Chapter 6

Yuryi has the Narrative

Arriving in the breakfast room, we found that others had been up before us. It was quickly apparent that the cooks were among them, when Ingrid brought out breakfast for us before we even reached the table.

“We kept this in the warming oven for you,” she told us. ‘This’ turned out to be ham and eggs with a generous serving of fries on the side and toast with what appeared to be blackberry preserves. There were also two large glasses of orange juice on the tray with everything else.

“Thank you,” both of us said, as she set the tray on the table before returning to the kitchen after a, “You’re welcome”.

“I don’t know if I can eat all of this,” Yvonne said looking at the plates she had removed from the tray. I was sure that I could eat all of mine and possibly any that she couldn’t.

“Do you think your daughters are up yet?” I asked after we had started eating.

“I’ll need to check, and I need to have a serious talk with them about their behavior and their attitudes,” she told me in a somewhat less than happy voice.

“Yes, children,” I said but left it at that.

Ingrid brought out coffee and tea plus some fruit as we finished breakfast, and we sat there for a time enjoying our drinks and the fruit.

“I’m going to need the information on your vehicle before I call someone I know about retrieving it,” I told her, as I called a note pad and a pen to me, startling her again. She gave me the make, model, color and license plate number for the vehicle after recovering. I jotted it all down before carefully calling my cell phone to me and dialing a number. Cell phones don’t do well around a lot of Magic. Someone picked up after two rings.

“City Towing,” the voice on the line said. I recognized who it was.

“Vasilli, this is Yuryi. I know you’re busy, but I need a favor,” I told him.

“You need a favor? Did you finally crash that big truck of yours?” Vasilli asked with a laugh.

“No, it’s not for me. I’m fine. It’s for a lady friend. Her electric car died on her during the storm. It’s near my building. She was on the way to see me about a problem. Will you be able to pick it up?” I asked.

“Shit, it seems like half of the vehicles in the city have broken down during the storm, but for you, I make an exception. Give me description of vehicle,” Vasilli said. After giving him all of the information, he had a final question.

“Where does she want it delivered?” he asked. I looked over at Yvonne. She had heard everything, as I had the phone on speaker.

“Take it to the dealer. I’ll call them tomorrow,” she told me, and I passed the information to Vasilli.

“It will be sometime this afternoon. We’ve been running 18 hours a day for the past two days. I don’t know where they are going to put all of the vehicles,” he told me before hanging up to take another call. I was sure that not only his company, but all of the towing companies in the area were quite busy.

“I’m going up to check on my daughters,” Yvonne told me following that.

“That’s fine. I need to call Paul at the building and see how things are going, and when we will be able to open again,” I told her. She left, and I called Paul.

“Morning, Yuryi,” he answered.

“Morning, Paul. How are things looking?” I asked.

“We’ll have everything cleaned up and back in shape ready to open by this afternoon. I’m not sure how many customers we’ll have, but we’ll be open unless it snows again,” he told me.

“Yes, I just talked to Vasilli. He said the roads are still a mess, but the towing businesses were making a lot of money. He just wasn’t sure where they were going to put all of the vehicles though,” I told him.

“We’ll have the same problem with parking and the snow. The company that we have on retainer is here clearing the parking lot and the warehouse lot, but we’ll probably only have about 60% of the parking spaces available. All of that snow and ice has to go somewhere until it melts. Still, it shouldn’t be a problem for the next few days,” he assured me.

“Any personnel problems?” I asked.

“No, not a one. I’ve talked with several of those staying here. A number of them had checked out the storm at the various entrances of the building. They are all glad that they weren’t out in that and are making sure that they won’t need to be out in the next one,” he told me with a laugh in his voice.

“Are you comfortable with dropping the wards on the store fronts?” I asked.

“Not a problem. I’ll drop the wards on any of the stores that have employees who show up. There may be a problem there too. We’ll just have to see,” he told me.

“Alright, take care of our people, and I’ll be in, in a couple of days,” I told him.

“Take some time off, Yuryi. You were here through the entire storm. We’ll be fine for a while,” he assured me, before I remembered something.

“How is the food holding out in the concession area?” I asked.

“We transferred some food from one of the freezers yesterday. I’ve already made out the invoices for it. I’m also going to call our suppliers and see when they will be able to deliver to us,” he told me.

“Alright, you are on top of everything. I’ll see you in two days,” I told him before we disconnected. Paul has a medium Talent and is a very sharp guy. I considered myself lucky to have found him. Following all of that, I decided to have another cup of coffee, and wait for Yvonne to return before deciding what else to do today.

Yvonne returned after a time. She didn’t look happy.

“Problems?” I asked, as she took a seat next to me.

“My Daughters,” she started in agitation but paused for a number of seconds.

“They don’t teach children about manners or etiquette in school anymore. My daughters think that it’s the responsibility of someone else to take care of providing things for them or getting things set up. I ... I made sure they understand exactly how wrong they are in their thinking. They didn’t like that, but they liked the idea of being out on their own by themselves a lot less,” she finished in an exasperated voice.

“Some schools do leave a lot to be desired these days, but not all of them. One must be careful which one your children attend,” I told her.

“I don’t believe I will have that problem again. Although, I guess I’ll eventually be a grandmother,” she said and laughed. “I have trouble imagining myself as a grandmother,” she added.

“It’s entirely possible,” I told her with a smile.

Following that, there wasn’t a lot to do, and we were bored. Neither of us felt like reading, although I had a library full of books. It was too early and too cold for gardening or washing the truck. It turned out that afternoon sex is a great cure for boredom. It’s also great for working up an appetite for dinner. We certainly developed a large appetite that afternoon after curing another appetite.

Following dinner that evening, we watched a movie in the small parlor. It was the director’s cut of ‘Mozart’. The twins were interested initially in watching a movie, but certainly not, “that old thing,” as they put it. They watched something else on the large screen television in the other parlor. Yvonne and I slept very well that night.

The following morning started out boring again until Vasilli called at about 9:30.

“Yuryi, we located your friend’s car. It had been hit by a snowplow. The collision moved it several feet. The impact was on the passenger’s side in the rear. There was a police report of the accident under the windshield wiper. It had a case number. We put it in the glove compartment. The dealer’s lot was a mess, but we found a place to drop it off. They were closed when we arrived. She will need to call them about the repairs,” Vasilli told me.

“Thanks, Vas. Just bill me. This looks like it will take a while to get resolved,” I told him.

“Yes,” was all he said before we disconnected. Yvonne had heard all of this, as I had the phone on speaker. She exhaled heavily and picked up her phone.

She was on the phone for a time trying to get through to the dealer. She eventually left her number. It was a couple of hours before they called back.

After explaining who she was and what had happened, she gave them the information on her vehicle.

“How long will it take to repair my vehicle?” she finally asked.

“You must understand Ms. Strupinski. We are swamped. There are broken down vehicles all over our lot. We are working as quickly as possible, but it will take time to get all of the vehicles in the garage and evaluate their condition. We may also need to wait for parts to come in to make some repairs. We will call you when we know something,” the harried person at the dealership told her.

“But how can I get to work?” Yvonne demanded.

“We have no more loaners, and the car rental people are also out of vehicles. There is nothing more that I can suggest other than that perhaps someone whom you work with could pick you up. We’re sorry,” the voice said before disconnecting. Yvonne was more than a little upset.

“I’ll get you into work. Call your boss and see if they are open yet?” I told her. There was no answer to her call.

The sex that afternoon was excellent, as was dinner. That evening, we watched ‘The Great Ziegfeld’ with William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Louise Rainer. Yvonne had never seen it and was surprised that it was so good for being made so long ago. I didn’t consider 1936 all that long ago, but I have a different perspective. I have a number of DVDs of the great classic movies and made a promise to watch them with her.

The following morning, we were up early. I needed to check on things at the building, and Yvonne was anxious to collect some of her things from her apartment. We left in the pickup at about 9:15. The roads were in fairly good condition by now. The snow tires made a bit of noise on the roads that were now free of ice and snow. Not all of them were. Arriving at the building, I parked in the parking lot rather than going all of the way around to park inside the building. The main entrance was still locked when we arrived, but one of the staff was there to admit those working in the stores and the concession area. She opened the doors on seeing me.

“Good morning, Yuryi,” she said on opening the door.

“Good morning, Hazel,” I said before introducing Yvonne.

“This is my friend Yvonne. She is to have the same access to the building as the staff has,” I told her to a surprised look from her.

“Oookay,” she said in an unsure voice.

“I’ll advise Paul of this also,” I assured her before we continued into the building. Up in the offices, I spoke to Paul about her admittance, and we had a number of things to go over. Yvonne wasn’t interested in our daily operations and needed something to do.

“Why don’t you check out some of the stores that are open now? We opened a few minutes ago, and most of the stores should be open,” I told her. She left to check out some of the stores. Paul and I were busy for an hour and a half or so. On finishing, I went to find Yvonne. She was sitting in the concession area having some tea.

“Didn’t you find anything of interest?” I asked as I joined her, and Charlie brought me a cup of coffee.

“I looked around for an hour or so, but just wasn’t in the mood for shopping. I did see some things that I liked but don’t really need right now,” she told me.

We left on finishing our drinks. In the truck, Yvonne gave me directions to her apartment. It was in an upscale area of the city. We parked in her parking space. It would have been a tight spot for the pickup, but most of the lot was empty presently. Many people had already returned to work after the storm. Her apartment was on the second floor of the building.

“Do you want to take everything with you today?” I asked after entering the apartment. It consisted of a large living room, dining area, kitchen, and three bedrooms with a separate bath. It was large enough for three and homey.

“Not everything today. Just mainly most of my clothes and personal things,” she told me. We adjourned to her bedroom, where she commenced to collect the things that she wanted to take with us today. While she had several suitcases, they weren’t sufficient to take everything that she wanted to.