Mr. K The Inventor

The sun and rain hit the pavement hard right through the neighborhood trees.  It was the month of March and summer was just a long stretch of warmth coming to the door steps of rigid side walk on the north side of Chicago.  A quick charm twinkled behind broken bifocals taped up to the side of an elderly worker whose voice and experience for a sale were 8 decades in the making.

Mr. K wanted more, he enjoyed the lifestyle.  His busy mind was storming with ideas and with calm hands and a keen sense for negotiation. He was 2-4 business deals in with elevator contracts signed and hired contractors 2 months into implementation.  Two Chicago churches, one on the south side of Comiskey Park and one on east side of Skokie, Illinois is where these transportation devices were being built.  Day after day he spent at the sites keeping an eye on the progress of the elevator sales.

There wasn't a single day that went by that he would not think of his daughter who lived on out west, and his dreams of one day uniting in harmony away from the seeming estrangement from the long cold winters of Chicago and the difficult years of illness and old age.  There was no sign of sorrow or despair in the twinkling eyes of Mr. Kent.  His long life is spent building houses and some years instructing real estate courses.   He enjoyed the casinos in northwest shores of Lake Michigan.

His dinner buffet card at the casino was redeemed by VIP qualifications and Mr. Kent enjoys reading his horoscope and buying a lotto ticket.  It was the little things that counted most and often challenged young Geraldine and her ambitious and competitive spirit full of eagerness. Mr. Kent focused on sharpening her weaknesses and building her character as she floundered aimlessly into his office day after day.  There was a certain angle that his chairs needed to be facing, and nothing in his office could be touched with out his conscent.  It was office boot camp if there was one, and Geraldine found no solace in the other secretary. Then there was the one day Geraldine took the water container and watered the artificial plant just to see if Mr. Kent would notice her.  She knew the plant wasn't real and wanted to see if he knew that she knew and was doing it to show him that she wasn't the thing he expected her to be.  In other words she just wanted to show him to cool it, chill out, relax, and she began giggling to herself quietly.



"Stop on the way to buying my sandwich to the post office to drop off this my mail."  Mr. Kent instructed softly.

"Ok, " answered Geraldine.

Often Mr. Kent would have Geraldine repeat his instructions such as how he liked his coffee and sandwich and then made Geraldine repeat it every day back to him.  Most of the time he would let her go without a word and she would come back with the wrong coffee or sandwich order blaming the fast food restaurant servers.  She was very certain that she asked for the right instructions and eventually learned not to blame anyone and just to check the orders twice her self.

She often was instructed to hull around a big vacuum cleaner and vacuum the 1000 square foot office.  Then in between her confidence and certainty that this task was something she could complete on her own, Mr. Kent would interrupt her and tell her that she missed the spot over there and that she needed to move the vacuum in the manner and style he was moving it.  This often blew Geraldine's patience and over time adapted to strengthening her temper and moodiness from the little things that Mr. Kent spent time with her on during her time at his office.

The "Message to Garcia,"  was instructed for young Geraldine to read at home the first day she began working and learned not to speak about out of work stuff or ask questions about anything.  She was trained to write neater, pay attention to detail, and focus when she struggled so hard not to day dream while in Mr. Kent's presence.  She was quick to follow advice and choose her battles wisely when international phone services would keep her on hold or send her across the world while she was waiting to pay a bill for Mr. Kent.

When the fax machine had a paper jam or the computer internet was slow, she found it miserable to be accused of its problems week after week and yet responded gracefully most of the time to Mr. Kent's trusty remarks toward her.  When he would spend long moments on the telephone Geraldine would either step out of the office or finish up on a task such as creating business cards.  Mr. Kent sometimes sensed falsely that young Geraldine wasn't paying attention and would send her home without pay for the day until she put her foot down.

"You Mr. Kent will pay me for the day!"  She said assertively.

"I'm lowering your pay to $6.00. "  He stated.

Mr. Kent was a tall strong elderly in his early 80's with old fashion logic.  He was valued not for his personality, charm, or conduct but for his experience, patience, knowledge, wisdom, stability, kindness, loyalty, honesty, and wealth of integrity.  It was imaginable to know unless you were in his shoes what it was like to be Mr. Kent.  Geraldine was valued for her determination, diligence, loyalty, commitment, kindness, grace, charm, maturity, and for her sense of humor and good personality.  She was likeable in every way and that was why Mr. Kent enjoyed her company and tolerated her so easily.

Today My. K is snug away scurrying to get from point A to make point B in his fashion.  The underlying feelings of how to spell out what to say here are rocky.