Cold Calculation for Defending One's Ideals Sometimes Can Cause Severe Misfortune ...

There had been few costumers lately in Harry Esner's shop. He thereby felt that he probably needed to change its selection of goods. He was almost sure about this, because neither of his last two advertisement campaigns had been quite successful. Even the first one only kept costumers coming and buying stuff at a fairly steady rate compared to before it. The second one only made the downward slope of his sales curve less steep.

He had, the week before, asked his wife and daughter for advise about what to sell. His wife had answered that she thought a retail shop should offer furniture furniture for the home, rather than just for the car. His daughter said that she figured it'd be appropriate to sell some handicrafts on top of the souvenirs that costumers perhaps sensed were mass produced.

He himself had thought of beginning to sell some basic medicines, such as cough drops perhaps pain relievers. Today he was pondering upon to which extent he could update his contacts and reorganize his business for the sake of dealing with suitable manufacturers and for retailing those new types of goods - or at least some of them. He already also started making some contacts, two of them so far, one with a furniture producer and one with manufacturer of upholstery.

Today, also, he had asked his wife to take a day off in order to join him in the store and help him plan the change. She was only working half-time and was thereby a bit disposable for the people at her work place. Right now the two of them were discussing if he was actually making the right sort of change, after all. “Deal with that I don't know your business very well, Harry!” his wife was saying. “I only felt that since lots new people really are moving in a few miles from here, perhaps they can appreciate a retail store were suitable and charming furniture can be found. But I don't know to which extent it is worth it for you and I didn't think about all the space it would take to have it there!”

He sighed. “I know honey. But still, the way I view it, there simply must be at least a small point to thinking that they might - at least - want things such furniture that connects them with our local traditions and so.”

“Even so I'm beginning to feel much less sure about it now that I'm here!”

He looked at her. “Probably we can make an add in a magazine and/or put up posters fairly close to the new dwellings! It's not unlikely they'll come here just to check! But then I better have at least something in store, and also some readiness to sell them other, perhaps more personally customized items. ... I suppose you think about why I asked you here as a notion of that you should be acquainted with all that I'm doing for it. But what I want from you is mostly that you feel that I don't go behind your back. Please understand this, though, Elsa; I don't keep you from work without that meaning a whole lot for me. Please understand me; I can't go behind your back without you becoming cross with me, or at least I cannot be expecting you not to be at least a little sore about it, if I make changes you don't want!”

She looked stubborn. “The reason I didn't want to come here was mostly that I didn't want you to make insinuations about my attitudes towards you!”

“But, honey, the people at your work place might come here too, and to the extent we can fix it in a way that they like, don't you suppose they might even appreciate that you took a day off?!”

She sighed. “Okay, hun, then I'll see to it that they actually do come here and check some day!”

“It's also good if even Mona comes here and checks! Even though she's unemployed, and a bit wild at times, I'm sure her opinion can help me out, just as it did yesterday! You know, I rely on my family, mostly you, but also Elsa, for feeling good about what I'm doing in life!”

“So how come you didn't ask her to come, then?!”

“I did, but I wanted you to come here first!”

His wife said nothing. She just looked at him with an air of concern.

“So,” he continued. “I feel feel like deciding with you at least something about how to rearrange the order in the shop! After that, I feel that I preferably shall invite our daughter here as well. Are you okay with that?”

She smiled. “Harry! Yes, I think I'm okay with it! First of all then, I think the furniture should be in the back of the shop, since it's big enough to be more visible from there than other stuff here is!”

“I agree, preliminarily, honey!”

“Okay, then I feel we could perhaps mover these four shelves to that one can see them from the store window! I should prefer that we buy something at least of mahogany, I think, because, I think, mahogany can catch one's eye as something that adds that touch of rustic charm - or something, to one's environment!”

He sighed. “Mahogany is probably a bit too risky for this shop! I'm afraid there might be burglaries if we really have that kind of stuff on display!”

“Oh, Harry! It would be really a pity to stay that cheap! But, by the way, why can't we invest in a better burglar alarm, and one or more cameras, perhaps to go with it!”

“Hmh, yeah. And, of course, I might be wrong about the prices of mahogany; I haven't been checking them!”

“I think there might be more than one type of that kind of wood! Why don't you check it with that furniture company, and perhaps one or two other ones!?”

“Yeah, I suppose we might say to some costumers that they can order the stuff in better mahogany than what we dare have in the store ... that they can order for example that. Perhaps others of them want to order it in ebony instead!”

“I agree,” she said.

“Good. Now notice, honey that all while we've been here, nobody has entered the shop!”

“Now I get it! That's the real reason you wanted me to be here on a work day! Just so I an see how few people you attract! Then how come I should say to the people at my office that they have something good to expect!”

“Because you and I are gonna make it good enough for them!”

That weekend the two of them, and also their daughter, went to the store, and began making room for some furniture Harry had ordered. They also moved the shelves the way Elsa had suggested the other day. Harry was concerned about how Elsa seemed dissatisfied just the same. He looked at her and asked: “Are you sure, Elsa, that there's no way for us to show the furniture from the window without it seeming like they are more at display than they aught to be?”

“Today I'm sure that we can't seem to be small about the change we're making! But on the other hand, it seems to be appropriate to care about developing one's shop!”

“Yeah!” Mona said. “I think they'll appreciate that!”

When they were finished, they sat down and had some tea.

“Thanks for the help!” Harry said.

Else looked at him. “You're welcome!” she said after a while.

Now Mona looked up. “How about we add some denim T-shirts and stuff?!”

“What about those handicrafts you spoke about?” her dad asked her.

She thought about it. “How about both that and that I, of all people, stand here and sell both T-shirts and handicraft stuff!”

“I have thought about it,” her father answered. “But I feel rather insecure about you! Really, honey, can I really trust you not to deal with the business as though it was loan bank or so?”

“If you can't trust me on that, how can I ever become what you meant me to be?!”

“I want to,” he answered, “but I really can't trust you on all of that!”

“That's right honey. Your father and I don't appreciate the way you've 'loaned' money from our wallets almost as soon as we either slept or took a bath or something! It's not easy, really, to trust you at all after that!”

Her father looked a bit thoughtful. Then he said: “Perhaps, if we are very careful, we can after all let her assist in the shop, but not have any keys to either it nor to the cash register. ... And, moreover, I think we need even better alarm and locks if we should have you around here!”

“Mmh,” she said. “Suppose I can take it that way.”

So they tried this concept.

A few weeks later, new costumers started pouring into the shop, buying T-shirts, and some of them even buying furniture. “I appreciate,” Elsa said to her husband “that you now can get the business running, but what if we hadn't agreed to let her work for us? Do you think they would have been even close to as many then?”

“No, I don't suppose they would be! Rather I feel that she's been working like a magnet for them!”

With that the family had solved two big problems at ones. The daughter was now a working girl and the business was going well. But two years later, Mona did help three fellows she had recently made friends with steal two rather expensive pieces of mahogany furniture, a table and a book shelf. Staying with those dudes, she didn't think, even, about going back to work the next day. Instead she was smocking weed, drinking some beer and enjoying herself with them.

Her father who had seen them make themselves acquainted with her, guessed that it might be they who stole the furniture, and who lured her into the trap of being infatuated by their clever and mischievous attitudes. But it took police two weeks to find the guys, and her, who was still with them, and meanwhile the sales had been going down a bit. Even so, the couple decided that not to let her work for them again. “I might even close the business, to the extent I can't do it without any criminal employee!” her father said, in front of his daughter, to a bail officer, and added. “So it's better that she's kept away from the shop and perhaps kept in custody for a long time!”

“I don't feel that my parents have been caring about me ever!” Mona answered, although no one had addressed her. “Instead, I feel they didn't care about me even when I was a nine-year-old!” she added, and continued: “And if they hadn't exploited me as an employee, I wouldn't even have to ask them for the bail money!”

Her parents both looked away from her. “I'm sorry,” her mother said to the bail officer, “I really have to agree with my husband! She should stay in jail, and even in prison upon that!”

Two weeks later, Mona was sent to a correctional facility for adults who fancied criminal behavior, but only had weak tendencies themselves for it. It was fairly far from the town where she came from and where her father had that shop she'd been working in. While enrolled there she committed suicide. Her parents heard about this and were regretful for it. But that didn't bring her back. ... Nor did it actually turn her fathers business, which now hardly was making any profits! Devastated, her father eventually also committed suicide. And somewhat, so did her mother too.