Episode 12: Total recall

Meanwhile over at The Wan Ju Toy Factory ……

Percival Carruthers adjusted his monocle with one manicured wing as he read an email from yet another half-witted customer wittering on about the ‘old days’ when his grandfather had started The Wan Ju Toy Factory after WWII. The fact that his grandfather had called the Factory The Wan Ju Toy Factory was a source of constant irritation to Percy.

‘Grandfather, you do know that you have called the factory The Toy Toy Factory?’ he’d sighed for the thousandth when he was trying to get him to drop the Wan Ju from their company name.

‘Yes Percy that’s the point! It’s just a bit fun. This is a toy factory, yes?’ Archie responded in his usual irritatingly cheerful manner. “And we make toys! So, we are a toy toy factory. It always brings a smile to my face every time I say it”.

Archibald Carruthers, Archie to his friends, of which he had many, had handed over the running of his beloved factory to his grandson two years previously. His beloved son, Jimmy, had been killed in a tragic hunting accident several years ago when Percy was only a year old and Archie was left with a one year old to bring up on his own.

They were from a long line of London racing and carrier pigeons and in his early years Archie had flown missions during WWII all across Europe. He’d had a few close calls and ended up falling in love with a beautiful American dove working at the Ministry stationed in London. When the war was over, they decided to go back to her native America and set up home.

Percy really missed the old man and knew Archie would probably be turning in his grave if he saw what Percy was about to do with the factory. A brief flicker of guilt passed over him and he shook out his wings as if he was just stretching them.

He pressed a button on the office intercom and heard his secretary immediately respond ‘Yes, Mr Carruthers?’

‘Get in here’ he snapped. He leant back in his executive leather chair and thought about how in a few weeks he was going to be the richest pigeon in Cooperville, maybe even the richest pigeon in the world! And all thanks to some rotten mangy cat that had the audacity to wander around HIS factory at night! A cat that was now dead, poisoned by an insane dog on roller skates, if you believed the newspapers.

His secretary sauntered into his office and perched pertly on the seat in front of his desk.

‘There’s a problem with the batch of Indestructoball we produced for Cooperville, I want a total product recall on that batch, and I want it now, Miss French!’ he barked at his secretary.

‘Yes sir, right away! I’ll get Bill straight on it’. Suzie thought it strange they were only recalling the Cooperville batch.

She hastily left the office and, after locating the batch number in the database, picked up the phone. ‘Hi Bill, it’s Suzie. Can you arrange a recall on the Indestructoball batch 537113 right away?'

After a brief discussion with Bill, she hung up the phone. She stared at the computer screen. Her boss had been acting very weird lately and she decided it was time to find exactly out what was going on.