Chapter 3
TRUCK
The morning has been progressing well. Spencer, Ian, and Robert have worked hard and have moved all the shelving outside after dismantling it all.
We are having a quick break while we wait for the dumpster to arrive.
We will need more than one, so whoever delivers will have to organize more for us to get this pile of broken shelving removed.
“Truck, do you want us to remove the shelves from the wall behind where the counter used to be?” Robert asks while finishing the bottle of water in his hand.
I nod as I finish my bottle and throw it onto the pile of shelving before answering.
“I want everything that is and is not nailed down, removed. I want the entire convenience store area to be empty. The exterminator has been, and he said once we have the place as we want it, he’ll come back and make sure he puts everything in place to prevent any vermin returning. ”
“Okay,” Robert replies, along with Ian and Spencer's acknowledgment.
We continue to work alongside each other and fill the dumpster when it arrives.
“Ian, make the call for the dumpster to be collected and an empty one brought to replace it.” I notice the tip of his fingers to his temple to let me know he heard, and I walk around the back of the building to speak with Bull.
“Have you considered the office idea?” I ask Bull as I get closer to him.
“I’ve spoken to Coin, and he’s looking into it. We reckon it’s a good idea and will leave the area back here clear for us to turn into a repair area for the recovery trucks,” Bull responds.
Joker, who is here today with Bull, steps a little closer when he speaks.
“I think it’s a great idea. It’ll be a control room all of its own.
We can get monitors up and flag where all the vehicles are, and you know we’ve been turning down new memberships because we can’t cope with the influx of people wanting to be covered on the yearly plan. ”
Bull takes up the conversation. “We don’t want to become a huge thing like AAA or National Motor Club. The yearly membership is only for locals of this town, but they keep recommending us to family and friends.”
I place my hands on my hips and reply, “How about you put a limit on the membership? Something like only fifty miles from base, or name the towns we’ll take membership from?”
“That’s a good idea, Truck. I’ll speak to Keys about marking a boundary, then speak to Pres for his take on it,” Bull rubs his chin, obviously taking what I’ve said seriously.
“Is there much in here for you to save?” I ask, and I’ve not even tried to find the time to look around for myself, so I’m more than interested in his reply.
“There is some equipment we can use. We’ll have to clean everything up, see what works, what can be saved, or ditched.
But the bays we’ll knock down because we don’t need all these walls sectioning the area.
We’ll work out the best way for us to use the space.
We’ll only be working on the recovery trucks, and we don’t have many of them breaking down as we service them regularly. ”
“I’m gutting the entire convenience store. Vermin have been living in the place, and if we want to stock and sell food items, we need it right.” I look at Joker who is struggling to lift a box which is obviously too heavy.
Bull sighs right before he dashes over and grabs one end of the box. I chuckle to myself as I turn and leave them to it. I’ve more to do inside my half of the building.
Hearing a commotion, I head outside to see Whistle has placed another dumpster for us to fill. “Here you go, Truck. Bowie is bringing another one for Bull this afternoon. Will you want another one too?”
“Yeah, we need another when we’ve filled this one.
We’ve not touched the storeroom, or stockroom, depending on what you want to call it.
The restroom we’ll be ripping everything out too.
I would guess we’ll need four more after this.
” I rub the back of my neck when I consider how much work still has to be done.
“Okay, I’ll do my best to have enough dumpsters on hand. The good thing is that you are filling them quickly and we are not having to wait days to get them back,” Whistle jumps into the truck while giving us a chin lift before he starts it up and pulls out of the gas station.
Ian bumps into me as he drags a long plank of wood, which was obviously shelving from behind the counter.
“Sorry, Truck. This fucker is heavy.”
I don’t reply because I know how heavy these shelves are. I grab the opposite end he is pulling, and between us we get it to the pile of shelving that Robert and Spencer are breaking up small enough to fit into the dumpster.
Ian gives me a nod of thanks and points at the pile while smirking. “We get the pile down some, then build it up again.”
“There is going to be painting to do, along with fixing anything that’s needed. I hope you’ll be staying to help for more than just three or four days. I could do with you here probably three or four weeks.”
“I reckon we’ll be able to stay. We could ask Cilla to tell Pres his ghostly buddies want us here.” We all chuckle at the idea but know that Cilla would probably be down to help.
We are all four starting to droop somewhat. Missing out on drinks and lunch hasn’t helped. I look over at Spencer and see he’s running his forearm over his forehead where sweat is dripping from his brow.
“Spencer, do you want to take a run over to the diner? Get us all cold drinks, something to eat, and maybe one of those donuts that Shelby makes?” I see the other two perking up at the idea and have to admit I’m really up for it.
Taking out my wallet, I grab a stack of bills and pass them to Spencer.
“Go on, take the truck and get enough that we all feel up to another stint of throwing shit into the dumpster.”
Spencer asks, "Truck, should I get Shelby's special BLTs with extra bacon?" We all respond with an enthusiastic "Hell yeah!" Spencer grins while taking off at a brisk sprint for the truck.
Two hours later we had all eaten, cooled down and finished throwing in what we could, at least, into the dumpster. “I reckon you three can take off for the day. But be early in the morning. We’ll have to strip everything out of the restrooms and the storeroom.”
“Okay, Truck,” Ian quickly responds as he heads toward the truck. Spencer and Robert are only three steps behind him. Once they’ve taken off, I walk around noting what we’ve achieved today and how much we still have to do.
My phone rings and taking it out of my jeans pocket I see it’s Rum. “Hi, Rum.”
“Hi, Truck. I’ve gotten a lot done today.
I placed an advertisement for staff in the Post Office on Main Street and on the notice board at Mrs. Willoughby’s grocery store.
I even twisted Charles' arm at the hardware store to place a notice behind the counter.” I chuckle because Charles is renowned for being a grouchy bastard.
“Did you get the paint we needed for the office?” I hope so because I can set the prospects on that chore tomorrow.
Rum snaps, “Of course I did. For the storeroom and the store area. I didn’t get for the restrooms because I wasn’t sure what you had in mind.”
“I’ll pay you for all the paint. Bring the receipts, and I will hand them to Coin. I’ll ask him for a fuckin’ card so we can use it when we need to get stuff. We shouldn’t have to keep using our own money for this place.”
“Okay, no problem. I have the receipts for everything, and I’ll bring them all in the morning.”
Before more can be said, I look up at the sound of bikes approaching. “Talk tomorrow, Rum.” I don’t wait for a reply. I shove my phone back into my pocket and wait for Pres and Cap who have turned into the gas station frontage.
Once they are both parked, I step closer and ask what’s going on. Pres smirks and I’m thinking holy shit what the hell is he smiling at.
“I wanted to check out how much you had done. I’m going to leave the three prospects with you for now, Truck.
Bull said there is a hell of a lot of shit to get cleared away, and Judge said you are going to need a few more dumpsters to clear it all away.
” Pres says all this as he passes me and enters what will be the convenience store area of the business.
“We have all the shelving down in the store area, and the office is a blank canvas apart from filing cabinets and two desks. The desk chairs were broken, so they went into the dumpster. But the desks we can sand down and varnish,” I start to relay what we have been getting done, but Pres puts his hand up to stop me from speaking.
“Ditch them too. Everything, ditch everything. We’ll start with a clean slate, Truck.
How is Rum getting along?” Pres calms his aura somewhat, and his president voice becomes his Tracker voice.
Anyone who knows him, or us for that matter, knows that our Pres has two personas.
One is the hard-ass President who takes no prisoners, and the other is Tracker the man, still a hard-ass but has a softer side underneath.
We’ve all seen it over the years, and more so since Cilla came along.
He shows that side of him especially when he’s stolen Ayla from her parents.
Cilla finds that highly amusing. Finger? Not so much.
“Do you need more help than the three prospects, Truck?” Cap asks, speaking for the first time.
“I don’t think so. We got a lot done today, and between us we worked like a well-oiled machine.
” I grin more to myself than to Cap. “If I can keep them for now, that would help me get things moving. Rum is doing the paperwork side while I do the manual labor. He is also working closely with Coin and Keys, so I’m not worried about that side of things.
I, or should I say we, are very lucky that he has come aboard.
Just so you know, Pres, it was his dead wife that got him here. ”
“Cilla?” Tracker asks with a fuck-off huge smirk on his face.
I reply with a chuckle. “Yeah, Cilla,”
For the next thirty minutes or so, I walk around the building talking to Tracker and Cap about changes that need to be made, what work needs to be completed first, and how long it may take to get everything done.
“How about we speak with Xero?” Cap rubs his chin in thought. “They are no longer in official service, so out on a limb. I can try to pull them in to help, and you never know, we may get some more decent brothers.”
Tracker grunts in a form of approval, while I nod because any extra pairs of hands are good as far as I’m concerned. “Yeah, ‘cause I’m going to need employees here, and they need to be employees I can trust. Rum has put out some vacancy ads, but you never know who will turn up interested in a job.”
“Try contacting him and see what kind of reception you get,” Tracker says as he walks out of the building and towards his bike.
“We are all servicemen. It doesn’t matter what team we were on, we all bled and nearly died for the same reasons.
Let’s see if we can pull them in, along with the crew that is building our houses.
We lost a lot of brothers when I cleaned up, and we lost eight good ones to the Satan’s Guardians MC. ”
“Yeah, we did, Pres,” Cap agrees. “I’ll do my best to get these three on board to help Truck. They would be reliable, Truck, and that would take some pressure off you.”
“Thanks, Cap. I’ll see you later. I want to do a few more things here before I leave.”
I watch them leave before turning back to the building, and allowed myself a moment before my mind catalogued all that still had to be done.