Everything to Nothing (19 page)

*

The fact that
Michelle was able to drive in the manner she did was down to having
the daughter of a billionaire as a best friend and the billionaire
having an ex-professional racing driver as a chauffeur.

Just over a
year ago when they had both just acquired their provisional
driver’s licenses, Mr. Gallagher arranged for Silverstone Racing
Circuit to be put at his disposal for a few days. It was his plan
to have Ray teach Sally evasive driving tactics for her own
security should she ever require them. Sally reluctantly agreed to
this, she thought it was such a male thing to be doing, if she
could take her best friend along with her. It turned out to be “one
of the funnest times of their lives”.

For three days,
under the direct supervision of Ray, all they did was throw
expensive cars around the Silverstone Circuit using both the full
Grand Prix circuit and the smaller, tighter inner circuits. First
of all they started in brand new Mini Coopers and then they were
upgraded to Subaru World Rally cars that were just about road
legal. Then to master the art of sliding round corners using vast
amounts of over-steer, Ray introduced them to the perilous TVR
Tuscan that was vastly overpowered for the handling capabilities of
the car. The girls spent most of that afternoon spinning around in
circles after trying to over-steer round some tight hair-pin
bends.

However, under
the expert tuition of their teacher they mastered the TVRs and were
then upgraded the next day to two supercars from Sally’s father’s
collection. The first was a Ferrari Enzo, price approximately four
hundred and fifty thousand pounds. The second was the fastest, most
expensive road car ever built, the Bugatti Veyron, priced at around
a million pounds.

Sally and
Michelle spent the rest of the third day flying around Silverstone
in these two brand new supercars, honing and mastering their newly
developed skills. At the end of the day Ray announced that they
were now competent and then told them that Sally’s father wanted
them to spend a day with him every six months to keep their skills
finely tuned.

*

Michelle
thought of these three days as she waited for her grandfather to
open his door. She knew the next day was approaching fast and it
was a highlight of each half year for her. Sally could, although
she never did, go to her daddy’s garage and use a million pounds
sports car whenever she felt like it, whereas Michelle had to wait
for the day to come round when the supercars arrived in a truck at
a racing circuit somewhere in the country. Sally had told her
during a drunken moment a few months ago that she had been sworn to
secrecy by her father with the fact that he was in negotiations to
let his daughter and her best friend go for a lap each in a sports
car around the streets of Monaco on the weekend when the Monaco
Grand Prix was due to take place. Obviously the negotiations had
failed because it never happened; even Sally’s daddy had a limit to
what his money could buy. Her reverie was interrupted with a rattle
on the other side of the door as her grandfather removed the
security chain and opened the door.

‘Grandfather!
How are you?’ Michelle flung herself into the old man’s embrace and
gave him a big long kiss on his left cheek.

‘Well, I was
feeling a bit down but now I feel top of the world! How are you
precious?’

‘I’m fine. Glad
to see you.’ A small dog approached slowly down the hallway to see
who the visitor was. Upon seeing it was Michelle its tail started
to vigorously wag and he leaped up on to his back legs and pawed at
her legs. ‘And here’s Jack! Hallo boy!’ Michelle scooped up the
small King Charles spaniel into her arms and received lots of licks
on her face for her troubles. ‘Now, now! You are drowning me boy!
Here you go, down you go.’ She placed the old dog gently onto his
feet and linked an arm with her grandfather. ‘Now then Arthur, what
treats have you got planned for a young lady who is just itching
for a good time?’

‘You missed out
the word beautiful!’

‘Oh
grandfather, why can’t all men be as charming as you?!’

‘You’ll find
someone as good as me one day.’

‘I don’t think
I will!’

‘No, neither do
I actually. I’m one of a kind!’

Michelle
laughed kindly at her grandfather’s joke and they made their way
along the hall after closing the front door. ‘Well, I was hoping we
could do what we usually do. Take Jack out for a w-a-l-k to the
Rose, have a meal and play some bar games. If I remember rightly I
owe you a drubbing at pool!’

Arthur spelled
out the word walk because even in his advanced years the word when
spoken in full still sent the spaniel crackers. And Michelle let a
smile flash across her face at his mention of pool.

She knew he was
a pool-shark. However, since they had started playing he had only
ever won a handful of games and these usually occurred when
Michelle pocketed the black ball out of sequence. For about six
months she just simply thought he was not very good. He kept on
losing and no matter how hard she tried to throw the game she
always ended up winning. Her thoughts about him quickly changed
after one night.

*

The Rose and
Crown was a quiet local pub, regulars in every night, same people
drinking the same drinks. One night though there was a group of
rowdy young men present who had obviously mistaken the pub for a
noisy high street bar. Her grandfather and she had just started
their second game of pool when the men crowded themselves around
the table. When they saw how poorly the players were they became
even cockier. Every time Michelle bent over to take a shot there
was a chorus of wolf-whistles and they gave her grandfather advice
every time he approached the table. Halfway through the game one of
the men placed money on the table and stated one of them would play
the old man for the table. Arthur jokingly accepted the
challenge.

The game went
badly. Her grandfather missed the easiest of shots and at some
points appeared to be shaking. He got badly beaten and then
bizarrely asked the young man whether he wanted to make it
interesting. Arthur produced a twenty pound note and the young man
could not accept the bet quickly enough. He placed a twenty pound
note on top of Arthur’s and re-racked the balls.

‘Grandfather.
You don’t have to do this. It is okay. Let them play if they want
to.’

‘Come on now
darling. It is not as if he is playing for pride. He lost all his
pride during the last game!’ Michelle’s cheeks flushed and her
grandfather looked her straight in the eyes and winked.

The game went
almost as badly as the first. Arthur was getting badly beaten and
he had seven balls left whereas the young man only had the
eight-ball to pot to win. At first Michelle did not notice. It was
only when Arthur approached the table after the man had snookered
himself on the black and then fouled that Michelle realized
something; her grandfather had played the first and much of this
frame with his right hand. He now lined up with the cue firmly in
his left and Arthur cleared up without moving. Every shot he took
the cue ball ended up in exactly the same place it had started
from. Michelle stood there gob-smacked as did the young men. She
had heard that some professional snooker players sometimes play
shots so they do not have to move around the table but not her
grandfather!

When the black
was sunk by Arthur he reached over and took the two twenties and
gave them to Michelle. He then turned to the men and said, ‘Let
that be a lesson to all of you. First impressions don’t count for
much and you should always know your opponent before accepting
bets. None of you noticed I played with my left hand when playing
with my grand-daughter, but with my right during our first game.
Oh, and believe me when I say that if I had wanted to I could have
beaten you quite as easily with my right hand. I believe that means
the table is now ours to continue playing on?’ The men sheepishly
nodded. ‘Good. And, if you don’t mind, I would like to play with my
grand-daughter without the lewd comments.’ The men, humbled, nodded
again.

Michelle
silently re-racked the balls and the men quickly finished their
drinks and left the pub. She broke off and one of the balls ended
up hovering over one of the pockets. Somehow her grandfather
managed to miss the ball and sink the white ball into the
pocket.

‘Oh well,
thought it was too good to last - back to usual!’

Michelle did
not say a word.

*

Her grandfather
sat rocking in his rocking chair with Michelle opposite him. Jack
was curled up in a ball at his feet staring at Michelle as she told
her grandfather what she had been doing that week. She missed out
the previous nights antics but let him know that she had a new
boyfriend. Michelle knew that he would not like the thought of his
precious grand-daughter spending the night at a man’s house so she
left it there but he would like the thought of her having a
boyfriend. He asked his name and she told him Simon, and after he
had told her about his trials in getting the garden prepared for
winter which she politely listened to, making comments to show her
genuine interest.

After this
conversation he stood up and announced that it was time to go to
the Rose. Michelle nodded in agreement and went and got Jack’s lead
from the cupboard under the stairs. When Arthur had stood up so had
Jack and it looked like he was contemplating leaping onto the
rocking chair until he saw the lead in Michelle’s hand.

Instead of
leaping onto the rocking chair though he leapt up into the air and
started yapping and woofing and running in circles throwing in the
occasional leap for good measure. This continued until Michelle
approached the dog, dropped onto one knee and held out her hand.
Arthur had spent a considerable amount of time training his pet and
Jack knew that these actions meant calm down, we’ll put your lead
on then we can go, so he trotted across to Michelle and sat down.
She attached his lead to his collar and then stood to leave. Her
grandfather meanwhile had been to get a thick coat, scarf and
flat-cap and they made their way back down the hall and left with
Arthur locking the door behind them.

On the walk to
the pub they went a longer way to give Jack a good run. They walked
across big open fields, Michelle always linking arms with her
grandfather, Jack sprinting off into the distance and then
sprinting back to stop at the their feet for a pat and a stroke and
then he was off again. It took them about forty-five minutes to
walk to the pub were upon entering Arthur and Michelle were greeted
by near enough everyone present. They sat down at a table that was
free and instantly people approached asking Arthur and Michelle
about their lives. Arthur had quite a reputation for being
green-fingered and some of the questions focused on his skills in
the gardens. Some of the people who did not come into the Rose very
often asked specifically whether he was okay and let them both know
that their thoughts were with Arthur and Michelle.

About three
months ago Michelle’s grandmother had passed away after a sudden
illness and she now made a point of spending a lot of time with her
grandfather and especially at this time of the year since their
emerald wedding anniversary was rapidly approaching. Michelle knew
that her parents had planned a huge surprise party and had a booked
them a cruise as a present. Now, unknowingly to Arthur, all this
had been cancelled and instead Michelle concentrated on making him
as happy as possible during their time together. Arthur
acknowledged the well wishers with kind words from himself and soon
the people stopped approaching the table and they were left to
order their food.

They quickly
ate their respective meals, hungry after the refreshing walk, both
of them occasionally dropping titbits for Jack. After their meal
they had drinks and soon Michelle suggested that they move over to
the pool table. Their games went as they usually did, Michelle
playing her usual game and suspecting that Arthur was not really
trying. She had tried a few weekends after the pool incident to
bring up his play that night but she did not get anywhere.

He dodged her
questions with answers such as, ‘Oh, I just got lucky,’ or ‘Well
look at me now, I can’t pot anything!’ Michelle quickly gave up;
however, she did ask her father.

*

‘Old Sharky put
in an appearance did he?! Not very often he comes out of whatever
closet dad keeps him hidden in!’

‘Sharky?’

‘Yeah, Sharky.
You ask old Bill Rogers about him. You know him from the Rose
right?’

‘Yeah dad, I
do. But he is hardly ever there anymore. Can you tell me?’

‘I suppose. Why
didn’t grandfather tell you?’

‘I don’t know.
He wouldn’t answer the questions. He kept on saying it was
luck.’

‘Luck my..!’
Her dad did not finish the curse and instead took a deep breath and
told Michelle a story. ‘You know where your grandfather spent
nineteen fifty to nineteen fifty three don’t you?’

‘Yes, of
course. He was a Sergeant in the British Army. He was in Korea
during that time.’

‘Exactly. Well,
he was already good at pool, but as his story goes he met an
American woman who took a bit of a fancy to Arthur.’

‘But he would
have been married to grandmother by then?’

‘He insists no
hanky-panky went on but apparently they did spend a lot of time
together. Even when they were based at different parts of the
Korean peninsula they still communicated a lot. He doesn’t know it,
but I saw letters in the attic one time when I was young. I don’t
know if he kept them hidden from my mum for all those years or
whether she knew. Either way, some of them are quite, well,
luvvy-duvvy shall we say.’