A Million Tears (40 page)

‘That’s the best I can give it to you for,’ said Boothroyd. ‘As I said, I intended to expand that way but if the price is right, well . . .’ he shrugged. ‘A little profit goes a long way I always say. Yes, a long way.’

‘What if I bought the land outright for the same . . .’ began Evan but I interrupted him.

‘Hold it, Evan. I think we should go away and think about it.’ I got to my feet as did Evan, showing none of the surprise he must have been feeling.

Not so Boothroyd who sat with his mouth agape. Evan leaned across the desk, shook Boothroyd’s hand while I just nodded goodbye. We left him sitting there, too surprised to try and stop us.

‘What was that all about?’ Evan asked when we reached the street.

‘It’s simple. His secretary nearly blundered by saying the wrong thing when Boothroyd suggested he was thinking of expanding. Secondly, there was no activity about the place. I mean, none whatsoever. There was no noise, no interruptions, just nothing. At our place there’s always a sort of hum of activity, not loud but always present. Well, I’d expect there to have been something, don’t you think? Let’s just leave him alone for a day or two and in the meantime I’ll try and talk to the secretary. Perhaps I’ll be able to find out something from her.’

‘You think she’ll tell you? That would be pretty disloyal,’ Evan said, with a frown.

‘Evan bach, you saw his office; just compare it to hers. Also,’ I paused, and said what I was thinking, ‘you’re too impatient. Once you start something you want to get it over with. You’ve got to learn to go slower. Argue more. You’ll do all right your way but you’ll do better if you slow down just a little.’

‘You’re right, and I know it,’ he chuckled. ‘Which is why I like to have you along. You’re my patience.’

‘Yes, well, I won’t always be here, so you’d better learn in the meantime,’ I said gruffly.

Later that day, carrying a lot more money in my wallet than I was comfortable with, I waited in a cab across the road from Boothroyd’s place. After about half an hour when the driver was becoming impatient and grumbling, Boothroyd’s secretary appeared. She was wearing a scruffy coat against the chill of the evening and hurrying along the road. I waited until she had turned a corner out of sight and told the cabby to follow. We pulled up alongside her.

‘No it isn’t, Mr Price. Me and my family don’t have much. I can assure you that what I tell you will save your Mr Griffiths a lot more. Boothroyd told me he was going to get five thousand for a lease.’

‘No you won’t, Mr Price. Even if it is a lot of money. I know full well what I’ve got to tell you and its worth a lot more than that.’

‘You drive a hard bargain,’ I sighed, ‘but all right.’ I reached into my coat pocket for my wallet. ‘But tell me your information first,’ I said.

‘Nope. Give me one hundred dollars now and put the other seventy five where I can see it.’

I counted out the money and handed her the hundred. The other seventy five I put on the seat between us. We both put a finger on the fluttering notes.

‘Boothroyd will be bust flat within three weeks at the most. We moved here from another part of town one step ahead of the bailiffs. He’d hoped to keep things going long enough to pay his debts but the bank ain’t supporting him no more. He’s hurting real bad right now. Unless he pays the bank at least a thousand he can’t borrow no more and if he don’t borrow he’s not going to be doing any more importing and exporting. Well anyway, the upshot is he can’t keep going. He was cock-a-hoop after you left because he reckons Mr Griffiths wants that land real bad.’

‘Interesting,’ I said thoughtfully.

‘You can knock him down to two thousand and buy the land by the end of the week. After all, that land’s no good to him.’

The cabby drew up and I looked around at the narrow street and mean houses. ‘It’s useful information,’ I looked at her narrowly for a few seconds. ‘Why are you doing this?’

She spoke with such bitterness I was startled. ‘This money is payment for back services to the bastard. I actually love my husband Mr Price. He’s not much good but I love him. When I think of the things that bastard Boothroyd made me do my flesh crawls. This is a lot of money to me. You’ll bail out Boothroyd for now, but what happens in a few months time? He’s a waster and a fool. I’d be out of a job then, with nothing.’ She picked up the money and climbed down. ‘Just screw the son of a whore for every penny. I won’t finish working for him until the deal goes through but when it does you’ll hear him scream clear across the Mississippi.’

The next morning I was at the warehouse with Evan when Boothroyd called. The outcome of their short meeting was Evan offered Boothroyd fifteen hundred dollars for an outright sale, take it or leave it. Boothroyd stalked out of the office.

‘I sure hope that woman knew what she was talking about,’ Evan said echoing my thoughts. ‘What were you saying earlier, Meg, about more staff ?’

‘I said we’ll need to have check out counters there too, or we’ll have to alter the present set up to cover both warehouses. That’ll mean at least eight counters over here.’

‘Or over there,’ I said. ‘The ones here need changing, you’ve said so almost every day since we’ve opened. Why not build exactly what you want on the other side? The customers will have to go through at least the ground floor over there to get out. It might help sales a bit.’

Three days later Boothroyd was back to say he would accept two and a half thousand. Evan got him down to eighteen hundred and the deal was closed. The money and papers were exchanged in five days.

Boothroyd went bankrupt a week later and in fact we cancelled our plans to make a corridor. There was now no need because Evan bought Boothroyd’s place from the bank for five thousand dollars.

29

We started the alterations to the warehouse immediately. Meg and Evan took another trip to New York and set up new contacts for even more stores, buying as much as possible while prices were depressed.

Although the economy of the country as a whole had not improved a great deal, at least it had stabilised, and the forecasts were optimistic. It was a good time to buy and we were in the fortunate position of being cash rich which enabled us to build up our stock.

By the middle of November everything was finished. The main warehouse was completely filled with foodstuffs, the checkout counters were done away with and more store rooms were added. The offices upstairs had been extended and improved, but were still used only by Sonny, Meg and Evan. A large archway now connected the two places. The floor area of the new warehouse was a little smaller than ours but it had two floors. We kept all our non-food merchandise in the new warehouse, ranging from household utensils and attractive small items on the second floor to furniture and clothes on the ground floor. We had nine checkouts and there were storerooms in the back corner near three more offices, one of which was for the man we intended hiring to be in charge of the second section.

That autumn Sonny married Marylou as he reckoned now that Evan had given him another pay rise he couldn’t put her off any longer.

Business went well and built up as we approached Christmas. We heard from Evan’s brothers in Wales, learning that Albert and Huw’s hotel was doing well as was David’s shop in Cardiff.

The last letter arrived about the fifteenth of December and so thoughts of the old country were very much in our minds. It made the newspaper reports of the eighteenth all the more shocking. At first I thought it was a gigantic hoax but realised it was no such thing.

United States about to declare war on Great Britain, were the headlines in thick black, inch high type across the St Louis Star newspaper.

The more I read the more I worried about it. Over Christmas we feared the worst but luckily the British people and their government showed restraint and, with the aid of powerful American newspapers like the New York Word, who condemned the actions by President Cleveland in no uncertain terms, the matter gradually died down. All in all it was a fraught few months but once it had settled down we could breathe more easily. After all, where would we have stood as the citizens of a foreign country at war with the country we now lived in?

Evan and Meg continued their interest in politics and it came as a complete surprise when later in 1896 McKinley, leader of the Republicans came to power by more than half a million votes over Bryan, though Bryan and his campaign was the most talked and written about of our time. Vachel Lindsay wrote:

Prairie avenger, mountain lion.

Bryan, Bryan, Bryan.

Gigantic troubadour, speaking like a siege gun,

Smashing Plymouth Rock with his shoulders from the West.

One of the most important days of David’s life was in September 1896. He was leaving to go to university. Evan, Meg, Sion and I accompanied him to Church Hill, Ohio. We got off the train at Columbus and hired a buggy to take us the rest of the way. Ohio state university was set on a plateau and was one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in America. David had chosen it for that reason. That September it was lovely, the buildings imposing in the bright sunlight. The mellow stone and brick walls with Corinthian colonnades dominated the town, which existed for the purpose of serving the university.

After David had registered and been assigned to Lincoln dormitory, we followed him past the lawns and towering trees to the door of his room. The university was the most tranquil place I had ever been to and I envied David his chance to study there. He, naturally, took it all in his stride.

Evan held his hand out. ‘Good luck, son. Work hard and make us proud of you,’ he said in a voice that was gruffer than usual.

David nodded, not trusting himself to speak. Tears were forming at the corners of his eyes. This was, after all, the first time he would have been away from home for any length of time.

Meg’s eyes, needless to say, were brimming over. She pulled David to her and gave him a hug and kiss. ‘Don’t forget, if there’s anything you need just write and let us know.’

‘I will, Mam.’ David said hoarsely, ‘And thanks. I er,’ he cleared his throat. ‘I er, never did get around to really saying thanks. I appreciate all you’ve done in the past and all the time you took coaching me . . .’ he stopped and gave her another hug.

All I managed was a shake of the hand, a wink and a smile. I reckon getting old makes you more sentimental.

Sion frowned. ‘Is this where I’ll be coming in a few years time? It looks pretty good. What do you think, Dave?’ Because of the shooting incident Sion had lost a lot of schooling. He was now three years behind David instead of two.

‘Aye, it does that. I guess I’d better be going in and unpack. Have a nice trip back.’ He gulped, picked up his suitcases and darted through the doors. He was quickly lost in the gloom of the building and somewhat sadly we turned and made our way back to the buggy.

‘I think my boy’s grown up,’ said Meg with a sigh.

The next three years passed quickly. John Buchanan settled down in New York and was soon trying to persuade Evan to go and live there. He reckoned, and no doubt he was right, New York was where the big money was to be made. Evan, however, was not interested. Business was booming and he and Meg had a life they both enjoyed to the utmost. From time to time we talked of expansion but never did anything more about it. One sad event occurred during the period and that was King, David’s horse, broke a leg and had to be shot.

David came home during his breaks between semesters and each time he was more of a man. He took up smoking at one stage, and had developed a worldliness about him of which Evan was justly proud. He talked a lot about pledging his fraternity in the Phi Gams. I never did understand what he meant but I nodded and pretended, happy to hear him talk.

Sion was filling out too. He would be going to university just as David was leaving for Harvard Law School. Harvard was even further from home, all the way to New Haven, Connecticut but not far from New York. At least it meant Meg and Evan could visit him when they went there on business. David intended making his career in Business Law and Harvard had the best reputation in the subject.