Calvin smiled and walked over to a chair to look at the paperwork. He pulled a pen out of his shirt pocket and started filling out the forms.
Luc picked up the phone and hit the speed dial for Sandy. Meg blew him a kiss and headed for her own office. “Hey Sandy, this is Luc. Um, we have a bit of a problem here at the office,” he started. “Yeah, guessed you’d have noticed. Any ideas?” he asked. He listened for a few minutes and wrote down two numbers. “Thanks Sandy. I’d appreciate it,” he said and hung up the phone. He sat down and booted his computer while waiting for Calvin to finish the paperwork.
Calvin stood up and brought the papers over to Luc. “Here you go Luc,” he said.
“Thanks. Do you go by Calvin or Cal?” he asked.
“I prefer Cal. When I hear Calvin, I keep looking over my shoulder for my mom,” Cal said.
Luc laughed. “I know the feeling. When you hear your entire name, it just makes your hackles rise,” he said.
Cal nodded. “Hey, I know you don’t know me very well, but I have a cousin that lost his mate a few years ago. He’s sorta in the same state that boss lady is and well,…” he trailed off.
“The boss lady is Ginny, and she’ll rip your head off and shit down your neck if she hears you use that phrase. As for your cousin, is he nearby?” asked Luc. “God this sounds lame, but if it works, I’ll give the guy a raise!” he thought.
“He’s suppose to come visit next week. You could meet him then and see if Bos- I mean Ginny might like him,” said Cal.
“Sounds like a plan. Now let’s show you the warehouse, let you meet Peter and see how well the backhoe likes you,” said Luc as they headed out of the office.
*
Luc entered the warehouse with Cal only to see Peter pacing back and forth between two stacks of boxes.
“Peter, what the hell are you doing?” Luc asked.
“There’s a cat in here, and the last thing I want is piss all over my inventory,” called Peter as he moved fast to the left. He thumped a box hard and out shot a silver tabby. The cat headed off across the parking lot and out of sight.
“That was a pretty good shot there,” said Cal.
Peter looked around and saw a man in his mid twenties standing next to Luc. The jacket and work clothes made him think this might be Duke’s replacement. “Hi, I’m Peter, the warehouse foreman,” he said.
“Cal, Cal Johnson, and I guess we’ll be working together,” he said as he held out his hand. The two men shook hands and sized each other up.
“Where’d Duke leave the backhoe?” asked Luc.
“Round the corner out back,” said Peter. “It was acting up last time he used it, but I’m not sure how much that was Duke and how much it was the backhoe.”
Luc nodded as they headed outside. He opened the door to the cab. Keys in the ignition. Luc hopped in and started it up. It died. Luc pulled out the choke and tried again. It died. Luc checked the oil and fuel levels and tried a third time. It caught, ran for a few seconds and died again. “Dammit!” said Luc as he climbed out of the cab.
Cal had already lifted the engine cover off and was looking at the engine. “Geeze, what he do to this thing?” he asked. Luc looked over his shoulder. The wiring harness was covered in tarry goo. Hanging just off the edge of the oil filler tube was the oil cap. Oil had burped everywhere. Other things were messed up too that Luc could see.
“Cal, can you fix this?” he asked.
“Yeah, general mechanics license. Where are the tools?” he asked turning back to the building.
Peter was headed towards them with a tool box. “I’ll get it fixed,” he said.
“Peter, give Cal a chance,” said Luc.
“It was my responsibility, I’ll fix it,” said Peter. His body posture was beginning to go defensive. He knew he should have checked on it a week ago, and kept putting it off.
“No, Let Cal fix it,” said Luc with a touch of sub-vocals.
Cal backed off and Peter’s shoulders slumped. He put the tool box down by the backhoe and headed back to the building.
“Um, Luc, I didn’t mean to start any trouble,” said Cal softly.
“You didn’t. Just do your work and remember who’s boss,” said Luc. Luc then headed back to the warehouse. He found Peter and tapped him on the shoulder.
“Hey, cool the temper Peter,” he said.
“Sorry boss. Just that I should have taken care of it and…” Peter trailed off.
“It’s okay, just let Cal get his feet wet. You can see who’s got the bigger set of balls later,” said Luc. “Besides, we may need all the males we have if Ginny rips our heads off.”
“Don’t I just know it. She chewed my ass for a whole hour the other day. Surprised I have anything to sit on,” said Peter as he pointed at his ass.
Luc nodded. “I have a few numbers to call, and Cal there has a cousin.”
“Here’s hoping,” said Peter.
Luc smiled and headed back into the office building.
*
When he got to the office, Ginny had a stack of messages for him to return. She was holding court in the front office and Luc had no plans of disturbing her. He looked towards Meg’s office and saw the door closed tight. What a day, and it was only 10:45am.
Luc went back to his desk and started working on the messages. He called the numbers that Sandy had given him only to find out that one guy was married and the other out of town. Here’s hoping Cal’s cousin isn’t a washout,” he thought.