Bob of Small End (90 page)

“
No
thanks Ken. Well that’s simplified the situation for me, knowing
what you’re likely to do.”

“
Yes, I
suppose so. Do you want to stay for supper? Mary will be home
soon.”

“
No
thanks. I think I’ll leave now. I’d like to think about what you’ve
told me. Say ‘Hello’ to Mary for me. I hope you both have a good
holiday.”

Maria’s letter
was waiting for him when he walked in. She’d be glad to help him
decorate his renovated house because, she wrote, ‘Effective
December 31st I’ll be a freelance agent!’ Her agency said they
would make her their first choice when they wanted tours to be
researched and also be a guide for them when they needed someone.
‘So I’m not afraid of failing now. Two other agencies know I’ll be
freelancing and will hire me, as I told you. So I can come over
when you’re ready.’

That’s
wonderful, Bob thought. He wrote to her after supper, describing
all the things he thought they might do when she had more time. He
didn’t mention Ken or that he might not have as much time in the
future as he had earlier expected and signed off, ‘with all my
love, Bob.’

He tidied the
garden Saturday morning, cleaned the house, did his washing and
shopped, both in the village and in Big End, posting his letter at
the main office. He had lunch in a pub at Big End and sat in his
lounge most of the afternoon. He bathed at five, put on his blazer
and some smart trousers then went to the Crown.

After everyone
had caught up on the local gossip Joe said, “I’ve found a man who
wants to rent the milking parlour Bob. He called me today and said
he’d like to take it tomorrow.”

“
What’s
he want it for?” asked Bob.

“
He
sells evestroughs. None of the builders put them on so he goes to
the new owners as soon as they’ve moved in and offers to install
them.”

“
Oh,
well that’s good news for both of us. But we’ve still got a few
things in there. I’ll come around tomorrow and get
them.”

“
Okay.
You’ll give me the keys when you’ve finished?”

“
I’ll
give you mine. Ken will give you his when he returns from his
holidays. He’ll be back in two weeks.”

“
That’ll
be all right.”

“
Is
everyone going to the dance tonight?” asked Jane.

“
Nay,”
said Jack, “too tired.”

“
I’m
going though,” said Rose.

“
And you
Bob?”

“
Yes.”

“
Then
we’d better leave now, it’s nearly eight.”

“
You go.
I have to talk to Jack first.” He looked at him, “About the
sketches I gave you.”

After the
others had left Bob asked Jack what he thought about his
drawings.

“
Looks
okay but I gotta know which walls are load-bearing before
estimatin’. Need to check ‘em.”

“
Okay,
but not tomorrow. There’s no hurry,” replied Bob.

“
Right.”

Bob only
stayed for an hour at the dance. He found it hard to make
conversation because he kept thinking about what would happen to
the company once Ken moved away. But he slept well; knowing that he
had another week of holidays ahead of him may have contributed to
that.

Chapter 38 Goodners

Bob drove the
car to the milking parlour early on Sunday and collected the
equipment they had left in the shop. He put his own tools on the
front seat and on the floor; items belonging to the company he put
in the boot and on the back seat. There wasn’t a lot to take, most
of it had been moved over earlier. Joe walked in as he was taking a
last walk round.

“
You’ve
forgotten the notice board Bob.”

“
Oh,
hello Joe. We don’t need it. Already have all we want. Do you see
anything else I should take?”

“
I’ll
look around. You’ll phone the telephone and electrical
suppliers?”

“
Yes,
I’ll do it tomorrow.”

Not seeing
anything else to remove Bob locked the doors and gave his keys to
Joe. “Come in for coffee Bob?”

“
I don’t
think so Joe. Maybe sometime next week. I’ve a lot to think about.
I’ll tell you about them when they’re sorted.”

He phoned
Regina in the evening. They talked about her holiday in Paris and
then he told her that Sam and his family had visited. “It would be
nice if you could bring Roy to see the factory this year.” He
didn’t tell her that they might not have it next year. She said
that Roy had seen the place on television and they might like to
come one weekend but he gathered from her tone that they probably
wouldn’t make the trip.

He began his
extra week of holidays on Monday by setting a pattern he followed
each day. He arose as late as he could, between seven and eight,
not being able to stay in bed any later. He had a lazy breakfast
usually with the kitchen door and window wide open so he could hear
the birds. He gardened or did a bit of housework, had a coffee and
a couple of biscuits then went to his shop. He thought he would
carve another bird but couldn’t get started, his mind kept drifting
when he tried to picture a bird within the block of wood in his
hands. He pottered around, dusting, rearranging and sharpening his
tools. Sometimes he thought about Maria and what they might do if
they did sell the workshop, sometimes it was about being an
owner-manager and how often he would have to be at the factory.
Other times he revised his ideas about how his remodelled house
would look. When he felt like it he played games on his computer
and thought about learning to touch-type. By Wednesday he had given
up the idea of carving a bird and went for a walk each morning,
waiting until after 9:30 in case Dave Posser phoned. He walked
again in the afternoon, usually in the opposite direction, tracing
paths he hadn’t used since childhood, remembering the boys he used
to play with. Only Joe still lived in the village, all the rest of
his friends had moved, to London or the midlands, two to Canada,
one to Australia. Thinking of them made him wonder what his life
would have been had he emigrated.

He cooked
different meals for supper each day, Thai, then a curry he made
from curry powder and some lamb. He grilled salmon and fried
tilapia. Once he had sausages. He ate broccoli and cauliflower from
his garden and finished all his carrots. In the evenings he read or
watched television.

Wednesday Bob
went to the dance lessons and tried to learn the samba. Thursday
was back to the usual routine. Dave phoned Friday morning and asked
for fifteen hundred farms, fifteen hundred villages and a thousand
trains.

“
I know
you won’t have all the villages, we’ll take what you have, but can
you complete the order the following Friday? Together with the ones
we’ll order then?”

“
Yes,
we’ll make villages first thing next week.”

He loaded the
van and took the sets to Basingstoke then stopped at the road house
for lunch. Maria’s weekly letter was on the door mat when Bob
returned. She asked him if he could send her a sketch of the way
the house would look after being remodelled. He started to do that
after supper but quickly realised he had to know what walls Jack
could remove before drawing a plan for her. He thought about
calling Jack but realised he would be too tired on a Friday
evening. He’d ask Jack on Saturday if he could check the house
Sunday.

Jack came
Sunday afternoon and banged on some of the walls. Two were
load-bearing and he noted that on his plan of the house and on
Bob’s.

“
You
must leave this un,” and he pointed to the one running through the
centre of the house, “it’d be very expensive to move. But this
‘en’s easy. Make another drawin’ with that in mind an’ I’ll give
you a quote.”

“
I’ll do
that. Thanks Jack.”

He wrote to
Maria but said he’d have to send her a sketch next week. ‘There’s a
wall we’ll be removing and I’m going to have a toilet downstairs
where the bathroom presently is.’ He told her that he had a nice
relaxing holiday but he was looking forward to returning to work.
‘I thought it might have been better if I took that holiday when
you will be in England with the church tour but I know we wouldn’t
see much of each other whilst that was on. Can you take some days
off after it is over?’ He signed off, ‘with all my love, Bob.’

It was easy to
run the shop, Craig or Lori did almost all the work. The electric
bell kept everybody on time. He helped wherever he could and made
the odd decision. He told Craig they should make villages on
Monday, “so we will have enough to complete Dave’s last order.”
With the extra sanders they made 1,500 villages on the two lines
that day. They made another 1,500 on Tuesday, the same number of
farms on Wednesday and 1,500 trains Thursday. By the time Dave
called Friday morning they had 1,800 farms,3,000 villages and 1,200
trains. He wanted another fifteen hundred farms and villages but
only five hundred trains. Bob delivered them, together with the
five hundred village sets they hadn’t been able to deliver the week
before. The receipt he was given had a note from Dave attached. “Hi
Bob. Please come and see me Dave.”

“
Hello
Bob. I have something for you,” said Dave, as Bob walked into the
office. “Here’s your first cheque. It’s for your first delivery.
You remember, fifty of each set on July 18th?”

“
Yes, I
remember that.” He looked at the cheque. It was for £937.50.
“Thanks. I’m glad you also listed the items and number you bought.
That’ll make it easy for Lori to check against her
lists.”

“
We’ll
normally send the cheques by mail and that’ll add another day or
two to when you get them. You’ll soon be receiving much bigger ones
Bob.”

“
I’m
glad, we certainly need them, we’re short of money at the moment.
Is it a good day for me to take you to lunch?”

“
No, not
yet, but soon.”

Bob gave the
cheque to Lori when he returned and she added the details into her
computer and also wrote the amount in the account’s book. “I still
copy important figures to my hand-written records in case something
goes wrong with the computer,” she told Bob. “Most companies buy an
extra hard drive to make a copy but I prefer to do this.” Then she
returned the cheque to him. “I suspect you’ll want to deposit
it.”

“
Yes.
How are we doing on our expenses for August Lori?”

“
I’ll
finish paying them today. With the salaries they came to
£21,386.18.”

“
And how
much is left after paying all the bills? I’m worried that we’ll
soon be out of money.”

“
It’ll
be about £5,000 for the month’s wood, paint, pasteboard and other
costs. But they won’t be paid until the end of the month. Without
paying for them we’ll have about £7,500.”

“
So I
shouldn’t need to get another mortgage because we’ll be getting
money from
We-Have-It
. When’s
their next cheque coming Lori?”

“
Just a
minute. Ah, here it is. They’ll pay us £9,375 September 18th,
£15,450 September 20th, £18,750 September 23rd and another £18,750
September 25th . A total of, hem, £62,262.50, once we’ve added in
the cheque we have now.”

“
Ah,
that’s more like it! It’s unbelievable, isn’t it?”

He
walked to his chair and sat down. No need to worry about paying the
bills now they were getting money from
We-Have-It
. He was glad the money worries were
over. Now all he had to worry about was what he’d do if Ken left.
He tried to forget that and turned his mind to thinking about how
much stock they had. He learned they had enough to satisfy Dave
when Lori told him they’d have about 1,800 farms, 1,000 villages
and 1,200 trains at the end of the day.

Maria’s
letter arrived that morning. She said she had to return with the
group on the Sunday. ‘Could you come and stay at the hotel on
Saturday night? We’ll be in the
King’s
Head
in Salisbury. I’ll call you Monday evening to
find out if you can come.’ He put down her letter, phoned the hotel
and booked a room, one with a double bed. He gave them his credit
card number and said he’d be there before six o’clock.

He drove
to Big End Saturday morning, deposited the cheque and did his
shopping. He called in to see Jenny. She told him she’d had a good
summer and was ready for a holiday. Susan would be managing the
shop the following Sunday to Tuesday and she was going to London
with a friend. He asked her if she had seen the BBC documentary of
Small End but she hadn’t so he told her how they had expanded. Then
he asked her how well
We-Have-It
Wholesalers
orders were handled. “Do you get the toys
on time?”

“
Oh yes.
I now get quite a lot of my stock from them. I think they’ll soon
be including stock from Africa. That’ll be interesting; people like
wooden carvings. Could you make them?”

“
I used
to carve birds but they take a long time. I might do that again one
day.”

At supper he
told his friends that he wouldn’t be joining them next Saturday
night. “I’ll be in Salisbury. Maria’s guiding a group and they’ll
be there.”

“
It’s
getting serious then?” said Jane.

“
Yes, I
think so.”