Fred Scores a Triumph

Fred glanced at the open page of the log book and recalled that he’d been about to dial the phone when Bill came in. He found the number on the page, then picked up the phone and dialed. Only when the phone was ringing did it occur to Fred to wonder what his purpose was in calling.

"Receiving," growled a voice at the other end.

"Ahh... did you people receive anything you weren’t supposed to?" enquired Fred uncertainly.

"Who is this?" demanded the gruff voice.

"Oh, I’m sorry," trilled Fred. "This is Fred Luckinbill at Soames Shipping. We’ve sort of lost track of ovens... two of ‘em. Got sent to the wrong place... wondered if you’d seen them."

Fred heard a distinct rumble in the phone. The other man was laughing. "Yeah, we got ‘em," the man finally replied. "You know, we outfit semi-trucks pretty good these days. Cabs even have microwaves in ‘em. But these ovens are huge suckers, son!"

Fred couldn’t help tittering, mostly in delight that he’d found the wayward ovens. "I know," he replied. "They were intended for a restaurant in Milburn. We somehow got two shipments mixed up. We’ll send a truck for them... and you’re probably missing some engine parts?" he ventured.

The man was still chuckling merrily. "Yeah.. we figured it was a mix up, but we’re a little behind in production anyhow, so we weren’t panicking about it just yet. "Course, it’ll be nice to get these huge suckers out of here... and the boys’ll sure be relieved they don’t have to install them in a truck!"

As the man continued to amuse himself, Fred suddenly realized he didn’t know what company he’d called. He frantically searched the page where he’d found the phone number for a company name, but there just didn’t seem to be one. "Who is this?" he asked desperately.

"Joe Phillips, Assistant Receiver," came the reply. "But any of the boys know where those ovens are."

"Yeah, but Joe, what’s the company?" moaned Fred.

Joe’s rumbling laughter burst through the phone again. "Ya mean ya don’t know who ya called, son?" he surmised gleefully.

"Well, it seems to have escaped me," Fred confessed awkwardly.

Joe sniffed and cleared his throat in an effort to stop laughing. "Well, this is the Wilmer Truck plant in Burlington, son. My goodness, we wouldn’t want you to lose track of these ovens again, would we?"

"No," agreed Fred, his voice cracking with embarrassment. "We’ll... we’ll send a truck for the ovens tomorrow, Joe... and we’ll get those missing engine parts to you as soon as we can."

"Well that’s fine, son," confirmed Joe. "And we’ll get those ovens crated back up for ya too. They’ll be on loading dock C... okay?"

"Loading Dock C," repeated Fred carefully. "Thanks Joe."

As soon as Fred hung up the phone he felt like cheering. He had found the missing ovens! He immediately grabbed two shipping manifests and began filling them out to get the transfer completed as quickly as possible. Mr. Grieves had told Fred to send out a truck to recover the ovens - wherever they were, take them to Milburn, pick up the engine parts and return them to wherever. Mr. Grieves had been clear that he didn’t care if it took the truck all day and half the night to accomplish the exchange, just as long as it was done. In his glee at finding the ovens so quickly, Fred decided to do his boss one better. He would dispatch two trucks. One would go to Milburn and the other to Burlington for the pickup. Then they would exchange places and loads. Fred was sure this would get the job done more quickly, even if it was more expensive, and he was equally certain Mr. Grieves would appreciate his reasoning in the matter. He was in a positively gleeful mood when he went to pick up Myrtle.