The Collectibles by James J. Kaufman

Author:James J. Kaufman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Downstream Publishing
Published: 2013-08-27T04:00:00+00:00

Preston did not know where to start. He froze, saying nothing, his head spinning. The room was silent. Finally, Preston pulled himself up and looked at everyone at the table. Then he stared out the windows, and back at the group.

“I love looking out the windows from up here,” Preston began. “It’s such a great view, looking down over everything. I have a stunning view from my office in New York, too. I love it. What I realize now is that I needed to be looking out from the ground floor, not the top floor. I needed to be going into my stores more and looking at everything. I needed to understand what was really going on and what I could do to help. I didn’t do that. Instead, I just looked down, thinking the view was clear.

“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking since my high-priced lawyers in New York so eloquently informed me that my company was in terrible financial shape and that there was nothing they nor I could do about it except go bankrupt. I don’t want to go bankrupt. I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I owe you folks and others a truckload of money. If I can correct those mistakes, if I can pay you back the money I owe you, if I can make my business successful again, then they will only be mistakes. Mistakes that have been corrected. If I can correct these mistakes, I will not have failed. I don’t want to fail. Please give me a chance to correct these mistakes. You won’t be sorry you did.”

The room was silent. “This has been quite a day,” Tom Gallagher said, breaking the silence. “I suggest we all go home and think about this. Bobby, I would appreciate your convening a meeting tomorrow afternoon with Lou, Paul, Barry, Debra, Floyd, and myself. Oh, and ask Sally to join us.”

Pointing at the whiteboard and holding up one of the books of the plan, Tom said, looking at Lou, “I ask that you and Paul take all the information and work on that tonight and tomorrow morning.” He then looked at Joe. “If any of my folks need to call you, Alex, or Casey in the morning for clarification on any of these points, may they do so?”

“Absolutely,” Joe replied. “We’re all spending the night at the Sheraton. We can come back here in the morning, if you like.”

Joe, Preston, Casey, and Alex gathered the books and moved them to Conference Room C, stacking them at one end. Joe asked Casey to take the yellow box, to return the keys to the dealerships. After they rode the elevators down to the outside of the building. Casey said, “I’m starved. How about a big steak at Morton’s?”

They smiled and headed for Morton’s on foot.

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