Chapter 25

We were up with the sun the next morning and off to the cafe for some breakfast not much later. The girls had waffles and sausage patties while I had three fried eggs, biscuits, and a triple order of bacon. Then we went back to the trailer for some coffee, and to let me have some time on the phone.

John was my first call and Scotty had found exactly what I'd wanted. The wheels hadn't been that hard to come up with and the only accommodation needed for the Monster Mudders would be a four inch solid aluminum spacer between the wheels to make room for the extra width of the big tires. I was so tickled I had them get a set for my old truck too.

"No problem there at all, Bill. Scotty figured some other goofball with more money than sense would probably end up wanting a setup like that too, and he bought enough to keep four sets in stock, ready to go," John said, and I could tell he was yankin' my twine with that, but damned if it didn't turn out to be another lucky reminder.

"Is Carrol workin' anywhere, John," I asked, hoping he wouldn't think I was just being nosey.

"Not right now. I talked her into quittin' her job when I found out how good things were going to be here with Scotty, but she's already tired of sittin' around the house and she's been looking to see if she could find something she might like to do," he said.

"Think there's any chance I could hire her to take my girls shopping?"

"Probably, in fact you might not have to hire her, she might do it just to get out of the house," he said.

"You know I'm not going for that."

"Well, I don't want to get in the middle of this. You call her and y'all can fight it out without me. I probably like shoppin' less than you do and it sure as hell ain't something I want to get into a fuss over," he said.

"Ok, I'll take it like a man if I have to. I'll try to get the trucks over there today sometime and let them stay til you get done with 'em. Just for safety sake, go ahead and mount tires on all the wheels you bought for stock. I might get a flat or two where I'm going," I said.

"Are ya sure Bill? Scotty bought enough for eight or ten full sets."

"Even better, just put 'em in the bed of the old truck," I said, and then we hung up.

"Louise, are you, Helen, and Nancy getting tired of sitting around in the camper?" I asked, and they all nodded at me.

"I still have a lot to take care of but I'm going to call someone to take you shopping," I said.

"What is shopping?"

"Like we did at the first Wal-Mart, but more of it," I said.

Apparently they'd enjoyed it more than they'd let on at the time, because all of them grinned.

It wasn't hard to convince Carrol that I really needed her help on this deal. But it was hard to convince her to accept a thousand bucks a day for doing it.

The next snag was getting us all to the same place with something to ride away in. I rented a limo for two weeks and the lady that took the order nearly pissed her pants at the thought of the upcoming bill for me, but I didn't care.

It was duck soup to have Carl tell his guy to escort Carrol and the girls and provide some protection. I knew it wouldn't really be much protection, but hell, he came prepared to be in uniform and he had the right paperwork to carry his pistol. Things just didn't get that rough in Longview Texas at the Mall.

Milton didn't grumble a bit when I asked him to get a hundred thousand ready for the girls to pick up, and Carrol knew the way to his bank if the limo driver didn't.

The girls and I loaded up in the new Silverado and headed for John and Scotty's shop. Carrol was already there when we arrived and the limo drove up next. Greg, the security guard, was the last one to drive up, in my old pickup.

I was feeling proud of my self for the quick thinking, impromptu organization I'd pulled together and it only took a few minutes to introduce everyone, even including John who had wandered out from the shop.

After I'd explained to Carrol that the girls didn't do so well with English I had to go on and let her know that the Spanish she switched to wasn't going to get the job done either.

"They're Caddo Indians, Carrol, and the story is too long to tell here and now. Just take them shopping and buy them anything they want. For today, try to get them plenty of clothes that would serve them well if they were camping out, spring, summer, fall, or winter. Shoes, boots, and cowboy boots too would be good, but do your best to make sure the footwear fits perfectly please.

"If you want to get a few pairs of high heels for them you can try, but they don't know what they are and they won't have a damned place to wear them," I said.

Carrol said she'd do her best but she balked when I told her to be sure to buy plenty of things for herself. It took me ten minutes to convince her that the girls would feel funny if she wasn't buying things too. I cheated a little and didn't let her know that tomorrow they'd need to start loading up on crap for the house - pots, pans, dishes, and the like.

Five minutes after they'd all left I didn't feel so fucking proud of my organizational and managerial skills. I had organized everything but a way for me to get anywhere myself. Both of my pickups were in the shop already and the limo was gone. I was afoot in the big middle of Longview Texas. I had to go back into the office and tell Scotty about my fuckup, and then ask him where the closest place to buy a cheap pickup was.

"That's right, you've been out of town for a while haven't you?" he asked.

"Yep."

"Why don't you ride up to the mill's Credit Union with Jimmy and me. I have to take him up to fetch a repo they need us to put back into saleable shape," he said.

"I guess I could, but how's that gonna help me find a cheap pickup?" I asked.

"Steel mill. Big layoff. Credit Union. Repossessions."

"Damn, I guess I am a little slow today," I said, and grinned.

In a way it nearly made me sick to my stomach when I got to the Credit Union with them. It didn't take long to get their trick done but I told them to just leave me there. The Credit Union manager was happy to let me check out the repos at my leisure, especially after I had him call Milton.

What made me feel so bad were thoughts of all the steelworkers who'd lost this much stuff already. I knew it wasn't a national tragedy or anything, but there must have been two hundred cars and pickups on that lot and God knows what else. There were a lot of families doing without things they'd been enjoying just a few months ago. Hell, the Credit Union had even had to put up a metal building for a sort of warehouse to hold furniture and appliances and the like.

There wasn't shit I could do about it now, and even if I'd had the six million to start with I couldn't have bailed all these people out. I did my best to shake it off and see if there was anything I could make use of.

There was plenty. I found a really nice two-year-old short wide four-wheel-drive Chevy pickup right away. Even though I didn't really need it long term I was going to buy it, and probably have John and Scotty fix it up like the others for me, just in case.

There were also more boats than you could shake a stick at. Bass boats mostly, the kind that guys who were making more than they knew what to spend it on bought. It was too damned bad they hadn't put some of that money in the Credit Union instead of pissing it away on boats they probably didn't even use that much. Damn, half of them looked like they'd barely ever been in the water.

The oddest thing on the lot was a slightly used yard mule; some people called them trailer jockeys. They were used to shuffle big truck trailers around in a drop yard or at loading or unloading facilities. For the life of me I couldn't figure out how it had ended up here. Why would a steelworker buy one, and what possible use could they have for it? It wasn't like there were any recreational uses. Still, if the price was even half way right and if it was in decent shape I was going to buy it.

It wouldn't really be worth a shit for much when I was going, but it would do a great job of what it had been made for, moving those trailers I was gathering up. Just finding it was more than worth the time I'd spent riding up here with Scotty.

Inside the storage building it was a little like a giant pawnshop. I found three VCRs that looked like they were in good shape, and what looked like a commercial duty washer and dryer along with three water heaters that looked big enough to have been used in a Laundromat. Damned if they weren't marked as running off propane.