Chapter Nine

Barry was quite happy working for Onwell Graphics, the new agency in town. The travel was just about acceptable because the diesel train chugged into his station being the penultimate station before it went non-stop to the City. This meant that there were just a few seats left at the end of the twelfth carriage which could be taken, if you were first, so Barry got used to waiting for about ten minutes for the train - even if it did mean blue toes in the winter. He could afford an annual season ticket and so his and Shu’s lives were settled for a while - breakfast, train, work, train, dinner, bed and not much else. The travelling was tiring and by the end of the week, they both felt shattered. It was just as well that they were in England and not China and they had two days to recover and not just one or one and a half.

Barry’s work was in a department where there was manager, another production executive and a secretary. The secretary was about fifty and always walking between Production and Progress as both departments used her services. Of course, they noticed Barry’s limp immediately but didn’t want to talk about it and this pleased Barry for he was trying to forget the disability and concentrate on the future.

When he had been looking for a job, he had been to many agencies and, in each interview, if the interviewer seemed interested in him, he had been honest and mentioned his accident. All the agencies, bar one, had instantly crossed him off their list. The one that didn’t, offered him a job at the same time as Onwell Graphics - who he didn’t tell about his accident - and he plumped for Onwell as it seemed a better, less stuffy place to work.

Desmond, the manager, was also about fifty and was a nice enough person but he seemed to think that Barry didn’t know much about anything and shepherded him around a bit too much. Barry put up with this and, after a while, was handling some larger clients on his own.

Barry’s department had to co-ordinate closely with Progress next door, where there were two executives. Both were about forty-five, one being of American extraction and the other, a balding roly-poly. The plump Englishman, Bert, was a terrific laugh -always joking about things - whereas the American, Sid, seemed to be laughing at other people behind their backs. Of course, all Barry’s clients were dealt with by Sid so he had to put up with him as best he could.

It was the time of life where you just knuckle-down and work to survive and Barry and Shu’s lives progressed normally at home. Money was coming in and they managed to start saving. Barry even mentioned children to Shu but, as she had a very tough childhood, she would not try for children until they were in a much better situation.

Her childhood was quite a sad story. Her older brothers had been treated very well as their father had good job and had moved from China to Japan, but when Shu appeared, her father left home and so her mother had to work all day to keep the family going. This meant that from the age of three, Shu spent long hours alone in her cold house doing housework. She had to find a job very early in life to help out and this left the impression on her that life was very difficult if you had children and no money. She was definitely not going to be the same!

At work, Barry felt that he could do more than just being a production executive, but he doubted that he would ever get promotion. He enjoyed his work mates’ company and got used to playing the game of cribbage with Desmond at lunch-times, but the trouble was that Desmond never won! Barry realised that he must be throwing useful cards away, but how could he tell him? In one game, he had to try ridiculously hard to lose and it almost seemed that Desmond realised this, so, eventually, the games stopped because Barry was too embarrassed.

Things at Barry’s work were soon to change - for the worse. The other production executive left and Desmond employed an extremely casual young man in his place.

As the days and weeks went by, Andrew, the new man, always seemed to be chatting to Desmond with the occasional dig in Barry’s direction. Andrew never seemed interested in talking to Barry and so Barry wondered why.

Things came to a head when Desmond was due to leave. For months he had been getting ideas from Andrew about Barry’s supposed faults and he worked himself up to tell Barry his thoughts on his last day. Desmond told Andrew to leave the room - the secretary had resigned long ago - and he let Barry have it.

‘Now listen to me you nasty piece of work,’ shouted Desmond. Barry looked up in astonishment.

‘What...?’ he said.

‘You think you can come in here and rule the roost. Well, let me tell you, you’ve only just begun. I’ve worked here for ten years and I know exactly what you’re up to.’

Barry watched in shocked amazement, hardly believing, or understanding what he was hearing. There was Desmond, strutting around the small office shouting his head off, accusing Barry of all the sins under the sun.

‘And I just want to tell you that I’m glad I’m leaving - glad I won’t have to work with you anymore.’

Desmond finished his tirade and expected Barry to answer him but Barry just looked at him with a forlorn, puzzled expression on his face. He didn’t say a word and Desmond suddenly seemed to be sorry for the way he had shouted but not wishing to apologise, he stomped out of the room. Barry could hear him go next door to Progress and titter, childishly, with the people in there who had heard him.

Barry’s brain damage meant that he had forgotten most of Desmond’s words almost as soon as they were said and just sat in stunned silence. He couldn’t grasp strange new ideas quickly but that also gave him the ability to put it out of his mind and get on with some work. Little did he realise why Desmond had acted this way or how Andrew had helped to build up such hate.

Desmond’s replacement, Gary, was a nicer, younger chap - about thirty - four and pleasant. He could speak to and get on with most people and ran the department well but that didn’t stop Andrew making fun of Barry behind his back and although Gary would laugh at the joke, he would put things into perspective and didn’t automatically believe everything that Andrew said.

Early the next year, Barry was getting fed up and started to look for another job. When he went for an interview at a larger agency the same thing happened as when he was looking for a job, before. He was in his second interview when he mentioned his accident and he didn’t get the job. He even went looking for a job as an assistant at a well-known medical insurance agency but when he mentioned the accident, he kissed goodbye to that job too.

He then found out that companies should have up to three per cent of their work force as disabled people but when he spoke of this at subsequent interviews, he was politely reminded that that was Government advice, not the law. Barry thus concluded that no one wanted to employ disabled people for the more important jobs.

He was still looking for work when he saw an advertisement in the local paper for someone to work for a German motor manufacturer, ‘Heich’s’, whose base was very close to his house. The job was for a sales assistant, so Barry sent his curriculum vitae to them, hoping for an interview. He received a letter from the manager, Mr Tellis, which gave him more details of the work and asked Barry to make contact to arrange an interview.

‘Hey, look, Shu,’ said Barry, excitedly ‘They want me to go for an interview.

‘What’s the wage?’ asked Shu. Barry read farther down the sheet of information.

‘Oh, well, it’s only paying a low wage so I am not too keen.’

‘Well, you won’t have to pay fares,’ pointed out Shu.

‘Hmm, yeah, but it’s a bit of a drop and, anyway, it says here that I’d have to drive around the country to different garages distributing promotional items. I’d be away from home sometimes.’

‘That’s okay,’ said Shu. ‘I’d be all right.’

Barry looked at her and he didn’t really want to leave her alone. He wondered whether the two years had made the marriage strong enough.

‘I don’t know. I’ll think about it.’

And he did just that, but decided that the job wasn’t for him so he’d stay where he was for the time being.

However, events were to change Barry’s life dramatically. Only two weeks after receiving the letter from the motor manufacturer, he was at work and he saw Gary helping with a presentation to a prospective client so he wandered over.

‘What’s that you’re doing, Gary?’ he asked,

‘Oh, this is work for Baxter. He’s going to try and get a new client. It’s for Heich’s English plant - you live near there, don’t you?’

‘Err... um... yeah, that’s right.’ Barry went pale at the thought that his employer was only going to present to the company he’d been in contact with about a job! If John Tellis of Heich told Baxter about him... Barry didn’t like to think of the possible outcome.

The presentation took place and when Baxter came back to the agency, he gave Barry the most curious stare. Barry twigged immediately - Tellis had grassed on him!

Nothing happened for three weeks and Barry was trying to forget the incident when he was suddenly summoned to go to the Managing Director’s office. When he got there he was shivering, fearing the worst. The Managing Director was polite but curt and told him he had to leave the agency that day. He was told that he was very lucky because he was being given an extra month’s pay to help him, whereas his contract stated that he would only he paid redundancy money after he’d been there for four years. He knew that Andrew should be going as he’d been working for a shorter time, but as they knew he was looking for another job, could he really blame them?

One of the girls from the administration department was also made redundant and when they met, she flung her arms around Barry.

‘Oh, what are we going to do?’ she exclaimed.

‘Don’t know. It’s down to the local jobcentre I suppose,’ said Barry.

‘Yes, yes. Oh dear! Well, we’re going for a drink after work. You will come, won’t you Barry?’

‘Yes, I’ll be there,’ said Barry, and, after the girl had let go, he went back to the office.

The others had been fully briefed by the Managing Director and Gary told him that he was sure he would get another job quickly, in fact, he had been told by Baxter that Heich wanted to employ Barry so he saw no problem. However, Barry, had already dismissed working for Heich and was even having thoughts about working in graphics ever again. Was it the right place for him to work? Would he ever get on in another agency?

Barry was given his wages at midday and, after an hour of wandering around doing nothing, he decided to go home. He wasn’t going to wait until after work to go to the pub with the girl for he’d had enough.

He waited for Shu, thinking how he would tell her of his dismissal for it certainly made him think that he would look small in her eyes. He was also thinking of revenge on Onwell Graphics. He knew that a prospective employer shouldn’t tell a present employer of anyone’s attempts to join their company, but he realised that he had only worked for Onwell’ s for a year and a half, so he had no proof of anything and no money to give to solicitors. In fact, he didn’t like solicitors at all for, he imagined, they were a bunch of clever pen-pushers taking money from ordinary people without any guarantee of success.

Shu arrived home.

‘Weekend at last,’ she sighed. She saw the anxious look on Barry’s face. ‘What’s the matter?’ she asked.

‘I am afraid I’ve blown it. Onwell have fired me.’

‘Fired you? But why? Shouldn’t you get a month’s notice.’

‘I don’t know. ‘They just gave me a month’s pay and made me redundant - just like that. I suppose it’s down to the job centre though I can’t think what I will do.’

‘Oh dear, oh dear,’ said Shu, picking up their cat, Choosie. She cuddled him close to her face, thinking. She would often do this, keeping her thoughts a secret and Barry had often tried to make her talk to him and express herself.

She didn’t and this could have been for many reasons which included Shu leaving Barry alone to make up his own mind. She thought that she was in no position to advise, with her lack of English and knowledge about Barry’s position, but it was what he really wanted!

As was already proven, Barry was a trier and, the next week, he went to the employment agency and looked for a job. One which immediately came to his notice was a shop assistant’s job in the local department store. Jobs were very scarce in the locality at that time so he went for the interview and got the job. It had a miserly salary but, seeing as it was an unspecialised job, he could see why and he kept telling himself that it was saving him money on travel to town and it was just to fill in time so that he could think about his future.

Barry was working on the stationery counter where a very short old lady was the Supervisor and a girl was an assistant. The department was never busy and so Barry got extremely bored, very quickly. The man who had interviewed him - the buyer - and given him the job, looked a bit gay and he would often come around to talk to Barry. As Barry was quite handsome, this buyer obviously fancied him so Barry made plans never to be alone in the storeroom with him!

On one occasion Barry had to go into the storeroom with the girl in his department and he was somewhat surprised to see a very scared look come over her face. He wondered whether she expected him to make a pass at her or rape her or something, but Barry only went for beautiful creatures - who were few and far between - and, besides, he was married!

After about four months in the job, Barry was applying for new jobs for he had decided that he couldn’t stand selling stationery and he had to get back into graphics. He went for an interview with a large publishing house in the next town and was offered a job selling classified space for a business publication. The salary offered was quite low and with the extra travel he wouldn’t have been much better off than he was with the department store, so he continued to look for work and went to the capital as most of the graphics agencies were based there.

He almost got a job working for one of the biggest design agencies in the country, but just didn’t have enough confidence in himself at the second interview. He was asked if he could do any job given to him and instead of lying and saying, ‘yes, I can do anything’, he was honest and said that he would do his best at any task. That was not good enough - he didn’t get the job.

He ended up in a tiny design agency employing eight people, plus a few one-man bands, and a design studio in the same set of offices. His job was as Production Manager and even after his absence from graphics for five months; he picked it up again quickly. He was given the job because of his neat appearance and willingness to settle for a relatively low salary. He even had to have an interview with the accountant to settle his wage requirements, but his pleasant manner got him through.

The staff he had to work with included two young account executives; the Managing Director; the accountant and his female assistant; a young telephonist and an executive. It was a fairly happy atmosphere and Barry got on quite well but, as before, the work came in fits and starts and he often endured long periods of boredom. He rectified this, somewhat, by buying the Times newspaper which gave him plenty to read.

Lunch-times were always frenetic because at 1 o’clock, work disappeared and backgammon boards appeared all over the office. The executive went into the Managing Director’s office with a straightening of the tie, the accountant went into the print buyer’s office with his assistant hot on his heels and eventually, Barry learnt the game and played with whoever was not playing. Occasionally, this included the Managing Director who liked to play for money and soon, Barry started to enjoy these events for he won a few games and also some money. The real experts were the print buyer and the accountant - Barry never played the accountant but, once or twice, played against Brian, the print buyer, who didn’t even seem to be trying but beat Barry at every game.

As Barry had time to sit and think when he wasn’t doing things, he could watch the people and the relationships between them. The two account executives got on well, maybe became they were both foreigners, David being from New Zealand and the other, Bella, from Poland. They were always very smart and had fun, joking with each other. Bella was quite nice to Barry and, on the odd occasion, seemed to fancy him but David, on the other hand, could be pleasant at one moment, then really nasty the next. Barry got used to this for when work had been held up for some reason and David was waiting for it, he spat fire in his direction, hoping for results. Barry managed to control his short temper and just told him the reasons for the delay and he could do no more for he didn’t want to start a swearing match.

The overall reason for this problem was David’s relationship with the female Managing Director. Every evening, David waited until most people had left and then went into her office, closing the usually ever-open door behind him. When Barry was working late, he saw this and guessed what was possibly happening but every night! Crikey - that was some going!

Barry also often wondered - but never knew - what was going on between the accountant and his assistant for she was always roughly two feet away from him, lapping up his every word. She hardly had a nice word to say to Barry - just abrupt instructions from time to time. This could have been because of the accountant’s strong personality which she adored and so she had no time for anyone else.

Barry stayed in the agency for a couple of years but, by then, he was again getting fed up with the job. He started looking around again and found himself being interviewed by the Progress Manager of a large international graphics agency, which went well and he was offered the job of Progress Executive. This was the next step up the ladder from production assistant and he had to supervise and encourage the make-up of artwork. He was doing both jobs at present so had the right experience to tackle the new job.

The Managing Director of his present agency was upset at Barry’s resignation and tried hard to get him to stay. She even asked David to be pleasant to Barry, but when that had no effect, she gave in gracefully.

Shu was delighted with Barry’s new job and, in fact, his whole family was pleased.

His Mother thought that Barry was in a good position and should stay there for a long time. Of course Barry had not mentioned his accident and almost thought that he had conquered his limp but this was not the case and, on the first day of his new job, he felt people’s eyes boring into him.

The department consisted of a manager and two senior executives all about fifty-five or sixty and five other executives of Barry’s age, or younger. It was quite a lively department with people dashing in and out all day, but Barry was not given much work for a long time and so, again, the boredom set in. Barry wondered whether the lack of work was because of his limp and people thought that he couldn’t do anything, being disabled. So Barry had to sit and wait to be given more clients.

He observed the people in the production department, which was quite an education! The manager worked on the biggest account and there were three assistants and a typist. The typist was one of two girls working in the section - the other being the secretary to the Director of both departments. The production typist sat in her section and giggled at anyone who came in, being egged on by the production executives. She certainly didn’t like Barry and seemed to think herself amusing by poking fun at him. Two of the three executives had their own brand of humour whilst the other executive was a quiet, young, married man. Barry respected him the most as he just did his job, without using any confrontational tactics to get a few laughs from the others. Barry soon realised that he had to settle down and get to know this bunch slowly.

The days turned to weeks and his position improved, both in his work and socially. He was soon given a fairly major client to handle, a major Japanese equipment manufacturer, and so his time was put to better use. He found that he could fill most days with work if he kept a consistent check on the progress of each job going through. Socially - well - things began to happen there, too.

One of his accounts was with a large supermarket chain and client contact was handled by a senior accounts manager who had a son in the firm. The assistant at client contact level was a handsome young man and Barry noticed - more than once - just how friendly he was getting. Barry tried not to take any notice but, one day, he had to take some layouts to this man’s office.

‘Well hi, Barry - how are you?’ Matt gave his usual enthusiastic greeting.

’I’m okay, I suppose. I’ve got some layouts here for you to show the client. The copy -date is looming so could I have your comments by next week?’

‘Yes, sure Barry.’

‘You look very casual today,’ murmured Barry, looking at Matt’s attire of jeans and casual shirt.

‘Oh, I’m not seeing clients today,’ replied Matt. I’m going home at lunch-time for a bite to eat. Do you want to come and see my pad?’

‘Err... well thanks a lot but I’m already going out,’ lied Barry.

Of course, it could have been two men out for a laugh but Barry knew better. He had never seen much of Matt and it just didn’t seem right to go to his flat.

‘Oh, never mind, perhaps some other time,’ shouted Matt, as Barry made a quick exit.

Of course, it was Barry’s good looks and quiet nature that were getting him into trouble - just the target for some to take advantage of. Luckily, though, this Matt never bothered him again - he’d obviously got the message!

The next confrontation came with a truly extrovert female on the accounts handling side. She had a very loud mouth and was not really attractive enough for Barry, so he had never shown much interest in her. She was working on one of his accounts and one day he had to take some proofs up to her.

When he got there, as usual, she was on the phone and showed no sign of coming off for a second to listen to Barry. He walked around her square patch of floor space in the open-plan office section of the fourth floor. Five minutes dragged by and so Barry was just walking away when she put the phone down,

‘Don’t storm off in a huff,’ she said.

‘So you are free at last. Listen, I need these back in two days so please can you get approval, sharpish.’

‘Well, I’ll try but I need to get some films from the basement. Can you help me look?’

‘Yes, okay, I’m not too busy at the moment,’ said Barry, who was usually willing to help others.

They walked to the lift with Barry being his usual quiet self and the girl, Lucinda, strutting ahead and looking quite pleased with herself. They got out at the basement and walked along the corridor between the storage areas.

‘You know, Barry, a lot of things could happen in these dark areas of the store,’ Lucinda said with a provocative gleam in her eyes.

‘Oh, you think so’ said Barry and continued walking.

‘Yes, a lot of things,’ murmured Lucinda.

By that time, Barry had reached the room they were heading for and the projectionist was there.

‘Hello, there, we’re just here to collect some boxes. What’s in them Lucinda,’ asked Barry.

‘Oh, just the commercials for the client, Stampdorn.’

‘I’ll get them for you,’ said the projectionist and went away.

Lucinda just stood in the room looking intently at Barry and he knew that she might want something but he was not going to betray Shu and there was another reason. When he had made love to Shu in the morning, he always felt exhausted for the rest of the day and, by the evening, was ready to go to bed at 9 o’clock. If he did it now, he would have no rest after and he would have to work all day and he also knew that he couldn’t because he feared that everyone would guess - especially Shu! So Barry took no notice and carried the boxes up to the fourth floor.

‘Well thanks a lot,’ shouted Lucinda, burning with anger because of her missed opportunity.

‘It’s a pleasure,’ said Barry and walked off, smartly, but when he thought about it during the afternoon, he wondered if he had done the best thing.

Things were getting a bit stale in his relationship with Shu.

Whether it was boredom or whether they were falling out of love, Barry didn’t know as he got home one evening

‘Shu, we must speak.’

‘What about?’

‘I think we need some time off from our relationship,’ said Barry, with a sad look on his face.

‘Why? What have I done?’ asked Shu, baffled at the statement.

‘Well, you haven’t done anything particularly wrong, it’s just that I need some time to think about where I’m going. And maybe you need some time to yourself as well.’

‘What will you do? Where will you go?’

‘I’ll go back to mother, for a while. She’s still got a three bedroomed house with only two people living there, so...’

‘Back to mother, eh?’ said Shu, with a look of scorn on her face.

‘Yes, that’s right,’ scowled Barry. ‘I’ll be off tomorrow morning.’

They slept in separate beds that night and the next morning Barry took very little time to pack his clothes into a suitcase.

‘I’ll phone you and discuss things and how I feel next week. Goodbye,’ and with that, Barry had gone, leaving Shu standing silently on the doorstep.

He made the journey in under an hour and was greeted by his mother.

‘Hello, Barry. Come in and take your suitcase up to Ivan’s old bedroom. You’ll be sleeping there because Anthony has your old room to himself, now.’ As Barry walked past her, he could hear her mumbling, ‘I thought you got married too young,’ but took no notice. He knew he had been right at the time.

Barry’s grandparents on his mother’s side had just moved out of their beautiful, five bedroomed detached house into a two bedroomed bungalow, much nearer to Patricia because she had guessed that as they grew older, they would need much more assistance from her so it would help if they were nearer. The next day, Barry decided to go and see them and find out how they were.

‘Hi, Nan, and how are you?’ said Barry when he got there.

‘Plodding on, I suppose,’ said his grandmother, wearily. The move had been a big operation for her and she was getting used to the new surroundings slowly. ‘Your granddad’s in the lounge. He’s not feeling too good, these days,’ she whispered. ‘Your mother has told me why you are up here but please don’t tell him - it would upset him too much.’

‘Oh, right. Hello, grandad. Are you watching the cricket? It looks like a good day for it.’

His grandfather glanced from the television for a moment and looked up at Barry.

‘And where’s my girlfriend?’ He had immediately noticed that Shu wasn’t there.

‘She, err, she’s at home, doing some work. I didn’t bring her up, today,’ said Barry, trying to sound convincing.

‘Make sure she comes up next time,’ said his grandfather. ‘Or else there’ll be trouble!’ He liked Shu very much and that’s why he called her his girlfriend. Barry nodded and laughed.

‘Oh, take no notice of him,’ said his grandmother, who was used to her husband’s ways. ‘I’ll tell him when he’s better.’ She said this because he had suffered a mild stroke, the previous year, and although he made a very good recovery at the time, he had gone downhill since the move. Barry stayed a little while longer, offered his help in any way that they needed and then left to go and prepare for the coming week.

The week progressed and Barry, using the nearest railway station, met an old friend whom he had known when he was in the scouts.

‘Say, hi, Barry. What are you doing over here?’ It was Roy, a year younger than Barry, but a friendly sort of man.

‘Hello, Roy. I’m just staying at my mother’s for a while.’

‘Yeah, I see, but I thought you were married to that Japanese girl?’

‘Chinese, actually. Yes, well, I’m at my mother’s house at the moment.’

‘Oh, I see.’ Roy was quick to catch on and Barry was not good at lying. ‘Had a bit of a split-up, have you?’

‘Temporary separation, you could say. I’m just finding my feet.’

‘Well, good luck. You need it!’

Barry could see that Roy genuinely thought that he had had a great deal of hard luck and he was wishing him well. Barry was pleased with the good wishes and the two chatted all the way up to town.

When he got home, that evening, he went in to find his mother with an ashen face.

‘What’s the matter, mum?’ he asked.

‘It’s your grandmother. She’s had a heart attack and she’s died.’

‘Oh no, what? I thought she was fit and it was grandfather we had to watch out for,’ said Barry, clearly grief-stricken.

‘Yes, so did I, but all that worry must have put too big a strain on her heart. Oh, it’s not fair.’ Patricia’s red eyes swelled with tears and Barry had to console her. ‘It’s not nice to say this, but I’m glad you’re here, Barry.’

‘I know what you mean, it’s okay,’ said Barry, comfortingly. ‘Is it all right if I phone Shu and tell her? She’ll be sorry to hear this.’

‘Yes, of course,’ said Patricia, so Barry picked up the receiver and dialled his number. The ringing sound was continuous so Barry thought that she must be out.

‘I’ll ring her later. She’s out, now.’ he tried over and over again, that evening and, finally, at ten o’clock, Shu answered.

‘And where have you been? I’ve tried to get you all evening,’ said Barry, partially annoyed that his wife should be out all evening.

‘One of my managers took me out to a concert for the evening. Why, what’s the matter?’ Shu had found a job at a Japanese bank in the city and was attracting lots of admirers.

‘It’s my grandmother. She’s had a heart attack, a bad one, and she’s dead.’

‘I am sorry,’ said Shu, with genuine feeling in her voice. ‘When did it happen?’

‘This morning. We have now got to decide what to do with my grandfather.’

‘Will he come and live with you?’

‘Maybe, I’m not sure because it’s hilly around here, we have steep stairs and it would mean my mother would have to stop work to look after him.’

‘Oh, I see. Well, will you tell me when the funeral is? I would like to come.’

‘Yes, of course. I’d better go now, but I’ll be in touch.’ Barry hung up with one thought on his mind - she went out with another man - already!

The next week, in between making plans for the funeral and generally helping out, Barry was jealously thinking about Shu and how she was really now free to go with whom she pleased. They were not thoughts that he liked and, in the end, he decided that he had to go back, if she’d take him.

‘Shu,’ he said over the telephone. ‘I think I have sorted myself out and I would like to give it another go. How do you feel?’

‘Yes, you can come back, but only if you’re serious,’ she said, sensibly wanting some commitment from Barry.

‘I know where I went wrong, now, so I want to come back after the cremation.’

‘We’ll try once more, then,’ said Shu, happy that her husband was coming home and glad to be finishing the lonely nights which she hated.

The cremation went quite smoothly but Barry’s grandfather seemed to give up all hope after his wife passed away. Barry could always remember him vowing to live until he was one hundred years old and tried to remind him of this but to no avail. He became ill and had to be put in a hospice, close to his old home. It was there that he ended his days and although it made everyone very sad, it had been expected for about a month, so his death was easier to cope with.

By now Barry was back with Shu and they decided to move to a new house. Barry had got his new job and the bank Shu worked for gave generous mortgage relief to any worker who needed it. It certainly made Shu’s wage much larger than Barry’s! They wanted - or mainly Barry wanted - to move nearer the City and so they were looking at houses around Barry’s old home, where his mother still lived.

Their budget was still too small for the majority of houses in the area that they liked, so they first went to see a terraced, three-bedroomed house on the outskirts of the City. It was too small, too near a busy main road and they didn’t really want neighbours on both sides.

One day, a letter from an estate agent fell on to the doormat.

‘Another set of details about houses!’ said Barry. Shu was not very interested. Barry had a quick look at the details.

‘Hey, look at this one! A three-bedroomed semi, close to town. It hasn’t got a garage but is at a very reasonable price.’

‘But, is it near the railway station?’ asked Shu.

‘I’ll phone up and ask.’

Barry got all the details of the property and they decided to go to see it the same day, as it was a Saturday. They arrived before the estate agent and had a look around the front of the house. No one was living there so they peered through the windows.

‘It looks a bit dreary,’ said Barry, looking at the pebble-dashed exterior of the house, which had never been painted and was dirty, whereas the house next door had recently been painted white. There was a piece of wood missing from the pattern on the walls, making it look worse, but at least the window frames had been painted, even if they were a nasty yellow colour.

The estate agent turned up and showed them around the house. She tried to make them forget about the front and back garden which were in a terrible state and would take years of work to put right. The only room that had been decorated was the living room, which was quite nice but every other room needed decorating, badly. Barry could see this but he was only interested in the structure of the house and the layout. He liked the separate dining and living rooms because of savings possible in the winter when heating one small room and not a large combined one. The kitchen was narrow and had a larder, reducing the length, but Barry could remove that easily. The two flights of stairs turned back on themselves which appealed to Barry, and the two larger bedrooms were a good size. The third was just a box room but there was a separate toilet which would be useful.

They were standing at the top of the stairs, looking at the stained glass in the hall window.

‘Now I love that window,’ said the estate agent, ‘Such a beautiful pattern!’

‘I would have it changed,’ said Barry. ‘You can’t see out of it. And can you tell me what is in the loft?’

The loft entrance was six feet long and three feet wide and Barry had never seen the like before but there was no way of looking in the loft because the house had no furniture to stand on.

‘I’m sorry, I can’t,’ said the estate agent. ‘Maybe it’s something to do with an extension.’ There were four houses in the same style in the road and one had a dormer window sticking out of the roof.

Barry and Shu had one last look around and said that they would be in touch. On the way home, they discussed the property.

‘I like it,’ said Barry.

‘But what about all the decorating?’ asked Shu? ‘It will be a lot of work.’

‘Hard work never killed anyone and we’ve got plenty of time to do it. I think I’ll offer thirty-seven grand for it as forty-three is way over the top. It’s near the shops, under a mile to the railway station and in a quiet side road. All it lacks is a garage but we’re used to that.’

‘Okay we’ll make an offer for it,’ said Shu. And they did.

Barry thought that they didn’t stand a chance at the price he wanted to pay but the property had been on the market for a couple of months. The estate agent called back and told Barry that the owners were willing to drop the price, which was still too much, so Barry offered a tiny bit more. To his relief they accepted Barry and Shu were on their way.

When they bought their present house, Barry had been irritated by the time the solicitor took to handle the conveyancing and when he had telephoned, he had only ever spoken to the secretary. He had seen a book called the ‘Conveyancing Guide’ and had studied it when they first thought of moving. The book went into great detail and if you followed the format described, you could hardly go wrong. It seemed so simple - just form filling, really, so Barry decided to do the conveyancing himself. Doing this had already lost him one house in the area but that was being sold by a policeman who may not have trusted Barry’s conveyancing abilities. This time, the vendors were not too worried, so Barry did the work. It consisted of typing a few letters on a typewriter, which he borrowed from the astonished production secretary at work, sending off for details and form filling.

It all went very sweetly and when he went to the building society’s solicitor to exchange papers to sell his house, the secretary handling it commented that Barry had done more work than was usual. The only time Barry felt a bit scared was when he gave the keys of his house to the estate agent and had to go to the other estate agent’s to pick up the new keys.

‘You know, Shu,’ said Barry. ‘We’re homeless now!’

‘What - homeless?’ spluttered Shu.

‘Well, we’ve sold one house and have not yet got the keys to the new one, but it’s okay - we’ve got a contract of purchase for the new house.’

‘Oh, don’t scare me like that!’

Barry laughed. They drove to the estate agent’s, picked up the new keys and went to the house. The previous owners had removed everything that heated the house apart from an original gas fire in the bedroom, a boiler that heated the water and one radiator in the bathroom. It was January 5th so it was very cold and Barry thanked his lucky stars that they had brought a portable gas-fire from the old house and they huddled around it wondering where to start when the removal van arrived. Everything went smoothly and within a few months they had started carpeting, decorating, putting central heating and a fire in and generally getting on top of things.

Barry’s job was about to change - again. At his present job - work wise - things were going along as usual, but he was not too keen on the changes happening to the staff. One boy had joined his department and he had a very loud, obnoxious mouth and he rode roughshod over anyone who came up against him - Barry in particular. He was a creep with the girls and seemed to get them to tell him many things. He started scoffing about his wages to Barry and how he earned more than Barry did. Barry felt that this pest had found out about his wage and was trying to annoy him - he was succeeding!

Barry was really too clever to stay in that job for long and, suddenly, someone who had joined the company after him was promoted to Account Executive - the position Barry had longed for. This person was another loud mouth but such a smooth individual. Barry felt almost betrayed for he was sure that he could handle the Account Executive’s work - he had forgotten about his limp and his quiet personality

This tormented him for quite a while when, one weekend, Charles came to see him in his new home. They were sitting in the front room when Charles spoke.

‘How’s your job going, Barry?’

‘Well, it’s not too bad, I suppose,’ he said glumly.

‘Len is only coming into the office on one day a week now. He’ll be retiring soon and then I’ll be slowing down and looking for an early retirement. How do you feel about coming back to work for me as assistant Account Executive?’

‘Err - I don’t know. What would I do?’

‘You would take over all Len’s work - he would supervise when he comes in but he’ll be gone soon and you’d have it all to yourself! You’d get a company car plus a petrol allowance and this would make travel free!’

‘Okay - so how much are you going to pay me?’

‘Ah, well, as Len hasn’t gone yet, we can’t afford the same rates as the City but remember the car!’

‘Hmm, I’ll have to think about it.’

‘Yes, but it’s a step in the right direction - promotion from your present position and the office is so much nearer,’ said Charles. This was a good point. He would drive four miles to work instead of the trek to the City every day.

Charles left and Barry discussed it with Shu.

‘What do you think?’ It’s probably the only way I’ll get to the position of Account Executive,’ said Barry.

‘You must do what you want,’ said Shu, being her usual helpful self.

‘But what do you think?

‘We’ll be all right. I’ve got a good job, so go on.’

Barry really needed more support and encouragement than that but he knew it was the only way to progress so he made up his mind - he’d do it.

Things began to gather pace. He accepted Charles’ offer and handed in his resignation at work and then he mentioned it to his mother.

‘Oh, no, Barry, you’re not,’ gasped his mother, tears welling up in her eyes. You’ve got a good job at the moment - you can’t lose it.’ Patricia had never liked Charles as she thought that he had a devious character.

Barry was totally taken aback by his mother’s attitude. Shu and Barry had gone to Barry’s mother’s for lunch on a Sunday and he tried to reassure her.

‘Well, it’s the only way I’ll get on,’ said Barry, his eyes searching around for support but his brother, Anthony, who still lived with his mother, just gave Barry an enquiring look, saying nothing. By then his mother was crying quite openly.

‘The way he treats you,’ she sobbed. ‘You shouldn’t want to go back to him.’

‘But it’s my only way forwards. I’m getting fed up with my present job and this is progress in the industry.’

Barry was determined that he was not going to be swayed. Anthony had to console his mother until she recovered, then they ate a quiet meal and, soon afterwards, Barry and Shu left.

‘I didn’t realise that mother would feel so bad about my new job,’ said Barry when they were in the car. I suppose she feels that she’s losing me again but she should know better than that! Anyway, I think it’s the right move!’

If only Barry had listened to his mother for the future was going to turn out a lot worse than even she had thought.