The Apple.
The meeting room door slammed shut behind the small group walking out. Not a word nor a poker face was visible to anyone around. They bee-lined for the elevator while maintaining small talk just loud enough. The small group was talking among themselves and not paying a bit of attention to the employees scattered around carrying on with their daily business. As a young man, who was in conversation with another quickly broke rank and walked toward the group quite hastily.
"John." He said attempting to get the attention of his boss.
"Market 4 is looking for a bigger building, I was hoping we could talk to the owner of the 'Old Grande' and put an offer in this week in order to leverage the deal." Mikel whispered. Mikel was a handsome young go-getter whom worked his way from general office help up to John's Personal Assistant in the matter of two short years. His grasp of the local business deals, that were being done, and potentials were quite astounding. He somehow knew what a business was going to do even before the banks did. John taught him well.
JBN Enterprises was a well established local investment firm. The company invested in hard and liquid assets. Its base was in real estate, but would purchase trucks and lease them, to companies who needed them, with intent to sell at a profit in the short. Rarely did JBN hold anything for longer than three years. The 'Market 4' deal would entail purchasing an old theater, renovating it, and leasing it to 'Market 4' for 2 years with intent to sell. This deal itself, would net a huge profit, since John had done business with Bill, the current owner, many times in the past and they had a great working relationship, the deal was sure to go through. He would be able to pick up the old building and outfit the space for less than $200K, the monthly lease price would be $2000, for 24 months, $48K almost 1/4 of the total cost, then sell at $300K for a total ROI of about 75% in 2 years. Since John had been doing thees types of deals for 15 years, his annual income allows him to purchase cash on small deals like this, maximizing his profit and keeping liquid cash-flow high. The larger deals, such as Standard Mill, would require either an investor or a bank, and the estimated purchase price being so high, might scare off the local banks.
The mill was valued at $4.5M, asking price was $4.25M, John was sure with enough push he could get that property and business for $4M. The influence John had within the community was well rooted, before he started this business, he mentored under one of the previous mayors, Mr. Chapmann. Mr. Chapmann had more connections than an AT&T switchboard. He was a life long resident of Zinc and His daddy was a sheriff for 15 years before he retired with a gunshot wound he received defending one of the local shops from some out of town thieves back in 1953 . John was lucky he had the opportunity to serve in stride with such awesome people.
The words of his counterpart fell upon his ears like a rolling wave and suddenly it came crashing down upon him. He waved Mikel over and whispered in his ear keeping his orders private. Mikel rushed off and didn't look back. Seth turned in an attempt to catch a word or two. John looked at Seth and smiled.
The silence was quite deafening as the elevator climbed to the top of the building, the third floor. The five of them entered through the elevator doors, John quickly eased himself into the operator's position.
"Lobby, gentlemen?" he asked rhetorically.
"John, so I will be waiting to hear from you by Friday next week. After that I will be setting up shop here in town. If you chose to bypass this opportunity, I am still responsible for the needs of the company. Even if you decide to step away, remember it is inevitable, these companies are not going to stop, they need the increase in their profit. As you well know, profit is what turns the gears of this economy." Seth was almost begging him to take this on, as it would eliminate a lot of red tape and expenditures.
"Sir, like I said, I need to think on it. Realize what you are asking me to do is poison one apple, so that the whole batch goes bad. I have some serious soul searching to do. I do understand your point, I get that you will not stop, and I can make things much easier for these people. Let me just sit on it for a few days. I will be back in touch by next week." John was sincere, and Seth saw it in his eyes. Seth figured it was just a waiting game.
"Well I am off to Dock River, they are next in line. Ducks in a row. Remember you are just a small cog in a big machine." Seth was dismissive in his attitude toward John.
"Well have a safe ride." John turned around and left the economic hit-men to their business.
As soon as John climbed the stairs, Mikel was there waiting.
"Did you get it done?" John asked as he walked toward his office.
"Of course, I had to interrupt his lunch, but he agreed. Am I going to have to keep cold calling people?" Mikel had a tone of excitement in his voice. He was almost giddy with getting back to the basics of his job. He knew he was effective with conjuring his business wizardry.
"Kid, we have a lot of work to do. Cancel all meetings this week. Where is Susan?" John's secretary was missing and her desk was a mess. Susan was the most organized person he knew, why in the world would her desk be all torn up like this, he wondered?
"Well she took off out of here like a flash. She got a phone call and just zing, like that!" Mikel was not to concerned with her disappearance, he was more concerned with the task at hand. "So, boss, what do I need to do?"
"Get a team together, call every client we have had in the past five years and set up a personal meeting with me. Next, get the high school to rent us, or let us borrow, preferably, the auditorium for next Wednesday night. Now do me a favor and close that door on your way out, you and I are going to be eating Chinese tonight, probably right here." John was on task.
Deep in thought, John sat at the desk and pulled his chair close to rest his elbows on the desk. His thoughts raced and within seconds he had an idea. He pushed himself back and opened the drawer in front of him. He scanned the pen holder for a pencil (pencils were the best for ideas since you could erase if you needed to) but none were there. He pulled the drawer open a further and yep, there it was. Before he could grab the pencil, a penny caught his eye. John had a flash of memories run through his head as he picked up the penny.
"Well, imagine that." he said right out loud.
Thanks for reading! If you have ideas on where you might think this will go, comment below!
