son?'
'Yes, what's the problem?'
'It says, he's worried he won't be able to get into the house after school,' she says. 'Is your wife gone?'
'Yeah, she's out of town for a few days,' I tell her. 'Fran, you've got a couple of kids. How do you manage to hold a job and take care of them?'
She laughs. 'Well, 'tain't easy. On the other hand, I don't work the long hours you do. If I were you, I'd get some help until she gets back.'
136
When she leaves, I pick up the phone again. 'Hello, Mom? It's Alex.' 'Have you heard from Julie yet?' she asks. 'No, I haven't,' I say. 'Listen, Mom, would you mind stay- ing with me and the kids until Julie gets back?'
At two o'clock I slip out to pick up my mother and take her to the house before the kids get home from school. When I arrive at her house, she's at the door with two suitcases and four card- board boxes filled with half of her kitchen.
'Mom, we've already got pots and pans at my house,' I tell her.
'They're just not the same as mine,' she says.
So we load the trunk. I take her and her pots and pans over to the house and unload. She waits for the kids to come home from school, and I race back to the plant.
Around four o'clock, at the end of first shift, I go down to Bob Donovan's office to find out what the story is on Smyth's shipment. He's waiting for me.
'Well, well, well. Good afternoon!' says Bob as I open the door and walk in. 'How nice of you to drop by!'
'What are you so happy about?' I ask him.
'I'm always happy when people who owe me money drop by,' says Bob.
'Oh, is that right?' I ask him. 'What makes you think any- body owes you money?'
Bob holds out his hand and wiggles his fingers. 'Come on! Don't tell me you forgot about the bet we made! Ten bucks, re- member? I just talked to Pete and his people are indeed going to finish the hundred units of parts. So the robot should have no problem finishing that shipment for Smyth's plant.'
'Yeah? Well, if that's true I won't mind losing,' I tell him.
'So you concede defeat?'
'No way. Not until those sub-assemblies get on the five o'clock truck,' I tell him.
'Suit yourself,' says Bob.
'Let's go see what's really going on out there,' I say.
We take a walk out on the floor to Pete's office. Before we get there, we pass the robot, who's brightening the area with its weld
137
flashes. Coming the other way are two guys. Just as they pass the welding area, they stop and give a little cheer.
'We beat the robot! We beat the robot!' they say.
'Must be from Pete's department,' says Bob.
We smile as we pass them. They didn't really beat anything, of course, but what the hell. They look happy. Bob and I con- tinue on to Pete's office, which is a little steel-sided shack among the machines.
'Hello there,' says Pete as we walk in. 'We got that rush job done for you today.'
'Good, Pete. But do you have that log sheet you were sup- posed to keep,' I ask him.
'Yes, I do,' says Pete. 'Now where did I put it?'
He sorts through the papers on his desk, talking as he hunts for it.
'You should have seen my people this afternoon. I mean, they really moved. I went around and told them how important this shipment is, and they really put themselves into it. You know how things usually slow down a little at the end of a shift. But today they hustled. They were proud when they walked out of here today.'
'Yeah, we noticed,' says Bob.
He puts the log sheet down on top of a table in front of us.
'There you are,' he says.
We read it.
'Okay, so you only got nineteen pieces done in the first hour,' I say
'Well, it took us a little longer to get organized, and one guy was late coming back from lunch,' says Pete. 'But at one o'clock we had a materials handler take the nineteen over to the robot so it could get started.'
'Then from one to two, you still missed the quota by four pieces,' says Bob.
'Yeah, but so what?' says Pete. 'Look what happened from two o'clock to three: we beat the quota by three pieces. Then when I saw we were still behind, I went around and told every- one how important it was for us to get those hundred pieces done by the end of the shift.'
'So everyone went a little faster,' I say.
'That's right,' says Pete. 'And we made up for the slow start.'
'Yeah, thirty-two pieces in the last hour,' says Bob. 'So what do you say, Al?'
'Let's go see what's happening with the robot,' I say.
At five minutes past five o'clock, the robot is still turning out welded sub-assemblies. Donovan is pacing. Fred walks up.
'Is that truck going to wait?' asks Bob.
'I asked the driver, and he says he can't. He's got other stops to make and if he waits for us, he'll be late all night,' says Fred.
Bob turns to the machine. 'Well, what the heck is wrong with this stupid robot? It's got all the parts it needs.'
I tap him on the shoulder.
'Here,' I say. 'Look at this.'
I show him the sheet of paper on which Fred has been re- cording the output of the robot. From my shirt pocket, I take out Pete's log and fold the bottom of it so we can put the two pieces of paper together.
Combined, the two of them look like this:
I tell him, 'You see, the first hour Pete's people did nineteen pieces. The robot was capable of doing twenty- five, but Pete deliv- ered less than that, so nineteen became the robot's true capacity for that hour.'
'Same with the second hour,' says Fred. 'Pete delivered twenty-one, the robot could only do twenty- one.'
139
