Early Saturday Morning:
The circus starts packing up after the final performances. Lux had finished up the last thing she needed to do to her van. She was woken up to help in breaking down things that could be packed and loaded first. After the last performances, she helps Frank and Victor pack everything, so they can leave first thing Sunday morning.

By one in the morning, they have the main tent taken down and folded. All the lines and supports were already packed away. She was informed by Frank and Victor that they were going to be spending two weeks at their new location, and they would not need to set up the main tent. Setting up is going to be easier for them this time around.

By Sunday morning, they were ready to move out. Frank and Victor were going to drive the main truck with everything. Lux rushes back to her van and goes to start it, but gets no power to anything.

“Damn it.” Lux checks the fuse box and makes sure the new connections are secured.

She exits from the van and checks the battery connections, and notices she forgot to secure the positive battery cable. She grabs her socket and ratchet and tightens the battery bolt. Once she was done, she got back in the van and turned the key. Everything powers up.

“Thank god.” She presses the start button and the van tries to start, but doesn’t catch.

Lux presses the start button again, and the engine doesn’t catch again.

“Oh, come on.” Lux presses the start button a third time, and the engine starts.

“Thank goodness.” She releases the emergency brake and pulls out of the parking lot, following behind Bill Hudson and his wife, Tammy’s RV.

She turns the new radio on and links her cellphone to it. She plays her favorite playlist and listens to the music as she follows everyone. She knows a lot of the RVs were going to need to stop and get fuel. She didn’t because she had already filled her tanks when she bought the van.

During the two weeks at the new location, she could work on the inside, which looked bare, as it did when FedEx owned the van. She stops to use the bathroom at the truck stop they stop at. She goes inside and grabs something to munch on while she drives.

She really needs to replace the driver's seat if she is going to be doing long-distance driving. Her butt was starting to feel the springs underneath the thin material of the driver's seat. By the time they arrived at the new location, it was starting to rain.

Lux follows Bill to a parking lot where they were going to be storing their vehicles. Frank had radioed her over the CB and said they won’t be setting up tonight, but first thing tomorrow morning. Which was fine with her, because she was tired.

Lux pulls out the propane camping stove she had been using and heats some beef stew she had bought. She also toasts up some garlic bread in the toaster oven she bought. It had an air fryer function, which she loved. It was a good thing she took a cooking course during the summer when she was a freshman in high school.

She opens her laptop and watches a movie she downloaded. She listens to the rain as it hits her roof. She still had a bunch of stuff she needed to do to make the interior of the van livable, but at least she wasn’t sleeping in her Z car.

She could now stretch out and be comfortable. When she had to use the bathroom, she used a five-gallon bucket filled with pine pellets. She heats some water and washes the dirty dishes in a dishpan. She bought three five-gallon water bottles for those water fountains that heat water or cool the water for you.

Lux was planning on installing one of those in her van, once she starts renovating the interior. For once, she doesn’t have to worry about staying up late, working on her van. All the parts she removed were sitting near the back door. Some of them she needed to return to the auto part stores from which she bought the replacements. The transmission she removed, she was thinking about having it rebuilt to the specs of the new one, just like she was thinking about having the old differential rebuilt to the same specs as the new one she installed.

Once Lux starts feeling sleepy. She cracks the door and puts the screen in to allow air to travel into the van. She had plans for a new door for the back door. Lux changes out of the clothes she had on and puts on a pair of shorts and an oversized nightshirt.

She lies down and watches another movie for a while before finally drifting off to sleep. She listens to the rain as it hits the roof. She was finally feeling better about her situation.

She drifts off and enjoys sleeping on the air mattress she bought. She didn’t have to worry about waking up with a sore back. She pulls the blankets closer around her body.

When her alarm clock goes off, she doesn’t want to get out of bed. She was nice and comfortable and wanted to stay in bed. Lux turns the alarm off and just stays bundled up under her blanket. When the second alarm goes off, she turns it off and gets up. She stretches and starts getting dressed. She had to get with Frank, Victor, and Mr. Goldman to see what they were going to do.

After dressing, Lux heads to meet up with Frank and Victor. She hopes she can grab a cup of coffee when she meets up with them.

Lux spots Frank, Victor, and Mr. Goldman standing around drinking coffee. It looked like he went to a coffee shop, inside of brewing coffee.

“Ah! Lux, I bought a coffee for you as well.” Mr. Goldman hands the coffee cup to her.

“Thanks, Mr. Goldman.” Lux graciously accepts the coffee cup.

Lux takes a sip from the coffee cup and moans when she tastes how good the coffee tastes. She looks at Mr. Goldman and the others, “This is a good cup of coffee.”

“So, what is on the agenda for today?” Lux looks at the three men.

“Actually, nothing. You have the next few days off. We can’t set up the equipment or the concessions stands for the next few days. So, you have the next few days off.” Mr. Goldman looks at all three of them.

“Cool, that will give me some time to do some shopping.” Lux already knew what she wanted to do.

“Just stay out of trouble, Lux. This town has some strange laws.” Mr. Goldman looks at her because he already knew a little about her.

“I promise to stay out of trouble. I need to go to the laundry mat, do some laundry, and return some auto parts I removed from the van.”

“Alright. Your pay has already been deposited into your bank account.” Mr. Goldman watches as Lux walks off.

“Thanks.” Lux walks back to her van.

She gathers up all her dirty laundry and puts it in a laundry basket. She puts them in the Z car after taking it off the trailer. She also loads the auto parts she needs to drop off at the auto parts store. She’ll have to find a transmission shop to see if they can rebuild the original transmission for her van.

Once everything is loaded, she drops her laundry off at a laundry mat that has a drop-off service and pays for the service. She locates one of the auto parts stores where she bought her parts and drops off the cores, and gets her money back for them. That takes her about an hour or so. She inquires about a transmission shop that specializes in transmission work.

She pulls into the parking lot of the shop and spots one of the workers. She walks towards the open garage door. “Hi, I have a question for you.”

Thomas was heading towards a car on the lift when he heard a female voice speaking to him. He stops and turns around to look at the person.

He spots a woman with shoulder-length purple hair and light makeup. She looked cute and wasn’t very tall.

“What can I do for you, Ms.?”

“I was wondering if you could rebuild the old transmission from my van to these specs?” Lux hands the receipt from the other transmission shop to the man.

Thomas looks at the specs and figures and thinks that he could do it if she had the original transmission. He looks back up after reading the specs. “Do you have the original with you?”

“Yes, sir, I do.” Lux was watching the guy.

“It will cost you about five thousand dollars for me to rebuild it.” Thomas figured he would have to order the kit that she would need for the transmission inner parts.

Lux inhales sharply. She was hoping it could be done a little cheaper. “That’s a little expensive.”

“Yeah, it is, but I have to order the kit that has all these parts in it and rebuild the whole inner transmission.” Thomas hands the receipt back to the young woman.

“How long will it take you to do it?” Lux wouldn’t mind having it done.

“If you bring me the transmission tomorrow, I can have it done for you by next Friday.” Thomas hasn’t seen the Z car around town before.

“Sounds reasonable. What time do you open tomorrow?” Lux had the money, but she would rather not tap into her surgery fund.

“I open up at seven tomorrow morning.” Thomas looks at the young girl.

“Okay, I’ll be here waiting for you. See you tomorrow.” Lux turns and walks back to her Z car.

The next place Lux stops at is a second-hand appliance store. She finds a minifridge she can install in the van. She also finds a gas stove that would fit, because of its compact size. She buys both of them. She’ll have to come back with the van to pick them up.

She does some more shopping and buys several things for her van. Most of the things she buys fit into her Z car, with a few creative packings. She heads back to grab her van to pick up the other items she bought, along with a spare propane tank to use in her van for the stove.

The minifridge fits perfectly in the van. She’ll have to run a cord for now to power it. As for the stove, before she installs it, she checks to make sure nothing leaked. She puts it in the van and secures it to the floor and the wall to keep it in place. She’ll have to build an outside cradle to hold the propane tanks. Until she does it, she’ll have to put the tank outside while she is cooking. She has everything she needs to hook the stove up to the tank.

She buys a new dark shower curtain and some pipes. When Lux gets back to the parking lot, she starts working on installing the stove, the support, and the shower system, so she can shower inside the van. She checks on how much an outside heating and cooling system would cost to install on her van. She knows what she wants to do.

She found one online that was brand new, and the place wanted eight hundred dollars. She ‘ll have to wait for now, but at least she knows how much they cost. It is a good thing she learned a lot about mechanical and auto repair from school and from her foster father. She buys a cheap outdoor grill to cook outside.

By late evening, Lux has the stove hooked up and the shower done. She tested everything to make sure nothing was leaking. She put an exhaust fan over the stove, so she didn’t fill the van with smoke or smells.

Tonight’s dinner was hamburgers and French fries. Lux knew how to cook French fries on the grill thanks to her father. She watches as several other circus performers cook outside. She was enjoying the warm weather and the food she was cooking.