Chapter 17

Life resumed its normality for a few days, then one morning Esme looked at the list of appointments for today, and saw the name "Thomas Craven" among them.

She hastened to speak with her supervisor, anxious to not put her foot in it if there was any conflict of interest. She explained her concern.

"Sir, this Thomas Craven may be a gentleman whom I have met socially. It is the name of my babysitter's father. If you can establish whether he was in hospital recently with a stroke, that would identify him specifically. Should it be the same man, perhaps I should bow out of the interview?"

"Nonsense!", he declared confidently. "Esme, you know that you do not make any formal decision about our applicants. That is my task, so your presence makes no difference to the interview. I do admire and approve of your awareness of such possible conflicts of interest, but as your position is merely advisory, there is no real clash of interests, especially as you have mentioned it to me.

If it is the same man, I shall make it clear that you are here in an advisory capacity, and will not make any decision on his application."

"Thank you, sir. That puts my mind at rest."

When the interview room door was opened, and Thomas Craven ushered in by a teller, Esme recognised the man and stood up to offer a welcoming hand.

"Hello, Tom. Nice to meet you again." She came across and kissed him on the cheek. "I hope you are fully recovered." He expressed his surprise at meeting her here, and gave her a word of thanks. "I am O.K., I think, thanks, Esme."

Her supervisor stepped in. "Mr Craven, welcome and please be seated. My name is Charles Hebden. I understand you were unwell recently, so let's not have you standing. Esme here is our independent advisor on loan applications. She built up a good reputation in her financial business on Earth, so we are making use of her expert advice.

The decision on your application, however, is entirely up to me, so rest assured that Esme is not involved in the making of that decision."

Tom nodded his thanks at that explanation, and the interview began.

Tom explained that he wished to borrow $50,000 to double the size of the farmhouse on his land. Charles blinked at the idea.

"Tell me, Tom. According to your file you have a home in Metropolis, as well as your farmland out in the country, and your farm house there. In that regard, I understand that you have one wife and one child – that is correct, is it?"

Tom replied, "Quite correct, sir."

Charles went on, "In that case, for what purpose would you need to extend your farmhouse, Tom? The requirement is not obvious to me, as an outsider. Can you give me some kind of explanation for why you need to extend?"

Tom coloured up slightly as he faced the interviewer. He slowly stated, "Felicity – my wife – wants to be able to invite a lot more friends round, and our flat in Metropolis is not suitable for such social events."

"So, you are expected to get into debt in order that she can have a higher social profile among her circle of friends?"

"If you put it that way, Mr Hebden, I suppose you are right."

"This is tricky, Tom. We do not normally lend money for purely cosmetic or social reasons, and we like to be certain that our clients have the ability to pay back the loan. Your file says that your occupation is "writer", but that is not very explanatory in itself. There is not even a stated annual income from your occupation. Perhaps you can enlighten us?"

Tom's visage brightened. This was an area he was happy to talk about.

"I write books for a living, but that does not produce a standard amount of income per year. Much depends on how well a book sells, and that in turn depends on the vagaries of the reading public. I have several books in print – all non-fiction – and I am currently earning about twenty thousand dollars a year from their sales. Sales figures usually drop over time, so one requires to produce another book every year or so, to maintain the income stream. I came to Rehome in part to write a book about life in the first human colony on an other planet. My provisional title is "Colony Planet", but I am only at the stage of research at the moment.

Sorry if I am running off at a tangent. This is just to explain my financial affairs. I do expect to be able to pay off the loan in about ten years, if all goes as planned. Of course, if the book is a hit with readers on Earth, I would be able to pay off the loan much sooner."

Charles was not very enthusiastic about this loan request. "I see. Still, Tom, this project would appear to have little relevance to your professional life, and more to do with enhancing your wife's position in society. There is no "payback" element included, is there? No visiting relatives contributing to your enlarged accommodation, for example?"

Tom seemed dismayed, unable to come up with a positive solution.

Esme cleared her throat, looking pointedly at Charles. He was quick off the mark. "Yes, Esme? Have you a contribution to make to the discussion?"

"I was wondering, Charles. Making the farmhouse much larger: that would make it suitable for use as a bed and breakfast establishment, would it not? Many of our visitors from Earth are not very keen on the formality of hotels, so might prefer a B & B place where they can get a better "feel" for the locality. Our smaller hotels at present cater for that clientele, but a genuine "Bed and Breakfast" establishment may readily attract custom. Mrs Craven might be persuaded to go for an income that she herself generated, and give her an enhanced feeling of self-worth."

Charles mused, "That has possibilities, my dear Esme. There would still be the awkwardness of running two homes, assuming Tom remained in Metropolis. Of course, if he was happy to work in the farmhouse, they could dispose of the flat in the city, which would cut the family's costs." His mind made a connection, and he added, "But that may mean you losing your babysitter, Esme."

Tom was swinging his head to look alternately at Esme and Charles, as the ideas flowed. He was thinking, "Felicity is not going to go with this; and why would people come to our farmhouse, well away from the city?"

As if she was reading his mind, Esme came out with, "Being a farm, visitors from urban communities on Earth may be attracted to seeing life on a farm. Some might even want to participate in running the farm.

I am reminded of those working ranches in the United States, where folk went on holiday specifically to help in running the ranch. It was a new and exciting experience that they relished. I am sure lots of people would be fascinated by the farm, and have a hankering to have 'hands-on' experience.

I recall in my own family, that we once stayed a couple of nights at a farm B & B. My younger brother, aged around ten at the time, thought it was great fun to get up early with the farmer's wife and collect eggs from the chickens, and also to help feed the calves with warm milk fresh from the milking parlour."

Tom had another worry though, and voiced his concerns about visitors.

"What if the visitors mucked up the work? What if they could not run a tractor in a straight line? Would they not need a driving licence for the tractor? How much time would have to be spent showing them what to do?"

Charles picked up the ball and ran with it. "Tom, you are missing the point. The guests are PAYING to be shown how to do things. Your farm manager's pay is covered by the visitors' income. We don't have driving licences in the Colony – at least, not so far. If there is a wonky line of furrows, so what? The plants will not be much bothered, and if you lose a few through that defect, the tourist income should more than make up for the loss.

In fact, if you make people welcome, they may come back the following year again, better prepared for the task, and able to see the results of last year's efforts. You can record the output from fields where your visitors worked last year, for them to see when they come back."

Tom was coming round to the idea. "I can see there is potential in the concept. Esme is not just a pretty face, is she, Mr Hebden?"

Charles had a big grin on his face. "You can see now why we value her advice, Tom. Do you want to take the concept away and discuss it with your wife?"

Tom smiled his gratitude. "I can do that. If I can work on the basis of starting a Bed and Breakfast establishment, do you think I will get a loan?"

"If you can provide such an income stream, Tom, with a reliable basis for that assumption, I think we may be able to oblige. I can't guarantee it until we have all the data, including at least one quote from a builder for the construction and an estimate for decoration and furnishing, but I would be fairly confident."

Tom smiled at Esme. "Esme, I am most impressed with your sagacity. Nargo has an excellent mother, it appears."

"Anything I can do to help out a client, suits me, Tom."

Tom returned home and entered quietly, hoping to sneak in to his study for a short while before facing Felicity. It was not to be. As soon as she heard the front door open, she was through to ask him questions.

"Well? Do we get the money straight away? When can we start the building work?"

"Felicity...", Tom hesitated before going on, and her face fell.

"You didn't get the loan! The rotters! I had my heart set on doing up the farm house, Tom..."

Tom took hold of himself and stated loudly and firmly, "Felicity! It is not like that. The bank wants us to secure an income stream from the farm, so they suggest a Bed and Breakfast facility at a minimum. There was even a concept of a working farm..."

Felicity was not listening. "Bed and Breakfast? How menial! You don't think we should be so commercial, surely? Our family doesn't do COMMERCIAL!" She emphasised the word as if it was a swear word that she had difficulty producing from her mouth.

Tom despaired, but tried again, "Darling, the bank is simply trying to find a good reason for granting a loan. This was an idea floated by Esme to help us out with a solution to the problem."

"Esme? Not that woman again? Tell me it is not THAT Esme, Thomas Craven, will you?"

Tom responded guardedly, "She works at the Bank of Rehome as a financial adviser, Felicity, and sits in on loan applications. It is her job to come up with helpful suggestions. It is what she gets paid for. Surely you can see that?"

"Her job is to tell us to run a home business? To tell US? Boss us around? I don't see the advantage in that."

Tom decided that his wife had better see the realities of life.

"Felicity, do you want to see the farm house extended, or not?"

"Well, of course I do. I explained it to you, didn't I?"

"Dear, you explained it as a building that will enable you to show off; to prance around your big house, telling all your friends how wonderful you are; but it costs money which we don't have!

The Bank's position is that they have to make sure the loan gets repaid, so they are pushing me, pushing US, to turn it into a paying proposition. That is all that is happening. We either generate income from it, or we DON'T get the loan. I cannot guarantee that my income will be sufficient each year to repay a minimum segment of the loan, so they need some other means of ensuring it get paid off, so that they CAN give us the loan. They need a method to guarantee repayment. Do you understand now, Felicity?"

"Eh? We have to make it a commercial proposition, or they turn us down? They can't do that to us, Tom!"

"Felicity, that is the point: they CAN do this to us; they ARE doing this to us. They don't hand out piles of money without making sure they can get it back. It is that simple."

"But, a Bed and Breakfast! That is so COMMON!"

"Darling, you could make it a SUPERIOR Bed and Breakfast. Or, Esme came up with another brilliant suggestion: a working farm for the tourists! The visitors help with running the farm, and PAY for the privilege."

"Pardon? How would that work? That's a silly idea."

"My dear wife, your education is somewhat lacking. In the United States, some ranches are set up so that the visitors participate in the ranch work, and pay for the privilege. They are mostly townies who want to get the feeling of what it is like to be a cowboy on a ranch. We could do the same for city folk who want to get the feel of working on a farm. Much of it is done on a tractor, so it is not too physically strenuous, but knowing what you are doing is vitally important on a farm. That is why we have a part-time farm manager for our farm."

"There would be a market for that, would there? ... sort of, a working holiday?"

"Exactly. Back on Earth, my dear, almost all of the population live in towns and cities, so they know little about rural life. I remember hearing of young children at school being asked 'Where does milk come from?' and they answered, 'From milk bottles (or cartons, depending on the locality), of course'. They had no realisation that milk came from cows."

"So, your Esme is not just a bimbo looking for a man, ... MY man?"

"Felicity, first of all she is not MY Esme; I don't know where you got that idea from. Secondly, she is not a bimbo; she is a capable and intelligent woman doing a good job of work; and thirdly, I have no idea whether she is looking for a man. I wish you would get over your insecurity, my dear. I think it is your insecurity that causes you to want to flaunt your possessions. Accept that I love you, and I will never leave you."

"You really mean that, Tom?"

"Why do you think we are still together after fourteen years, Felicity? If I didn't love you, I'd have left a long time ago. You complain every time I even so much as look at another woman. You do realise you do that, don't you?"

"Tom! You have never said that to me before."

"Felicity, my darling wife, the reason I have changed is that I thought I was dying when that stroke hit me. I thought life was over, and I had never done anything about your peccadillos. I had been too much in love to ask you to change, and I knew that was wrong of me, to just knuckle under.