Chapter 48

Laurie held onto my hand with both of hers and lay against my arm for the rest of the trip to the storage place. Daddy pulled into a space in front of the office and told us to wait for him as he went inside, paperwork in hand.

The driveway had seven parking spaces, four on the edge of the property and two standard plus a double wide handicapped space in front of the building. Just past the parking spaces was a stand with a keypad on it, designed for someone to drive up to and use without having to get out of the car. A few feet past that was a big rolling gate with spikes along the top of it, covering the double wide driveway. There were two signs on the gate; one with the gate and office hours, the other stating that the facility would be closed on Thanksgiving.

There was a long, white building along the edge of the property, going back a football field or so. The inside face was covered in garage doors, with an occasional entry door for access to the inside the building. There was a driveway, then four or five buildings perpendicular to the one on the edge of the property. The closest one had three garage doors on the end with two entry doors separating them. I couldn't see but I assumed it had the big doors all around the building.

As I watched, a woman drove up to the keypad. I heard several beeps and then a squeal. More beeps with a definite pause partway through. She banged on the keypad, then I heard a male voice say, "Press the star to start over and press the pound key when you're done." The announcement sounded like a bored recording, but I could see that it was the manager talking into an intercom box.

She must have done it right because the gate started to slide over to the right when she was finished. I heard her complaining about the 'stupid keypad' as she drove through.

Daddy finally came out, a disgusted look on his face, and got in the car. As he was backing up to drive to the keypad, he muttered, "Every goddam time. Give someone a little power and he thinks he's Napoleon."

He rolled down the window and looked at the letter from Vivian, punching in the four digits. Nothing happened. I said "Hit pound," and he did. The gate gave a little grunt as the chain tightened up, then started to go to the side.

As soon as it was open enough, Daddy drove through and stopped near the first entry door to the first perpendicular building. I noticed a big 'A' at the top of the building. He opened his door and said, "OK, let's go." Laurie sat up and let go of my hand and I helped her with her belt.

There was no carrying her this time. Laurie jumped out of the car and ran toward the building and through the door Daddy had opened. There was a hallway the length of the building with doors on either side. She ran down and stopped in front of #25.

Daddy and I weren't in the rush my sister was. I took his hand and said, "Did the manager give you a hard time?"

"Idiot. He wasn't even going to look in the file. Claimed it wasn't the way they did things around here. They had the phone number for the district office posted and I called them and told them the same thing I told the manager. They hung up and called him right back. I couldn't hear what the guy said but it was loud and they were definitely chewing him out. The manager yes sirred and no sirred and finally pulled out the file. What's funny is, we had the code and the key. We could have gone right to the space without talking to him. That's what I get for trying to show the guy a little respect and courtesy."

We were in front of the space and Daddy took the key out of his pocket. Laurie grabbed it from him and worked at getting it in the lock. Daddy held it still for her and she pushed in the key and twisted it, using two hands.

The door was a metal swing door with hinges on the side. Once Daddy took the lock off and slid the latch toward the middle of the door, he was able to open it. The space was small; I found out it was what they call a five by five. Which means that each side is somewhere between four and a half and five and a half feet.

As soon as the door was opened, Laurie reached in and pulled out a Razor scooter. She asked Daddy if she could ride it and I saw those blue eyes of hers in action. He chuckled and told her to stay where he could see her and to be careful. She took off down the hallway as if she didn't have a care in the world. She had yet to outgrow that magic — when it was time to play, it was time to play and nothing else.

When I looked inside, the first thing that caught my eye was a girl's bike. It was leaning against the back wall, standing up on the rear tire. It was predominantly pink and had white streamers coming out of the rubber hand holds. There was a horn with a black rubber bulb on the handle bars.

A plastic covered car seat was sitting on top of a box in the back. Everything else was in boxes. I saw two about the same size, one marked "Laurie Photos", the other "Jill Photos." There was a "Laurie, Beach" box, one with games and a big box marked "Stuffed Animals." I saw two wine boxes marked "Journals."

Daddy said, "What do you think? Can we get all this in the car?"

"I don't know. I don't think I've ever seen your trunk."

"It's pretty big. I say we give it a shot."

We both picked up a couple of boxes and walked them out to the car. Daddy told me to just put them against the building and we'd arrange them once they were all out.

We went back inside and Laurie was nowhere in sight. We heard a bang, then another, then we saw a flatbed cart coming out of one of the hallways that intersected ours. The next thing I knew, Laurie came into the hallway, pushing the cart into another door. I ran down to her and worked with her to pull it back into the side hallway she'd come from, then pushed it in the other direction past our hallway. "If you pull it, it's a lot easier to steer." I kept my hand on the handle to guide it if necessary while Laurie provided the pulling power. Once she got it rolling, she did fine.

Daddy said, "That's a great idea, Laurie. Thank you."

"Mommy always used it."

A couple of cartloads, a scooter ride and one bike ride was all it took to have the space emptied and everything out by the car. It took some doing but we got everything packed inside. I had to sit in front and Laurie had her old car seat on one side of her and the box of stuffed animals on the other. Daddy had to tie the lid to the trunk down with rope.

We drove out the gate and Daddy parked again. "I'll be right back. I just want to let them know I emptied the unit."

He was in there a while and I looked through the window. He was bent over the counter, filling out a form. I could tell by the stiff way he was holding his head that he wasn't in the best of moods. Something to do with the Napoleon in the office, I was sure.

I turned around and got up on my knees. I lifted the flaps on the top of the animal box and found a two foot penguin on the top of the pile. I lifted it up and Laurie called out "Oscar!" and reached up for it.

I gave her Oscar and watched as she hugged him and then told him about the new house they had and Daddy John and Momma Wanda and how I was her new sister and I lived with Jack and we had a dog named Bozo and there was no reason to be scared because he was a nice dog and he was really soft. After taking a breath, she went on about Mommy being in heaven and looking after her and me and promising to pray to her to look after Oscar as well and how they went to this place where you could eat anything you want and then Jack helped her plant some watermelon seeds she got there and a peach seed she got at his and my house and how one day there was going to be all the watermelon and peaches you could ever eat but that dogs don't like peaches and Jill ate them for breakfast and she was going to ask Momma Wanda if she could too.

Daddy opened the door and got in. "Jeezuss! I'm surprised that guy can tie his own shoes."

"Problems?"

"I can't believe that guy. I went in there for a fifteen second cycle and he turned it into ten minutes and it's still not done.

"First, I told him that we cleaned the space out and it was paid until the end of the month. So he tells me he can't give me a refund and looks ready to fight me about it, then he had me fill out a plan to vacate form. I filled it out and he went to the file and pulled out the application form. He said that the only one who could vacate was the person who rented the space. I told him she was dead and he said he'd need some proof of that. So I told him he could write a check for $35 to the city and I'd order him a death certificate. Well, he wasn't about to do that."