss was sticking his head into the office and wanting to know why we were still there.

Jade agreed with him, and pulled her own bag out from under her desk. She pulled the top drawer open and handed me a plane ticket. I was actually expecting some fancy brochure attached to it.

"Is that it?"

She stopped at the door and nodded, "Everything has been taken care of."

For a moment I smelled a rat.

"I'm not going to be spending a month at an eco-village pulling out soya beans from the ground and singing Harry Krishna songs, am I?"

She was laughing as she turned to leave, "It's Hari-Krishna, and no, you're not."

I got nothing else from her other than a plane ticket. When I looked I had about four hours to pack and be at the airport. Oh, and I was going to Texas. My cell phone pinged, so I looked. It said. "Pack jeans, shirts, and boots. You usually pack stuff to jog in, so I didn't list those."

*******

I made good time, even having time to grab a bite to eat at the airport. For a moment, when I had my case in one hand and the open door of my apartment in the other, I asked myself why I was doing this. In the end, the answer was simple: I trusted Jade, and she was my friend as well as my secretary. Given the hours we had been working of late, it wasn't too surprising that I fell asleep as soon as I found my seat on the plane. I don't even remember taking off.

Walking out onto the concourse at Houston proved to be interesting. This walking into the unknown was unusual now that I had Jade as my secretary. People stood around waiting to recognize loved ones or friends; others in chauffeur uniforms or taxi company logos held up boards with names written on them; and right at the end stood a little girl, no older than twelve, holding a piece of card with "Chase somebody" on it. The poor girl was very embarrassed when people noticed, and either laughed or commented as they passed her.

Even airport security noticed her and wandered over. I heard more as I got closer.

"Look, Daddy yelled his name to me as he went to park the truck. I only got his first name, so I'm winging it."

"Well, your daddy shouldn't have let you loose in an airport on your own. You're what, ten?"

Now the girl looked really pissed. She dropped the piece of card on the floor and turned to square up to the woman airport security officer and her partner.

"Where I come from we get taught manners, but since you ain't shown shit, I guess that releases me from showing you any..."

I thought it prudent to get involved right about then.

"Young lady, my name is Chase. The part your daddy yelled but you missed was Stewart."

The young girl had that light-bulb moment and clicked her fingers at the same time.

"I knew I heard it start with an S."

At the same time I held out my driver's license to the two airport security people. The woman looked real hard at it and then me.

"Sir, we can't let you leave the airport with a minor."

The young girl couldn't resist getting a dig in at the woman. "Missed the part about daddy parking the truck, did yuh?"

Those two went to square up against each other again, when we heard "Stand down, Missy."

The girl backed away a couple of paces, but kept her attention on the woman security officer. I followed the sound of the order. The man stood a good six three, blonde like the girl, but cut high and tight. I've often heard the term "built like a brick outhouse," and this guy sure filled out his clothes, with none of it appearing to be fat. He was also dressed just like he had parked his horse outside, not a truck. It also seemed that airport security wasn't in the mood to back away either.

"And you are?"

The man placed his hand on the girl's shoulder; my first thought was that he was doing that to stop her from attacking the woman officer.

"McCullen. Abe McCullen. This here is my daughter Missy."

Something registered in the eyes of her partner and he placed his own hand on his partner's arm.

"We're done here, Trisha. Let it go."

To emphasize his point he came around the woman called Trisha and held out his hand towards Mr McCullen.

"Pleasure to meet you, sir. My cousin served with you; still talks about you, even today."

Abe shook the offered hand. "What's his name, officer?"

The man beamed with pride, and a part of me wondered if he planned to wash that hand before talking to his cousin.

"Joseph Carmichael, sir."

Abe finally broke into a smile. "Damn fine man to have in my unit, officer. Saw him at the last reunion. Please send him my regards, and remind him it's his turn to buy the beers."

Missy moved away from her father as he talked to the security officer, looked at me, and then down to my bag.

"Traveling light, ain't yuh?"

For my part, all I did was shrug my shoulders.

Making sure I moved my bag out of the way as people still passed us, I said, "I packed as per my secretary's list of things to pack."

She let out a sigh, and even shook her head. Missy even gave the bag a kick, and sighed again when it moved a couple of inches.

"Way light. You're gunna need more clothes, and nothing like what you're standing in, either."

I liked Missy. I'm not sure I even climbed onto her "like" scoreboard, to be honest, but I was impressed with the directness of the girl.

She looked up at me once again and said, "Well, Miss Jade said I may have to train yuh; she didn't say anything about clothing you as well. I charge a dollar a day extra for that, Chase." She couldn't stop a cheeky grin from sliding quickly across her face.

This girl was twelve, going on twenty, in my eyes. By now Abe was standing behind her, and held out his hand.

"Abe McCullen." He tilted his head towards his daughter and said, "You've met the boss, haven't you?"

We both smiled as Missy went scarlet, made a noise that sounded like "harrumph," and then headed for the exit. I picked up my bag and followed. Abe drove out of the airport and stopped at a motel twenty minutes later; I was booked into the room next door.