Walking back out, Arthur climbed in the truck and pulled it inside almost to the front of the store, stopping at another rollup door that led out the front. Turning off the truck, Arthur looked over at Jim and then turned to Jodi. “You two have to keep an eye out, plus watch the little ones,” Arthur said in a serious tone. “It’s a hard job, but you can’t let anyone sneak up on us.”
Grabbing his radio, Jim climbed between the seats and stopped in the middle row with Jodi. “We will,” he said with a nod but his six-year-old voice was trembling.
Turning to Jodi, Arthur saw the seven-year-old force a smile as Vicki opened her door and climbed out. Giving the sleeping babies a last glance, Arthur stepped out as Shawn put Beth in the Suburban with them. Arthur grabbed Kirk and climbed on a forklift. Having already shown Kirk how to drive one, Arthur hung on the side to make sure Kirk was doing all right.
Directing Kirk to scoop up a stack of empty wooden pallets, Arthur guided him around the store to drop one off and then move on. The first ones Kirk dropped off, Arthur pointed at what they needed and Shawn, Pat, and Vicki started stacking the items on the pallets. “You have your list for the other areas,” Arthur told them and they just nodded.
Then Arthur guided Kirk over to the cement aisle. “Just like you practiced yesterday, put them on the trailer,” Arthur said, climbing off.
After watching Kirk load up two pallets, Arthur left to get on another forklift. Driving to where he’d left the kids loading, Arthur found a pallet filled with buckets and boxes of screws. Moving on, he found the kids when he saw the dogs sitting in the main aisle.
“Pat, come with me,” Arthur said and Pat stood up, wiping the sweat off his face. Pat ran over and climbed up. He gave a startle when Arthur put him behind the steering wheel. “You drove one yesterday,” Arthur told him and then turned to the dogs. “Daisy, guard. Donald, come.”
“But you stand up and drive on this one!” Pat gasped with wide eyes as Daisy moved closer to Shawn and Vicki.
“It’s the same,” Arthur smiled, putting Pat’s hands on the steering wheel and moving to the side.
Barely able to see over the top, Pat lightly pressed the pedal and the forklift moved. Letting out a cry, Pat took his foot off the pedal and looked up at Arthur. “That’s what you want to happen when you press that pedal,” Arthur told him with a grin.
Nodding, Pat turned back and pressed the pedal again and the forklift crept along and Donald walked along beside them. Stopping at the doors that led outside to the outdoor area, Pat was drenched in sweat as Arthur climbed off and tried to push the doors open. When they didn’t budge, Arthur stepped over to grab a long pry bar and helped the doors to see things his way.
Leading Pat outside, Arthur climbed up behind Pat and directed him to an aisle of fencing. Helping Pat the first time, Arthur pressed the lever to lift up a pallet of chain-link fencing. “We need this entire row,” Arthur said, waving his hand around at the pallets.
“Some of those are barbed wire,” Pat said almost panting.
“Yes, and in the next aisle, you will see the metal poles for each type of fence,” Arthur chuckled as Pat gave a groan.
When they backed up, Arthur lowered the load until it was almost on the ground. “Lower your load so you can see,” Arthur told Pat and Pat just nodded, turning the forklift around and driving back toward the trucks.
After dropping the load off, Arthur rode back as Pat drove slow enough to be passed by a turtle. Donald would take a few steps and wait, then take a few more. “Very good driving because if we break this, we would have to load this stuff by hand,” Arthur said and Pat tried to swallow, but his mouth was too dry.
After the second load, Arthur stepped off and told Pat to continue loading. Watching Arthur walk away, Pat felt sick to his stomach as he drove off.
“Holy shit!” Arthur gasped, coming to a stop and seeing ten pallets of cement on the trailer he was pulling. He turned to see Kirk driving from the back of the store with another pallet and stacked it on top of another pallet of cement.
Jogging over as Kirk was backing up, Arthur stopped him. “Where are you finding the cement?” Arthur asked. He’d used this store a lot and had never seen more than six pallets of cement.
“In the back,” Kirk said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder.
“How many more?” Arthur asked, turning to the twenty-foot-long trailer. Even with three axles, he could tell it was strained under the weight.
“Fourteen,” Kirk answered and Arthur gave a jump.
Giving a nod, “Go ahead and load what you can fit,” Arthur said as he walked off. Speaking under his breath, “If the Suburban breaks, we’ll just get another one.”
Moving to the electrical wire aisle, Arthur started loading up spools of wire and turned to see Pat driving slowly past the aisle he was in. The concentration on Pat’s face, one would think he was on the Indy Five Hundred. When the pallets were full, Arthur moved to the front of the store and found Vicki and Shawn loading tools up on pallets.
“Why the little tools?” Vicki asked, holding up a child’s hammer.
“For you guys,” Arthur replied. “You have to have tools to help me turn our place into a fort that we will be safe in.”
“Oh,” Vicki said,
