Chapter 13: Jennifer Grows In Confidence

The churchwarden was pleased that Jennifer had turned up at the coffee morning and was rather grateful that Martha wasn’t there. He knew she was quite capable of making a scene impetuously and regretting it afterwards. These young female clergy, he shook his head in disapproval at the thought, never think of any consequences. They just rush in where angels...

He had explained to David what she had asked him but David said, “I didn’t do any of the setting up. That was all done by the accountant and I just set up the technical stuff. I really wouldn’t know where to start.”

“Well, can’t you suggest what she needs to do to find out what is necessary? You must have some idea.”

David thought and finally agreed that he could probably point her in the right direction.

“Good,” said the churchwarden and signalled Jennifer to come over to them. “This is Miss Carpenter, of course you have heard her singing the versicles in church. Jennifer, this is Mr. Ransome. I have told him what you asked me,” and he left them to it.

“What sort of business do you want to set up? Have you got any capital to pay for the time until it starts to make a profit?”

Jennifer debated how much to tell him of her history, then said, “I was trained sometime ago as a chef, and I thought a business providing catering for adult and children’s parties. If someone wanted a dinner for say six people at their home I would agree a menu and then prepare, cook, and serve it all. Maybe I would need a second waiter to help serve it, but I know that real waiters sometimes moonlight in such jobs. What I don’t know is all the business end of it. How do I form a company? Can I legally use our domestic kitchen to prepare the food? Can I do it all at the customer’s home? What about insurance? All that sort of thing.”

Seeing the others at the Coffee Morning were all agog to listen in on their conversation David quietly suggested, “We need to talk about this somewhere more conducive to thought. Shall we have lunch on Tuesday to discuss it? And I can have found out a few things for you by then.”

Jennifer reluctantly agreed.

“Fine. The Lisboa, you know where it is?” she nodded, “Twelve sharp.”

David insisted that they ate first, then he adjourned the meeting until coffee was ready at his house.

“Good,” he said, “Are you ready?”

“Yes,” said Jennifer.

“Oh, I wasn’t sure you had an eidetic memory,” he commented.

“What’s one of those?” she wondered not quite silently.

“I was curious if you had one because you aren’t taking notes. It means you can remember everything you see and hear perfectly. There are those who can recite conversations they only heard once as tiny children before they could understand the words, or who can repeat conversations in languages they cannot speak, and do so twenty or thirty years later. I would hate to be like that.”

“Why?” she asked, “It sounds ever so useful.”

“Useful, yes, but every bad moment remembered in full detail, for ever?” he queried, “Would you really want that?”

She sat in silence until he asked, “Do you want a notebook?”

She nodded, “Please.”

He took one out of his desk drawer.

“Now, every important point you need to remember, write it down. Every question you need answered, write it down. Every decision you make, write it down. Then you will have a valuable document which will hopefully help you get everything right, and in twenty years time when you are writing your memoirs it will be invaluable. For every meeting write down date, time, place, and who is there.”

Jennifer just stared at him.

“Now,” he ordered, “Write this meeting down.”

She started to write.

“The things you need to be successful in the catering business are properly approved premises, a clear idea of for whom you are catering, and a clear methodology.”

She wrote that down.

“Next it is your turn. Where are you going to use as premises?”

“Er ... I thought the vicarage kitchen.”

“Is it big enough? Does it have catering standard equipment? Can you have sole use of it for whole days at a time?”

“Er ... I think it’s big enough. I have cooked a dinner for seven in there.”

“How many sinks does it have?” he asked much to her surprise.

“One big double one, why?” she queried, “That’s plenty big enough.”

“Not for commercial catering. The first time you are inspected by the authorities you will be closed down. You need four separate sinks each with separate water supplies and separate drain pipes according to the authorities. Didn’t your college have that?”

Her thoughts were in turmoil, How much should I tell him? Will he still want to help me if I tell him where I learned to cook? aloud she said, “There is something I must tell you before we...” her voice tailed off.

David was ready for this, and pleased that she had brought it up, “You mean where you learned your catering skills? I already know that was in the kitchens while you were in Her Majesty’s Prison Styal. And I know that you were only living in the same flat as the girl who was the real drug dealer, and that you were not even a user ... So we need never mention it again.”