The Journal: Fault Line (The Journal Book 5) (8 page)

“It’s personal sure, but I don’t have a
problem telling you.” He leaned back against the couch looking into
his glass of wine. “I’m not married and I don’t have a girlfriend.
Frankly, I haven’t had time to date, much less consider a serious
relationship. I’ve been too busy building my business. I work
twelve to fifteen hours a day, and never the same hours. I rotate
between the three stores filling in, doing payroll, restocking, all
those little things that help me keep in touch with what the stores
are doing. That kind of schedule isn’t conducive to having a
relationship last.” He took a sip from his glass. “What about you?
Why aren’t you married with a couple of kids?”

“Similar story. I’ve been busy going to
school and working on my career. Besides, I haven’t met anyone I
wanted to settle down with, at least not yet,” she answered. “And
thanks for being honest with me. I think that’s important.”

***

Trevor tossed and turned most of the night.
When he wasn’t thinking about his business, he was thinking about
Christine. Earthquakes and blue eyes, a combination deadly to a
peaceful rest. He finally gave up trying to sleep and turned on the
TV. The news splashed across his big screen. Food shortages were
already being felt and were resulting in riots. Law enforcement was
highly suggesting staying out of the major cities and backing it up
with curfews and roadblocks. It wouldn’t be long before the
violence spilled out of the city and into the quiet suburbs. Trevor
had another decision to make.

He paced his kitchen while the coffee maker
did its thing and delivered a mellow cup of brew. With pen and
paper in hand, he sat at the tiny table and made some notes. It
stymied him how best to keep his stores from being raided and
vandalized. Unless he didn’t have anything left…

***

Trevor waited until nine in the morning to
call Christine.

“I’m glad you’re up. Can I stop over? I have
something I need to bounce off of someone and I think you might be
the best one for an objective view,” he said when she answered on
the first ring. When he had left the night before, parting was
awkward. He’d really wanted to kiss her, he was also afraid that
once he started he wouldn’t want to stop. He was drawn to her like
no one before, and for some reason that escaped him, he wanted to
take their relationship slow, hoping it would finally be the one
that might last.

“Sure, I’ll put on a fresh pot of coffee,”
Christine said, her heart racing with the thought of seeing Trevor
again. When he didn’t even try to kiss her goodnight, she feared
that it was over between them before it even had a chance to
start.

By the time Trevor arrived, Christine had
changed clothes three times and reset the table twice.

“You look really good in the morning,” he
said shyly. “Have I told you yet today you’re beautiful?” He cupped
her chin with his hand and gently kissed her. “Wow, I’d like to do
that again, I’m afraid I would get too distracted though, and today
is going to be a busy day.”

They sat at the kitchen table sipping fresh
coffee, Trevor with his notepad and Christine listening while he
explained his dilemma.

“I’ve got three stores, you know that. What I
also have currently is near empty shelves, though there is a good
amount of stock in the back of each store. What I’m also faced with
is the possibility of vandalism and theft. I understand people are
going to get hungry, and they will do anything to get food for
their families, and I don’t want them smashing my windows to get
it. I
do
plan on reopening all the stores once things settle
down. That might not be for weeks, even months, and I want my
places intact.”

“What are you going to do?” Christine asked,
taking a bite of the toast she had made for them. The loaf of bread
she had picked up the other night was quickly dwindling.

“That’s why I’m here. I’m hoping you could
give me some fresh ideas.”

Christine thought about it while she got the
coffee pot to refill their cups. “People can’t steal if you don’t
have anything.”

“I’ve thought about that. I don’t like the
idea of good food going to waste though. There’s a great deal of
perishable food in each store and we sure can’t eat forty loaves of
bread before it all goes stale. Then there is everything in the
coolers: milk, ice cream, eggs, things like that.”

“People also can’t steal your stuff if you
give it to them. What if you give away all those perishable items,
would that satisfy people enough to keep them away from the
stores?”

He thought about that for a minute. “And I
can regulate how much I give by how much they see. Christine,
that’s brilliant!” he beamed. “I also want to give my employees a
chance to get some of the stock too. After all, they mean more to
me than strangers.”

“You have three stores. What if you divide
what’s on the shelves between two stores and move all extra stock
to the third store, that way no one will see what you really
have.”

“I can let the employees have their pick of
one store, then move anything left to the next store and open it to
the public. Once the shelves are picked clean, I can open the
blinds so it will be obvious there’s nothing left. I like this, and
it just might work.”

“What’s your plan of action now?” she asked,
thinking of that kiss and feeling warm inside.

“First would be to decide which store for
which group.”

“What about which store to keep your stock
at?” she asked.

“That’s easy. The Spring Hill store, since
that’s where I live.”

“You live in one of your stores?” she raised
a finely sculpted eyebrow.

“It was my first store. To work it, I
converted the upstairs into an apartment so I could be there all
the time. It isn’t much, a bedroom, a bath, and an open living area
with a kitchenette. It’s comfortable and has served me well these
past few years since I don’t need much space.”

“That makes sense.” With a gleam in her eye
Christine said, “I’ll be right back.”

Trevor busied himself making more toast, and
noticed how low the bread bag was, instantly realizing how much he
wanted to take care of this new girl in his life.

When she returned, Christine had a sketch pad
and a box of colored pencils. She quickly drew a series of roads in
black and drew three squares in purple to represent the different
stores.

“Spring Hill is between stores two and three
and a bit to the north,” she tapped the one square and put a “1”
inside the lines. Trevor took the pencil from her and put a “2” at
Main Street and a “3” at Exit 31, recreating the order he’d
acquired the stores.

“If we use a green pencil to designate
perishables, blue for liquid and non-perishables like bottled
water, beer, wine and so on, and red for back room stock, how would
you divide what you have?” She laid the three pencils in front of
him.

He picked up the green pencil and drew a line
from store #1 to #2 and to #3, then from #2 to #3, then put an
arrow to indicate the direction of flow.

Christine looked at the lines. “Explain.”

“We split the stuff from Spring Hill between
the two, and after the employees take what they want, we take the
rest to the remaining store.”

“Okay, I understand that. Wouldn’t it be
better to have the Main Street store the one open to the public? It
would have better access.”

“While that’s true, it’s also the drawback.
Once word gets out I’m giving everything away, it would be a free
for all and we may have a riot,” Trevor explained. “Out on the
highway there will still be a lot of traffic, but it would be more
controllable.” He paused. “That makes me think of another option.”
He pulled his note pad closer and started writing, picked up the
blue pencil and drew more lines, then used the red.

“What’s the first thing you need to do,
Trevor?” Christine asked, pulling his attention back to the
drawing.

“The number one priority will be to visit
each store and assess what’s on hand. Come on.” He pulled her up
from the chair and hugged her, then pushed her to arm’s length and
smiled. “This is going to be quite the adventure. Are you
ready?”

“Let me grab my purse and a jacket.”

***

Trevor backed his delivery step-van into his
reserved spot behind the store on Main Street. He punched a code
into the alarm and opened the service door to let Christine in and
turned on the lights. He stopped to write something down on his
pad.

“Can you help me to remember to change the
keypad codes at each store?” he asked, and she nodded. He stood
there a few minutes, reprogramming that entrance code.

Christine looked around at the crowded room.
The amount of boxes and crates astonished her. “What’s that?” she
asked, pointing to the large coolers.

“Those are the store rooms for, and access
to, the coolers out front,” Trevor replied. “Whenever the cooler
runs low on milk or water, we come back here and fill from behind,
pushing everything forward. That way everything stays rotated, and
the stock stays cold.” He led the way to the front of the
store.

“There looks to still be a lot on the
shelves, but I can see that there is a lot less than usual,”
Christine said, walking the short aisles, stopping in the bakery
section. “Even if most of your suppliers can’t get across the
earthquake zone, can’t you still get bread and milk?”

“For a while, sure. However, the bakery in
the next town still needs flour to make the bread and that flour
comes from out west. Once they run out, they can’t get resupplied
either.”

“Oh,” Christine said. “I suddenly feel stupid
and ignorant about all this.”

“Stupid and ignorant are two vastly different
things. Ignorance is the absence of knowledge. Stupidity is the
inability, or the lack of willingness, to gain that knowledge. You,
my dear, are
not
stupid, and you’ve never had the need for
some of this information so we can and will fix that.” He moved
around behind the counter.

“With the lights on in here aren’t people
going to know someone is inside?” Christine asked nervously. “Maybe
we should come back at night.”

“The lights would be even more obvious at
night. Right now, the lighting blends in with the daylight. We just
need to be quiet,” Trevor answered. “Give me a hand with some
boxes?”

Together they filled a dozen boxes with
cigarettes and liquor bottles from the shelves behind the counter,
setting the filled boxes by the back door.

“There’s still more back here,” Christine
commented, looking behind the counter.

“If we take everything, it will look
suspicious. Besides, I have an idea, and I’ll explain over
lunch.”

Retrieving the boxes the bottles came in,
Christine filled another six boxes with wine from the shelves, and
another three from the cooler. “What about all this milk?”

“Leave it. It’s still good and people should
have some. Let’s see what we’ve got in back so far,” Trevor said,
leading the way into the stock room, shutting off the front
lights.

After surveying the piles of boxes, Trevor
and Christine started loading the back of the van, acutely aware
they would need to make two trips. After unloading the van into the
cavernous storeroom at Spring Hill, they took a break for
lunch.

Getting their burgers, they sat in the
furthest corner away from the few customers in the restaurant.

“What’s our next step?” Christine said around
a bite of her cheeseburger. “I could tell you were doing a lot of
thinking while we boxed things up.”

“I’ve been thinking about what you said
regarding access, and I agree. The Main Street store should be the
one for the public,
if
I can get the police involved with
it.”

“The police?”

“I know the police chief fairly well. They
all have families too, Christine, and if I offer to let them in
first, I think they will be willing to… um… make their presence
known while the community strips my shelves. It should help to
maintain some order.” Trevor smiled slyly.

***

“Trevor!” Police Chief Martin Mallory stuck
his hand out to greet the young entrepreneur. “I’m surprised I
haven’t seen you sooner. And before you ask, I can’t spare any
extra patrols for your stores. I’m really sorry, but we’re starting
to see a spillover from Indianapolis. It’s getting ugly out
there.”

“I appreciate that you’ve considered it,
Marty. I’m shutting down the stores so I won’t need patrols, though
I have something else in mind.” Trevor explained his plan to the
officer.

“That’s very generous of you, Trevor.
Shouldn’t you be saving your stock for you and your girl?” Marty
leaned forward on his meaty elbows, glancing at Christine.

“I’m setting aside plenty for us.” Trevor
felt a stirring with Christine being referred to as
his
girl
. “My main objective is to save the stores from looting and
vandalism. If there’s nothing there, perhaps they will leave the
stores alone.”

“And for a couple of officers to watch over
the citizens during this giveaway, you’ll give us stuff too?”

“Yes. There won’t be any liquor or other
alcohol available to the public, only to my employees and the
police if you want it, plus you can have whatever food you
want.”

“I’m happy to hear that about the booze,”
Marty said. “People get real stupid when they get drunk.” He
thought for a moment. “It’s a deal. When do you plan on doing
this?”

“I’m going with Sunday at 3pm or some of the
food will start going bad. That gives me two days to get things
squared away. I’ll put up a notice on the front door, and if you
could spread the word, too, that’d be great.” Trevor stood and
shook the chief’s hand again. He was halfway to the door when he
stopped. “Marty, do you have a half hour to spare right now? Come
on over to the store on Main and come in the back.”