“It’ll serve them right,” Jake Bandemer whispered to his wife Charlene, who was sitting to his right.
He had just finished signing the last of the documents in a thick stack. With that, ownership of the family business officially transferred to the Chinese conglomerate. Everyone around the large mahogany conference room table stood up and exchanged handshakes. Jake got out a bottle of his best bourbon and shared it with his wife and the various businessmen and lawyers.
Employees and townspeople had noticed the recent influx of black-suited Asian men visiting Bandemer Trailers but assumed they were potential customers interested in purchasing some of the specialized over-the-road trailers. Jake expected that they would be shocked when they found out the town’s only sizable employer had been sold with all manufacturing being moved to China and Mexico.
It was a tough decision for Jake and Charlene since it was his great-great-grandfather that had started the business supplying wagons for settlers heading westward across the prairie. But, although his ancestors had practically built the town on the Missouri River, his family was treated as outsiders. The hardworking and often struggling townspeople usually grimaced when they saw the Bandemer mansion perched up on the hill overlooking their houses. Jake wondered if they could get their house sold before values plummeted in the area.
It became much worse when their sons Luke and Owen were involved in a car accident with two popular young women from the town. They all had been drinking at a large party in the country. Luke, the driver, died in the horrendous accident. Both women were killed along with two members of a local family in a pickup truck they hit head-on. Owen survived but would never be the same. People treated all the families that lost loved ones, except theirs, with compassion, and the funerals were well attended. Hardly anybody came to Luke’s funeral and the family was treated with bitterness.
Therefore, when Asian businessmen approached Jake with a sizable offer for Bandemer Trailers, it was immediately tempting. He had until the end of October to accept. It wasn’t an easy decision, but they were getting older and their only child, Owen, would be in no shape to take over the family business. Ultimately, Jake and Charlene decided that they should take the offer. Jake liked the idea that if they waited until the last minute to sign, they could announce the firm’s sale on Halloween night. Jake laughed thinking, what a nice trick for the spiteful townspeople.
After having stout drinks all around the table, Jake, Charlene, the new business owners, and the lawyers left the soon-to-be-abandoned plant. It was supposed to be a warm evening for trick-or-treaters, but it felt cold. Not even the bourbon helped. A stray dog howled somewhere on the property and a cat hissed as they passed by.
Jake wondered if these were bad omens, but snapped out of it and pulled Charlene close, gave her a hug, and whispered in her ear, “Let’s treat ourselves to a move to the beach in Hawaii.”