Taking Texas By Storm
by: E Walk
(© 2009 by the Author)
 

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Chapter 40

The Truth Comes Out

As we were eating, Greg Gump stopped by the table, “Hi President Waller, I was just on my way to see you.  There has been a change in your flight schedule.  You will be leaving tonight instead of in the morning.  The airline is cutting back on the number of flights to Europe.  We tried everything we could to find you a better schedule, but this is the best we could do.  Otherwise you would have had to change flights several times and this is a direct flight.  Fortunately, your return flight will remain the same.”

“Thanks Greg, I’ll call my valet and tell him he needs to pack my suitcases instead of fixing dinner.  Does Mr. Odom know?”

“We’ve notified Marlene.  So he probably knows or will shortly.  Do you want me to tell juan that you’ll need a ride to airport?”

“That’s silly.  Why pay someone to work overtime when I can pick up Mr. Odom and drive us to the airport for a lot less money?”

When I walked into the office, Tammy was talking to Trig and I started to give them a difficult time, “While the cats are away,  the mice will play.”

Trig laughed, “I just stopped in to see if you needed some food.  There is some left in the Executive Dining Room.”

“No thanks, Trig, we just ate in the Pit Stop.  There was a line waiting to be seated in the Executive Dining Room so we went elsewhere.  Why are you here anyway?”

“Ed, your memory must be failing: my restaurant is closed on Mondays.  I help the parents, here, on Mondays.”

“Trig, anymore, everyday seems the same.  I’m lucky to remember which days I need to come to work.”

I had gone into my office to get ready for my trip and was trying to decide what I needed to take.  I suddenly realized that I had no idea what was going to be discussed.  I pulled out the two folders on the wages that Dwight Taylor had prepared for me and stuck them in my briefcase thinking that would give me something do in my spare time on the trip.”

Jackie knocked, “President Waller, Carlos and Rico are here.  They said they have an appointment to see you at one thirty.  It’s not on your calendar.”

“That’s because they just made it while I was at lunch.”

I stood and greeted the two young men.   “Okay, I’m intrigued as to why you want to talk to me about something personal.  Did something interesting happen in bed last night?”

Rico pouted, “See, I told you the President’s mind was in the gutter.”

Carlos started to laugh, “Not in ours.  How about yours?”

“Touché.   What is it that you wanted to talk to me about?”

Carlos sat forward in his chair, “The strangest thing happened last night after we got back to our room from having a great time at your parents’ ranch.  There was a note on our door from my father, telling me that I should call him as soon as possible.”

“Why doesn’t he call you, if he wants to talk to you?”

“He probably doesn’t have a phone number since our phone is listed in Rico’s name.  What concerns me is how he got our address.  I’ve only listed it here at work and at the school.”

I thought for a minute, “He probably was able to get your address from here at Shell, since he knows you work here.  I’m surprised that he hasn’t come here to talk to you.”

Carlos shook his head, “You don’t understand, President Waller, my father is of the old school and wouldn’t lower himself to appear to be groveling and make the initial contact.  What should I do?”

“Carlos, if I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t make the initial contact.  It was your parents who threw you out, so make them suffer by having some egg on their faces by making them come to you.  You are in a position where you no longer need their support.  I can see your dad gloating when you graduate in December, ‘Look at us, our son is graduating from college.’”

Carlos stood, “You’re right, President Waller, that’s exactly what the prick would do.  There’s no way that I’m going to make the initial contact.  Thanks for talking to us.”

As Carlos and Rico were leaving, Mr. Odom was coming in, “What were the two young guys here about?”

I told him about the conversation.  He nodded, “You have Senor Calderon pegged, as to what he would do.  It will be interesting to see what happens when we get back.  Speaking of the trip, did you get the word that we are going to be leaving tonight, as opposed to the morning?”

“Yes, I’ll drive and pick you up on my way.  That way our transportation will be waiting for us when we return and we won’t have to cause people to work any overtime.”

After Mr. Odom had departed, I called the house to see if Allie was available.  “This is Allie.”

“Allie, my flight is going to leave tonight, instead of tomorrow morning.  Could you put enough clothes for three days in a suitcase for me, please?”

“Of course, what’s the weather going to be like at The Hague?”

“Beats me, the only time that I’ve been there was during the summer.  I’m guessing it will be cooler than here.”

“What time will you be leaving for the airport?” 

“I’ll leave the house at 8:30.  I’m driving Mr. Odom and me to the airport.”

“Good, I’ll make sure you have a good dinner before you leave.  Talk to you when you get home.”

As I was getting ready to leave, Tom came into the office, “Ed, do you have any last minute instructions before you go.”

“No, Tom, I don’t.  Just be prepared for the unexpected and rely on our staff.”

As we were eating, Allie mentioned, “Grandpa Darryl and Dieter both called to say that they had gotten home safely and thanked us for being such gracious hosts.

When Mr. Odom and I checked in, we were through the process in record time.  When we were sitting at the gate waiting for our departure, I pulled out my laptop and was recording the information that Mr. Taylor had given me, on the salaries, into a database.  Mr. Odom asked, “Ed, what are you doing, now?”

When I had explained the data I had, he frowned, “I’ll be interested to see what information you come up with.”

Our flight was called for boarding and Mr. Odom and I were some of the first people to be boarded, since we had seats in the business class section.  Mr. Odom had the window seat and I was on the aisle.”

I had just opened by laptop again when someone tapped me on the shoulder, “Long time no see.  I thought you were going to call me when you returned to Houston.”

“Eric, a lot has changed since the last time I saw you.  I’m now have a significant other and a son.  I met them right after I met you on the flight to Paris.”

Eric asked, “Are you traveling with the gentleman beside you?  He looks familiar.”

I nodded yes, “Yes, the gentleman is my boss, Mr. Adam Odom”

Eric started to laugh, “Now I know who you are.  You’re the Ed Waller who is the President of Shell Oil, and Mr. Odom is the CEO.”

“That’s us.”

Needless to say, Mr. Odom and I had the best of service for the remainder of the flight.  I had been working on the database for almost two hours when Mr. Odom finally said, “Ed, there’ll be time to finish the rest of what you’re doing, later.  Get some rest; we’re going to be in meetings all day tomorrow.”

I looked at Mr. Odom, “I thought the meetings were scheduled for Wednesday.”

“That’s when the big meeting will be.  When I talked to the bosses on Skype after I found out our schedule change, they decided to call in the brass from London, so we could have a pre-meeting meeting.  I think they just want to pick your brain.  They saw the last financial report we provided to the Board and were quite impressed.”

As we were getting ready to land in Amsterdam, Eric stopped by our seats, “If you have any positions that you think an old flight attendant could fill, give me a call.  I’d like to apply.  This traveling all the time is not as much fun as it used to be, now that the airlines are cutting as many benefits as possible to remain afloat.”

Mr. Odom asked, “Eric, why would you think that you would want to work for Shell?   It’s not a very exciting company.”

“Mr. Odom, I worked summers when I was in college on the Alaskan pipeline.  I graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in fuels management.  I went to work for a competitor and realized after a year that there was no way I was going to advance in the near future, because of the good-old-boy system, since I didn’t conform to their standards.  I always loved to travel so I went to work for the airlines and have been doing so for over ten years.”

Mr. Odom frowned, “What do you mean; you didn’t conform to their standards?”

Eric took a deep breath, “Ed, will probably find this difficult to believe, but I’m bi-sexual.  In fact, I’m happily married with two children.  When I travel I sometimes get a little lonely, and I decided that it was safer to mess around with another guy rather than a woman.  And before you ask, yes, my wife does know that I swing both ways.”

Mr. Odom was laughing, “Eric, if we were to hire you, do you think you could keep your swinging away from the personnel of Shell and the facility?”

Eric grinned, “If the price were right, my wife would make sure there was no swinging from the vines.  She’d probably have me on a leash so short that I wouldn’t be able to even go the bathroom.   Gotta go, we’re starting our final descent into Amsterdam.  I’ll give you a business card after we land, in case you feel sorry for me.”

Eric handed me a business card as we were deplaning.  Since Mr. Odom and I had packed only a carryon bag, we had no problems clearing customs.  We were met by a driver holding a sign, Odom and Waller party.  The man took us to an awaiting limousine.  After we were seated and on our way, the young man turned to us, “I’m Hans and the driver is Dedrick.  We have been instructed to make sure that you have an enjoyable stay.  We’ll be taking you to your hotel so you can freshen up and then we'll take you to the headquarters where they will have a breakfast for you.  We’ll pick you up in an hour and a half.”

When we arrived at the headquarters building, we were immediately taken to an executive dining room that definitely was for the top brass.   The time while we were eating was a time for people to get acquainted.  Since I hadn’t previously met many of those in attendance, there was a good deal of attention focused on me.

To say that I did not enjoy the next two days would be an understatement.  Because, I was suggesting that it was time that the dead wood, who were in the top positions and not doing their jobs and being paid outlandish salaries for doing nothing should be retired or better fired to save the company money.  That’s what we’ve been doing in Houston.  In doing so, we have found that the people were using their positions for personnel gains and thus the next layer of management got into the act. 

“You people in management need to be willing to get into the trenches and work.  Most importantly, you need to surround yourselves with good people and they’ll cover your backside.  We in Houston are only just now beginning to clear out the dead wood.”

“Before I antagonize you who consider yourself above this kind of business, the one thing all of you need to have is someone that the employees can go to and know that the person is listening to what they have to say, without fear of reprisal.  That is the way we were able to clear a lot of the dead wood.”

The President of Shell Oil Worldwide commented, “Mr. Waller, perhaps you and your team should go into the major headquarters and clean them up.”

“Sir, if we were to try to do that, we would be met with suspicion and I’d probably wind up getting shot again.  Each of the operations are different and I’m still learning about our headquarters in Houston.  Before I sit down and be quiet, I have prepared a PowerPoint Presentation, detailing how much we have saved the company so far. It will show where we will be going in the future.”

When I finished my presentation, I received a standing ovation.  I looked around the room, trying to decide if it was genuine or not.

There was a dinner for the attendees and their spouses, if they were present, that night.   I was hoping that Mr. Odom would suggest that we not go, but no such luck.  In fact, he and I were seated at the head table with the officers from the world headquarters.  I was seated next to the President’s wife.  It turned out to be a very pleasant experience, since she had spent some time in the United States.

As Mr. Odom and I were transported back to our hotel, he nodded, “Ed, you did exactly what the big boys wanted.  You put the fear of God in those executives who have been sloughing off, not paying attention to business.”

When I arrived in my room, I was exhausted and fell on the bed without getting totally undressed.  I did, however, remember to set my alarm and awoke the next morning and packed my bag, since Hans said they would be picking us up at eight o’clock so we could have breakfast before we went to the airport.”

I was waiting in the lobby when Hans and Dedrick arrived and Mr. Overmeyer climbed out of the limousine.  He laughed, “I’ve been ordered to make sure you arrive at the airport in one piece.  You sure have some of the other executives jumping through the hoops, so to speak, and it appears that some of them are about to land on their faces.”

When Mr. Odom and I were finally settled in our seats, I shook my head, “Mr. Odom, I don’t have very good vibes about what happened these past two days.  Something is nagging at me.  I’m almost afraid that something bad has been happening back home.” 

To be continued...

Editor's Notes:  Oh dear, I wonder what Ed is talking about.  Is this a cliffhanger?  Has E Walk been plotting things with Str8mayb? What is the world coming to? How long will it be before we have a new chapter of this intriguing story? Are butterflies really made of butter?  Will I ever find another ewe?  How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

I suppose that the only way we will ever find out is to read the next chapter, and even then, there will probably still be unanswered questions.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 08/27/10