The Long Way Home by Phillip Overton
Chapter 10
May 1982
“Doug have you got a spare minute?”
“Yeah sure, is everything okay Richard?”
“Come inside and close the door behind you if you don’t mind.”
Doug stepped into Mr Manningham’s office. Richard Manningham was his boss at Coastal Realty. Actually, the Managing Director to be more precise. Although, being the owner of the small real estate company he had the power to call himself whatever he liked and nobody would dare disagree.
“Please, sit down.” He gestured warmly at one of the vacant seats in front of his desk.
Doug closed the door and made his way over to the large desk that Richard sat behind. ‘This was going to be big’, Doug thought as he sat down in one of the heavy fabric chairs. In the few years he had been working for Richard, he had always known him as one of the boys. He tried to make himself comfortable in the stiff chair and stared uneasily across the desk at Richard.
Richard was a solidly built man in his early forties, wavy, flowing brown hair that only slightly spilt past the collar of his white shirt. His suit jacket was draped neatly over the back of his chair, his tie was loosened from around his neck and the top two buttons of his shirt were undone. It was his trademark look for five o’clock in the evening. With less than half an hour until knock off, this was usually the time to relax back at the office with the other agents and swap stories with the boss. Only the office hadn’t seemed that relaxed when he returned today and now opposite him Richard sat in his chair fiddling with a pencil, a sign that he had something on his mind.
“So,” Doug broke the silence first. “What is it you wanted to see me about?” He watched as Richard paused for a moment before putting the pencil down neatly on the desk in front of him. He folded his hands together and looked up, directly at Doug. A huge grin appeared across his face.
“Doug, I’ve come up with a great idea. But first I need to know if you’re up to it. So tell me, how have things been with you? And I mean honestly, I’m asking you this as a friend.”
“Well, fine I guess.” Doug answered uneasily, anxious now as to where this conversation was leading. His mind raced ahead, trying to figure out in his head his sales figures for the past month. Considering he’d taken quite a few days off while his divorce had gone through court they weren’t all that bad.
“What a load of rubbish.” Richard laughed back at him. “C’mon Doug, I’m your friend here! It’s me, Richard.”
Doug shifted a little in his chair and looked at his boss sitting across the table from him, a grin across his face from ear to ear like a schoolboy that had the most amazing news to share with someone. Doug relaxed a little, curious as to what Richard had to say.
“Well considering the last month or so, I could say I’ve been better. You know, with all the personal stuff I’ve had going on.”
“But it’s all behind you now right?” Richard asked.
“Yeah, of course it is. Look, Richard if it’s about all the time I’ve taken off work…”
“Relax mate,” Richard cut him off. “Look its fine. Even with you missing in action for a bit, February’s sales figures weren’t that bad. Average for you I know, but still okay. But personally, how are you holding up?”
“Fine I suppose. I mean I’m 33 this year and starting again from scratch. It’s not what I pictured myself doing in life, but hey, that’s the way it goes!” Doug paused, still a little bit guarded in his response. “After all, I’ve still got my job right?”
“Aha, that’s what I wanted to hear, that you’re still committed! Of course you still have your job Doug. This job is you, it’s who you are. You’re the best damn agent I have here. I don’t know what it is about you but you’re a natural at it. The buyers are at ease with you, the sellers trust you and there’s nothing else in the game that you can learn from me. That’s why I called you in here this afternoon.”
“Phew, that’s a relief.”
“Hold on a second Doug, I haven’t got to the punch line yet.”
There was a knock on the door, interrupting their conversation.
“Yes.” Richard called out.
It was the receptionist Jill who partly opened the door and stuck her head inside.
“Sorry to interrupt you Richard,” she spoke quietly. “I have a Frank Lindley on the phone reminding you of your 10 o’clock meeting with council tomorrow morning and asking if you had heard from the bank manager today.”
“Oh that’s right, tomorrow’s Thursday already. Tell Frankie that I picked up a copy of the documents from the bank today and I’ll meet him outside the council chambers at quarter to, and apologize for me not phoning him this morning. I’ve been so busy all day, thanks Jill.” Then glancing at the clock on the wall and seeing that it was almost half past five he added, “Tell the others to close up and I’ll see you all tomorrow.”
“Okay Richard, and goodnight Doug,” she added before closing the door behind her.
“Sorry Doug today has been totally mad for a Wednesday. Now where were we? Of course,” he answered himself. “Two words Doug, Coast Homes. May not mean anything to you now but after tomorrow the whole Central Coast is going to get to know who we are. That was my mate Frankie on the phone.”
“The builder?”
“Yep, that’s right. As of now he is also my business partner. What you’ve just overheard is that tomorrow the two of us are closing a deal to develop a large parcel of bushland over at Point Clare. We’re talking a whole estate just off Brisbane Water Drive, we’re going to build more than 40 homes to launch our business and that’s just to start with. I’m already busy with the details of our next development at Narara and I can’t run both the realty business and manage the property development and sales once we launch Coast Homes can I?”
“So you’re closing the real estate office?” Doug asked, a look of panic poised ready to break over his face.
“Of course not,” Richard quipped and he could almost hear the sigh of relief from across the table. “I’ve used the real estate as collateral in underwriting the loan for the development. I’m asking you to run the office for me.”
“Me?” Doug asked in a state of disbelief.
“Who else? Starting next week if you can, I even went ahead and got a name plaque made for your desk.” He said as he threw open his desk drawer and pulled out a shiny gold plaque and smacked it down on the desk. “It sounds good doesn’t it Doug Small, Managing Director of Coastal Realty?”
“Struth, I don’t know what to say Richard.”
“Please say yes, it cost me $8.40 for the name plaque, of course that included the one for your office door as well but I can’t put that up until Friday when I make the announcement. The others don’t know yet.”
“Yes, of course I will.” Doug nearly jumped out of his skin with delight, overawed by the enormity of what he was hearing.
“Hey, I haven’t told you the good part yet about your pay rise. You’ll be on a full salary similar to what I’m on now plus commissions but of course you’ll be here in the office a lot more mainly overseeing all the new listings so there won’t be as much time to be wasting on running buyers all over town, leave that to the sales agents.”
“Wow! I certainly didn’t expect this. I don’t know what to say, thanks Richard.”
“Pleasure Doug,” Richard stood to his feet and leaned across the table to shake Doug’s hand. “Congratulations mate, you deserve it.”
“Will you still be involved with the office?”
“Of course,” Richard laughed. “It took a lot of hard work to get to this stage, so I’ll be making sure it stays healthy and profitable. C’mon, the others have locked up and gone home and I’ve left a couple of cold beers in the fridge out the back. What do you say we grab one while I fill you in on the rest eh?”
“Sounds good to me.”
“You lead the way then boss,” Richard joked. “After all, next week this will be your office.”
The little real estate office on Mann Street was quiet. Jill had locked up and turned the front lights off when she had left along with the other agents. The closed sign hung on the heavy timber and glass door that looked out over the afternoon shadows that began to creep across the street. A parade of red buses roared past in the street, having come from the railway station at the top of the town they now trundled shoppers, local workers and weary commuters home. The footpath in front of the office was busy with pedestrians as businesses up and down the street closed and people began their nightly exodus from town, some pausing in front of the realty to inspect the photos of the homes listed in the front window. ‘You don’t sell people a house, you sell them a home,’ Doug had heard somewhere along the way and the saying had stuck forever in his mind.
“Here you go, bottoms up!” Richard said as he held out a cold can of beer.
Doug grabbed the cold beer from him and they both pulled the ring pulls back with a synchronised hiss as the cans opened.
“It must be exciting for you going into property development.” Doug said.
“Yeah, it’s a bit scary too. I’ve got a lot riding on this, my house, the real estate office and a huge loan to finance the whole thing. Still, as they say ‘you’ve got to spend money to make money.’ But it’s also a golden opportunity for you just as much as it is for me.”
“Do you want me in early the next few days to fill me in on the job description or anything?”
“The beauty of the whole thing Doug is that I don’t need to. You’ve covered for me that many times over the past year that there’s nothing I need to show you. No job advertising, no interviews and no taking a chance on someone not working out. It’s not like I won’t be around at all, I’ll be calling by regularly to see how things are going and I’m going to list some of our new homes through here as well as selling off the plan at the display centre we are going to have at each of our estates.”
“I’ll have to come by and have a look.”
“It’s nothing now, all bushland. But after council sign off on the zoning permit tomorrow, we’ll have surveyors in next week and bulldozers ready to move in the following week. The planning has been finalised for months now, the council have already plotted out the street and drainage plans. Hey, maybe you’d be interested in buying yourself a new home, reinvest your share of the money from the divorce.”
“Don’t think I’ll be doing that in a hurry.” Doug replied.
“Ouch!” Richard grimaced. “Her lawyers hit you hard did they?”
“She got the house until Simon turns 18 along with all the furniture. I got the car, my personal items and have to pay fortnightly child support in return for a reduced share of the home loan payments.”
“How old is your boy now?”
“Six.”
“Twelve years is a long time to be waiting to sell your house.”
“Tell me about it.”
“You’ve got to do something Doug. You’ve been living with your brother waiting to see how it all turned out, maybe now’s a good time to start afresh. You know the market better than most people, get your brother in on the idea of buying a house together. Don’t wait for him to give you direction, make your own. You could always use your share of the house you and your ex-wife are still paying off as equity and borrow from the bank again. Use their money to buy your future.”
“Yeah I’ve already thought along those lines.”
“You want to do it sooner rather than later Doug.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“What about visitation rights? I hope you got a fair deal with that one, I know what your days with the boy mean to you. It’s practically all we hear about on Monday mornings.”
“Actually, that was a surprise. I’ve got Simon every second weekend, from Saturday morning to Sunday night and I get to share school holidays, we’ve got to work all that out yet but it means I’ll have him stay with me for a week at a time.”
“I’m happy for you mate. You know every second weekend might work out for the better. You hated having to come in occasionally on a Saturday, but now that you’ll be running the place you can be as flexible as you want. You know what I expect of you, there’ll be times when you’re popping in and out on a Saturday but hey, bring the kid along with you. I mean I’ve always been pretty casual on a Saturday so I hope it all works out for you.”
“I sure got screwed on the rest though.” Doug sighed.
“From what I hear everyone does.” Richard shrugged. “Find me a divorced man that gets the house and custody of the kids, it just doesn’t happen.”
The room fell silent as both men stood and pondered that thought for a moment from different angles. Outside the buses continued to rumble by while the last few pedestrians made their way down Mann Street past the front window of the real estate office.
“She let you keep the old car eh?” Richard finally spoke up.
“Yep, great deal that one was,” Doug muttered sarcastically. “Anyway, I might finally get the chance to trade it in on a newer model now that I’ll have a bit extra money coming in.”
“Don’t worry about it Doug, the job comes with a car.”
“You’re kidding!”
“No, I just forgot to tell you earlier.”
“Geez Richard, that just blows me away! I don’t know what else to say but thanks again.”
“To new beginnings,” Richard raised his beer in a toast, the two men’s beer cans clunking softly together before they threw down the last of their drink. “C’mon it’s getting late, let’s get out of here.”
“Right O!”
“You right to fill in for me tomorrow Doug?” Richard smiled as he took the empty cans and tossed them in the waste tidy beside Jill’s desk.
“Yeah, sure.”
“What about next week, and the week after?” He laughed as he turned off the lights behind him and strode across the office to the front door. “By the way, how’s your old man been lately?”
“He’s getting by okay, age is starting to catch up with him though,” Doug replied. “Barry and I are both starting to wonder whether we need to look at arranging some sort of care for him, after all he’s been living on his own since my mother passed away. Why’s that?”
“Just thought I’d mention it, we’ve got a property going on the market in the next week or so over at Wyoming, deceased estate, family want it sold quickly. It needs some work on it but the elderly couple who lived there had the place set up with all the aged care features, handrails, ramps instead of stairs and even a separate downstairs residence for their daughter that lived there to care for them. I know if you were to put an offer on it you’d get it for a song before it even listed. Have you ever thought of having your old man move in with you?”
They stepped out onto the footpath and Richard closed the door behind them, the lock turned loudly and the two men continued talking as they walked slowly down the street towards their parked cars.