Trash Man

They spent the entire week in the same place, fishing, swimming and lazing around. On Tuesday they did canoe downstream to pick up more supplies and check on the business. There were no problems so, with their ice chest restocked, more beer in the canoe, they returned to their gravel bar camp for the rest of their week together.

By July of that year the economy was picking up and the plant began calling back workers. Kyle and Gloria refused the recall but they benefited from it anyway because they now had more pallets to sell. Kyle ended up hiring two new employees before the end of the summer just to keep up with the business from pallets and metal recycling. Kyle promoted Gloria's helper to driver and put one of the new hires on the truck with him. Gloria moved to the furniture business full time. Tommy was promoted to full time in the pallet business and metal recycling from the factories and trash routes. Gloria had the other new hire helping her in the furniture store. That young woman had worked in the plant at one time also so was well trained in furniture building and upholstery.

That fall at the Labor Day picnic Kyle held for his family and his employees and their families Kyle walked up to Gloria. He took her hand and said, "Take a walk with me for a minute, Gloria?"

She smiled and leaned into him as they walked. When they got to the end of the property Kyle found a place for them to sit. He reached into his pocket and licked his lips. He said, "Gloria, I know we've not had many dates but I think we know each other pretty well. You know I love you. Will you marry me?"

Gloria gasped and looked up at Kyle with enlarged eyes. She saw the ring he held in his fingers. She licked her lips and whispered, "Yes," as she held her trembling hand out for him to place the ring on her finger.

Gloria took Kyle's hand after he placed the ring on her finger and pulled herself up. She wrapped him in her arms and they had a deep kiss. She moaned and ground her pelvis into him before they broke apart.

She took Kyle's hand and pulled him rapidly toward the festivities once more. As soon as they got back to the crowd Gloria headed to her mother first. After showing off her ring and getting a hug they made the rounds of the other women showing off the ring and receiving congratulations all around.

Later that summer Gloria's grandfather passed away. In his will he left Gloria the store building and her parents everything else he owned. Over the next few months in their spare time Gloria and Kyle converted the second floor into office space. The third floor was converted into apartments. She rented the offices almost exclusively to attorneys and surprisingly a couple of the younger attorneys just getting started rented two of the four apartments upstairs. She and Kyle were making more profit from each floor on the building rent than on the furniture store. It didn't take them long to decide to close the store and convert the ground floor into offices also.

Kyle took a large gamble and purchased a commercial garbage truck for that part of his business. It was so much more efficient he managed to combine two days routes into one and still finish in just about the same amount of time each day. He and Gloria stopped running on the trucks except when one of their full time employees was off for some reason. A year later he purchased a second truck and retired all his smaller ones.

Within six years at age 27 Kyle had achieved his dream, mostly by accident. He now owned two refuse trucks that operated his trash routes, a thriving pallet business and another thriving rental business. He and Gloria no longer ran the routes except in emergencies or to check on their employees. They worked in the office and occasionally in the shop building pallets. They lived in a four-bedroom house in the best development in town and were looking forward to the birth of their third and last child. Kyle's brother and his two sister's husbands worked for them and were partial owners of the trash part of the business as well.

Dreams do sometimes come true even if by accident.