"With the improvements in the machinery, the food, contracts going on everyone starts to do a better job, our output goes up. After all, we feel like our managers are finally listening to us and of course they are there to take all the praise and rewards. Now our factory is slowly going from one of the lowest performing factories to about the middle range. This is starting to attract more and more attention from the regional managers and even the national managers. A turnaround like this is something to study. So every few months some group or delegation comes to tour, the managers make the speeches, pictures are taken and life moves on. Miron is still in the back as a Deputy Accountant during all of this looking like just another bookkeeper. About two years after Miron joined the plant the regular accountant is transferred to another plant and Miron moves right into the position. Everyone congratulates him, even Rada. It was the first time I really saw him happy and smiling. After he becomes the head accountant he starts working late again, we all figure he is getting the books in shape. We think that with the improvements he did as deputy now as the head accountant it will be even better.
About eight months after his promotion I am going to work on morning and the plant is closed. The militsiya are at all the gates and not letting anyone in and I can see several men in suits and coats coming in and out after checking with the guards. This all told me that something was very wrong and the government had staged a raid. The first thing I thought was where was Miron, I needed to check with him and see what is going on since he works near the manager's office. I search through the crowd but no one has seen him, then I meet Rada, who looks like she has been crying. This was the first time I saw her in distress. I asked her what happened and she also could not find Miron and had heard that he was in government custody from someone. My heart sank and I thought the fool had done something wrong. After I make sure someone looks after Rada I make my way to the gate, he may be a fool but he is still family. I get up to the Sergeant and ask if Miron is with them, he askes my name, checks his clipboard and instructs one of the officers to take me in.
I was expecting to see Miron being interrogated or arrested. Instead he is showing the government people all the accounts line by line like an school instructor. They are all taking notes and drinking tea while Miron is speaking. He sees me, introduces me and I sit next to one of the officers who fills me in. So when Miron became deputy accountant and started going through the accounts he started seeing revisions and changes. Now he had spoken with me and others so he knew about how much fabric we imported, shipped and sold, machines used and so on. So he started finding orders and contracts for companies and people that never existed and all of them were taking little amounts of money, not enough to cause alarm but as you know, a few small cracks in a dam can leak a lot of water. So he slowly starts to cut down the ghost orders, which were done by the former accountant and other managers. It appeared that every manager had his own scheme and did not tell the others. So Miron would talk to them separately like he was in on the game. He would befriend them and appeal to their greed, let Miron do his work, let the factory before more productive and they would receive more profit.
So he would prune down the little orders at first, put the money back into the plant and let the managers take the credit. All of them were convinced that they would win the big prize and the other managers would be left with nothing. When Miron had become the head accountant and had enough evidence he turned all of them in to the government. He made sure that none of us would lose our jobs and since we had done so well the government kept their word. All the managers that were caught lost their positions and I heard many of them were reassigned to more remote locations. As for Miron, well he was rewarded as a true friend of the working class and he could have selected a visible promotion but he wanted to work in the textile field, flushing out corruption. When Rada heard about how Miron had saved the factory from me she was angry. I think because she was happy he was not in trouble and angry at herself for showing her true emotions. She waited all day for him to come out, even though her family wanted her to come home.
So he comes out and she yells at him about how he made her worry and cry and did he not have any feeling for her? He is struck, why are you concerned, he asks, when all you do is tease and harass me. You could have any guy you wanted if you did not scare them off or pick a fight with them. You picked me because I was not scared of you and looked you in the eye. So if you want a relationship you need to decide right now how it is going to be. Now she is silent. Here was this mouse that turned into a lion and was a hero to many. He goes home and she goes home, the factory is closed for two days during the investigation. Rada's brothers want to beat up Miron but her mother tells them to stay put. So the day come to reopen and Miron meets Rada at the gate, she had some makeup on and he gives her an odd number of flowers. They start dating and he is given a ministry job. As for me, well, I am still working and I am now the head of our section. Give me your address and I will let you know when the wedding is. Thanks for the beers, don't put that in your story, please."
