Miss Kitty

Miss Kitty - VIII

Nothing would help calm me down.  The sweat was cooling on my body, which I guess can be a good sign, but I started to shiver because of it.  I couldn't make a decision of what to do next.  The manager-side of my psyche instinctively knew that I was supposed to put some word out, I just wasn't listening at all to her.  The panic crept into my voice when I inter-office-called Remi.

"No kidding, huh?", Remi was a no-nonsense guy.  He's the one I look for when I need answers and I need them quick.  He was French at one point of his life, and he couldn't escape the soft accents of his heritage no matter that he lived here for almost twenty years.  He annuciated tremendously on the start of words and phrases, but then soften by like a factor of 2 on the tail ends of words.  He looked French.  He loved expresso and clicked the plunger on his pen like he was continuously trying to frighten birds.  "Why are you nervous, you only need to increase production and find 30k?"

"You remember all of that?  For me?"  Remi did have a mind for this stuff.  Although, to be fair to myself, I was swimming in my surprise during that entire 'talk'.  Talk or whatever you'd call an understood mandate.  "I keep a log, my friend, of anything or everything.  As long as you understand that it's entirely based on survival."

"You'd do so much better at a bigger division."

"Yet: here I am."  "And what of you?" I countered quickly before he had time to think.  He never took his time answering, but I wanted to make sure he was being honest.  May as well have two heads trying to counter this front.

"Well," he said it like 'comme ci, comme ca', "I have to lose a head, and a temp.  Then, filter the remaining across an 16 hour day."  Remi was in charge of chemical baths and the front end of the production line.  "It is what it is.  When did people start learning about cheap flash drives anyway?  No one buys American anymore."

I stopped him before he went on that tirade.  Technology, as business, botique or otherwise, is a hideous cunt.  There was no doubt, but complaining was like allowing water to fill the boat instead of lifting a finger to do something.  Voices are unnecessary in a crisis.  "Ah-ha, Remi, got to figure out where to find 30k."  I hung up and assumed the order was due by close of business today.

I kept the momentum going and pulled out the most staid manila folder I had in my office.  It was money. It was my life-line in these situations.  Show ROI, I get to live another quarter.  If there was homework to be done, it was my expense report.  This thing was tight, as in buttoned-up, like a slide rule in the hands of Lloyd Wright.

In fact, it was so comforting to have it in my hands, I could feel the anxiety ebb a little.  This is something I can control.  This is why I was here.  I was an expert at this, and here, in these 30 pages was my middle finger, my open hand, my sour stomach.  I opened and found that I had a third of the 30k still sitting as untouched, and about 8k in a state where I can retrieve quickly after a few phone calls and reimbursements back to the purchase order.  I think I can get 3k here, I pulled a sheet out that was a pending order for some raw plastic.  I can find a different color and save half.  Uh-oh.

I was running out of steam.  10k+.  There was some depreciation, but I hate using equipment as a bargaining tool.  It had already lost three-quarters of its cost, so why bother spending cycles trying to re-coup on it?  Ugh.

I called my top gunners in.  Ari, Ulysses and Parker sat more crisply than usual.  I double-taked when I thought that Ulysses was slyly looking at me as if he knew something.  But: how could he?

"So...we fired?"  "Not yet," I had the key sheets that I need help with.  "What's she like?"

"She's a boss.  And, more importantly, she wants results.  No one here is getting fired."  I could see the shoulders slump slightly out of respite.  I didn't notice until now, but Ari and Parker were beading on their forehead.  "And, we need to look at our reports and find about 10k in the next hour."

"Can we find a revenue generator?"  I shook my head, "She wants to see cash-money.  We'll have to pull some ideas about that other stuff when she calls for it.  But, she could call for it any hour now.  Ules, you go ahead and pull all of our proposals and stack by precedence, we need the biggest bang for the buck here."

"I'm thinking accelerate the Frilly boutique."  I nodded in agreement, "Just make sure they're clean."  He left.  "I need you two to dig deep through these papers with me and find anything over $250 we can pull right now."

"We only have twelve in cash right now, where do we get the rest."  I evened my gaze with Ari's and got about as serious as I could.  I could because I was, "We will have to find it even if we have to hock the gold from the chemist's lab now won't we?"  Heads dropped as we leapt into the pool of spreadsheets together.  The shoulders tensed up again and the sweat started to return.

But, I couldn't let Miss Kitty's presence a few doors from me affect what took precedence no matter what the situation: I need to keep paying for a car and a watch I shouldn't even own.  She didn't recognize me at all, let alone give any indication of my existence.  It was just like old times.  For now, I  thought I was safe from being anything but an innocent bystander.  I'm hoping being as plain vanilla as long as I could would offer up some rewards.