Thunder and Lightening
Chapter 25
By
Lazlo Zalezac
Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2004

It was summer before Jerry returned to the store. He used a cane to 
walk and moved with the kind of care associated with old men. His 
left arm and half his upper body was in a cast to allow his shoulder 
blade heal. His bullet wounds had healed, but on occasion the scar 
tissue pulled when he moved. Despite the fact that he had lost body 
mass, he remained a big powerful looking man. 

Entering through the back door, he was greeted by everyone and 
welcomed back to the shop with coffee and donuts. It was a 
bittersweet occasion for him. Looking around the room, he could 
see that a number of improvements had been made in the store. 
Mike was standing to the side looking proud of the store. 

Jerry looked over at Mike and said, "The store looks great. You've 
done a wonderful job running it in my absence."

"Thanks, Jerry." Mike beamed at the praise. 

Relying upon the support of his cane, Jerry slowly walked down 
the length of the store. His eyes picked out the changes that had 
been made around the store. He paused about halfway down the 
aisle and commented, "You moved the faster moving stock up 
towards the front of the store. Smart."

Mike said, "Well, we looked at the sales figures generated by 
Karen and established that we could do that without any 
difficulty."

"I had thought about doing that, but couldn't figure out a way to do 
it without impacting business," remarked Jerry. 

"We stayed an hour late a couple nights a week and made the 
changes."

"Very smart," replied Jerry thinking that he wouldn't have been 
able to motivate people to work overtime like that, particularly 
when they were short staffed. Mike was turning out to be a better 
manager than he was.

He made his way to the front of the store and looked around at the 
sales desk. A computer terminal had been added to the counter. He 
watched as Martin took an order. The young man typed the part 
numbers into the computer, printed up the order, and then handed 
it off to be pulled. Carlos picked up the order and headed to the 
back. Karen said, "It prints the bill, updates the inventory, and 
flags parts that need to be ordered. We have a complete record of 
what each customer orders."

"Nice," said Jerry as he watched the system work. Although he had 
read all of the manuals, he was very concerned that it was beyond 
him. He hoped that his understanding of the programs was 
sufficient to use them. He asked, "Do you think I can learn how to 
use it?"

Karen laughed and answered, "I know you can. I tested it out on 
my husband and I've determined that it is idiot proof."

Jerry laughed at the obvious joke about her husband and looked 
around at the lobby. The coffeepot was still in its place. Pictures of 
the truck were on the wall, along with the trophy it had won. 
Looking out in the parking lot, he stared at the truck sitting there 
on blocks. Martin and Mike had parked it there to act as an 
advertisement. It was gorgeous and he would go out later to visit it. 
The sight of the truck reminded him that he had to pick up the 
Camaro.

Martin was smiling at him when he turned to look at the store. He 
said, "It's a beauty, isn't it?"

Jerry answered, "Yes, it is. I'll visit with it later."

Carlos entered the room and said, "Hello, Mr. Smith."

"Hello Carlos. Please call me Jerry. I'm sorry that I wasn't here for 
your first day at work," replied Jerry.

Carlos smiled and said, "Don't be sorry. I have enjoyed working 
here."

"That's good. How's school going?"

Carlos broke out in a big grin and answered, "Very well, sir. My 
grades are good and I'm making progress on earning the degree."

"That's great," replied Jerry. He was pleased that the work 
arrangement was serving its purpose.

Mike asked, "Would you like to go into the office and catch up on 
some paperwork?"

Groaning at the thought of walking all the way to the back of the 
store rather than at having to work on paperwork, Jerry said, "I 
guess."

Walking with a slow and careful pace, he headed to the office 
followed by Mike and Karen. Opening the door, he was surprised 
to find that his desk had a computer on it. He frowned as he 
hobbled over to his desk and looked at the computer. This was the 
computer that he dreaded meeting. Looking up at Karen, he said, 
"Let me guess, you've computerized everything."

She smiled and said, "You'll like this. Most of your paperwork will 
be done in an hour rather than two days."

Jerry wondered if the business had passed him by since he was 
shot. He had read the manuals and studied them with due 
diligence, but he had never touched a computer. Had the time spent 
studying the manuals allow him to use the machine? It was time to 
find out. Sitting down in his chair, he said, "Okay, I guess I should 
have you show me what I need to know."

For the next two hours, Karen explained how to use the computer. 
Jerry listened carefully and tried it using hunt and peck typing with 
one finger. The keyboard threw him for a loop, as he found that he 
had to search for the keys. After ten minutes, he knew that he was 
going to have to practice typing before he would become 
comfortable using a keyboard. 

After a while, she stopped talking while he experimented with 
using the computer. Before long, he was pulling up views on the 
business that surprised both Karen and Mike. Looking up after 
displaying a graph of sales by part categories, he said, "This is 
amazing."

"So you like?" asked Karen.

"I like it a lot," answered Jerry as he pounded on the keys for a 
minute while mentally cursing the fact that it was difficult finding 
the proper keys. Another graph came up on the screen. Pointing to 
it, he said, "These three places have been reducing their orders 
from us over the past few months. The money amount is about the 
same, but the number of actual orders is down. It might be time to 
make a sales call and find out if there is a problem."

Mike looked at the chart and said, "I didn't notice that."

Karen looked at the chart with a puzzled expression trying to 
figure out how he had displayed that information. After a minute, 
she realized that it wasn't one of the canned charts that she had 
programmed. Shocked, she said, "You've been studying the 
manuals that I sent over."

Winking at her, Jerry replied, "Yes, I studied them in quite a bit of 
detail. You have to remember that I didn't have anything else to 
do."

"So you taught yourself how to write queries without a computer?"

"Yes," replied Jerry. For several months, he had laid in bed with 
nothing to do except read and study the manuals. For the first 
month, the manuals had been unintelligible, but his stubborn 
persistence had finally paid off. He had spent the last month 
identifying the kind of information that he would like to explore. 
He was happy that his understanding of the material was correct.

Mike looked over at Karen and shook his head. Here he had 
thought that he would be ahead of Jerry on this, but the big man 
had done his homework. He asked, "So when were you going to 
tell us?"

"Once I knew that I could handle it," replied Jerry as he looked at 
the chart. He looked up and asked, "Can I print this?"

Karen leaned over and showed him how to print the document. She 
smiled and said, "I take it you are going to want the data in 
hardcopy most of the time."

"What does that mean?" asked Jerry exposing the fact that he had 
major gaps in his understanding of the computer.

"It means that you'll want to print it out to use it," answered Karen. 
Jerry had surprised her by figuring out the system from the 
manuals. This was particularly surprising since he hadn't known 
what half of the terms meant when she had explained to him the 
software that she was planning on purchasing. 

"I don't really need it, but I want to put it on paper to show others" 
replied Jerry. He looked at the printed copy and smiled. Handing it 
to Mike, he winked and said, "You have some sales calls to make."

"Okay," replied Mike, as he looked at the sheet uncertain that he 
knew what to do with it. He had no idea what he was supposed to 
do when on a sales call. 

"You've never made a sales call, have you?"

"No," replied Mike.

"We'll make a couple of them together this week," said Jerry. He 
didn't know what the future held for him, but his recent brush with 
death forced him to realize that he hadn't done Mike any favors by 
not training him to take him over. He added, "You might consider 
training Martin on some of your job duties."

"Why?"

Shifting to get more comfortable in the chair, Jerry said, "I did a 
great disservice to you. I should have trained you how to do my 
job. You had to learn a lot to take over the daily operation of the 
store and that shouldn't have been necessary. Mr. Sinclair came 
down here to help out the first few weeks. You'd have really 
impressed him if you had known how to take over in my place 
without his help. I apologize for that."

Mike hadn't thought about it, but Jerry was right. For quite a while 
he was trying to do two jobs when he could have trained Martin to 
do parts of his job. He had fallen into the same trap. Embarrassed, 
he said, "I didn't think of it that way. I should have turned to 
Martin to help me out."

"Hey, it's hard to remember you're draining the swamp when 
you're up to your ass in alligators. I imagine that you saw quite a 
few alligators over the past couple of months." Jerry gave him a 
friendly grin and a wink when he finished. 

Mike laughed and replied, "That's true. I was lucky that Mr. 
Sinclair came down to help out."

Jerry sat back in his chair, his cast getting in the way of relaxing. 
His shoulder was beginning to bother him. He said, "You did a 
good job. Both of you did a good job."

Mike stood up a little straighter and put his arm around his wife. 
He said, "Well, I better get out front and relieve Carlos so that he 
can get an early lunch."

Jerry said, "I'll be out there in a minute. I'm afraid that I'm going to 
have to sit at the counter for a little while."

Mike chuckled as he left the room. Once the door had closed, 
Karen said, "He was so worried that you wouldn't like some of the 
changes around here."

"I'll admit that it is a little disconcerting to return to work and find 
that it has changed in your absence, but I couldn't expect things to 
stay as they were," answered Jerry. Undoubtedly, there were some 
things that he wouldn't like but he'd give them a chance. He had 
made changes in the past and had to undo them when they hadn't 
worked out. 

Jerry rose out of his chair and grabbed his cane. His leg was 
stiffening up on him from sitting too long. He had just about 
reached the door when the office phone rang. Karen answered it 
and then handed the phone to Jerry. Jerry picked it up and said, 
"Hello. This is Jerry."

"Hello Jerry. This is Al," replied Mr. Sinclair. 

"Ah, Mr. Sinclair. How are things going?"

"I called to see if you were still there," replied Al, "and to find out 
how things were going on your first day back." 

"Karen just filled me in on the computer system." Jerry looked up 
for a moment and then asked, "Could you hold on a moment?"

"Sure."

"Karen, could you help out Mike in the front so that Carlos and 
Martin can get lunch?"

"Sure," replied Karen knowing that his request was just an excuse 
to get her out of the office.

When she had left, Jerry said, "Sorry, I just wanted to get Karen 
out of the room so that we could talk about business."

Mr. Sinclair was surprised and said, "You've been there for three 
hours and already have some business comments."

"Yes. First of all, I think Mike has done a really good job of 
running the shop in my absence."

"I agree." 

"I'd like to give him a bonus," replied Jerry.

"I've already got one ready for him," said Mr. Sinclair pleased that 
Jerry had thought about it as one of his first actions.

"Oh, that's good. I hope it's a good one," remarked Jerry.

"It is."

"Second, Karen has done an outstanding job computerizing the 
store. I'd like to give her a bonus," said Jerry.

Mr. Sinclair didn't say anything immediately as he thought about 
it. Instead of answering directly, he asked, "It's rather new. Don't 
you think you might want to wait on that?"

Jerry worked his way back to his chair and answered, "I've already 
used it to identify three stores where our sales are lagging. I can 
tell you just about anything that you want to know about our sales 
and inventory."

"You sound pretty confident," replied Mr. Sinclair.

"I'll tell you what. I am so sure of it, that I bet I can find enough 
ways to improve our business in a week that the system will pay 
for itself," replied Jerry. It was a sure bet as he had already 
identified a couple of areas of improvement that would improve 
the profitability of the shop. He wondered why they hadn't gone to 
computers long before that.

"You're pretty sure of yourself," replied Mr. Sinclair. He hadn't 
considered Jerry to be the kind of guy that would support 
computerization of the store with such intensity. Usually that was a 
trait of a younger employee. 

"I am sure of it," replied Jerry.

"I'll tell you what. You send me some information that you got out 
of the computer at the end of the week and I'll decide if she gets 
the bonus then."

"That's reasonable." Jerry had identified a brand of parts that sold 
at a faster pace than all other brands. If they could negotiate the 
price down on that line of parts, then the profitability of the shop 
would increase. He couldn't compare the sales figures of the past 
with the current figures except manually.

"Is that all?" asked Mr. Sinclair.

"No, I would like to hire another half time employee," answered 
Jerry.

"Would you like to tell me why?"

"No one has had a vacation in almost six months. I need to let them 
get out of the store for a week or so each," replied Jerry. He had 
noticed the tired looks on the faces of his people when he had 
come in. 

Mr. Sinclair rummaged in his desk and pulled out the list of things 
that he had wanted to cover with Jerry once he got the store under 
control. The first item on the list was giving the people a break 
from working. They had been working overtime ever since Jerry 
had been injured. He checked off the item from the list and 
realized that the bonus for Mike was another item on the list. He 
said, "That's a good idea. I was going to suggest that myself. How 
are you going to find someone?"

"I'll ask Carlos to ask around the college. I'm sure that he'll find 
another student that needs some financial support," answered Jerry. 
He had given the idea some thought before bringing it up. 

"Sounds like a plan," replied Mr. Sinclair. "Are you sure that you 
just got back to work today?"

Jerry laughed at the question and answered, "I'll admit I was 
thinking about some of this while laying in bed."

"Okay, I'll be calling back in an hour to make sure that you've gone 
home. You're only supposed to work half time for the next two 
months."

"Yes, sir," replied Jerry. His voice had conveyed far less pleasure 
at doing that than any other item they had discussed. 

Mr. Sinclair hung up convinced that Jerry wouldn't go home when 
he was supposed to leave. Jerry climbed out of his chair and made 
his way to the front of the store. For the next half an hour, he 
learned how to use the computer at the register. It was actually 
pretty simple and he was soon handling the calls.

Martin and Carlos returned from lunch. They had gone to the 
restaurant where Carlos's cousin worked. Howard had gone with 
them prompting a few jokes about the Three Amigos. Mike and 
Karen left for lunch saying that they would return in an hour. Jerry 
worked the counter handing off orders to Martin and Carlos. There 
was a slight delay in printing up the order, but that wasn't that big 
of a deal. 

The store was running smoother than ever before. It made him 
wonder what he was doing there. It seemed to him that Mike was 
ready to run the store without him. All they needed to do was to 
train Martin to take over as Assistant Manager. It was a humble 
feeling to realize that you were replaceable. 

When Howard came in to pick up the next set of orders, Jerry 
asked, "Could you drop me off at the Crimson Rose Bistro?"

"Sure."

Jerry called out, "Martin, Carlos, I'm leaving."

Martin came out and answered, "Sure thing. I'll see you later."

Jerry followed Howard out of the store. He was unable to help him 
carry anything since his shoulder was in a cast, he had to use a 
cane, and his leg tended to cramp up on him. It left him feeling 
helpless and he didn't like the feeling at all. Howard was able to 
make two trips to the car before Jerry made it there and eased 
himself into the passenger seat. 

Slipping into the driver’s seat, Howard said, "Man, it's a miracle 
you're still alive. Shot four times and you still took care of three of 
the five gunmen. That's amazing."

About to ask how Howard knew that, Jerry recalled that Martin 
would have told his best friend all about it. Jerry said, "I don't 
remember any of it."

"Sure," replied Howard in a tone of voice that suggested he didn't 
believe a word of it. 

Howard pulled up to the door of the restaurant and Jerry got out 
while thanking him for the ride. His ride just waved and went on 
his way. After checking his pockets, Jerry made his way to the 
door and went into the restaurant. He spotted Jenny taking an order 
at one of the tables filled with three women. It looked to him like 
they were debating about ordering the chocolate desert. Looking 
around the restaurant, he could see that it was full except for one 
little table in the corner. 

The interior had not changed over the past few months since she 
had been busy looking after him. He appreciated her concern and 
the care she had given him, but that hadn't prevented him from 
worrying that the time she spent with him would ruin her business. 
Judging by the crowd, it looked to him like business was still good. 

When Jenny turned around, she spotted him at the door and raced 
over to greet him. She refrained from throwing her arms around 
him and kissing him, knowing that it would upset her clientele. She 
knew that he would understand her behavior, they had discussed it 
in the past. Smiling she said, "I was wondering if you were going 
to come today."

"I had to see my favorite gal on my first day back to work," replied 
Jerry with a smile. 

She pointed over to the table in the corner and said, "Have a seat. 
I'll bring out some iced tea for you."

Jerry smiled as she rushed into the kitchen. There was a nice swing 
and sway to her walk that he hadn't seen in a long time. He made 
his way over to the corner table, getting a variety of looks from the 
women in the room. Some of them wrinkled their noses as though 
he smelled. He didn't care about their reaction. 

Settling into the table, he waited for Jenny to return. It was less 
than a minute later that she came to the table with a large glass of 
iced tea. As she set it in front of him, she said, "Sorry it took so 
long. It's been a while since a real man has been in here."

The rumbling laughter that rolled from him turned heads in the 
whole room. "No problem."

"I told the chef to start a Chicken Caesar Salad, extra-large," said 
Jenny with a smile. It was so good to see him away from the house. 
She had stopped by every day after picking up Bill from school. 
Now that school was over she came by after work. 

Jerry winked and said, "Reminds me of the first time that I came 
here."

It was an old joke, but one that comforted because of its 
consistency. He had no idea how much it meant to her to see him 
walking around again.  It didn't matter to her if he was moving 
slow since that would pass with time and exercise. For now, he 
was coming back and that made her happy. She glanced over the 
restaurant with a practiced eye and could tell that a table was ready 
to get their bill. Sighing, she said, "I have to get back to work."

Jerry watched as she went from table to table working her magic. 
During one of the trips to the kitchen she returned with his lunch. 
He started to eat, paying little attention to the food and more 
attention to her.

Watching her was his favorite pastime. It wasn't the big things that 
he noticed, but the little things. She would occasionally chase an 
errant strand of hair with her little finger and tuck it behind her ear. 
When faced with a little problem, she would suck in her lower lip 
while she decided what she would do. There was the nervous little 
patting down her clothes when she turned to greet someone, as 
though she was double-checking to make sure she was presentable.

The lunch crowd slowly thinned until he was the last one in the 
room. She came over to the table and sat down, happy to be done 
with the customers for the day. With a twinkle in her eye, she said, 
"I hope you enjoyed watching me."

"Yes, I did."

"I don't think your eyes left me the whole time you were eating," 
remarked Jenny. She appreciated the fact that he liked looking at 
her. She enjoyed looking at him.

Jerry reached into his pocket and brought out a small jewelry box 
that Henry had dropped off at the house the night before. Opening 
it so that she could see the contents, he asked, "Will you marry 
me?"

Jenny stared at the gold ring with the small diamond. Her eyes 
misted and her hand flew to her mouth trembling as it covered her 
parted lips. Tears ran down her cheeks as she tried to find her 
voice. With her other hand, she reached out to touch the ring as if 
to make sure that it was real. It was. She cried out, "Oh, yes. I'll 
marry you."

He took out the ring and slipped it on her finger even as her hand 
shook. He kissed her hand. She leaned over the table and hugged 
him, kissing him repeatedly. In her excitement she forgot about his 
wounds and pulled him so that it stressed his shoulder. He gritted 
his teeth so as not to cry out from the pain. She sat back in her 
chair crying tears of happiness, unable to say anything as emotions 
had stolen her voice. 

Holding her hand in his massive paw, he said, "We'll have to set 
the date for a time after my divorce is final."

"Oh, yes. I'll marry you," she replied still in shock. 

He laughed at her comment and said, "I love you, Jenny."

For the next thirty minutes, they exchanged the kind of talk 
practiced by lovers through out the ages as they told each other of 
their feelings. Jenny was shocked by his proposal and kept looking 
at the ring. Every other sentence was, "I can't believe it."

It was getting late and she had to clean up the restaurant so that the 
dishwasher could leave for the day. Jerry wanted to help, but his 
left hand was limited because of the cast and his right hand was 
needed for the cane. He watched her clear the tables. Once all of 
the dishes were removed, she went to each table and removed the 
linen table clothes. Never having watched her close up the dining 
room, he was not aware of how much work it was to get the place 
ready for the next day. She replaced all of the tablecloths, the 
napkins, and silverware. Taking her time, she removed all of the 
flowers from the vases and put them into a box. Noticing his 
attention and puzzled expression, she explained, "I take them home 
after work so that I have fresh flowers in the house every night."

"That's lovely," remarked Jerry. He hadn't thought about what she 
would do with the flowers.

"Yes, I enjoy them. That's why I started setting out flowers. I 
realized that my clients would expect them and I could use them 
afterwards at home," said Jenny. The flowers were paid for by the 
restaurant, but brought her personal pleasure. 

Together they left her place of business. She drove him to his 
house, since he was not able to drive a standard. When they 
reached the house, they went up to the door. She waved to the 
neighbors in greeting, getting waves in return. A pair of scooters 
was parked in the yard and Jerry maneuvered around them. The 
detour reminded him of how weak he felt and how slow he moved. 

By the time they reached the door, Bill and Abe had opened it. The 
pair of them started impersonating him, walking bent over as if 
they were using a cane and were a hundred years old. Jenny 
laughed at their antics while Jerry pretended to growl. Holding 
back a smile, he said, "One of these days I'll get even."

Bill straightened up and asked, "So did you?"

"Yes, I did," replied Jerry knowing exactly what Bill was asking. 
They had discussed the proposal the day before. 

"So do I have a new mom?"

Understanding that the question concerned the engagement, Jenny 
answered, "Yes, you have a new mom."

Bill shouted in joy and hugged Jenny tightly. Letting go, he 
grabbed Abe and, in an excited voice, said, "We have to tell your 
mother. She'll be so happy to hear that."

The two boys ran next door to deliver the news as Jenny and Jerry 
laughed at their enthusiasm. There was no doubt that Sharon would 
be over in a few minutes to share her excitement with Jenny. She'd 
want to see the ring and find out how he had proposed. Jenny said, 
"It looks like I won't have a problem with my future step-son."

"It's all an act. He actually hates you and believes that you are 
going to turn into an evil stepmother."

She frowned and then realized that Jerry was teasing her. The 
frown turned into a grin as she replied, "You're just jealous that he 
likes me more than you."

"Nah. You're much more likable than I am."

Giving him a gentle hug, she let him sit down in his chair. She 
could tell that he was getting tired. He adjusted his pillows so that 
his shoulder wasn't stressed and relaxed. It was only then that he 
realized how difficult the day had been.

Sharon arrived and entered the house without waiting for them to 
invite her. She shouted, "Girl, you got to show me the ring."

Giggling, Jenny held out her hand with the ring in the gesture that 
women everywhere use to show off engagement rings, arm straight 
and the hand dangling down. Jerry smiled watching the two 
women giggle and talk. He was pleased that they responded to the 
event with the appropriate excitement.

The women went into the kitchen to drink coffee while Jenny gave 
all the details about how he had proposed. The sound of animated 
talk from the kitchen pleased Jerry as the house rang with happy 
sounds rather than the shouts and arguments of his old house. 

The only negative in his life was his daughter, Melissa. Every 
week he had tried to talk to her, but she had hung up the phone on 
him each time. She had even told him that she was sorry the guys 
that shot him were such bad shots. He wondered if she was a lost 
cause and dropped off to sleep as his exertions of the day took their 
toll.