Walter was a drivin’ man. That’s what he did. Walter was an honest man. That’s the way he rolled. If he told you he was going to do something, it got done.
Walter was, in that time, driving for “Home Charities, International”. He would drive to your home and collect your donation; he would then transport it back to Home Charities’ workshops and distribution center. There, your donation would be evaluated, cleaned, repaired (as necessary) and delivered to Home Charities Thrift Shops all over the Country for resale.
Technically, Walter worked for the Logistics Department, in reality he worked for Murray Sturgis. Murray was a dispatcher, his dispatcher. Every work day Murray would hand each driver a list of where they should go, who they should meet with, and what they could expect to pick up there.
On this particular day Murray gave Walter an address in Chesterton on Loggerhead Lane. It was noted on the chit that he should not arrive before 9:00AM and if the donor wasn’t home the front door would be unlocked. The driver should simply go in and remove all the women’s things from the bedroom closet and dresser. A second notation mentioned a few cardboard boxes on the closet shelf containing books, games, and a few stuffed animals that were also for collection. Murray told him that the donor’s wife had recently passed away, so he might not be there for the collection, it might be hard for him. “Promise me you’ll do a thorough job with this one Walter. I went to school with this man. We wanna do this one right.”
“Sure thing Murray,” Walter promised.
Chesterton was a 10 minute drive from the distribution center; Walter had some time to kill if he was going to wait until after 9 o’clock to arrive. He drove first to Churchy’s diner, had a big breakfast then drove to Loggerhead Lane. There was no answer when he knocked on the door so he tried the knob. It was unlocked, as he had been told it would be, so he went in. “Hello,” he called into the house. When no one answered he walked in further to find the bedroom and the things he was meant to collect.
Finding the bedroom was easy and though he felt like a thief, he quickly removed all the women’s clothes from one side of the walk-in closet and loaded them into boxes he had set up for that purpose. He wasn’t real comfortable emptying the “unmentionables” drawer either. He would rather not have been handling the lady’s underthings but, he had given his word so he worked on.
In about three hours he had everything loaded and another hour was needed to drive it back, unload and process it into the workshop for cleaning and such. This one job pretty much filled his day, so he cleaned his truck and went home.
Murray found him later, “Well done Walter, I knew I could trust you with this one.”
I think I got the word count right this time!
tnkerr-Writing Prompts and Practice 
Your imagination!
At first I thought, hey, now I’ll get some insight into those small household article pick-up things… HA! 🙂
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All the time I was reading I was ready for the twist, for the husband to be there, for the pick up to be a kind of ruse, the husband throwing his wife out without her knowing etc.
But what you ended with, that Walter did his job, even in the uncomfortable moments, was wonderful.
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Sometimes things happen the way they are supposed to Kir. I feel an obligation to reflect that in my writing and I like to challenge myself to make a readable story of day to day things. I don’t want to always rely on explosions or other unexpected things.
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I was hoping for the wife to be alive and find him clearing out all her stuff. But I like what you said about not depending on a twist or something exciting. You did a great job with making Walter’s ordinary job very interesting. Well done!
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Nothing wrong with twists, explosions, and excitement. I think it just shouldn’t be all the time. Thanks for your encouragement. I appreciate it greatly.
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I really enjoyed this – it was a really involving snapshot of a moment in a life
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Poor Walter, but sometimes overcoming the reluctance to handle stuff can be harder than fighting a dragon Lyssa M. I loved the description. Lyssa M x
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