Chapter 74
Armed with the Admiral's credit card number, Harriett grabbed Bud's arm and hustled him out of the bullpen. She called out as they left, "If anyone wants to come by the Admiral's house when you get off work tonight, I'm sure that we could use the help!"
Jen and Sturgis both said they would be there, but Harm remained silent.
"Okay, Buddy, the first stop is our house to get out of uniforms and into work clothes. We also need to pick up anything that baby James has grown out of or doesn't use. Oh! And now that he is out of the bassinet and into his crib full time we can let them have that too! Can you call Mikey and see if he will pick up the boys from the day care and watch them tonight? I can't have them underfoot while we work."
"How about if he is free I have him drop the boys with our neighbor Mrs. Carlson and then come and help us? He will be of more use than I will be moving furniture around."
"Great idea!" They made a flying trip through the house gathering anything that would be useful to 'the mission' and loaded it into the van. Then they headed to Colonel Mackenzie's apartment. Harriett told Bud she would need to see how much stuff she needed to take from Mac's before heading to the store.
When they arrived at Mac's apartment, Bud noticed a Federal Express box propped against her door. He picked it up as they went in and Harriett asked what the package was. Bud read off that it was from a photo shop in Florida and Harriett squealed in delight, grabbed it and began to rip into it.
Bud watched in shock as he wife committed a federal offence, "Harriett! You're opening someone else's mail!"
"I know, the Admiral said to scatter pictures around his house and if there's some in here from their trip, they could be perfect…" She fell silent as the picture frame became visible in the box she was opening. It was the double frame with the shark picture and the one of the two of them together in front of the carriage with the gold plaque saying 'Memories'. She sighed, thinking, 'Oh, Admiral, way to advertise your feelings!'
Looking over her shoulder, Bud exclaimed, "Is that a shark?"
"Yes, Bud, it is. We need to keep moving!" she exclaimed and jumped to her feet to begin packing. She packed Mac's clothes and swept through the bathroom for her toiletries. In the meantime, she had Bud packing up her music and video collection. With the van nearly full, Harriett was hoping the furniture store would be able to deliver that night.
Mikey was going to meet them at the Admiral's house once he got the boys settled with their neighbor, so, they hit the McDonald's drive-thru for lunch and then were off to the baby store. Telling the clerk that she would be making a very large purchase providing that it could be delivered that night, Harriett waited for him to confirm that it could be delivered, before beginning what looked a marathon-shopping spree. She quickly picked out a white set of furniture, and then remembering that the baby was named Angela Beatrice Chegwidden, Harriett decided on an alphabet theme for the nursery. After buying border paper for the room and matching curtains as well as a bumper pad to go inside the crib, she moved on to the clothing department.
Quickly, she added a stack of OneZ's, several receiving blankets and some unisex outfits. She could not help but stop and purchase a tiny lace dress that would be a 'welcome home' gift from her and Bud. She also threw several boxes of newborn diapers before moving on to the bottle and pacifier isle. After getting a good selection and a bottle warmer for the dresser, she headed back to the furniture department. Here she finally slowed down, much to Bud's relief. He was beginning to wonder if Harriett thought she was trying out for some kind of shopping contest reality show!
To be continued….