Читать книгу A Bandicoot Holiday - Sherman E Hister - Страница 3

Strum River flows through the sleepy little town of Pickerville as the winter’s snow falls yet again around the Advent holiday. This is not an ordinary Christmas in Pickerville. It’s the first Christmas the Rivers boys are involved with the preparations for the coming season, not the coming season of spring but the new baseball season in Pickerville. Dalton Rivers has owned the Bandicoots minor league team of Pickerville for the last several seasons. Mr. Rivers has decided that it was time for his oldest son, Wayne, to become the team’s manager like he has always hoped for. Dalton Rivers also hopes for his son Quail to join the team as well, not for management or a position on the team’s board but as a player. Quail played baseball growing up but never wanted to play professionally. Instead, he dreamed of playing for the Bandicoots. The Bandicoots were very important to the town and people of Pickerville. Wayne and Quail both planned to take care of the team like their father had.

On Christmas day, Quail and Wayne watch Strum River flow from their parents’ back porch when Quail says something very important to Wayne. Quail tells Wayne, “I’ve got no plans to play professionally no matter what, not even if the board thinks I should.” The Bandicoots were the farm team for one of the most promising professional clubs. Part of the reason Dalton’s team has been so successful is because he manages from a far and doesn’t get too caught up in its business. He administered a board of seven men, about his age and experience, to deal with the daily business of the pro team. Dalton spends most of his time mentoring the new recruits who are signed to play with the Bandicoots.

This gives Dalton exposure to the person behind each player before they’re called up to the big leagues. Quail has always admired his father for this. He also has never been a fan of attention and just loves the game of baseball. This is why Quail tells Wayne he has no plans to play for their father’s pro team. Wayne acknowledges his brothers wishes, but reminds him, “You might have to tell that to the board yourself.” Quail didn’t have a problem with that. He knew the board members were wary of him. Heck, a lot of people were a little wary of Quail. Quail was not a mean person, but if aggravated, he could get mean. The temper Quail’s got is almost legendary in the town of Pickerville. It resulted from a dual causing the loss of front teeth one time during a high school practice. Quail had to learn early in life what to stand for and how to protect who he was.

Before the two brothers rejoin their parents inside on this special Christmas holiday, Wayne looks at Quail and says, “Young brother, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.” The team was just as much Quail’s as it was Wayne’s, and they both believed this. Both were equal partners but had operational interests in different areas. Quail was the worker while Wayne was the administrator like their father.

During summer’s growing up, Wayne paid attention to the players’ progression and helped with the business side of the Bandicoots. He worked in the ballpark’s head office, learning how to develop new marketing for the team. Wayne even sat in on luncheons with future prospects discussing contracts.

Quail took care of the physical aspects, maintaining Strum Stadium and its field. He made repairs to the stadium, cut the field’s grass, chalked lines before games, and did menial tasks like throwing batting practice or shagging balls.

The Rivers brothers eat, sleep, and breathe Bandicoot baseball. It never made much sense to the townspeople why the two brothers never paid any attention to the pro team a lot like their father. The Rivers brothers left the business of the Bandicoots pro team to the members of the board. They were from Pickerville, the place they call home, and there was nowhere else they’d rather be.

The Rivers family residence is somewhat of an odd addition to the family business. Their home is also a dairy farm that supplies the town of Pickerville a large portion of its milk. The dairy farm has thirty cows, and as a family, the Rivers take turns milking the herd. They do this around three times a day. Quail does the early rotation while Wayne takes care of the midday milking, and at night, Dalton Rivers usually ends his days with a good squeeze. Sometimes Mrs. Rivers even helps with the chore.

The cows are milked in the old barn Dalton built when Mrs. Rivers wanted to have the family’s own dairy. The herd was much smaller originally, so the old barn housed the dairy comfortably. When the herd reached its present size, Dalton decided to have a larger barn built. After its construction was completed, Dalton wanted the barn to keep warm during the colder months. He planned to have the entire operation function within the walls of the monstrous barn while the cows kept warm when it was too cold for them to be outside. So Dalton decided to insulate the new edition to the Rivers dairy farm.

Quail happened to be interested with what was going on when Dalton hired an insulation crew to insulate the interior of the new barn. The crew arrived the day after Christmas to start working on the barn’s interior. Quail asked if he could watch the men work. The three-member crew didn’t mind this at all and told Quail he was more than welcome to watch. After the first few hours of work, Quail realized there wasn’t much he couldn’t handle insulating the new barn. Quail almost asked if he could try the work himself, but the men, out of nowhere, stopped what they were doing and asked Quail if he would go get his father so the men could talk to him about the job.

It turns out the crew bit off more than they wanted to chew. They were worried the barn wouldn’t be finished in time to start other jobs they already had scheduled. This would result in a loss of their business. They explained they were used to doing houses and it would take too long for the three-man crew to finish. The men quitting would have been a problem, but Quail got to watch long enough to figure out what to do. When the crew told Mr. Rivers they didn’t want the job after all, Dalton Rivers made a deal with them before they left.

Mr. Rivers was aware of Quail’s eagerness to learn the insulation trade. Dalton also knows his son as well as he knows himself. Dalton told the men that if they intend to leave without finishing, they had to leave enough equipment for one man to do the job and all the material Mr. Rivers already paid for. The crew laughed at this request like Dalton himself would be taking on the task alone. Mr. Rivers didn’t even notice their quick remarks because he wasn’t going to do the work.

As the crew was leaving, Dalton called to the men, “How long do you estimate a job like this would take if you worked until the job was finished?”

The men agreed, saying, “At least a month.”

Mr. Rivers laughed and told the crew to be back in two weeks. The insulators asked why, but all Dalton could do was laugh, and say, “You’ll see, two weeks.” Quail picked up on what his father was talking about. When the men were gone, Dalton turns to Quail to say, “Son, I know you can, and I know you want to insulate this barn. Do you think you can do it in two weeks?”

Quail looks at his dad with a big toothless grin as he grabs the first bag of insulation, splitting it open with a box knife the insulation crew had left. There was not a doubt in Dalton’s mind that his son would be done in two weeks, probably before that. Quail was built one way. If he had his mind set on a task, he wasn’t going to stop until he was finished. Mr. Rivers was leaving town that day for business with the pro team. As

Mr. Rivers starts to leave his youngest son to the barn, he turns and says, “Quail, remember, son, Quality.”

Quail works simply but specifically. First, he learns the fundamentals of the task at hand. Then, he practices the fundamentals. Once he masters the fundamentals of whatever he is doing, Quail figures a strategy to accomplish large amounts of work in the most efficient way in the least amount of time. This is how Quail creates his work system. Quail tore into the new barn like there was no tomorrow. He was practically throwing the strips into the cavities as he moved along the walls of the new barn.

The shape of the barn is a giant rectangle that had walls standing four rows high. The lengthy sides of the rectangle could be measured at half the distance of a football field while the rectangles width was half of the new barn’s length. The new barn’s large garage-type doors covered the two openings on either end of the rectangle. A normal-size access door was included next to the large opening on the front side of the barn.

After Quail’s first day, he had completed the first row or lowest row of insulation on two of the four total walls. The second day, Quail completed the other two walls’ first row, not including the barn doors. This put Quail almost a quarter of the way done by the end of his second day. He used the third day on the job to locate scaffolding to complete the upper parts of each interior wall. Quail remembered seeing scaffolding at the Bandicoots’ stadium, so he leaves in the farm’s truck to locate the needed support. Quail heads down the road to town. When he arrives at the stadium, he goes inside through the east tunnel where he remembered seeing the scaffolding leaning against a partition under the grandstand.

When Quail reaches this spot, the scaffolding was nowhere to be found. Someone must have borrowed the set or moved it somewhere else in the stadium. Quail was not surprised because all the necessary maintenance was taken care of during the off-season. Quail decides to go to the stadium’s office to either call his dad or ask someone about the scaffolding. When he gets to the park office, he can’t find anyone. So he goes into his father’s office, where, on the large family heirloom desk, Quail notices a note to Mr. Dalton. The note was from the town’s priest, Father Sullivan, thanking Dalton Rivers for the use of the scaffolding while the Church did some needed maintenance after the recent holiday. Before the letter lands back on Mr. Rivers desk, Quail is out the door through the tunnel and back in the farm truck.

After firing the truck back up, he adjusts the rearview mirror and slaps his seat belt on. Quail dislodges the gear shifter into reverse for a few feet then back into drive, heading down Strum Avenue. The Rivers dairy truck makes a few stops along Strum before making a left turn on Overhead Lane. After a couple of more blocks, Quail parks in front of Saint Apostles Church. Quail walks around the side of the church toward Father Henry P. Sullivan’s living quarters.

Before Quail can reach the entrance, he hears his name called from over his left shoulder.

“Quail, hey, Quail, is that you? What are you doing these days, young man? Getting ready for the season, I’m sure.”

Quail new the voice well and spun around to greet Father Sullivan or Father Van, which Quail has grown to call him. Father Van has known Quail from the time he was born. The Rivers and Father Van are very close and always have been. Father Van and Quail are particularly close because Father kept Quail from quitting baseball. This is very important to Quail because before Father Van, Quail couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn. Father Van saw Quail’s raw talent when no one else could. Even Mr. Rivers had almost written Quail off after junior league ball. Father helped him realize his own potential when he talked Quail into hitting practice following the off-season after junior league ball. They practiced after every Sunday service while the rest of the town went to breakfast. By the following season, Quail was the best hitter on the team. He eventually led Pickerville High School in all of its batting percentages. Father Van was definitely a student of the game on top of being a great player. Quail has heard people in town talk of Father Van as a ball player, and they all say he could have been one of the best ever to live, but his love for the faith was his first passion.

Quail asks Father Van about the scaffolding, and he replies, “Yes, did your dad get my note?”

Quail acknowledges the letter by saying, “No, but I happened to see it on his desk.”

Father Van asks if that is why he is at the church, and Quail explains his project in the new barn. Father Van tells Quail, “Well, if you don’t mind me replacing the last couple of lightbulbs, I’ll help you load the scaffolding in your truck.”

“I don’t want to rush you, Father,” Quail explains, “but I’m in a hurry.”

Father is surprised by Quail’s tone and asks, “What’s the rush?”

Quail tells him how the insulating crew quit the job because of the barn’s size and the fact that they will get behind schedule with their other customers. The crew was from the same city an hour north of town where the Bandicoots pro team was located. Quail then tells Father Van, “My dad asked the crew how long the barn would take them, and they told him a month. Then dad asked them to leave equipment for one man and to be back in two weeks.”

Father Van knew what Dalton Rivers was up too. Father Van asks Quail, “Why did he tell the crew to come back in two weeks?”

Quail laughed and said, “Because he wants me to finish in two weeks. I watched the men work and figured out what they do. When the crew quit, Dad gave the job to me. What he doesn’t know is that I’m going to try to finish in a week.”

Quail couldn’t keep from laughing as Father Van commented, “You and your father are both crazy, but I don’t know who’s worse.”

Father Van then asked Quail how far he had gotten. Quail told him the entire first row with the small amount of work the crew was responsible for.

Father asks why Dalton wasn’t helping, and Quail explains, “Dad had to go up to Collvine for business about the team.”

Father Van also knew what this meant. Dalton Rivers will be in a room for the next hand and a half full of days, discussing every aspect of the Branders organization. This was Dalton’s least favorite thing to do, but he did it out of respect for his own father.