The Inheritance

I whispered back, "We haven't had a chance to discuss this but I would like to have children with you. At least a boy and a girl."

She drew back and looked in my eyes. "Yes! I'd adore that." Then she wrapped me into one of those kisses again. I was seeing spots before my eyes before she let us up for air.

The Captain said, "You two need to get a room! I don't know what you said to her but wow!" I got another slap on the back.

Even my cousins congratulated us. All except Jerry who was back in jail, for a year this time. He was hoping to have his sentence shortened by testifying against Sherwin Wilson.

In December we started two new plants to manufacture desalination plants. One in Alabama and one in North Carolina. Again we found abandon factories that we could purchase cheaply and refurbish. We also started a midwest climatology center in Madison Wisconsin and another one in Greenville North Carolina. Even with all the caution Audrey and I had gone into this with we came within a hairs breath of overextending the corporation. I sold off ten percent of our stock which was scarfed up immediately and boosted the value of the remaining stock. The money we got for the stock saw us thru the tight spot.

Now between the two of us Audrey and I controlled seventy percent of the stock. She had twenty percent and I controlled the remaining fifty percent. This led to one of the few fights we had. I wanted to transfer five more percent to her.

She was ridged. She was not going to accept my proposal, "No Ryan. Things are fine just the way they are!"

"Audrey, I meant it when I said I wanted you to be a brake on me in case I got some wild idea that would harm the company."

"Ryan, it's not going to happen! You don't need a brake. I do!"

"But Audrey, we agreed to this. We need to keep the corporation healthy. To do that we need for no one to have a whip hand!"

We argued for two hours before she took my face in both hands and looked deep into my eyes. "Ryan, I was the one who wanted to build four new plants and open three more climatology centers. You always listen to me but you always give very reasoned and rational arguments for not doing things my way. Never, not once, have you pulled rank on me and used my submissive nature to get your way. I don't believe you ever will."

We went around and around for hours when she finally proposed. "Ryan, why don't we make five revocable proxies. Give one to each of your cousins. They can be tiebreakers. I'll do the same. That way I can vote fifteen percent maximum and you can vote forty-five percent maximum. Neither of us will have a whip hand but together we can do what's right."

I thought about it for about half an hour before I grabbed her and gave her a kiss. "That's a marvelous solution! And when we need more capital we can revoke the trust and sell the stock." I paused, "Altho they might cause us some trouble with the ten percent share."

Audrey kissed me back and laughed, "I don't think that will be a problem. They'll probably vote your way no matter what."

"Why do you think that?"

"Look at all the money you've made them. With the dividends and the increase in stock prices your leadership has almost tripled their money. Why would they vote against you unless they seriously thought you were wrong. Besides can you see all of them agreeing on anything enough to vote the full ten percent against you?"

I laughed, "I guess you're right. We'll let them know as soon as the lawyers have the agreements drawn up. Let's make the proxies for three months at a time."

We had a small quiet wedding in May and took our honeymoon by touring the new facilities we were opening. It wasn't all work. We took our time and toured the area around each of the new plants. Spring is a wonderful time of the year in most of the country so we had lovely weather the whole time and all of the scenery was fresh with the bursting promise of spring. We rented a motorhome for the tour so we weren't rushed. We drove about three hundred miles a day and rested a day or three at a time. All together it took just over two months before we returned to our home in Monterey.

The towns where we had started our factories were overjoyed to have a new employer in the area and we were welcomed by the locals as heros. In both cases the first desalination plant produced was installed locally.

The climatology centers were greeted with enthusiasm. We already had contracts with Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Omaha and Indianapolis and several cities on the east coast. They were hard at work producing forecasts for their areas.

The following September we were surprised when Sherwin Wilson asked for a meeting. We agreed and set the meeting for the 16th. We met on neutral ground at the local Marriott. My cousins, except for Jerry, attended.

Sherwin opened the meeting. "Have you been following the stock of Pacific Explorations?"

I spoke for our board and my cousins, "Yes we have. It looks like you're really in trouble."

He gave a strangled laugh. "That's the understatement of the year. Revenue from the fishing and kelp processing plants is way down. It's costing us more to get the kelp and fish we do bring in. The environmentalists are all over us like stink on shit. The banks are getting ready to call in our loans. We're to the point of defaulting on some of the loans. It was your uncle's corporation once. Can you do anything to help. Can you figure out a way to save the corporation?"

I said, "I can think of a couple of things but they are going to hurt. They'll hurt a lot."

He swallowed and said, "Go on."

"First, you have to stop bleeding money. That means pulling back your operations. You've overfished the kelp beds and taken too much kelp from them. They need years to recover. That means you have to stop or greatly reduce your fish and kelp processing operations. You may have to stop them altogether for six months to a year. It means you have to reduce your fishing and kelp harvesting. It means firing a lot of people."

He nodded, "The alternative is to fold altogether. What else?"

"Well, you know better than I do that cutting back will actually increase your cash flow. The next part will hurt your ego as much as anything."

He looked at me, "What's that?"

"You need to go the the environmentalists and do a mea culpa. You need to tell them they were right and you were wrong."

He winced but said nothing.

I continued. "Show them that you've cut way back on your fishing and kelp harvests. The worst is you're going to have to ask their advice and take it. Ask them to intercede with the government agencies controlling fishing and kelp harvesting to open a few new grounds to you on a temporary basis. It would be really good if you could show that leaving the beds natural will cause them to die out. Thinning would be good for the kelp. There are quite a few studies in your files to show that it's true."

He said, "Jesus I'll look like a grade 'A' ass!"

Audrey answered for me, "Yes, but you really need to get them off your case fast. Ryan's method is the fastest way I can think of. Once they quit riding you, your chances of getting additional loans increases significantly. Your stock prices will almost certainly rise, if for no other reason than the court cases against you will probably be dropped."

After two hours of tossing around alternatives he looked totally frazzled. "Anything else?" He asked.

"Yes," I said, "Get an outside company to go over the IT departments in your plants with a fine toothed comb. I have a feeling that bad things are going on at least in San Diego. I don't trust Bates."

He sighed again, "Anything else?"

"One last thing, you need to do a thorough analysis of your proposed cuts to the workforce and the operations and show the banks how you plan to pay them every penny that they are owed. Implement the changes and do a week over week analysis of costs and income. Do that for a month before you go to the banks. Hopefully, you'll be able to show how your actions have improved the position of the company. That should get you some more time on the loans coming due. That's all I have, do you have anything else?"

He stood and said, "Yes. I want to apologize for all the asshole things I did to wrest the company away from you. I was sure I was right but you were the smart one. As soon as the environmentalists quit hassling you your stock took off like a homesick angel. I was holding you back. I'm truly sorry for being such a pigheaded ass."

We all stood and shook hands. He said, "I don't know why do don't just buy us back. Those were all great ideas."

I said, "I don't want to hurt anyone. Besides, if you fail and the banker's take over the business, I can get the companies at firesale prices. They sure as hell don't know anything about harvesting kelp or fish and it'll cost them a lot just to keep the plants mothballed. I wish you the best of luck."

He laughed, "Yeah, you'll probably get things for fire sale prices alright."

With that the meeting broke up. My cousins gathered around me.

Rory said, "Well that was enlightening."

Alicia asked, "Ryan, could we all arrange to go out on your boat to where we set Uncle Roger's ashes adrift? I'd just like to say goodbye one more time."

I gave her a hug. "I think that's a great idea." I looked and saw Audrey already had her phone out. I finished, "Why don't you all stay at the house tonight. I think we have enough rooms." I looked at Audrey again and said, "Ask Anthony if he would like to go with us and tell him we're having guests."

She said, "Yes Ryan." She smiled and started dialing. She held a hand tenderly over her stomach, she had a surprise for her husband and master.