Bob of Small End (15 page)

A cheese and
ham sandwich and a pot of tea didn’t take long to prepare. He took
them to his easy chair with a pad of paper and a pencil. An hour
later he had a sketch of the lean-to, a floor plan and a list of
items he would have to order. He’d put it on a concrete base and
calculated how much cement he’d need. He leaned back and reviewed
the list, mentally running through each of the steps he would have
to take to make the lean-to. ‘No, I’ll call it a shed I think, it’s
got a door and windows. My lean-to is where I store the garden
tools.’

Tim’s garage
was on the opposite side of the road from the Crown, just a hundred
yards from his house. It was windy and Bob put on his overcoat.
Tim’s son, Peter, was filling a car with petrol when he arrived.
They exchanged greetings as Bob passed. Tim was sitting in a chair
behind his desk.

“
Hello
Bob. How are you? I’ve seen you passing from time to time but I
don’t think that you have ever been in here.”

“
No,
that’s right and I bet you can’t guess why I’ve come. I want to
learn how to drive a car and I want to know how much a used car
would cost.”

“
Wow! I
never expected that from you. You told me several years ago you
could manage without a car. What changed your mind?”

“
Selling
toys, that’s what. I’ve found that I can make enough money from
selling toys to consider owning a car. I think I’ll need one if I’m
going to expand my business.”

“
Well,
well, well. That’s news and good news too. Take a seat and we can
talk about it. First, if you want to learn how to drive you should
be talking to Peter. He runs the driving school. He’ll be in as
soon as he’s finished with that customer. As for buying a car, the
price of a second-hand one depends upon what car it is, its age,
how many miles it’s been driven and its condition. They start about
two hundred and fifty pounds and go into tens of thousands. I don’t
have any for less than a thousand in the yard. I can show you what
I have now or we can wait ‘til you have your licence. By that time
the ones I have right now might have been sold, of
course.”

“
Then
I’d better wait.”

Peter walked
in, wiping his hands with a rag. “Hello Mr. Barns. It’s nice to see
you here. Are you just chatting or is there something we can do for
you?”

“
I’d
like to learn how to drive, Peter. Is it hard?”

“
That
depends upon you and your abilities. You have to be able to use
hands and feet together, to judge distances accurately, to learn
the traffic laws and things like that. You can try right now, if
you like. Do you want to?”

“
Yes, I
do.”

“
Okay.
We’ll do it on the railway station’s parking lot. It’s not a very
big lot but it’s big enough for you to find out what driving is
like. I’ll be off for a while Dad.”

“
Okay
Peter.”

They walked
into the yard and climbed into Peter’s car. Peter drove it to the
parking lot, stopped in the centre, switched off the engine and
they changed seats.

“
Okay
Mr. Barns. First thing, I want to find out how much you already
know.”

“
Thanks’
Peter. But please call me Bob. That’s what I’d prefer.”

“
All
right, err, Bob. Let’s do it this way. You point to each of the
controls, tell me its name and explain what it does. That way we
won’t waste time.”

Bob did that,
naming the steering wheel, the accelerator, brake and clutch
pedals, the control arm for the turn signals and lights. As he did
so he explained what each one was used for.

“
How do
you know all that if you haven’t driven before?”

“
I took
a few lessons years ago and I’ve watched what drivers do. It’s
obvious what each control does. It’s mostly driving practice that I
need.”

“
Well,
you can start now, if you like. Would you like, say, a half-hour’s
driving lesson?”

“
Yes
please. I like the sensible way you cover the basics and I’m sure
you’ll be a good teacher.”

“
Okay.
Then what gear is it in Bob?”

“
Why
it’s in neutral. I saw you leave it there and the gear lever is in
the slot marked ‘N’.”

“
Good.
Now, before you turn the engine on, you have to put your left foot
on the clutch pedal and press it to the floor. Why do you have to
do that?”

“
I don’t
know.”

“
It’s
just for safety. If you always do that it wouldn’t matter if the
gear lever was accidentally in gear, because the engine wouldn’t
move the car if you had the clutch pedal depressed. Where should
your right foot be?”

“
On the
brake pedal.”

“
Right.
Now, without looking, is the parking brake on or off?”

“
I saw
you pull it up, so it’s on.”

“
That’s
right. Okay, summarise what you now know about driving a
car.”

“
All
right. When you park the car you put the gear lever in neutral and
put the parking brake on. Before you start the car you check that
the gear lever is in neutral and put your left foot on the clutch
and your right foot on the brake pedal.”

“
And
press both of the pedals down. Good. That’s what we do if the car
is parked on level ground. It’s a bit different when we’re parked
on a hill but I’ll tell you about that later. Now what else must
you do after starting the car before driving off?”

“’
Er, I
don’t know.”

“
Well
you must release the hand brake.”

“
Oh yes,
of course. You’d have to do that. And check the road.”

“
Good.
Okay, that’s enough talk for now. Start the engine now but don’t
move the car.”

Peter watched
as Bob started the car. “Perfect. Now, do nothing, but tell me what
you have to do if you wanted to drive to the end of the lot.”

“
Well. I
should put the gear lever into first. Then lift my left foot off
the clutch and my right off the brake and put it on the accelerator
pedal and press down. And take off the hand brake.”

“
Yes,
that’s right. The trick is to learn how to do these things without
stalling the car or making it jerk. That’s what we will practice
today. So try doing all that. Start the car and drive it slowly to
the end of the lot.”

Bob checked
the gear lever position, put his feet on the clutch and foot brake
and started the car. Then he moved the gear lever into first gear,
moved his right foot over to the accelerator and slowly lowered the
hand brake. Then he took his foot off the clutch and the car
stalled.

“
Why did
that happen Bob?”

“
I don’t
know.”

“
You
lifted your foot from the clutch too quickly. You have to let it
rise slowly so the engine can gently start the car’s wheels
turning. Turn off the key now, put the controls into a parking
position and we’ll try everything again.”

After two more
tries he could start the car and drive, very slowly, near to the
end of the lot.

“
Okay.
Stop now and park the car.”

He did that,
smiled and turned to face Peter.

“
You’re
doing very well Bob. Now I’ll turn the car around and you can try
these things again.”

Twenty minutes
later Bob thought he now knew how to drive the car and said so to
Peter.

“
Oh, I
think there’s quite a bit more to learn: how to change gears, do
three-point-turns, drive through traffic and so on. Do you want to
take more lessons?”

“
Yes I
do.”

“
Then
change places. I’ll drive back to the garage. There are some forms
to fill in and we’ll decide what times will suit us
both.”

At the garage
Tim asked Bob how the driving practice went.

“
I
enjoyed it, it’s fun.”

“
He did
excellently Dad.”

Peter took Bob
to his office and they completed the paperwork. “That’s the
application form for your provisional licence. Fill it in and I’ll
send it off. There’s a fee to pay but I’ll add that to your bill.
You can pay me each time or each month, or, because I know you, you
can pay after you’ve passed the driving test. Which way do you
prefer Bob?”

“
I’ll
pay at the end of each month.” Monthly payments seemed to be the
best way of handling his finances these days.

“
All
right. Now when do you want to have the lessons? I’d recommend you
have two or three each week.”

“
Can I
have them every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday? Two o’clock on Sunday
and five o’clock on Tuesdays and Thursdays?”

“
Just
let me check my calendar. Yes, I can do that. Okay. Now here’s a
manual for you, the
Rules of the
Road
. You should read through it and start memorising
the rules and learn the driving tips it provides. They’ll question
you on those things in the exam, though you probably know most of
them from watching others drive.”

“
Okay.
Thanks Peter.”

“
Well,
I’ll see you Tuesday. ‘Bye.”

A letter from
Maria arrived Monday morning. She told him that her friend had
booked the flat, ‘the very one you wanted,’ for him for February,
1997. He should send her a cheque for five hundred pounds. She
would convert it into escudos. Her company’s address and her name
was on the card she had enclosed. ‘It looks like I will be
conducting one of the tours along the south coast (if enough people
sign up for it),’ she added. Bob replied, saying ‘I’m looking
forward to seeing you again. I hope we could meet if you do lead
the tour.’ Then he wrote to thank the real estate agent and sent
her his cheque. He’d post both letters in Big End.

He checked his
shopping list, adding white paint, brushes, putty, door hinges and
an entrance set then caught the bus to Big End. There, he went to
the post office, bought five international stamps and posted the
letters; the extra stamps would be needed if he wrote to Maria
again. Then he walked to the lumber yard and ordered the wood,
roofing shingles, nails, parts for the door and the cement and sand
for the floor and the foundation. They told him it would be
delivered the next day. “We’re making many deliveries to the
contractors in Small End these days,” Bob was told when he asked
why he was able to get it so quickly.

In the
afternoon Bob banged short dowel rods into the corners of his
future shed and joined them with a string. It would be ten feet by
five feet with the door on the end, facing his house. He took off
his coat and started to remove about six inches of the soil inside
the string. He put it in his wheelbarrow, pushed it to the back of
the station’s parking lot and dumped it into the slope. Before
returning he filled the barrow with crushed stone that had been
sitting in a pile for fifteen years. It was the remainder of the
stone that had been used when the platform was repaired. If he
didn’t use it it would be pushed down the slope when the new
Community Centre parking lot was made. He wheeled the stone back
and tipped it onto the ground; he’d use it to make a bed for the
floor or mix it with the concrete. He took a short tea break at
three then continued until he had removed all the dirt from the
floor area. He was exhausted when finished, ate little for supper
and went straight to bed.

Immediately
after breakfast he returned to work, digging the foundation trench
this time. Each time he dumped a load of dirt he returned with a
load of stone. It was a fair trade, he thought, not that anyone was
likely to complain. As former station master he surely had first
claim on unwanted materials.

The wood and
materials arrived just as he was going into his house for coffee.
The driver helped him unload and sat in the kitchen afterwards
drinking and chatting.

“
I
expect you’re busy these days, with the new construction in Small
End and elsewhere,” said Bob.

“
Yes, we
are. In fact Leon, that’s the manager, told me they’re going to
extend the lumber yard for fifty yards. We’ll need more room for
all the wood they’ll be stocking. The developer in the subdivision
that’s behind your garden told me he expects to sell twenty houses
this year. Lot’s of people want to move south or get away from the
big cities. You’ll have two or three hundred families on the other
side of the railway lines in a couple of year’s time I
think.”

“
Where’s
everyone going to work?”

“
Don’t
know. There’s a rumour that an industrial park will be set up
somewhere near here, no idea where though.”

After the
driver pulled away Bob returned to work. He removed the dowels and
string then spread about three inches of stone on the shed floor
and raked it smooth. He placed a wide board across the foundation
trench then began mixing his first batch of concrete, sand and
stone in the wheelbarrow. When done he filled two pails with water
and poured some into the barrow. He stirred it backwards and
forwards with his garden hoe, adding a little water when needed. It
didn’t take long to mix. Then he wheeled the wheelbarrow to the far
end of the shed and dumped the cement into the foundation trench.
As soon as he had done this he decided to collect some bigger
stones; it would take a long time to make enough cement to fill the
trench using just small stones. He washed the wheelbarrow then
wheeled it back to the station yard. This time he filled it with
rocks and old pieces of brick, dumping them beside the pile of
stones he’d retrieved. He’d add the rocks and brick pieces to the
next load of cement before putting it into the trench. He made a
dozen trips to collect rocks and big stones then stopped for
lunch.