D I V O R C E by cmsix

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.

I nixed the water heaters though. There was no way in hell I could take along enough propane tanks to run them for any reasonable length of time.

My best find was a type of entertainment-center cabinet unit. Its VCR looked a little shopworn, but damned if whoever lost it hadn't let them haul away their tape collection too. There must have been over two hundred videotapes in that cabinet and even more cassettes for the stereo that was nearby.

I nearly walked right by the pair of Klipschorns without noticing them. I'd seen them of course but at first I thought they were just a couple of large cabinets or something. As soon as I paid attention to what they were I started poking around in the other audiophile equipment that must have been pulled in with them.

When I found the McIntosh setup I knew I'd struck gold. There was a C30 preamp, an M13 Stereo Oscilloscope, and two MC1000 power amps. There was also an MCD7000 CD player. Of course I'd heard about CDs, they'd been around a few years already, but I'd never actually payed much attention to the players.

Hell, to tell the truth, eight tracks were my favorites, but what the hell. I'd heard that CDs had better sound quality, and I didn't give a shit if I could record on them or not. I had a good cassette recorder and never even used it.

I didn't really have time for all this fucking around with audio equipment. Sure, it would be great to have a nice stereo system, and the girls had loved their introduction to recorded music, but this wasn't a normal retail store.

I would like to have the damned corner horns all right and I wouldn't even mind the McIntosh stuff, but that wasn't all there was in this bunch. Hell, just looking around I could see a Revox A77 ten-inch reel-to-reel recorder and a Nakamichi 1000 Tri Tracer cassette recorder.

I knew I had plenty of money, millions in fact, but maybe it was my raisin' because I couldn't make myself spend the ten grand or more I knew they'd want for all this shit. I could even see boxes of microphones and wiring for 'em and God knows what all. I wouldn't mind buying the speakers and the amps but I figured it was a take it all or leave it deal.

I moved on and found a nice TV that would just fit in the bedroom. We'd only have the movies but what the hell, looked like we'd have plenty and we could even stock up on more before we left.

I finally went into the main building and met up with Vicki, the one in charge of getting rid of the repossessed stuff. I'd been right about having to buy the whole lot if I wanted something bad enough. Later, they'd be having a big auction to get rid of it all, but it would be a few months from now. If I wanted something today I had to buy the whole deal, or at least everything that had been security for that particular note.

She went back outside with me this time and priced the things I was interested in. Hell it was all dirt-cheap. I bought the pickup, the yard mule, four boats and a small Farmall Cub tractor, complete with implements.

In the storage warehouse I learned that I would too be buying the water heaters if I wanted the commercial type washer and dryer, but what the hell, the whole deal was less than what the damned washer would have been if I'd bought it new. It was a hellacious bargain, even before I found out that two giant icemakers and six merchandisers came with the washer, dryer, and heaters.

I knew damned well that most of it would end up just sitting out to rust anyway but that damned washer would be a good thing to have.

The entertainment center that had all the damned tapes still in it came with a fairly nice living and dining room suit and they'd even left their Sunday Dinner dishes in the china cabinet, along with the cutlery. I couldn't hold my tongue any more and had to ask.

"Why are the dishes and stuff still here, surely they weren't collateral."

"No, but they just moved out of the house. We couldn't figure it out really, since it was more than half paid for. They just took their clothes and left everything else. It's all here now, but the entertainment center and the living and dining room furniture are the only things on a separate note," she said.

"Where is the house and what's it like," I asked.

"It's on ten acres and near Lake O' the Pines, a three bedroom brick with a two car full garage, a thirty by forty brick veneer outbuilding, and even a boat house and dock. Of course the boat house is actually on government property and there's always the chance they'll make the owner remove it.

"The house is probably ten to twelve years old, and the ones that left it had it built in the first place. It was strange that they just moved off and left it. We'd have made every effort to help them keep it," she said.

I could smell a bargain and a half but kept wondering what I'd do with it, even though I was sure I could easily afford it. Didn't matter though, when she told me it was going to go for twelve thousand I said sold before I could even think.

We kept at it until I had bought everything I thought I possibly had a use for, except the giant stereo thing. When I asked her about it she told me that the owner had died without heirs.

The way she said it gave me a funny feeling, almost like she didn't want to talk about it. It made me suspicious, so I asked her point blank how much it was. When she told me I knew right away why she wouldn't have mentioned it if I hadn't made her.

The loan balance was only eight hundred bucks and change. She, or someone else had spoken for it already, but couldn't buy it yet because they worked for the Credit Union. She didn't say so but I knew for sure from the look she gave me when I said I'd take it.

I couldn't think of anything else I wanted in there but I made up my mind to bring the girls back to look it over in case they saw something they wanted.

Vicki was impressed after she called Milton and all he wanted was a total. I could barely believe how many things I'd picked up for less than twenty-five thousand and they didn't even make me wait around until the wire cleared. I got the feeling that Vicki couldn't hand me the paper tag for the truck, the keys to the house, and get me out of the place quickly enough for her composure.

Piss on her. If she'd wanted the crap she could have quit her job and bought it. Not really much chance of that though, since jobs around Lone Star were pretty damned hard to come by right about now. She probably liked eating regular even better than she thought she'd like to have the stereo.

I headed directly to Bruce's place to check on things, and it only took a few minutes to see that they still had everything under control. He had even called Julia and ordered the trucks for the plastic pipe.

I headed to Atlanta next and directly to the lumberyard. I knew that Elton Pritchard was going to be shocked about the orders I was about to give him but he'd get over it.

He was damned sure surprised; I'll say that for him. By the time I left I'd ordered two truckloads of number-two two by fours, two of two by six and two mixed loads of two by eight through two by twelve - three trucks of two and a half inch corrugated iron and two trucks of assorted sizes and types of nails. Right at the last I remembered my adobe brick project and ordered two trucks of Portland cement, two trucks of Masonry mix, a truck of half inch rebar, and one of six by six by ten remesh.

The thing that got him fussing so was my furnishing my own trucks, and it took him the longest to get worked out. The thing he liked best was when I told him the stuff had to be loaded as soon as the trucks arrived and for him to warn the shippers that we would buy it elsewhere if they couldn't be. He had fun with that.

I didn't see him do it, but Elton must have called Mr Chess, his boss and the owner, and told him about his big customer, because damned if the old fellow didn't show up to howdy me and invite me to walk down to Miles drugstore with him for a cup of coffee. I didn't mind if I did.

After all the orders were placed and the info was scribbled down they let me use a desk to get Julia started on the trucks. It didn't take over thirty minutes and she even offered to phone Milton directly so she could fax him the trucking bills. When I said I'd like that she volunteered to process all the invoices and send fax them to Milton for payment too. It sounded like a hell-of-a deal to me.