Sun on the Rocks - The Outdoor Shower, Page 3

  Chapter Two

  Some people living in the Malibu community dropped by Stevenson lawn to look at their supply of garden tools, intrigued by the company's clothing optional policy. Cynthia took down their contact information, naked, which wasn't a problem with most of the people walking by the company's garden. A few people called the police explaining there was group indecent exposure, and Avery Packwood rolled his car forward to the company lawn, to check things, checking Cynthia in particular, explaining that city hall had approved clothing optional policy at Stevenson, inside their premises. A few people asked to meet the owner of Stevenson, but Clarity explained that he was out on a business trip.

  "You're going to talk with Brock?" asked Taimi.

  "Yes, I got good reviews with customers as a teleoperator, I want to see if there's a job for me here in another department." Taimi eyed Clarity from head to toe, staying longer at the belly button area. Taimi liked belly buttons.

  "I'll go with you. You should wear something, you know he dislikes being naked on clothing optional day, and he doesn't really like people around him being naked." Just the way he was brought up, thought Clarity. Brock was conservative when it came to manners, although he was not particularly close-minded in general. Reluctantly, she put on a cream color sweater belonging to Cynthia, and walked towards Brock's office.

  Clarity let Taimi inside the human resources office. The large Canon Oce Varioprint photocopier attracted the lifeguard's attention.

  "Do you think this thing can do enough photocopies for the department?"

  "Yeah, they should have gotten a bigger one, I guess Brock wants to ensure he spends all of his budget to stay relevant for the company."

  "I wonder if it gives off color well."

  "What do you want to photocopy?"

  "My butt," said Taimi mischievously, "never seen my lips on photocopy."

  Brock came into the room wearing shorts, followed by Heather, who was wearing her Fox and Rose one hundred dollar underwear. Clarity glared at her and Brock picked up on it.

  "Wait here Heather, I have an appointment with Clarity, let's go inside my office."

  Taimi kept Heather busy, asking her questions about the photocopying machine. Clarity followed Brock, brushing his shorts with her sweater. She sat down across his large oak desk, which had two computer screens, one for his job, one for his side interest, looking at the stock market. A red flash coming from his computer screen caught his eye. China's Shanghai Composite stock market and the Shenzen market were tanking, losing value. He was glad that he was not invested in any particular position of the country's somewhat exhuberant stocks, whose name meant 'central country', 'central state', 'central kingdom', yes, we get it.

  "I know I can do additional jobs here besides being a teleoperator," said Clarity, "just wondering if there is a space open in another department, marketing maybe."

  Brock was listening to her, but wasn't looking. He was tweaking his computer screen, because the green color of up-stock arrows was too bright for him. He was an avid student of the stock market, proof that his job as head of human resources was not particularly strenuous. In his bookshelf, Clarity saw books which didn't particularly make sense to her, books like the Intelligent Investor, by Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett Investing for Dummies or for People who think the author is a stock guru, The Four Pillars of relatively safe Investing, or You can be a stock market genius, assuming the stock market holds. Maybe Brock could be a genius buying stocks, but Clarity doubted she could be one, picking stocks was just not very interesting to her. She pushed aside Brock's favorite tool, a chart depicting the hours worked by each employee of Stevenson, and their 'employment value' to the company. The whole notion of a person being a resource was becoming somewhat annoying to Clarity, who viewed employees as people, as individuals first, not as a human resource.

  "You don't have much experience in marketing," said Brock.

  "I'm good with people though, and I understand what the company sells."

  "Amazon just went up, Apple's iwatch is not doing bad, I think I'm going to buy more of it."

  Clarity spoke a few minutes with Brock, but he said he would have to speak with the head of marketing, Luke Amelson, in order to see whether Clarity would fit there, without previous experience.

  "It will take a couple of weeks," he said, "there's no more budget in marketing, we're looking for someone now." Slightly disappointed, Clarity walked into the elevator to take a break. She ran into Cynthia, who was outdoors, telling Flake to put all the garden supplies back in place. One person had bought a hose for twenty four ninety nine, and Miss Marples, the head of the library was buying a trowel for her vegetable garden. Not much in terms of added sales. Clarity tapped her nose with her finger, looking at one of the outdoor walls of the office building.

  "What are you thinking?" asked Cynthia.

  "Just thinking, mmmh."

  "Thinking what?" Clarity explained her idea.

  "I think we should build a shower over there, one with glass panels, so that everyone walking by can see who is showering." She pointed to one of the walls of the Stevenson building facing west, fifty feet away from the sidewalk.

  "That's a great idea," said Cynthia, "I like it, I want to see my father shower naked." Clarity opened her jaw slightly, she didn't think Cynthia was that naughty. They looked at each other, knowing the next question hovering in the air, where they would find the money to build the shower and pay for the installation.

  "Budget is delicate," said Clarity. Cynthia raised her index, letting her know she had an idea.

  "I know, I'll take it out of marketing expenses, the shower is sort of a promotional item for the company, we'll be the only company in California with an outdoor shower on premises. I'm learning about expenses in my accounting class at Pepperdine."

  "What if your father learns of this?" asked Clarity. Cynthia smiled in a naughty way, knowing she wasn't behaving properly.

  "I'll tell him, he can't fire me, I'm not an employee of Stevenson."

  At lunchtime, they walked inside Brock's office. Brock had a 'special' computer, which only members of the general activity committee, legal counsel, accounting and human resources could access. It had all the sales figures and expenses incurred by Stevenson, and only a few people could see them. Cynthia logged in as her father, using a password her mother had told her never to use, unless there was a reason to use it. There was a good reason to use the account, she thought. Cynthia was making her first corporate decision, an outdoor shower was important, and the expense was not that large. Clarity looked up shower repair and installation services, and found 'showers on ring'. Darrell, the repairman quoted five thousand three hundred seventy three dollars for the installation. He added that the shower was less expensive than others in his store, because it wasn't a prime shower brand like Bormbayle, a shower and washroom accessories company which had been in business for several generations, and was owned by the gruff and laconic Emery Bormbayle. Cynthia allocated the amount and set up the payment for the accounting department, taking the money that was going to be used as starting bonus for the new marketing person sought by Heather.

  "Can I see the numbers?" asked Clarity, "your father said sales were not that good, but he was evasive when people began asking questions."

  Cynthia explored the accounting books until she hit the income statement for the previous six months. Sales were down thirty percent, a substantial decrease. Stevenson needed something to boost sales and the new shower could at least keep morale at a good level.

  Heather came in, wearing a dress.

  "What are you doing here?" Cynthia was caught offguard, but Clarity recovered and saved face, moving towards Heather to let Cynthia finish typing in the expense of the new shower on Stevenson accounting books. It was important to keep things in order in terms of accounting rules. An expense simply had to match the decision to install the shower, not necessarily the payment of it.

  "Just reading about investments, s
ome of the books Brock uses are really good," said Clarity. The teleoperator used the mouse and opened the browser on Brock's computer, looking at the history of websites visited that day. She clicked on an article reviewing a new analytics service by google, a company Brock included in his portfolio. Clarity saw Cynthia log off the 'special' software account of Stevenson. Heather led both of them out of the office, saying she would tell Brock about their visit.

  "You can tell him," said Cynthia, "tell him there's a lot of untapped potential in the company."

  "Untapped?" asked Heather.

  "Yeah, me," said Cynthia.