The Patefields and Malloys

The sound of my phone alerting me that I had text woke me up at a few minutes after midnight. I gathered myself and looked at the screen, it was from Eli.

“won’t be home tonight, I’ll bring Joey to work in the morning.”

I shook my head, remembering why I hadn’t gone to bed already. I was waiting for Eli to come home. When he wasn’t home by 9, I assumed he and Joey had hit it off. Shortly after we moved in together, we got into the habit of texting each other if we were going to stay out all night, just so the other didn’t worry. I locked the door, turned out the lights and went to bed.

I went into the office early the next morning, I was still crunching numbers when Hal walked in.

He said, “morning boss, have you been here all night?”

I chuckled, “no, I got here about an hour ago. Eli and I are heading back to California tomorrow, so I wanted to get as much done as possible before we leave.”

He asked, “what do you want next from me?”

As we were discussing our next steps, the rest of the crew started to walk in.

I said, “I made a pot of coffee and brought another box doughnuts, help yourself and we can line out a plan for the day.”

Joey and Eli were the last to arrive.

Ed said, “I thought you were loading up the van Joey, your pickup was already here when I pulled in.”

Joey said, “my starter died, city boy here took me home last night and picked me up this morning.”

Eli grinned, “anything to help, redneck.”

It was clear that they had bonded, so to speak, and already had a little inside joke.

As everyone drank their coffee, Hal gave the crew their instructions for the day. Just as they were ready to get to work, I had an idea.

I said, “hey guys, Eli and I are going back to California tomorrow. Would you all like to come over to the house tonight for dinner? I’ll grab some steaks, and we can grill them on grandpa’s big barbeque. And please, bring your wives along, I would love to meet them.”

They were all receptive to the idea, Hal said, “I think I’m free, I’ll call Diane to make sure.”

Joey said, “I’m in, I ain’t got no one to check with.” He and Eli exchanged a wink.

I chuckled, “the rest of you call your wives and you can let me know how many steaks I need to get when we stop for lunch.”

Everyone nodded their agreement and got busy with their day. Hal followed them out of the office to make sure everything started ok.

I turned to Eli, “so city boy, it seems you and redneck are getting along just fine.”

He grinned, “oh yeah, he is a great guy. I don’t think I have felt like this about anyone else before.”

I shook my head, “he is pretty cute, but do you think it’s wise to get involved if we aren’t 100% sure we are staying here.”

Eli sighed, “I think I’m sure I’m staying here.”

I raised an eyebrow, “really?”

He said, “I’m also pretty sure you are staying here too. Look, I can see how much you like and respect all these guys. You are working very hard to learn everything you can about this business. I really want to market this beer, I have a million ideas already. Joey is just the delicious icing on the cake.”

I shook my head and sighed, because I knew he was right, I did want to try and make this work. I said, “if I can find the money, I do want to do this.”

I went back to working on my spreadsheet and Eli went back to work calling distributors. Hal joined us a half hour later and continued to add items to our needs and wants list. At noon, all the guys filed into the breakroom to eat their lunch. Hal, Eli and I joined them.

Rick said, “I talked to Carla, she said she would be happy to come to your house tonight, she told me to tell you she would make some potato salad.”

Ed added, “yeah, Cindy is in, she wants to bring a lettuce salad too.”

Brad grinned, “LaVonne will make her famous baked beans, so we’ll be there.”

The room erupted in, “hell yes, LaVonne makes the best baked beans in town.”

Hal said, “Diane is going to make a desert.”

We all looked at Joey, he had kind of a deer in the headlights look on his face, “I can stop by the grocery store and grab some chips and buns, I guess.”

Eli laughed, “at a boy, redneck, way to contribute.”

Joey grinned, “thanks city boy.”

I said, “well it looks like we got ourselves a party, I really appreciate you all pitching in like this. How does 7 o’clock sound to everyone?”

There were smiles and nods all around the table as we went back to eating our lunch. For the rest of the afternoon, Hal continued to educate me on the brewing process, all about barley, hops, yeast and all the other ingredients. He then went into the fermentation process and how long we needed to age our beer before we could bottle it. If my head wasn’t already spinning, it was now. I was glad I had Hal to help me through all of this.

When we finished our day, Eli asked if it would be ok if Joey took the rental car, since his truck was still broken down. I had already asked Eli to help me go get the steaks and help me clean up the grill, I had no idea how long it had been since grandpa used it. We all headed out to get ready for our little get together. After Eli and I picked up the steaks, we headed to the house when I suddenly thought I should get some beer. We stopped at the liquor store and went to the beer cooler, we grabbed the last two cases of Malloy Beer and walked to the checkout register. As we were standing in line, I sensed someone walking up behind me.

I heard, “well, well, well, as I live and breathe, is that Caleb Malloy?”

I turned to see Dawson Patefield with a smug grin on his face. It had been about ten years since I had seen him. I chuckled to myself as I looked him up and down. He was your typical aging high school jock, thinning hair and expanding waist.

I sighed, “hey Dawson, how are you?”

He said, “I’m fine, what are you doing in town, going to finally put that run-down brewery out of its misery.”

I said, “no Dawson, as a matter of fact, I am in the process of fixing the place up. I figure it’s about time the good people of Waynesboro have a good beer to drink again.”

He narrowed his eyes, “good luck with that.”

I shrugged, “thanks Dawson, I think I have a pretty good crew, and I know I have a good beer.”

He laughed, “a good crew? You mean an old drunk, an ex-con, two losers and the little queer?”

Eli stepped up with his chest puffed out, “it’s now a drunk, an ex-con, two losers and three queers.”

Dawson laughed again, “like I said, good luck.”

I paid for the beer and turned to leave, over my shoulder, I said, “it was nice to see you Dawson.”

We didn’t wait for a response. As we were loading the beer in my truck, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, I turned to see who was approaching us. Dylan, Dawson’s younger brother, was headed toward me.

He had hands in his pockets with his eyes toward the ground, he said, “hey Caleb, I was sorry to hear about your grandpa.”

I smiled, “Thanks Dylan, I appreciate that.”

He gave me a slight smile, “how long are you in town for?”

I said, “we are heading out tomorrow, but will probably be back in a couple of weeks."

He looked at Eli, I said, “I’m sorry, this is my friend Eli Wilks, Eli, this is Dylan Patefield. Eli is going to be helping me get the old brewery back in shape.”

Dylan smiled, “that’s cool, I hope it goes well for you.”

I nodded, “thanks Dylan.”

Just then, Dawson came out the door and yelled, “come on Dylan, dad is waiting for us.”

Dylan quickly turned to leave, he said, “it was good to see you, Caleb.”

I nodded, “you too.”

I watched as he quickly walked to Dawson’s truck, God, he had a nice ass. The last time I saw Dylan, he was an awkward teen with big ears and braces on his teeth. He certainly grew into a very good-looking man. His blonde hair was cut close on the sides and back, with the sexiest curls just hanging on the top of his head. I had never noticed those piercing blue eyes before, of course he was usually looking at the floor as he stood subserviently behind his dad or older brother. Hell, this was the longest conversation we had ever had. It was clear that he wasn’t aging as badly as his big brother.

Eli broke me out of my daydream, “Caleb! Earth to Caleb.”

I turned to him, “yeah, what?”

He laughed, “he is pretty cute, isn’t he?”

I asked, “who?”

He said, “the prick’s little brother.”

I nodded, “yeah, I guess he’s alright. Come on we better get home, we still need to clean that grill up.”

Eli, of course, teased me all the way home. We got the grill cleaned and put the beer in the cooler. I started the charcoal and got the steaks seasoned just as Joey arrived. It was now my turn to tease Eli, he was acting like a love-sick teenager around Joey. I pulled a beer from the cooler and handed it to him as we walked out to the patio.

Joey said, “if you guys move out here permanently, I can help you clean the pool up. I helped your grandpa clean it a few times when I stayed with him.”

Eli grinned, “for sure, then we can go skinny dipping.”

I shook my head as I went to answer the door, Hal and Diane followed me out to join Joey and Eli. I reached into the cooler and pulled a Dr. Pepper and handed it to Hal.

He smiled, “you remembered.”

I nodded, “of course, what can I get you Diane?”

She smiled, “I’ll have a Dr. Pepper too, thanks.”

Rick and Carla were next to arrive, then Ed and Cindy. Eli and I were introduced to the wives and Brad and LaVonne soon joined us.

I put the steaks on the grill as we had a pleasant conversation.

Eli said, “I got to meet the infamous Dawson Patefield today, we ran into him at the liquor store.”

I said, “by the way, Joey, we took the last two cases of Malloy they had. Can you deliver a few more cases tomorrow?”

He nodded, “of course, I’ll make it my first stop.”

Hal asked, “so what did the arrogant chip off the old block have to say?”

Eli and I laughed as we told them exactly what he said, and that Eli corrected him saying there were now three queers.

Cindy asked, “so how long have you and Eli been dating?”

Rick laughed, “they are just friends, they are not a couple.”

The wives all looked at the rest of us laughing, a bit confused. I told them about our meeting and that I made it clear we were not a couple.

Once the steaks were ready, we all moved to the formal dining room. I figured since I had it, I might as well use it. Everyone was right, Lavonne’s baked beans were excellent, as was the food the other wives had prepared. After we finished eating, we moved back to the patio. I handed out another round of beers. As I handed Hal his Dr. Pepper, I said, “I’m sorry, I should have asked if it bothers you that we all drink.”

He shook his head, “not at all. I just have to tell myself, as long as people keep drinking beer, I still have a job.”

Eli asked, “if you don’t mind me asking, have you ever tried non-alcoholic beer?”

Hal said, “just once, but it was a bad idea.”

I asked, “why?”

He said, "because the taste just made me crave the real stuff, it would be too easy to try just one real beer again. It’s better for me to stick to my Dr. Pepper.”

Joey said, “hey, maybe we should try to develop an N/A beer.”

Hal said, “Charles looked into that, he found out that the big guys had that cornered. There wasn’t a market for a small brand like ours.”

Rick said, “why don’t you tell Caleb about what we have been working on?”

I asked, “what’s that?”

Hal said, “well, we started this before your grandpa passed. We saw that Sam Adams was putting out seasonal beers, so we began to develop a summer ale. We didn’t get it right in time for last summer, but we are close now. We stopped working on it when your grandpa died.”

I said, “really? So, you have a recipe that is close now?”

Ed nodded, “yeah, it still needs a little tweaking, but we are close.”

I asked, “how close?”

Hal said, “we could have it ready for this coming summer.”

My heart started to race, I asked, “is Patefield doing this?”

Hal laughed, “hell no, Dawson might like to try it, but Scott wants nothing to do with it, he just wants to sell more of his regular beer.”

Rick added, “I was thinking about a fall beer too, maybe with pumpkin spice, and a Christmas ale with cinnamon or maybe mint.”

LaVonne chimed in, “oh, that sounds delicious.”

I asked, “what about a light version of our regular beer?”

Hal said, “we already have a recipe for that, but the second line broke down before we could roll it out. Your grandpa was going to start producing it once we got the line repaired.”

My head was spinning, the ideas were now bouncing around the patio, Eli and Joey were coming up with new beers, the wives were even throwing out more ideas. I had to go get a piece of paper to write all these ideas down. Some were just silly, but we could weed those out later.

As we were still throwing ideas around, Eli asked, “what about the bottles?”

Hal asked, “what about the bottles?”

Eli said, “as I was doing my research, I noticed that the original Mayfield beer was in a clear bottle. When the company split up, both breweries changed to brown bottles.”

Hal nodded, “yeah, the brown bottles are 2 cents a bottle cheaper, I guess Charles decided to save a few bucks, Scott must have too.”

Eli said, “clear bottles would make us stand out in the stores a bit more. Our beer looks good in a clear glass, let’s let our customers see our quality product, don’t hide it in a brown bottle.”

I turned to Hal, “what do you think?”

He shrugged, “there aren’t a lot of clear bottles out there, people would notice.”

Eli jumped in, “I was playing with photoshop today, the new label I have been working on, really stands out on a clear bottle too. I’ll show you the pictures tomorrow in the office.”

We all sat and looked at each other for a few seconds, I said, “you guys never cease to amaze me. I have 100% decided to give this a go. I want to bring this brewery back to life. I just have to find the money we need to do it.”

Hal said, “I have 5000, I would be willing to put it in the pot.” I could see Diane tense up a bit.

Ed added, “I could scrape up a thousand or two.”

Rick nodded, “same here.” Again, I noticed the wives didn’t seem too comfortable with the idea.

Brad said, “count me in.”

Joey sighed, “I ain’t got shit, but I’ll work my ass off to help anyway I can.”

Eli smiled at me as I took a deep breath, I said, “no, I won’t take any money from any of you.” I saw the look of relief come over all the wives faces.

Hal said, “but Caleb, we wouldn’t have offered if we didn’t…”

I held my hand up, “no, I have a better idea. As far as I am concerned, you guys all already have sweat equity in the brewery. I know you have not had a raise in at least two years. I’ll figure out the money somehow, but as of right now, all five of you own a share of the Malloy Brewery, Eli and I own the rest.”

Hal asked, “are you sure Caleb?”

I nodded, “I have never been more sure in my life, if you guys are willing to help, we will make this thing work.”

They all looked more excited about the brewery than they had looked all week.

I said, “Eli and I are leaving tomorrow, we will be back in two weeks. While we are gone, I want you to continue to operate as you have been. I will find the money we need and as soon as I get back, we will get things started.”

Rick said, “we will have samples of that summer beer ready by that time, maybe we roll that out when we change to the clear bottles.”

I nodded, “perfect, get some samples of the light beer ready too. We can have a big relaunch of Malloy Beer before summer get here.”

Brad said, “BoroFest.”

Eli asked, “what’s BoroFest?”

Brad said, "it’s a big annual music festival held here every year, the first weekend in June.”

Joey said, “yeah, it’s three days of area bands and singers who are trying to gain a following. They usually get one or two big names to come down from Nashville. The town basically shuts down for those three days, and people from all the neighboring towns show up too.”

Ed added, “there is a lot of beer sold those three days.”

Eli and I grinned at each other, Eli said, “we have our work cut out for us.”

I nodded, “yep, we sure do.”

We finished our evening and everyone, but Joey headed home. He, Eli and I were having one more beer.

I said, “you are welcome to spend the night if you want Joey, you have been drinking.”

He smiled, “thanks Caleb.”

Eli slapped his ass, “yeah redneck, you can stay in my room.”

He gave Eli an evil eye, “just don’t hog the covers again tonight, city boy.”

I sighed, “I’m going to bed, see you guys in the morning.”

I next morning, I took my completed line of credit application back to the bank, I filled Russ Swanson in all the plans we talked about last night. He seemed just as excited as we all were. I transferred $15,000 of grandpa’s retirement fund into the brewery’s checking account so Hal could get started on some of the needed repairs. I wanted to keep 10,000 for household expenses, because I wasn’t sure how long it would be before I would get a paycheck again. We reviewed our plan one last time and right after noon, Eli and were on our way to Atlanta. We stopped by Tom Henderson’s office on the way out of town, to let him know that I decided to keep the brewery running. I let Joey use my truck, he was going to fix his starter this weekend and put my truck back in the garage. Our flight was leaving early Saturday morning, so we were going to spend the night with my mom again.

As we were driving to Atlanta, I said, “so do you still want to invest your 10,000?”

Eli said, “of course.”

I said, “ok, so with your 10,000, my 12,000, the money from grandpa’s retirement and sale of the Cadilac, we have a little over 40,000. Any ideas on how we can raise the rest?”

He shrugged, “not really, we could ask some of our friends when we get back to California.”

I said, “maybe, but they probably wouldn’t be able to drink our beer, we may never get it to California.”

He nodded, “yeah, that’s true. Did Russ say how much the line of credit might be?”

I said, “grandpa’s line was $25,000, he said he would try to get me at least that much.”

Eli sighed, “we’re still only halfway there.”

I nodded, “yep, we’ll have to keep thinking.”

We drove in silence for a while, then Eli said, “thanks for letting Joey use your truck and for letting him stay last night."

I chucked, “it’s ok, he’s a good guy, and I have to admit you guys are kind of cute together.”

He smiled, “I think I really like him.”

I laughed, “really, city boy, I hadn’t noticed.”

His smiled got bigger, “I do like a redneck.”

I shook my head, “I’ll bet you $100 that you are trading your “Hey Dudes” for a pair of cowboy boots long before I do.”

Eli laughed, “you’re on. He does look sexy in his boots, doesn’t he.”

When we arrived at mom’s condo, we filled her in on our week.

She said, “I think your dad and grandpa would be very surprised, but I’m also sure they would be proud of you.”

Eli was working on the labels for our new light beer and our new summer ale. I was still crunching numbers on my spreadsheet.

Mom said, “I’m making meatloaf for dinner, I hope that’s ok.”

I smiled, “hell yeah that’s ok.”

Eli said, “I didn’t know you liked meatloaf Caleb.”

“I only like mom’s meatloaf, no one else makes it like she does.” I replied.

Mom said, “that was Caleb’s birthday meal every year.”

I nodded, “yep, my favorite.”

Mom said, “John will be joining us too, I hope that’s ok.”

I grinned, “of course it’s ok mom. I’d love the chance to get to know my new daddy better.”

She gave me the evil eye, “Caleb Michael.”

Eli laughed, “oh no, the middle name. You are in trouble Caleb.”

Mom shook her head as she went back to the kitchen. When mom was ready to start setting the table, Eli and I put our work away. We helped carry the dishes into the dining room and started to place them around the table.

When I heard a knock at the door, I wrapped my arms around Eli and started to jump up and down, “daddy is here, daddy is here.”

Mom clenched her teeth, “Caleb, I am warning you.”

I laughed, “I’m sorry mom, I’ll behave, I promise.”

Eli pushed my arms away, “you really are an ass, aren’t you?”

John came in and gave mom a bottle of wine and a quick kiss, it took all I had not to make a comment, but I restrained myself. I helped mom bring the food to the table as John poured the wine. We sat down to eat, it had been too long since I had mom’s meatloaf, it was still just as good as ever.

John asked, “so, how was your week at the brewery, did you get everything taken care of?”

Eli and I quickly filled John in on all our plans. He was grinning as he listened to us talk a million miles an hour, chuckling at our excitement.

Once we paused for a minute, he said, “wow, it sounds like you have a good crew and some great plans.”

Eli said, “yep, first we take Georgia by storm, then, the rest of the country.”

John asked, “so how much more money do you need to get this plan underway?”

I grabbed my laptop to show him my spreadsheet.

He said, “wow, this looks like it could work.”

I nodded, “yeah, if I can raise the rest of the money.”

He looked at Eli and then back at me, he asked, “would $50,000 help?”

I said, “what?”

He said, "I have a little money, I might be persuaded to invest.”

Eli asked, “are you messing with us?”

John said, “no, I’m very serious. I will be ready to retire in about five years, I can lend you 50,000 and you can pay me back starting in five years, when I’ll need it.”

I said, “wow John, that would be incredible. Are you sure you want to do that?”

He nodded, “yes, I think you guys have a good plan, and I like Malloy beer. I would love to see it back in Atlanta.”

Mom squeezed John’s hand with her left hand and took mine with her right hand, she said, “that is a great idea, I have $25,000, I can make you the same deal.”

I’m sure my mouth was hanging wide open, Eli said, “that would give us enough to get this whole thing off the ground, you guys are amazing.”

I finally blinked, “yeah, you guys don’t know how mush this means to us.”

John smiled, “someone helped me out when I was first starting my business, I am now in a position to pay it forward.”

John has owned a plastics plant for the last 25 years, he makes containers that butter, sour cream and those kinds of food products are packaged in. We spent the rest of the evening going over our plans, John was giving advice and pointers the entire time.

He asked, “when are you guys coming back to Georgia?”

I said, “in two weeks, we are both going to give our notice at our current jobs and get our apartment packed up.”

John said, “I’ll have the money ready when you get back. How about your mom and me go to Waynesboro with you when you get back? I would be willing to help with getting things organized. It sounds like Hal and the others have the beer side of things handled, but I could help with logistics, you know, shipping and warehousing. Those kinds of things.”

I said, “that would be a big help, I can’t thank you enough. We really appreciate this.”

Mom smiled, “I can see how excited you are about this, we are glad to help.”

Eli and I could hardly sleep, we were so pumped that we had found the money to keep the brewery running. I called Hal the next morning to tell him the good news. Eli and I boarded the plane for our last trip back to California.

 

To be Continued…