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“Not since she was about ten. She’s always had a good head on her shoulders.” He looked at his sons. “Perhaps you can tell me why you think it is that I’m not taking care of Merce. Or tell me a time or two when you’ve had to bail her out.”
“It’s because we keep a close eye on her, that’s why.” Del stood up and smiled at the two men when they looked at him. He did notice that neither of them stood up after glancing at his mom. “Do you have something to add, Mr. Archer? I’m sure if you’ve spent any time with our sister, you can tell your mother we’re right in how we’ve been caring for her.”
“How old are you two anyway?” They told him they were in their late thirties. “Late thirties, huh? I would have thought you were born back in prehistoric times the way you talk about taking care of Merce. Were you aware that she has a college degree? That she helps your father run the business that kept you clothed, food on your table, as well as money in your pockets when you were younger than her? Also, you might find this hard to believe, but she’s smart. A go-getter when it comes to bringing in more business. Have you been to the plant lately? I noticed things today that might surprise you. There are pictures on the walls around the people that work for them of their families. Your father and sister are in a great many of the photos, having a good time with the people that work for them. When was the last time you had a company outing? That you let your employees put a little plant or a picture of their own family on their desk? I’m observant, gentlemen, and I’m thinking that given a choice, they’d rather work for your sister than the two of you.”
“What does any of this have to do with the two of you coming in here with our little sister?” Del asked the man to stand up, then asked him his name. “I’m Harley Lowery. This is my brother Brock. If you have nothing positive to add to the conversation we were having with your mother, Del, then I’d like you to wait outside with my family.”
The punch to his face was satisfactory. Not only that, but he found that he wanted to pick the man up and hit him again. He might well have had his mother not told him to stop. Harley didn’t move but asked him what that was for. Del noticed that Brock didn’t move so much as his feet out of his way when Harley reached for his sibling.
“That’s for thinking I wasn’t a gentleman when your sister stayed at my home. I shouldn’t have to explain to you that rather than driving home exhausted and risking an accident, she opted to stay in my home in my mom’s room. Not for driving too fast or for being on a drunken binge. Nor for being….” He looked at Merce. “What is it they said you were doing?”
“‘Fucking around with strangers.’” She kicked her brother in the ribs while he was still down. Del pulled her into his body so she’d not cause him more harm. It was like holding onto a live wire. “You fucking bastard. I’ve never had sex, much less with random men. You might well have known that about me if you’d get your heads out of your asses and talk to me instead of at me.”
Mom stood up then, as did the men. “If I had a piece of anything to sell, I’d not use you. That’s not written in stone, but as far as I can see, it might as well be. Imagine treating your own sister like she was some sort of tramp…. Well, you can bet I’ll be bringing this up at my next board meeting.” She started away, then turned back to them. “This isn’t a way to get you to treat this wonderful young woman better. This is a way for you to think about your actions before it’s too late. Let me ask you something while I’m thinking on it. When was the last time you visited your grandfather? Or your father, for that matter. You know, before you know it, they’ll be gone, then there won’t be any time for them. I lost my husband, a dear and wonderful person, one day because he’d gone to bed and never woke up. He was
young too, in his late forties. Just like that, I was a widow with six sons to raise. But the time we had together was wonderful. I’d not miss any of it if I had it all to do it over again. What are you going to think about when not only is your grandfather gone from this earth, but your father as well?”
Mom asked if they could go to dinner when they were in the car. Del told her he’d love that, and Harlin asked if his father could join them. Stopping by the nursing home, Mom and Merce went into the place to get him. Harlin turned to him when they were gone.
“They won’t change. I don’t think I thought about how seriously messed up they are about Merce until I saw it through yours and your mother’s eyes. I have no idea how they got to this point either. I certainly never treated her that way.” Del asked about his wife. “She was gone before Merce was very old. I don’t think she was overprotective as much as they are to their sister, but she did have trouble with them leaving the house and letting them play with other children. Do you think they got that from her? I don’t mean her ways, but that they had to be the protector because their mother wasn’t there to do it?”
“I don’t know. I mean, if you think about it, it does make perfect sense.” Harlin said he thought so as well. “Harlin, would you mind very much if I started seeing your daughter? I’m not really asking for permission here, but I am asking if you think her brothers will say something to her. Or even hurt her in some way.”
“Son, I have to tell you something. When I met you, I thought you were a perfect match for her. I nearly wet myself when you hit her brother. However, I will tell you I didn’t have any idea that you were the Archers.” Del told him that they were just the Archers. “To you perhaps, but when I saw my sons falling over themselves to please your mother, I did a little looking around on the Internet while my sons were getting their asses handed to him. I don’t know if you realize this or not, but your family really are the Archers, son. You’re richer than Midas, as my dad used to tell people about us. Yes, it would do me a world of good to see the two of you dating. I think she’d enjoy herself too.”
Del wasn’t sure why he’d asked. He wasn’t even sure when he’d realized he wanted to start seeing Merce. But he did. He wanted to see her all dressed up in a pretty dress and having him hanging on her arm. Del would never presume to think she would be on his arm unless she wanted to be there. Laughing, he was thrilled to death to see his mom talking to the elder Lowery. And he seemed to be enjoying himself too.
Chapter 3
Merce watched the prototype arm as it moved through the motions. It was being recorded, too, something they’d only just started doing since taking on this project. She wanted to be able to go over the way it moved with Del, and since he was out of town for a few days, Merce thought this was the best way for them to do it.
“I don’t like the way it moves.” Not looking at Billy, she asked him why not. What did he see? “It’s clumsy. Like it knows what it’s supposed to be doing, but it has to think about it too long. Like a person that has only just gotten a body, and they’re learning how to walk. They don’t want to mess up.”
“Maybe that’s what he wants. I mean, this isn’t like an arm putting a door on a car. This is going to be for an operating room where lives are at stake.” He asked her if he could tweak the program a little. “Just don’t save it over theirs. I don’t want them coming back on us and telling us we fucked them over.”
Not that she thought they would do that. David had spent the entire day yesterday at their plant just looking around with her. He had pointed out the things that Del had told him about. The way the workers were happy, and the number of personal things they had around them. He even went over the design with her, telling her that if after producing one of them they found errors, not to hesitate to work on them. They were perhaps the best company they’d worked with.
While Billy worked on his tweaking job, she went back to her office. She didn’t have anything in her office to say that she was the one working out of it. There were no family pictures around. Not a single piece of art. There were no little things she’d picked up on vacation. Merce hadn’t been on vacation since…well, she didn’t remember the last time.
Moving to the busy side of her desk, she sat down and closed her eyes. Merce had been working almost nonstop on this project for five days now. She’d even slept here last night in order to be here bright and early for the first finished prototype. As she sat there resting, she thought of Del.
He’d asked her out when they’d spoken on the phone yesterday. Merce had hesitated long enough for him to change the subject. What she’d been thinking about was how long it had been since the last time she’d been out on a date, even with her dad. She needed to do that more too. Have some fun with her dad and grandda.
Merce did have a date with her grandda tonight. They were going to get some dinner, just the two of them, then head back to her apartment to play some chess. The other day when they’d been out, he’d told her how much he missed the game. Telling him she’d get them a set had tickled them both. She was glad now that she’d been able to find them a good set for them to play with. However, she was much more excited to have Del ask her out again. This time she’d be ready for it.
“I have a couple of questions for you. Well, I don’t, but David does. He’s on line two.” She punched in the number and put it on speaker phone. Her dad, always thinking no one could hear him on speaker phone, yelled at David that she was here. “Go ahead, ask her what you were asking me.”
A short burst of laughter from David had her smiling. “The first hospital we’re making this for just called. They want to know how hard it would be to put a permanent sign on the machines telling how to use it.” Merce asked him why they’d want to do that. “I would imagine so that there isn’t any confusion on how it works.”
“No, what I mean is, why do they want it to be permanent? It wouldn’t be any trouble to have it put into the stainless steel before it’s put together, but what if there are upgrades to it? You do want it so it’s easy to upgrade, correct?” He said he’d not thought of that. “I have put that in the design. A way it can be worked on without taking it apart too much. But the user information we’d put on there would be outdated the first time we had to do that sort of updates on it.”
“That’s a good point. I wonder if Del had thought of that.” She could have told him it wasn’t on the specs but didn’t. “There are a couple of other things they want on it. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this part. They want their name on it—Jackson Memorial Hospital. We will have both our names on it, as well as the manufacturer and design companies, but adding their hospital name seems like it would lessen the resale value but increase their cost to purchase it. It seems silly to me when it’s in their hospital.”
“Maybe that’s why. They want to have it known that it was made for them especially. It’s a vanity thing. And I have no idea how much you’d charge for that sort of input, but again, that would be easy to put on there for them.” David asked her if they had run into this sort of thing before. “You mean the vanity thing? Yes. Quite a bit, as a matter of fact. A couple of years ago, this company wanted their opening date put on the machine they wanted. Within two years, they were out of business. Not that I’m saying this will happen to the hospital, but I just read an article the other day about two hospitals being combined into one, and the other one was renamed. If that were to happen, they’d have a piece of equipment with a name of a hospital on it that no longer existed. I would imagine people would then think they’re using old, outdated equipment.”
“What a brilliant argument. Would you mind if I pitched that to them? Not the selling part, but that the equipment would seem outdated to people that might need it. Brilliant. No wonder Del endlessly talks about how smart you are.” She looked at her dad, and he winked at her. “All right. You’ve given me a great deal of information. I’m so glad I called. Thank you so much.”
When the call was disconnected, she looked at her dad. “You could have told him that same information. Why did you come to me for it?” He looked guilty, and she asked him again. “Tell me, Dad. What’s going on?”
