Chapter 21 - Legal Ease
Usually when Lydia woke up early to get ready for work it was driven by a sense of duty and routine. Her father had taught her that punctuality was an easy way to demonstrate ambition and company loyalty. These were the things managers were looking for when decisions were made about promotions. This morning however, there was a greater sense of urgency. Lydia wasn’t thinking about promotions at this point, she was just worried about keeping her job. The day before, Oscar had helped her come to terms with the termination of her book project, but as the night wore on she started worrying. What began as worrying possibilities became full-blown conspiracies about what had brought about the end of her role as head of the development team. After all, since she had been away all day, they could have spent the whole time finding ways to get rid of her. She wasn’t just going to lie down and die though. She was going to show up at eight-thirty and put in an ambitious day of work.
As Lydia approached the parking lot of her office she decided to stop in at the nearby bakery and pick up some snacks for her colleagues. She stopped short of picking up coffees for Luke and Gerald because she didn’t want it to look like she was kissing up. She also wasn’t sure if Gerald was going to be in again today and didn’t want to give a coffee to only Luke. It was a rare occasion, but every once in a while someone would bring food into the break room, such as uneaten birthday cake or leftover board meeting pastries, so when it did happen, it was appreciated.
Lydia brought the box of baked goods into the break room and put them beside the staff coffee maker. She was putting her bag lunch in the back of the fridge when Luke walked in to see what it was that she had been carrying.
“Look who decided to show up today,” he said to her sarcastically.
“Did Gerald tell you he gave me the day off?” she answered apologetically.
“Of course he did. I’m just yanking your chain,” Luke said, picking up a muffin. “Sometimes I wish I was a woman, then I could get a day off too every time I got a little weepy.”
“I didn’t ask for the day off,” Lydia answered in full career defence mode. “I’m absolutely planning to stay as long as I need to today to catch up on any work you need me to do.”
“I’ll take you up on that when Gerald is done talking to you.”
Lydia got a sinking feeling that whatever he wanted to talk to her about couldn’t be good. She took some solace in the notion that Luke assumed she would still be employed when the meeting with Gerald was finished.
“He’s talking to some lawyer at nine,” Luke continued, “and he wants to talk to you as soon as he’s done.”
“What kind of lawyer is he meeting with?” she asked.
“Beats me. He’s not a company lawyer, that’s all I know.”
“Alright, well I’ve got a bunch of emails and voicemails from yesterday that I need to catch up on, so I should go deal with them before then.”
“You do that,” Luke said, still standing by the box of muffins.
Lydia plugged away at the unread messages in her inbox and tried to force herself to get excited about the new projects that were coming up for her and the company.
One of the calls she had missed the day before was from Soleil Macpherson, so at a quarter after nine, after Lydia had been watching the door for Gerald’s return for fifteen minutes, she decided to call Soleil back.
“I just wanted to let you know about the timeline of the sequel,” Soleil said after giving some of the highlights of her trip to Europe. “We’ve been scribbling ideas down and the development team starts meeting next week. I hear you’re not sure if you want to be a part of it.”
“Yeah, well the last I talked to Gerald he was telling me that they were pulling the plug on my book, so I wasn’t really in a position to invest myself into other big projects.”
“Lydia,” Soleil said matter-of-factly, “if this book is going to be any good, I need you on this committee.”
“Yeah, I’ll be talking to Gerald today about that.”
“Good. You know I’d go crazy if it was the same old crew without you.”
“It’s the same committee chair as before, right?” Lydia asked.
“Believe me,” Soleil insisted, “I wasn’t crazy about it but they sold me on it eventually. I was actually campaigning for them to assign you as the development team leader. If this was another book purely about women’s issues I would have held my ground, but since it’s about marriage I wasn’t going to win that argument. Luke’s been married before so I guess I’ll let them give him another shot.”
“He’s been married a few more times than I have,” Lydia said, before instantly regretting the hateful tone in her voice. Instead she asked, “Do you have a working title yet?”
“How do you like A Marriage of Equals?”
“As a title or as a theory?”
“That’s exactly why we need you on the team,” Soleil insisted again.
“Well I should probably get back to work, but I guess whether or not I join the development for your new book I’ll see you in the office a little more regularly again soon.”
Lydia returned her attention to her to-do list and was getting quite a bit of work done until some shouting in the lobby distracted her. She looked up to see a visibly agitated Gerald walk in. With him was a well-dressed man who was considerably more relaxed, if not smug. The two men entered the boardroom and their speaking quieted gradually.
Five minutes later Gerald re-emerged. He walked out only long enough to make eye contact with Lydia and gestured for her to follow him.
Lydia stood up quietly and started looking around her desk for the things she needed to bring. However, this time there wasn’t anything she needed to take. There would be nothing to hide behind and nothing to busy her nervous hands with during the meeting. She walked timidly toward the door, and with empty hands she pushed on the door to let herself in.
“Please sit down, Lydia,” Gerald said as she entered the room.
“I just want to say thank you for giving me some reflection time yesterday,” Lydia said, sitting down and taking a firm grip on the arm rests of her chair. “I thought a lot about Soleil’s next book, and if there’s still a place for me on the development team, you can be sure that I am excited about serving in whatever role the company sees fit to give me.”
“We’re not here today to talk about Soleil’s book,” Gerald said simply. “I’ll let Mr. Greene here explain to you just what is going on.”
Getting fired was something that Lydia had come to accept as a possibility, but she had no idea why a lawyer would need to be involved in the process; security maybe, but not a lawyer.
The friendly-looking man, whose gray hair and wrinkles suggested he was probably just barely older than Gerald, introduced himself. “Lydia, I represent the Simmons family.”
“Some of the Simmons family,” Gerald insisted.
“Right,” the lawyer acknowledged. “Shortly before Gerald’s mother passed she called me to alter her last will and testament. You may not know, but she was a major shareholder in this company and was keenly interested in what was happening here right up until her dying days. She was especially interested in the progress of the book you were overseeing and had allotted some funds from her estate to assist in its distribution if necessary. She also included a stipulation that if the project were to be terminated before it reached publication, you would receive a significant number of the shares she owned in the company as compensation.”
“The problem,” Gerald added before Lydia had a chance to reply, “is that these shares are not traded on the open market, so not just anyone can buy them. Our company has long established policies about when our staff can be given shares and how many they can hold at one time, so this bequest, as generous as my mother was trying to be, runs counter to these policies and cannot be implemented.”
“However,” Mr. Greene added, “this is a legally binding contract and you will be compensated as was intended, on
e way or another.” He spoke in a reassuring way that made Lydia think if Gerald’s mother had to be visited on her deathbed by a lawyer, she was glad it was this guy.
“Wouldn’t it be easier to just start the committee back up again?” Lydia asked.
“Trust me, we tried,” Gerald said.
Mr. Greene answered quickly, “Mrs. Simmons was quite clear that the moment this book project was cancelled this stipulation in her will should be carried out. Westminster Printers is, of course, welcome to make any decision it wishes with regards to its business dealings, but restarting this project will not negate this bequest.”
“Now you know why we’ve called you in today, Miss Phillips,” Gerald said. “We would like to resolve this matter as soon as possible, so your cooperation with the negotiations is appreciated.”
The lawyer simply smiled and added, “There’s no need to feel any pressure either, Lydia. I’m here to help represent you in this negotiation process and we can take all the time you want.”
Gerald rolled his eyes and added, “Yes, of course, I forgot to mention, your legal fees throughout this ordeal will be paid for from my mother’s estate. I’m sure Mr. Greene here would be happy to help you drag this process out as long as possible.”
Unfazed by Gerald’s tone, Mr. Greene handed Lydia a printout of the portion of the will that pertained to her. “You’ll also notice that if in the next year you are let go by Westminster Printers and you feel you are the victim of a wrongful termination, your legal fees with my firm will be covered as well.”
“I’m still not entirely sure I understand what’s going on here,” Lydia said slowly, “but I’m not interested in making a big deal of this if I don’t have to.” She thought a little longer as the two men nodded.
“If it makes things easier,” she continued, “I’m not really interested in the stock option idea either.”
Gerald was quick to respond. “The way Mr. Greene has worded these estate documents has sort of handcuffed us, but thank you Lydia for your flexibility. That is very helpful.”
Lydia thought a little more before adding, “If it’s possible, I’d like to have access to the files we had compiled in my book project. I know they legally belong to the company now, but if they were negotiable that would be nice.”
“You should know,” the lawyer cautioned, “that those documents have no cash value. While I appreciate that you have put quite a bit of work into this project, I would strongly advise you that asking for those documents is not in your financial best interests.”
“Hey,” Gerald said calmly, “if it doesn’t bother her, it doesn’t bother us.”
Mr. Greene shook his head. “I don’t think you see the big picture here Gerald. One of your bright young employees has been given an opportunity to invest in the long-term financial performance of your company, and she turned it down. That would worry me. The fact that she is attaching a financial value to the fruit of her labour is a testament to her character. The fact that she doesn’t attach a high value on owning shares in your company should bother you.”
Before Gerald could answer, Lydia spoke up again, “If you two can negotiate the paper value of those documents and figure out the difference in cash, if there is any, the rest is fine with me.”
Gerald and Mr. Greene agreed that beyond this point the two of them could finalize the negotiation without her. With each of their thanks, she was given the freedom to return to her desk.
Lydia went back to the tasks at hand, but she couldn’t shake free the worries that had arisen during the meeting. She was genuinely excited and relieved to be getting the documents of the book, but she recognized that Mr. Greene was right about them not having any actual value. If anything, it would take more personal work time and likely quite a bit of her own money to make anything out of the documents she had just negotiated to own.
She liked the idea of job security but she didn’t like the idea of holding the company hostage with the threat of legal action. All of this confusion was enough to make her yearn once again for her brief moment of clarity. If she couldn’t get that back, she would even settle for having Oscar’s faith, not his faith in God or his institutional religion, but his faith that somehow everything would work out. Maybe this was what he was talking about, or maybe this was just another phase of the development of a book that would never get published.
Lydia went about her work as normal, trying not to imagine what sort of negotiations were continuing behind the closed doors of the boardroom. When the phone rang, she was expecting it to be Soleil again, wanting to hear if she confirmed about serving on the new development team. The voice she heard, however, was one she had almost forgotten.
“It’s me, Ben,” he said right away.
It took a moment for Lydia to process in her mind all the Bens she knew. “Oh hello, Mr. Worsley. How are you today?”
“Not too bad for an old farmer.”
“To what do I owe the pleasure of your call?” she asked.
“I’ve been thinkin’,” he began. “It was foolhardy of me to even think about writing a book, what with my simple education and all. And when you came to hear what I had to say, I shouldn’t have told you what I thought, I should have showed you.”
“Don’t worry Mr. Worsley, I think you communicated your points quite well.”
“That’s awful nice of you to say, but I’d really like another chance to show you what I meant. I know you’ve got your book with that other author on the go, but I was hoping you might be able to come out next Saturday and work on my farm with me. By then the snow will have cleared up and I’ll have lots of little chores that will need doing. I’ll pay you for your time and your gas too. You can bring that fella of yours along too.”
Lydia didn’t bother pointing out that book project had been cancelled. She also didn’t tell him that she had already been exposed at the retreat center to the spiritual value of hard work. One correction did need to be made though.
“Oscar is not my fella,” she insisted, “and I’m not sure he would be available that weekend. I can give him a call and let you know when I find out.”
“I’ll take that as a maybe then.”
Lydia waited a few hours after getting off the phone before she called Oscar about the idea. She didn’t think there would be much for her to gain from the work besides a little exercise. She would feel guilty taking money from Mr. Worsley, even if it was a long drive to and from his farm. There was no reason to believe that she would have any kind of spiritual encounter just because she was getting her hands dirty. More than anything, she found herself excited about the idea of spending another Saturday with Oscar.
“He would probably want us there by the crack of dawn,” he said when she explained the idea to him. “I’m not sure I want to get up that early.”
“Well I obviously don’t need to do this for work reasons anymore,” Lydia said. “I just thought I would pass the invitation along to you since you enjoyed meeting him the last time. If you want to go, I could come along.”
“Lydia, I’m pretty sure he was inviting you more than me.”
“You’re probably right, Oscar, but is this something that you as my spiritual advisor think I should do?”
“Oh, I didn’t think I held that title anymore after the book project was finished.”
“Well you do, so I’ll let you make the decision.”
Oscar hesitated for a while before finally agreeing to go. Lydia didn’t think to tell him about her encounter with the lawyer before Oscar hung up, or about her decision to join the new development team. There would be plenty of time to tell him about all of that on their drive.
Westminster Printers
HEAD OFFICE
To Miss Lydia Phillips,
This letter is to certify you that we, Westminster Printers, formally release into your possession all necessary documents related to the compilation of the previously terminated and as yet unnamed book on the subject of Christianity. You are free
to copy, distribute or publish any and all documents related to this project. For tax purposes, these documents have no cash value and do not constitute income.
Also, in exchange for the ownership shares willed to you, you will be reimbursed $5,000 in cash, as was negotiated with Darryl Greene, your legal counsel.
Sincerely,
Gerald Simmons
CEO, Westminster Printers
Also, in cleaning out my mother’s home, I found this in her typewriter. I presume it’s for you. – Gerald
Lydia,
I had hoped to write this for you sooner, but I’ve been in to see the doctor lately, and I still don’t quite feel right, so I will likely have to go in and see him again. So I just need to write this now if I want you to read it before they decide to keep me in the hospital again.
My mother had to work at the factory during the war years and so I was sent to live with her mother. In that house, no matter what, if it was Sunday, there was pie. It didn’t matter if our guests were rich or poor, of if that week we felt rich or poor, we went to church in the morning, we invited someone over for dinner, and we served them pie, and sometimes I got to make it. But it was more than just the food that we ate, that pie was hope in dark days and it was something reliable in an otherwise chaotic world.
So, I learned to make pies as a little girl, but I learned a few other things along the way. Sending someone a card is a nice way to say “I’m thinking of you,” but I prefer to say, “While I was thinking of you, I made this pie.” It might be old-fashioned, but I think it still means a lot to give someone a pie. I think every woman should know how to make a good pie. I know, I know, today’s women want to feel important without having to make food for people, and that’s all well and good, but don’t hold your breath waiting for the men of this world to bake you a pie.
The first thing you need is a pie crust. In a pinch, you can just hop on over to your grocery store and buy a pre-made pie shell. I don’t know if my grandmother would have been relieved or disappointed to know that now we can go and buy a pie crust as easily as we can buy the daily newspaper. Making pie crust used to be a lot harder. My grandmother always had to get lard from the farm and we never knew what to expect. Sometimes it was good and consistent and pure, and sometimes you were better off not using it at all. So now, whether you’re making a pie crust or you’re driving a car, voting or wearing pants, you are standing on the shoulders of women who have gone before you.
So, go to the grocery store and buy a pound of lard and follow the instructions printed on the box. You'll need to get the name brand stuff, it’s better quality for one thing but they're the only ones who provide the recipe. (Don’t ever let someone shame you for using a store bought pie crust, but I think you’ll find that it will taste and feel better if you make it yourself.)
What they don’t tell you though, is that you need to keep everything cold. Put your mixing bowl in the fridge for an hour before you need it, and run some cold water over your pastry cutter, and maybe even over your hands, and the crust will hold together a lot nicer. You have to do this ahead of time. How you prepare is as important as the ingredients that you put in, but that's true for a lot of things in life.
Filling:
Start with half a dozen apples. You’ll want them to be tart, so you can use Cortland or Empire if you can find them, but Granny Smith are probably best. And don't judge the apples by their appearance. Spots, blemishes and colour variations add character and flavour, and your pie will be better if you include the imperfect looking apples too. Peel them, core them and slice them. If you don’t want to slice them by hand, there is probably a good slicer on the side of your cheese grater.
Next you add the dry ingredients to the apples. ½ cup of brown sugar, ½ tablespoon of cinnamon, and ¼ cup flour. My grandmother used to love explain what each ingredient did; the sugar makes it sweet, the cinnamon adds extra flavour and the flour helps absorb extra juice from the apples. “Each ingredient plays its part,” she would say, “and no matter how small or unimportant you feel, you have a role to play in this life too.” I will always treasure that. Stir it all together until everything is evenly coated.
Now, dump half of the apple mixture into your pie shell. Take
a handful of unwrapped candy caramel squares and spread them out over the top and then cover them with the rest of the apples. This is my secret ingredient. As much as I hope that you will use this recipe, I also hope that you will feel free to adjust it. Until you put the work in to see what works best for you, it will not be your recipe.
Carefully lay the top crust over everything and gently cut around the edge. Rub a little water in between the crusts at the edges and then press them together to help them seal. Finally, you need to cut a whole or two in the top crust. You can shape it like a heart if you like, and you can place those and other extra pieces of crust around the top as decoration. The reason behind this is that the apples need room to breathe (don’t we all). If you suffocate them you'll lose all your sweet juices and have a sticky mess on your hands.
Bake at 400º F for 30 minutes and then turn it down to 350º F for an hour. Give it some time to cool.
Apple pie goes really well with ice cream. You can top it with whipped cream too. I even know some people who like eating with cheese curds. But the best thing you can do to enjoy it more, is to eat the pie with someone you care about. Of course there is nothing wrong with eating it yourself, but pie, like life, is best practiced and enjoyed in community with others.
From: Marlene Eriksson
To: Lydia Phillips
Subject: Zack Mackenzie reference
Hello Ms. Phillips,
My name is Marlene Eriksson and one of the things that I do at Tablet of the Heart Press is recruit Christian authors for potential book ideas. I have recently been in conversation with Zack Mackenzie regarding a writing contract he had with your company, Westminster Printers. You can be assured that none of what we’ve discussed would violate the agreements he signed with your company.
Zack spoke highly of your editing skills and your persistent style of leadership. I would love to hear what you learned from working with him. We are just a small publisher, serving a niche market, so while we may be “rivals” I hope that you won’t mind giving me a few words of reference to go by.
Thanks,
Marlene Eriksson
Tablet of the Heart Press
From: Lydia Phillips
To: Marlene Eriksson
Subject: Re: Christian book publishing question
Hi Marlene,
First, I’d like to say that Zack Mackenzie is great to work with. He is punctual and professional and I was personally impressed with the depth of his writing.
Also, although the book lies unfinished, I am still quite proud of the work we did as the development team (our company has a group editing model). I feel lucky to have been able to work with all of them, including Zack, and I think I really learned a lot.
If you have any other questions about Zack or the book we started, feel free to ask, but if you have time, I’d love to talk to you over a coffee some time about your publishing ideas. Let me know if you’re interested.
- Lydia