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One in a Billion Chapter Three Slowly they started
moving towards the door, and heading to the factory. As Donna came by Jim, he
asked her if her child was ok, which brought a puzzled look to her face. He
quickly said he hadn't tried to eavesdrop but was filling out his application
yesterday morning while she was using the phone and had over heard her. She
said her daughter was ok and thanked him for showing concern. He then asked if
she had a way to the factory or did she need one. She said her car was still
broke but she usually just caught a ride with who ever would stop and ask her
once she was in the parking lot. Jim offered to let her ride with him if she
wanted to and she accepted. They got into his van and Jim headed it towards the
factory. She showed him where the employee parking areas were and since he was
in shipping, he could actually park around on that side of the factory to save
walking so far. He found a spot in that area and parked, then accompanied Donna
into the factory and up to the break room doors where everyone clocked in at. After clocking in
Jim headed to shipping to his job, but not before finding out that Donna was a
boxer in department six, just before shipping department. He followed her and
when she turned to her line, he said he would see her later, and then headed to
the shipping office. He noticed he could see Donna from just about all places
he was in around the shipping department with the exception of inside the
shipping office. Jim was wondering to himself if he could keep up the hiding of
his real identity for the next two weeks as that was when the factory had been
told to expect him. Would it hurt the workers when they found that he was in fact
the owner, or would they understand him doing it to find out what was what and
how bad or good things were at the factory. All this thinking and him staying
busy made the morning go by quickly; before he knew it break time was there. In the break room
Jim sat at the second shipping table and Donna sat at the table right behind
him with some of the workers from her area. He spoke to several of the workers
in the room and chatted with the ones at his table as well. When he got the
chance though he turned to Donna and offered to give her a ride home after work
if she needed it, he assured her he would be a total gentleman and she wouldn't
have anything to worry about. She told him she would gladly accept the ride and
would meet him at his van after work, she then asked if he was going anywhere
for lunch. He told her he hadn't thought about it, but it would probably be
better then the stuff from the machines he had eaten the day before. He asked
if she would go to lunch with him and as she said yes the buzzer rang. The
workers all started leaving and before he realized it, Jim was back in shipping
and not gotten a chance to tell her ok. Jim was really busy
with his job and seldom got to even look towards Donna. Shortly before lunch
though one of the other lift drivers drove close to him and said she had a
message from Donna for him. She told him Donna said she would meet him at the time
clock at lunch. Jim turned towards Donna and nodded his head that he agreed.
She returned the nod and they went back to work. It wasn't long till the buzzer
rang for lunch, Jim headed for the time clock as fast as he could. Donna was a
few feet ahead of him and as he clocked out he seen she was waiting for him by
the door. They headed out to his van and off to the restaurant for lunch. It was nice getting out of the
factory for a while, but the restaurant was packed with other workers. They sat
at a booth and order the meat and two vegetables each from the lunch buffet. They
both had iced tea to drink. While they waited for their food, Jim inquired as
to when Donna may think her car would be fixed, and whether she knew exactly
what was wrong with it. She told him soon and it had just quit moving one day,
someone had said the transmission was shot or so they thought. She told him she
didn't have the money to take it into a shop as yet. Her mother had passed away
about six months ago and she didn't have any insurance so Donna had spent all
she had to bury her. She told him that she and her two children had been living
with her mother, but had to move when she died since the house was sold to help
pay her mother's outstanding medical bills. Jim felt bad for her after hearing
this. He wondered where
she was living as some of the workers had rumored she never let anyone take her
directly home, but always got out at a store or a corner, and she would tell
them she wanted to walk from there, even in rainy weather. Jim knew he had to
find out more about Donna, as he was beginning to like her an awful lot. He
asked her while they ate lunch about her kids. She said her daughter, Chrissy,
was fourteen and her son, Josh was twelve. He thought Donna looked to young to
have a daughter fourteen and he told her so. Dona thanked him for the
compliment and told him she was only eighteen when she had Chrissy. The
children's father had died back about 5 years ago in a terrible car wreck. He
was hit in the driver's side of his car by a drunk driver that ran a stop
light, he died instantly. Jim told her he was sorry to hear that and if she
ever needed anything, (he emphasized on the word anything), to just ask him and
he would do all he could to help her out in any way. Donna thanked him and said
they should be going as some of the other workers were already heading back to
the factory. When Jim was back at
the shipping department he went to the office for the next load papers. Sandra asked
him if he wanted to volunteer for some different work, it involved doing some
cleaning of an apartment the factory owned. Jim said it was ok with him as he
wasn't too good to do some cleaning. He was told to go see Jennifer up front
and she would explain as there were going to be about four doing the cleaning.
Jim headed to the front office, and as he went by Donna's area, she joined him,
telling him she had volunteered also. When they got up front, Jennifer said
that they would be the only two as Mrs. Wilcox had thought two could handle the
cleanup. Jennifer told them if it was ok, she would let Jim drive over so they
could leave straight from there at quitting time, and she would take her car to
show them where it was. She also told them she would clock them out at the
factory so they wouldn't have to bother with returning to it today. They both
agreed it was ok, and they headed for Jim's van as Jennifer went to her car. Jim followed every
turn Jennifer made and within about 15 minutes they pulled into a gravel lot of
an older building that had seven garage doors on it. Jim noticed it had a
second story stair case that went up about the middle of the building. When
they had got out of the van, Jennifer explained the apartment was a two
bedroom, two baths with a large living room and even a laundry room. She said
the owner used to stay there when he visited, and since his death it had been
empty. They were going to clean it up for the new owner as he was expected to
come by in a couple of weeks for his first visit. Mrs. Wilcox wanted it spic
and span for the new owner and wanted it aired out real good. They went up and
when they walked in they were in the living room, to their left was a short
hall that led to the second bedroom, a bath and the laundry room, to their
right was the master suite complete with walk-in closet, whirlpool tub and a king-sized
bed, straight ahead of them was the kitchen/dining combo and there was a door
leading out to the roof. Jennifer told them that in both bedrooms were french
doors leading to the roof so it could be used as a terrace or patio like. Jim
liked the setup ok and Donna made the comment she would love to live in this
place. Jennifer showed them where everything was and handed them a list of what
needed to be done according to Mrs. Wilcox. She then left to go back to the
factory, telling them the phone was still working in case they needed her. Jim and Donna looked
over the list to decide what each would do and in what order. Jim offered to vacuum
and to clean the bathrooms, Donna offered to do the laundry and change the bed
linens. They decided they would both tackle the dusting and window washing. Jim
headed for the utility room to get the vacuum and get the supplies needed to
clean the two bathrooms. Donna went to the master bedroom and started changing
the bed linens. They worked for what seemed like a long time, before either
realized it was already Donna said ok and continued
cleaning the kitchen. Jim started cleaning off the top of the refrigerator and
then on to cleaning the oven and range. After about an hour or so, they
finished and walked through the complete apartment to make sure everything was
perfect as Mrs. Wilcox had said she wanted it. When they were satisfied with
their work they seen it was close to When Jim rolled into
the parking lot of the grocery store he found a parking place close to the
doors and told her to go a head, he would wait for her. Donna started to get
out and then suddenly turned to him and said he could go on as she seen a
friend of hers that lived across the street from her and she would catch a ride
with her. Jim said ok and told her he would see her tomorrow at the factory.
She said ok and shut the van door and headed towards the supermarket doors. Jim
started the van again and headed out of the parking lot, still thinking about
getting some dinner at the restaurant. Jim was almost a block away and happened
to look in his rear view mirror, he looked again, he was sure he had seen Donna
cross the street as he was driving off. He thought of turning around, but
figured he probably just was seeing someone else cross the street. He looked
back again and noticed the person he had seen was walking in the same direction
he was driving; Jim decided to make a block to see if it in fact was Donna. Jim made a left at
the next corner, heading into the older run down side of town. He turned left
again at the next corner and noticed a lot of old empty abandoned buildings on
his right. As he slowed down to go on through the next intersection, Jim looked
to his left and seen the person dart behind a car parked on the street. The
street was one way so Jim would have to go to the next corner before turning
back left again. He continued on and made that left, then turned left down the
one way street he had crossed. He looked everywhere, no one was there. He drove
to the intersection he had came through earlier and went straight, he looked up
the alley way to his right behind the old buildings, he could see what looked
like a small widening area about halfway up the alley and noticed a white car.
The car looked like maybe it was abandoned as it had stuff piled all around it
almost as if someone had tried to hide it or make it blend in, but the car was
cleaner then the rest of the junk. Jim decided he would investigate later, as
his stomach was reminding him it was time for dinner. Jim made a few turns and
was once again back on his way to the restaurant. It was only a few minutes
more before Jim was sitting at a booth in the restaurant and drinking his tea
while waiting for his food. After eating Jim headed for the motel to turn in
early, like Donna, he was tired from the cleaning. |
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