Written for Steemit: A love story occurs during a time anomaly. A woman from today somehow steps into an anomaly and meets a cowboy asleep on his ranch, in his bed, in the 1850's. ©Jeff Kubitz 2016 - All Rights Reserved.

Song of Angels - Chapter 1

Mindy Woczlewski courtesy of Nastya Muratokova

Luxury is different for everyone. Some think luxury is doing nothing and being served and pampered with a host of servants and services available instantly so every whim and want is met as instantly as a demand is made. Then, there are those who, like Mindy Woczlewski, think that luxury is being able to do what one wants and having the freedom to do it whatever time one wants. The basis of all luxury then is freedom, the escape from tyranny. In order to be free from tyranny though one cannot tyrannize anyone else. But, how does one do that?

Not spreading tyranny and living free is very difficult and hard to do. The desire probably comes from living in a tyrannical place, a despotic society, or a grudge of a relationship.

That was Mindy’s case. Her parents kept her slaving and toiling to meet their every whim whilst she grew. Then, when she was grown and graduated from college, the government came down on her and her dreams like an iron fist. She was deep in debt from student loans from college. Though, she had some money saved, as she was practical. Mindy was also intelligent and beautiful with straight blond hair, blue-green eyes and five foot nine, full figured and only just under twenty-six years old. She was large boned and weighed about one hundred and fifty-five pounds.

Then she took and odd trip, spotted and odd place, and made the weirdest decision of her life. Here is the story of what she did and still does and because of it she is very happy.

Unlike most stories, from the beginning, one should know she ended up very, very happy. But her arriving at her happiness, well, that is what this story is about. And the events that led up to her freedom and her happiness, whether random chance or mishap, luck, or divine providence all started out on a sunny warm February day on the morning of the twenty-first while she was at work as an outside sales representative for Arden Vaughn Manufacturing, Incorporated, located in Elk Grove, Illinois, near Chicago.

“All right everyone. Let’s take our seats and get this meeting started so leads can be handed out. We can all get to work and when payday comes paychecks can be handed out.” The sales manager, Mel Orson ordered. Ten professionally dressed men and women seated themselves in chairs along the side of the long table. Mel, tall, bald, cynical, paunchy and overbearing stood at the head of the table his laptop in front of him and a projector attached by cable to the laptop to his left side aimed at the wall behind him.

“Sales are down.” Mel began his drone.

“It would be nice if the leads you sent us to were still there when we arrived.” Ed, one of the salesmen cracked. Everyone laughed.

“The leads will still be there if we can get this meeting over without any more interruptions and get you people on the roads.” Mel hammered then continued, “And if we don’t get this meeting over with, we all know what is happening out there, no more import tariffs on steel massive foreign imports, maybe we will be gone too!”
“Right.” Ed said, “Sorry.”

“Now, before I give you your leads for the week I want to reiterate, underline, emphasize, and drill into your heads that when your are driving to meet your appointments with your leads that all, that is each and every one of you take notice, spot, observe, pay attention to, prospect any other place where sales might be generated at places of business near or on the route of the roads you travel.

Anyone who simply ignores all the other potential business that could be generated by visiting only the leads given will be ignored for bonuses and maybe continued employment. Do I make myself clear.” Mel commanded.
“Yes.” The sales people responded.

“What I said was rhetorical.” Mel growled. “For the rest of this meeting people, the only time I want a response is when I directly ask for a response. Is that understood?” None of the sales people said anything in response so Mel asked, “Well?”

“Yes,” the sales people responded morosely and in relative unison. Mindy felt that this was not going to be a meeting that was any fun at all.

Mel droned on and on about product and performance. Mindy felt her attention slipping as he went over the usual about filling out paperwork and keeping track of expenses. How to enter a lead and find the buyer, the subject matter was basic boring stuff everyone here had to know and already knew. They did it every day. Mindy wanted the meeting to be over so she could leave and hit the road. She liked the freedom of being out in industrial America, meeting people, and selling products, the travel, the money she earned towards buying a house. Income taxes are so up she thought.

“Mindy,” Mel stared down at her and thundered, “Are you paying attention?”
“Yes.” She responded a little too quietly and with just the hint of a stutter. Mindy was caught daydreaming, she knew it, and it was too late to avoid Mel’s snarling wrath.

“No more nap takers during this meeting! I want everyone’s eyes looking into mine or I am going to offer up a sacrifice!” Mel yelled. That meant he was about to fire someone on the spot. Mel asked menacingly, “Is that clear?”
“Yes Sir.” The sales people said firmly and in unison, including Mindy. But from thenceforth Mel seemed to glare particularly at her when he was addressing the rest of the sales people. Then he handed out the lead lists for the week to each sales person one by one. Mindy counted one, two, three, four, five as each sales person was handed a list of leads by Mel on the left side of the table. Then Mel walked back to the front side of the table instead of walking around the table continuing to hand out leads. Mel proceeded to hand out leads to the sales people on the right side of the table but he skipped over Mindy who sat in the third seat. Then proceeded to the head of the table.

Mindy thought Mel had inadvertently missed handing her a lead sheet so she said, “Mel I didn’t get a lead sheet.”

“No you did not.” Mel said with a smile upon his face that was more of a leer. Uh-oh Mindy had an instantly horrible feeling well up in her as if she were about to be sacrificed. Everyone froze and there was a noticeable sudden intake of breath as the other sales people had reached the same conclusion as Mindy. But Mel continued, “That is because I am going with you this week.”

“Good. I could use your instruction.” She lied smiling. The others sighed in relief.

“I will out sell you and make certain you will perform this job perfectly from now on.” Mel challenged. Then he said, “We will leave in half an hour after I take care of some paperwork and gather my things. We will take your car. Mindy. “Put your things in the back, take a short break, and then come to my office before we leave.”

“Sounds good,” Mindy said smiling to Mel. Different thoughts ran through her head. If only she had not daydreamed, Mel would not have picked her but picked someone else.

She took a short trip to the restroom and freshened her makeup. As she looked in the mirror, she thought that maybe a week with Mel might improve her sales total and her income. Mel was hard to bear he corrected everything and expected perfection. He had trained her when she was hired a little over two years ago. Though, for training they sold pipe in town or cities near to Chicago. Sometimes on a training and evaluation trip for an experienced sales representative, Mel took sales people very far away and for at least two weeks or longer. Mindy would have to tell him she only expected to have been gone a week and would need to stop by her apartment to pick up extra clothes if Mel planned to be gone longer.

She figured enough time had passed that Mel would expect her in his office. She left the restroom and walked down the hall. Mel’s office door was closed. She saw him inside through the glass. Another man sat in a chair in front of his desk in a very nice suit. It appeared to be the president of the company, Edmund Schmidt. A pressure situation Mindy recognized and maybe an opportunity as well. She took a deep breath and knocked on the wood of the door.
Mel looked up at her and signaled to President Schmidt for a moment of interruption as he rose from his desk and walked to the door. Mel opened the office door.

“Come back in about half an hour.” Mel said.

“If we will be gone more than a week I need to grab some more things from my apartment, I could go now instead of later.” Mindy said.

“Yes, get your extra things and be back in half and hour.” Mel said then closed the door and returned to his seat behind the desk. The conversation became animated between Mel and President Schmidt Mindy saw as she turned to go. No wonder Mel is a grouch this morning, Mindy thought. President Schmidt is chewing him out. Sales must be really down.

As she walked to her jeep she realized that her income, largely based on bonuses and commissions had fallen sharply in the last three months. Mean Mel or not, she needed his help. Her degree in business communications still had about ten thousand dollars in student loans attached. She had paid much larger amounts than the required payments, when sales had been good. Forty thousand dollars had already been paid off in the three years since she had graduated. Most of that money came from this job. But she still had three years to pay on the jeep and payments were about six hundred and fifty dollars a month with insurance.

The rent on the large one bedroom apartment was not that much only five hundred and fifty dollars. But as she reached her jeep she realized she really needed to sell a lot of pipe this month. She needed to rid herself of her student loans as fast as possible. Once she paid the loans off, if this job disappeared, she could afford to work for less.

Mindy reached her jeep. Only five minutes had passed, she was sure but she would have to hurry to be back in twenty-five minutes. She normally allowed the year old vehicle to warm up like her father had shown her but she sped off to her apartment fast.

Her place was no more than five minutes away. Her rent was cheap because she lived in the industrial section. O’Hare was near with all the planes taking off but she was only home on weekends.

Mindy’s big trick to saving money was to always have a client eat with her at every meal. That way it was deducted from her expense account. During the week all her food was free. It also made her look good because her records showed she talked with an amazing number of potential clients.

Mindy pulled to the curb in front of the door nearest her apartment. She parked and ran inside. She grabbed some extra clothes from the closet and quickly and neatly put them into a suitcase. She was used to quick packing. She retrieved all her bills instead of just the ones due before the end of the week and put them in the suitcase. She was ready to go in less than five minutes.

Mindy stopped at her mailbox on the way out of the apartment building. Mail was there she grabbed it and decided to read it later.

Outside she put the suitcase in the back of the jeep, opened the suitcase and put the extra mail inside. She closed the suitcase and the hatch. She was off and speeding to the office with a minute or so to spare. It is always so hectic getting started on Mondays, Mindy thought.

The same parking space was empty she had left twenty minutes ago so she parked in it. She jumped out of the jeep and moved as quickly as she could in her two-inch pumps back up to Mel’s office door.

The door was open and she looked inside to see Mel was missing from behind his desk. She took a seat in the nearest of the two chairs in front of the desk, the chair in which President Schmidt had just sat. It was a comfortable office chair and she relaxed, waiting for Mel to return.

What she thought would be just a minute or two of a wait grew to a fifteen-minute wait.

Mel walked into the room "I have your leads, routes, and vouchers. Let's head out to your car Mindy." Mel waited for Mindy to rise from her chair, stepped back and allowed her to enter the hall. "I'll follow you out to your car."

"Okay." Mindy responded and turned left down the hall. Once Mel saw the direction she turned, he quickly stepped in beside her and matched her stride.

"Where are we going Mel?"

"You'll be going to Utah and Nevada, Mindy," Mel answered.

They reached the exit to the employee parking area. Mel opened the door for Mindy and she led the way outside.

"You are coming, right Mel?" Mindy asked when she reached her jeep.

"No," Mel said as she put the key in the door lock, "I have been downsized Mindy. The sales staff will report directly to President Schmidt from now on."

"How long do you have left, Mel?"

"You are the last one to send off, then I will clean out my office."

"Oh Mel, I am so sorry."

"Well, things have been bad for a while," Mel dejectedly said. "But I'll bounce back. I always do."

"Would you like me to keep in contact with you from time to time Mel in case something opens up?"

"Yes, that would be nice, let's do that. Now here are leads, vouchers, and everything you need to check in from now on..."

When Mel was through, they said goodbye to each other, and wished each other well. As Mel turned and walked back into the building, Mindy started the jeep and then drove west in shock.

Follow Me: I Follow You. We Upvote. We Reblog. Win! Win!