Chapter 30

Monday December 3^rd Andrew got the letter he was waiting for. The Open University replied to his application but gave nothing away. They asked him to contact them to arrange an interview in their Edinburgh office. Andrew didn’t know they had an office in the city but his mother phoned the next day and an interview was arranged for the following Monday.

Suzanne and Paula had spent the previous two weeks teasing him. They were all very serious in the library but on the walk out of school they were in turns, funny and flirty and teasing. After school on the Tuesday Andrew finally plucked up the courage to ask them if they would like to go out again. The last week there had been no comments from anyone at school.

“Em, Suzanne, Paula, I was wondering if you would like to go out on Saturday, if you haven’t got anything planned I mean.”

Yes, the world’s smoothest request for a date. They laughed at his awkwardness.

“December 4^th Andrew, it took you until December 4^th to work up the courage. Yes, we will go out with you. What would you like to do?”

It was Paula that answered for them both.

“I am not sure. There is nothing good at the movies, we have done 10-pin and I suck, shall we try something else? We can’t go to anywhere that has alcohol, none of us can drive, something sporty? Ice-skating. There is a public skate at Murrayfield on a Saturday night. Or we could go swimming? The Commonwealth is open late on a Saturday.”

Suddenly he had a brainwave.

“Do you girls want to do something different?”

They both looked at each other and nodded.

“Do you trust me?”

Andrew looked at them earnestly. They nodded cautiously.

“Okay then. I will meet you at Meadowbank Stadium at 1pm on Sunday. No Saturday night date, Sunday afternoon date instead. I will take you to dinner later so no need for your folks to pick you up.”

Andrew was asked repeatedly over the next couple of days what they would be doing but all he told them was to dress warmly and he would see them at Meadowbank. Andrew waited until his Thursday call with Leslie to ask her.

“Leslie, can we change up Sunday. Go to the same place on the South Bridge that we went with Nikki?”

“Sure. Why?”

“I asked Paula and Suzanne out on Saturday and we were doing the usual indecisive teenage thing as to what to do. I decided they can come to the Food Bank and help Nikki and me for three hours and as a thank you I will take them to dinner and they can have fun asking you all their questions about me.”

Leslie was laughing by this point.

“I know that it is unusual but it is the run up to Christmas and this is part of who I am so what the hell. What are they going to do? Dump me?”

Leslie was still giggling away.

“In amongst all your self-absorbed bull there is a nice gesture lurking. Sure I will sit and tell Andrew stories for you. Just don’t get all huffy if we go on about you.

“Since we aren’t coming here on Sunday come over on Saturday and we’ll have dinner. Okay?”

“Sure. We can talk about the Open University interview on Monday. Alright I will be there once I am done at Julian’s”

That Friday Andrew was summoned to the front at the CCF parade and it was announced that he was now a lance-corporal in the platoon, one step up from private. He was one of seven promoted with his friends Don and Pete being two of the others. They were congratulated at the end of the parade.

“That was unexpected. I had no idea they promoted people now. Did you guys know?”

He was asking Don and Pete. Don answered.

“The timing is off this year. Normally it is done earlier. I thought we had missed our chance. I was as surprised as anyone.”

Don and Pete were Andrew’s two closest friends in class. Not that they hung out all the time, he disappeared to the library too much for that. But in the walks between classes and buildings it was often the three of them that walked together chatting away. Kate Maxwell would sometimes walk with them, always after Chemistry for example, but it was mainly the three of them. Andrew worked on maintaining this friendship, as it was a new dynamic for him.

Julian was working over at Andrew’s house that day and he was going to grab a lift over to Leslie’s from Mr. Strong. Ever since Mr. Strong had returned from the US with different computer magazines for them, they were coding with renewed vigour. A couple of the routines that they talked about, and showed small pieces of code for, had helped them. The game was still primitive but they had made good progress on both sound and graphics. On a scale of 1 to 10 it was still at a -7 but they were improving and starting to understand the importance of simple programming. Memory was always short and so they had to write short routines that worked. There was no unnecessary code, there just wasn’t the memory to spare. Right at that moment they didn’t know it but they were both gradually improving as programmers. Andrew’s mind kept drifting back to the interview on the Monday after school. Would he get into the Open University and would the course actually help him be a better programmer?

Mr. Campbell was parking his car as Mr. Strong drew up outside the house. Mr. Strong rolled the window down and said hello before any of them knew what had happened Leslie, Julian and Andrew were sitting at the kitchen table while the two men chatted business.

“The different parts of my life are really coming together this weekend. I feel like I keep everybody hidden from everybody else. Leslie, this is my friend Julian. The two of us code together on a Saturday every week, switching houses. He was over at mine today and his Dad offered to give me a lift as it was on their way home. Julian, this is my best friend Leslie.”

Julian looked like he had suffered a blow to the head. He knew all about Leslie and that she was older but the concept and the reality were very different things.

“He is a bigger nerd than I am and yet he knows all these beautiful women.”

Julian ruefully shook his head and smiled.

“It is nice to meet you Leslie. He really does reference you all the time. Leslie this, Leslie that.”

Julian showed a surprisingly chatty side to his nature. Often hours would go by at the weekend and they would barely speak to each other as they worked away. Now in the presence of Leslie, Andrew discovered his friend had more chat than he had given him credit for. After 10 minutes Julian’s Dad was ready to go and so finally it was just the four of them.

“Andrew, I was talking to Julian, the father, about VisiCalc. He was asking my advice. They are having trouble with some reports from their new system. Nobody is a VisiCalc expert yet. I talked to him about what you had done for me and he is very interested. Don’t be surprised if he comes to talk to you about some of those VisiCalc reports. Probably as soon as next weekend.”

Mr. Campbell was full of good news.

“Thanks for the plug Mr. C. Are you sure that it is okay for me to sell these to him? You paid me a lot of money to design them for you?”

“Andrew, you are right but I think you need to know something. Did you read the paper this week at all?”

Mr. Campbell was looking at Andrew intently.

“I never seem to have time. I am gone to school before it is even delivered most days. Why?”

“Well then, what you don’t know is that there were people arrested and charged this week. There had been large, wide scale fraud and embezzlement going on at my firm for years, or at least that is what the charges say. This still has to be proved in court. Several people including my predecessor have been charged. I was sent here nearly three years ago as the business wasn’t doing as well as it should have been. It was only this spring that I started to narrow down where the money was being siphoned off. The reports that you prepared for me and all the data entry that you did into these reports were the evidence that I needed to investigate further and eventually call in the police.”

Andrew hadn’t realised that what had been happening had been so serious.

“The company has saved a huge amount of money and we hope to recover more from the people who have been stealing. You played a small but significant part in stopping them so yes, I am fine with you taking these blank templates and selling them to other businesses.”

Mr. Campbell sat there smiling. Andrew meanwhile tried to process what he had been told.

“Can I ask you a business question then please?”

Mr. Campbell smiled and nodded.

“What should I charge Mr. Strong? You paid me about £1,300 altogether. Some of that was for data entry and checking everything. For simplicity’s sake let’s say you invested £1,000 in the reports. Now he knows that I have the template already, we have talked about that, so I presume I am not trying to sell it to him for another £1,000?”

Andrew’s look to Mr. Campbell was of genuine confusion and naivety.

“No, I think that would be a bit greedy. But I think it should be more than you imagine. Look he bought more than 30 computers, I am not telling any secrets here, he told you himself. So his office has 30 people needing these templates. Say you sell him the template at £10 a computer. That seems very reasonable, doesn’t it? £300 right there Andrew. For making 30 copies of your templates and copying them onto each of the computers for them.”

Mr. Campbell sat back as Andrew’s eyes widened as he thought about that.

“Look I don’t want to make this more complicated for you than it already is but here are several things to think about. You are selling to a business, a law firm, not your friend’s dad. As he knows you he will need to step back, what they call recuse himself. He shouldn’t be involved in buying from a family friend and Julian is a good lawyer. So you’ll be dealing with someone else. Now Julian will have put in a good word but you will still be dealing with an older lawyer with lots of experience. They will ask you to sign a contract and to send them a bill. This is a law firm, they are going to obey all the laws. As you can see you are no longer dealing with the family of friends, you are dealing with a business. Lots of hassle. I can see by the look on your face that you are put off and daunted by everything I have said. However, there is a huge opportunity here as well. If you get the chance to sell to Julian’s firm, word will get out and there will be a chance to sell to other firms, lawyers, architects, doctors’ practices, any kind of small business.”

Andrew thought of the Strachans and all those ledgers he had painstakingly updated.

“I did a lot of the paperwork for the farmers I worked for over the summer and I can see that. They are a small business but boy, would it help them if more was on a computer.”

“Exactly, you get it. I wouldn’t have thought of farmers but from your experience you can see that there are lots of opportunities out there. I have given you a lot to think about.”

He stopped here and watched Andrew. He turned and smiled at his wife and daughter.

“You can almost see that ‘big old brain’ churning away, can’t you?”

The three of them chortled as Andrew flushed.

“Guilty as charged on that one. Can I come and see you before I go please? I am going to think about this and talk to Leslie about it.”

Andrew smiled but then turned sad and tears came to his eyes. He unsuccessfully tried to blink them away.

“What’s wrong Andrew?”

Leslie was concerned at his sudden tears.

“It gets me every time Leslie. I think about how lucky I am to have you all in my life and then I remember the loss of Faith and it just hits me. Sorry, I’ll be fine in a second.”

The Campbells looked at each other but nothing needed to be said. After dinner he and Leslie were in her room as usual talking away.

“Dad dumped a whole pile of things to think about in your lap before dinner. I could see where you were going with this. Get a couple of hundred quid or whatever from Mr. Strong and be done. Now Dad has told you that you have to set up a business if you want to do anything with these VisiCalc reports you created. What does he call them again?”

“Templates.”

“Yeah, templates.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes thinking about this. Then she piped up again.

“Let’s take a step here Andrew. Goals. Where does this fit into the life plan and goals?”

It was rhetorical as they both knew.

“Money. It is not your career at least not yet. So this is part of making money. You want to make money to make a difference. You have worked since the Easter break, paper route, at the farm, for Dad, twice, and now tutoring. Before that you worked in the camera shop and for the removal firm. You seem to be getting into the habit of making the most of opportunities and making some money from them. Here is another opportunity waiting to happen. The question is do you want to set up a computer company? That is the real question. I think we should ask Dad if he will take us to see a lawyer. I think we need some professional advice. I also think he should give you a lift home and see if he can talk to your folks.”

Leslie as usual was moving at warp speed.

“Can’t be tonight. The folks are out and Rowan is with Grandma. There will be no one there when I get home. I doubt the folks will be back before midnight.”

Andrew shrugged his shoulders. He wasn’t sure how much his parents would care.

“Maybe he can call over before lunch tomorrow. They will be up by then although when you put this on top of the Open University meeting their heads are just going to explode. I mean, what 14 year old does this?”

Leslie laughed at him.

“One who is going to change the world, remember? Come on, let’s go and talk to Dad again and then we can drop all this stuff and listen to The Wall. I got it on Thursday and have played it twice already. I don’t know what to make of it so I want you to hear it and then we can talk about it.”