The voices on the inside of the long office went silent. Silent for a moment, at least, until Ranar heard Jack’s dark laughter, devoid of humor.
“Sit your ass down. You made the best decision you could, I respect that. And now you stand on it with both feet.”
Ranar simultaneously felt as if he had just been summoned to the principal’s office and that he stood before a devil when the door swung open, the werewolf patriarch greeting him with bright eyes, and no sign that they had just been talking about him.
“Ranar, come in. How’s your dad doing?”
How’s your dad doing? We’re so sorry to hear about his condition. Better you than us.“He’s doing as well as he can. Day by day. But that’s not why I’m here.”
Jack Hemming moved the second chair before his huge desk as he went back around it, indicating the vacant spot for Ranar. The young man in the chair beside him hadn’t yet met his eye.
“My son, Owen. He’s on the planning commission.”
At that, the younger of the two werewolves exhaled forcefully, turning to Ranar at last. To his credit, his eyes were, Ranar had to admit, full of compassion. “It’s nice to meet you, and I am so very sorry that we are meeting under the circumstances. Look, obviously we know why you’re here, and I don’t want to waste any of your time, so let’s get down to it. What questions can I answer for you?”
Across the desk, the elder raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms over his chest, and said nothing. Ranar had expected they would dilly dally, wear him down with niceties, and the younger Hemming’s forthrightness might’ve been refreshing under different circumstances.Now’s your chance.Ranar swallowed, steeling himself, but when he opened his mouth, the words wouldn’t come.If we keep propping up failing businesses.It was him, he was the failing business. Failing, in spite of doing everything right. Everything he had planned on saying, all of his vibrating anger and furious bravado seemed to fizzle away, leaving him mute, an impotent worm, unable to even defend himself or ask why.Why?That was the word his brain latched onto in the end.
“Why?” he croaked. “Howcould you let this happen? How could you allow this—“
“It’s not a chain,” the younger werewolf said quickly. “She satisfied the expectation that the store is run independently. It’s not any more a chain than all the other flower shops carrying the Bloomerang product line.”
She. “But it’s—“
“Not human owned. I was a little shocked to learn that, actually. When we talk about non-human enterprises, very rarely are big national chains a part of the conversation, but this one should be. And again, since it’s not a chain, the partner company makes very little difference.”
Ranar closed his eyes, struggling to take even breaths without hyperventilating.How can you do this to my family? We’ve been here for decades. Keep propping up failing businesses just because the owners have been around a while.
“I’ll be very honest with you, this was really a financial call, when it came down to it,” the younger of the two wolves said earnestly. “I pulled the last few years of your city taxes, Ranar, and I ran them against the predictions for this other shop. Then I compared their business model with yours. I have to tell you, I truly believe there is room for both of you in town. You might need to diversify your strategy, but—“
“Do you knowwhythis other shop is projected to do well?“ He bit back, finding his words at last. “Do you knowwhyshe’s going to bury me in profit margin? Because our entire industry is reliant on doing business with Bloomerang, and they makeeverything expensive. I have to buy my stock from them. I have to buy my flowers based on their design specs. So if you’re sending your girlfriend flowers for her birthday and you pick out one of their specials, I can’t just put an arrangement together and drop it into a nice vase. I have to pullspecificflowers, drop them into aspecificvase, one that costs $1.70 more per unit even though it’s identical to the one sold by the vase company that had to go out of business because they lost all of their accounts, a specific vase that I canonlyacquire through the Bloomerang catalog. I have to pay to be a part of their online service so that I can get Bloomerang’s online orders. Do you know what’s going to happen when this other absolutely-not-a-chain store opens,Mr. Hemming? I’m still going to need to pay my distributors. I’m still going to need to pay for my flowers. ButI’mnot going to have any orders, because Bloomerang is going to send all of them to this other store thattheyown. They’re going to put me out of business; I hope you understand that. That’s what you approved.”
On the other side of the desk, Jack Hemming looked as if he were watching a tennis match, perhaps, or maybe just a slow moving train wreck, his eyes flickering back and forth between Ranar and his son.
Owen spread his hands. “So stop paying into that system. Leverage the rest of your business to do the heavy lifting. You do a really healthy wedding business; I know for a fact that you do. Stop paying that extra $1.70 for a vase. I understand you’re upset, Ranar. I do. But put yourself in my position. I have a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers in this community. We approve businesses based on their potential to create revenue, because those tax dollars go straight back into the schools. If you were given the choice of the two businesses and told you could only pick one, what would you—“
“I would pick them,” he responded woodenly. He couldn’t blame the planning commission for making the choice that they had, his anger sliding away as the hopelessness of the situation enveloped him fully. They were right. His business was failing, the whole industry circling the drain, the corporatization that had begun several decades earlier finally achieving its aim.And you’re just as culpable for rolling over and lining their pockets all these years.“I would pick them too.”
“Have you considered selling the building, Ranar?” Jack’s voice was low and steady, and not without compassion. “You’ll receive double the market value, I can assure you. You’re in a prime location with good parking. It’ll go to a bidding war if you decide that’s the route you want to take. I’ll make sure of it.”
He felt as if he were drowning, clawing at the surface of a spinning whirlpool that was sucking him down. He thought about selling the building every single week and had done so for the last five years. Jack Hemming wasn’t wrong. He would be able to assure all of the business’s creditors were paid back, see that his parents were set up comfortably for the duration of their retirement, pay off his house and still have a respectable nest egg for himself.
And then what? You’re forty-two years old.You’ve never done anything but this. He had a degree in electrical engineering, one he’d never once put to use. That had been another expectation of him, the first baby born here, the good son. Get a good education in a respectable field, something his parents could write home about to relatives he barely knew.You’ll probably need to go back to school, learn all of the new technology that didn’t exist twenty-five years ago.
He could sell the building, and what would his parents do? What would his father do every day if he didn’t have this routine, other than slip into this clawing oblivion even faster?No.No, he couldn’t do that until he had no other choice. As he told Pinky, this wasn’t like selling a used car. There was more to it, and it didn’t matter if outsiders couldn’t understand.
“She’s going to put me out of business,” he repeated. “So when that happens, I’ll expect you to make good on that promise, Jack. I think that’s the very least you can do for my father.”
His muscles didn’t want to cooperate as he uncoiled, shifting to the door in a herky-jerky concertina.
“I hope it doesn’t come to that, Ranar. I know you think I’m wrong, but I really don’t think you’re going to have to shut down your business entirely. Maybe the brick-and-mortar end of it, because I appreciate that the property taxes are significant.” Owen glanced back to his father. “But he’s right, you’ll make a pretty penny on that land.”
His hand was clammy as he shook the younger man’s hand, and then his father’s. She was going to put him out of business, and he would have to figure out what to do next.
“You’ll need to diversify the business, but based on the numbers I looked at, I think you can survive, Ranar. There’s room for you and Sumi both. I’m sure of it.”
Hatred & Disdain
Sumi
