Chapter 49

The school year finished without much fuss. Julian and Andrew had done all the work on the program by the end of May as demanded by Leslie. He stayed away from the meetings with ComputerCom, it was normally just Mhairi and Julian’s Dad. They worked out all the details and got the legal end all sorted out. Julian and Andrew formed a company that owned the software. They owned JA Computers 50:50 and through it sold the license to ComputerCom. Andrew never asked Julian about his financial stuff, he presumed his dad assisted with that. They paid taxes in the company and paid themselves the rest. Andrew used £27,000 of his £30,000 to pay back Mr. Campbell and have some money in the bank. Leslie was initially gobsmacked to receive £3,000 but she was a 10% shareholder in Andrew’s company. She deserved more, as it was all her background work that made the deal possible. It was finally becoming real to her.

Term three of 3^rd year had started smoothly, gone completely haywire in the middle and then had finished normally. Andrew took stock of where he was against his goals.

Karmic balance – He was not sure how getting the shit kicked out of him fitted into this but then just weeks afterward they had licensed their computer program and made a huge amount of money. He was tutoring Suzanne and Paula and was still working at the Food Bank warehouse every week. He tried to be a good friend and was working hard with his family. Things were no longer tense, except occasionally with Rowan. But there was something missing. Andrew had started to wonder if it was his fault, had he stepped too far back. But he knew, deep down, that it was more than that. Despite making more money that his parents, combined, Andrew still felt like the outsider in the family. It was months and years later before he realised that the money was another wedge in a relationship that was not short of them to start with. Increasingly his family were a loose tooth that nagged at him but never got resolved.

Relationships & balance – he had struggled with balance for chunks of term three. HIs friendship with Julian was great, all due to a flyer in the library at the start of the year. Here they were 10 months later with thousands of pounds in the bank and joint owners of a company. The Black Sabbath concert had been another connection between them, they both had loved it. Andrew was still sore from the assault but to hear the band live was incredible. It was the first gig of many in his life. He kept all the tickets from the gigs he went to over the years, all the way back to that first Sabbath gig. He kept them in a folder in his office. Whenever he felt nostalgic he would get the folder out and flip through thinking back to some of the shows.

Andrew had worried about asking Nikki if he could visit and had tentatively asked her, but she had been delighted. She ended up insisting he stay overnight, in the guest room, so that they could catch up. Andrew was so glad that they had made the time to stay in touch. He didn’t ask about Francesca and figured it would come up while he was there. The routine with his friends at school had settled down. Pete, Don and Andrew hung out between classes and sat together in most of them. The other two were in no way interested in going to the library all the time which was fine. They accepted him as this nerdy guy who was their friend. The three of them supported each other at the CCF. That was the key thing to keeping the friendship strong, they didn’t backstab to get ahead. They all enjoyed the discipline and camaraderie of the platoon. The year-end camp was a much smaller affair than the previous year. They were going to Barry Budden, a windswept and miserable place on the coast just up from Carnoustie golf course. It was going to be cold and bleak. Happy days! One great thing though was that the following year Andrew could take some specialised Army skills training within the CCF relating to the Royal Engineers. Given that this was a possible career, getting free engineering training seemed a no brainer. Plus it got him promoted to full corporal.

The initial flirtations and attractions had all calmed down. Maybe not for the rest of the year but Andrew lived in his own little bubble. Suzanne, Paula and Andrew never really talked about going out in term three and it was just a topic that they never discussed. They became his study buddies and he enjoyed studying with them. It was the same with his classmates, friends at school but nothing outside it. There was always a slight tension between him and Kate but nothing ever came of it. Allie was tense for most of the term and only relaxed towards the end as Ford got even angrier with Andrew after the house music competition. She never explained why she pulled away and Andrew didn’t push it. He and Hannah were also friendly but always at arm’s length. Andrew was not sure he ever spoke to her one on one. At the end of the term inevitably Andrew thought about Mareikura. It had been a ten day whirlwind in March, and yet it felt longer somehow. Andrew thought about her a lot during the term, and not just when he was in the shower! One of the things he realised was he had not had a relationship. He also was not sure he was ready for a relationship. He had been worried about losing friends but he and Allie had shown that was more in his head than anything. But Andrew could not rely on random women taking a liking to him and thereafter taking him to bed. If he wanted a regular sex life then he would need to make an effort to date someone. Hmmm. Finally there was Leslie, who had matured so much that term. She was an active force in the business and undoubtedly deserved more than £3,000 for all her efforts. Whenever Andrew needed to talk something through he knew that he could sit in her bedroom on a Sunday night and even just by talking to her he would be calmer. One of the things that had become very clear to him over the year was there would never be anything between them. Andrew saw her as, and knew she was, a very attractive woman but she was his sister. He sat in her room most Sunday nights and neither of them nor her parents thought anything of it. He would be lost without her.

School had been fine that term. His marks were solid and he hung on to be top in Maths and Physics but it had been touch and go. It showed that he couldn’t take his school work for granted. What had gone slower was the Open University degree. He was finishing module four of the computing course as term ended. It would take him most of the summer to complete the other two, and so Andrew had given up any hope of doing the residential week that summer. Too much had happened in May for that to be realistic. In contrast he had motored through five of the six maths modules already and hoped to get that completed over the summer as well. Academically he had nothing to complain about. He had spoken to the Latin teacher at the end of the year and had talked about finishing Latin after next year. Andrew would stop at an ‘O’ Grade (Ordinary Grade) rather than carry on to a Higher Grade in fifth year. He would rather spend the time studying for his computer science course than studying another year of a language he had no use for and bitterly regretted taking.

Fitness was now a nice constant. 200 sit ups and 100 push ups every day. Run for 30 minutes and swim for 40 minutes during the week. Run for an hour on a Saturday and occasionally a Sunday although normally that was a day when he recharged. Andrew felt good and healthy but he was also realistic. He enjoyed swimming distance as opposed to sprinting and was an adequate runner without ever being great. He could have improved at swimming if he wanted to get into the dedicated interval training. Swimming was as much about his mental health as physical and he enjoyed the time with his thoughts. It helped on many different levels.

All through the year he had assumed he would be at university studying Engineering or Physics. This had been shaken by the end of the year given the success he and Julian had at computing. For the first time Andrew wondered if he should not go to university but complete the computer science degree and then start work for himself. After all he already had two computer companies! Too soon to tell or make up his mind but for the first time there was doubt.

His money goal was obviously doing well. They were selling thousands of something comparatively cheap. As Leslie had said many months earlier selling lots quickly and cheaply was better than selling one of two of something that was expensive. The one thing that Andrew saw from his weekly reading of all the computer magazines was that everything was being replaced very quickly. There was always something newer, faster, better or cheaper just round the corner. That is why he was happy to take the money for the templates and why he didn’t think the market for the bookie software would last either. They would need to develop something else to make further sales. It was this development that would keep them busy over the summer.

The summer started with a visit to the Royal Highland Show. It is a big agricultural fair held on the outskirts of Edinburgh in late June every year. Harry had asked his parents if the family wanted to come along. Andrew was keen as he enjoyed spending time with Harry. It ended up being the whole family but hey, family time. The day was saved by running into Kenzie, in public, with his parents and the Strachans. Harry introduced her to Andrew’s parents and referenced her as Mac’s daughter. They had met Mac at the Hogmanay party so knew the context. Andrew arranged to meet up in an hour with his parents and the two of them were able to spend some time without their every word and move being monitored. Andrew wanted to talk to her. It was all a bit awkward until the ice broke.

“How have you been Andrew? I think about you and New Year a lot.”

“Me too Kenzie. Sometimes I think it was just a dream. One crazy night and then nothing for six months.”

“Oh it was real alright Andrew, it was real.”

Kenzie had a filthy smile on her face.

“Are you going to be working for the Strachans again this summer?”

“I think so. I will not be out as long as I was last year, I have too many others things I am trying to get done but I said I would work the first three weeks of August for them. They are going on holiday in the middle week.”

Andrew loved Kenzie’s directness.

“I will have to figure out how to stay over for at least part of the time.”

There it was again. The casual presumption that he was going to put out. In another life he may have been able to talk about this or at least have a witty comeback. But that day, standing beside a row of tractors at a fair, Andrew just gulped and nodded. He was such an easy tart!

He and Kenzie had nothing in common. She had left school at 16 because she hated it. She wasn’t stupid but she was not academic. She worked long hours every day on a farm and had a straightforward simple attitude to life. And yet she was easy to talk to. She could laugh at herself and was a nice person. There was also no romanticised vision of them in her head. She knew that he was not going to be around often or forever. She would take what she could while she could. Andrew realised that he should do the same. That was the bit he was still coming to grips with. Sex for fun without commitment.

They met up with his parents and Kenzie said goodbye. Andrew confirmed to Harry that he would be out on the evening of August 3^rd. He had enjoyed working on the farm last year, it had been the transition between the boy and the young man. He had responsibility, he was watched and checked up on but he was trusted. Andrew hoped that this year would be equally fulfilling.

His predictions about the weather at Barry Budden were half accurate, it was windy but at least it was dry. They had extensive rifle ranges there and a major part of that year’s camp was shooting practice. Everyone was looking forward to it but it was an exercise in humility. The wind played havoc with their shots. They got better but nobody was great. Andrew was an acceptable shot, in the upper half, maybe upper third, but never challenged in the shooting competitions. As always, they were in competition with the other Combined Cadet Forces from around Scotland. Andrew had found at camp the previous year it was a great way to bring the platoon together. Everyone watched out for everyone else. It was his only experience of a large supportive team. One evening they were sitting in the mess hall after dinner talking about the second set of proficiency tests scheduled for the autumn of the next school year. Pete was laughing at Andrew and called him the ‘platoon’s nerd’ and how he was going to breeze through the Engineers course. Of course if Andrew finished the second test before anyone else then he would get promoted first. Corporal McLeod, leader of men. One of the instructors looked over at Pete

“The Engineers course is probably the hardest of the proficiency courses, well that and the Artillery, which is all maths. People do not normally breeze through them.”

Pete just groaned.

“Don’t tell him that” he pointed at Andrew “Top of the class in maths for the last two years.”

The instructor was a Royal Engineer reserve officer in the Territorial Army, which was what the reserve forces were called then, and was an engineer in civilian life. He and Andrew started chatting away and he did a great selling job on Andrew without him even being aware. Andrew had three more years of school and then would be at university for four more. The university equivalent to the CCF was called the Officer Training Corp (OTC or UOTC). This Territorial Army officer planted the seed in Andrew’s head of joining the OTC. He didn’t over push it, just put it out there and left Andrew to do the rest of the work. The following day he was waiting his turn on the range when he had a sudden thought. He was already at university. Could he join the OTC now? Surely not, that seemed absurd, he was only 15. He was still smiling at the absurd notion hours later.

July 1980 was busy with changes to the program for ComputerCom. Kyle had asked them to write slightly different versions for other industries. What he had found was that companies really liked the idea of knowing what was going on at their branches and satellite offices. If Julian and Andrew developed the appropriate software for them to report then Kyle could sell modems and the software license. He was the one who beat the bushes. He was the one who took Andrew’s idea and Leslie’s initial plan and pushed it across multiple industries. Julian and Andrew also hid behind him in that they were never at meetings and so their youth was never an issue. When he put his company behind something then they were incredible salesmen. They had seen that at the start of the year. ComputerCom had oversold systems and needed to beef up their support. The two of them had helped with that and as a result had got their foot in the door. From that month on, he and Julian would be constantly tweaking their original program for a particular customer or potential customer. No need to pull all-nighters just changing the output format, or the input screen. They always numbered versions sequentially and by the time Andrew left school three years later they had seventy something versions.

Executives like control, and companies learned. They had spent too much at the beginning on hardware and they were not going to replace it immediately even although there was something better and faster available. JA Computers had a small cheap product that allowed the companies to use older computer equipment and slow modems. That was their niche and ComputerCom exploited it rigorously. Those seventy versions of the software sold 45,000 times. Nearly half of them to the government, which was bitterly ironic as they paid 40% of their profit to the government in tax. Andrew always thought they just gave them the software.

They were still two schoolboys coding away in their bedrooms and yet were stinking rich. It was during this summer that Andrew started to lean on Brian and Creighton more for investment advice. He did not follow them blindly but there was only so much he could keep up with. They recommended that he invest in some specific shares as well as a fund that covered the whole market. Andrew dragged his mother along to complete the volumes of paperwork and got an account set up. It took a very long time. Andrew didn’t know if it was because of his age but eventually he was able to purchase shares. It was all buy and hold so it was not that frequent. But as the money kept coming in month after month he would add to his shareholdings. He and Brian would talk about it and Andrew learned a lot from him. Leslie sat in on all those meetings, soaking up her father’s wisdom and knowledge. They got the benefit of the time Brian spent researching investments and just piggybacked off him. Other than the house Andrew had never seen, he didn’t have much need for money, an occasional dinner and a movie with Leslie. He wasn’t life and soul of the party and never would be. HIs only real indulgence was buying records.

He still bought most of his records at Ezy Ryder, he was expanding his collection and filling in albums that had been released over the last 10 years. When he went there he would inevitably walk the additional five minutes to Tony Brown’s camera shop and show him what he had just bought. Over the first half of the summer the day varied but he stopped in every week. He never talked about computing, the companies and especially the money, but he enjoyed spending an hour or so with Tony, just catching up.

His company was paying the Open University degree course and all the computer expenses. Andrew paid the school fees and gave his parents petrol money since one of them drove him a lot. What did start to happen that summer was Andrew was subtly pressured to give his parents more money. They never came out and asked blatantly but there were lots of comments when he was around about how expensive everything was. Having just turned 15 years old and being a typical self-absorbed teenage boy Andrew missed a lot of this to start but gradually he became aware that it was a pretty constant refrain. It was the one thing that he didn’t talk to anyone about, it felt disloyal to the family to be raising it with Leslie or Julian. But over the course of the summer it got more pointed.

The highlights of that summer were two separate weekends and the week with Kenzie. The first weekend was when Andrew finally got to go through to see, and stay with, Nikki. He was going to stay overnight and go straight to the warehouse when he returned to Edinburgh. She was waiting for him at Queen Street Station as he bounded down off the train. Andrew wrapped her up in a big hug.

“How scandalous would it be if I called you Mum all weekend?”

He and Leslie had come up with this one. The look on Nikki’s face was priceless.

“Andrew, you can’t. Stop it.”

“But Nikki you always said you felt like a teenage mother when you were out with me. Everyone is thinking it anyway.”

And then in a much louder voice.

“Mum you are looking great!”

He couldn’t keep a straight face and started laughing and, as expected, got a whack on the arm for his trouble.

“I was looking forward to seeing you, now I’m not so sure.”

They laughed and headed out of the Station. Nikki’s flat was about 45 minutes away by foot but it was a nice day and he only had a small overnight bag with him. Andrew asked her about her family which sadly seemed to be getting worse rather than better. There had only been limited contact since she moved and interestingly enough it was with her nieces and nephews not her siblings or parents. The generational attitude shift was pretty clear. However, she was resigned to the separation and said that she was feeling pretty good overall. The rest of her life was calm in comparison. She attended St. Luke’s and enjoyed the sense of community but she also was able to keep it at a distance. Everyone did not know all about her, she had found the right balance. Then she turned to the personal.

“The reason I am so happy and calm, even with all the drama with my family, is Fran. We live together as a couple now Andrew. That is why you are in the guest bedroom. We share a bedroom. We have started to come out to some of our friends and it has been pretty good. Most people have been like you and have been very supportive, and even the few who are not as accepting do not make a fuss about it. Times are changing, not as quickly as we want, but they are changing.

“I knew it would not bother you but I wanted to let you know before we get home. Fran is off today although she starts her shift at 8.00 tomorrow morning. She is waiting for us to get home.”

Andrew stopped and gave Nikki another big hug.

“I am delighted that you are so happy.”

When they got to Nikki’s place, a nice two bedroom flat just north of where she worked at the Mitchell Library, Francesca, Fran as Andrew realised everyone called her, was waiting. They were so cute together. They really were already like an old married couple. And they were so welcoming to him. He talked about how life at the warehouse was more unstable, in that he always seemed to have a new partner every month. Andrew had not realised that the nine months they had worked together there was very unusual and his new reality was much more the norm.

In the past, while he talked about the computing he was doing and then software they were selling he had made no mention of making much money, he just glossed over it and moved on. That was helped by the fact that he had never told Nikki about the Open University. But now here he was talking about his degree course and the two of them are looking at him strangely.

“Andrew, you mentioned a degree course. What do you mean?”

“My Open University Computer Science course.”

Andrew looked slightly puzzled that she had to ask.

“You have never mentioned this Andrew. An Open University course?”

It was then that he realised that he had never talked about it. Other than Julian and Leslie he was not sure anyone else knew about it. So Andrew filled them both in. Talking about the lack of courses and how hard it was to try and get through the modules. Fran started to laugh.

“Are you listening to yourself Andrew? Of course it is hard. It is bloody university you crazy boy!”

She smiled to take the sting from the words.

“You have nearly completed a quarter of a university degree Andrew. You will have by the end of the summer and you are 15. I am 31 and I am still finishing my medical training. What’s that phrase that Nikki uses sometimes with you, oh yeah, ‘that big old brain’, my goodness she is not wrong.”

Andrew wasn’t quite sure what to say to that so he looked at her with a sheepish expression on his face. It was not often he was embarrassed about being clever but this was one of those times. Nikki came to his rescue.

“Relax Andrew. It is good for you to get an honest reaction from people. I think that you forget how unusual you are. Let me guess you came top in Maths and Physics again didn’t you?”

He nodded.

“You are right of course. If I take a step back I should not be doing what I am. It comes easy to me but it is the study and application that I find easy. Last year I looked up some books on child prodigies, out of curiosity. I am not a prodigy I don’t think. When you read about Gauss or the group from Hungary and Germany that went to Princeton I don’t have that discovery mindset, at least not in Maths. I understand it and can utilise it but it is not like I am getting insights into mathematical theories. It is the application of principles rather than the discovery of them that I seem to do better at. It is the same with the computer science course. It is the practical rather than the theoretical that I prefer. It will be interesting to see what appeals to me and what I am best at when I get to university.”

Andrew had looked up child prodigies because of something his maths teacher had said. Colin Maclaurin was a Scottish mathematician and happened to be buried in Greyfriar’s next to the school. Mr. Durand, his teacher, was always going on about Maclaurin. He had been a professor of mathematics at 19. 400 years later he was still the youngest person in the world appointed as a professor ever, in any subject. Andrew had looked him up as well as Gauss and von Neumann, Mozart and other people viewed as child prodigies. When he read about them it was clear, to him at least, that he was clever but not a prodigy. A lot of his success was down to studying hard and discipline.

Looking at his school life Andrew knew he had a very easy time at school. Nothing was a challenge. He was lucky in that he picked up things quickly but at the same time he worked hard at it. That was the big change between him before cancer and after he recovered. For most of his time at school he was incredibly driven. Other than music and photography he had no hobbies. His social life was limited, he barely watched TV, was clueless about sports and generally conformed to the nerd stereotype to a tee. What set him apart was the focus on his goals which dominated his free time, fitness, computing etc. but the biggest differentiator was of course Leslie. Andrew was the nerd who could talk to girls. And, although nobody at school knew it. he was the 15 year old nerd who had sex with girls. So although he was doing a university degree course at the same time as school, the other side of that meant he simply was not doing other things because he didn’t have the time. Andrew was not someone who ‘hung out’. His life was incredibly structured, he just didn’t have ‘me time’. The balance part was always a struggle, fighting his nature to study.

Nikki, Fran and Andrew went out after lunch and afterwards they walked over to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery. It was busy as it is free but the art is world class. The pictures include works by Rembrandt, van Gogh and a majestic painting by Dali. Andrew found the time passed very quickly. He insisted on taking them out to dinner as a thank you for putting him up for the night and they had a fun night in a quirky little restaurant close to the University. The evening was filled with anecdotes of Francesca’s life which until then had been pretty mysterious to him. It was interesting how Nikki and she had the same background. Her family was Italian, and although her parents were dead, there were bossy uncles and brothers just like Nikki. They were both the smartest people in the family which, judging by the way that both families reacted, must have threatened the ‘normal’ order. It was sad that these woman’s families did not appreciate them. Soon to be a doctor and a librarian.

He wondered whether it would be awkward as they got ready for bed and the two of them disappeared to the same room but they were such a cute couple that it seemed natural. When he wandered through to the kitchen the next morning he was breathing hard from his morning run. He was going to take a shower but thought he would wait and let Fran get off to work before hogging the only bathroom. Fran was all dressed ready for the hospital but Nikki sat there yawning with a ratty old robe round her. Domestic bliss.

Andrew thanked Fran for letting him visit and although he had not said anything yet knew he was going to host them in London someday. Who the hell knew when but someday he vowed. With a quick kiss to Nikki she was off and it was just the two of them. Andrew used the bathroom last figuring out, correctly, that he would take the least amount of time. Nikki locked up and Andrew hugged her at the bottom of the stairs. She was heading west to St. Luke’s and he was off east back into the city centre to catch the train back to Edinburgh and the Food Bank.

“It was great to see you both. One day I will return the favour and have you both to stay. Thank you for a fun day and evening. I am very pleased to see you both so happy.”

“We will do this again. You are this odd man-child Andrew. Only 15 years old but easy to talk to. We loved having you and it is nice to be honest around people. I wish I could live my life all the time in an open and honest manner.”

“Times are changing. As you said, not quickly enough but they are changing.”

With a final hug they went their separate ways. Andrew found himself smiling a lot for the rest of the weekend. Spending time with people he cared about was good for him.

The second great weekend was a belated birthday present from Leslie. She had got tickets for Pink Floyd performing The Wall in London. It was on a Saturday evening so they were taking the sleeper train down to London on the Friday night and then catching it back on the Saturday night. Brian had been working in London all week and was going to stay and meet them off the train in the morning. Andrew had the keys and the three of them were going to visit the mews house. This would not be Brian’s first visit but it would be for Leslie and Andrew. He was giddy with excitement but eventually managed to fall asleep on the upper bunk in the carriage on the way to London. The fact that he went overnight in the same sleeper carriage as Leslie gave nobody in either family a moment’s pause. Well other than Rowan but some things in life were just a given. Brian was waiting for them when they alighted at Kings Cross. They stowed their bags in a locker and headed for the Piccadilly Line. Andrew tried to remain calm but it was difficult. Both Leslie and Brian could tell.