A Social Conscious Is Important, So Is A Holiday And A Good Credit Rating.
Harry Biggs walked out of the front door of his down town clothing store and was greeted by the jeers of demonstrators and the flashing of reporters cameras. Harry was a middle aged man, who's hair had long since gone south. He wore a poor quality, badly maintained work suit and obviously had a perspiration problem.
"No more FURS! No more FURS! No more FURS! No more FURS! No more FURS!" the crowd called.
The mob had made his life a misery and had made doing business impossible for nearly 3 weeks. Now his bosses at headquarters had said enough was enough. They were ready to call it a day and it was Harry's sad duty to inform the mod of their decision. He held his hands up for silence and appealed to the crowd. Eventually the calling & heckling stopped.
"People! People! I have just received this letter from my head office," Harry held up a white sheet of A4 paper that had been folded many times. "They have asked me to tell you. YOU'VE WON. Please can two representatives come forward to inspect the store to prove that we have cleared our shelves of furs. The rest of you please GO! HOME!" With that Harry took one sad look round, acknowledged the man and women coming through the crowd, then turned and re-entered the store. No one went home.
There was great cheering and clapping from the crowd as a man & women came through and soon they stood before the entrance. They were quite young, maybe in their late 20's and were obviously a couple as they walked to the entrance hand in hand.
The man had the look of a young Lenin, with his slightly receding hair line, goatee beard, matching tash and slight, short frame. Though happy to have won he was a little embarrassed by the attention he was getting.
The women was tall and slender. She had brown hair that was platted into a long pony tail and moved with a larger than life enthusiasm that caused her hair to dance around like a puppet on a string. She beamed a big wide, not unattractive smile to the crowd and waved her free hand wildly.
On the other side of the door was the men's section of the clothing store. Harry Biggs met them mopping his brow with a grey dirty rag and looking round troubled and confused. After a moments hesitation he introduced himself. His manner was such that he was determined to remain civil, even though he detested everything about the people before him.
The young man introduced himself as James Templeton and then with a gesture of his hand introduced his wife Helen. Helen smiled her big broad smile at Harry. Harry looked from James to Helen and was totally unmoved.
"You better come this way," Harry said.
At the back of the shop was the ladies section. As they got closer it was obvious that a lot of work had done clearing the shelves and a lot more was in progress refilling them. Two young ladies were filling rails with ladies black and blue dress suits. A third lady was carrying more ladies jackets from the door of the warehouse to the unfilled hangers. "As you can see the hangers are empty of fur jackets and the shelves are minus gloves and throws," said Harry. He gestured with his hand in a sweeping motion and indicated the area before them.
"Oh! That's super," said Helen. She beamed. "Isn't it James." James however was not happy. He looked around and then strode up to a near by box and peered in. He was unhappy with what he didn't find.
"OK so where's the furs Biggs," James said. He was a lot more confident now that he was no longer in front of a crowd. One to one he felt he was a match for anyone and he knew it was time to make this petty little man suffer.
"What do you mean 'where's the furs'. It was you who insisted we take them off our shelves."
"Not so you can sell them in another store Biggs!"
"OH so you think I'm just going to give them to you! Do you TEMPLETON!"
By this time voices had been raised. Harry was starring at James and James was staring right back. James blinked first. He looked at Helen, who'd by this time stopped smiling. He took a deep breath and continued a little calmer.