Karen’s phone rang while she was helping a customer. She answered and asked if they could hold, which they did. When she got back to the phone, it was Carla. “Do you have a number of people for me, Grandma? Also before I forget, we will be there next Tuesday for movie night. Be ready!”
Karen said, “The number is 125. I’ll say that again, 125. Is this the big visit, Carla?”
Carla covered the phone and asked Carl if this was the big visit. When she came back to the phone, she said, “Yes, this is it. Do you have life-preservers on that boat, Grandma? I’m a little scared of boats.”
“Yes, we do and I’ll make sure you have one,” Karen answered, knowing it was Carl’s way of letting her know to have all of the old folks bring one.
Carla said, “I’ll try to call you one more time before Tuesday. I love you Grandma.” and they hung up.
Just then, Leonard came into the shop and asked Karen how she was doing. He knew she dealt with depression and was concerned about her.
Karen said, “Walk with me out on deck for a minute.” She set up her sign letting people know she was on break and locked the door. When she and Leonard were out on deck, she told him it was all set up for Tuesday evening and everyone needed to be ready and have a life preserver. “It is very important that only the ones going know about it. I think we should wait until Tuesday morning to let everyone that is going know so there is less chance for it to leak out, what do you think?”
“I agree. This is too important to mess up,” Leonard said.
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Karen said, “You told me you were going to ask that delivery driver about your friend with the yellow eyes, since he worked at the clinic where she went. Did you find out about her?”
Leonard got tears in his eyes and said, “Yes, I did. She was the first drug addict murdered by the doctor.”
In the meantime, Donald and Jim had gone to Donald’s boat and were checking it out from stem to stern. Donald used the boat in his outfitting business to transport people and also the game they hunted on the way back from Alaska so he kept it in pretty good repair, no, excellent repair, so there actually wasn’t much to do. It was true that he hadn’t checked on it in a while, and a few things needed to be done, like an oil change, replacing a battery, and restocking the kitchen and bathroom supplies.
Jim said, when he saw the boat for the first time, “This isn’t a boat, Donald, it is a yacht! How many people can it sleep?”
Donald said, “It has 5 bedrooms and each bedroom contains a double bed, a couch that makes into a double bed and a bunk over the couch and one over the double bed, that let down from the wall. Then in the hold, there are 5 triple bunks and then we have emergency cots. So we can sleep 45, plus whoever sleeps on the cots. Depending on how many people come with us, we may have to make a rotating schedule for the sleeping. We need to bring supplies for cooking to the lodge. Fuel is not a problem, as we can chop wood when we get in . We won’t probably need so much wood yet, but we will as the weather grows colder.”
Jim asked another question. “Is Carl going to be coming with us?”
Donald said, “We talked about it and both of us felt like it would be best for Carl to be out of the picture for now and to remain here to be our eyes and ears for whatever comes up next.”
Jim said, “That sounds wise. What do you think may happen next?”
Donald said, “Hell, I don’t know. This is all unexplored territory, as far as Portland’s solution for the homeless situation. I can’t help feeling shocked at each new development.”