Chapter 34

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."R. Frost

Breakfast done, it was time to hit Sam's. We loaded up for the short hop across the street. We gathered around in a group in front of the door. I told them all to follow me. We'd pair up and each pair would take one of the flatbed carts. We went in and the greeter's eyes bugged out just like you see in the cartoons. I waved as we went by. A nearby manager saw our entry and came up to me.

"Sir. I'm afraid you can't all come in. You need a membership" She said in a snotty sort of tone. She looked like she'd slept in her clothes and her hair, well, downtime hair looked good compared to hers. She kept eyeing my mates as she dug her grave deeper. "You will have to ask your 'friends' to wait outside..."

Billy interrupted her "I think you had better rethink what you're saying. And you best get your store manager here pronto. You probably don't know who this is or you would be bending over backwards to assist. Did you hear about the $187,000 purchase last night over at Wal-Mart?" He waited for her answer, which came as a nod. "Well, we're the ones who made it. Have you EVER in your life seen a Black Exxon credit card? It's like the second best in the world, after the Black American Express. The Arab sheiks all carry the black card. Well he has one, too! He can make million dollar purchases on it and here you stand telling him he has to leave his wives outside in the Texas sun while he buys out this place!"

Now Billy is a fine man, but he gets carried away sometimes. And by the time he finished with the little mouse of an assistant manager, I was sure she'd pissed her panties. About that time, store security had arrived. Billy still towered over the overweight, middle aged ex-janitor. Things were promising to get nasty when Joe Kulas, the store manager came up.

"Mike Faber, it's so good to see you again. How have you been doing. I was truly sorry to hear about Elissa. We made a donation to the Komen Foundation in her name. That is, both the store and Janey and I made donations. I know we've missed both of you at our functions. Now what is going on here?"

"Well, this snot..." Billy started out. I waived him off.

"It's just a little misunderstanding between your assistant and me. Something about me bringing in my group. I plan on dropping a whole lot of money here today and need people to push the carts. I could also use one or two of your stockers to retrieve stuff as we go."

"No problem," Joe responded. "I'll have Bob and Steve out here in no time. They are the Douglas twins. Younger versions of Billy there. Footballers on scholarship working for me on work study. (Big grin by Joe) Strong too, can lift an ox, given an ox to lift!"

With that all settled, we set to work. We visually quarter sectioned the store. Maria's group hit the clothing. They grabbed up everything that might be of use. They got all the coveralls in the store, Boxes upon boxes of tube socks. Every pair of boots there and all the tennis shoes, too. Lots of different size jeans for men and women were stacked on the carts. Lisa and her gang hit the small appliance and hard lines aisles. I told her to expect electricity in the cave and get enough to last 10-20 years. She decided on 20 of each. Oh well, it's only money and we weren't going to need any where we were going, yet. Billy took the large line and paper goods section. He had Steve with him. He cleaned them out of cleaners, soap, shampoos. Dog food, cat food, and all the paper products, restaurant supplies and everything you could imagine. They filled cart after cart with full cases of stuff.

I hit the foods. I had Bob with me. He brought the hand forklift to get things down for me. All the girls with me were doing was running the carts. Joe had taken one of his best cashiers off line and was checking out our stuff as fast as she could. She still couldn't keep up. I left my commercial card with her to expedite checkout. We kept it up for about 3 hours. By the time I was satisfied with what we had, the store looked like a tornado had hit it. {Brilliant flash on inspiration just hit me} I told everyone to keep the stuff moving and had Billy, Bob and Steve pack the stuff in the truck. Joe had all the plastic totes checked out first so everything else could be packed in the totes as they went along. That was true inspiration on his part. I stood off to the side to watch.

Just then I felt a tugging on my sleeve. It was Shira. "We ready now. You not here, somewhere else. We go soon?"

I looked up and the others were looking at me. The cashier had completed the Herculean task of checking everything out. The family was still hauling carts out for loading and the cashier was looking expectantly waiting for payment. I walked the short distance to the cashier and swiped my card and entered the 17 digit pin for purchases over $500,000. The register chugged out my receipt for the $697, 826.52 purchase. I don't know what I bought but it was a good start.

I told Billy as they were loading the last of the stuff we needed to visit Fry's with the truck, too. I took note that all the bins were loaded on pallets in the truck and wrapped in plastic to keep the stacks. I heard that's the way Wal-Mart/ Sams ships their stock and I thought it a good idea.

Logistics says the barn can come. It will be brought within the time frame of your transport.

HAL had made his report and was silent again. I seem to be getting used to words in my head because I didn't flinch. I was getting hungry and so were my crew. I tipped Bob and Steve $500 each. Talk about deer in the headlights stare. I told them to do well in school and let the football pay the way. I reminded them only 1% of 1% of 1% of all football players reaches the NFL as a player. They said they knew. Bob said he was pre med and Steve pre law. Both had 3.5 averages and they told me not to worry, football was just a means to an end. I thanked them again and got in the cab of the truck. Billy was driving the Hummer and Lisa took the duty in the Escalade. We drove to Burgers, Fries and Cherry Pies up on Wadley and Loop 250. It was just east of Lowes and I thought we'd have lunch then hit Lowes before heading back to the ranch.