Chapter 6

There comes a time when you realise that there is too much in your life to be able to get everything done, and that unless you delegate some of those things to other people they never will get done. There is of course a decision to be made as to whether those things are worthwhile doing, or even need to be done. If you decide that they do need to be done, then you have to find someone to delegate to, and that isn’t always easy. So would the best thing be to sort out what you really need to do and simply ignore the rest.

Well that’s easy enough to say, but not so easy to put into practice, which was why I’d taken some time off and was sitting in the sunshine outside ‘The Perk of the Town’ on my second cup of coffee and contemplating what I should do.

My sometime apprentice Rosina was leaving me to go to college, to study furniture making, which was good, but left me to work on my own, and I’d got used to having help. It was a lot easier for instance, to have someone on the other end of a length of wood, to cut parts whilst I fixed them, and just to keep me on my toes and keep me going too, you’ve probably noticed how easily I am diverted onto other things. Joan was pretty well running HL’s business, leaving her to be creative, Mrs Jenkins came in to clean, and Charley did the catering, so all of that worked perfectly. Except. What was I going to do about Charley? Charley was ... well wasn’t might be better, really a girl. Oh you wouldn’t know the difference, well, unless you did the test they do on kittens, and Charley was ... besotted I suppose would be the right word, with me. Now, let’s not get this wrong, I am very fond of her, she’s a great chef and very pretty, and since I am a healthy red blooded male with a typically hormone soaked brain my reaction to her is ... ambivalent, my eyes see girl, but some part of my brain says not. Hmm...

Whilst my brain was thus occupied my eyes continued to take in what was around me, and at this particular moment my eye was caught by one of the prettiest young ladies you could wish to see. It’s always difficult to estimate ages but my guess would be that she was about fourteen or perhaps fifteen. Whoa there, don’t go getting the wrong idea here, she was pretty and good to look at, but there it all stops, and not just because she was effectively jail bait, but because she would be almost certain to get hurt if an older man were to toy with her affections or even have his evil way with her. Her mum now, different matter, very attractive. I sighed, never mind, life was complicated enough as it was, but certainly if I was the girl’s father I’m damned sure that I’d think a burqa was a good idea. And then granny came out with a tray of drinks and I realised that there were some remarkably good genes there, ones that matured particularly well. Ho hum.

“She’s a bit young for you.”

“Very pretty though.”

“Hello Ruth, hello Louise. Yes, young and pretty, mind you mum and granny are pretty good too.”

I waved to Sandy who went off to get more coffees for us.

“That’s our Roger. D’you think they’d like a starring role?” Ruth giggled.

“And how are the little ones?” I asked, not just to change the subject from their ‘hobby’, and I looked into the pushchairs at my offspring.

“In need of a little brother or sister.”

“I thought you were going to wait...”

“Well we have waited, and now we think is the right time, before mother gets too far ahead of us,” Louise giggled.

“Have you picked out a father yet?” I asked.

“Silly man,” laughed Ruth. “As if we’d look any further.”

“Or find anyone else suitable around here,” said Louise. “Besides, you want a starring role don’t you?”

“Just as long as it doesn’t go on the internet again.”

“As if we would,” she went on.

Yes, you know you would, and I know you would.

“When do you want to get started?”

“Drink up, no time like the present,” Ruth started to stand.

I was late for lunch and Charley wasn’t amused. Well you know what chefs can be like.

It so happened that my lack of an apprentice hadn’t gone unnoticed. The next day Mrs Jenkins came out to the workshop with my morning coffee.

“I wondered if I might have a word, sir” she asked.

“Of course, Mrs Jenkins. What’s the problem? And you know you don’t need to ‘sir’ me.”

“No, sir. It’s me granddaughter. I know Miss Rosina has left you, and I wondered if you might want another girl to help.”

“Well, I had been thinking about it.”

“The thing is, she’s a bit of a handful, you may have heard that she was abused by her father and he’s been locked up for it, but she blames her mother, and well ... she’s sixteen and she needs something to do. Most employers take one look at her and say no. But you might...”

“You mean beacause I don’t judge people I might look at her? No, I don’t think I know anything about her, but let’s see her and I’ll see if I can help.”

“Thank you, sir, I get her to come in, in the morning.”

Mrs Jenkins had gone by lunch time when HL asked me what she had wanted.

“Would I give her granddaughter a job.”

“Not the dreadful Teleri?” asked Joan.

“I don’t know her name.”

“Has to be,” said Charley. “Ghastly. You’ve got to feel sorry for her but...”

“It’s her mother I feel sorry for,” replied Joan. “After what she’s been through, just awful, her husband really was a bastard.”

I rather wondered what I had let myself in for.

I was a tad apprehensive the next morning but I got on with cutting up some stuff for the next job. It was about 9.30 when I heard footsteps and turned round to see what obviously had to be Teleri. At first glance she appeared to live up to her billing.

She was about five feet three inches tall and quite plump with spiked black hair and a heavy application of pale make up with dark lipstick on full lips. Her eyes were heavily made up and she had various piercings. She was wearing an open black leather waistcoat over a black lacy top and a well filled black bra. Then there was a short black leather skirt, black fishnets and Doc Martens. Well, at least I approved of the latter. But not the fingers covered in rings.

“Hello, you must be Teleri.”

“Yeah.”

A good start.

“Come on up to the office and we’ll have a chat.”

We went up to the office and sat down.

“I’ve heard all about you,” she volunteered.

“Well, that’s good, so we don’t have to bother with unnecessary introductions. But I don’t know much about you.”

“Not much to tell.”

“Let’s try the not much.”

“I’m sixteen, I’ve left school, me mum says I gotta get a job an’ no one’ll have me.”

“How is your English and arithmetic?”

“Arith what?”

“Maths.”

“Oh! Umm, quite good.”

“And what do you want to do?”

“Dunno really. I like to be outside, an’ I like makin’ things. An’ I s’pose you’ll want to fuck me. Me dad said I ain’t much good.”

Ouch! A difficult question. First off yes if she had a good scrub, but ‘yes’ was definitely a wrong answer. ‘No’ would be a real confidence sapper, so ... I decided that I’d approach head on.

“If I was running a brothel and I was interviewing new girls then yes, I would surely want to try the merchandise. But as it is, I’m not, I’m interviewing for someone to help me.”

She burst in to tears. After a moment I handed her a tissue.

“I’m sorry, I deserved that didn’t I?”

I shrugged. “Would you like to try the job for a week or two and see if you like it?”

“Thank you. Will I be paid? Only a lot of jobs expect you to work for nothing until you’re useful.”

“I had heard. Of course you’ll be paid, I want a worker, not a slave.”

For the first time she smiled, and I thought if she were scrubbed she’d be quite pretty.

We agreed pay rate, hours of work and I told her to wear jeans, boots, tee shirt or jumper and no rings. I explained to her that if something dropped on her hand the rings could be crushed, or they might get caught up in something. I told her where to get suitable foot wear and when I saw her face drop I realised that she wouldn’t have the money for that, so gave her some money to cover the cost, deductible from her first week’s wages. She grinned and thanked me.

She was going to start the following monday, so I had time to think about what we were going to do, and possibly time to regret it.

At lunch time I was quizzed on how it went and I gave a brief account and said that I’d give her a try. Both Joan and Charley raised an eyebrow. HL grinned.

“Not like that,” I protested.

That afternoon I met up with Catherine.

“It’s been nice being able to see more of you now that Rosina has gone, I shall miss that. Do you know how she’s getting on?”

“Very well I believe,” I replied. “Hang on, what do you mean you’ll miss it?”

Catherine grinned. “You’ve got a new apprentice.”

“Oh! Yes. Well, helper to start with, we’ll have to see how it goes.”

“You’re a brave man to take on Teleri, lovely girl but...”

“And you heard from?”

“Her mother, you’ve not met her have you?”

“No.”

“She cleans for me, She wanted the job with you to complement that but Joan insisted her mother, Mrs Jenkins should do it. She gives the money to her daughter so that she can make ends meet,” she looked at me. “You didn’t know any of that did you?”

“No. But knowing Joan it figures. Perhaps I should send her to live with her daughters, she can share the back bedroom with their video collection.”

“Sounds interesting, what to they collect, old movies?”

“Umm, not really, no. I’d better not say anything else.”

“Those sort of videos eh? I’d never have thought it. Must cost them a fortune,” she looked at me. “no it doesn’t does it, you know more about this.”

She grabbed hold of me by some very tender bits, I didn’t say we were in bed did I?

“Come on, tell me all about it.”

“I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”

She squeezed.

“Oww. I thought you were supposed to peaceful and non-violent. Okay, okay, I’ll tell you.”

I gave her the briefest outline of the girls collection, without mentioning my part in it all.

A look of comprehension came over her face.

“You’re the father of their children aren’t you? And Joan’s too, I’ll bet. That’s why she wants to keep Debbie away from you. And you’re the star of their video collection aren’t you? And then you seduced me. Good heavens what kind of monster have I been sleeping with?”