Life after the Lottery Ch. 64

"I would like to have some adult fun with him," Rachel said, and Samantha and Amy laughed.

"Are you learning anything?" I asked Linda.

"Sure. I have never thought about some of the things you two have taught," Linda said.

"We brought a light lunch with us, you want to join us?" Dawn asked.

The six of us sat in the bleachers as we ate some sandwiches. Dan came back a few minutes later.

"Katie said good since she hasn't seen you in a long time."

"Good. Make sure I give you instructions to the house," Dawn said.

"Dan, what do you want to do after lunch?" I asked.

"I want to show some full speed one on one fighting between Dawn and me. If she doesn't kill me, I want the two of us to demonstrate some full contact fighting."

"Samantha, are you learning anything?" I asked.

"Yes! This is fun!"

"How about you, Amy?"

"I'm not sure I could poke someone's eyes out."

"You could if you were going to be killed or raped," Dawn said.

"Dawn, how do you practice that with your thumbs?" Linda asked.

"Holding a melon and driving your thumbs into it. If you can do that, you can crush someone's eyeballs."

"Yuk," came from Amy.

*****

When we started back, Dan reviewed some things. He also told the ladies he wanted to hear them screaming when they were breaking holds and running away.

He had Dawn attack at full speed and full contact. With his padding and moves, he could take the punches and deflect the blows. While he was taking off his padding, Dawn talked to the women some more.

"Okay, the padding is off now. Dr. Smith and I are going to demonstrate some actual fighting so you can see how training allows you to defend yourself in different ways. We haven't rehearsed this, we will have to depend on what we know to defend ourselves."

Dan and I faced off. He came in for a grab, and I threw him behind me. The ladies gasped. We went through several attempts at grabbing each other, ending up on the mats.

"With training, you have other choices for defending yourself if someone lunges for you," Dan said.

He turned to one of his students.

"Mat, come up here with the knife," he told him.

He came up with a rubber knife. Dan demonstrated knife defense for a few minutes.

"The one thing you need to learn about defending against a knife is that unless you have a lot of training, you are going to get cut. If you get cut, you keep fighting. What we are going to show you is how to grab the arm and disable the attacker quickly."

For another hour, we instructed the women on basic knife defense. Dan made sure they were all screaming as they fought. After a break, we came back to talk about defense against a gun.

"Now ladies, we do have to discuss what to do if your attacker has a gun. There are two things to consider. First, he is going to kill you. Second, if he doesn't kill you, he is probably going to rape you. You have to make the decision as to how to survive. One way may be just to let him do what he wants and live another day. Or, if you make the decision, he is going to kill you anyway, what can you do to survive?"

"Against someone with a gun, you may have to let him get in close and even be on top of you so you can make a fatal or disabling strike. That is just the facts. It takes a lot of practice to take a gun away from an attacker, and we will not be showing you how to attempt that. What we are going to show you is how to use some of the things you have already learned. One of the basic defenses goes back to the eyes. You may have to let him get close enough he drops his guard, and you take out his eyes."

Dan used Dawn to demonstrate some defenses against a rapist with a gun, even getting on top of her on the mat while she demonstrated gouging his eyes and striking his throat. After that, we spent a few hours using what they had learned in the morning as a defense if being raped.

By 4:00, all the ladies were hot and sweaty and tired.

"What you have learned today is the basics, remember that," Dan said. "Keep your defense simple until you learn more. We hope you have learned something today that will be useful. If you want to learn more, I invite you to call and make an appointment to come by my studio one night to watch a class. I teach three nights a week and have an all-day class on Saturday. Please look into further studies someplace. Thank you for coming."

There was applause and people came up and talked to us. Some of the women had gathered around Dawn and were asking her questions. Dan came over and asked what time to be at the house, we told him whenever they could get there. By 4:30, we were heading back home.

"I hope you two learned something," Dawn said.

"I did!" Samantha exclaimed. "When can I start more training!"

"What about you, Amy?"

"That was hard work."

"Both of you need to learn more of the basics," Dawn told them. "We can teach you, or you can take classes."

"We want to make sure both of you can defend yourself if needed," I said.

"Cool!" came from Samantha.

"Talk to Dan tomorrow," I told them.

"I never told you, honey, that Dan had the hots for me back in school," Dawn said.

"I know he did."

"Did you know he used to come into the locker room when I was changing and sneak looks."

"Uh, oh!" Came from Amy in the backseat.

"I'm sure you let him look!"

"I did, on more than a few occasions."

"Did he do more than look?" Came from Samantha.

"He wanted to. Once I was in the showers, and he came in naked and wanted to fool around. That was long before he was afraid of James!" Dawn said, and the girls laughed.

"Did you two fool around?" I asked.

"Well...I wasn't quite as wild as I am now."

"Is that a no?"

"Sort of!"

"What does sort of mean?" I asked.

"We felt each other up in the shower for a while, then I gave him a blowjob."

"Tramp!" I exclaimed, and they all laughed.

"He tried a few more times, but I said no, honey."

"I bet you did."

"Oh, it was tempting, he is a bit larger than average, but I said no because of you, honey."

The girls were laughing in the backseat as we drove. Samantha started bugging Dawn, asking who else she had done in college. Dawn and I had told each other about all our past lovers, but she had never mentioned Dan.

"I wonder if I could talk Katie into letting Dan fuck me," Dawn said.

"Here it comes!" Came from Samantha.

"I doubt it," I said.

"I don't know, she always hung around you at class. Did you ever get to take any peaks, honey?"

"Just once."

"Oh, really! What happened?"

"I was in the locker room, and your bra was in my bag. I walked over to the women's locker room and knocked, and no one answered. I was going to take your bra in and put it in your bag. When I walked in, Katie was coming from the shower."

"And you two didn't fool around?"

"I took a quick look, you were in the other showers."

"And that was it?" Dawn asked.

"Yes."

"Liar!"

"What?"

"I stood and watched her give you a blowjob you lying ass!"

I started laughing, and we all laughed.

"Sorry, about that," I said.

"I guess it was fair."

"Dawn, you think you could talk her into it?" Amy asked.

"I don't know. After having two girls, she may be fairly conservative."

"Or, not," Samantha said. "She may be getting bored being a mom."

"Good point, Sam. She was pretty wild in college. She and Dan didn't hook up until he was on the police force."

"I guess we can find out," Samantha said.

"I guess we won't," I replied.

I looked over at Dawn, and she smiled at me.

*****

When we got to the house, I ran up to the bedroom to shower and clean up so I could go to the limo meeting at 7:00.

Dawn had a sandwich ready for me when I came back down.

"How long will you be?" She asked.

"I'm not sure. We have a lot to go over."

I finished my sandwich and grabbed my computer bag and headed out the door at about 6:15. I pulled into the old car lot right at 7:00. I saw everyone inside checking out the building.

"Hey, Dr. Smith," one of the guys said as I walked in.

I found Lori, and we got everyone organized .

"As you know, Dr. Smith and I went to look at vehicles for the last few weeks. We have decided that the place in St.Louis is the best fit for us. They had the best prices, quality, and the delivery date of the two. We also think that with them being closer, we will get better services. I emailed everyone the final list of vehicles we are going to purchase and the final price. Does anyone have any questions?" Lori said.

"The list looks good. Why did you add the buses?" Gregg asked.

"After looking at them we decided that the 20 passenger plain buses would be another market we could get into," Lori added.

There was about 20 minutes of discussion about all the vehicles.

"The total for all the vehicles was a little over 2.2 million. I am going to keep the capitalization at 2 million. Anything over that will be covered as a loan from either me or the bank. I emailed everyone the number of shares you will receive and what percentage you will own. There will be 40,000 shares of stock available at $100 a share," I told them.

"The total everyone but Lori and I invested in the business is $900,000. Lori has purchased a 10% share by investing $200,000. I have added another million to the pot, which brings the total to 2.1 million. However, this is your business, and you have to make it work. I am only going to take a 25% share. The total purchased will take 16,000 shares of stock. That leaves 4,000 shares of stock in reserve for others to invest in the business as they can. Everyone working for us can buy new shares or additional shares as they can."

"Dr. Smith, you should own half?"

"I am only going to take 25% for my 1 million. The other $500,000 I hope to get back later. As Lori has explained to everyone, her plans and goals are to franchise this plan once we all prove it works. At that point, Lori and I will create another company to run the franchise. I will get the rest of my money out that way."

"Can we buy into the franchise company?" Someone asked.

"That will be up to Lori. We have to make this work first. Since this entire business was Lori's idea, she has invested heavily. She will be the operations manager, but it will be up to all of you to make this work. I have no plans to be involved in the daily operations."

"Lori, what is the building going to cost us?"

"We have a silent partner that owns this building and is going to let us use it for free until we can afford it. I hope that we are going to be successful enough we can one day buy the building and property. However, a day may come, we have to find another location. Ms. Williams bought the property to hold in anticipation it will be worth more than she paid for it one day," Lori said.

"Right now, all the vehicles should arrive at the end of January. Our first big event will be the week of Valintine's Day. There is a new hotel and a new store opening that week, and we will be providing transportation around town and to and from the airport all week. So, work with Lori to plan around that week because we will need plenty of drivers to be on call all days and hours that week," I told them.

"What is the store?"

"That is a secret right now, but it is going to be a big event," I said.

"The first of November the business will officially begin operation. Some additional things that must happen before we open for business the 1st of February will be to clean up here, do some painting, get some signs up, and hire part-time help for operations and keeping the vehicles clean. We want to hold the cost down as much as we can, so everyone that is a part owner can pitch in to help. I am working on a list of things that need to be done. I will email it out and hope some of you will sign up to work, so we don't have to hire people to do the work," Lori told them.

"We can do that!" They said.

"Over the next month, I will be releasing the marketing plans. Everyone will be involved in marketing and advertising. We already have some logo designs that we are going to use for the name of Allure Limousines. We know what other companies are charging for their services, we will start at that rate. Additionally, what the drivers make will be slightly more, but, and this is what will make us different, the services and quality we are going to guarantee should get all of you bigger tips," Lori told them.

"And don't forget that if you are a part owner, you will share in the profits," I told them. "When we become profitable will be up to all of you. Lori and I have discussed one other thing. Beyond what the owners will receive once we are profitable, we have decided that everyone that works for us will participate in a profit sharing plan."

"Yeah!!" They cheered.

"Lori is preparing a spreadsheet she will share with everyone that will project when we will become profitable based on the total hours of rental. We want everyone to have a full understanding of the business."

"Dr. Smith, we have heard that you are installing video recording equipment in the cars?" John asked. "Why?"

"Well...I think all of you know that things go one in the back of the limos when you are driving. I thought that some of the people might like a recording of...all the fun they have."

There was some laughter.

"Not everyone will want a recording. But, we want all of our passengers to have a good time and a memorable time."

"Are we going to sell them the recording?"

"No. What you as drivers are going to do is give them the recording for free."

"What? Why?"

"I know I have had some good times in the back of limos...haven't I Bryan?"

"Oh, yes!" Bryan said.

"If the driver had offered me a DVD of all the fun I had, I would have been inclined to offer them a large additional tip. This is where your salesmanship and marketing comes in. It will be up to you to entice as large of a tip for the recording as you can get. And every driver gets to keep all the tips!"

"Yeah!"

"Does that make sense?"

"Sure does!"

"No blackmail, though!" I exclaimed.

"Something I need input from everyone on is if we will provide the passengers with the option to turn off the recording at the beginning of the ride. Lori and I are still thinking through this, so email us with your ideas."

"Everyone...my goal...or our goal, is to offer a product far superior to anything any other local limo company can provide. All of us know that the large part of the limo business is from repeat customers. We not only want all of our customers to come back, but we want them to tell their friends about us, so they stop using the other companies. I fully intend to put all the other local companies out of business! Our company will be the best! That means the cleanest cars! The best-dressed drivers! And the most professional and courteous staff! If we do this, we will be the best!!" Lori shouted, and everyone cheered.

After the talk died down, I got everyone's attention.

"For all the drivers, Lori has already talked to you about being professionally dressed. For the men, that means dark suits, white shirts, a tie, and shined shoes. For the ladies, you decide on dark suits or a coat and skirt. Decide what works best for you and is the most comfortable," I said.

"I know some of you have some concerns about spending money for nice clothes. I know the guys from the sheriff's department, and the police department may not have a wardrobe of nice suits. Neither Lori or I want any of you to go out and spend a lot of money on clothes, but we do insist that you look nice. You have three months to work on your wardrobe, but...if any of you have questions as to how to dress or may not have the money between now and the 1st of February to invest in clothes, let me know as soon as you can. I can help the ladies, and the guys acquire some nice clothes at a lower cost than you may think."

"That is about all we have to announce," Lori said. "We will be here as long as we need to be to go over anything any of you want to discuss. There is one last thing, though. Dr. Smith and I are very serious about Allure Limousines, providing the best service available. That means everyone from the part-time staff to the full-time staff will be professional and courteous at all times, no exceptions. All employees and owners will sign a contract attesting to the level of professionalism that is expected. Under no circumstances will any unprofessional conduct be tolerated. I hope all of you understand how important this is."

"And because we will all be holding each other accountable, the following clause will be included in both the employment contract for non-owners and in the contract for part-owners. For non-owners, any complaints from customers will not be tolerated. If there is a complaint, Dr. Smith and I will investigate it and discuss it with the person involved. If there is a second complaint, it will result in immediate termination of employment. For part-owners, if we receive a second complaint the corporation reserves the right to purchase your share of ownership for what you paid, plus 5%, then you will be terminated and no longer an owner. We are that serious about the level of services we will offer," Lori added.

"I don't think this is too much to ask. Lori and I have been in discussion about hiring drivers from other companies, and even hiring some of the independent drivers to work for us full-time. Lori has already informed me there are people out there she will not hire. She says most of you already know who these people are and have worked with them."

"We will be catering to people in this area from all levels of income. Every customer will be treated the same even if they are a high school student hiring us for a prom, or a billionaire hiring us for transportation. Please keep this in mind constantly. If anyone has a problem with the policy, let us know now," I said.

"Any questions?" Lori asked.

"If we want to purchase stock, how will that be done?"

"I think that purchases need to be made in blocks of ten shares, or $1,000. There is $400,000 available right now. If you want to finance purchases by applying earnings to it, we can work out a plan. There may be some of you that will purchase a larger chunk right away. Talk to Lori or me about it, and we'll work with you. If you own 1% of the company or 200 shares, when we have the first million to distribute, you will receive $10,000 for every 1% you own."

There was some talk.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we will have the best and the most profitable limo company there is!" Lori yelled.

They all cheered.

Lori and I stayed and discussed a lot of things with everyone until about 9:30. They all seemed to be excited. Some of them were asking questions about recruiting other drivers from the other companies. Lori and I told them we would be paying a recruitment bonus.

By 10:00, Lori and I had collected all the money and handed out the contracts to be signed and returned. Everyone left happy. We were sitting in one of the large offices.

"I think this should be your office," I told her.

"I have a lot more work to do before February than I thought I did."

"Just concentrate on graduating first. We can get everything else done," I told her.

"I will be happy to be out of school in December."

"I hope you are planning on being the marketing department after your graduate and before we open. Get the final plans for the marketing brochures drawn up as soon as you can and any ideas. I can get some great help from Linda's people. I want brochures and all the other material printed and ready to go by Christmas."

"How are we paying for that?" Lori asked.

"I will cover some before we have to hit the line of credit from the bank. Email everyone and ask how they want their name to appear on their business cards. Once we have that and the artwork ready print 1,000 for each person. They will have the company phone number and email on them, so get the phones setup. I will have the server for email up soon."