Who’s In Charge?

My Papa works in the crop insurance business. His work requires him to do a lot of traveling but he enjoys it. He was working some claims in Tennessee once when he struck up a conversation with a nice man at the local burger place. ‘Course, I should tell y’all that Papa can chat with anyone. He rarely meets a stranger. Papa and that farmer pretty much started trading jokes immediately. Sometime during the meal, Papa’s new friend told him that in addition to farming he owned a small welding business next door that helped make ends meet. Once they finished eating, he invited Papa to walk over and see it.

The tour started and stopped in one small warehouse. There was a desk over in the corner, a work station in the back and a loading dock on the side. “I do most of the work myself,” Papa’s new friend said. “I only have the one employee there,” he motioned to a man welding at the far end of the warehouse, “And I haven’t been able to pay him in about six months.”

That little announcement took Papa by surprise. “Oh, really,” Papa said. He couldn’t tell if the man was joking or not and for a minute he didn’t know how he was supposed to respond. “I’m sorry,” he said, finally. “Reckon you’ll have to close the doors?”

“Nah,” the man said, “If it comes to that I’ll just have to sell the company to him. It’s not like it hasn’t happened before.”

Papa was still trying to figure out if it the guy was joking when the fellow added with a grin, “Oh, it’s okay. I work for him until he can’t afford to pay me and then I buy the company back.”

~Shellie