Monday. Seventh of January. 2013. The start of the first complete week of school in Columbia Falls. Joseph Patten had made it in a few minutes earlier than was required, a habit of his. This gave him enough time to enter the Teacher’s Lounge and prepare himself a good cup of coffee before heading to his classroom. Before the cup was prepared though, Molly Wayne had entered the room.
“Morning Molly” He began with a warm smile.
“Morning Joseph.” She replied cheerfully.
“So how are things for you?”
“They’re going well.”
“That’s good to hear.” Joseph began. “You remember that the board meeting is set for tomorrow right?”
“Yes, I remember. First one I’ve been looking forward to, although I’m worried.”
“Don’t be. Tabitha is the best thing that’s happened here for a while, and last I heard, Hireman has split town.” The last part was definitely true, though given the haste, he had to suspect that it had been planned in advance. “So I don’t see any repeat of the Williams debacle occurring. Worst thing I see happening is that storm front that‘s heading this way, they say two-and-a-half to three days, though it seems we‘ll only be clipping the edge of it.”
“Only if they’re right.” Molly teased.
“Yeah, there’s that to consider.” Joseph had to chuckle to that one.
“And to see a proper obstetrician, we need to head into Kalispell.” Molly sighed.
“Transport?”
“Yes.”
“Ah, one moment.” Joseph took a moment to recall the Transit that his cousin, Clemens used, before restarting the conversation. “I remember the Transit Van that Clemens had modified for him.”
“What about it?” Molly’s curiosity was piqued by this.
“I remember that he had the seating changed so he could keep on driving it. Basically redesigned driver and passenger seats so he could use them as needed, and be able to put removable back rests on them for when Jenny used it. The roofline was factory-built high, so he didn’t need to worry about that part.”
“I see, but with me and George, we may need the roofline to be higher for him.”
“I guessed that. I know Ford are currently using their Transit as the baseline for that type of vehicle. GM are using the Furtopia. And Toyota are making a new HiAce. Now the most info I have is on the HiAce. They plan on using their largest available wheelbase and payload capacity, along with their highest roofline, then add their largest engines that they can. I think they would be the 3 litre engines, Gas and Diesel. So 180 or 168 horses, 6,000 pounds peak, 2,000 in payload, and up to eight seats, based on the design. Now the Transit design, I’d expect to be similar, except in engine and comfort specs, most likely more. Essentially, they’re using a technique they’ve employed in Europe. There, they use their vans and convert them into minibuses. A similar thing seems to be happening here now. As for the Furtopia, I don’t have all the info there, sorry.”
“That’s alright.” Molly reassured him. “Though those options appear to be rather pricy.”
“Well, the best way to go about it is like this. Figure out what you need from it, then find the best one for the job, and then be sure you can afford it. When you next head into Kalispell, you could find the car rental there, and ask to check a few of the large cars and vans to see if you can fit in them. You could get lucky.”
“Well that’s something we can look into. Thanks Joseph.”
“You’re welcome, Molly.”
Any further discussions would have to wait, since they now needed to head to their respective classrooms and have the days lessons prepared. So with a handshake, they parted and left the room, Joseph a few seconds later having put the used - and washed - cup by the drainer before heading to his own class.