My Redacted Life Chapter 28 (Cont._2)

Spring turned into summer as Brenda had turned from a date into a steady girlfriend. To repay the trip to her parents, we visited mine. In early June, we drove to Pine Bluff one Saturday and I introduced her around. The family and friends all fell in love with her as did anyone who ever met her. That was no surprise.

The family Matriarch, Aunt Hallie Harden, whom we all called “Auntie” and my mother and other aunt called “Sister,” didn’t seemed too pleased that this nice young lady admitted to being a Methodist. She had heard that they let the kids dance in the fellowship hall. The horror! The horror!

After I pointed out that, at least, she wasn’t a “Roman Catholic,” Auntie relented and joined the fan club. Her seal of approval anchored our ship at my family’s spot in the harbor. We were secure from the storms of life, it seemed.

Back at the office, things were busy. We were excited about the progress toward the dandy subdivision the firm was about to develop. Somehow, we made contact with a developer in the St. Louis area, and Jack Castin designed a magnificent plan for a development they planned. We were making a name for ourselves in our little spot of Arkansas. Things would just get better.

At the opposite end of the hall from our offices in the Hall Building was a Snelling and Snelling employment agency. A crew of nice women, using fake names for some reason, worked there. We were all “elevator conversation” friends and they were familiar with our operations. One day, a young man wandered into their office looking for a job as a drafter and carrying samples of his work.

“There’s a firm we know of that employs such workers,” one said. “Sign here, and we’ll get you an appointment.” He signed the agreement promising to pay part of his wages to the employment firm for several months if hired. “Wait one,” she said.

She called me. It turned out that the original head drafter of our firm had given notice a day or two before, leaving us for the state’s largest engineering firm. She described the prospect. “Send him down,” I said.

Steve Rogers was a man of infinite capabilities. He would later enjoy several successes in the professional world. At this point in his life, he was just what we needed. We looked over the samples of his work and hired him on the spot.

Later, he would confess, “I saw the sign on your office door and started to skip the employment agency, walk down, and make a cold call,” he said. “I wish I had. It would have saved me money.”

Such are the turns that control a person’s life. What was important to us then, and in the future, was that he and Ron McConnell formed one of the best team of technicians ever to grace a firm like ours. Such are the turns that control an organization’s success.

Speaking of turns and twists, I was wondering if life wasn’t getting ready to ask me the rhetorical question, “Will that be cash or credit?” And I didn’t even know if the object of the question was on the market.

She might be willing, if “Barkis” was. Barkis wasn’t sure. And anyone on earth who thought they knew what that woman was thinking was nothing more than a self-deluded fool. Here was I, born a “little on the lite side of the cornbread,” and living in a constant state of befuddlement. The stage was set for something. I had no idea what, but I was so stricken I didn’t care.”

Just pick one, and tell
me what she's thinking.