The Food Truck - 3. Chapter 3

After Donnie finished eating, I cleaned up the kitchen and got ready to take him to retrieve his belongings. Once he had his duffel bag, I put it in the trunk and headed for home. “Mom, this is Donnie, he’ll be working with me on the food truck.”

“It's nice to meet you Donnie. I’m glad Jim has somebody to help him. Jim, if you all get cleaned up, I'll fix you boys a snack”

“Donnie, come with me and I'll show you where you can wash up.”

Donnie followed Jim upstairs. Opening the door to Jim’s old bedroom, “Donnie, you can use this bedroom. I’m sorry about the bunk beds, this was my bedroom until I moved into the guest room.”

Jim went to his bedroom and got a bathrobe for Donnie to use. “Donnie, before you go to bed you may want to take a shower, you can use this bathrobe. If you put your dirty clothes outside the door I'll take them to the laundry room.” Donnie couldn't speak, this was more than he could have asked for. Jim noticed the tears in Donny’s eyes. “When you’re finished washing up, come on down to the kitchen.”

Jim went to the kitchen to wait for Donnie. “Mom, if you have time tomorrow could you take Donnie to the barbershop and to the clinic. If he’s going to work on the truck, he’ll need a health certificate. And if you have time, can you pick up a couple pairs of pants and white shirts as well and a new pair of sneakers. On Saturday, I’ll take him to Restaurant Supply and buy him aprons and hats for work on the truck.”

Jim had no sooner finished talking to his mom when Donnie joined them at the table. “Donnie, if you bring your dirty clothes down I can wash them for you.”

“That's alright, I can wash my own clothes if I may use your washer and drier.”

Jim's mom just smiled at Donnie and nodded her head in a positive manner. Jim then went on to explain to Donnie what he and his mom were going to do tomorrow. “In order to work on the food truck, you’ll need a health certificate which you can get at the clinic.”

After cleaning up the snack dishes Jim and Donnie headed to bed. Jim noticed Donnie taking the bath robe into the bathroom. He knew that Donnie was going to take a much needed shower. Jim smiled, feeling very good about Donnie joining him on the food truck.

The next morning at breakfast Jim asked his dad if he heard anything concerning purchase of the lot at the end of the Industrial Park. “I haven't heard anything yet. I’ll call my lawyer and have an answer for you at lunch.”

Donnie join them as Jim’s dad left. Jim's mom set a breakfast before Donnie. “Eat up there’s plenty more. We have a busy schedule this morning.”

Jim got up ready to leave, “I’ll see you this afternoon. I need to do some shopping and then heading to the truck to begin preparations for lunch. When you are back, I’ll take you to show you the truck.”

Jim left and his mother went to get ready to take Donnie shopping. When she came back downstairs Donnie had cleared the table and washed the dishes that were in the sink. Jim's mother was surprise. She chuckled as she showed Donnie the dishwasher.

On the way to the clinic, Jim's mother told Donnie what they were going to do. She told him about the clinic, getting a haircut explaining long hair is not permitted where food is being prepared. She had some concerns about clothes for Donnie. He seemed so thin that she knew with a proper diet, he would put on weight. The clothes that she bought now would not fit him later.

Jim was quite excited when he came home, unfortunately no one was home. Jim went and started searching the Internet for contractors to start the construction of his garage on his new property. He noticed that the Internet gave him two options, one option was to use cement blocks, the second option was to use prefab metal siding. By the time Jim was finished with searching the Internet, he heard his mom driving into the garage.

Going down to the kitchen, he met his mom coming in from the garage. “Where’s Donnie?”

“He’ll be in. We had fun today and a little tears as well. He told me why he was on the street. I find it hard to believe a parent could do such a thing. I’m very glad that you found him.”

As Donnie entered the kitchen,”Mom, who is this and what did you do with Donnie?”

Donnie just smiled. Donnie went and started to sort his clothes from his duffel bag, while Jim went and loaded some boxes into his car to take to the food truck. “Donnie, as soon as you're done, we can go to the food truck.”

Jim noticed that's some of the clothes Donnie had taken from his duffel bag were essentially rags. Looking at Donnie, he knew he wouldn’t have lasted the winter with the clothes he had. Donnie quickly sorted his clothes into two piles, one pile for the washer and one for the garbage. Getting in the car he was all smiles.

The ride to the Industrial Park only took about fifteen minutes. Jim parked behind the food truck, he could sense the excitement in Donnie. “Help me carrying these boxes inside and I'll give you the Grand Tour.”

With only a few boxes in twenty minutes everything was inside the food truck. Jim gave Donnie the grand tour. Donnie was amazed at the size and the various equipment installed in the truck. “Tomorrow, we need to go shopping for groceries for the coming week. Now that I no longer work evenings we can think about offering breakfast and then maybe dinner. How good are you at making signs?”

“As long as they are not complicate, I can probably do a decent job in lettering. Why?”

“I was thinking we could hang a sign with our menu. We could even offer soup for lunch.”

“Maybe we should make up some menus tonight before we go shopping tomorrow.”

“That’s a good idea, what do you like for breakfast?”

“I don't know my breakfasts were generally cereal. I can't remember when my mom made pancakes or eggs. I know a lot of people like eggs for breakfast.”

“Next week we’ll experiment and see what kind of breakfasts we can offer. Tonight, we can go on the Internet and check recipes so we can calculate the cost for a single service. If we do that tonight, then tomorrow while we’re shopping we can check prices.”

“What about soup, we could offered that now.”

“Not yet, we need to find an environmentally safe container. We can check that out tonight on the Internet as well. So now we have our homework.”

Before leaving the food truck, Jim gave Donnie two on his chocolate chip cookies. “That’s your pay for today.”

Riding back home Donnie was full of questions. Jim just smile knowing that Donnie was going to work out just fine. The chip on his shoulder that he initially experienced at the dumpster was gone.

That evening at dinner, Jim's dad told him about a contractor to build his garage."Jim, I talked to the head of engineering today, he gave me a name of a contractor, Dominic . He’s highly recommended by our engineering department. Give him a call tomorrow and set up a meeting for Monday afternoon, I’ll be there with you in case you have any questions.” Jim was happy that he could start building his garage.

Saturday morning after breakfast Jim and Donnie left to go shopping at Restaurant Supply. Donnie took the wheeled dolly following Jim as he led the way through the various aisles. Jim needed more cups for salads. Finding the cups, he saw containers next to the cups for soup. “Donnie, see if you can find bowls for soup that are environmentally safe."

Jim went to look for wooden soup spoons. He was amazed at the amount of plastic utensils. Donnie found an eight ounce and a twelve ounce soup bowl with their lids. Jim told him to load a box of each on the dolly. Jim went and got a box of wooden spoons and a box of wooden forks he gave them to Donnie to put on the dolly.

As they walked the aisles Jim saw cartoons of chicken, beef and vegetable broth. He took a carton of chicken broth that had six boxes of thirty-two ounces each. Moving to the section of the store that contained fresh vegetables and meats. Jim made selections, Donnie put them on the dolly. Leaving that section of the store, they past the section containing restaurant supplies. Donnie saw a large coffee urn, “Jim, if we’re going to offer breakfast, we’ ll have to offer coffee as well.”

Jim looked at the urns, “ Maybe we should get two, one for coffee and one for tea,” so two urns went on the dolly.

Passing a section with various restaurant apparel clothing, Jim picked up four aprons, four tie hats, and six pairs of gloves. Donnie thought that was all until Jim stopped and picked up four pairs of Chef’s pants and four Chef’s shirts. “These may be a little large for now but you’ll grow into them. The pants have a rope belt that you can tie to hold them up.”

Checking out Jim chatted with the cashier as Donnie unloaded the dolly and then reloaded as each item was registered. Jim paid with a credit card, “Donnie, take these to the car I’ll be right out.” Donnie watched as Jim chatted with the girl. Arriving home they unloaded the bulk items, then drove to the food truck with the fresh vegetables, meat and cheese.

That evening Jim prepared his signature roast beef, that is what he called it. While eating Donnie suggested they offer a hot roast beef sandwich with mash potatoes, Jim just smiled when his dad nodded approvingly.

Sunday was prep day on the truck. Monday, the next morning, Jim and Donnie decided to eat breakfast on the truck. Making coffee, the aroma from the truck attracted attention. One person knock on the door asking if he could buy a cup of coffee. As Donnie brought him the coffee he told the person to walk to the front and he would give him milk and sugar. Soon, Donnie was busy selling cups of coffee for a dollar fifty. While Donnie was selling coffee, Jim started to make breakfast. One customer asked if he could make a fried egg sandwich. Jim smiled at Donnie. Jim had been working on a breakfast menu, so he quoted the price for the sandwich, ten percent more than he was thinking of asking.

By the end of the week, he was selling a lot of coffee and thought he might want to get a smaller urn for tea. Both urns he had bought were now being used for coffee. He went through six dozen of eggs and hadn't even started with bacon or ham. Jim knew he’d need a third person, one to attend the grill, one to prepare plates and one to take orders.

That evening he was very excited as he talked to his mom and dad, “I’m going to need another employee. I wish I had the garage finished.”

“Have you talk to Dominic?”

“No, I haven't seen him all week. He said something about putting piles down before he could lay the floor. He’s afraid that the ground will sink more and crack the concrete floor.”

“I'm sure he knows what he’s talking about.”

Later that evening, "Jim, you are so lucky to have your parents. They support you one hundred percent.

“Yes, I guess I am lucky. But now we need a third guy."

"Why not a girl?”

“No, this is a guy thing. Girls can be very bossy and picky.”

Donnie laughed, “Where are you going to find another guy?"

“Where I found the last one and if we’re lucky he’ll be as good as the first one I found.”

Donnie was surprised at what Jim said. He gave Jim a hug. No one had ever made a positive comment about him. So for the next few nights they patrolled the cities dumpsters.