84 - Covid Plans

*How the hell are we going to support our families if we can’t work? – Dino*

Camille and Priscilla had watched the rest of the world slowly shut down over the last few months and had started talking about how to move the stores online. Most of the retail stores already had an online presence, so moving all their business online would not be difficult.

They would need to wait until they knew what the restrictions would be on the other companies before they could make plans for the others. The construction and trades companies could probably continue to work. The auto shops could probably continue to operate but with limited access to the public.

Meanwhile, the tattoo shop would probably have to close. As would the hair salon that Michaela worked at. The Cookie Jar would have to move to take out only.

Nessie would probably have a plan for her Kitchen.

The furniture companies that Sticks owned, the MetalWorks shop that Pagan ran and a few other specialty shops would need to be handled individually. As would the Clubhouse Daycare and Ryder’s accounting company.

After a quick shower, Camille pulled on a pair of Buffalo plaid pajama pants and a T-shirt. Taking a page from her friend’s book, she pulled on a hoodie that Darkness had left in her room. With her crocs on her feet and laptop in each hand, she headed back to the day room where Priscilla was already plotting things out on her notepad.

Sitting on the floor next to her friend, she opened both laptops and powered them up. “What do we know?” she asked, putting on her reading glasses.

“I’ve read through the press releases and I’m even more confused,” Priscilla admitted as she turned her computer so that her friend could read the screen.

“Whereas, whereas, whereas, therefore…. Are we writing law or a mathematical theorem?” Camille asked as she skimmed it before grabbing Priscilla’s phone. “Thankfully, I know someone who can speak legal jargon.”

Activating the speaker on the phone, she sat the phone on the table between her two computers and Priscilla’s computer and tablet. The phone rang twice before Celt’s voice came across the line.

“Hang on, pumpkin. Dad! Have they said anything about family court cases yet?”

The booming voice of Phineas O’Malley grew closer until they could understand what he was saying on the other end of the line.

“… postponed for now. The plan is to reschedule them for virtual, I don’t know the specifics yet, everything is still being worked out.”

“I have a custody case that is supposed to start tomorrow.” Celt reminded his dad.

“Oh, yeah, that case.”

Camille and Priscilla grinned at each other and mouthed “That case.”

“Let me have Felicia reach out and see what she can find out,” Phineas said of his personal assistant. “You talk to Werewolf yet?”

“Yeah, Priss is on the phone now.”

“Hey little girl!”

“Hey, papa Phin!” Priscilla called back with her nickname for him.

“I would say come by and see me, but I don’t know if you can.”

Priscilla laughed. “I can’t. I’m down here visiting Camille.”

“Hey, papa Phin!” Camille called out.

“Hiya, sweetheart,” he called back. “When are you going to come home?”

“I’ve got about two and a half more years,” she told him with a little laugh. “What project do you need me to help you with?”

“What makes you think that I need help with something?”

“Don’t you?” she asked dryly.

He was silent and then Celt’s laughter came across the line. “Damn I wish you could see this look of absolute defeat on his face.”

“It’s not defeat!” Phineas exclaimed as his voice faded. “Just tell her tha…”

“Not sure if you caught that, but he’s going to send you an email about what he needs,” Celt chuckled. “I personally need you to update my calendar program. Also need some help with the ranch.”

“Email me what you need,” Camille grinned as she logged into her work email.

“I will and I’ll have Carly tell you what she needs. Now, onto the bad news,” Celt sighed. “I need you to have a flight plan logged and in the air in the next three hours. I need you guys in the air before we run the risk of even private planes being grounded.”

“Are they going to ground all planes?” Priscilla asked.

“Honestly, I don’t know. But I don’t want to risk it. Your softball season is cancelled.”

“I figured that when they said that classes were going online, and the athletic department told us that our scholarships would not be revoked.”

Camille suddenly worried about her own scholarship since the dive season had been cancelled. “I should probably check on mine.”

“Let me know if you need me to look at anything,” he offered.

“That’s exactly why we called,” Camille removed her glasses and accepted the bottle of water that Swamp Thang handed her.

“Sorry, hang on, girls,” he said, and the call was put on hold.

He grinned at Priscilla as he handed her a bottle and Camille looked at her friend.  She wore a hoodie from the local Harley Davidson dealership. As he walked away, Camille nudged her friend who only grinned. They high fived each other as Celt came back on the line.

“The world is coming to a screeching halt, and I still have to stop at the store on my way home,” he chuckled. “What do you need me to look at?”

“I need you to translate all the limitations and shit so that we know what the stores can and cannot do,” Camille explained.

“Can they translate the Louisiana shit, too?” Steele asked.

“Do you also speak Cajun Legal Jargon?”

“Well, shit, Louisiana law is a little different but Jeffersonian and Jacksonian law really is not that different.”

“Celt,” Priscilla interrupted, “I love you, but please don’t spend the next three hours telling us why Louisiana has parishes while the rest of the country has counties.”

He chuckled. “Very well, I’ll stop there. Give me an hour or so to finish up this other shit and then I’ll dig into everything that is going to affect you guys. Wait, hang on. Samuel!” There was a pause, and they assumed that Samuel was coming back to the doorway. “Do you have a breakdown of the lockdown restrictions? State and national? And can you look at Louisiana, also?”

“Who’s Samuel?” Camille whispered and Priscilla shrugged.

“Great, I need you to email it to … damn it, girls, what’s the name now?”

“We went back to J and L Media Relations,” Priscilla told him.

“Cool, first name dot last name at D S holdings?”

“That works,” Priscilla said as Camille logged into her older email system.

“What was the porn name that you had for a while?” he asked and there were some snickers from around the room they were in.

Putting her glasses back on, Camille grinned. “Two Girls and a Computer.”

“Not one of our better decisions,” Priscilla admitted.

“Got it,” Camille said as she pulled up the email with multiple PDF and word documents and a second email with a detailed spreadsheet. “Louisiana is already on here. I like Samuel. Oh, shit, he just sent me international.”

“He’s the intern that got the shit job of tracking the restrictions and changes,” Celt told them. “But I guess he’s got a guaranteed job for a while.”

“Celt, you’re the best, give Samuel a big kiss for me,” Camille skimmed through the information for Massachusetts.

“I would, but his wife scares me,” he said, and they could hear the amusement in his voice. “What the hell? That nearly hit me in the head! I got to go beat my sister to tattling on me to our dad.”

“Sean!” his dad’s voice boomed from the other end of the offices.

“Never mind, I’m going to go work from home.”

“Don’t forget to stop at the store,” Priscilla chuckled as she ended the call.

“Schedule a call with these shops,” Camille said scribbling some names on Priscilla’s note pad. “I have a present for you.”

When she returned to the day room with the box of pilfered hoodies, Priscilla already had the shop owners and managers on the computer screens. They were talking over each other and cutting each other off. Priscilla looked at her friend and rolled her eyes.

Dropping the box next to Priscilla, Camille turned one computer to face the big screen TV. Snatching up the black case that had her new Max Stallion DVD in it, she turned on the TV and popped the disk into the player. As it began to play, the computers fell silent.

“Look here, fuckers,” Camille said as she sat on the couch and flipped the computer back around. “You can work with us, or I can check out my new gay porn and still charge you for my time.”