Insight into executive and non executive Board Directors

Behind the corporate fundamental law and corporate administration codifications lies one of the primary participants in a corporation, the managers. The board of managers is the top government organic structure, elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company. The board of managers have a legal responsibility to move as the stockholders ‘ agent with fiducial duty. Directors are responsible for guaranting the success of the concern and conformity with corporate administration. Basically the board has to move as the corporate scruples of the company. On an single degree, managers come in two signifiers, executive and non-executive. There is no legal differentiation made between executive and non-executive managers, the difference is that non-executive managers do non acquire involved in the daily running of the concern ( Business Link, 2011 ) . Executive managers are valuable because they possess cognition of the company and its operations and can efficaciously describe information about the house ‘s activity and execute operational and strategic concern maps. Executive managers are besides advantageous because they exercise a grade of accomplishment and attention and act in good religion in the involvements of the company as a whole. However the possibility of bureau theory could go on in which the involvements and ends of executive managers may non be aligned with that of the stockholders, they may change vastly and in bend these managers may non carry through their function and duty of moving in the best involvement of t he stockholders ( Nyberg et al, 2010 ) . From an bureau theory position, non-executive managers help cut down the ill-famed struggles between stockholders and company direction ; they are advantageous because they perform the map of supervising the board and present an independent voice in the council chamber ( Solomon, 2007 ) . They contribute both expertness and objectiveness in measuring direction ‘s determination, aid keep a balance of power and guarantee answerability of companies. Non-executive managers besides conveying consciousness of the external universe and the ever-changing nature of public outlooks to board treatments ( Clarke, 1998 ) . However companies may experience non-executive managers are otiose in a company that runs good without one. Non-executive managers determine wage of executive managers and frailty versa, hence there is the inclination to deter struggle which can impede the ability to lend efficaciously to the monitoring of the company and its ‘ scheme ( Keasey, Thompson & A ; Wright , 1997 ) . On a corporate degree, board of managers operate with sub-committees, typically an Audit Committee, wage commission and a nomination commission. Committees are at that place to set up formality and transparence and guarantee independency. Potentially the function of the board of managers can protect minority stockholders against bulk stockholders but besides have the power to protect non-shareholder stakeholder involvements such as employees. However the board of commissions consists of multiple persons who may differ in sentiment and many bring personal biass, political behavior and power dramas to board personal businesss. The corporate board with all its mix of expertness, independency and legal power is a potentially powerful corporate administration mechanism. In add-on to concern and fiscal issues, boards of managers must cover with challenges and issues associating to bureau theory and struggle of involvements. Corporate administration reforms and best patterns issued by a figure of administrations recommend uninterrupted instruction and rating of the managers but finally the duty of good corporate administration and the success of the company remainder with the board of managers.Question 2In recent old ages the audit commission has become one of the chief pillars of the corporate administration system in public companies. Following the publications of the Higgs and Smith Reports in 2003, there is now a greater apprehension of the demands of the audit commission in add-on to the strengthening of the function of the audit commission. The audit commission is the most of import of all board commissions ( Mallin, 2011 ) ; it is good to the company because it monitors the unity of the company ‘s fiscal coverage procedure, beef uping of internal control systems, reinforces the independency of external hearers and reexamining the direction of fiscal and other hazards ( Clarke, 2006 ) . Audited account commissions have the advantageous function of guaranting external hearers of public limited companies are transporting out their function efficaciously. However harmonizing to proposals from the Financial Reporting Council ( 2010 ) , the UK administration watchdog, audit commissions are non supplying detailed-enough studies about concern hazards to stockholders. The audit commission wage peculiar attending to direction ‘s usage of the traveling concern premise in the fiscal statements with the right to look into suspected jobs with accounting patterns or senior direction ( Lipman & A ; Lipman, 2006 ) , this function enforces internal controls and ensures direction and concerns are following with corporate administration. The Audit commission is of import because it has the function of moving independently from the executives and guaranting the involvements of the stockholders are decently protected. However audit commissions do non ever communicate good, unwrap all their duties and the extent to which the commission has filled its duties to the stockholders ( Keinath & A ; Walo, 2009 ) even though all revelations should be made in the audit commission charter. The function and the demands of the audit commission is one that is of importance in a public limited liability company such as a FTSE100 company every bit good as in corporate administration. The audit commission basically are in topographic point for confirmation intents, it is nevertheless a function that requires clip, experience and accomplishments. Consequently it is imperative that those executives bring with them the necessary adulthood, opinion and procedure direction accomplishments to guarantee that an appropriate grade of pragmatism is shown while go oning to look after stockholder involvements.Question 3Companies have duties to a figure of interested parties ; these parties are known as the stakeholders. Stakeholders range from stockholders and clients to managers and employees to loaners and providers. It is these stakeholders that are active participants in finding the public presentation of the company and play an of import function in act uponing how corporate admini stration systems work. Over clip, markets have become mostly institutionalized and the range of stakeholders has now exceeded the traditional outlooks of stakeholders. Companies have now been introduced to add-ons such as institutional stockholders, external hearers and recognition evaluation bureaus. A greater appraisal of their functions and duties will let companies to measure the functions they play in corporate administration. A stakeholder is defined as persons and groups who are affected by the activities of an administration. Stakeholder theory provinces that the concern owes a duty beyond their stockholders to those who have a ‘stake ‘ in whomever the entity impacts whilst finishing its concern ( Hannagan, 2007 ) . Overall organizational stakeholders are active participants with an involvement in the company and finding the public presentation of the concern. Stakeholders are besides good to the company as they play an of import function in act uponing the hereafter scheme and the corporate administration systems. However the ends and aims of each stakeholder vary vastly and may hold wholly conflicting measurings of success. The most common type of struggle is between stockholders and the company ‘s direction, this struggle is better known as bureau theory ( Nyberg et al, 2010 ) . Institutional stockholders are administrations, such as life insurance companies and common and pension financess, that invest in assorted houses by pooling a big amount of money from single investors. Institutional stockholders offer the advantage of safe investings ; they besides lower hazard than that faced by non-institutional investors owing to a wide and diversified investing portfolio. These houses tend to keep big shareholdings and can therefore wield considerable influence and have an active engagement in the administration of the companies. Institutional stockholders have become more active in supervising companies and besides have the ability to act upon a company ‘s solvency. The growing of institutional stockholders was thought to be the reply to the job of separation of ownership and control ( Goergen et al, 2010 ) . However the involvement and competency of the institutional stockholders to make so is questionable. Majority of the big UK institutional stockholder s groups do non straight pull off their investings and are normally without backgrounds that would assist them take a long term position about the value of the company. An external audit reviews an administration ‘s fiscal statements by an independent organic structure. External hearers are advantageous because they are an extra resource to carry through a full scope of internal auditing duties ; they have entree to expertise such as scrutinizing systems and exchequer accomplishments that may be unavailable to an internal hearer and can besides supply comparative experience ( O'Regan, 2002 ) . Essentially external audits are imperative to give assurance to investors, regulators and the populace that the fiscal informations and representations in the statements are true and non misdirecting. However external hearers can come with disadvantages as an unequal apprehension of the administration may earnestly halter the hearer ‘s effectivity ( O'Regan, 2002 ) . Hearers may be isolated from the informal webs of the administration, seting them at a disadvantage when voyaging the environment. Furthermore confidentiality may be compromised if ext ernal persons have entree to sensitive information. At the corporate degree, it is normally in the best involvement of a company to look for a recognition evaluation bureau to rate their debt. Creditor is a individual or company to whom money is owed, the term derives from the impression of recognition ( Blum, 2006 ) . Credit evaluations are an of import tool for borrowers to derive entree to loans and debt. They have besides been used to find the repute and trustiness of a company. Investors frequently basal portion of their determination to purchase bonds, or even the stock on the recognition evaluation of the company ‘s debt. Credit evaluation bureaus that provide companies with good recognition can merely heighten their ability to borrow from future creditors. However a negative evaluation, perchance as a consequence from experience with a old creditor can frequently minimise or decline a companies ‘ opportunity of obtaining recognition in the hereafter. It can besides be a hard procedure to acquire negative informatio n off of a recognition study. Stakeholders are critical to the public presentation of any company ; nevertheless each has its ain ends and aim for an involvement in the concern. Corporate administration is a system for optimizing the part of a figure of stakeholders to a intent which they are persuaded to portion ( Davies, 2006 ) . Companies have to accomplish a balance to fulfill all stakeholders whilst obtaining the administrations ends. The Administration for Economic Co-operation and Development ( 2011 ) states that the corporate administration model should recognize the rights of stakeholders as established by jurisprudence and promote active co-operation between corporations and stakeholders in making wealth, occupations, and the sustainability of financially sound endeavor.Question 4Regulative organic structures in corporate administration are public governments that are responsible for exerting independent authorization over corporate establishments, taking to keep the unity of the fiscal system. In the U K the chief regulative organic structures associating to corporate administration are the Financial Reporting Council and the Financial Services Authority ( FSA ) . As independent advocators they aim to actively advance assurance in corporate coverage and administration. With strong beliefs of their functions and duties impacting effectivity, the regulative organic structures regulate most fiscal services markets, exchanges and houses ( Financial Services Authority, 2011 ) every bit good as oversee the regulative activities of the professional accounting organic structures. There are other regulative organic structures in the UK for illustration the Office of Fair Trading and the Financial Ombudsman Service that significantly contribute to corporate administration. The functions of the chief regulative organic structures contribute greatly to corporate administration in the UK by increasing market assurance, set uping fiscal stableness and consumer protection and trying to cut down fiscal offense ( Financial Services Authority, 2011 ) . Regulative organic structures besides enforce corporate administration codifications such as the Revised UK Combined Code ( 2008 ) that set out criterions of good pattern in relation to board leading and effectivity, wage, answerability and dealingss with stockholders ( Financial Reporting Council, 2011 ) . In making so the regulative organic structures publishes a series of counsel notes to help companies in using the rules of the UK Corporate Governance Code. Regulative organic structures have frequently been criticised. They have frequently been regarded as reactive instead than proactive, with peculiar focal point on the sensed deficiency of action in many instances in add-on to inquiry being raised about the figure of staff and their competency ( Friedrichs, 2009 ) . The Economist ( 2005 ) stated that FSA ‘s processs are flawed ; regulator can non utilize blemished processs without destructing its effectivity. Similarly, the FSA relies on uninterrupted monitoring of financial-services companies to maintain it informed and let it to publish warnings when necessary. If the monitoring is ill constructed, so the FSA will happen itself fighting. The FSA has besides failed intellectually by concentrating excessively much on procedures and processs instead than looking at the bigger economic image. These regulative organic structures progressively rely on computing machines to uncover illegal activities ( Friedrichs, 2009 ) but the usag e of computing machines rises concerns about inordinate invasion and invasion of privateness. In general regulative organic structures have been criticised for its supposedly weak enforcement plan. The combination of legal model, ordinances and guidelines for companies, provided by the corporate administration codifications and administered through the chief regulative organic structures in the UK are a agencies of breeding public assurance in companies ( Mead, Sagar & A ; Bampton, 2009 ) . Regulative organic structures are necessary in implementing ordinance demands in the corporate universe. By making so, they provide a system that guarantee companies are following with corporate administration.Question 5At the nucleus of good corporate administration are the pillars of transparence and revelation ( Mallin, 2006 ) . Transparency has become a popular term amongst organizational leaders and stakeholders ( Garsten & A ; De Montoya, 2008 ) . The term refers to administrations that are unfastened and blunt with information. An reliable, crystalline administration deliberately discloses information beyond the board room with members and non-members likewise. Despite its desire for stakeholders ‘ trust, every association has information, or history it does n't desire accessed by rivals or possibly publicised to all members. But in this twenty-four hours and age greater organizational transparence and revelation is quickly going a demand for associations and effectual manner of following with corporate administration. Transparency and revelation is good because it encourages, honours and engages with public input by encompassing entree to information, engagement, and determination devising ( Meyer, 2003 ) , which finally creates a higher degree of battle within the company and instils trust among stakeholders. The benefits of transparence can hold a direct impact on top line public presentation and cost nest eggs, and spur competitory advantage which in bend drives the company ‘s public presentation ( Berggren & A ; Bernshteyn, 2007 ) . Increased and improved revelation is likely to cut down bureau costs as better information flows from the company to the stockholder, which in bend reduced dissymmetry ( Solomon, 2007 ) . However, it does non vouch that the right determinations will be made or that information will non be manipulated or misconstrued. Meyer ( 2003 ) states that plentifulness of bad determinations are being made in crystalline administrations, more practically, increased transp arence may necessitate extra clip and resources at all organizational degrees. The demand for organizational transparence have led to more revelation and information, profiting market participants, take downing the cost of capital ( Dallas, 2004 ) , and supplying more accurate information about the public presentation of executives such as the main executive officer and main fiscal officer. However within this lays the challenges of organizational transparence. There may be deformation of information as companies may non be willing to unwrap countries of the concern covering with those most sacred of things such as net income, borders and cash-flow, obviously intending that true transparence is non achieved. Modern companies are taking stairss to drive company public presentation through increased efficiency delivered by increased transparence. The ability to promote a high degree of unquestioning trust and true transparence requires the company mentality to be ready to put to death this end. Despite the challenges associated with transparence and revelation, current conditions and future premises are driving administrations to chew over on how greater organizational transparence can be achieved ( Meyer, 2003 ) . The stairss companies are taking to farther achieve organizational transparence are taking to aline every bit about as possible the involvements of persons, corporations, and society ( Fernando, 2009 ) which is said to be cardinal with effectual corporate administration.

Behavioral Genetics

Multiple situations and conditions can impair or influence human behavior in individuals. My hypothesis was genetics has the strongest influence on human behavior because of the inability to have control over heredity. Without control, how can one improve or change their behavior? Mental disorders can be inherited through genetics. Examples of genetically acquired mental disorders are schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. My personal experience with individuals with those particular types of mental disorders exhibit different behaviors that those without the disorder. The way one interacts with other and the perception of that individual by society can be influences by mental disorders . My hypothesis was slightly changed after reading the article â€Å"Behavioral Gentics† by Joseph McInerney . McInerney provided in depth research that alluded to the fact that genetics alone does not influence human behavior. He believes that unless every person is tested a definitive correlation between genetics and behaviors will not exist. (J. McInerney ‘Behavioral Genetics† 24Aug2011) In case studies, researchers only test a select few and this does not provide enough information to prove or disprove genetics behavioral influence. According to McInerney, there may be others factors that may be present in conjunction with genetics that may influence human behavior. Behaviors are â€Å"the response of an individual, group, or species to its environment† (Merriam Webster Dictionary). Genetics are â€Å"a branch of biology that deals wit h the heredity and variation of organisms† (MWD). Through definition; genetics is not a factor for behaviors. Genetics can be a factor, but does not necessarily have to be a controlling factor that influences human behavior. McInerney provided multiple sources of other studies that solidified his view. I made my hypothesis based on my personal experience of people with mental disorders that had a historyof mental illness in their family. I only had access to a minimal amount of people with this disorder and made an inference without proper investigation. After reading this research; I feel that my hypothesis was just an opinion that could be perceived as judgmental. I believe that the source was creditable site because it was a overnment website. I will not say that I agree or disagree with the information presented. The information was from one source. I would have to read every source that McInerney provided and research other sources that oppose McInerney findings. I learned that solely from reading someone else’s opinion that it affected and influenced my behavior. I am usually ve ry decisive when I formulate an opinion. Normally my opinion is never altered due to someone else’s input. I have learned that many people make inferences and consider themselves expertise without more information from other sources. Behavioral Genetics Heredity and the environment produce an individual difference in development. Behavioral genetics has an impact in development. Behavioral genetics according to Francis Galton is based on â€Å"a man's natural abilities that are derived by inheritance, under exactly the same limitations as are the form and physical features of the whole organic world. † The role of behavioral genetics is based on human behavior influenced by genetics and the environment.For instance, Galton focused on the study of inheritance of gifted and talented families, and found that intelligence might be genetic, yet he also found that it has a lot to do with environmental factors. Galton researched in behavioral genetics including studies of twins and adopted children to compare environmental factors and biological factors. While contemporary behavioral genetics being the largest branch of human behavioral genetics covers phenotypes such as alcoholism, bipolar disorders, and schizophrenia however, inve stigations have not yet found genes associated to these mental illnesses but are rather environmental.Behavioral genetics has implications in society that affects a massive amount of physical behaviors that includes homosexuality, aggression, and nurturing, and intelligence. For example, the amount of tolerance that a trait would fur goes for prisoners or homosexuals such as getting treatment or prevent the birth of individuals affected. The only known fact is that no gene determines behaviors.This was proved by a study published in 1999 of the â€Å"smart gene† this gene was practiced on mice by injecting what is known as the high gene, and the study came to a conclusion that the learning enhancement only lasted a few hours, and was only retain in short memory. Having a certain trait does not mean that the trait will develop instead it can only be taken as a chance that it might or may not. Behavioral genes is still quite a mystery but can not be elapsed because there are ma jor possibilities that traits may exist. Behavioral Genetics Multiple situations and conditions can impair or influence human behavior in individuals. My hypothesis was genetics has the strongest influence on human behavior because of the inability to have control over heredity. Without control, how can one improve or change their behavior? Mental disorders can be inherited through genetics. Examples of genetically acquired mental disorders are schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. My personal experience with individuals with those particular types of mental disorders exhibit different behaviors that those without the disorder. The way one interacts with other and the perception of that individual by society can be influences by mental disorders . My hypothesis was slightly changed after reading the article â€Å"Behavioral Gentics† by Joseph McInerney . McInerney provided in depth research that alluded to the fact that genetics alone does not influence human behavior. He believes that unless every person is tested a definitive correlation between genetics and behaviors will not exist. (J. McInerney ‘Behavioral Genetics† 24Aug2011) In case studies, researchers only test a select few and this does not provide enough information to prove or disprove genetics behavioral influence. According to McInerney, there may be others factors that may be present in conjunction with genetics that may influence human behavior. Behaviors are â€Å"the response of an individual, group, or species to its environment† (Merriam Webster Dictionary). Genetics are â€Å"a branch of biology that deals wit h the heredity and variation of organisms† (MWD). Through definition; genetics is not a factor for behaviors. Genetics can be a factor, but does not necessarily have to be a controlling factor that influences human behavior. McInerney provided multiple sources of other studies that solidified his view. I made my hypothesis based on my personal experience of people with mental disorders that had a historyof mental illness in their family. I only had access to a minimal amount of people with this disorder and made an inference without proper investigation. After reading this research; I feel that my hypothesis was just an opinion that could be perceived as judgmental. I believe that the source was creditable site because it was a overnment website. I will not say that I agree or disagree with the information presented. The information was from one source. I would have to read every source that McInerney provided and research other sources that oppose McInerney findings. I learned that solely from reading someone else’s opinion that it affected and influenced my behavior. I am usually ve ry decisive when I formulate an opinion. Normally my opinion is never altered due to someone else’s input. I have learned that many people make inferences and consider themselves expertise without more information from other sources.

A Dirty Job Chapter 6

He’d worked up a furious appetite because breakfast was running late today. The Emperor had slept on a bench by the Maritime Museum, and during the night his arthritic knee had snaked out of his wool overcoat into the damp cold, making the walk to North Beach and the Italian bakery that gave them free day-old a slow and painful ordeal. The Emperor groaned and sat down on an empty milk crate. He was a great rolling bear of a man, his shoulders broad but a little broken from carrying the weight of the city. A white tangle of hair and beard wreathed his face like a storm cloud. As far as he could remember, he and the troops had patrolled the city streets forever, but upon further consideration, it might have just been since Wednesday. He wasn’t entirely sure. The Emperor decided to make a proclamation to the troops about the importance of compassion in the face of the rising tide of heinous fuckery and political weaselocity in the nearby kingdom of the United States. (He found his audience was most attentive to his proclamations when the meat-laced focaccia were still nuzzled in the larder of his overcoat pockets, and presently a pepperoni and Parmesan reposed fragrant in the woolly depths, so the royal hounds were rapt.) But just as he cleared his throat to begin, a cargo van came screeching around the corner, went up on two wheels as it plowed through a row of garbage cans, and slid to a stop not fifty feet away. The driver’s-side door flew open and a thin man in a suit leapt out, carrying a cane and a woman’s fur coat, and made a beeline for the back door of Asher’s. But before he got two steps the man fell to the concrete as if hit from behind, then rolled on his back and began flailing at the air with the cane an d the coat. The Emperor, who knew most everyone, recognized Charlie Asher. Bummer erupted into a fit of yapping, but the more levelheaded Lazarus growled once and took off toward Charlie. â€Å"Lazarus!† the Emperor shouted, but the retriever charged on, followed now by his bug-eyed brother in arms. Charlie was back on his feet and swinging the cane as if he was fencing with some phantom, using the coat like a shield. Living on the street, the Emperor had seen a lot of people battling with unseen demons, but Charlie Asher was apparently scoring some hits. The cane was making a thwacking noise against what appeared to be thin air – but no, there was something there, a shadow of some sort? The Emperor climbed to his feet and limped into the fray, but before he got two steps Lazarus had leapt and appeared to be attacking Charlie, but he soared over the shopkeeper and snapped at a spot above his head – then hung there, his jaws sunk into the substantial neck of thin air. Charlie took advantage of the distraction, stepped back, and swung the cane above the levitating golden retriever. There was a smack, and Lazarus let go, but now Bummer launched himself at the invisible foe. He missed whatever was there, and ended up performing a doggy swish shot into a garbage can. Charlie made for the steel door of Asher’s again, but found it locked, and as he reached for his keys, something caught him from behind. â€Å"Let go, fuckface,† the shade screeched. The fur coat Charlie was holding appeared to be swept out of his hand and was pulled straight up, over the four-story building and out of sight. Charlie turned and held the cane at ready, but whatever had been there seemed to be gone now. â€Å"Aren’t you just supposed to sit above the door and nevermore and be poetic and stuff?!† he shouted at the sky. Then, for good measure, added, â€Å"You evil fuck!† Lazarus barked, then whined. A sharp and metallic yapping rose from Bummer’s garbage can. â€Å"Well, you don’t see that every day,† said the Emperor as he limped up to Charlie. â€Å"You could see that?† â€Å"Well, no, not really. Merely a shadow, but I could see that something was there. There was something there, wasn’t there, Charlie?† Charlie nodded, trying to catch his breath. â€Å"It will be back. It followed me across the city.† He dug into his pocket for his keys. â€Å"You guys should duck into the store with me, Your Majesty.† Of course Charlie knew the Emperor. Every San Franciscan knew the Emperor. The Emperor smiled. â€Å"That’s very kind of you, but we will be perfectly safe. For now I need to free my charge from his galvanized prison.† The big man tipped the garbage can and Bummer emerged snorting and tossing his head as if ready to tear the ass out of any man or beast foolhardy enough to cross him (and he would have, as long as they were knee-high or shorter). Charlie was still having trouble with the key. He knew he should have had the lock replaced, but it worked, if you finessed it a little, so he’d never made it a priority. Who the hell thought you’d ever have to get in quick to escape a giant bird? Then he heard a screech and turned to see not one, but two huge ravens coming over the roof and diving into the alley. The dogs arfed a frantic barking salvo at the avian intruders and Charlie put so much body English into wiggling the key in the lock that he felt an atrophied dancing muscle tear in his hip. â€Å"They’re back. Cover me.† Charlie threw the cane to the Emperor and braced himself for the impact, but as soon as the cane touched the old man’s hand the birds were gone. You could almost hear the pop of the air replacing the space they had taken up. The dogs caught themselves in mid-ruff; Bummer whimpered. â€Å"What?† the Emperor said. â€Å"What?† â€Å"They’re gone.† The Emperor looked at the sky. â€Å"You’re sure?† â€Å"For now.† â€Å"I saw two shadows. Really saw them this time,† the Emperor said. â€Å"Yes, there were two this time.† â€Å"What are they?† â€Å"I have no idea, but when you took the cane they – well, they disappeared. You really saw them?† â€Å"I’m sure of it. Like smoke with a purpose.† Finally the key turned in the lock and the door to Asher’s back room swung open. â€Å"You should come in. Rest. I’ll order something to eat.† â€Å"No, no, the men and I must be on our rounds. I’ve decided to make a proclamation this morning and we need to see the printer. You’ll be needing this.† The Emperor presented the cane to Charlie like he was turning over a sword of the realm. Charlie started to take it, then thought better of it. â€Å"Your Majesty, I think you’d better keep that. It looks as if you might be able to use it.† Charlie nodded toward the Emperor’s creaky knee. The Emperor held the cane steady. â€Å"I am not a worshiper of the material, you know?† â€Å"I understand that.† â€Å"I am a firm believer that desire is the source of most of human suffering, you’re aware, and no culprit is more heinous than desire for material gain.† â€Å"I run my business based on those very principles. Still, I insist you keep the cane – as a favor to me, if you would?† Charlie found himself affecting the Emperor’s formal speech patterns, as if somehow he had been transported to a royal court where a nobleman was distinguished by bread crumbs in his beard and the royal guard were not above licking their balls. â€Å"Well, as a favor, I will accept. It is a fine piece of craftsmanship.† â€Å"But more importantly, it will permit you to make your rounds in good time.† The Emperor now betrayed the desire in his heart as he let fly a wide grin and hugged the cane to his chest. â€Å"It is fine, indeed. Charlie, I must confess something to you, but I ask you to grant me the credulity due a man who has just shared witness, with a friend, of two giant, raven-shaped shades.† â€Å"Of course.† Charlie smiled, when even a moment before he would have thought his smile lost somewhere in the months past. â€Å"I hope you won’t think me base, but the second I touched this, I felt as if I had been waiting for it my whole life.† Then, for no reason that he could think of, Charlie said, â€Å"I know.† A few minutes before, inside the store, Lily had been brooding. It wasn’t her general brood, the reaction to a world where everyone was stupid and life was meaningless and the mere act of living was futile, especially if your mother forgot to get coffee at the store. This one was a more specific brood, that had started out when she arrived at work and Ray had pointed out that it was her turn to wear the vacuuming tiara, and insisted that if she wore the tiara, she actually vacuum the store. (In fact, she liked wearing the rhinestone tiara that Charlie, in a move of blatant bourgeois sneakiness, had designated be worn by whoever did the vacuuming and sweeping each day, and no other time. It was the vacuuming and sweeping she objected to. She felt manipulated, used, and generally taken advantage of, and not in the fun way.) But today, after she’d put the tiara and the vacuum away and had finally gotten a couple of cups of coffee in her system, the brooding had gone on, bu ilding to full-scale angst, when it began to dawn on her that she was going to have to figure out this college-career thing, because despite what The Great Big Book of Death said, she had not been chosen as a dark minion of destruction. Fuck! She stood in the back room looking at all the items that Charlie had piled there the day before: shoes, lamps, umbrellas, porcelain figures, toys, a couple of books, and an old black-and-white television and a painting of a clown on black velvet. â€Å"He said this stuff was glowing?† she asked Ray, who stood in the doorway to the store. â€Å"Yes. He made me check it all with my Geiger counter.† â€Å"Ray, why the fuck do you have a Geiger counter?† â€Å"Lily, why do you have a nose stud shaped like a bat?† Lily ignored the question and picked up the ceramic frog from the night before, which now had a note taped to it that read DO NOT SELL OR DISPLAY in Charlie’s meticulous block-letter printing. â€Å"This was one of the things? This?† â€Å"That was the first one he freaked out about,† said Ray matter-of-factly. â€Å"The truant officer tried to buy it. That started it all.† Lily was shaken. She backed over to Charlie’s desk and sat in the squeaky oak swivel chair. â€Å"Do you see anything glowing or pulsating, Ray? Have you ever?† Ray shook his head. â€Å"He’s under a lot of stress, losing Rachel and taking care of the baby. I think maybe he needs to get some help. I know after I had to leave the force – † Ray paused. There was a commotion going on out in the alley, dogs barking and people shouting, then someone was working a key in the lock of the back door. A second later, Charlie came in, a little breathless, his clothes smudged here and there with grime, one sleeve of his jacket torn and bloodstained. â€Å"Asher,† Lily said. â€Å"You’re hurt.† She quickly vacated his chair while Ray took Charlie by the shoulders and sat him down. â€Å"I’m fine,† Charlie said. â€Å"No big deal.† â€Å"I’ll get the first-aid kit,† Ray said. â€Å"Get that jacket off of him, Lily.† â€Å"I’m fine,† Charlie said. â€Å"Quit talking about me like I’m not here.† â€Å"He’s delirious,† Lily said, trying to pry Charlie out of his jacket. â€Å"Do you have any painkillers, Ray?† â€Å"I don’t need painkillers,† Charlie said. â€Å"Shut up, Asher, they’re not for you,† Lily said, automatically, then she considered the book, Ray’s story, the notes on all the items in the back room, and she shuddered. It appeared that Charlie Asher might not be the hapless geek she always thought him to be. â€Å"Sorry, boss. Let us help you.† Ray came back from the front with a small plastic first-aid kit. He peeled back Charlie’s sleeve and began to clean the wounds with gauze and peroxide. â€Å"What happened?† â€Å"Nothing,† Charlie said. â€Å"I slipped and fell in some gravel.† â€Å"The wound’s pretty clean – no gravel in it. That must have been some fall.† â€Å"Long story.† Charlie sighed. â€Å"Ouch!† â€Å"What was all the noise in the alley?† Lily asked, needing badly to go smoke, but unable to pull herself away. She just couldn’t imagine that Charlie Asher was the one. How could it be him? He was so, so, unworthy. He didn’t understand the dark underbelly of life the way she did. Yet he was the one seeing the glowing objects. He was it. She was crestfallen. â€Å"Just the Emperor’s dogs after a seagull in the Dumpster. No big deal. I fell off a porch in Pacific Heights.† â€Å"The estate,† Ray said. â€Å"How’d that go?† â€Å"Not well. The husband was grief-stricken and had a heart attack while I was there.† â€Å"You’re kidding.† â€Å"No, he just sort of became overwhelmed thinking about his wife and collapsed. I gave him CPR until the EMTs came and took him off to the hospital.† â€Å"So,† Lily said, â€Å"did you get the – uh – did you get anything special?† â€Å"What?† Charlie’s eyes went wide. â€Å"What do you mean, special? There was nothing special.† â€Å"Chill, boss, I just meant will we get the grandma’s clothes?† He’s it, Lily thought. The fucker. Charlie shook his head. â€Å"I don’t know, it’s so strange. The whole thing is so strange.† He shuddered when he said it. â€Å"Strange how?† Lily said. â€Å"Strange in a cool and dark way, or strange because you’re Asher and you’re out of it most of the time?† â€Å"Lily!† Ray snapped. â€Å"Go out front. Dust something.† â€Å"You’re not the boss of me, Ray. I’m just showing my concern.† â€Å"It’s okay, Ray.† Charlie looked like he was considering how, exactly, to define strange, and not coming up with anything that was working. Finally he said, â€Å"Well, for one thing, this woman’s estate is way out of our league. The husband said he called me because we were the first secondhand store in the phone book, but he doesn’t seem like the kind of man to do something like that.† â€Å"That’s not that strange,† Lily said. Just confess, she thought. â€Å"You said that he was grief-stricken,† Ray said, dabbing antibiotic ointment on Charlie’s cuts. â€Å"Maybe he’s doing things differently.† â€Å"Yes, and he was angry at his wife, too, for the way she died.† â€Å"How?† Lily asked. â€Å"She ate silica gel,† Charlie said. Lily looked at Ray for an explanation, because silica gel sounded techno-geeky, which was Ray’s particular field of geekdom. Ray said, â€Å"It’s the antidesiccant that they pack with electronics and other things that are sensitive to humidity.† â€Å"The ‘Do Not Eat’ stuff?!† Lily said. â€Å"Oh my God, that’s so stupid. Everyone knows you don’t eat the ‘Do Not Eat’ stuff.† Charlie said, â€Å"Mr. Mainheart was pretty broken up.† â€Å"Well, I guess so,† Lily said. â€Å"He married a complete fucktard.† Charlie cringed. â€Å"Lily, that’s not appropriate.† Lily shrugged and rolled her eyes. She hated it when Charlie dropped into Dad mode. â€Å"Okay, okay. I’m going outside to smoke.† â€Å"No!† Charlie jumped out of the chair and put himself between Lily and the back door. â€Å"Out front. From now on if you have to smoke you go out front.† â€Å"But you said that I look like a child hooker when I smoke out front.† â€Å"I’ve reassessed. You’ve matured.† Lily closed one eye to see if she could better glimpse into his soul and thus figure out his true agenda. She smoothed over her black vinyl skirt, which made a tortured, squeaking noise at the touch. â€Å"You’re trying to say I have a big butt, aren’t you?† â€Å"I absolutely am saying no such thing,† Charlie insisted. â€Å"I am simply saying that your presence in front of the store is an asset and will probably attract business from the tourists on the cable car.† â€Å"Oh. Okay.† Lily snatched her box of cloves off the desk and headed out past the counter and outside to brood, grieve really, because as much as she had hoped, she was not Death. The book was Charlie’s. That evening Charlie was watching the store, wondering why he had lied to his employees, when he saw a flash of red passing by the front window. A second later, a strikingly pale redhead came through the door. She was wearing a short, black cocktail dress and black fuck-me pumps. She strode up the aisle like she was auditioning for a music video. Her hair cascaded in long curls around her shoulders and down her back like a great auburn veil. Her eyes were emerald green, and when she saw him looking, she smiled, and stopped, some ten feet away. Charlie felt an almost painful jolt that seemed to emanate from somewhere in the area of his groin, and after a second he recognized it as an autonomic lust response. He hadn’t felt anything like that since Rachel had passed, and he felt vaguely ashamed. She was examining him, looking him over like you would examine a used car. He was sure he must be blushing. â€Å"Hi,† Charlie said. â€Å"Can I help you?† The redhead smiled again, just a little, and reached into a small black bag that he hadn’t noticed she’d been carrying. â€Å"I found this,† she said, holding up a silver cigarette case. Something Charlie didn’t see very often anymore, even in the secondhand business. It was glowing, pulsating like the objects in the back room. â€Å"I was in the neighborhood and something made me think that this belonged here.† She moved to the counter opposite Charlie and set the cigarette case down in front of him. Charlie could barely move. He stared at her, not even conscious that to avoid her eyes he was staring at her cleavage, and she appeared to be looking around his head and shoulders as if following the path of insects that were buzzing around him. â€Å"Touch me,† she said. â€Å"Huh?† He looked up, saw she was serious. She held out her hand; her nails were manicured and painted the same deep red as her lipstick. He took her hand. As soon as she touched him she pulled away. â€Å"You’re warm.† â€Å"Thanks.† In that moment he realized that she wasn’t. Her fingers had been ice-cold. â€Å"Then you’re not one of us?† He tried to think of what â€Å"us† might be? Irish? Low blood pressure? Nymphomaniac? Why did he even think that? â€Å"Us? What do you mean, ‘us’?† She backed away a step. â€Å"No. You don’t just take the weak and the sick, do you? You take anyone.† â€Å"Take? What do you mean, ‘take’?† â€Å"You don’t even know, do you?† â€Å"Know what?† Charlie was getting very nervous. As a Beta Male, he found it difficult enough to function under the attention of a beautiful woman, but she was just plain spooky. â€Å"Wait. Can you see this thing glowing?† He held out the cigarette case. â€Å"No glow. It just felt like it belonged here,† she said. â€Å"What’s your name?† â€Å"Charlie Asher. This is Asher’s.† â€Å"Well, Charlie, you seem like a nice guy, and I don’t know exactly what you are, and it doesn’t seem like you know. You don’t, do you?† â€Å"I’ve been going through some changes,† Charlie said, wondering why he felt compelled to share this at all. The redhead nodded, as if confirming something to herself. â€Å"Okay. I know what it’s like to, uh, to find yourself thrown into a situation where forces beyond your control are changing you into someone, something you don’t have an owner’s manual for. I understand what it is to not know. But someone, somewhere, does know. Someone can tell you what’s going on.† â€Å"What are you talking about?† But he knew what she was talking about. What he didn’t know was how she could possibly know. â€Å"You make people die, don’t you, Charlie?† She said it like she had worked up the courage to tell him that he had some spinach in his teeth. More of a service to him than an accusation. â€Å"How do you – ?† How did she – â€Å"Because it’s what I do. Not like you, but it’s what I do. Find them, Charlie. Backtrack and find whoever was there when your world changed.† Charlie looked at her, then at the cigarette case, then at the redhead again, who was no longer smiling, but was stepping backward toward the door. Trying to stay in touch with normal, he focused on the cigarette case and said, â€Å"I suppose I can do an appraisal – â€Å" He heard the bell over the door jingle, and when he looked up she was gone. He didn’t see her moving by the windows on either side of the door; she was just gone. He ran to the front of the store and out the door onto the sidewalk. The Mason Street cable car was just topping the hill up by California Street and he could hear the bell, there was a thin fog coming up from the Bay that threw colorful halos around the neon signs of the other businesses, but there was no striking redhead on the street. He went to the corner and looked down Vallejo, but again no redhead, just the Emperor, sitting against the building with his dogs. â€Å"Good evening, Charlie.† â€Å"Your Majesty, did you see a redhead go by here just now?† â€Å"Oh yes. Spoke to her. I’m not sure you have a chance there, Charlie, I believe she’s spoken for. And she did warn me to stay away from you.† â€Å"Why? Did she say why?† â€Å"She said that you were Death.† â€Å"I am?† Charlie said. â€Å"Am I?† His breath caught in his throat as the day played back in his head. â€Å"What if I am?† â€Å"You know, son,† the Emperor said, â€Å"I am not an expert in dealing with the fairer sex, but you might want to save that bit of information until the third date or so, after they’ve gotten to know you a little.† A Dirty Job Chapter 6 He’d worked up a furious appetite because breakfast was running late today. The Emperor had slept on a bench by the Maritime Museum, and during the night his arthritic knee had snaked out of his wool overcoat into the damp cold, making the walk to North Beach and the Italian bakery that gave them free day-old a slow and painful ordeal. The Emperor groaned and sat down on an empty milk crate. He was a great rolling bear of a man, his shoulders broad but a little broken from carrying the weight of the city. A white tangle of hair and beard wreathed his face like a storm cloud. As far as he could remember, he and the troops had patrolled the city streets forever, but upon further consideration, it might have just been since Wednesday. He wasn’t entirely sure. The Emperor decided to make a proclamation to the troops about the importance of compassion in the face of the rising tide of heinous fuckery and political weaselocity in the nearby kingdom of the United States. (He found his audience was most attentive to his proclamations when the meat-laced focaccia were still nuzzled in the larder of his overcoat pockets, and presently a pepperoni and Parmesan reposed fragrant in the woolly depths, so the royal hounds were rapt.) But just as he cleared his throat to begin, a cargo van came screeching around the corner, went up on two wheels as it plowed through a row of garbage cans, and slid to a stop not fifty feet away. The driver’s-side door flew open and a thin man in a suit leapt out, carrying a cane and a woman’s fur coat, and made a beeline for the back door of Asher’s. But before he got two steps the man fell to the concrete as if hit from behind, then rolled on his back and began flailing at the air with the cane an d the coat. The Emperor, who knew most everyone, recognized Charlie Asher. Bummer erupted into a fit of yapping, but the more levelheaded Lazarus growled once and took off toward Charlie. â€Å"Lazarus!† the Emperor shouted, but the retriever charged on, followed now by his bug-eyed brother in arms. Charlie was back on his feet and swinging the cane as if he was fencing with some phantom, using the coat like a shield. Living on the street, the Emperor had seen a lot of people battling with unseen demons, but Charlie Asher was apparently scoring some hits. The cane was making a thwacking noise against what appeared to be thin air – but no, there was something there, a shadow of some sort? The Emperor climbed to his feet and limped into the fray, but before he got two steps Lazarus had leapt and appeared to be attacking Charlie, but he soared over the shopkeeper and snapped at a spot above his head – then hung there, his jaws sunk into the substantial neck of thin air. Charlie took advantage of the distraction, stepped back, and swung the cane above the levitating golden retriever. There was a smack, and Lazarus let go, but now Bummer launched himself at the invisible foe. He missed whatever was there, and ended up performing a doggy swish shot into a garbage can. Charlie made for the steel door of Asher’s again, but found it locked, and as he reached for his keys, something caught him from behind. â€Å"Let go, fuckface,† the shade screeched. The fur coat Charlie was holding appeared to be swept out of his hand and was pulled straight up, over the four-story building and out of sight. Charlie turned and held the cane at ready, but whatever had been there seemed to be gone now. â€Å"Aren’t you just supposed to sit above the door and nevermore and be poetic and stuff?!† he shouted at the sky. Then, for good measure, added, â€Å"You evil fuck!† Lazarus barked, then whined. A sharp and metallic yapping rose from Bummer’s garbage can. â€Å"Well, you don’t see that every day,† said the Emperor as he limped up to Charlie. â€Å"You could see that?† â€Å"Well, no, not really. Merely a shadow, but I could see that something was there. There was something there, wasn’t there, Charlie?† Charlie nodded, trying to catch his breath. â€Å"It will be back. It followed me across the city.† He dug into his pocket for his keys. â€Å"You guys should duck into the store with me, Your Majesty.† Of course Charlie knew the Emperor. Every San Franciscan knew the Emperor. The Emperor smiled. â€Å"That’s very kind of you, but we will be perfectly safe. For now I need to free my charge from his galvanized prison.† The big man tipped the garbage can and Bummer emerged snorting and tossing his head as if ready to tear the ass out of any man or beast foolhardy enough to cross him (and he would have, as long as they were knee-high or shorter). Charlie was still having trouble with the key. He knew he should have had the lock replaced, but it worked, if you finessed it a little, so he’d never made it a priority. Who the hell thought you’d ever have to get in quick to escape a giant bird? Then he heard a screech and turned to see not one, but two huge ravens coming over the roof and diving into the alley. The dogs arfed a frantic barking salvo at the avian intruders and Charlie put so much body English into wiggling the key in the lock that he felt an atrophied dancing muscle tear in his hip. â€Å"They’re back. Cover me.† Charlie threw the cane to the Emperor and braced himself for the impact, but as soon as the cane touched the old man’s hand the birds were gone. You could almost hear the pop of the air replacing the space they had taken up. The dogs caught themselves in mid-ruff; Bummer whimpered. â€Å"What?† the Emperor said. â€Å"What?† â€Å"They’re gone.† The Emperor looked at the sky. â€Å"You’re sure?† â€Å"For now.† â€Å"I saw two shadows. Really saw them this time,† the Emperor said. â€Å"Yes, there were two this time.† â€Å"What are they?† â€Å"I have no idea, but when you took the cane they – well, they disappeared. You really saw them?† â€Å"I’m sure of it. Like smoke with a purpose.† Finally the key turned in the lock and the door to Asher’s back room swung open. â€Å"You should come in. Rest. I’ll order something to eat.† â€Å"No, no, the men and I must be on our rounds. I’ve decided to make a proclamation this morning and we need to see the printer. You’ll be needing this.† The Emperor presented the cane to Charlie like he was turning over a sword of the realm. Charlie started to take it, then thought better of it. â€Å"Your Majesty, I think you’d better keep that. It looks as if you might be able to use it.† Charlie nodded toward the Emperor’s creaky knee. The Emperor held the cane steady. â€Å"I am not a worshiper of the material, you know?† â€Å"I understand that.† â€Å"I am a firm believer that desire is the source of most of human suffering, you’re aware, and no culprit is more heinous than desire for material gain.† â€Å"I run my business based on those very principles. Still, I insist you keep the cane – as a favor to me, if you would?† Charlie found himself affecting the Emperor’s formal speech patterns, as if somehow he had been transported to a royal court where a nobleman was distinguished by bread crumbs in his beard and the royal guard were not above licking their balls. â€Å"Well, as a favor, I will accept. It is a fine piece of craftsmanship.† â€Å"But more importantly, it will permit you to make your rounds in good time.† The Emperor now betrayed the desire in his heart as he let fly a wide grin and hugged the cane to his chest. â€Å"It is fine, indeed. Charlie, I must confess something to you, but I ask you to grant me the credulity due a man who has just shared witness, with a friend, of two giant, raven-shaped shades.† â€Å"Of course.† Charlie smiled, when even a moment before he would have thought his smile lost somewhere in the months past. â€Å"I hope you won’t think me base, but the second I touched this, I felt as if I had been waiting for it my whole life.† Then, for no reason that he could think of, Charlie said, â€Å"I know.† A few minutes before, inside the store, Lily had been brooding. It wasn’t her general brood, the reaction to a world where everyone was stupid and life was meaningless and the mere act of living was futile, especially if your mother forgot to get coffee at the store. This one was a more specific brood, that had started out when she arrived at work and Ray had pointed out that it was her turn to wear the vacuuming tiara, and insisted that if she wore the tiara, she actually vacuum the store. (In fact, she liked wearing the rhinestone tiara that Charlie, in a move of blatant bourgeois sneakiness, had designated be worn by whoever did the vacuuming and sweeping each day, and no other time. It was the vacuuming and sweeping she objected to. She felt manipulated, used, and generally taken advantage of, and not in the fun way.) But today, after she’d put the tiara and the vacuum away and had finally gotten a couple of cups of coffee in her system, the brooding had gone on, bu ilding to full-scale angst, when it began to dawn on her that she was going to have to figure out this college-career thing, because despite what The Great Big Book of Death said, she had not been chosen as a dark minion of destruction. Fuck! She stood in the back room looking at all the items that Charlie had piled there the day before: shoes, lamps, umbrellas, porcelain figures, toys, a couple of books, and an old black-and-white television and a painting of a clown on black velvet. â€Å"He said this stuff was glowing?† she asked Ray, who stood in the doorway to the store. â€Å"Yes. He made me check it all with my Geiger counter.† â€Å"Ray, why the fuck do you have a Geiger counter?† â€Å"Lily, why do you have a nose stud shaped like a bat?† Lily ignored the question and picked up the ceramic frog from the night before, which now had a note taped to it that read DO NOT SELL OR DISPLAY in Charlie’s meticulous block-letter printing. â€Å"This was one of the things? This?† â€Å"That was the first one he freaked out about,† said Ray matter-of-factly. â€Å"The truant officer tried to buy it. That started it all.† Lily was shaken. She backed over to Charlie’s desk and sat in the squeaky oak swivel chair. â€Å"Do you see anything glowing or pulsating, Ray? Have you ever?† Ray shook his head. â€Å"He’s under a lot of stress, losing Rachel and taking care of the baby. I think maybe he needs to get some help. I know after I had to leave the force – † Ray paused. There was a commotion going on out in the alley, dogs barking and people shouting, then someone was working a key in the lock of the back door. A second later, Charlie came in, a little breathless, his clothes smudged here and there with grime, one sleeve of his jacket torn and bloodstained. â€Å"Asher,† Lily said. â€Å"You’re hurt.† She quickly vacated his chair while Ray took Charlie by the shoulders and sat him down. â€Å"I’m fine,† Charlie said. â€Å"No big deal.† â€Å"I’ll get the first-aid kit,† Ray said. â€Å"Get that jacket off of him, Lily.† â€Å"I’m fine,† Charlie said. â€Å"Quit talking about me like I’m not here.† â€Å"He’s delirious,† Lily said, trying to pry Charlie out of his jacket. â€Å"Do you have any painkillers, Ray?† â€Å"I don’t need painkillers,† Charlie said. â€Å"Shut up, Asher, they’re not for you,† Lily said, automatically, then she considered the book, Ray’s story, the notes on all the items in the back room, and she shuddered. It appeared that Charlie Asher might not be the hapless geek she always thought him to be. â€Å"Sorry, boss. Let us help you.† Ray came back from the front with a small plastic first-aid kit. He peeled back Charlie’s sleeve and began to clean the wounds with gauze and peroxide. â€Å"What happened?† â€Å"Nothing,† Charlie said. â€Å"I slipped and fell in some gravel.† â€Å"The wound’s pretty clean – no gravel in it. That must have been some fall.† â€Å"Long story.† Charlie sighed. â€Å"Ouch!† â€Å"What was all the noise in the alley?† Lily asked, needing badly to go smoke, but unable to pull herself away. She just couldn’t imagine that Charlie Asher was the one. How could it be him? He was so, so, unworthy. He didn’t understand the dark underbelly of life the way she did. Yet he was the one seeing the glowing objects. He was it. She was crestfallen. â€Å"Just the Emperor’s dogs after a seagull in the Dumpster. No big deal. I fell off a porch in Pacific Heights.† â€Å"The estate,† Ray said. â€Å"How’d that go?† â€Å"Not well. The husband was grief-stricken and had a heart attack while I was there.† â€Å"You’re kidding.† â€Å"No, he just sort of became overwhelmed thinking about his wife and collapsed. I gave him CPR until the EMTs came and took him off to the hospital.† â€Å"So,† Lily said, â€Å"did you get the – uh – did you get anything special?† â€Å"What?† Charlie’s eyes went wide. â€Å"What do you mean, special? There was nothing special.† â€Å"Chill, boss, I just meant will we get the grandma’s clothes?† He’s it, Lily thought. The fucker. Charlie shook his head. â€Å"I don’t know, it’s so strange. The whole thing is so strange.† He shuddered when he said it. â€Å"Strange how?† Lily said. â€Å"Strange in a cool and dark way, or strange because you’re Asher and you’re out of it most of the time?† â€Å"Lily!† Ray snapped. â€Å"Go out front. Dust something.† â€Å"You’re not the boss of me, Ray. I’m just showing my concern.† â€Å"It’s okay, Ray.† Charlie looked like he was considering how, exactly, to define strange, and not coming up with anything that was working. Finally he said, â€Å"Well, for one thing, this woman’s estate is way out of our league. The husband said he called me because we were the first secondhand store in the phone book, but he doesn’t seem like the kind of man to do something like that.† â€Å"That’s not that strange,† Lily said. Just confess, she thought. â€Å"You said that he was grief-stricken,† Ray said, dabbing antibiotic ointment on Charlie’s cuts. â€Å"Maybe he’s doing things differently.† â€Å"Yes, and he was angry at his wife, too, for the way she died.† â€Å"How?† Lily asked. â€Å"She ate silica gel,† Charlie said. Lily looked at Ray for an explanation, because silica gel sounded techno-geeky, which was Ray’s particular field of geekdom. Ray said, â€Å"It’s the antidesiccant that they pack with electronics and other things that are sensitive to humidity.† â€Å"The ‘Do Not Eat’ stuff?!† Lily said. â€Å"Oh my God, that’s so stupid. Everyone knows you don’t eat the ‘Do Not Eat’ stuff.† Charlie said, â€Å"Mr. Mainheart was pretty broken up.† â€Å"Well, I guess so,† Lily said. â€Å"He married a complete fucktard.† Charlie cringed. â€Å"Lily, that’s not appropriate.† Lily shrugged and rolled her eyes. She hated it when Charlie dropped into Dad mode. â€Å"Okay, okay. I’m going outside to smoke.† â€Å"No!† Charlie jumped out of the chair and put himself between Lily and the back door. â€Å"Out front. From now on if you have to smoke you go out front.† â€Å"But you said that I look like a child hooker when I smoke out front.† â€Å"I’ve reassessed. You’ve matured.† Lily closed one eye to see if she could better glimpse into his soul and thus figure out his true agenda. She smoothed over her black vinyl skirt, which made a tortured, squeaking noise at the touch. â€Å"You’re trying to say I have a big butt, aren’t you?† â€Å"I absolutely am saying no such thing,† Charlie insisted. â€Å"I am simply saying that your presence in front of the store is an asset and will probably attract business from the tourists on the cable car.† â€Å"Oh. Okay.† Lily snatched her box of cloves off the desk and headed out past the counter and outside to brood, grieve really, because as much as she had hoped, she was not Death. The book was Charlie’s. That evening Charlie was watching the store, wondering why he had lied to his employees, when he saw a flash of red passing by the front window. A second later, a strikingly pale redhead came through the door. She was wearing a short, black cocktail dress and black fuck-me pumps. She strode up the aisle like she was auditioning for a music video. Her hair cascaded in long curls around her shoulders and down her back like a great auburn veil. Her eyes were emerald green, and when she saw him looking, she smiled, and stopped, some ten feet away. Charlie felt an almost painful jolt that seemed to emanate from somewhere in the area of his groin, and after a second he recognized it as an autonomic lust response. He hadn’t felt anything like that since Rachel had passed, and he felt vaguely ashamed. She was examining him, looking him over like you would examine a used car. He was sure he must be blushing. â€Å"Hi,† Charlie said. â€Å"Can I help you?† The redhead smiled again, just a little, and reached into a small black bag that he hadn’t noticed she’d been carrying. â€Å"I found this,† she said, holding up a silver cigarette case. Something Charlie didn’t see very often anymore, even in the secondhand business. It was glowing, pulsating like the objects in the back room. â€Å"I was in the neighborhood and something made me think that this belonged here.† She moved to the counter opposite Charlie and set the cigarette case down in front of him. Charlie could barely move. He stared at her, not even conscious that to avoid her eyes he was staring at her cleavage, and she appeared to be looking around his head and shoulders as if following the path of insects that were buzzing around him. â€Å"Touch me,† she said. â€Å"Huh?† He looked up, saw she was serious. She held out her hand; her nails were manicured and painted the same deep red as her lipstick. He took her hand. As soon as she touched him she pulled away. â€Å"You’re warm.† â€Å"Thanks.† In that moment he realized that she wasn’t. Her fingers had been ice-cold. â€Å"Then you’re not one of us?† He tried to think of what â€Å"us† might be? Irish? Low blood pressure? Nymphomaniac? Why did he even think that? â€Å"Us? What do you mean, ‘us’?† She backed away a step. â€Å"No. You don’t just take the weak and the sick, do you? You take anyone.† â€Å"Take? What do you mean, ‘take’?† â€Å"You don’t even know, do you?† â€Å"Know what?† Charlie was getting very nervous. As a Beta Male, he found it difficult enough to function under the attention of a beautiful woman, but she was just plain spooky. â€Å"Wait. Can you see this thing glowing?† He held out the cigarette case. â€Å"No glow. It just felt like it belonged here,† she said. â€Å"What’s your name?† â€Å"Charlie Asher. This is Asher’s.† â€Å"Well, Charlie, you seem like a nice guy, and I don’t know exactly what you are, and it doesn’t seem like you know. You don’t, do you?† â€Å"I’ve been going through some changes,† Charlie said, wondering why he felt compelled to share this at all. The redhead nodded, as if confirming something to herself. â€Å"Okay. I know what it’s like to, uh, to find yourself thrown into a situation where forces beyond your control are changing you into someone, something you don’t have an owner’s manual for. I understand what it is to not know. But someone, somewhere, does know. Someone can tell you what’s going on.† â€Å"What are you talking about?† But he knew what she was talking about. What he didn’t know was how she could possibly know. â€Å"You make people die, don’t you, Charlie?† She said it like she had worked up the courage to tell him that he had some spinach in his teeth. More of a service to him than an accusation. â€Å"How do you – ?† How did she – â€Å"Because it’s what I do. Not like you, but it’s what I do. Find them, Charlie. Backtrack and find whoever was there when your world changed.† Charlie looked at her, then at the cigarette case, then at the redhead again, who was no longer smiling, but was stepping backward toward the door. Trying to stay in touch with normal, he focused on the cigarette case and said, â€Å"I suppose I can do an appraisal – â€Å" He heard the bell over the door jingle, and when he looked up she was gone. He didn’t see her moving by the windows on either side of the door; she was just gone. He ran to the front of the store and out the door onto the sidewalk. The Mason Street cable car was just topping the hill up by California Street and he could hear the bell, there was a thin fog coming up from the Bay that threw colorful halos around the neon signs of the other businesses, but there was no striking redhead on the street. He went to the corner and looked down Vallejo, but again no redhead, just the Emperor, sitting against the building with his dogs. â€Å"Good evening, Charlie.† â€Å"Your Majesty, did you see a redhead go by here just now?† â€Å"Oh yes. Spoke to her. I’m not sure you have a chance there, Charlie, I believe she’s spoken for. And she did warn me to stay away from you.† â€Å"Why? Did she say why?† â€Å"She said that you were Death.† â€Å"I am?† Charlie said. â€Å"Am I?† His breath caught in his throat as the day played back in his head. â€Å"What if I am?† â€Å"You know, son,† the Emperor said, â€Å"I am not an expert in dealing with the fairer sex, but you might want to save that bit of information until the third date or so, after they’ve gotten to know you a little.†

International Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 7

International Marketing - Essay Example This marketing plan identifies a new marketing strategy for the organisation in order to improve its contemporary image. The plan recommends an integrated marketing communications strategy involving many elements of public relations theory and practice. Currently, the mission of the London’s Ships of Historic Interest Partnership is to â€Å"provide a valuable source of information and inspiration, as well as facilities to inform and educate the public on our need of the sea† (londonships.org.uk 2010, p.1). In most respects, the current communications strategy is that of information exchange as a primary goal. This is not working effectively to build consumer interest and raise revenues needed to offset the costs of renovation in order to make these old vessels gleam with modern appeal to diverse consumer audiences. They key is to change the marketing message being delivered. The objectives of the new and enhanced marketing strategy are to remove the emphasis on education and information, making the venue appear more exciting and relevant to the needs of a new style of consumer target group. The goal is to increase revenues by 30-40 percent within one year, using a blend of public relations strategies and modernised communication practices. The plan anticipates turning the attraction around from being a niche activity to a broad-based tourist hotspot that appeals to mass markets with varying demographics and lifestyle values. Reassessment of current marketing strategy led to a variety of marketing literature that was mainly focused on the use of Internet tools, from website development to use of social networking tools as the main focus for promotion. However, this strategy had no direct linkage to relevant tourism sites and therefore was an inferior promotional strategy. This could be due to the fact that the current target market is misaligned with revenue goals,

The devil's highway Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The devil's highway - Essay Example The problem between the Mexican and US borders needs to be viewed from the humanitarian angle. But unfortunately it is (mis)managed and treated as if it is a war-zone. The book by Luis Alberto Urrea, â€Å"The Devil’s Highway: A True Story,† highlights a grave incident. More must have happened in the past. This highway is managed by insensitive personnel, with devilish tendencies. In May 2001, twenty-six Mexican men smuggled themselves through the border and reached an area of the deadly Arizona desert known as the Devil’s Highway. The dangers ahead were well-known to them. Yet for the sake of a bright career, they mortgaged their lives. Through the arduous journey, 14 died and 12 reached their destination. The author describes the disposal of the dead bodies thus: â€Å"The dead bodies, dense and dark, were zipped into bags and delivered to the loading docks.† (Urrea, p.191)The hurdles before them were obvious-- La Migra-the US Border patrol, the Mexican Federals, gung-ho gringo vigilantes, who invariably took law into their own hands, the burning 110 degree sun that spared none, the rattlesnakes, and what not! The coy otes were the group’s smugglers, who specialized in such adventurous clandestine immigration activity. While narrating the grim tragedy that struck this group of 26, the author analyzes the economic factors and the harsh immigration policy, which creates the artificial barrier between the peoples. The conditions at both the borders are no helpful; they are exploitative. The saga of the twenty-six men contains the important message for the right-thinking people of both the countries, Mexico and USA. The pages of human history are daubed in bloodshed in the name religion, race, color and territorial aggrandizement and they raise several crying questions for humanity. Industrialization, internet revolution, material civilization and globalization have added one more acute problem to the existing woes of the humanity—that of

The Curse by Andre Dubus - Story Analysis Research Paper

The Curse by Andre Dubus - Story Analysis - Research Paper Example The curse entails about a rape case, which was witnessed by the character, Mitchell. It concentrates more about his opinions and views concerning the rape case and portrays how it generally affects him both socially and psychologically. Mitchell his hunted with guilt for what occurred has he did not do anything to help. He struggles with conflicts that hunt him internally, as he tries to manage the empathetic emotions. In this aspect fear, for being hurt or injured in the situation prevents him from intervening and the culture code make him question his essence of protection to a woman as a man. The story questions on aspect of manhood, action and inaction. After analysis of our fist character Mitchell, we consider the other essential characters in the story, which are the motorcyclists. The author describes them as egocentric, in human and inconsiderate people who acted in self-interest. He shows how passionate they were as they first entered into the bar, â€Å"their eyes were qui ck, alert as wary animals, and they spoke loudly, with passion, but their passion was strange and disturbing, because they were only chatting, bantering (the curse, p.274) We also have a clear outline of the people present in the bar, the author describes Bob, he described him as a black-haired man who is too big compared to Mitchell Hayes, the author states that Mitchell " looked from the door, past Bob to the empty space of floor at the rear; sometimes people danced there, to the jukebox" (pg.273). The story also analysis on the women and their views and their reactions towards the rape case, in the society, in â€Å"the curse† we have three women involved, we have the rape victim, Mitchell wife, and Mitchell stepdaughter. He states on how he met his wife "One night she came into the bar with two of her girl friends from work. She made sixdollars an hour going to homes of invalids, mostly what she called her little old ladies, and bathing them" (pg.276). The author expounds that after Mitchell gives a clear outline of the rape case to his wife Susan, she says that he did the right thing, Mitchell his portrayed as Susan’s â€Å"little old ladies†. Mitchell does not want to become just â€Å"a good witness† he fills that he ought to have done something. Mitchell feels he himself will be at trial for what he did not do to assist the young woman. In this page, we are able to known about women attitudes and the categories in which Mitchell wife and stepdaughter view the rape case. In the next part of the story, we are able to analyze on struggle that Mitchell went through during the rape period. Mitchell had to submit, like the girl and just watch what was going on. Victimization of Mitchell by the motorcyclists, psychologically affected him. Both the girl and he were considered as victims in the story. Mitchell could not fight the five strong men and to the author explanation, it becomes a rape case to Mitchell. The author states that Mitchell "looked once at her sounds, then looked down at the duckboard he stood on, or at the belly or chest of a young man in front of him," (pg.273). In the next part of the story, the author states on the continuous condition of Mitchell. Mitchell becomes a storyteller, instead of being the hero, in his story telling, Mitchell leaves out the aspect of being the coward person who was not able to assist the victim this haunts Mitchell. The story also analysis the caring aspect of Mitchell to his customers, in the

Cost, Budgets and Strategic Decision Making in Management Accounting Assignment

Cost, Budgets and Strategic Decision Making in Management Accounting - Assignment Example The projected next period’s revenues are normally grounded on the prior accounting periods’ actual revenue trends. Second, the production facility budget is prepared. The production budget is grounded on the projected next accounting period’s revenues. If the next accounting period’s expected revenues is 50 cars and the last month’s unsold cars is 15 cars, then the production budget will be to produce only the remaining 35 cars [50 cars revenue – 15 unsold cars from the prior accounting period = 35 cars] (Warren, 2015). Third, the direct materials budget and labor budget are prepared (Warren, 2015). The direct materials are used as part of the finished product. If each car needs 2 cans of paint and there are 17 cans of paint remaining from the prior accounting period, the company must purchase 53 paint cans ([35 cars x 2 cans per car] – 17 cans from prior accounting period = 53 new can purchases). If one can costs  £ 5, then the budget for the next accounting period includes  £ 265 (53 cans of paint x  £5 per can). The labor costs must be included in the budget (Warren, 2015). The labor cost is the salary of the workers directly making the products, the car painters. Furthermore, the factory overhead budget is computed (Kinney, 2012). The factory overhead is composed of all other costs that do not fall under direct materials or direct labor classification. This includes the indirect materials figures and indirect labor amounts. The other amounts include the factory Janitors’ salaries, electricity payments, water payments, and telephone amounts. Next, the selling and administration expense budget is prepared (Bromwich, 2009). The selling expense budget includes the amounts allocated to sell the finished products, including the cars. The selling expense budget includes the sales department’s salaries and commissions, advertising, and other sales department expenses. The