I'm a Good Person (Book 4)

Chapter 17

"I'll never be sorry I didn't get into the stock market again," Kent said as he and Grayson sat listening to the radio in the mill offices just a week after the great October 28th crash, "do you have any idea how many of our friends from college were broken by this thing?"

"I heard Lance Stevens and his firm lost everything," Grayson replied, "and George Whitfield killed himself when he found out he'd lost most of what he had, too. I'm sure that's only the tip of the iceberg. I'm glad Joe and John Kelly weren't still alive to see this. Their company's in shambles according to Carter. Though. I'm sure if they'd been alive and well, they would have seen the signs and gotten out of some of their investments like we did."

"Is Laura's money still secure?"

"Oh, sure. That was all put into trusts, both Joe's money and John's. I just heard back on that from her banker there and it's still in good shape. Once some of this bank panic subsides, I'm having it transferred here where I can be a little more assured of it's security," Grayson explained, "I'm afraid she won't get anywhere near what she might have for the sale of her parents' and John's houses as she might have and of course the company can't be sold now, but overall she made out alright."

"Good. Not that she had much to worry about on that score, hm?"

"Fortunately not, but I would have hated for her to lose that on top of everything else."

"The bank panic is what's got me worried. The bigger cities have some safety nets, but for people in smaller cities like Old Bridge... they're starting to talk. I don't think it'll be much longer until we've got a mini one of our own."

Grayson agreed, "we'll have to do what we can. It's a good thing we didn't dive into any expansions this year after all."

"The mill should be fine, but I am worried about the radio factory. I'm sure all of this uncertainty is going to decrease demand. It's not so much losing money that worries me, either. It's keeping everyone on payroll with nothing much to do. Even we can't do that forever."

"Nobody said anything about forever. Things will rebound. The important thing is to weather it. Radio demand may decrease for a while, but they're still going to make cars, we're still going to chase that partnership, and hell, if it means we have to cease radio production and get into some sort of military contract to make ends meet on some other sort of manufacturing, we can do that. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. We need to observe. Nobody knows how long this market slump is going to last or what all of the effects will be. Only time will tell."

"So, what do we tell our people if they start to worry?"

"We tell them their jobs are as secure as they ever were," Grayson replied, then he got an idea, "gather all of our foremen for a meeting. We'll use them to spread the word. You and I weren't big stock market losers, the company is in good shape and their jobs aren't going anywhere. It's just like when we came to town twenty some years ago, our fates are tied together and you and I are going to do our best to keep us all afloat."

Reaching the first month and a half of school, Robert and Laura were still on opposite trajectories. Laura had, for the most part, acclimated unnoticed. She was not the center of anyone's attention and while she hadn't made a bunch of friends, she did find that she had some acquaintances. Robert, on the other hand, remained the subject of intense scrutiny from the likes of Ed Hagar. Ed, if he had noticed Robert's indifference toward him so far, didn't let on and the onslaught anytime the two ran across each other was unrelenting.

Further complicating Robert's time was the stock market crash. Kids who had previously held no grudge toward Robert now seemed to be siding with Ed, John and Chase. They laughed when the boys made a joke and Robert felt more eyes on him than ever before. It seemed as if this was going to be the longest nine months of his life, longer even than all those long months of recuperating.