K. Janssen - Hampton Manor

“Should we call Adam and let him know?

“No, let him sweat. We don’t owe him a thing.”

Chapter 15

Adam guided the delivery men into the den. They carried a two by three foot painting covered with a canvas cloth. He gave each man a twenty dollar bill and asked if they would do him a favor by removing the portrait of his grandfather that hung over the mantle and delivering it to John who was waiting at the door to the West Wing. They were happy to oblige. When they were gone Adam carefully removed the covering and held the painting at arms’ length. A small brass tag tacked on the bottom of the frame read “THE CONTENDER.” The picture was of a young British boxer with fists raised in a threatening manner. The signature in the lower right corner identified it as the work of Terrance Wellington, an obscure nineteenth century British artist.

Adam carried the painting to the mantle and mounted it on the hooks. He stepped back to admire it. His eyes focused on the fighters nipples. They were the same shape and size as Marcia’s. Adam had purchased the painting solely for the purpose of having a lurid representation of them available to dwell upon at will; his own private voyeurism. As he looked at the picture he became aware that he was aroused. The feeling felt good to Adam. It would have to do until he could get to see her again.

Chapter 16

Kane met Marcia in the parking lot of the Elegant Sportswear Communications Center at 7:50 a.m. “Good morning, Miss Bloom.”

“Good Morning,” Marcia answered, “I’m glad to see you’re on time. Let’s get started,” she said, as she headed towards the entrance. “I got here early and met with the Lead Foreman, John Marshall. We’ll be using the conference room as our base while were here.”

“That’s a good idea. We have a presentation that we show to major customers and suppliers. I can have them set it up.”

Marcia stopped abruptly at the front door. “Let me remind you of something. You are persona non grata on Preston property. For you, there is no ‘we’. You are here strictly as an advisor. You don’t arrange anything unless I tell you to. Is that understood?”

Kane was taken aback. Whoa! Where did that come from? What’s with this woman? Doesn’t she realize that I’m here to help her? Then, not realizing how close to the truth he was, he concluded his thoughts with, She must have had a bad night.

“I was only trying to help.”

“That may well be, but I believe Mister Hampton made your role very clear.”

Whatever, he thought. Why does she have to make this so difficult?

An attendant opened the door and handed them badges. Kane knew the man quite well, but decided not to say anything that might set her off again.

She continued, “For your information John already recommended that I view the presentation. It is set up and waiting for us in the conference room. Now, let’s start.”

Yes , boss !

The conference room was a thousand foot square room with a long highly polished conference table and seats for twelve. Two places at the end of the table were set up with coffee and sweet rolls and a large binder. They faced a wall-to-wall screen at the far end of the room.

Kane just nodded to John when he entered the room. He waited for Marcia to choose which seat to occupy and settled down in the other.

John Marshall rose from a chair in the corner. “If you are ready I will start the presentation.”

Marcia nodded and he turned down the lights.

The narrator had a slight British accent which harmonized well with the musical background:

Three years ago Elegant Sportswear hired a consulting firm to put together a video presentation that would illustrate the dramatic metamorphosis that the garment industry has undergone during the past one hundred years and tout the advances made at Elegant. The video required extensive editing and thirty six revisions to get it down to the total running time of thirty nine minutes.

Within the first ten minutes, with pictures of thread making, massive looms, cutting rooms and sewing sweatshops, the narrator deftly moved from the industry tableau to modern day Elegant Sportswear.

As the presentation neared completion the camera zoomed in on models wearing Elegant’s patented Neo-Weaves. These one-piece knitted sweaters and skirts rocked the industry when they were first introduced at an international exposition earlier in the year. An entire plant is dedicated to their production. Demand was so high that the company developed a new back-order system just to log orders for these non-seasonal garments.

When the video ended, John asked Marcia, “So, what did you think?”

This was a question that Kane would have normally asked, but he was glad that John had taken the lead. He assumed that he was only to speak when he was spoken to.

Again, whatever!

“Very impressive. I can see why Elegant has done so well. I’m from a trading company at Hampton and I haven’t had the opportunity to see many manufacturing processes, but I doubt that Hampton Sportswear is anywhere near as modernized as you are here. That alone speaks well for the merger.”

Kane remained expressionless, but his thoughts were running rampant. Not even close, sister. Elegant runs circles around you guys. It’s the one thing that might save your sorry asses when the shit hits the fan.”

Marcia returned to her notes. Her head was down when she asked, “What’s next?”

Kane looked at John, who was looking at him. Neither knew to whom the question had been directed.

Sensing their dilemma she raised her head and looked directly at Kane. “That question was for you.”

“Well you may want to start the tour with a walk-through the plant next door. That is where the fiber and fabrics are produced. It starts with materials from natural sources, like cotton and wool, from regenerative cellulose material like rayon and acetate or entirely synthetic like polyester and nylon. Elegant is unique in that they manufacture all their own thread and the fabrics are produced solely for their own consumption based on demand from confirmed orders. The processes are highly automated. Natural fibers must be cleaned, carded, combed, drawn, roved and finally spun. Manmade fibers such as rayon and acrylics are wet spun. Acetates and spandex are dry spun, Polymerics are melt spun.”

Kane observed that the technical information was beginning to overwhelm her. “Maybe we should save the fiber manufacturing plant for last. Since it’s just next door it would be the perfect place to end.”

“I think that’s a good idea. Let’s make the tour a cursory walk through for now. Any decisions we ultimately make will be based mainly on which Elegant lines we decide to continue. It will be marketing, not manufacturing, driven.”

Kane didn’t reply. Being a numbers guy he was used to making decisions based on the bottom line regardless of the which division was affected. This gal is in way over her head. What was Hampton thinking of when he put her in charge? She’s from a trading company for god’s sake. She doesn’t know squat about manufacturing. Well, it really doesn’t matter who he chose. When this house of cards collapses every one of their divisions will be affected. He looked down at her legs to see what type of shoes she had worn. He was distracted momentarily, by her shapely legs. Finally he said, “I’m glad to see you wore walking shoes. This tour covers over seven and a half miles and it’s all concrete flooring. One of our six cafeterias is around the half-way mark in case you want to stop for a quick lunch. You may want to bring along a bottle of water or juice from the table over there.”