Everything to Nothing (18 page)

*

In fact her
father took control of them. The maid, who looked after the
cleaning of Sally’s room and therefore her clothes, had once taken
a bundle of them to her father as she was bewildered as to what to
do with them. She explained to him that ever since she started
going on shopping sprees the rejected pile of clothing was a common
occurrence. She stated to him that the clothes had never been worn
and that they all still had the labelling attached to them. He was
equally bewildered as to what to do with them. He took the clothes
off her and looked at the labels, some of which had the price
written on them. One in particularly caught his eye when he noticed
that the label stated it was a two thousand pound dress with real
diamond features. He let a whistling sound out of his mouth. ‘How
often does this happen?’

‘Every time she
returns from shopping sir. Every time.’

‘Right. And she
has been going on these shopping sprees now for the last eighteen
months or so?’

‘Sorry sir,
excuse my bluntness, but ever since you have gave her your bank
cards.’

‘Hmmm, right.
So begs the questions, what have you been doing with them for the
last eighteen months?’

‘They are all
stored in numerous wardrobes in the numerous bedrooms sir, because
I didn’t want to trouble you. But after I noticed the label on that
two thousand pound one I thought that it was my responsibility to
bring it to your attention.’

‘Yes, quite.
I’m glad you did. How many clothes are we talking about here?’

‘I don’t know
sir. A lot. Must be at least five hundred individual items. Maybe
more.’

‘Crikey! I know
she spends a lot, and I don’t mind, hell the money is just sitting
there doing nothing and if it gives her pleasure then so be it, but
really, that is a horrendous amount of money to be just throwing
away.’

‘Yes sir.’

‘Right, what I
want you to do if go round and collect them all and put them in one
place.’

‘Okay.’

‘Then I will
decide what to do.’

‘I think
charities would appreciate them sir.’

‘Yes, that was
my first thought. I have charity functions approaching too. I may
raffle them off. Leave it with me and thank you for bringing it to
my attention.’

That is exactly
what Mr. Gallagher did. In fact Sally won one of her own dresses
back and she obviously had no idea that she once owned the dress.
She wore it the next day to a garden party. Mr. Gallagher of course
found this very amusing, as did the maid.

*

Sally strode
into the bathroom nearly an hour later than the time she stated
earlier with Alfred. The bath though was still steaming as the maid
had returned to the bathroom every five minutes to apply more hot
water knowing that Sally would be late.

The Gold
Bathroom was indeed thoroughly gold. The walls were decorated in
gold paint; the marble floor was inlaid with strips of twenty-four
carat gold. The bath and faucets were gold plated and the chain
attached to the plug was a twenty-four carat gold necklace that
would have looked fine draped around Sally’s neck at a ball. Most
people found the room garish and could not stand to be present in
it for more than a few moments. Indeed, her father hated the room
and was close to stripping it out until Sally asked him not to.

For some reason
Sally found the room relaxing. She thought the room was the epitome
of opulence and she loved watching people’s faces that were shown
round the mansion when they were informed that the gold in the
bathroom was all real. Sally approached the bath and dipped a
finger into it. It was at a perfect temperature for her. Then she
placed a hand against the bottle of Bollinger that was placed in an
ice bucket that was built into bath. Again, it was at the perfect
temperature and Sally made a mental note to congratulate the maid
who for once had got it right. On the other side of the bath was a
plate of sliced exotic fruits such as guava, papaya and mangoes.
She undid her robe and stepped over the side of the bath and slid
down into the water. The bath was huge. It could easily accommodate
four people in sitting positions and two easily when lying down.
Therefore Sally was able to spread herself out and soak all the
mental and physical aches of the last twenty-four hours out of her
body.

Only after
fifteen minutes of soaking did she slide her body up into a sitting
position and press a few buttons on a control panel fitted into the
rim of the bath. After a few moments and some noise from under the
bath, bubbles slowly began to appear from the jets fitted into the
bath. Soon these bubbles turned into streams of water and
eventually the bath turned into a bubbling cauldron as the jets
created a perfect Jacuzzi effect. Sally placed some sections of the
fruit onto a smaller plate and then poured herself a large glass of
champagne. She reclined so her back was resting on the side of the
bath and she wiggled her bottom and body until a powerful jet was
firing directly onto her lower back. Placing the glass in a holder
that was again built into the rim of the bath, she placed a piece
of passion fruit in her mouth and released from her lips a little
sigh of contentment. Slowly she made her way through the fruit
savouring the delicious tastes, occasionally taking sips of the
Bollinger.

After another
fifteen minutes there was a discreet knock on the door and Sally
told the person to enter. The maid though did not enter fully but
instead just placed her head around the door and asked Sally
whether everything was okay. Sally answered with an affirmative and
told the maid that she would like to eat in ten minutes and for the
meal to be taken to her room. The maid answered with another
affirmative and quietly closed the door. Sally was glad the maid
had interrupted her for she was falling asleep. Probably the maid
was aware that this was probable and that was why she had given
Sally half an hour before seeing if she was still awake. She
reluctantly turned off the Jacuzzi and slowly raised herself to
standing. She waded across the bath to one side of it and turned on
the gold shower taps that were fitted into the wall. The water came
out cold at first so she stood at a distance until it heated up.
Then she placed herself under the stream of water and reached for a
bottle of shower gel that was discreetly placed. Sally lathered
herself thoroughly with the gel and rinsed her perfect body free of
the suds. While rinsing she studied her body in the full length
gold framed mirror that was opposite the shower.

She turned
round at first and studied the back of her legs checking her calves
and then thighs, tensing them up making sure they were still
muscular. She checked her bottom too, from the side, to make sure
it was not sagging and she was pleased to see it was still
perfectly round and very firm. Then she turned again and checked
her stomach and it was pleased to see that it was still perfectly
flat and when she tensed she could see the outline of her stomach
muscles. Happy with what she saw, she turned off the shower’s taps
and stepped out of the bath. She took one of the thick, luxurious
towels off the heated rail and dried her body then threw the towel
on the floor when done and did not bother emptying the bath: the
maid would return to empty and clean the bath and room. With the
robe back on she opened the door using the solid gold handle and
walked slowly along the marble floor. Bizarrely she noticed that
she was drifting along the hallway, not quite walking in a straight
line. ‘I think I am a little tiddly!’ she said out loud and then
she caught a glance of her face in a mirror and noticed how flushed
her cheeks were. ‘I am a little tiddly!’

By now she had
reached her bedroom door which she flung open to be greeted with
the delightful smell of a chicken Madras that had been placed on
her bedroom table. Upon smelling and seeing the food Sally realized
how hungry she was so she promptly sat down at the table and
quickly started to eat the delicious and spicy curry. With the
curry were two types of naan bread, two poppadums and a large
portion of pilau rice. Halfway through this mountain of food she
started to get full so she had a little break during which she
turned on her television and flicked through the channels until she
found something remotely watchable.

It was a
programme that made a normal person into a manufactured pop star
and this seemed to be the preliminary heats. At first Sally, who
continued to slowly make her way through the food, could not
believe the rubbish she was watching. Some bloke had just taken to
the stage with four judges watching and a large audience too and
literally screamed at them instead of singing to them, and then had
the nerve to change this scream into a rant when he was rejected.
Next to see the judges was a young pretty girl who was practically
shaking with nerves. Sally however quickly realized that this
pretty girl could sing. One of the judges rejected the girl but the
other three, another man and two women, accepted her. The other man
sounded Irish and the women seemed nice enough. Then the next
person came onto the stage.

The first thing
Sally noticed about her was her size. She was a bit on the large
side Sally thought, but, as could be evidenced by the previous
contestant, first impressions do not count; she might be able to
sing. After some initial opening questions one of the lady judges
asked her to start. Bizarrely the participant turned her back on
the judges and then bent over so all they would be able to see
would be an enormously large butt. Poking over the top of her tight
spray on jeans was a purple thong and at this sight Sally burst out
laughing.

‘Can I get a
little spanky, spanky!’ And on each spanky the girl spanked her own
bottom.

Sally stopped
laughing and instead just sat there bewildered. She presumed that
this was some kind of joke until the camera changed and showed the
horrified faces of the judges. One of the female judges was doubled
up with laughter and the Irish judge was trying desperately to
contain his mirth.

Sally realized
that this was in fact meant to be a serious audition and she
started laughing too. And it got worse because that was all the
poor girl did. She remained bent over spanking her own butt
repeating those words for another thirty seconds although to the
judges it must have felt like an eternity.

Eventually one
of the judges asked her to stop. ‘Well, that was a unique
performance.’

‘Thank
you.’

‘No, you
misunderstand me, unique for totally the wrong reasons. Did you
seriously, seriously expect when you woke this morning that if you
did a song, sorry, that is disrespectful to songs, a routine like
this that we would put you through to the next round?!’

‘I was hoping
that it was what you were looking for, uniqueness?’

The Irish one
took over. ‘The problem is you didn’t sing. You just spanked your
own bottom!’

At those words
the woman, who had managed to control herself, burst out laughing
again. The other female judge asked the woman whether she wanted to
put her through to the next round and between bouts of laughter she
managed to state a negative and then all the judges responded in
the negative.

For one
horrible moment it looked like the girl was going to question their
decisions but instead she just said, ‘Thank you for seeing me,’ and
left quietly and quickly.

All through
this Sally had been laughing loudly and by the time the commercial
break had finished she had eaten her fill and settled herself on
her bed still watching the programme. Slowly but surely the
previous night and the early morning caught up with her and her
eyes got heavier and heavier until they slowly closed.

An hour or so
later there was a discreet knock on the door and her father entered
the room when there was no answer. He approached the bed and saw
her daughter fast asleep, her black hair cascading over the pillow.
A lump caught in his throat as he saw the image of his wife present
in his beautiful daughter. He walked to the side of the bed so he
was directly over her and placed a delicate kiss on her forehead.
She was lying on the thick duvet so he pulled each half over her so
she was wrapped up in the blanket and then walked over and turned
off the television. Quietly he walked back to the side of the bed
and kissed her forehead again. He studied her for a few moments and
then walked back to the bedroom door and turned off the light.
Opening it quietly he left the room casting a glance over to his
beautiful daughter’s sleeping body and closed the door leaving her
to her dreams.

Chapter 18

The Z4’s rear
end hung out around the sharp left hand bend and for a second, to
the casual observer, it looked like the car was on the brink of
spinning out of control. Instead, the reactions and skill of the
driver snapped the BMW back into line with a touch of corrective
steering. The power of the car forced it to over-steer, so even
though the car was still turning left, the wheels were briefly
pointing to the right. In a split second the driver straightened
the car onto a short stretch of road and then reached a sharp right
hand bend and the process was repeated.

The rear wheels
of the car were smoking and screeching and no doubt if Michelle’s
parents could have seen what she was doing they would have both
collapsed in a heap of severe shock. Now she reached a longer
straight stretch of road and she floored the accelerator enjoying
the feeling of the g-forces pressing her body into the seat. She
knew the country lane like the back of her hand and she knew the
braking point for the upcoming hair-pin bend. Pressing the brake
pedal she quickly changed down through the gears, leaving the revs
high so the engine was screaming every time she changed gear. With
a touch of the brakes her left hand left the steering wheel and
applied the handbrake. She slid gracefully around the corner, again
applying corrective steering when necessary and then floored the
accelerator at just the right moment to maintain the optimum level
of momentum. The car quickly reached seventy miles an hour and
twenty yards before a thirty mile an hour restriction she firmly
pressed the brake pedal and dropped the speed of the car to the
appropriate speed. After another half a mile she took a right and a
quick left turn and then stopped the car after a few hundred yards
outside her grandfather’s house. She quickly checked her hair and
then stepped out of the convertible roadster. Michelle walked up
the garden path and rapped on her grandfather’s door, leaving the
Z4 to cool down after its speedy trip through the country.