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After the meeting Eddie sat in his seldom used office. Sam tagged along and took the chair across the desk from him.“ I’ m sorry about your husband,” Eddie offered his condolences.“ Thank you, Tanya helped me through a rough time. She was wonderful. Any plans for the bonus?” She smiled.“ I had no idea we did this well.”“ Frank told me you never looked at the numbers and said how he was going to approach you.”“ He certainly caught me off guard.”“ You know he doesn’ t care if you take the next couple months off,” Sam said.“ Did he say something to you?”“ Frank wants us to come up with some changes to keep it fresh but the major work is done. It will just be a matter of redecorating and adding some new special effects. I told Frank I would get together with you and Tanya and do some brainstorming over the holidays. He thought that was a great idea but not to count on it. Frank had the security cameras linked to his office. He knew when you were there and when you were not. You can ask him yourself but what he said was, he thought you owed Tanya a world cruise. You would probably be back just after the first of the year,” Sam explained.
Eddie picked up the phone and was connected to Frank’ s office. Frank apologized for not making himself clear.“ I don’ t want to see you at the“ Fear Factory” or in my office until after the first of the year. You are on salary and you get four weeks of vacation. If my math serves me right, and it always does, you put in two months work in October. I expect nothing less next year,” Frank said.“ See you next year Frank,” Eddie said, hung up the phone and saw Sam’ s smug look that said“ I told you so.”“ Tanya is not going to believe this,” he said, looking at the check again.“ Eddie. It’ s not that much.” Sam said.“ I have never made this kind of money.”“ You spent over a million dollars getting the Fear Factory ready. Next year you won’ t be having that expense. That figure is not counting the advertising or the t- shirts because you will have to spend that again. I made over two thousand dollars a day working for George three or four days a week. Do you think I would be working for less money here? Frank is looking for a good deal on a remote piece of property where you can recreate this again. Maybe closer to Austin or San Antonio,” Sam said. The idea of picking up the phone and seeing that look on Sam’ s face one more time did not appeal to Eddie’ s competitive spirit. He knew Sam was telling him what she had already pried from Frank. Eddie learned what he needed to know to do this again. All the little mistakes did not have to be repeated. The next haunted house would be much easier. On the way home Eddie stopped at the bank, opened a personal savings account and deposited twenty-five thousand dollars. The balance he put in their joint account. When Tanya came home Eddie explained it much the way Frank had done in the office.“ I just tossed the check in the savings account on the way home. Where do you want to go on vacation. I don’ t have to be back until next year.” Tanya showed him the cruises she had bookmarked on the computer.“ Next year?” she asked. His casual statement took a moment to sink in. Eddie nodded and picked the two week cruise.“ I put that one on there for comparison,” She said.“ But that is the one I want to take,” he said. Tanya ran the total for a family of four in two lower cabins.“ That is going to eat over half the savings and that is not all the extras. It is always more expensive at peak times,” she said, thinking about the car she wanted to buy Eddie next year.