Lauren
Eight
One thing I've learned about Lauren; when she's thinking, she goes quiet. And she was quiet walking back to the car. I held the door, she slid in and barely mumbled a 'thank you'.
Oh, I knew the question and I knew my answer. So I waited.
The exit road parallels the bluff, and about two hundred feet above the water so there's a spectacular view through the trees and at the periodic view point.
When we got to the first one I pulled in facing out and commented about what the area must have looked like before loggers came in.
"How could you let me embarrassed like that?"
"Excuse me?"
"In front of my friends. You didn't tell me you know my boss. How is that supposed tp make me feel?"
"And why do you know him?"
"First of all, I had no idea we would even see him there. Or that it would even matter."
I looked out over the water to gather my thought.
"My dad went to college with Roger Essex and Bill Whitehouse. When it came time to select majors they went with law and he selected finance. They set up together here after passing the bar. My dad went to San Francisco to work for one of the big money management firms. After a few years he came back. He said once he realized he was just one of many 'managers'. They were making the money, but someone else was taking the credit, and the profit. So he quit.
He moved back in with his folks and began investing the savings he'd brought back."
I watched a large bird riding a thermal, probably a hawk.
"Dad said the first two years were the toughest. He didn't lose much, but didn't make much either. He never said but I think there was a recession going on. Anyway in his third year things went right and he never looked back."
"But how do you know Mr. Whitehouse?"
"It was just natural Essex and Whitehouse would be my dad's lawyers. They drew up his initial legal material, and when he married my mom, Dad's will.
Since they were friends I would see them often.
When my parents died Essex and Whitehouse became my money managers.
Technically I'm Executor, but I didn't inherit the financial touch like my dad, so tshe firm does it for me. Most goes into foundations and grants, some to charities. I get a healthy amount, plus the house, the boat, and the Jag. But aside from maintenance and taxes I don't need much."
"So you are rich? Why do you work?"
I hadn't really thought about it in that way. "Yeah, I suppose I am. I work because I can help others. I seem to have a sense for what a business needs to improve. I don't know squat about plumbing, but I helped a good sized firm streamline chunks of their operation - inventory and book keeping mostly. The next year they called me, said profits had improved by ten percent. For a business that's huge."
"There was a coffee roaster down in Olympia who just couldn't make a profit. He didn't know why because he had a lot of customers. I spent a week going through every thing, even the janitorial service. I found one of his original employees had been stealing a couple hundred pounds of beans every week and selling to another roaster."
I watched another bird, a gull.s
"Besides, If I didn't work I'd just turn into some kind of drunken slob.
