Page 65 of Return Billionaire to Sender

“No, your anecdote really did change my attitude.”

“Okay,” I say, warily, but I still don’t push play.

“What now?” he says. “I’m eager to get on with your video. What more could you possibly want?”

“I feel like you’re maybe eager to get itoverwith.”

“F for self-esteem,” he says playfully. “You told me an anecdote in the hopes that it would improve my attitude in some way, and when it does improve my attitude, you find it suspicious.”

I am suspicious, but he seems so buoyant, and he’s asking to watch more of the video. I push play.

The footage is an all-building meeting from last year. It was such a sweet meeting, all of us together trying to make things great. Is Malcolm seeing what I’m seeing? Is it too much to imagine that his attitude really is better now?

Malcolm is still in his good mood when the session ends, and he disappears right after.

I head down later to sit with the team for dinner, and Nisha and Coralee are the only ones who show up. They tell me that Malcolm has Walt and Lawrence in a working dinner due to some project that just came up. All Nisha knows is that the creative team from the New York office is involved.

17

Noelle

People looksleepy the next day. Lawrence has an extra tall coffee with a shot of espresso in it, and Walt’s hair is lopsided until Coralee fixes it in the limo on the way over. Malcolm is riding in the other limo, still wrapping up the finishing touches on their mysterious rush project.

We arrive at the Kendrick building, and the session starts as usual. I don’t see what all of the preparation could’ve possibly gone toward until the two teams hit some random sticking point, and Malcolm suggests they look at some of the “backgrounder” that the Blackberg team has prepared, as that will clarify some point.

Gerrold furrows his bushy brows. “Backgrounder?”

Walt pulls up an iPad, pulls down the conference room screen, and dims the lights.

And the so-called backgrounder begins to play.

It starts out with black and white images of a milk delivery van. Gerrold laughs and claps, looking all around. “Where in the world did you get this? That’s my grandfather delivering milk!” Apparently his grandfather delivering milk is how the company was started.

After that, there’s a voiceover narrating the evolution from one milk truck to five. There are pictures of the first garage, a small place down in Millbrae.

“How’d you get these images?” Gerrold asks, stunned.

“Local archives,” Malcolm says. The footage rolls on. There are more shots of the budding company.

“Look at that, would you!” Gerrold exclaims. “Pause it there, if you would.” Walt pauses the video. “Remember that, son?” Gerrold says to Junior. “Look there—we used to take you there summers.”

Junior doesn’t remember it. “Neat,” he says.

“You’d do your homework at that bench on the side,” Gerrold says.

There are interviews with past employees, and then it comes to the section on how much the company grew under the leadership of Gerrold himself, beginning in 1981 when he took over. “Oh, that old Corvette. You remember that, son?”

Junior grunts his yes. There are shots of Gerrold getting awards, pitching in with supplies after an earthquake, employees talking about their pride in the company.

“This backgrounder is more extensive than our fiftieth anniversary retrospective,” Junior says. He tries to make it sound like a compliment, but it’s pretty clearly a complaint. Gerrold doesn’t care. He’s enjoying it.

Is this what they were up to all night?

Gerrold is delighted to see old Betty in the front office, and a guy with giant 1970s sideburns sitting atop their first semi-trailer hauler. There are quotes from locals about the importance of the Germantown Group to the local economy. Gerrold sometimes stops the tape and tells us extra things, like we’re at a barbecue instead of a negotiation.

And right then, I see it all. I see exactly what’s happening. A chill comes over me.

Gerrold had been rejecting Malcolm, believing that Malcolm doesn’t love or respect him or his company. Thinking that Malcolm only wants the company for its parts.

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