Bob of Small End (63 page)

“
He told
me he might use it to make fire engines.”

“
Oh. He
hasn’t said anything to me about that. I get a bit out-of-touch
being away most of the week.”

“
You
must be doing quite well if you’re hiring more people and two
drivers,” said Joe.

“
I hope
we soon will be. I had to take a mortgage to cover the next two
months expenses. It makes me uncomfortable but I think it will be
worth it.”

“
I’m
sure it will,” said Jane.

“
I’m
keeping my fingers and toes crossed about it. Say, do you know who
I’m having lunch with tomorrow?”

“
No,”
said Joe.

“
Maria,”
said Jane.

“
Yes.
That’s right! How did you guess?”

“
You
told us she was guiding a tour and that you would see her when she
had finished. That’s next weekend, isn’t it? So I guessed that she
would be somewhere along the south coast with her group about
now.”

“
She’s
in Winchester.”

“
Well
that’ll be nice.”

“
If the
rain holds off,” added Joe. “They say it’s going to rain
tomorrow.”

“
Ah.
Well rain won’t make much difference,” Bob said and
smiled.

He
donned his working clothes and washed his car before breakfast
Sunday morning. This was the first time he had ever washed a car
and he wanted Maria to be impressed. He knew that it would only
take an hour to get to Winchester but decided to leave at nine
thirty, park near the hotel and walk along High Street before
meeting her. He remembered how nice it was when he and Betty had
taken the kids to see the cathedral. He must go there again when he
had more time. He checked how he looked before leaving, then smiled
at himself. Just like being a teenager, he thought. As he drew near
Southampton he turned on the radio and discovered they were playing
tunes from
Les Mis
. He had
heard some of them before and liked them so he knew he would enjoy
the show.

He parked and
had time to walk to the Lichen, watch the water flowing and listen
to the ducks quacking before returning to the hotel. Maria was
sitting in the lobby, waiting for him.

“
Hello
Bob,” she said, rising and giving him a kiss on his
cheek.

“
Hello
Maria,” he replied. “Sorry. Am I late?”

“
Not at
all. I’ve just sat down. Shall we go?”

“
Yes.”
Maria took his arm as they headed out the door, around the corner
and into the car park. He liked her holding him and almost wished
he had parked further away.

“
Here we
are,” and he put his key into the lock and opened it for
her.

“
You
have a car now Bob? I thought we would be driving in the
van.”

“
Aunt
Sally gave this to me a month ago. I didn’t tell you because I
wanted it to be a surprise. We can use it to explore the Lake
District after the August tour. You’ve booked a few days
holiday?”

“
Yes.
Four, from Sunday to Thursday. My assistant will look after the
group on their way home. The agency wants me back to cover the
following weekend so I have to return Thursday afternoon. But
that’s a long way ahead, let’s not talk about that. Where are we
going for lunch?”

“
I
thought we might go to Longlight Manor. It’s open on Sundays. We
could have our lunch and take a tour of the house if you like. It’s
a beautiful mansion on the river.”

“
That
sounds nice.”

Unfortunately
the manor was closed that weekend because they were filming part of
a movie there so they checked the map then drove to the Granite
Golf Club, sure that that would be open and hoping the food would
be enjoyable. It was open and the food was good but Bob enjoyed
their conversation more than the food. They ate and talked on the
terrace. He kept an eye on the clouds, remembering what Joe had
said about rain. Maria asked him what he’d been doing and he told
her that they now had 360 retailers, that they would be hiring more
employees and that he had taken a mortgage to cover the expenses
they would be incurring.

“
Is it
safe to do that?” asked Maria.

“
I hope
so. I’ll know better in August and can tell you then. Okay, that’s
enough about me. Tell me what you’ve been doing.”

“
Working
in the office mostly but I took a group to Italy last
month.”

“
You
speak Italian as well?”

“
A
little.”

“
It must
be nice to be able to speak so many languages; Portuguese, Spanish,
German, English, French and Italian. I only know
English.”

“
It’s
easier to learn languages when you live on the continent and are
exposed to them when you’re young.”

“
What
will you be doing between now and the July and August
trips?”

“
Office
work I expect.”

“
What do
you like doing most?”

“
Oh,
guiding tours. If there are not too many problems that is. I don’t
mind a few problems, they add spice, but I don’t like it when
someone becomes ill or there’s a robbery.”

“
Have
you had that?”

“
Yes.
Three robberies, two in Italy, one in Spain. And a man had a heart
attack on a tour I guided last October.”

“
What
did you do when that happened?”

“
I was
lucky. It occurred in a hotel and the manager called the ambulance
and the police. He had the numbers on a sheet tacked to a notice
board in his office because it had happened before.”

“
It’s a
fascinating life you lead Maria. It’s a lot more fun than
mine.”

“
Well
working in the office isn’t much fun. You wouldn’t want to do that
week-after-week.”

“
No, I
suppose not.”

“
I’d
like to have my own agency. There’s a lot of money to be made if an
agency has a good reputation. But, if I can’t have that, I’d just
like to run tours.”

“
It
would take a lot of work to start an agency.”

“
Yes it
would. I think I’m too old to do that now but it used to be a dream
of mine.”

“
But
you’re clearly not too old to run tours.

“
No. I
couldn’t run more than one or two a month of course. It depends on
how long the tour is, how much research I’d have to do before each
one, if the agency books the rooms or if I have to do it; things
like that. However, running one or two tours a month wouldn’t pay
enough to live on. Lot’s of people would like to just run tours so
the agency doesn’t pay them much. Maybe I’ll do it when I retire.
My agency knows me and knows what I can do. I’d probably be on the
top of their list.”

“
I
planned to sit in my workshop and make toys and carve birds when I
retired but look what’s happened to me!”

“
Life’s
strange, isn’t it Bob. When I was a teenager I thought I’d be
happily married and have children and grandchildren by the time I
was fifty but that didn’t happen.”

“
Do you
wish you’d stayed with your husband?”

“
No way,
but I wonder what’s happened to him sometimes. If he didn’t join,
what do the American’s call it, the ‘AA,’ then he’s probably dead
by now. Ah, enough about that. Let’s go to the river and walk
beside it. We’ve only got half an hour before you’ll have to take
me back to the hotel. I have to review what I’m to tell them about
tomorrow’s activities and the group meets at four.”

“
All
right.”

They
were in luck, it didn’t rain, although the sky turned dark as they
drove back to Winchester. She leaned over and kissed his cheek
after she undid her seat belt and told him not to get out of the
car. As he drove home he thought how nice it would be to talk to
her every day. But it wouldn’t be long before he would see her
again, just six days, and he hummed
Drink
with Me
, one of the
Les
Mis
songs that had played on the car’s radio that
morning.

After a
seven-o’clock breakfast Monday morning Bob filled his thermos with
tea, picked up one of the newsletters Julie had sent him and
strolled down the hill to the workshop thinking he should write to
Julie and ask her if she had any extra copies. The ones he had were
getting rather grubby.

No one had
arrived at the shop so he climbed in the van and began driving to
Gloucester. The clouds had cleared and it was a warm, sunny
morning.

Twelve shops
later he quit for the day and found a small Bed and Breakfast near
Cheltenham. They didn’t serve dinners and there were no restaurants
nearby so he had to drive four miles to eat. ‘Next time I’ll look
for a restaurant before looking for a place to sleep,’ he told
himself. He used the restaurant’s phone to call Ken although it was
only eight o’clock. Ken answered and began to tell him what he had
been doing that day.

“
We’ve
built the bench Bob. It’s four feet wide and eighty feet long. That
means the only way you can get from the entrance doors to the stage
is around the ends of the bench or through the corridors. It’s a
pity but that’s the way it has to be. We’ll cut a hole in the back
wall tomorrow, the one for the exhaust ducts. It’ll be like a
window, with a wooden frame. We can replace it with a window or
with bricks when we leave. I’ll make it big enough to hold six
ducts.”

“
Will we
need that many?”

“
Not
until we have three benches. Not for a few months Bob. Don’t worry!
Oh, Jack said that the field manager and the assistant director
from the BBC film crew are staying at Bonnie’s. I guess they’ll be
talking to the committee and looking over the village during the
next day or two.”

“
Did the
new drivers show up?”

“
Yes.
They were waiting for me when I arrived at eight thirty. One man
was a corporal in the army who’s wife didn’t want to move to
different countries every few years so he quit. His name’s Gerry
Holmes. The other man was a landscaper who has hurt his back. He
wants to stay until it’s good enough to go back. His name’s Bert
Long. Lori gave them a list of places to visit, maps and receipt
books and showed them how they should be used. They returned this
afternoon and she said the receipts were fine. They refilled the
vans then helped in the shop until we closed at five.”

“
Well
that’s one less worry. What’ll they do tomorrow?”

“
Oh
there are more places to visit. We’ve had lots of calls today. They
seem to call on Monday’s more often than on any other
day.”

“
Yes,
Lori told me that. It might be best to have them work in the shop
on Mondays and not start delivering until Tuesdays each week. She
told me that too.”

“
Okay,
we’ll do that. Where are you now?”

“
I’m
outside Cheltenham. I’m going to drive down the Bristol Channel
into Wales towards Cardiff tomorrow. I’ve another twelve retailers
now.”

“
That’s
good. We’re going to need them. Since they’re further away do you
think you should leave extra sets with them? Then you wouldn’t have
to return so often.”

“
I’d
thought about that, Ken and asked them if they’d take ten of each
but they don’t know if the toys will sell so they didn’t want to
take more than five. I’ll leave more next time, if they
agree.”

“
Good.
Well, safe journey Bob.”

“
Thanks.
Cheers Ken.”

Bob stayed at
a small hotel the other side of Cardiff Tuesday night. He told Ken
he had fourteen more shops and asked how his day had gone.

“
We’ve
cut the hole for the ducts,’ Ken replied. “It took longer than we
expected but it’s all framed now and covered with a sheet of thick
plywood. Pat installed the fluorescent lights. He used the outlets
in the ceilings, the ones the stage lighting used, so all the
switches are behind the stage. It’s a bit inconvenient but saves us
a lot of money. And he dropped wires from the ceiling to feed the
electrical sockets along the bench too. Jack helped him. Oh, the
BBC people visited the workshop and talked to Craig and Lori. Then
Craig brought them here to see what we were doing. I told them the
story and they wanted to see your workshop so I took them there. I
hope you don’t mind. I let them into the shop and they said they
wanted to talk to you and film what we’re doing. We’re going to be
film stars Bob!”

“
Oh!
When are they going to do all this? I won’t be home until Thursday
evening.”

“
Not
this week, the cameramen and narrators aren’t here. They’ll be
filming around the time the new Centre opens. It’ll all be part of
the story about how Small End is changing. ‘Adapting,’ the
assistant director said.”

“‘
Adapting’, ah, yes. That’s what we’re doing, adapting. And
I suppose many others in the village are adapting too. All right.
Then I’ll call tomorrow Ken. ‘Bye.”

“’
Bye
Bob.”

Wednesday
night Bob’s call was at eight thirty, for he wanted to go to bed
early. “I’m in Swansea Ken, and I’m driving home tomorrow as soon
as I’ve visited a few more shops around here. We have another ten
to add to the list. What’s the news at your end?”