A quick phone call to Marcie told Milt that things were even worse than he thought they were. She told him that there was a Sandy’s Super Subs store that had opened up the street the day before. Sales had been lousy yesterday, since the introductory prices were well under what Wilson’s usually charged. They had barely been able to open today before the inspector shut them down, but in that short period of time they’d only done about a third of their normal early business.

“This is even worse than I thought it was,” he told Marcie. “We’re going to have to do something about this and I’m not sure what. Hang on a minute, I’ve got to talk to Mary Ann.”

He turned to his store manager and said. “Get on your cell phone and contact another store manager, any other store manager, and find out if a Sandy’s Super Subs opened near them.”

“Right away, boss.”

“OK, Marcie,” he said back into the phone. “What did you get red-tagged for?”

“Only one red tag, and it was for a cockroach infestation. I haven’t seen any roaches but the guy said he’d seen signs of them.”

“OK, that tells me something,” he replied. “We might not be in too bad a shape with you.”

In only a few seconds Mary Ann was able to tell him, “There’s a new Sandy’s Super Subs about half a block up the street from the River Street store. It just opened yesterday, too.”

“Well, shit,” he told her. “And this hits right when I’m going to be stuck with jury duty for a few days, so there’s not much I’m going to be able to do about it.” He thought for an instant, then said, “OK, we’re going to have to have a meeting of all the managers at Haviland Street as soon as they can get there. I’ll talk to Gerald. You and Marcie call in the others.”

It was half an hour before the five managers and Milt were gathered at the Haviland Street store, the normal headquarters. None of them were very happy; it had proved that there were Sandy’s Super Sub stores close to all of the Wilson stores, and that the health inspector had been to all the Wilson stores that day, too. There were a bunch of yellow tags, but no other red tags he hadn’t heard about, thank goodness.

“This is not good news,” Milt told the group. “It’s clear to me that the people behind this Sandy’s Super Subs outfit are taking a run at us, so the only thing we can do is to circle the wagons and hope for the best. You all know I got stuck with jury duty, so I won’t be able to do much for a week or more.”

“Isn’t there any way you can get out of it under the circumstances?” Mary Ann asked.

“Not without a month in the county slammer,” Milt told her. “We’re just going to have to do the best we can until this trial is over with, and hope that it’s good enough. Now, I don’t know how much time on the phone they’re going to let me have, so I expect that I’m not going to be able to talk to each of you every day, so until I’m back, I want Mary Ann to be the central point. I know all the rest of you have seniority on her, but right at the moment you have stores to run, and she doesn’t.”

It was a chore that really ought to have gone to Gerald, the manager at Haviland Street, but Milt knew that while he was good at running a store he did better with someone standing over him, which was the normal case at Haviland Street. Mary Ann was bright, and as he had said, didn’t have a store to deal with right now. There wasn’t anything Maxine could do to help out; she had never had much to do with the stores, and hadn’t held a job for a long time.

“I haven’t had long to think about this,” Milt went on. “But it looks to me like we’re toast at Peavine Street at least for a while. The refrigeration issue could be cleaned up quickly, but if we really do have a rat problem there it’s going to take a while to clean up. What’s more, that new hot dog place next door isn’t going to help matters any. So, Mary Ann, we’re going to close it up for now. Get all the supplies and perishables out of there and spread them around the other stores.”

“Are you going to close it permanently?” she asked. It was her job, after all.

“I don’t know yet and won’t know until after I get done with jury duty, and maybe not then,” he said. “Maybe we won’t reopen it as a sub shop, but if it’s going to be something else I need to think about what it might be. You think about it, too. Is anybody short staffed right now?”

“I’ve had a couple people leave in the last week or two,” Marcie said. “I don’t know for sure but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re working at that Sandy’s place.”

“Why not? They’re taking a run at us every other way possible. I sure would like to know how they managed to drag the health department in on this, because those guys usually only get off their dead butts when someone forces them to. OK, Mary Ann, get with everybody else here and see if they’re short staffed, and then you can send your Peavine Street workers over to fill the holes. Everybody, try not to overstaff. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have to make some cuts but maybe we can hold them off until after I get back.”

“What about me?” Marcie asked. “We’re closed now, too.”

“You and Mary Ann get a pest control guy in there the first thing in the morning. Get him to do what has to be done, clean the place up, and call for a re-inspection. With luck, they’ll be able to get to it quickly and you can re-open. If they can’t do it soon, get your perishables out and spread them around the other stores, too. Everybody, be real careful about stocking up until we have some idea of how hard we’re going to be hit by this stuff. Don’t spend any money if you don’t have to, at least not until I get back.”

“Those prices at the Sandy’s places are going to kill us,” Gerald said flatly. “Can we cut prices to try and keep up?”

“No, at least not right now,” Milt told him. “I don’t know how long they can keep up that introductory pricing bullshit, but I hope they can’t keep it up long. It’s something else that’s going to have to wait till I get done with jury duty and can get a real handle on this mess.”

The meeting didn’t last a lot longer, and no one was pleased about it. It seemed likely to Milt that his managers could hold the line for a few days, but he had the distinct impression that it was going to be wasted effort. He didn’t have the financial reserves to deal with a crisis like this, especially with all the money that had been wasted on the wedding that had never happened.

What with everything, including driving by each of the stores to confirm that there indeed was a Sandy’s Super Subs store located close to each Wilson’s, it was late before he was able to turn toward home, confused and fuming every inch of the way. He couldn’t help but think that maybe he just ought to cut his losses and give up, except that he was probably so deep in the hole with all that had happened that he wouldn’t be able to see out of it if he did.

He was exhausted when he made it home; all the stuff that had been dumped on him in the last few hours weighed on him heavily.

Needless to say, Maxine was on him as soon as he walked in the front door. “Did you find Petra?” she asked petulantly. “I really need to talk to her.”

“No, I didn’t even bother looking. Maxine, forget about Petra for a few minutes. We’ve got real trouble.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of, that we’ve got real trouble with her.”

“No, we’ve got real trouble with the stores. Bad trouble. If things don’t start going our way by the end of the month, we could be out of business and under a ton of debt besides, and paying for that damn wedding hasn’t helped things one bit. I don’t know how we’re going to get out of this one, but there might be a chance. It may come down to you and me running just one store, and I’m not hopeful about that.”

“Maybe if you can find Petra she could be some help,” she suggested.

“It might be, but I’m not taking any bets on it. I think she’s in hiding because she doesn’t want to deal with all the crap that fell on her at the wedding, and she might not come out soon.”

“Daddy,” Petra said, “I’m glad we got that much worked out. The only reason I would ever want to go back to Mom and Milt’s is to get my stuff, and I could do without it if I had to.”

“That can probably be arranged,” he told her as she snuggled up under his arm. It felt good; it had been a long time since that had happened. “Let’s not worry about it tonight. Besides, think how much it would upset your mother to learn that you’re moving in with me.”

“If the wedding blowing up in her face didn’t give her a heart attack, that might do it,” she grinned. “I really don’t have that much. I threw out a lot of stuff in the last month, packing up so I could move away with Barry. At least that effort wasn’t wasted.”

“Let’s not think about it tonight,” he suggested. “I’ve got a couple ideas, but they’re things I’ll have to look into tomorrow. There are other things we need to think about, and one of them is just how glad I am to have you back.”

“I’m glad too, Daddy,” she said. “I’m just glad to have all that behind me and look forward to whatever it is that comes next. Daddy, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“About what?”

“About anything. Barry and I had all these plans. We were going to go out to the coast, and he had some good leads on jobs. He was going to get one, and I was going to look for one, too. It would have been kind of an adventure for me. I was really looking forward to finding out what a real job would be like.”

“You’ve never had a real job?”

“Only babysitting and those summers as a camp counselor. I don’t want to do that again even if I could get it, since it might take me away from you.”

“There’s no reason you can’t get a job. In fact, it might be a good idea. It would be better than sitting around the house all day all upset with everything.”

“Yeah, I can see that, but I don’t know what I want to do.”

“Well, I’ve got one thing if you want it. You could go to work for me.”

“You mean, in your office?” she asked.

“No, not that. At least not right now. The office is staffed up as much as we need it, and you’re probably not qualified for anything there anyway. I was thinking about one of the stores.”

“You mean like a cashier or something?”

“You probably wouldn’t even start with that. That’s a job that you have to work up to, although if you’re a good worker you could probably work up to it fairly quickly. Probably it would just be stocking shelves, or maybe filling in as a bagger. It’s hard work, and there would be things you would have to learn, and the pay wouldn’t be very good.”

“Oh,” she said, deflating a little. “I didn’t think about that.”

“Yes, but there’s a good side to it,” he said. “In fact, there’s a very good side to it. That’s how everybody without experience elsewhere starts at Pafco. The assistant managers and the managers have all done it. Even I have done all of that. If a problem comes up it’s not unknown for me to rush over and fill in a hole. Given some time, you could work up to assistant manager, even manager, and I would be happy if you were to do it. It’s something you really need to know.”

“You mean, to be a stocker or a bagger?”

“Not in the long run,” he smiled. “Petra, think about it. I have one daughter. I also have ten supermarkets, and a piece of several sandwich stores, along with some investments. The day is going to come when I’m no longer around.”

“I hope that’s not soon.”

“Well, I do too, at least now that you’re back with me. The point, Petra, is that you need to know how the stores work if you’re going to be in charge of that kind of investment, even if you don’t manage it. If you don’t know, whoever you have managing it could pull the wool over your eyes and it could hurt you badly.”

She sat up and looked at him. “Daddy, I never even thought about that. I mean, it never crossed my mind. Is it a lot of money?”

“I can’t tell you, because I don’t know from day to day and a lot could depend on what happens in the future. But in simple terms, if everything continues to go more or less all right, I’m pretty sure it’s what you would think of as a lot of money.”

“I knew you had the stores,” she said, “but I never got the idea that you had a lot of money.”

“I didn’t have it when you were little,” he explained. “We were mostly living on the income I had as an assistant manager, then as a store manager, and it got tight at times since your mother could spend money faster than I made it. She always had something else we had to have, if you know what I mean.”

“Yes, she still is pretty much that way. Milt tries to keep it under control, but you see how the wedding got out of hand.”

“My point exactly. Well, anyway, my dad got sick, and I had to work even harder to manage a store and Pafco.” He let out a sigh, then went on, “In fact, I suspect that’s why your mother took up with Milt in the first place, although I’d suspected her of running around on me even before that happened. I wasn’t home enough to satisfy her, so she went looking elsewhere and found it.”

“I never heard her put it quite like that, but thinking about some of the things she said, you might be right. So what happened?”

“The big thing is that I caught her at it, and you know what happened after that. After the divorce I had to sell our old house so we could split the money, and I lived in an apartment for a while before I moved in here.”

“I remember that. It was a small apartment, but you tried to make me happy when I came to visit you. But I thought Mom made out pretty well on the divorce. I mean, better than I think she should have, now.”

“Fortunately, Dad had us sign a prenuptial agreement before we got married,” he smiled. “And yes, she did make out pretty well on the deal, and that’s not even counting her taking you away from me. Then Dad died, and he left me the stores, all six of them, and all of a sudden what looked like a good deal to your mom didn’t look so good to her any more.”

“Do you think that’s why she tried to take me away from you?”

“I wouldn’t put it past her. That’s the kind of person she is, and the thought has crossed my mind more than once.”

Petra was silent for a moment before she replied, “I think you might have something there. As I recall it, she was pretty good about visitation for a while, but after a year or so she became a real bitch about it. I think that’s when all the sports and lessons and camp and stuff started. She wanted more of your money and used me as a hostage.”

“You could be right. I know I thought that off and on over the years. It may not have been her only motivation, but it probably was one of them.”

“That bitch,” she snarled. “I never thought about it like that, but I’m sure that must be right. So you were pretty well off after your dad died?”

“Well, not right away. I don’t want to say the stores were up to their ears in debt, but there were problems that had to be dealt with, and it took a while to deal with them. In his last years, Dad wasn’t exactly doing all he should have done, and things had slipped a bit. It took a lot of work, especially in the first few years, but we managed to pull out of it and expand, so we’re in pretty good shape now. If I were to sell the stores on the open market in a fair sale, not with my back up against the wall, each one would probably be worth upwards of ten million.”

“Daddy!” she said, sitting upright. “You’re worth a hundred million dollars?”

“Not quite. I owe quite a bit of money to banks on the stores, or at least Pafco Supermarkets Corporation does and I own the corporation almost totally. I’m sure the accounting department could tell you to the penny, but it’s not anything like as much as it was since we extended ourselves a few years ago to pick up the four new stores. If I sold out, by the time the dust settled, it would probably be in the fifty to sixty million range, but none of it is spendable cash right now. I have the new line of stores and some other investments, and I still draw a pretty good paycheck. That’s why I could spend the money to get rid of Barry. I don’t want to say it was pocket change, but it was worth it.”

“Still, that much money! Couldn’t you just sell out and retire?”

“In theory I could, but what would I do? Up until recently I had little to do in my life but to work. No hobbies, no girlfriends . . .” he gave her a squeeze and continued, “. . . and no daughter. What else was I supposed to do with my time?”

She stared at him for a moment, with a sad look in her eye. “My God,” she said finally. “So that’s what Mom really did to you. You’re telling me you don’t have any friends, no girlfriends or anything?”

“I have work friends, and some of them are pretty close, but no one I can call a close personal friend. I’ve tended to shy away from having girlfriends,” he said sadly. “When you have as much money as I do, you’re never sure if the person who shows an interest is interested in you or in your money. That’s part of the reason I live in a small house and drive a company car, so I’m not seen as a walking sugar daddy. I’m not looking for a trophy wife. I’ve been burned once and burned badly, and it’s made me a little shy of getting involved with someone.”

“So you’ve just let yourself be lonely. Daddy, I can’t let that happen to you anymore. I’m going to have to see that you get a girlfriend.”

He gave her a big smile. “Don’t get in too big a rush on that,” he laughed. “I’m in the early stages of getting to know a pretty nice woman. I can’t say anything is happening yet, and it hasn’t, but there’s a possibility that something could happen. You’ll probably meet her sooner or later, but don’t let her know just how much money I have. She knows I’m pretty well off, but she doesn’t have any idea just how well off.”

“Is she nice, Daddy?”

“I think so. She’s a single mom, a widow, with a daughter who has to be around eleven or twelve, I’m not sure and I’ve never thought to ask. She’s a working mom, the assistant manager of one of the stores, and things have not been easy for her. But I like her, and well, we’re just going to have to see what happens.”

“When can I meet her?”

“Probably not until this weekend. She’s on the evening shift this week, and while we haven’t made any plans it wouldn’t be surprising if we were to get together for a while. The three of us went to the zoo last weekend, and her daughter reminded me a lot of what you were like when we took you there at that age.”

“Maybe we can all go together again sometime,” she smiled. “I haven’t been to the zoo since you took me that time.”

“I remember that. It was a lot of fun, but don’t read too much into it yet. This is just getting started.”

“Well, I’ll do what I need to do to help you out, even if it’s to go somewhere else when you want to be alone.” She grinned and went on, “You know what I mean.”

“I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but I’m not saying it won’t happen, either. It’s much too soon for both of us. Besides, I have to say that I’ll do the same thing when you find another guy.”

“I don’t know that I want another guy after the way I got burned by Barry. I don’t want to put up with that again. I’m not going to say that I’m never going to get married, but I may just live with someone for a while before I do. I wish to hell I’d done that with Barry, but once again . . .”

“. . . your mother wanted you to have a big wedding,” he finished for her.

“Yeah,” she sighed. “After the wedding that wasn’t I told Milt that if I ever get married again, it’s just going to be me, my guy, and the Elvis impersonator who marries us, but I’ve changed my mind.”

“I can understand the sentiment, but why have you changed you mind?”

“Because when I do get married, I still want it to be by an Elvis impersonator, and I don’t want Mom anywhere near. But I want my daddy to walk me down the aisle, and I damn well plan on having it that way next time.”

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