HEART FOR HIRE ✓

Ten

Thanks to me, the entire ride to the winery - or wherever Zion is driving us to - is quiet with some radio playing in the background.
In about an hour or so, he finally pulls over outside a huge black gate. Immediately, a man dressed as a security guard opens the gate and Zion drives through the open gate, past a parking lot to another smaller one where he parks the car in a designated spot for the managing director.

"Where is this place?" Alex pokes his head from the back seat.

"This is the family company, this is where all the drinks from Thompsons Inc are made," Zion explains as he undoes his seatbelt.

Just then, an older man dressed in a suit comes running to Zion's side of the car holding a small briefcase. He bows his head slightly before opening Zion's door.

"Welcome sir," the man bows again, "everything is planned as you requested."

"Thank you Edmund," Zion nods at the man, who scurries away after handing the briefcase to Zion.

Alex and I climb out of the car and that's when I get the full view of Thompsons Inc.
It's a tall building with about ten floors, with it's bold and neon colored business name and logo hanging from the top floor. There are other cars parking in the lot and other big trucks with men loading and offloading things.
Other people are walking around seriously looking busy. This is what a production company must look like!

"Woah," Alex marvels, his eyes roaming around the tall building. "This place is huge. You own this place?"

Zion just laughs and locks his car.
He leads us into the elevator on the ground floor, and I don't miss the fact that other people evacuated the elevator as soon as they saw Zion approaching it.
The elevator takes us to the third floor and we pass through numerous corridors to a room labelled 'dressing room.'

"We're going into a busy unit with machines and electricity," Zion explains as he opens a wooden wardrobe in the room. "All visitors must wear protective wear; lab coats, hair nets and gumboots. If possible, masks too."

After the dressing room, we move to different floors, each with it's own production unit. There is the fruit juice production unit, the mineral water unit, the soft drinks unit, the dairy unit which immediately captures Alex's attention and lastly, the wine unit.

Alex disappears with the dairy unit's supervisor because he wants to know more about his favorite yogurt while Zion sticks with me, showing me around the other units.

"Which one was the first product you produced?" I ask him, mainly to look like I am interested.

He laughs in response.
"Thompsons Inc has been here for years, starting with my grandfather. He was employed by Four Cousins, a wine producing company in South Africa and that is where he picked interest from. When he returned to Church Hill, he brought some grape varieties with him and started making wine on a small scale. Most of it was for parties and holy communion."

"Wow," I couldn't believe it, "how did a small wine producer grow into such a big brand?"

"It didn't happen overnight. At that time, wine wasn't famous and this town was mostly occupied by Muslims. So, in addition to wine, he decided to produce other products which are generally acceptable by the whole community," he pauses to greet a supervisor for the fruit juice unit. After sanitizing our hands and getting inside, he continues the story. "He had three brothers and together, they started Four Brothers Beverages Ltd."

"From Four Cousins to Four Brothers? Real creative."

"Tell me about it," he laughs along with me. "It wasn't until my father's generation that they decided to change the name to fit the family's name since it is obvious that it had become a family business. Hence, Thompsons Inc."

"That's interesting," I said honestly as we moved along the unit. "Which kind of juice do you produce here?"

The supervisor, having heard my question chimes in.
"Apple, mango, passion and orange."

"I wonder what a mixture of all those would taste like," I say out loud. "Would it be like punch or something?"

"Why wonder? Let's go and taste it," Zion holds my hand as the supervisor follows to the storage room. The supervisor gets samples of all the juice and mixes them in two plastic disposable glasses and hands them to Zion and I.

"Hmm," Zion nods his head upon sipping the drink. I haven't tasted because as much as it looks palatable, I'm not sure that it tastes that good. "This is not bad. Why didn't we think of this before?"

Zion goes ahead to gulp the remaining drink and looks at me questioningly, probably asking why I haven't drunk mine.
I look away and bring the glass to my lips. It smells like a mixture of fruits, the orange and passion being more prominent.
The taste at first is not that great but upon taking another sip and taking time to savor it, all the flavours start bursting through.

"Yeah, this is good," I nod in agreement

"Please draft for me a proposal to make this drink available in the market by April," Zion tells the supervisor who nods his head and walks out of the room.

He then turns to me. "You are a fucking genius. I'm glad I brought you with me today."

"I'm no genius," I wave him off. "It was just a crazy thought. I didn't think anyone would buy it."

"Well, not having a university degree doesn't make you less of a genius and if you have any more crazy thoughts that are this great, please feel free to air them."

"I think you are just overestimating me."

"I think you underestimate yourself," he pokes my shoulder,"your head has very good ideas and I would be a hypocrite if I take credit for them."

My eyes widen. "What does that mean?"

"Don't worry about that. Keep bringing in those ideas, will you?"

Leaving the unit, I can't help but pinch myself.
Did I just give a good idea? Me?

Remember, you're unstoppable :)