The living quarters were nearly indistinguishable from the workshop at
the junkyard: strewn with cool devices in various stages of
disassembly, detritus and art. The plates and dishes and glasses all
had IHOP and Cracker Barrel logos on them. "From thrift shops," Lester
explained. "Old people steal them when they get their earlybird
specials, and then when they die their kids give them to
Goodwill. Cheapest way to get a matched set around here."
Tjan circled the three adjoined cracker-box condos like a dog circling
his basket. Finally, he picked an unoccupied master bedroom with moldy
lace curtains and a motel-art painting of an abstract landscape over
the headboard. He set his suitcase down on the faux-Chinoise chest of
drawers and said, "Right, I'm done. Let's get to work."
They took him to the workshop next and his expression hardly changed
as they showed him around, showed him their cabinets of wonders. When
they were done, he let them walk him to the IHOP and he ordered the
most austere thing on the menu, a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich
that was technically on the kids' menu -- a kids' menu at a place
where the grownups could order a plate of candy!
"So," Perry said. "So, Tjan, come on buddy, give it to me straight --
you hate it? Love it? Can't understand it?"
Tjan set down his sandwich. "You boys are very talented," he
said. "They're very good inventions. There are lots of opportunities
for synergy within Kodacell: marketing, logistics, even packing
materials. There's a little aerogel startup in Oregon that Kodacell is
underwriting that you could use for padding when you ship."
Perry and Lester looked at him expectantly. Suzanne broke the
silence. "Tjan, did you have any artistic or design ideas about the
things that these guys are making?"
Tjan took another bite of sandwich and sipped at his milk. "Well,
you'll have to come up with a name for them, something that identifies
them. Also, I think you should be careful with trademarked
objects. Any time you need to bring in an IP lawyer, you're going to
run into huge costs and time delays."
They waited again. "That's it?" Perry said. "Nothing about the designs
themselves?"
"I'm the business-manager. That's editorial. I'm artistically
autistic. Not my job to help you design things. It's my job to sell
the things you design."
"Would it matter what it was we were making? Would you feel the same
if it was toothbrushes or staplers?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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