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“We are hoping to put an offer on Toby’s impound yard because he’s ready to retire. We are going to need someone to run things there if it all falls into place. That business will have a bungalow attached to it. It will need renovations, but it is being lived in by Toby, so it probably has working plumbing and the like.” Bull scrunches his nose a little, and I smirk because we all know Toby’s place needs ripped apart with Toby not being house proud.
“Joker, do you remember Darius? He came home at the same time as I did. He is also living in a trailer, looking for work, and has the capability of stepping in and driving recovery. He would be ideal for the yard because he’d not be needed 24/7 on the property, so he’d be able to pick up any calls you needed to throw his way.” Malik looks from me to Bull and waits for a response.
“Have you spoken to Coin?” I question Bull.
Bull nods, “Yeah, he said we can afford someone to run the garage, another driver, and he’s waiting on Toby giving a response to the offer he made on the impound lot.”
“I reckon Toby will sell it to the club. He’s past working, and he knows it. The last time I took a vehicle into the yard he looked like he was ready to drop from exhaustion,” I shrug at the memory because I’d offered to help him out, but his pride got in the way and he struggled.
Bull looks at Malik, “Can you speak to Darius? If he’s interested, tell him to come here and speak with me. If by chance Toby isn’t selling, we can still use a driver, so either way, we can offer him work.”
“I’ll speak to him when I head back to the trailer park,” Malik replied.
“Okay, let’s discuss the garage…” Bull states, and I turn back to my station and answer a call.
I switch off from the conversation behind me and concentrate on getting the recovery vehicles to their next call and answering the telephone calls for vehicle recovery assistance. I get a lot of calls from people who have broken down and have no breakdown coverage. I explain carefully that we have no spare recovery vehicles or a mechanic who can take a look. It causes some nasty comments to be thrown my way. This for me is the hardest part of the job because I would love to tell them to ‘Go fuck themselves,’ but am under orders from Pres and Bull not to lose my temper with people.
“Joker…Joker?” Hearing my name said with annoyance I turn and look over at Bull. “Now that Coin has given me the go-ahead to employ Malik can you show him the garage area?”
“Oh, that’s good, Malik. You’ll be busy keeping all the vehicles on the road, running without all the noises we keep hearing, and never have the time to fix.” I chuckle and Malik nods while giving me a twitch of his lips, which for him is a smile. “Are you sure you’ll be okay on your own here, Bull?”
“Yeah, I’ll man your station until you come back.”
“Come on, Malik, follow me.”
Walking into the garage, I look over my shoulder at Malik. “Did you clear shit in here?”
With a chuckle, Malik answers, “Yeah, I can’t see a garage in a mess. I like order, tools where they should be, and not thrown on the floor as if they are discarded. A professional in any kind of work should always look after their tools.”
“We have not done much in here since we purchased the gas station. It’s been about getting that part of the place working. We had to wait for the modular office to be delivered, so that took time, too. The old place was somewhere we should have moved from a long time ago, but you know what it’s like? We waited and waited. Seems we waited for this place, and it suits what we need.”
“I’ll get this place in order and then start on the vehicles. Do you have any logs I would need to fill in on the vehicle, the work done, etcetera?”
“Yeah, we have some in the office. But Keys is creating a database of some kind for the computer system. He’s going to put it in here so you can log everything on that as you work, and it will automatically reorder any parts that you use from the stock that you’ll need to keep.”
“Okay, that’s good. I’ll get started, and if you need me to go on a recovery job, just give me a shout. Do you want me to mention the other thing to Darius?”
“That would be good, but tell him it’s not definite at the moment. But you know, if it comes off, and he takes that on, there is that two-bedroom bungalow that you could share. It would get you both out of that fuckin’ trailer park.”
Malik perks up with interest. “Hey, that’s a good idea. If he doesn’t want to take the job, I’d do it just for that benefit.”
Walking out of the garage movement in my peripheral vision has me quickly turning to see what’s going on, and I smirk when I see Echo pulling Briony into the shower block. Well, I say pulling, but he’s kissing the everlovin’ shit out of her as he moves her inside. I don’t see her struggling, so I shrug my shoulders. The deep laugh behind me tells me Malik noticed too, and he’s not worried about what he saw either.
Once I’m sitting, again, behind my station, I tell Bull what I’d seen which has him chuckling. “This is going to be fun to watch. Is she running because she’s nervous, or do you think she isn’t really interested?”
I laugh before I answer, “Well, she was kissing him back, so I wasn’t worried about the situation. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.”
By the end of the day, I’ve had enough and my back aches, along with my neck and legs. All this sitting isn’t doing me any good, so I head to the gym before going to the clubhouse. I’ll be pleased when the changes to the clubhouse are completed and we will have a gym and a swimming pool.
Two hours later, I park outside the clubhouse and give Robert a wave as he’s working on the gate mechanism. We all have tinkered with the gate and the automatic opening device much to Keys’ amusement, but the darn thing still isn’t working correctly.
“Don’t go near the acid pit, Joker. My cousin is here checking it out,” Robert shouts, and I give him a wave to show I heard and understood.
Walking into the common room, I step over to the bar and grab a beer. After opening it, I take a long drink, enjoying the cold that is running down my throat. The common room is relatively quiet, which is unusual for this time of day.
Ghost walks into the common room and gives me a snarky smile. I don’t react because I know that’s what he’s wanting after the salt fiasco.
“Have you seen what they are doing with the acid pit?” Ghost asks, and I shake my head that nope I have not. “They are emptying it, and Aspen is giving everyone hell about the state of the pit.”
