Hearing a forklift coming, Arthur turned around and held his hand up, blocking the driving lights from shining in his eyes until the forklift pulled up beside him. “I filled the trailer,” Kirk said, but wasn’t smiling.
“What’s wrong?” Arthur asked.
“I don’t think that trailer can carry that much,” Kirk admitted.
Nodding at the intelligence Kirk showed, “Very good,” Arthur said. “It can’t, but we can’t afford to make a hundred trips because the trailer is acting like a pussy.”
“The trailer is acting like a cat?” Vicki asked, looking up clearly confused.
Shawn snorted, then turned and walked off. “Vicki, load your pallet,” Arthur said, lifting his radio. “How are you doing in the truck, Jim?”
“Okay, haven’t seen anything. Just finished feeding the babies and they are back asleep. Robin took off her clothes again and we are just letting her play naked in the back,” Jim called back.
Shaking his head and dropping the hand holding the radio to his side, “That girl was raised by a nudist,” Arthur decided. Lifting the radio back to his mouth, “Very good, we will be leaving soon.”
Hearing that, Shawn spun around. “There’s no way we can get just the stuff we loaded on pallets on my trailer,” he cried out.
“You’re right, your trailer will be filled with fencing,” Arthur told him. “We will be coming back for another load, just not today.”
Thinking it over, Shawn gave an impressed nod at the thinking as Arthur turned to Kirk. “Go help your brother load up the fencing stuff,” Arthur told him and Kirk took off. Arthur couldn’t help but grin at watching Kirk stretch out his leg and use his tippy toe to push the accelerator.
Moving to another aisle, Arthur saw large plastic bins already on a pallet. Moving his AR so it would hang off his back, Arthur started loading the plastic bins that were on the pallet. Hearing the forklifts, Arthur looked up to see Kirk move past his aisle on the forklift at a walking pace.
A few minutes later, Pat crawled past on his forklift at a drunken moonwalk pace that an old woman with a broken hip using a walker could outrun. “Don’t push him,” Arthur told himself and went back to loading the pallet.
As the two continued on the forklifts, Arthur found out that for every load Pat did, Kirk did two. Moving to another pallet, Arthur stood up to stretch his back and saw Kirk pull to a stop at the end of his aisle. Walking down to Kirk, Arthur saw Pat creep past with Donald walking and stopping beside him.
“I don’t think we can get much more on,” Kirk said with a grimace. “I’m scared it’s going to fall off.”
Giving a nod, Arthur headed toward the trucks. Getting closer, his eyes widened in surprise. The twenty-foot double axel trailer Shawn would be pulling was stacked two pallets high all the way back as Pat dropped off the last load.
Very impressed the boys could even load rolls of fencing like that, “Very good, boys. Turn your forklifts off and let’s secure the load and drop it off,” Arthur told them and then called Shawn and Vicki on the radio.
Grabbing several packages of straps, Arthur pulled his knife out and cut them out of the packages. Hearing a small cry, Arthur looked up to see Jodi climbing out of the Suburban with a small bundle. Dropping the straps, Arthur folded his knife up as he ran to meet her. “What’s wrong with Nicole?” he gasped, locking his legs and skidding to a stop in front of Jodi.
“She won’t stop crying no matter how much I rock her, and I just fed her,” Jodi winced as Arthur took Nicole into his arms.
“What’s wrong, baby blue eyes?” Arthur sang out and Nicole stopped crying. She opened her eyes and saw Arthur and smiled. “You didn’t have to throw a fit to get me to hold you,” Arthur said and then pulled a glove off with his mouth. Stroking Nicole’s face with his fingertips, Arthur felt very giddish to see Nicole smile wider.
“Knew that would work,” Jodi said with a nod and headed back to the Suburban.
Grabbing the baby sling from his seat, Arthur put Nicole in it after he’d draped it on. Seeing Nicole give a small yawn, Arthur pulled his glove back on. Being very careful, Arthur showed the kids how to strap the load down. When he was done, Arthur had to admit, never in his life had he seen so many ratchet straps holding loads down.
Walking to the front, Arthur unlocked a pedestrian door beside the overhead door at the front. “Donald, Daisy,” he called out softly and the dogs ran over. When the dogs stopped beside him, Arthur eased the door open and looked around.
Stepping outside with the dogs, Arthur very slowly scanned around. Off to his left, he saw five dogs running up the road away from him. The way they were bouncing he could tell they were playing. Off to the west, he heard the faint report of a gunshot and figured it was outside of town and they weren’t heading that way.
Stepping back in with the dogs, Arthur closed the door and moved to the roll up door and unlocked it. Grabbing the chain, he pulled it hand over hand and heard Nicole give out a cry from the noise the door was making. “Sorry, puddin’,” Arthur told her, but didn’t stop until the door was open enough for them to drive out.
“Everyone is accounted for,” Shawn told him, standing beside the Blazer.
“Heard a gunshot, so tell your lookouts to keep their eyes peeled,” Arthur called out, opening his door. Climbing in with Nicole still crying, Arthur started the truck and put it in drive. When he hit the accelerator, the massive Suburban’s engine revved
