Turning Point

by Flavio Olcese

  Chapter 4

  My employer was pissed not only that I had taken two days off but that now I had curtailed my hours to a maximum of sixty five per week, though I usually put in sixty or less. I obviously couldn’t do as much work as I had been doing and I was passing many of my smaller projects to my staff. Every one of the other senior VPs noticed this. I heard back talk from all of them. I took it in stride. There was nothing I could do about it.

  Aside from my work hours, I was putting in two to four hours at home taking care of Anne. She was weak but I still took her out every evening for a short walk. The exercise did her good.

  Christine for some reason had become very defiant towards me. Making sure she had done her homework was like pulling teeth. She hardly listened to me and only asked for my help when her mother sent her to me.

  The car service that took Anne to the doctor, as well as the maid put a big dent in my bank account. The quick sale of my apartment helped a lot. I used most of that money to pay for the added expenses as well as all the medical costs. That meant I probably wouldn’t be able to afford to buy an apartment after Anne got better. I would worry about that when the time came. Right now it was more important to make sure Anne had no worries about her finances.

  Three months after Anne started her fight for survival, my employer had had enough. My boss had pulled me into his office were I met with him and his boss. They asked me what was going on with me and I told them the truth. They offered several solutions that would grant me more time to spend at work and less with Anne and Christine. They told me they were willing to pay half the expenses for a nurse, if I covered the rest and increased my work hours. They told me I should think about the offer and my future at the company. I was given until the next morning to give them an answer.

  Two hours later I walked into a meeting of the bosses of the company and the senior vice presidents. In front of everybody I handed them my resignation, effective immediately, and told them to shove their offer. I talked to nobody as I walked out of my office with my box of personal items.

  JoAnna Quinn, my girlfriend, called me as I was on the train going home, to break up with me. I was indifferent towards it. Another short term girlfriend was of no consequence to me, as long as I still had Anne to count on.

  I looked up a phone number about half way home and called it right away.

  “Good afternoon, Could I speak to Marie Kirkpatrick, this is Jake Thayer.”

  “She’s in a meeting now. Can I transfer you to her voice mail?”

  “Can you please let her know I’m on the phone and that I really need to speak to her? I’m sure she’ll take my call.”

  “Please hold.”

  This had not been my plan when I quit. In fact I hadn’t really had a plan. I just knew that I could no longer work at Waltman & Goode Worldwide and that I would have to work somewhere else.

  “Jake, what wrong? Is Anne okay?” said Marie through the phone.

  “Oh yeah, she’s fine. I called you about me. I need to talk to you. Can you get out of the meeting?”

  “Not really, I’m running it.”

  “Alright then can I come over? I’m on the train about twenty minutes from your station.”

  “Sure. Come on in. I’ll be done by then. I got to go and finish the meeting. See you soon.” She didn’t even wait for me to say goodbye before she hung up.

  I skipped my station and went directly to see Marie with my box of personal stuff from my previous job. Her office was too far to walk but the cab ride seemed rather short. I paid the guy and went right up to her office.

  As soon as I walked in I saw that I was extremely overdressed. The employees here were wearing kakis and button down shirts. I had on a full suit with tie, cufflinks and a tiepin. The outfit alone got the attention of the receptionist. I introduced myself and sat down to wait for Marie. She came out in a flash.

  “Look at you, wow. What’s with the box?”

  “Can we talk in your office?”

  She led and I followed with my box. The whole office looked up at me as we walked to the back. She waited for me to enter before she closed the door and sat behind her desk. I sat down in front of it.

  “Marie, do you remember when we first met at Anne’s dinner party a few years ago?”

  “Yes.”

  “Back then you said that if I ever wanted to do some work that was more intimate and focused I should call you.”

  “Yes, I remember that. What’s in the box?”

  “My personal effects from Waltman & Goode. I quit about two hours ago.”

  I proceeded to tell her the whole story. It was either work or family and it had been about the easiest decision I ever had to make. It had even surprised me. We talked for about an hour about what I could do for her and what I would need. The first thing I needed was a computer so that I could send emails to all my contacts.

  “Why do you need to send these emails?”

  “I’ve worked with some of these clients for years. These as major players, the big accounts. Anytime they were switched to someone else they always asked to come back to me. I just want to let them know I have moved to a more focused operation here and if they have any questions they can call me.”

  “And you think we’ll get these accounts or that we can handle accounts that big?”

  “Probably not, but they will be more than willing to give us some of the creative side of the business so they can have access to me. Look Marie, starting tomorrow morning my old company will be contacting all my clients letting them know I’m no longer with them. If I know Waltman & Goode, and I do, I can bet they are having meetings right now about how to split my work. They are going to try to blacklist me. If I send out an email now, then I’ll beat them to the punch.”

  “Alright, I’ll give you a cubicle and a computer now. When can you start?”

  “Tomorrow morning but I can only put in about thirty hours a week until Anne gets back on her feet. After that I’m full time and then some. By the way what’s my title so I can put it on the email?”

  “Vice president of new accounts. You get them and then integrate them into the rest of the company. You set up which teams handle what. You answer to our Senior VP, Ira Cohen. You’ll meet him tomorrow morning and we’ll introduce you to the rest of the company at our 9am meeting. Oh, and dress down a bit tomorrow. We’re not as formal as your old employer.”

  Marie let me leave my personal effects at my new cubicle. I hadn’t worked from a cubicle in over ten years but I had to make do with what was available. I sent my emails out and was on my way home in less than an hour.

  When I got home Christine was doing homework in the dining room with another girl. She was surprised to see me home so early, though it was after five already. She let me know her mom was upstairs napping. I headed upstairs to wake up Anne.

  “Oh jeez, I meant to take a short nap. What time is it?” said Anne, groggily.

  “It’s five thirty.”

  “What are you doing home so early? I thought it was after nine already.”

  “I got a new job. I am now the vice president of new accounts.”

  “You got the promotion?” she asked, excitedly.

  I explained to Anne what had happened that day. She was worried that I had given up my career but I let her know it was just a lateral move. I didn’t tell her that I would be earning less money but I was sure she knew that already.

  “Would you mind if we invited Karen over for dinner?” I asked.

  “Sure but call her now before she makes anything for herself. By the way, the girl downstairs with Christine is Karen’s daughter, Emily. So in case you get any ideas, just know that Karen is a package deal.”

  I sighed. Still it was worth inviting Karen over. I wanted to get to know her better. I called her right away and she was at our door in ten minutes. I now how to cook a quick dinner for four and a separate dinner for Anne.

  In half an hour I had a casserole of baked ziti as well as s
ome chicken parmigiana in the oven. While that cooked I made Anne plate. She needed some soft foods that were easy to digest and wouldn’t come up too easily. She got very queasy with heavily spiced foods or anything that was too acidic, like the tomato sauce.

  Over dinner the four women were riveted to the new gossip about the split between me and JoAnna. They were even more surprised that I really didn’t care.

  “Well if you don’t like airheads, why don’t you date a smart woman?” asked Karen.

  With that question I was now stuck between a rock and a hard place. The answer that had always applied to it was no longer viable. I wasn’t working long hours anymore and I had pretty much given up much of what I had worked for almost a dozen years.

  “Well because dating Christine is probably against the law and dating Anne would be like dating my sister,” I answered. With a little complement and a bit of humor, I had sidestepped the question altogether.

  After dinner Karen and her daughter went home, Anne went back to her room to watch some TV and Christine headed to her room to do whatever it was teenage girls did. I stayed in the kitchen to clean. I knew I could have left it for the maid tomorrow but I hated to leave a messy kitchen overnight.

  In the morning I made a quick breakfast for Christine before school and then headed out to work. Anne would sleep a little later and the maid would take care of her breakfast.

  I arrived at my new job at 8am and found at my cubicle a small box of supplies along with my company coffee mug. My computer had been set up completely and there two sticky notes on the monitor. One was for me to call the IT guy so he could set me up with passwords for the proprietary programs and the second one was to go see Ira Cohen as soon as I came in.

  I decided to check my email first. I had one that was worth opening. I opened it, read it quickly and forwarded it to my boss with Karen receiving a copy of it also. I got up to go get some coffee before heading over to see Ira.

  “Mr. Cohen?” I said from the doorway of his office.

  “Jake, come in. Call me Ira. We’re very informal around here.” I came in and sat down. “I could hardly believe when Karen told me she had hired you yesterday. I’ll tell you, we are lucky to get someone of your caliber.”

  “Ira, I’m lucky to be here, trust me.”

  “So tell me, do you have any plans on which company you’re going to try to go after first? Maybe we can get a pitch team ready.”

  “Horizon Chocolates. I forwarded you an email a couple of minutes ago about it.”

  “Tell me about the company as I read the email.”

  “Nobody is pitching Horizon Chocolates because there is talk about them being bought out by Planetary Foods and nobody thinks they are in the market for a new agency. Their new parent company is a long time client of Waltman and Goode so everyone just figures that’s who will do their ad work. As far as I know I was the only person pitching them and they were happy with me because I told them I would give them personal service regardless of how big my old employer was. Now Horizon Chocolates has always worked with small agencies. They like being the big dog in a small setting. Plus their commercials are very edgy, something that a small agency is more willing to pitch than the huge ones. So the obvious question is what happens when Planetary takes over? Usually they either wait out a contract or buy it out, but Horizon is looking to be a bit more independent and is asking for a three to five year period in which they would control their advertising and marketing strategy independent of their new parent.”

  “Okay so you charmed them and now that you moved to a small agency they seem more than willing to hear you out. How long do you figure it will take us to pitch them? And how long before WGW can pitch them?”

  “We can be ready in two or three weeks, depending on the team available here. It will take my old employer about the same amount of time. The sooner we can schedule though, the more pressure we’ll put on WGW. I mean, no single person over there knew exactly what I was working on. The atmosphere was too cut throat to tell anyone.”

  “Alright, then we’ll set up a team today at the morning meeting. Come on we’re going to be late.”

  I followed my boss to the small conference room where it was standing room only. Ira asked a couple of employees for their seats at the table and got them. He offered me one of them as he sat down himself in the other. As the meeting started Karen went over several new procedures and rules. There was a small discussion about making a new pot of coffee if you take the last cup. These were things we had never discussed at WGW. Eventually Karen got to introducing me and my new title. She asked for any questions and a couple of hands came up.

  “Is this the Jake that Anne always joked about?” a girl asked. I looked over at Karen puzzled. She smiled and answered in the affirmative.

  “Jake how long do you think it will be before we can see some new business?” asked one of the guys.

  “Funny you asked. I started this morning at 8 and was in Ira’s office at 8:15 talking about a possible new pitch to an interested company. I have a couple of more solid possibilities that we could see in the next seven days and I have another half dozen I want to approach in the next six weeks. So it’s going to be coming in quickly. Obviously we’re not going to get all of it but we are going to get our name out there. I understand there are currently four account executives. I need to see them all for a brief meeting after this one.”

  I got home at three thirty from my first day at work. Anne was in her room sleeping. The maid was doing laundry. I went up to see my sister in law who was just waking up. She wanted to talk to me alone.

  Apparently I had thought that her treatments were making her weaker and weaker but she knew better. While I had been partially right, she told me that I should start making final arrangements for her. The fight was not going well and she was dying. She told me what she wanted and I took it all in.

  Early the next day I picked out her casket, went to speak to a funeral home and made sure things were still in place for the plot next to my brother. I arrived at work around noon.

  The next month was a flurry of activity for me, both professionally and personally. A little over four weeks after I had started my job and a week after we had pitched Horizon Chocolates, we were awarded the account. I wasn’t in the office to receive the news with my coworkers. The night before Anne had quietly and calmly passed away.

  The funeral that weekend was well attended. Many of Anne’s friends and neighbors showed up. Ira and Marie where even there. Some of Christine’s friends showed up to support her. I walked around thanking everyone for coming but for the most part I kept an eye on my niece. Unbeknownst to me at the time two people kept an eye on me, Karen and Marie.

  After we had buried Anne I had invited everyone to my house for some food. Our maid had made some appetizers but many of the neighbors brought in food. I did some prep work but no cooking. Eventually Christine and her friends moved up to her room. I let her be. At the end of the reception, when almost everyone had left, I finally got some time to break down. Marie and Karen had stayed with me. It was the first time that I cried. The two comforted me.

  “What am I going to do with Christine? Anne was my rock. I took care of her and she would take care of Christine. I don’t know how to take care of a teenager. I don’t know what I’m doing. What am I going to do?”

  “Jake, as long as I knew Anne she always told me that you were her rock. That you made it all okay when she thought it wasn’t going to work out,” said Karen.

  “She told me the same thing. Look we’ll help you out. It’s not going to be as hard as you think it is. We’ll be there for you,” added Marie.

  ****