It had taken so much hard work. All through the weeks, and in the weekends with help from her father. Day after day, relentlessly, tirelessly, working as hard as she could.
And the young, colorfully jaguar-spotted rabbit girl Penelope Peras could be proud of herself. She had actually done it. With help, with forced ingenuity, with skimming corners where possible, with using things they were not originally meant for, she had achieved the goal she had set out to reach. The old, run-down 1983 Toyota Quick Delivery 100 breadvan no longer looked like a cast-off. It had no more rust; that had all been ground away and treated. It no longer had dents, or at least not large visible ones; they had all been tapped and hammered out as best as possible. It no longer was a dirty off-white; it was now a gleaming and bright baby pink in color. Who knew three coats of acrylic house paint could look so good on a vehicle?
It sat on new tires, that were still old, but a lot better than what had been on there before. It had neat seat covers that her mother had sewed together for her from the bolt of faded, pink-colored red denim. It no longer coughed and blew blue smoke; it sang like a hummingbird. Alright, more like a bronchitic hummingbird, but still, that was a lot better than before, and it sang its rattly song through an exhaust system that no longer had any holes and leaks. And on the inside of the cargo box, it had neat paneling along the side walls, as well as shelving racks with uprights at the front of each shelf; larger spaces at the bottom for larger boxes, smaller and divided sections further up to hold smaller packages. Three weeks of non-stop work, but the result was worth it. The dingy old vehicle now looked representative for a new start-up company. It was only missing one last thing; signage.
But Penelope had a plan for that. With the vehicle now looking the best it would, and had in a long time, it was time to go out and snare some new sponsors for the Peachy Initiative.
Even the work itself had come with some advantages. Spending so much time at her parental house, Penelope could do her laundry in her mother's washing machine. She could make up for her lack of tools by using her father's tools. Her mother was seeing to it she ate well and healthy and plentiful. Her father had spurred on her mercantile spirit by proposing a deal; he had enjoyed learning how to operate, and use, the paint gun Penelope had bought so much, he offered that at any time he asked his daughter to borrow it, that would earn her a favor from him to redeem later. Small favors, comparable to the work he would be using the paint gun for, but if Penelope wouldn't call in any of the favors, five of the small ones would add up to one large one.
But for now, it was time to get back to work on the Peachy Initiative! A last night spent in her old room at her parents' house, a filling breakfast provided by her mother, a quick shower and evenly quick stint in the dryer booth, a quick brushing of fur and hair, and the rabbit girl go into her new uniform. Although 'uniform' was a generous description; it was just a pair of rather stylish pink gardening coveralls, trimmed with white and with an embroidered name patch on the left chest pocket, and a pink flat boater hat with a white band. Still, it looked neat, it looked stylish, it looked cute and it also looked official enough.
Off she went. Into town, and towards the industrial sector. There was a company there named Picture Perfect, which printed signs, banners, flags and vinyls; that was her goal. She parked her van in one of the parking spaces out front, took a file folder and stepped through the door with her head held high, a bit brazenly, radiating self-confidence as she approached a reception desk.
"Good morning," she addressed the blonde Retriever woman behind the desk with a pleasant smile. "My name is Penelope Peras, I would like to speak with someone in authority over sponsorships and shipping, please."
"Do you have an appointment, miss?" the canine woman asked, tapping on a keyboard.
"I'm afraid I do not, but if someone would be able to spare me a minute or two, I would very much appreciate that," Penelope smiled.
"One moment please, miss." The canine woman took the receiver of a landline telephone and pressed a button. "Miss Oxford? Front desk, I have a miss Peras here who would like to speak with you if you have some time. ...Shipping and sponsorships. ...Alright, thank you." She put down the receiver and turned back to Penelope with a smile. "Miss Oxford will see you, miss Peras. Go down that corridor over there, turn left at the end, it's door One-B."
"Thank you very much," Penelope smiled.
She walked into the corridor, took the left turn at the end and looked at the doors until she spotted the one marked 1-B. Taking off her hat, the colorfully spotted rabbit girl knocked on the door and waiting calmly, until a voice sounded from behind the door.
"Come in."
Stepping through the door and closing it behind her, Penelope sent a friendly smile at a quite plush-looking gray-blue British Blue Shorthair cat woman with a pair of small glasses over her deep copper-colored eyes seated behind a desk with two computers and two landline telephones on it.
"Good morning, thank you for seeing me."
"My pleasure," the feline woman nodded, standing up and offering a paw. "Jeanette Oxford, and you are miss Peras?"
"Yes, Penelope Peras," Penelope nodded, shaking the woman's paw briefly.
"Pleased." A gesture of the other paw at a set of chairs in front of the desk. "Do have a seat." The feline woman sat down herself as well. "Now then, miss Peras, what can I do for you?"
Penelope sat on one of the chairs and held the file folder in her lap with both paws.
"I came to ask if your company might have interest in sponsoring the Peachy Initiative, miss Oxford."
"And what precisely is this Peachy Initiative, miss Peras?"
"The Peachy Initiative is an initiative aiming to kick-start the launch of the start-up company Peachy Parcels Point to Point, a newly founded private courier company with the objective to provide a swift and low-cost in-town delivery service for larger companies in need of having packages delivered to clients or other companies. This company, founded by myself, is currently in the last stage of its start-up phase, and is as yet still in need of one of more stimuli to ensure a smooth start."
"I see," the shorthair cat woman nodded slowly. "That does sound like a commendable initiative, miss Peras. Might I be so bold as to ask what type of sponsoring your new company has so far received already?"
"An entrepreneur grant from the city council to acquire the needed starting capital, and a partial sponsorship by the vehicle dealership Victor's Vintage Vans in order to acquire the needed delivery vehicle," Penelope smiled.
"And are all the permits and insurances in order?"
"Yes ma'am, those have been acquired with help of that grant, and all applications have been processed and the documentation received."
"And what had you in mind for a sponsorship of this company, miss Peras?"
Penelope's smiled grew a bit brighter.
"The company vehicle has been fully refurbished, and while funds are currently running low, it is still in need of signage." She opened the file folder and pulled out two papers, laying them on the desk. "To be specific, signage in the form of vinyls to apply to the sides of the vehicle, this design, in the size specified on this paper."
The British Blue cat woman picked up the papers to look at them, pushing up her small glasses a bit. A light smile formed on her short, compact muzzle while she gave another slow nod of her head.
"That is a quite attractive design, miss Peras. Simple colors, easy on the eyes. I take it, from the way it is projected on this outline of a van, and the sizes noted, that it concerns a simple rectangular shape with a transparent background, to include the lettering below the logo?"
"That is correct, yes. I figured that would be simpler and more neat than using loose individual letters."
"Right, right. That is indeed true." The feline woman pushed up her small glasses again as she looked at Penelope. "Am I also correct in assuming that this company's part in the sponsorship would be to print these vinyl signs and provide them to your company free of charge?"
"That would be the most generous type of sponsorship I hope is possible, yes."
"I see. However, as nothing is for nothing, miss Peras, what would be, in simple and direct words, in it for us?"
Penelope was undaunted.
"Your company will receive an honorable mention on my company's website in the list of generous sponsors, as well as on the commemorative plaque that is to be commissioned. That will gain your company undying fame as a supporter of the first hour once my company has grown enough to enter the stock floor and overtake UPS, MinnaTrans, DHL and Fed-Ex. Plus, should you happen to have, at this moment, any parcels that need delivering, my company shall in return do that free of charge also."
The gray-blue shorthair cat woman couldn't help letting go a soft, short laugh and pointed a finger at Penelope.
"That, I will take you up on, miss Peras. Our regular courier service is running heavily reduced hours due to the summertime, and what they referred to as internal problems, and we have several items that require somewhat urgent delivering." She tapped her finger on one of the papers Penelope had put on her desk. "Do you have the PNG file of this print-out with you, by any chance?"
Penelope reached into the right chest pocket of her pink coveralls and pulled out a USB stick.
"Right here."
"In that case, do please follow me, miss Peras."
Rising to her feet and taking the two papers, the British Blue cat woman led the way out of the office and down the corridor. Penelope followed her to the rear of the building, into another corridor from where several double doors led into large rooms with different types of printing equipment. In one of the rooms, the feline woman walked over to a ruddy agouti gerbil man sitting behind a large computer.
"Got time to squeeze in a quick order, Barry?"
"Sure, whaddaya got, chief?"
The feline woman handed over the two papers.
"This design, on transfer vinyl. Rectangle, transparent background, lettering included in the rectangle shape. Sizes are here."
The gerbil man checked the papers with his head slightly canted.
"Looks easy enough, should have that printed out in a jiffy. Got a PNG I can shoot into the computer?"
Penelope gave him the USB stick.
"On here, it's the file titled vanlogo."
"Thank you." The gerbil man pushed the stick into a USB port on the large computer and opened an explorer window to copy the file, then removed the USB stick and handed it back to Penelope. "And here you go." He turned to the shorthair cat woman. "When do you want this done, chief? And how many prints?"
"Two, by the end of the day," the feline woman said, turning to Penelope. "Please follow me again, miss Peras."
"You got it, chief. Have a good day, ladies," the gerbil man nodded, turning to his computer and beginning to type and click.
The British Blue cat woman meanwhile led the way for Penelope again, out of the printing room and down another corridor all the way to the rear right of the building. Through a set of large double doors, they stepped into a large open storeroom, with a few aisles of racks and shelves on one side, several rows of tables where a number of people were packaging a variety of items somewhat in the middle, and another row of tables and desks at the other side where a pair of almost identical black fox brothers were printing out labels and a tan-colored hare man was scrolling through a list on one of the computers.
Penelope stood to the side quietly while the shorthair cat woman tapped the hare man on the shoulder.
"Hey Arnold, where did you put those delayed deliveries?"
"Rack four, section C," the hare man said, looking up with a somewhat relieved expression. "Is QuickBring finally here?"
"No." The feline woman held out a paw at Penelope. "Meet miss Peras, CEO of Peachy Parcels, a newly started courier service. Her company is taking over those delayed deliveries for now."
"Oh! Well, so long as they get out the door, I'm a happy bunny." The hare man opened a drawer of a filing cabinet and rifled through it for a few moments, extricating a form with which he turned to Penelope. "Nice to meet you, miss Peras. Would you be so kind as to fill this out for me, so I can get your company entered into the system?"
"By all means," Penelope nodded with a smile.
She quickly but neatly filled out the form before handing it back to the hare man. He looked at it and nodded, beginning to rapidly copy it into the computer he was seated behind.
"Very nice handwriting, this is easy to read. With all the digital crap these days, it almost seems like people have forgotten how to write properly. There... and there, all put in." He turned back to Penelope with a small tablet. "So, new courier company, right? I wish you all the success, miss Peras. I hope you'll do better than our current one," he added with a light smirk, giving the tablet a light shake to activate it. "On here is the list of deliveries, including all addresses and code numbers. Upon delivery, please have the recipient sign in this box as proof of delivery. When you're all done, return here to return this tablet so we can update our shipping list and process the payment."
"Payment's taken care of, Arnold," the cat woman spoke up with a smile. "So you can skip that step."
"In that case, all that's left to do is for you to bring your truck around back, and you can back up to that door over there," the hare man said, pointing at a garage door in the outside wall. "It has a sensor, so it'll open when you get close enough."
"Thank you," Penelope nodded with a smile, sliding the tablet in the left chest pocket of her pink coveralls. "I'll be right there."
"And when you're done and have returned the tablet, please come see me, miss Peras, I'll see to it you'll receive your order," the shorthair cat woman added with another smile.
"Thank you very much as well," Penelope smiled, shaking the feline woman's paw. "You'll get an extra mention on my company's website."
She trotted out the regular door next to the garage door the hare man had pointed out and got into her van to drive it around the side of the building. The garage door indeed opened as she backed up to it, and as the jaguar-spotted rabbit girl walked to the back of her van to open the rear doors and lower the steps, one of the black fox brothers wheeled a cart stacked with several flat boxes and cardboard tubes over to the garage door. It only took a few minutes to load everything into the back of her van, and with a cheery wave at the hare man as the garage door closed again, Penelope got back behind the wheel of her van, took the tablet from the left chest pocket of her coveralls and checked the list on there.
All the addresses were within Ellsehnial, mainly on the other side of town in the commercial district, with one address being on the far end of the industrial district. With a nod of her head, Penelope clipped her company phone into a holder on the dashboard. The only app installed on there was a GPS app, but for the first address it was not needed as the colorfully-spotted rabbit girl knew where it was. She closed the sliding driver door of her van, started the engine and set off calmly.
While driving, the rabbit girl silently mused to herself. So, so, so. So she had a competitor in town. And from the sounds of it, things were not going super smoothly with that company. Interesting. Would that be a sign of things to come? Did it mean there might not be a bright future for a small, privately-owned delivery company? Or were that other company's 'internal problems' due to poor management? Penelope shrugged lightly. That was not something that needed mulling over; it just needed to be kept squirreled away in a back corner of the mind.
For now, all the jaguar-spotted rabbit girl needed to worry about was building up trust. Be quick, be reliable, be transparent about the costs. She had done plenty of research on the subject of pricing, and had set up an overseeable list of costs and charges so she could fairly price her services. Of course, being on the cheaper end of the spectrum would increase her chances of companies using her service, and she had done enough puzzling to come up with a charge that was fair, low enough to be considered cheap, yet just enough to make sure it would cover the costs of all the insurances and fuel, and make a teensy little bit of profit.
That was enough for now. Penelope wasn't after a get-rich-quick scheme. Her aim was not to earn a bunch of money in a short time, her aim was to do her best and launch a reliable courier service that people would be willing and happy to use. Get her name out there in a positive light by providing good service. And take the next right, because there was the gardening centre that was the first address on her list.
Parking close by the entrance door, a quick check on the list and checking it against the packages in the back of her van. The five largest tubes, those were the ones. Penelope shouldered them and walked into the building and over to what looked like a customer service counter.
"Good morning! Delivery from Picture Perfect," she smiled at the raccoon woman behind the counter, laying the long tubes on the counter.
"Oh! That's not a moment too soon," the raccoon woman said. "What's been the holdup?"
"They had a slight issue with their regular courier, and they send along their apologies for the delay," Penelope smiled, offering the tablet. "Sign here, please."
The raccoon woman took the stylus to put a scribble in the required box.
"Are you their new courier?"
"I'm a new courier for hire by anybody, and currently I'm filling in for Picture Perfect's regular courier," Penelope smiled again, slipping the tablet back into her left chest pocket and taking a small holder full of business cards from her right chest pocket, laying one of the cards on the counter. "Here is my card, do please consider me any time you need anything delivered locally, and have a very nice day. I'd love to stay and chat, but I have more deliveries to make."
With a friendly wave, the young rabbit girl walked back to her van and got in. Tick! That was the first one off the list! Another quick check; all the other addresses were in the commercial district on the other side of town. Almost all the addresses looked familiar enough to her, too; having been an adventurous, explorative child, Penelope had taken her bicycle all over the city of Ellsehnial multiple times over, and she knew of many side streets and shortcuts and handy alleyways - even if some of them no longer existed as the city kept developing and renewing.
Getting over to the commercial district was simple enough; she could take Barnaby Street and skirt the downtown traffic. Of course, any time she'd gained by that was lost when she got stuck at the railway crossing near the end of the industrial district, waiting for a quarter-mile long freight train to trundle by so slowly Penelope decided to shut off the engine and save some fuel. But that also gave the colorfully-spotted rabbit girl some time to look over the list of addresses and compile an efficient route. Always positive!
One by one, Penelope delivered the parcels that were in the back of her van. A flat box here, a couple of cardboard tubes there, a larger and flatter box here, a box holding half a dozen tubes there. And at every address, she also delivered apologies about the delay on behalf of the signage company. The fifth address, a small mom-and-pop DIY store, held her up a little bit longer, as the beige and brown-furred older meerkat woman who took delivery of the package asked a heavily accented question that sounded hopeful.
"What is your rates, miss?"
"Just a moment." Penelope trotted out to her van and took a laminated sheet of paper from the dashboard which she took back into the store to show to the meerkat woman while pointing out the different entries. "This is my price list. This here is the base charge for any parcel up to ten pounds of weight, within a twenty square mile area, which is basically within the whole city. This is the weight surcharge per pound over ten, this is the distance surcharge per mile outside the twenty square mile radius, this percentage is a surcharge for fragile or high-value items that require extra care, and this percentage is a surcharge for waiting time over five minutes, just in case there's nobody available to take delivery because waiting longer will delay all the next deliveries as well." She gave a light shrug and smiled. "I don't see that happening to be honest, because I aim to plan for ample waiting time, and I will most likely have plenty of time because my company is just starting out and won't have very many clients for a while."
"Is very good," the meerkat woman nodded as she looked over the list. "Very clear, you not see good cost breakdown often. You can take package with you, yes? Is for office in Sutton Street, they order five blinds. Post office charge high because they strange size, long and thin."
"Of course," Penelope nodded with a smile. "Sutton Street, that's where Picture Perfect is, I can deliver the blinds on my way back there. And five of the same parcels, that's a twenty percent bulk discount on the base price." A light chortle escaped her. "So in a way, that's five for the price of four, you could say."
"Good good, much thanks, I appreciate," the meerkat woman nodded, turning and shouting at an open door. "Janosh! Bring blinds! Courier girl will bring!"
"Good, nice!" Moments later, an older meerkat man with much darker fur appeared through the open door, carrying five boxes that looked like square tubes. "Is blinds here, for Sutton Street office, yes. Where you want, miss?"
"I'll take them, they go in the back of my van," Penelope smiled, taking the small holder from her right chest pocket and handing the meerkat woman a business card. "And here you go, ma'am, that's my card, call me any time you need something delivered, or book on my website, the address is on the card."
"Yes, is good!" the meerkat woman nodded rapidly, taking the card and pushing two coral-red $20 banknotes in Penelope's paw. "Is payment, here."
"That's too much, ma'am, and I don't have petty cash yet to make change," Penelope said with another smile.
The meerkat woman fluttered a paw.
"You keep! Buy ice cream for do good job, yes! You help, we help, is how works. And you get good experience, you like store, you come back and buy things here because you like store."
"You can count on that," Penelope nodded with a wider smile. "It's very generous of you, ma'am, I certainly appreciate it very much, and you can be sure that any time I need tools or materials, this will be the store I buy them at."
"Good, yes. And we send things, we call you, you bring things we send," the meerkat woman nodded rapidly.
"Absolutely," Penelope smiled. "Thank you very much, ma'am, and please have an amazing day. I have to get going, I have some more deliveries to make."
"Yes, you bring things, you do good job," the meerkat woman nodded again.
The meerkat man opened the door for Penelope as the jaguar-spotted rabbit girl took the five square tubes under an arm and carried them out of the store, and he also opened the rear doors of her van so she could put the packages into the vehicle. Penelope shook his paw and thanked him as well, taking a moment or two to fill out an invoice, stamp it "paid" and handing the meerkat man a copy. With another thank-you and a cheery wave, the young rabbit girl got back behind the wheel of her van, calmly driving off and wiggling a bit in the seat as a bounce crept into her legs. As far as experiences went, that had been an awesome one!
Two more boxes here, two more tubes there. A last stop to deliver a box that was four by seven feet in size but only two inches thick. Plus a stop by the bank on her way back to the signage company to deposit the cash money in her company account. A final stop at the small office nextdoor to the signage company to deliver the five sets of blinds.
Back at the signage company, Penelope parked her van behind the building near the large garage door this time, and went inside through the regular door next to the garage door. Finding the hare man, she handed him back the tablet.
"You did that pretty quickly," he remarked while checking the recipient signatures.
"It helps when you know the shortcuts, and I've been exploring this city's streets since I was a kid," Penelope smiled.
"Well, good job," the hare man nodded. "Did you get many complaints?"
"Not too bad, mostly people just wondered what the delay was about," Penelope smiled. "I told them your regular courier was having issues and offered them apologies on your company's behalf."
"Nice. Yeah, fortunately our customers are usually not too demanding," the hare man said, connecting the tablet to the computer. "Are you available coming Friday? We have some more shipments needing to go out by then, and I don't know how long it'll be until QuickBring has their act back together."
"Certainly, you can book the date on my website," Penelope nodded with a smile, handing the hare man one of her business cards as well.
"Good, good, we'll most likely do that," the hare man nodded, setting the tablet to upload its list to the computer while picking up the receiver of a landline telephone with his other paw and pressing a number. "Miss Oxford? Miss Peras has returned, she's waiting here for you."
Only a minute or two later, the British Blue cat woman walked into the storeroom, bringing with her a smile and one of the cardboard tubes.
"You're back quicker than I thought. I hope you didn't speed or rush?"
"No, I just know a lot of shortcuts," Penelope smiled. "Only one of them didn't work because the alley was too narrow for my van. But I actually took a few moments with each client for some friendly words and offer them apologies for the delay on your company's behalf."
"Very good," the feline woman nodded with a smile as well. "I half expected you to take a lot of time to do everything at your leisure."
Penelope drew herself up with a deeper smile.
"Miss Oxford, any company hiring me pays me for making deliveries, not for the time it takes me to make them. Taking a long time just means more time spent in traffic, more fuel burnt unnecessarily and a harder test on the patience of my clients."
"For as young as you are, you're certainly very wise," the shorthair cat woman smiled with a light chortle.
The hare man looked up from the computer he was working on.
"Booking her now for our Friday shipment, miss Oxford. She did a good job, sigs all check out, and I wanna be ahead of the curve in case QuickBring flubs the ball again."
"I agree with that decision," the gray-blue cat woman nodded, turning back to Penelope with a smile. "That job will be for your regular charge, but for now, here is your payment for this one."
She handed Penelope the cardboard tube and shook the rabbit girl's paw.
"Thank you very much, miss Oxford," Penelope smiled. "I'm very grateful for your sponsorship and your willingness to give me a chance." She let go a light giggle when her phone sounded a ding. "And that would be your Friday job coming in. Again, thank you so very much."
"You have made a favorable first impression, miss Peras," the British Blue cat woman smiled. "If you continue making favorable impressions like that, we may switch our local deliveries to your company permanently."
"I'll definitely do my best," Penelope nodded with a bright smile. "Thanks again, and you will see me coming Friday, miss Oxford, mister, uhm... oh, I'm sorry, I never got your name."
"Landar, Arnold Landar," the hare man introduced himself, shaking Penelope's paw. "Do your best like you did today, and you'll go far I'm willing to bet."
"During our conversation this morning, she did mention her aim is to grow her company so much it can head off to Dow Jones and out-compete all the major players in the parcel delivery field," Ms. Oxford said with a light chortle.
"Hahaha! Well, when you've bought out DHL and Fed-Ex in ten years from now, it'll be an honour to be able to say we've known you and even aided you since your most humble beginnings," the hare man laughed.
"I'll make sure to mention how helpful and appreciated your aid has been at my first international speech as the world's youngest parcel tycoon," Penelope giggled.
They all laughed cheerfully, shook paws again and said their goodbyes. Penelope put the cardboard tube into the back of her van, got behind the wheel and drove off beaming. Straight to her parents' place to have her father help her put the vinyls on the sides of her van so it would be instantly recognizable as her company vehicle.
What an amazing, successful day! She had gotten the final puzzle piece to complete her van, she had gotten a taste of the work she would be doing, and she had even already gained two prospective clients! The Peachy Initiative had worked wonders!
