Chapter 17

Back at the store in the morning I sought out Billy and told him about the Marquette, he was ecstatic to get a chance to pay me back for employing him, "Billy, this isn't a thankyou job, I want you to take the car and work on the same as any other part time customer, I will pay you for your work and I don't want a cut rate either. You and Sally still have a lot to do to the house and need every penny to make it happen, so 'Full price' OK?"

Begrudgingly he agreed to charge me full price but I knew he would still put a lot more of himself into the project. I arranged with him to collect the car and transport it to his place, a quick call to the local cop and we had permission to drive it there albeit unregistered, so Jess drove us home, Billy had brought a can of petrol and a set of jumper leads with him, we pushed the Marquette out into the drive way and hooked up the jumper leads to the batteries, a few false starts and she was running.

"We need to get rid of the old petrol as it's a bit stale, I'll top it off with this fresh stuff to get us back to my place then I'll drain the tank" said Billy as he excitedly looked her over.

Jess and I followed Billy as he drove back to his house, as he drove in the driveway Sally came rushing out to greet us, accompanied by two barking dogs. "Wow, what have we got here ... Is it yours Jimmy? It's old but it's beautiful."

"It belonged to my Dad Sally, Billy's going to go through it and then when I turn eighteen we will register it."

Billy drove it into the barn that he used as a workshop then bidding Sally goodbye we went back to the store. Billy was full of enthusiasm as we drove, "it's in great condition Jimmy, there is hardly any miles on the Speedo and it's been well looked after."

"It was Billy, Joe only used it for outings, we used the family car for most of the running around, the Marquette was his pride and joy" Jess informed us, I noticed the catch in her voice as she spoke.

When we arrived at the store I asked Jess to park the car across the road in front of the building. "It looks pretty good for its age apart for the warehouse on the left; do we use it for much Billy?"

"There are mainly non perishable goods in there but if we need to move them we could find room in the back store, why, are you thinking of demolishing it?"

"It's a bit of an eyesore, I was thinking of expanding the store and that could be a possibility, what do you think Jess?"

"Well we don't really need the space but it would certainly improve appearance of the store."