THE MISER, THE RISER AND THE WISER

Dan Warren is a man full of dilemma. He looks at the traffic light with a strange brow and walks ahead. He would rather walk his way to the office than use his car. And he has some 3 of them. His fiancé, Lor, bought all of them. Being a cheap pain in the ass that Dan was, his fiancé was always upfront about purchasing anything she wanted. "Why earn money Darren?" She used to ask repeatedly about their 11-year-old relationship. "The way you spend, I think that will be gone, my love. Stop spending too much." Dan used to answer every day when he went to work. "Well, I am not a miser like you Dan who has money yet no class. I would rather we stay with what we are. I think marriage costs some thousand dollars, Dan, which you are unwilling to pay." "Who paid for the cars, Miss Paddington? Not you. And each of them is over 15 grands each. So, stop complaining. And why do we have 3? Isn't one enough?" "I do like it, Miss Paddington! Because I love cars rather than cheap marriages. And three because I am an executive unlike you who inherited 400,000 from his parents and is still a miser. I have an 80,000 dollar job to look at the time being." "It's been 3 years since you had the job. And shouldn't you be paying for my cars now?" "You are a cheap fart, aren't you? I wish Benny was here." That was the same conversation they had for nearly 2 years and nothing changed except their ages. And there he is, the miser and penny-pincher Mr. Dan Warren. Looks at the green light of the traffic signal and then at the cars that pass him by. “Walk on the pavement you fool,” shouts one of the car drivers. “Hey, it’s that cheapskate owner of the Warren shoes and outfits.” “That’s Dan Warren! Wow, his outfits and shoes are brilliant.” Comes the voices from the cars, to which Dan shouts, “Thank you, madam. And it’s a penny-pincher, not a cheapskate, sir, as someone calls me.” He leaped onto the pavement and towards his office, which was only some 10 minutes from his home. Burn Hidds, the CEO of his company, welcomes him with a bow as he knows his reach in not just Warren's company but all of New York's clothing companies and shoes. He might not be a celebrity like Burn was, yet he wanted to make sure all the employees were in the outfits and show industry respect for his work. Dan had started the new eco shoes and outfits some 8 years ago in this company. This company was a mere small cottage then, and look at it. It looked like a 7-star hotel. "We have our distribution and retail shops all over New York. And profit nearly a million in every high-demand sale of the products. And the profit already reached 5 million now. That's a big profit for our products." states Burn's assistant Lyra Hulio. She was the soul of the company and she shared the same miser life as Dan did. Dan, unlike Burn, didn't hire anyone. He enjoyed working alone. He wanted only some 10-15 employees in the office itself and let their distributors hire the other staff, which would be cheap. Burn was like Lor, a big spendthrift who had already spent some 10,000 grands on staff who were meaningless. The only way he gained a CEO position some 5 years ago was from Lor, who was the CEO, then handed it to him easily so that Dan would be in the fold. Lor always wanted Dan to be behind her because he was a miser who would rather beg her for money than show her class and earn. Such a different opinion and yet there they were about to be married someday when they felt it was right. Burn, though neither wanted a grudge nor a very good relationship with Dan as he saw Lor quit the company because of the good relations they had. She earned some 50,000 in a year at the company, which she thought Dan made her work too much, and much of the profits that his company earned was because of her, and she should have been paid 100,000 a year for her contributions which Dan didn't. Although they were in love and would be engaged a year later, Dan didn't like the idea of spending thousands on people who he couldn't boss around, and in came Burn, who Lor referred. He embezzled some 50,000 from Dan's eyes, which he still doesn't know yet. Dan didn't care about Burn because he knew Burn always respected him. Lor was someone he wanted to boss around, which he couldn't for 3 years when his company needed a CEO. He eventually asked her to be the CEO because the flair she had in her talks and the way she held the team of some 9-15 employees together and built a brand in itself in those 3 years was exceptional. It was something that even Dan couldn't take from her. Although she only joined after 6 month revolution that Dan had done some 8 years ago from now which increased their sales and profited nearly 500,000 dollars which was enough to expand the cottage to a seven-star hotel building which she thought he made for her until she worked with him. She only wanted to leave after she worked for 3 years with him. The Company did profit a few million then when she handled the business for 3 years. Yet Dann wanted someone better and in came Burn Hidds. He wasn't as good as a worker and inspirer, as Dan or Lor were yet he knew how to please Dann which made him better at his work actually, and now there he was Burn, who was a big name in the outfits and shoes industry. His parents saw his idea and gave him 400,000 as an inheritance some 8 years ago, which made him invest in a small cottage and start the eco outfits and shoes business. It started well and did well, as everyone in New York said. Although the miser he was Dan, he was a genius, which was a quality that neither Lor nor Burn possessed. "Coffee Dan?" asked Burn. "Quite a day today," Dan replied. "Did Lor and the cars on the highway shout again? Or McKinley's dog chased you or the guard mistook you or you slipped in a banana peel at the crossing?" "Wow, is that the only 4 things that I do?" laughs Dan. "You know, Burn., you have a lot of free time this day it seems." " With you around, I feel every day it's a holiday here, Dan." " I think Lyra is a good worker who allows you to chit-chat and see me with a telescope." " You mean binoculars Dan? You are quite amusing, Dan, and thank you for having her as an assistant. I would have a sore back every day if it wasn't for her." Burn swipes Dan's dust in his Macintosh. " You know, those dust could have earned me millions." Dan used to say the same thing to Burn and reach his cabin, which was a floor above Burn's. "The boss is here." Everyone shouted and rushed to their seats or cabins or whatever they were allocated. As Dan cared, all he knew was only Lyra or himself or the distributors were important to him, and the rest 28 employees in his office were nothing but like Burn and Lor, who only loved money and showoff. Although Lor was somewhat like Burn in being a role model for many, they weren't creative geniuses like he or Lyra were. Lyra might have been an assistant, yet her work was as if she were a big name in herself. She started Waren slippers to be made and came up with the ideas which Burn put in the queue for a year until Dan saw it and sanctioned it they were a big hit and then she came up with the mugs and pots ideas which had advertisements for their outfits all over them. She was a genius indeed, like Dan. “Do everything like Lyra does and watch my salary increase to 500 dollars next month,” one employee whispered behind Lyra. Lyra didn’t care what they said behind. She always wanted them to give their full potential work as Dan wanted or as Burn wanted. She never cared from the glamour to the blasphemy she had heard about her. Yet we are talking about the man Dan and not Lyra. Lyra is only important for Dan, and Dan is for everyone, including me. My name is Benny Torridge and I live just across from Dan’s office and see him slipping through banana peels and shouting at the cars and his fiancé every morning. Lor is my friend from college. I helped her to get a CEO position at Norman Clothings and Boots after I heard she left her fiance’s company 5 years ago. It was my father’s company he left after he died and I offered her a lucrative 60,000-dollar-a-year to contract vice-CEO position she worked under me for 2 years and then she became the CEO of the company and has gotten an 80,000-dollar contract for 3 years now. She is doing well it seems and the cars that she brings with her add to our reputation and boost our morale as well as bring shine and class to the company that my father built. Norman Torridge, the man behind great clothing and shoes, was a top dog and great business executive until Dan came in 8 years ago and stole the New York highway shops and the streets from us. The distributors there who loved our products liked Dan’s eco shoes and outfits and slowly we became outdated by these new eco shoes. Our leather shoes and traditional outfits were only limited to Brooklyn. Yet we loved Dan Warren. He was a great pioneer in the outfits and shoes industry like my father was three decades ago. He reminded me of my father and the most important part of being him was he was Lor’s fiancé, the woman I once loved and is my friend. We did date each other before she met him. The wise guy had a niche of stealing pretty and wise people from others. Lyra Hulio was also one of them. 3 years ago, she was Lor’s assistant in my company. As soon as Lor introduced her to Dan, he even stole her from us. That cheap bastard, yet I loved him. And why? Even though his eco shoes and outfits were the best in the market, they still needed a Norman Outfits and Shoes mark to be launched in Brooklyn. New York is a big state and New York City is a place Dan would rather want to be in New York rather than Brooklyn, which he hated. I didn’t know why. I always wanted to know why he hated Brooklyn. It must be something that hurts him from the inside. Lor said his father passed away some 4 years ago there which might have been the cause. Or maybe New York is the only city he wants to be. Anyway, our profits have hit 7 million, which is probably more than that, so I had no problem with him only in New York City. We owned Brooklyn as the people there loved our brands. Even the other new brands, like Piccolo, which had a lion emblem and animal skin clothing, needed our logo to be launched because the people only wore our logo-marked clothing and shoes. Yet New York was different. At this end of the Brooklyn Bridge, Dan’s clothing reigned supreme while at the other we ruled. Dan had never seen me or met me, as Lor says. She used to tell me she would quote me sometimes to shut him up and even say she wished she had married me and not been engaged to him. Although I want to be with her and want to persuade her to break up with him, I don’t dare. I once dared to tell her not to date him some 11 years ago when we were in our graduation year at Brooklyn College. She fumed and never spoke to me for nearly half a decade until I saw her crying in the streets of New York when she quit her CEO job at her fiancé’s company. I was more heartbroken to hear she was engaged. Yet, I offered her a job at my father’s company. She did love Brooklyn more than New York. She hated the New York pizza, which Dan loved. She loved the Brooklyn touch pizza rather than the New York’s tasteless pizza, as she said. Although, I loved the pizza and not the city itself. It has a chill wind breezing which lets you out when you have your guards down, which Dan Warren knows nothing at about. That was the reason I helped Lor to be at her feet. She was like me. Yes, she didn’t like someone bossing around like my father and Dan did to me and Lor, respectively.