Copyright © 2020 James Russell Stoakes
All rights reserved.
http://JamesStoakes.com
It had been a week since Sarah had seen Alice. The supermarket had gotten back to her right away and put her to work. She was excited by their offer. It was more per hour than she made at the restaurant, the hours were more consistent, and she got a discount on groceries, which was going to come in handy.
They had talked on the phone over the week. Joe had been to the cabins and taken some measurements. He told her that he would have an estimate within the week. Sarah just hoped it was within her budget to get at least one cabin up and running soon.
She had to work until 8pm tonight, Friday, and she had to be back for 7am Saturday, but she would be done by 2pm for the week. The hours were consistent, but as the manager, Bob had explained, “You will be limited to 32 hours per week during the school year.” She didn’t like it, but she understood.
It had snowed during the night. “Dad!” Sarah called up the stairs of their house. “Can I get a ride to work from you?” She waited for a few moments, but there was no answer. She was about to call out again, but her mother appeared at the top of the stairs and descended quickly.
Quietly, she said, “Your father is too tired to get up. This new job on second shift is harder on him than he thought it would be. He wants you to grab the spare key for his truck and take it. He won’t need it until tomorrow night. Just be careful.”
“He must be tired to let me take his truck,” Sarah laughed.
“Be careful,” Sarah’s mom repeated. “He’s trusting you with his baby.”
“Thank him for me, I should be home for dinner,” Sarah said.
“This is exciting,” Sarah thought as she exited the house. She had only driven her father’s truck once when she was practicing for her driver’s education class. When she looked at the truck, reality struck her, and she was suddenly very nervous. She had never driven it with a plow on the front before.
“Okay,” she said as she approached the vehicle. “I can do this. I just have to be careful.” She unlocked with the fob and got in to start the engine. The eight-cylinder engine roared to life quickly, and she let it idle while she got back out and cleaned the snow off as she had seen him do in the past. It took more time than she liked, but it had to be clean.
Once seated again in the driver’s seat, she adjusted it to where she needed it, and she looked the controls over. The truck was already in four-wheel-drive, which made sense since it was snowing when her father got home. “How do I raise the plow?” she asked herself. Finding a box with a joystick attached to the side of the steering, she fumbled with it until she found a switch, and a light came on. She moved the joystick until she discovered which direction raised the plow. Once up, she experimented with moving the joystick around until she was sure she understood how it worked.
Satisfied, she put the truck in reverse and using the mirrors, backed down the driveway slowly. It had been a while since she had done so, but her father’s voice was still in her head from when he trained her how to do it. She checked traffic one more time before making the final push out into the street and putting the truck in drive. She drove slow and methodical on the slippery roads. There was no way she was going to break her father’s trust in her.
When Sarah’s shift ended, she picked up a few items she thought that Alice would need by now. More eggs, milk, and bread, as well as some vegetables, beef, and chicken. “She’s not going hungry on my watch,” Sarah said to herself.
The roads were mostly just wet when she drove to Alice’s. Some of the back streets were still snow-covered, but crews had removed most of the ten inches that had fallen and were out salting them. When Sarah arrived at Alice’s driveway, she was surprised by the tremendous berm of snow at the entrance. “No one has plowed yet?” Sarah asked herself.
No other traffic was around, so Sarah crossed lanes and dropped the plow on her truck and gently pushed some of the snow sideways. “That was easy enough,” she said, backing up to take another bite at it. In a few minutes, Sarah had the berm removed and was looking down the driveway. “If I angle the plow, I should be able to drive right in,” she reasoned and began to move forward slowly. It didn’t take long for her to feel the front of the truck begin to slide sideways, so she stopped.
“Plan B?” she said to herself, raising the plow and backing out to the beginning of the driveway where she began a pattern. She plowed a half blade of snow to the right side of the driveway, lifted the plow, and backed up. She plowed another half blade of snow to the right again and repeated until she felt the need to do the left side. This pattern was slower, but she never felt like she might get stuck.
When she got closer to the house and the cabins, she realized she would have to push the snow out of the circle. Lifting the plow, she drove into the unplowed area until she was mostly around the circle and pointed out before she dropped the plow. She worked the snow out of the circle a little at a time until it was done. Sarah parked the truck, dropped the plow, and picked up the groceries she had for Alice.
The door opened as she approached. “I waved,” Alice said, “but you were concentrating so hard you didn’t see me.”
“Sorry,” Sarah said, putting the groceries on the counter. “I had everything I could do to keep that beast under control.”
“I imagine so, it’s quite a bit bigger than your usual ride,” Alice joked. “You did a good job plowing,” she added as she retrieved the receipt from the bags and put it with the previous one she had saved.
“You think so?” Sarah asked, surprised at the compliment.
“Probably better than the usual guy my son sends. I wonder where he is today,” Alice questioned.
“I was surprised as well,” Sarah admitted. “It was only by luck that I had my dad’s truck today. He was too tired to take me to work this morning.”
“Good thing he taught you how to plow!” Alice said.
Laughing, Sarah admitted, “He didn’t. Before today, I’ve never even driven with a plow on the front of the truck.”
“Oh my god, Sarah!” Alice said. “You are full of surprises.”
“Did the estimates come in?” Sarah asked.
Immediately Alice frowned. “They did. Joe’s estimate is what we expected. Maybe even a bit less. $1800 per unit to install heat.”
“That’s good!” Sarah exclaimed. “What about the sign?”
“Crooks. They want over $3000 to fix the sign,” Alice said with a sigh.
“Oh, my god!” Sarah said loudly. “It’s only a four-foot by eight-foot sign. Why so much?”
“They were concerned about the condition and questioned the integrity of the sign. The man who assessed it said it had to be replaced, not repaired,” Alice said gloomily.
“I’ll think of something,” Sarah assured her. In truth, Sarah had already been working on an alternative idea and had the graphics nearly completed on her computer at home. She was waiting on an email from a billboard company that could paste vinyl on the sign to make it look good. There was one other place locally that she could talk to for something temporary.
“I received a phone call two days ago,” Alice said. “A man named Tom called and said he wanted to rent a cabin for the winter if it was still available. I told him it was available still, but it would not be ready until December first.”
Sarah was practically leaping from foot to foot as Alice told her the news. “I can’t believe someone responded to the advertisement already!” she said excitedly.
“There’s more,” Alice said as she reached into the drawer and pulled out an envelope and handed it to Sarah. “He sent a check by courier. It came yesterday.”
Nervously, Sarah reached into the neatly sliced open envelope and pulled out the check inside. “Two thousand five hundred dollars; in advance! This just got real!”
“Yes, it did,” Alice smiled. “Of course, most of that will go towards putting the heat in, but at least there appears to be justifiable interest.”
“This is awesome!” Sarah gushed. She was so happy to hear someone was interested.
“There’s more,” Alice said. “There have been several calls about the summer rates and what is available for services. No bookings yet, but it looks promising. For winter cabins, I’ve started a waiting list. Three other people expressed interest and want to know if anything opens up.”
“This is exciting!” Sarah said. Realizing she had the truck, Sarah asked, “Do you want to go to the bank and deposit your check since I have the truck today? I think they are open ‘til 4pm today.”
“I dug out my business checkbook,” Alice said. “That was the other piece of news I wanted to give you. It still had a little over a thousand dollars in it when quit renting. I’m not sure why or how it got overlooked, but that will help. Let us get these groceries put away and go,” she agreed. “I haven’t been out of the house in months.”
It was surprising to Sarah how easily Alice climbed in and out of her father’s big truck. She really was pretty nimble for her age. The two of them went into the bank, and Sarah stayed back while Alice conducted her business.
“I’ll be just a few more minutes,” Alice said as she left the front area and met with a customer representative. They closed the door behind them as they went into the representative’s office. Sarah took a chair in the lobby and waited while people filed in and out. The clock on the wall rapidly approached 4pm, and one of the tellers locked the entrance. They saw the closed door and the customer rep talking with Alice.
“Are you with her?” she asked politely.
“I am,” Sarah said. “I’m her chauffeur today,” she laughed.
“Okay,” the young lady said as she walked away.
It was another fifteen minutes before Alice emerged from the office. She didn’t look very happy when she came out, but upon seeing Sarah, she smiled widely. “Are you ready to go?” she asked
“I am. Is everything okay?” Sarah asked, concerned.
“It will be fine,” Alice said. “Is there any chance you can give me a ride into town on Thursday?”
“I think so, as long as it’s after school,” Sarah said, “and as long as my boss will give me the day off.”
Alice paused, “I very much hate to ask you to take time off from work, but there is no one else I can rely on.”
“I’ll be there,” Sarah said.
“We need a website,” Alice said as she lowered herself into the car.
“Hey, Alice,” Sarah said. She had just pulled in with her mother’s car and was about to go get Alice when she stepped out of the house. “Where did that come from?” she asked.
“One of the people that called this morning suggested that we get a website up. I had no idea what they were talking about, but they said it was a great way to show pictures of our facilities,” Alice explained as she closed the door and buckled up. “Do you know anything about it?”
Laughing, Sarah said, “Yeah, I know about web sites. I might even be able to slap one together for us, but it might be less expensive to begin a social media page like Fakebook.”
“I don’t know what that is either,” Alice admitted.
“You are better off not knowing,” Sarah laughed. “Everyone’s lives are so perfect on Fakebook that it’s depressing to see.”
“That I understand,” Alice said. “We need an online representation that makes our rustic living look perfect.”
“You’re quick,” Sarah laughed again. “Are you sure you have no idea what Fakebook is?”
“None,” Alice confirmed. “It sounds a lot like the tea parties that local married women used to have where all they told you about was the good events in their lives, or like a gambler who only tells you about their winnings; never their losses.”
As the car approached the end of the driveway, Sarah asked, “I assume we are heading to town?”
“Sorry, yes. I have an appointment at the same bank we went to on Saturday,” Alice said.
Sarah turned right and drove towards town. “This is only my second week at the grocery store, but it feels nice to have a day off,” Sarah said.
“I feel bad that you had to take time off. I hope your manager isn’t mad at you,” Alice said with concern in her voice.
“Naa, he understood. I told him I had to drive for a friend who didn’t have a car,” Sarah said and then laughed. “He actually laughed at me and pointed out that I normally didn’t have a car either. I had to explain to him that I was borrowing a car to drive a friend. It didn’t help, he laughed even harder and told me I could have the day off.”
“After the bank, we can stop in, and I will personally thank him for giving you the time off,” Alice said.
It was Sarah’s turn to laugh. “I like that idea. While he seemed to understand, I’m not sure he believed me. It would be fun to watch him squirm a little bit. He’s a nice guy, so be easy on him,” Sarah implored Alice.
“I will,” Alice promised as they pulled into the bank parking lot. “Could you wait out here today?” Alice asked. “I expect this will take about half an hour. No more than that,” she estimated.
Sarah shrugged. “Sure, I’ll listen to the radio and think about our online presence,” she said enthusiastically.
Alice walked into the supermarket like she owned the place. “Which one is your manager?” she asked Sarah, who followed her in.
“That’s him,” Sarah said, pointing to a young man merely a few years older than Sarah. “That’s Bob.” Bob had noticed the pair as they entered the store, and he waved to Sarah.
Waving back, Sarah followed Alice, who was marching over to him at an impressive pace. “Young man?” Alice addressed Bob.
“Yes, ma’am?” Bob said respectfully.
“I wanted to thank you for letting Sarah take some time off to cart me around,” Alice said.
“My pleasure, ma’am,” Bob said smoothly. “It was hard to replace her with someone as adept as her, but we found someone who could fill her shift, even if not as well.”
“You’re a good man,” Alice said and turned to leave.
“See you tomorrow,” Sarah said awkwardly and waved.
“See you tomorrow, Sarah,” Bob said with a laugh and a kind stare.
Realizing that Alice was nearly out the door, Sarah dashed to catch up.