Jakes Dilemma ( Part 3)

Jake continued to work his machine for the rest of the day. It was mundane and boring work. Jakes machine drilled holes into a square shaped piece of copper and brass, these pieces of copper and brass later became door hinges. At six o’clock he looked over at pissheads office and saw he was still asleep, he turned his machine off and left the warehouse.

He was worried about his mum and dad, the walk home normally took around forty minutes, today he did it in under thirty!

When he walked into the house he was relieved to see his dad in the kitchen drinking a cup of tea.

“Bloody hell Jake, what did you do, run home? You look knackered!”

“Something like that dad, everything ok?”

“Yeh fine, mums just popped to the shops to get some milk”

“Ok, I’ll go up and have a shower then come down for tea”

Jake went upstairs had his shower, changed into a sloppy track suit and returned downstairs, his Mum and dad were sitting at the dinner table eating their tea.

“Yours is in the microwave Jake, just heat it up for a couple of minutes”

Jake pushed the buttons on the microwave and was deep in thought; he wasn’t really listening to his parent’s conversation but two words that his dad said make him turn round.

“What was that about a squashed nose?”

Jakes dad finished chewing his pork chop and started laughing.

“Yeh, all a bit of a mix up, there were these three bailiffs turned up today, big buggers they were, one of them had a squashed nose that seemed to go right across his face!”

“What did they want?”

“Turned out they had the wrong address, mind you wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of them, they looked like bloody nasty people to me”

Jake took his dinner out of the microwave and sat down. For the first time since all this begun it finally sank in that these guys were serious. He decided to have an early night.

“Bit knackered so going to turn in, up early tomorrow”

He kissed his mum goodnight and shook his Dads hand, that’s the way it always was, kiss mum but never dad.

Jake didn’t sleep well that night, he tossed and turned and was up at five. He decided to go straight to work. He left home at 5.45.

He was walking his usual route and noticed a car was driving slowly towards him. It was a blue Bentley, it stopped when it reached Jake, the door opened.

“You’re early Jake, get in!”

Jake did as he was told and got in the back seat of the luxury car. He recognised the three familiar faces, the guy with the squashed nose was sitting on the back seat next to him.

“You were a bit out of order yesterday Jake, did you forget your orders?”

Jake nodded.

“Got to say the words Jake, you know the rules”

“Yes, sorry, I forgot!”

“OK, let’s forget about yesterday, maybe it’s time to bring you up to speed, you ready Jake?”

Jake nodded.

“You know the rules Jake; you have to say the words!”

“Yes I’m ready!”

“Good Boy”

The guy with the squashed nose gave Jake an envelope.

“Take this Jake, it’s two grand, they’ll be another two when you do good and then another two when it’s all over, understand?”

Jake wanted to nod, but remembered the rules.

“I understand”

“Good boy, now go to work and we’ll call you tomorrow, remember Jake we’ll be watching!”

Jake got out of the car and walked to work. He stopped at the café and got a mug of tea, his hands were shaking.

He looked inside the envelope; it was full of Scottish twenty pound notes. He’d never seen so much money in all his life, Mum and Dad would be able to have a nice holiday on this lot, but what did they want, these “gangsters” . He drank his tea and went to work.

When he arrived Stevie was already there.

“Fuck me, what did you do, shit the bed?”

Jake ignored him.

“Oi Jake, come on why so early?”

“Fuck off Stevie; They're watching and I've got work to do!”

Stevie once again thought to himself “He’s paranoid and can’t sleep; he’s definitely on the gear!”