Chapter Two
Lux
City drivers could have up to two hundred stops in a day, or so I’d heard, but they didn’t have ten, twenty, fifty miles between deliveries.
Mine varied, but it could be as few as fifteen or as many as fifty, if they were close enough together.
The big companies wouldn’t touch this area, in the middle of nowhere, themselves, but they had to cover it somehow, so they subcontracted people like us.
Rural delivery companies counted on this since nobody outside of the wide-but-thin-spread communities they served had ever heard of them.
But those who lived here? We were their lifeline, their source of things local stores didn’t carry or did but at an exorbitant price.
We knew the names of our customers and recognized their regular deliveries.
Pet food in particular, the large bags of kibble and boxes of forty cans of cat food.
Larger animal food was generally delivered by the feed store or some other specialty service, thank goodness.
But I brought the supplements. The smaller pieces of equipment and tack.
Nonperishable foodstuffs and sometimes those that were—packed with dry ice.
Lots of people had left to work for bigger companies with higher wages and better benefits, but I wouldn’t trade a wave from old Mrs. Wilma when she got her rheumatism tonic or a snickerdoodle from Mrs. Smith, her frenemy, when her six-month supply of dried apricots arrived for the world.
Not many people had a job that could brighten so many faces, and I was grateful to Fate and the Goddess for the twist that placed me in this position.
Like so many of the young, I planned to leave the rural landscape for the bright lights of the big city.
In fact, I was waiting at the bus stop in the small town nearest my skulk, all the belongings I was taking with me in a duffel bag and a prayer on my lips that my alpha or one of his betas would not catch me before I made my escape, when a woman sat down beside me and struck up a conversation.
Her son owned a local trucking company and was looking for someone on a temporary basis.
“I wish I could help,” I said when she lifted a questioning brow, “but I’m leaving today.”
She was a petite woman with white hair tied up in a bun on top of her head, wearing a flowered dress and standard white sneakers. “I thought you might be. Where are you headed?”
“The city,” I asserted, just stopping myself before spouting something like “to make my fortune.”
“How exciting. You already have a job lined up? Somewhere to stay?”
“No…but I’ll be fine.”
“Of course. You must have been saving up for a long time to be able to strike out like this.”
“Oh yes.” I had about a thousand dollars in my wallet, earned doing odd jobs. “I’ll be fine.” I was getting repetitive.
“Sure wish you didn’t have to leave to soon. Bobby really needs a young man with ambition to fill this position. It’s just for the summer, you understand, but you’d be able to save enough to give it a really good start in the fall.”
“I’m not a truck driver.” I barely had my driver’s license, although I’d been operating farm equipment since I was about eleven. “And he probably needs a commercially licensed person.”
“No. It’s a small truck, just local deliveries. Filling in for another male on paternity leave. Anyway, doesn’t sound like you’re interested. You don’t need the money. Shame.”
It didn’t occur to me to wonder why she was so assertive about wanting me in particular for this temporary job until much later.
I still didn’t know for sure. But that temp job rolled over in the fall into the one I had now.
Bobby believed in on-the-job training and helped me get certified for the position.
I truly did have plenty of money to make a stab at city living at the end of the summer, but by then, I felt so good about what I was doing, I didn’t really want to go.
The seat in the truck with its perpetually open passenger-side door felt right.
On this particular day, the locals would be receiving a bumper crop of goods, my little truck piled to the ceiling with their bounty. The approaching holidays increased our business, and unlike those national companies, nobody was giving me a helper.
But no worries. So much of the year was light work that when things got busier, it seemed like a fair exchange.
My next stop of the day loomed in the distance.
The Mates Motel, one of my favorite places.
Bennett, the owner, kept things the way his late father had them.
Maybe a little too much so, in that it could use some updating on the outside, but overall, it was a cozy, comfy spot where guests felt welcome and some stayed on far longer than a few days.
Pulling into the lot, I went into the back of the truck to organize the next several deliveries before loading some of the boxes for the Mates Motel onto my handcart. They had a lot of supplies today. Paper products, cleaning things, and I didn’t know what all, but it was a definite restock.
“Can I give you a hand with that?” I turned to find Geoff, the maintenance guy from the motel, behind me. “Scared ya?”
“No, but I’ll gladly accept a hand. Looks like you’ve been doing some shopping.”
“I’ll grab my dolly. Give me just a minute.
” He darted off toward his workshop at high speed, leaving me waiting, so I climbed back onto the truck and pulled the rest of their order, setting them on the ground next to the steps.
Geoff was a great guy, always eager to lend a hand, but from what I heard, his skill level left something to be desired.
His boss, Bennett, was too goodhearted not to keep him on, even though he often had to hire professionals to redo his work.
To be fair, I understood he was only getting a free room and a minimal salary to work a few hours a week—but maybe that was for the best.
Everyone here, including the head of housekeeping had hilarious stories about the maintenance guy. The best one was when he’d somehow managed to caulk a shower stall so that when a guest got in, it wouldn’t open. Apparently the caulk and extra-strong glue looked remarkably similar.
No one was hurt, but the guest—who hadn’t paid their bill in a month—left in a huff.
Again…for the best.
Geoff came rushing back and we loaded his handcart and trundled off side by side with the boxes, having a great conversation about who had checked in recently. The Mates Motel sure got a lot of characters!
I wouldn’t trade my job for one that paid twice as much.