Chapter 5
Peppermint pressed a red button attached to a black remote control. Seconds later, the massive, heavy metal door began to lift off the ground. The door was attached to the front of an airplane hangar covered in snow and ice. The rollers attached to the metal door hit a few hard areas while rolling up, but it successfully opened. “I don't mind opening up the hangar this way. There used to be a set of double doors. I would have to take the snowplow, attach chains to the doors, and pull the doors open that way,” Peppermint called out over the powerful, howling wind. “The rollers are designed to become hot when the sun comes out but just hot enough to melt any snow or ice in the tracks. Real high-tech stuff.”
“Like, cool, but can we get inside the hangar before I, like, freeze?” Sandy was hugging her coat with trembling hands. The snow was deep, and the winds were fierce.
“Ayo, I agree with Sandy. This muffler hat ain't doing nothing to keep my ears warm,” Ralphie called out.
“You need a thicker coat,” Betty fussed. Betty resembled a white polar bear. She was decked out with every piece of warm winter clothing a person could imagine. “I'm nice and toasty.”
“You look like Frosty the Snowman, Aunt Betty.” Chris laughed. “All you need is a corn cob pipe and a button nose and two eyes made of coal.”
“Very funny.”
“Let's just get inside,” Marty demanded. “The winds coming in off the lake are more vicious than I expected. I'm going to have to drive into town and buy some more winter clothing…insulated gloves...a thicker muffler hat and scarf.”
“Just buy yourself a few of the winter work overalls I have,” Peppermint called out. “And get yourself a good pair of thick boots.” Peppermint hurried everyone into a large, empty hangar. Warm air was shooting down from four large vents attached to the metal ceiling. Once everyone was inside, Peppermint closed the hangar door. “Okay, so now you see how the door works. There are two normal doors.” Peppermint pointed to the north and south walls. “There's also a small office. My old boss used to keep his private plane parked about where we are standing. Off to the right, you can see the area where the fuel pump is, along with some work tools and a worktable.”
Chris stomped snow off his boots and then unzipped his coat a little. Sure, he was cold, but he thought better without having a zipper tugging at his throat. “We'll need to remove the fuel pump.”
“The tank is empty. We can remove the pump and build over it without having to dig up the tank,” Peppermint told Chris. Chris agreed.
Candy removed a pair of thick earmuffs and placed them into the right pocket of the blue coat she was wearing. She scanned the hangar with careful eyes. As she did, the inside of the hangar slowly transformed into a wonderful, cheerful toy factory full of laughing toys dancing around glowing Christmas trees. “We have enough room to have two floors.”
“Two floors and an attic,” Betty added.
Marty studied the available space with eyes that turned back into a math teacher. “This hangar appears to have been built under the guidelines of the aviation safety building codes and requirements, but there seems to be a lot more room than the average hangar.”
“A lot more room,” Peppermint confirmed. “My boss expanded this hangar without anyone knowing. I...uh, kind of helped out. We extended the space to fit two private planes instead of one. My old boss never got around to buying a second plane, though. Never knew why. Never asked.”
“Maybe God had this hangar expanded for a reason,” Candy told Peppermint in a pleased voice. “I can see the toy factory, and I can hear the toys coming to life.”
“Me, too, dear.” Betty hugged Candy's arm. “Sandy, Ralphie, what do you two see?”
“Betty, all I see is ice dripping off the tip of my nose,” Ralphie complained.
“Like, me, too,” Sandy added.
Betty laughed. “Kids.”
Marty stomped down on the hard-concrete floor. “The foundation is solid. What do you think?” he asked Peppermint and Chris.
“The foundation is solid,” Chris confirmed as he began to walk around some. “The hangar is a solid square. The walls are metal on the outside and stone on the inside. It will be hard to remove all of the stone, so we'll have to work with it, which I encourage. The stone stands strong against the winds and storms.”
Candy watched Chris walk around the hangar. “What else?” Betty called out.
“The central heat and air flows into four main vents. The vents offer adequate heat, but when we add the second floor, we'll need to design a way to extend vents down onto the first level. We may have to put sheetrock up to cover the stone walls in order to hide any electrical wires, pipes, vents...those kinds of things...we'll need.”
“We can paint beautiful Christmas murals on the walls,” Candy told Betty in an excited voice.
“Oh, yes, that would be lovely.”
“We're going to need an employee bathroom and a break room,” Chris called out. “We're going to have to add in a septic tank...water lines...” Chris paused and began rubbing his chin. Even though Sandy, Ralphie, and Marty were frozen to the core, Chris seemed right at home in the cold. The warm air coming from the large vents didn't seem to make a difference in the man's attitude or composure. “The ground is frozen. We're going to have to wait until spring before we can start.”
“Spring?” Candy and Betty both gasped at the same time.
“The ground is too frozen to put in any sewage or water lines right now,” Chris explained as he walked back to Candy and Betty. “The castle runs on well water...five wells in total. We're going to have to dig wells for each building. We're going to have to find a location for a septic tank and understand how we're going to run the plumbing and electrical. We start from the ground up.”
“Chris is right,” Marty stepped in. “This hangar is large, but it's raw. The electrical is very basic from what I can see.”
