Stub 5.5: Setting up the lab

Indie Turner came home from her six hour shift at the dollar store after picking up Donald, Indie and Hunter’s three year old child at day care.

Indie and Hunter would have married four years ago if it wouldn’t have screwed up Hunter’s student loans and cut into their “assistance”. As it was, they both thought of themselves as “common-law” married. At least Donald knew who his daddy was, unlike many of the other kids at the subsidized daycare.

Indie heard Hunter before she saw him. He was dragging an old appliance out of one of the rooms they kept closed off. The big, ramshackle house had several rooms that were filled with junk left by previous tenents.

“Whatcha doing?” Indie asked. She had high hopes that Hunter was clearing out a room to use as a nursery with number two on the way.

“I am claiming this room for a study.” Hunter said. “Actually, more of a lab than a study but it is almost the same thing.”

TVs and appliances with metal in them were stacked by the curb. Meth-heads would pick it up and take it to the scrap metal yard to turn a few bucks for their next hit.

Broken furniture was stacked in the “bonfire” pit. Boxes of old magazines were discretely staged in the garage. They would be added to the fire once it got going.

Plastic trash was broken up and in trash bags.

The room was 8’-by-14’ and would have been perfect for two baby cribs. Indie sighed.

They mopped out the old vinyl floor with bleach and water. They scrubbed the walls with Lysol. Hunter had a couple of gallons of paint and paint rollers ready to go.

“Where did you get the money for those?” Indie asked. As the primary breadwinner at 24 hours a week of minimum wages, she kept close tabs on where the money went.

“My new job came with a pre-paid credit card.” Hunter said. “Just a heads up, I ordered a bunch of stuff from De_Nile.com for overnight delivery. It should show up tomorrow. If you are here when it comes, just put the boxes in the study.”

“I don’t suppose you could buy a package of Pampers with that card. We are out.” Indie said.

Hunter gave it a moments thought. “Don’t see why not. I dropped $1000 on lab materials. I can always say the Pampers are for toxic waste control.”

Hunter kept a couple of tables, some sturdy chairs and a fifty-cup coffee urn and all of the extension cords he found in the study. Everything else was pitched.

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