Enough.
One morning he asked Sam how long a certain loading process took.
Sam answered.
Richard said the dashboard showed twelve minutes less.
Sam laughed.
“Then let the dashboard load the truck.”
Richard could have taken offense.
Instead, he stayed and watched.
The dashboard was wrong.
That afternoon the metric changed.
Daniel heard about it from three different people.
He never mentioned it to Richard.
He did not need to.
Daniel himself began coming in once or twice a week.
Not to supervise.
Mostly to listen.
Sometimes he helped.
One evening, near closing, he saw a young warehouse employee struggling with a large box.
Daniel walked over.
“Need a hand?”
The young man looked up.
“Sure.”
Together they lifted it onto a cart.
“Thanks, Mr. Mercer.”
Daniel nodded.
Then the young man hesitated.
“Can I ask you something?”
“You just did.”
The employee smiled.
“Were you really here when the company started?”
Daniel looked around.
Forklifts.
Steel racks.
Computers.
Hundreds of employees in a company that now sold across the country.
“Before this building existed.”
“What was it like?”
Daniel thought of the garage.