"Mom, slow down and back this up a bit," I said, not quite sure of what she told me. "What's wrong?"
She took a deep breath, the exhale making crackling sounds as it came across the line. "Your dad is in the ER. He fell down the stairs."
"How is he?"
She sniffled. "He's saying he's fine, but the doctor is running some tests to be sure he's okay."
Dad would say he's fine even if he knew he wasn't. He didn't like being fussed over. "I'm on my way there."
"What? No. Enjoy your evening. You're finally out with your girl. She's beautiful, too. It'd be a waste to come to the hospital."
"She would also be mad if I kept quiet and didn't tell her anything."
Mom sighed. "Fine. Do whatever you want."
"I will." I hung up and went back into the gym. I found Jenny and touched her shoulder, making her jump. "We need to go," I said quietly, making sure only she could hear me.
"Everything okay?" Her brow furrowed and her face looked pinched. All the air of having fun left in a moment.
I felt bad for it, but I had no choice. "I'll explain in the car." I waved at the other kids with a forced smile. "We're heading out now. Gotta get this one back before she turns into a pumpkin."
"What are you talking about?" I grabbed her arm and gave it a small tug, trying to get her to move to leave already. She turned to her friends and said, "I'll see you guys tomorrow." She finally came with me. We went out to my car where I opened her door before getting in myself. "Okay, so tell me what this is all about. I swear, if you say anything about Charlie or drinking-"
"Dad's at the ER."
It looked like time stopped for her for a moment. "What? Is he okay? What happened?"
I started the car and pulled out of my parking spot. "As far as I know, he's going to be okay, but he fell down the stairs at our place. He fell from the second floor to the first. Mom doesn't know how he is yet, but she said he was in pain, but otherwise seemed okay when she saw him last."
We spent the ride in silence. I was grateful for it, but it still just left me time to get lost in my thoughts.
---
"Careful," I warned Dad.
He shot me a glare. "Like I can do anything anyway," he said. His leg was in traction, so he couldn't get out of bed. I knew he hated having other people wait on him hand and foot, but this was what happened when someone falls almost a full story. If they managed to only get away with a broken leg. That didn't stop him from trying to roll over in the bed, though.
"You shouldn't be doing anything, anyway. You have a broken leg and a fractured leg. You're getting over a concussion, too. You should just be lying there in that bed being grateful you didn't fall through the bars and land on the rock garden." I didn't want to think about what would have happened then.
"How's work been since I've been gone?"
"Fine." I had been running the store for only a day, but of course he would be asking. That place was his other child. "Jenny is a tough nut to crack, though. She's the first one to speak up about everything. I never pegged her as someone like that."
Dad chuckled. "She's one tough cookie. Don't let her fool you - she's been through a lot and is still going through a rough situation at home, but she's dedicated. She's worth every penny I pay her."
I frowned. "Dad, I've been looking at the books," I started quietly. "There's a lot of potential to make nearly double what you're bringing in."
He looked at me. "You mean advertising? I do that already. Plus, I've been running that place most of your life. I'm the only grocery store with a wide selection of items in town. There's no way I could get more people coming. Everyone knows about me."
"I meant by cutting your labor."
"Don't you go touching anything on there. I have things set up a certain way for a reason."
I sighed. "Don't you want to bring in more revenue?"
"Who wouldn't? But I live comfortably. We all do. You can't tell me you've been neglected or in want at any point in your life." He did have a point. "You can't possibly think that we need to get more money."
"It's just that there's too much leniency with your employees. The standard is to not get too close to your employees and to do things in the best interest of the business."
Dad sighed. "Tell you what. Run the store for a little bit how you see fit. You have until I come back to work. If things are running better, you win. If things are running worse, you're going to be put on the back burner again until you decide to do things the right way."
Somewhere in my heart, I knew that what he was saying was correct. Yet, Charlie's words kept replaying in my head: You're going to always have that one employee that's going to push the limits. You're going to grab them by the chops and lay down the law. I know it seems hard, but you're going to have to man up and do the job.
The only employee pushing the limits right now was Jenny. I wasn't sure why she was. The only thing I knew was that she was earning far beyond what any high school kid should have been getting, especially for their first job. I'd told her that she needed to show me her worth, but I knew what she was capable of. I'd been watching her for a year at that point.
I stood up and got ready to go. "I'm heading to work."
"Be careful, and remember what I said."
"I will."
When I reached the store, I double-checked myself. My calculations weren't wrong. She was the reason the store's profits weren't what they could be. Her and the old woman, Thelma. They were the ones that were draining resources. I also checked and saw how we could increase the profits from the others.
It took a couple of weeks, but I finally produced schedules that allowed people to spend more time with their families and less time working. Simply rotating out some people cut the labor cost by a very noticeable amount. Enough that we had the budget to expand somewhat. It was amazing how much Dad was putting into the people working for him.
A part of me wondered why, but another, louder part of me told me that I had to man up and fix this. It sounded an awful lot like Charlie. I shook my head and tried to push the voice out. I didn't want him in my head. We were too different, and his ways were wrong.
The night before I enacted the new schedule, I couldn't sleep. I knew there would be backlash. One of the key people fighting back would be Charlie. I was sure of it. I had cut his hours by a bit. Not as much as I cut Jenny's or Thelma's, though. Thelma was old. She didn't need to be working so much at her age. Her file showed she was about 70. Jenny was about to be 18, but she was also a school kid. She didn't need to be working as much as she was, either. She was on the schedule every day.
I came into work and gathered everyone around. Jenny was the last person to come in, as I'd planned. I finished my little meeting and gave her the new schedule. As I'd planned. What I didn't plan for was her reaction.
After I handed Thelma her schedule, I heard Jenny say quietly, "That's not fair to you."
The thought made my stomach twist. "On the contrary," I said. "It's very fair to her. I took into consideration her age and I've noticed that she has some limitations. This will ease the burden on her and frees up time for her to see her grandkids and be able to be with her family." I knew I sounded like the hardened jerk Charlie was. My eyes subconsciously sought him out and he was smirking at me.
"Yeah, the family she works to support!" She yanked the paper out of the older woman's hands and shoved it in my face. "This isn't enough hours for someone to live on! Not at the rate we're paid!"
I swatted the paper away. They? "Need I remind you that you're paid entirely differently than the rest of these workers? If you want to talk about unfair, let's talk about your salary. Let's talk about how you get more money than Thelma. Or maybe we could talk about you barely do anything around here to warrant your pay. As of your next check, your pay is dropping to minimum wage. I'm still going to give you salary like you're getting now, but it's going to be considerably less."
Her eyes looked like a caged animal's. "You can't do that."
"I can, and I am. You still live at home, right? It's not like you need the extra money."
"I do need it."
I sighed. "Look, you can argue with me all you want, but it's not going to change anything. Thelma is going to work three days a week, your pay is going down, and everyone can just be happy about it or you can find somewhere else to work." Please don't go work somewhere else.
"You can't do this." Tears began to shine in her eyes. How much was this affecting her? Why was she standing up so resolutely for Thelma? Was there a connection I didn't know about there? "You don't know the first thing about the lives of any of your workers. Your father does. Trust his decisions."
"He's an old man that doesn't understand how to properly turn a profit." It pained me to say it, but looking at his books showed otherwise. He could have turned a much larger profit by paying his workers less.
"Then how has he been growing his business for the last ten years? I'd say he understands plenty." She took a step towards me as she spoke. Was she trying to intimidate me?
"You don't get it, do you? You've probably never had an honest day's wage in your life, and never even thought about investing any of it. You never studied business, finance, or anything like that. At this rate, I'm surprised you're even graduating high school." I kept glancing up at Charlie. He looked almost proud. My skin began to crawl. Was this really the right thing to do?
"Yeah? Well at least I've never been a disappointment to my family because I couldn't understand the people behind the workers." She narrowed her eyes at me. "Salutatorian? What a joke. I'm surprised you thought enough about other people to even make the opening speech." She glared at me for a moment before turning and storming out of the office.
"You're lucky I'm not firing you!" I shouted after her.
Once everyone was taken care of, I closed myself up in the office and put my head in my hands. I wasn't the person Charlie was. There was no way I could keep this up. Yet I knew I had to. There was only one way I could win my bet with my father, and that was to try to be as much like the family's golden boy as possible.
But did that mean I had to hurt myself and the person that meant the most to me?
I somehow managed to keep things up for a lot longer than I thought I would. A few weeks of nothing but antagonizing Jenny it seemed, I finally showed up to work and saw her working with two black eyes and a busted lip. My heart fell to the floor. What had happened to her? My instincts shouted at me to make sure she was okay.
Without giving it a second thought, I walked over to her and grabbed her shoulder, turning her to face me. "What happened to you?"
"Why does it matter?" Venom seeped into her voice. It surprised me, but I tried to ignore it.
"Seriously. What happened? Did your family do this to you? You said you give the check to them. This isn't right. You know that, right? I can call someone-"
"Don't!" She closed her eyes and seemed to take a breath. They opened again and she said, "I mean, what happened is none of your business. Don't try to butt your head into matters now. You've made it abundantly clear you don't like me. It just makes you look even more shallow trying to find out about my life after everything that's happened."
I glanced around, looking for Charlie. When I didn't see him, I lowered my voice slightly. "I really do care about my employees, you know. I try to make sure they get taught a lesson they need to learn or take care of them in the way that benefits them because if their bodies are worn out, how can you expect them to give the job their all?"
She looked at me for a moment before responding. "You have a long ways to go if that's your intention. You should have just left everything how your dad had it. He took everyone into consideration and knew their circumstances. If someone isn't making the living they need to, they're going to go to another place and try to work a second job. That's going to wear them out even faster and then what? You need to put a little more thought into what you're doing and try to figure out why your dad did what he did."
"Does that have anything to do with why you're looking like you lost a fight?"
"Tell you what." She sat something I hadn't even realized she was holding on the shelf and then faced me. "Pay me what your dad was originally paying me, give Thelma her hours back, and make sure everyone has the pay and hours they originally had. After you do that, we'll talk."
"Done."
She shook her head. "Hold up your end of the deal first. You need to earn my trust. You completely lost it doing what you did." She held up a can. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to putting stuff on the shelves."
"You have finals coming up, right? Why don't you bring your stuff to the office and study instead. I mean, it's the least I can do. Give you a day to do what you need to do, that is."
She paused as if considering my offer, but shook her head. "I'll pass. Thanks for offering."
I sighed. She was obviously thinking I was going to dock her pay. "I'm putting you back on salary, so it doesn't matter what you do, does it?"
"I still don't trust you. You lost it and need to earn it back."
I chuckled and gave her a smile. "You win." She looked surprised as I let her return to work.
Now that I was sure she was okay, the feelings began to rush back. I waited until I got into the office and called my dad. He answered on the first ring. "Tell me about Jenny," I told him.
He sighed. "What happened?"
I bit my lip, unsure of how to explain without telling him about what I did. "She showed up to work today all bruise up. It's not the first time I've noticed that she's been beaten. What's her home life like?"
Dad sighed. "This is something that you should really be hearing from her. I can't tell you much without her consent, but her dad's name is Marvin. Her mom left a couple years ago. She worked for me and often came in the same way. I found out her husband is abusive. It wouldn't surprise me if he turned all of that onto his daughter when his wife left him."
So her dad was beating her up. I sat back and took in this information. There was enough cause for me to call someone about it. I had proof in the form of Jenny. But she had seemed so desperate that I don't call anyone. She was about to be 18, as well, if she wasn't already. I wasn't sure when her birthday was, but it was close. She'd be able to change her situation herself soon. Then again, I felt like it was better to get her out of there sooner rather than later. What if she didn't want to leave? What if her father made it so she couldn't?
"I don't know what to do," I said aloud.
"Don't do anything," Dad said. "Leave her be. If she wants you to do anything, she'll come to you herself. Until then, just try to relax. Remember that she's a strong young woman."
"I know," I said quietly. All this time, every time I lowered her check, she stood up to me. She's stood up to me at every turn. I tried to implement Charlie's outlook, but I couldn't keep doing it. I would just have to stay the black sheep.
Surprisingly, as I made up my mind and hung up with my dad, I found I wasn't upset. At some point being the golden boy had become less and less of a priority. Now, I was sure that I only ever wanted to be hers.