Winter Layoff Chapter 6
| Winter Layoff | |
|---|---|
| Chapter 6 of 21 | |
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| Read this chapter | |
| Time frame | Somewhere in December 27-30, 2005 |
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Locations
- On the road from Helena, Arkansas to Pass Christian, Mississippi
- Poking around the remains of John and Rita's house in Pass Christian
- On the road from Pass Christian, Mississippi to Helena, Arkansas
- On the road from Helena, Arkansas to Spearfish Lake
Characters
Summary
Jim and his Aunt Rita spent most of the rest of their time in Pass Christian just trying to get things organized. In some respects they didn’t make much progress, in others they did. Jim learned that there might be unskilled volunteers available to help him with the clean-up for short periods of time, and there was a tent camp for volunteers, and a free kitchen to feed them. All in all, he didn’t learn anything that would keep him from cleaning up the lot, and a few things that would make it easier.
Around noon Jim and Rita were back on the highway, heading north toward Helena and getting Rita back to John.
As they drive back Jim tells Rita that it’s not going to be easy, but it’s not impossible. I’ll be honest – by the time I get the lot cleaned up, it’s going to be getting close to when my job starts again at home in the spring. He continues with the comment that it bay be a year before he has a house for them. And he doesn't trust the builders back in Pass Christian.
He comments that maybe if he can get the lot cleaned up and there’s utility services (power, etc) going, maybe one of those FEMA trailers could be set it on the lot and they could live there.
They arrive back in Helena and Jim, Rita and John discuss the situation. It’s not as bad as it looks... Bad, but not as bad as Rita was thinking.
Jim takes off to go back to Spearfish Lake, and does some more thinking as he drives. He spends the night in the camper in another truck stop parking lot. He wakes up the next morning and has breakfast in the truck stop restaurant. Once he gets back on the open road his mind turned back to Aunt Rita and Uncle John’s troubles.
He considers a number of options and finally decides that he's going to have to ask Randy Clark into letting him use the backhoe, a trailer, and the dump truck for a couple weeks or so, maybe more counting the travel time.
Finally, he realized that about the only thing he could do was get his courage together and ask.
First thing in the morning, Jim promised himself. Whether I want to or not, the first thing.
Also Mentioned
- Uncle John Fleming
