Chapter 6

The next morning Laura and I took Oscar a long walk over the fields while mum did her interview with the lovely Linda, this time the dog saw another rabbit and actually chased it, without success though although it boded well for the next time, Mum rang me to say she’d finished after about an hour and that she needed me to run her into town to deposit her cheque,

“So take your hands out of Laura’s panties and get back here”

“I can’t do that mum” I laughed, “She isn’t wearing any!”

“Slut” she giggled and ended the call.

We went into town then and I dropped them off promising to meet them in a couple of hours while I went to see my mate who I’d worked with, We sat outside his house while a put a proposition to him,

“I’ll pay you two hundred and fifty a week and I’ll buy all the materials, you’ve got a load of mates who are out of work, pick one as a labourer, I’ll pay one and a half a week but now I need you to come with me to see the architect who’ll advise us on what else we need”

“You’re on” he laughed and we shook hands on the deal we’d just struck, he was going to rebuild the other cottage for me!

I soon discovered it wasn’t going to be cheap or easy but I’d recently had my place valued after what I’d done to it and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it had almost doubled in value, so I reckoned that if we could do the other place up nearly as well as mine, I’d be able to sell it for over four hundred thousand, my mates dad Pete was out of work so he agreed to act as night watchman for the hours of darkness and holidays.

From Donald’s house I went to a reclamation yard a couple of miles away where I saw he had tons and tons of old imperial measure bricks and I did a deal with him for an on going supply as and when I needed them, then it was on to a scaffolding company who promised to give me a price to supply and build the scaffolding, it was there that I learned that I actually had to pay rent on it while it was up, being used or not!

I also bought a few tons of breeze blocks for the inner walls as well as insulation.

Thank God Donald and I had all the tools we’d need, but that still left a cement mixer for now and I decided to buy that with a view to any future projects, that left only the security fencing which again I bought and decided that Don and I would put it up ourselves.

Pete had been a sign writer, so he made a sign saying the site was protected by Global Security Limited (That was himself) and was patrolled by guard dogs, (namely a daft little puppy called Oscar.) Then the sand and cement needed to be bought so by the time I’d done that and arranged for it’s delivery it was time to pick the girls up again.

They were thrilled when I told them what I’d done and Laura insisted that we drove by it on the way home, but mum wasn’t quite so thrilled when I explained Oscar’s role in it all.

“But he’d run a mile from a burglar” she said, “Either that or lick him to death”

“Trust me mum, he’ll soon grow and believe me he won’t be so little then, or so bloody soft”

“Well if you need it I can probably help you with money” mum said and I breathed a sigh of relief, that was exactly what I was hoping she’d say!

We started work the next day by putting up the security fence and accepting the sand and cement, the mixer arrived later on that morning so by lunch time we were ready to meet the architect on site with the plans he’d supplied for my own house, we’d already established that both properties had been built in exactly the same way so that had saved me a lot of money.

Pete came by then in his old pick up truck with a self assembly shed that he’d picked up and the three of us erected it, then in response to my phone call the girls arrived complete with our company guard dog,

“Not exactly a slavering, blood thirsty brute is he?” Pete commented as Oscar poked around with a rubber teddy bear in his mouth, but they took to each other anyway so we called it a day and went our separate ways.

I sat outside with my laptop looking at various sites for doors and windows, roof tiles, plumbing equipment and everything else I was going to need, it came to a mouth watering amount of money, but fuck it, mum had offered to help so I was confident I’d do it all right.

Over the next few weeks Donald and I worked every day on the cottage, Laura went home to sort things out with her girlfriend and mum started working lunch times at the pub for Jack, she loved it and brought her first pay packet home like a kid with a bag of sweets,

“It’s all mine Michael” she said just staring at the unopened wage packet, “I earned it, it’s the very first wage packet I’ve ever had”

I had her pose for a photograph holding it up and smiling, then my computer worked it’s magic and out came a picture ready to be framed.

“It’s my turn to be proud of you mum” I said and I meant it, “I reckon it’s going to take another week or two to put the roof on and make it waterproof, as soon as we’ve done that I’ve told Don that I’m having a holiday”

“Anywhere nice?” she asked with a glint in her eye,

“I don’t know” I smiled, “What about you, any suggestions?”

“You already know where I want to go” she laughed,

“OK, but instead of Spain I want to go to one of the Canary Isles, it’s summer all year round there and they’re ruled by Spain”

“As in Spanish law?”

“Correct”

“As in we can lie naked on the beach?”

“Of course”

“I can have my legs wide open?”

“Absolutely mum, lots of women do that”

“I can’t wait”

A week later the roof was on and the electricians, plumbers and plasterers were moving in, mum had finished telling her story to Linda and the publishers had coughed up the cheque, Jack had given her the time off from her job at the pub, so we were all set.

Mum was really excited as the aircraft touched down at Las Palmas airport in Gran Canaria and when they finally opened the aircraft’s doors she giggled as a wave of heat flooded in,

“God I’m sweating already” she laughed as we walked down the steps onto the tarmac,

“Don’t worry mum” I whispered, “I’ll lick all the sweat off you”

“I’ll hold you to that”

We’d booked a hotel in a small place called San Agustin overlooking the world famous beach called Mas Palomas and even as we unpacked in our top floor room, she was looking out over the beach,

“There are hundreds of them Michael”

“Hundreds of what?”

“Naked people”

“Yes” I laughed, “There’ll be two more soon”

“Come on then hurry up” she chided me, “I’m dying to get down there”

“We’ll go via the market mum, you need to buy a bikini”

“What for, I’m not going to wear one?”

“Oh all right then, but I warn you, the staff here might not like you walking through reception stark naked”

“Oh all right” she giggled, “Smarty pants”

The market was near to the entrance for the beach and sold everything you could think of from beach wear to cooking pots, but thankfully mum just wanted to get to the beach, she never even haggled much to the disappointment of the stall holder, but at least she made his day better by stepping into the tiny thong behind his stall!

“Beach now?”

“Beach now” I laughed and almost had to run to keep up with her.

We both stood out a bit from the other sun worshippers, mum because she was practically white all over and me because although I’d worked outside in just shorts, my midriff was as white as she was!

“You’ll need to rub some sun tan lotion on me” she said and then laughed when I complained that I got all the tough jobs,