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One in a Billion Chapter Two
Jim heard a noise that woke him; he sat up trying to get
his bearings and then realized where he was he stood and walked to the window,
peeking out at the edge of the drapes he seen a garbage truck sitting a
dumpster back down, that must have been the noise that woke him. Jim looked at
his watch; it showed
After driving about three blocks Jim found a nice small restaurant
with a sign advertising breakfast anytime, he pulled into the parking lot and
got out, then headed for the door. He walked into the restaurant and noticed it
was almost packed, there were only a few stools open at the bar and a couple of
booths were unoccupied. He made his way to one of the booths in the front corner
and sat down. Almost as quick as he sat down, a waitress was there, greeting
him and asking if he needed a menu. Jim said yes and after she handed him one
he began looking it over. He ordered the two egg plate with sausage and gravy,
coffee and orange juice both. The waitress was off with order in a flash. As he
looked around the room, Jim noticed most of the patrons here were women, there
were only about 6 men including him. This may be the morning gathering point
for a lot of my factory workers, Jim thought as he took a sip of the coffee the
waitress has just placed in front of him. She asked him if he was new in town
and whether he worked at the factory down the street. Jim said yes he was new
in town, and not yet but he hoped he would soon as he was going to apply there
after he ate.
One of the women sitting in the booth to his left heard
this and told him welcome to town, and that if he was serious about getting
hired at the factory, he needed to see Mrs. Wilcox, she was the personnel and
plant manager and she wouldn't be in
till 9 am. The woman introduced herself as Diane Carlton, one of the floor
supervisors, and told him she had 15 years with the factory and it was a decent
place to work as long as you obeyed the rules and stayed on Mrs. Wilcox's good
side. She told him that if you ever made Mrs. Wilcox mad, you better leave town
for she had a temper worse then a tornado had wind. Jim thanked her for the
info and tips and returned to eating his breakfast, while eavesdropping on
other conversations in the restaurant. In about a half hour he had learned that
Mrs. Wilcox acted as if she owned the factory and fired two girls just Friday
for addressing her by her first name of Janet, instead of Mrs. Wilcox. It was
said she used to be a teacher and was one of the strictest anyone could ever
have.
Jim watched as the workers left a few at a time as it was
nearing
When he
opened the door and walked in he found himself inside a small square foyer and
directly in front of him was a window with a receptionist behind it. Her name
plate read "Jennifer Barker". Jim asked her if they were accepting
applications. She handed him one and told him he could fill it out in the room
through the doors to his left, when he finished return it to her and she would
see that the personnel manager, Mrs. Wilcox, got it when she came in at nine. Jim
asked Jennifer if what he had heard was true about Mrs. Wilcox, having a bad
temper and no one was allowed to call her by her first name. Jennifer told him
he had heard correctly for she seen two girls fired Friday for calling her
Janet.
Jim decided
to go ahead and fill out the application, so he went into the room he had been
told of and sat at one of the tables to fill it out. He was in the break room,
he guessed by all the tables, chairs and vending machines. He also noticed as
he sat down that there were three pay phones on one wall and a woman was on one
of them. Jim listened to her conversation while filling out his application. He
learned she was being told something about one of her kids being sick and that
she needed to find a way to pick them up from school, she was trying to explain
to the person on the other end that she had no transportation as her car wasn't
running, and she really didn't need to miss any time from work. She was asking
them if there was some way the child could stay at the nurse's room at school
and maybe she would be better by lunch. She must have succeeded in getting
their agreement for she was saying she would call the school during her lunch
break to see how the child was. Then she hung up the phone and headed out one
of the doors at the far end of the room.
Jim finished his application shortly after she left and he
returned to the foyer and handed the application to Jennifer, asking her if she
might think he should stay at the factory until Mrs. Wilcox got there or just
come back later. She said if he would like to stick around for few minutes she
would give him a tour of the factory and explain what they did there. Jim said
that would be ok and sat down in one of the two chairs in the foyer. She
finished with the papers she was working and opened the door to her area and
told him to follow her. She turned as they went through a door to his right,
and said her name was Jennifer Barker and she had noticed his name was Jim
Davis on his application. He said yes and told her it was nice to meet her.
They went
down a corridor that had a set of double doors at the far end, she stopped briefly
at the doors and handed him a pair of safety glasses and put a pair on herself.
When they went through the double doors they were in the main area of the
factory. Jim could see machines in lines and it looked as if they were sectioned
into different areas. Jennifer explained they made small plastic gears and components
for several different companies, and were always getting new contracts and
changing the items made so they were assured of keeping busy.
She led him through each department and explained what each
machine did, and introduced him to several of the workers; she always made sure
to ask if he had any questions before going on to the next machine or
department. Jim learned there were 15 departments in the factory, including receiving
and shipping. He also learned that only about one fourth of the workers were
men as most of the employees turned out to be females since the work wasn't
really hard on them. Most of the pieces and boxes were light weight so just
about anyone could do the work with out fear of personal injury to their back
or muscles. He also learned that if hired he would be in shipping as a load
clerk. The job meant he would over see the staging of part of the loads going
out and then make sure the lift drivers loaded it properly and last of all turn
the paper work into the shipping office for the drivers to sign before leaving
with their loads. He was told there were 3 load clerks now and they usually ran
with four, unfortunately one of the women discharged Friday was the fourth load
clerk. After meeting everyone in shipping and talking with them a little,
Jennifer told Jim if he wanted to he could stay there until the morning break
at 9 and then come back after it to the front to see Mrs. Wilcox. Jim said that
would be ok and Jennifer left to return to her desk.
He watched the way the workers in shipping did things and
even got a couple of chances to try out being load clerk on a couple of loads
before the
When the
buzzer rang again at
Sandra told Jim that there were four load groups, with a
load clerk, 2 stagers and 2 lift operators in each one. There was her, the
shipping supervisor, and three shipping clerks in the office, so all together
the shipping department had 24 employees in it. She told him his 2 stagers
would be Beth Williams and Thomas Butler and that his 2 lift operators would be
Tanya Walters and George Simmons. They all were good hands and had been there
for a minimum of 5 years; Tanya had been there for 12 years. She assured Jim
that he should have no problems if he would just ask them for guidance. She
also stated that none of them had ever offered to put in for the position of
load clerk due to them not liking all the paper work and office visits it
involved. Jim finshed out the day working as a load clerk and was more tired
then he had been in a long time by quitting time at 4 o'clock, even though they
had a full hour for lunch and a 15 minute afternoon break as well.
When he left the factory after clocking out, Jim headed
straight for his motel room and was thinking of going straight to bed. When he
went into the room and sat his suit case and laptop down, he realized that he
should take a shower and get some supper before going to bed. He showered,
changed clothes and checked his messages, then headed out for a bite to eat.
Jim decided he would go to the restaurant he had eaten breakfast at. When he
arrived there were only a few people there, three were workers from the
factory, and one was Tanya. He sat at a booth and noticed she was also alone,
in a few minutes after he had ordered his supper, Tanya hollered over to him
and asked if he would rather sit with her instead of all alone. Jim agreed it
would be better and picked his glass of iced tea up and moved to the booth
Tanya was sitting at. He sat down across from her and asked if she ate there
often. Tanya told him just about every evening as she was staying in a hotel
and there was no cooking in the rooms. She also told him she was divorced about
a year ago, and didn't have any children. She asked if he was married as she
didn't see a ring on his finger. Jim told her he had been but was no longer
attached to anyone in any form. They sat and talked for a couple of hours. Jim realized
it was getting late and said he should go for he was a little tired after his
first day at work. Tanya bid him a goodnight and he returned to his motel room.
He went straight to bed and never woke till the next morning at
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