The Job Offer, Malls and Pastries

Approaching me was a great looking Arab man in his twenties was wearing a nice off white dress shirt with open collar and black pants. The combination of his white shirt and black pants along with his unblemished mocha colored skin looked as if this man would have no problems with attracting female admirers. He approached me walking down the street and asked "Do you have a few minutes? I would like to talk to you?" As I stopped to talk he said, "Would you like to join me for lunch?" I said, "Sure, but I don't have any idea who you are." "Well David, I would like to offer you a job." I had recently applied for work and thought this was probably someone from the office where I had applied.

We were in the Eastern half of Washington State in a town called Ephrata and it was a warm day as is the case in summer. We sat down at a table in a nice cafe and ordered our lunch. We waited a time and it was not coming so the man got up and went over to the counter nearby where the lady was working on something there and then approached closer and whispered in her ear. I saw them speaking and had changed my mind so I walked to them and asked the lady if I could have breakfast. We settled all the details of our meal and walked back to the table where we sat for a time.

The man abruptly got up and walked toward a back door and said on his way, "We are missing some parts and we wondered if you knew where we might get them?" When we got out the back door and walked a distance I could see the parts that were remaining. They were about ten feet long, metal and filled with circuitry. I wondered if I knew and I started running through the mental rolodex that I stored information to see. I knew I was all over this town and was into computers a great deal so I thought I might have a chance but doubted it. I told him that it might be very difficult to find them as in Eastern Washington there were a great number of warehouses and barns and backyards and that the parts could be in most any of them.

The man was not one to stop for long and kept walking so I followed. We ended up next in what looked like a long, extra wide alley way. As we walked further what I thought was an alleyway opened up into open front business shops for miles down the street. All along the way were business after business with the front completely open and a long hallway inside to each business as a walker would walk. This was a mall of sorts but a fantastic one floor mall. We were going past a bakery and behind a counter were the many steel work tables that were used in working the various products. The women there were working and there was a long counter that baskets of just finished rolls and other items were being placed. They made everything it seems so many sweet pastries were going out and only a small portion of them I recognized but every one of them I wished I could try. They also made lunch pastries and I could see onion in them. They also made some very interesting stuffed pastries that I was sure would be as awesome as everything smelled at this moment. I could see the bakery was also ran by what I was sure were Arabs. As we walked down the mall we could see business after business all as interesting as the next and all top notch and as interesting as a night at the movies. At one point, as we walked further down the mall, Middle Eastern music filtered it's way to us. It was very upbeat and wonderful to me and my partner must have agreed as he started to dance in circles.

As we continued down the mall we began talking about the missing parts and I told him after I applied I gave thought as to where these parts might be as it was mentioned in the job description and I wondered in the future if you could set up an alarm on them or put GPS tracker on them and I could man both of them. We approached a our next business which was a shop of sorts and a man was on a raised stool working on a project. This man had overheard what I had been discussing and the two men smiled at each other at what I had said. I could tell with this that he was a part of the same business as my job offering and walking partner. The other man spoke up and said, "We thought of that but we are missing so many now that we would like to find them and get them back." I asked, "How many are you missing?" His answer was matter of fact and he said, "309." I was startled with the answer. I began to exclaim, "Oh my God, oh unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable." The other man said, "Oh I can tell maybe you thought there were maybe five or six missing right?" I looked back and said, "I sure did."

At this the man I was with began to walk again. It seemed that he was either enjoying the walk or showing me everything that I had not seen before. Of course I walked with him but at one point I took one way around an area as he took the other but it was not a problem as we met back up on the other side. He was telling that he was hoping he could use me in many places for the company and that he would be my boss. I could tell he was not telling me to scare me as it was said in a lighter manner as if he really wasn't the sort of boss that kept close watch on their employees.

As we continued to walk I said in as light of tone as I could manage, "Well you want to order me around do you?" His answer was to tell me that he had plans to hire 2 or 3 of us at a wage near $15.00 He said that he decided he would most likely hire me and let slip that there were other things in mind for me a ways down the road. I answered back eagerly, "Oh great!"
I guess maybe a couple of blocks down the outside of the building we walked back inside another extremely long building starting with a large open area about 100 X 60 connected to other businesses as you left the far side. We finally walked back to the pastry shop and I told the man that I didn't even know this bakery was here and now that I did I would have to check every one of their delicacies. As I walked a bit I noticed I had a button on my shirt undone and buttoned it and sucked in my belly and said to him,"That is of course after I lose a bit of weight."

In the large area I could see that a half dozen men were pushing together smaller tables to make one large table. After the table had been put into place I could see that we were to join the men and I chose a seat. As we walked away I could hear one of the workers at the bakery say, "You got enough Onion in this one didn't you" in an effort to kid the other worker for over doing it. The other lady smiled as she had known from checking it. After we sat there for a time I thought I might make a phone call and I walked a distance away and called my mother at home. I told her I was not out partying but that I would be awhile as I had applied for a job and that I was being talked to about it now. After the call I walked back to the table.

As we continued sitting at the table more men had joined us and I counted ten of us now. They began to talk about possible plans to develop the entire city and open up properties, businesses and parks. I told the man beside me that this was a lot bigger than I had imagined. I had not sat down with my boss to be so this was a man I had not before met. When I had first sat down I went to an open place at the table letting other gather around me to each side. As things went on I decided that I was going to let it be known that I was not timid so as I looked around the table I made a dedicated effort to catch their eyes as I made my way around concentrating on those just opposite of me. I wanted to look strong as a job candidate.

I was with my boss and we went out to a trailer home in the farming country. We were talking to two people there and we heard a sound of chopper bikes pulling up. I looked out the window and I recognized the two men and I told my boss that they could be enforcers. They were known as tough guy types. They passed along side us and went by the side window. We watched them for a bit and saw that they were not a problem for us.
We were at my father's home and my boss came in with me and I introduced them. I asked my father if he knew any information about if other earlier Arabs had settled here before my boss and the Arabs that were now building out. He said he had heard that Arabs had been the architects of the Space Needle and looked to see if he had any other information. He looked in a drawer where he kept many articles and things. He did not find anything.
My boss and me also went to a used book store that had records from back in the day and we asked the two women that owned the store the same question. They did not know anything. We walked to the other side of the store and we looked down thru a four foot square hard Plexiglas window down to an entire floor of activity below us. From us to the lower floor below it was maybe 100 feet. That floor was huge! It had a beach with sun tanning women in chaise lounge chairs. The water rolled away pleasantly from them. On the other side of the floor was a man on a raised treadmill working out. The entire floor was either health or leisure focused and looked completely inviting.