Scrap CH THREE part 20

Scrap CH THREE part 20
Frank and Scotty are full to burst by the time they leave the Chinese Restaurant and decide to walk the short distance to Scotty’s house. They pass by Carol’s baby goods shop and wave as they catch sight of the owner, who smiles in return. ‘Dawn wants to get new cots for the twins from there,’ says Scotty, ‘but she’s had that one at those prices; they can make do with the one they’ve got. It was good enough for the other kids. Trouble with women is they always want more.’
Two Council trucks are parked in the street outside the house. The workmen are deep in conversation as the pals approach. ‘Hello lads, what’s going on here then?’ The men turn their attention to the newcomers, eyeing them up and down as if to ask what business it is of theirs. ‘I live next door,’ Scotty explains, ‘I thought the Smiths had been rehoused.’ One of the men is holding a clip board and seems to be in charge; ‘they have,’ he agrees, ‘but this house has been empty for long enough and the bosses are sick of the excuses for not getting on with the renovations. They’ve sent me to sort it out but these blokes are scared to go in; they reckon the place is haunted, of all things.’
The workers make noises of protest at this scornful statement and suggest that the foreman goes in on his own to see how he feels about it. The pals say they will leave them to it and quickly take their leave. Once indoors Scotty races upstairs, opens the loft hatch and gets Frank to help him up. Meanwhile the foreman has boldly entered the house next door to prove that there are no such things as ghosts and the men should get back to work immediately. Two minutes later he is sprinting down the path and into his car, shaking like a leaf. ‘What’s up guv, have you seen a ghost?’ Scoffs one of the workmen as the terrified man drives off. The men shrug their shoulders and turn away, more determined than ever not to set foot in the house again.
Frank and Scotty are in fits of laughter as they put the baby monitor back in its box. ‘It came in handy after all,’ says Scotty. ‘Dawn was not impressed that I’d paid £10 for something she would never use; she reckoned, rightly, that in a house this size nobody would miss the sound of babies bawling and I couldn’t take it back for a refund because I bought it from a bloke in Spitalfields Market. I’ve had great fun with it these past few months though, and it meant I could get a good sleep instead of being kept awake by the builders.’
‘I don’t think you’ll be troubled by them again today,’ laughs Frank as he bids him good day. ‘I’ll be getting off and get some kip myself; I’ve got a long drive ahead of me tonight.’
Scotty is snoring in contented repose when Dawn returns home with her mother and the babies. The big old pram has come in useful once again as a capacious shopping trolley and the lower tray is loaded with packages, the handles festooned with carrier bags on clips. As expected she has spent every penny of the hundred pounds her husband handed over and more but she has enough net curtain material to deck out the entire house and all the wires and fittings they will need. She has also purchased a pair of swish new curtains for the living room which will be the envy of all the neighbours, she is sure. Glass fibre fabric has never before been used in this way and the salesman assured her that they wash up a treat, needing only cool water and a bit of washing up liquid then they drip dry and don’t even need ironing. The bold flower pattern on a white background will look splendid over the swagged nets with their frilled edges.
In the back bedroom of his new bungalow Frank is sound asleep on his king size bed, the only piece of furniture in the room. There are no curtains at the windows because he hasn’t had time to get any but as his garden backs onto the open marsh he is not worried about being observed by the sheep grazing there. It may be sparse but it is much more comfortable than the camper van, which is hidden under a ragged tarpaulin and parked on the drive in front of the double garage next to the 4litre R. He thinks he will maybe get it done up sometime and use it for holidays but at the moment he is concentrating on enjoying his freedom and building up his bank balance. He has not told anyone that he has bought this place; he wants it to be a nice surprise.
The evening sun is warming his face as the alarm sets off, ringing until the clockwork mechanism has completely run down and totally unheard by the slumbering man mountain. Five minutes later the second, louder alarm clicks into action. This one has been placed inside a biscuit tin to give it more resonance but even that fails to stir Frank and it is left to the third and final system to get a reaction. As boiling water hisses from the Teasmade kettle and out through the pipe into the teapot some of it spatters on his arm and he is instantly awake, rubbing at his face and hauling his body to a sitting position.
The many books of Green Shield stamps he had to sacrifice to purchase this gadget have paid off. He stirs the tealeaves, strains the brew into a waiting mug and adds a splosh of sterilised milk. Two spoonsful of sugar are stirred in and he takes a satisfying sip. The two orange crates by the bed wobble as he places the mug on the Teasmade tray. He will have to get a bedside cabinet at some point but for now he is managing with this lash-up.
After drinking his tea Frank throws back the bed covers and goes into the bathroom to get ready for work. What a change from the dirty cell and washroom he was sharing only a few months before. He makes a mental note to make sure he will never again find himself in that position. Liberty is a great thing and he has no intention of sacrificing it again, not even for his best friend.
The estate is quiet as he leaves for Chapman’s yard, with most of the inhabitants enjoying their evening meal and settling down to watch television. As their day ends his begins, but he likes it this way with the roads relatively free of traffic and the sun going down later on and putting on a new show every night. Let them have their boring nine to five jobs and predictable lives, Frank will take the freedom of the open road and the liberty it brings.
He loves the journey to Trowbridge in the summer, where the pace of life seems to have changed very little since the turn of the century. Many of the farm buildings are hundreds of years old and he knows which ones to look out for if he wants to see any barn owls. The sight of one of these birds always lifts his heart as it soars noiselessly over the fields of ripening grain to drop suddenly on its prey, loft and fly back to the nest where its young will be waiting for a meal of vole or field mouse. Often he will pull to the side of the road and sit quietly for a few minutes to take in the scene and is always thrilled when he is rewarded by a display from the feathered acrobats.
Tonight he has arranged to bring a full load of used pallets back to Jason’s yard, which will fetch a tidy sum of money. Jay has been trying to get him and Scotty to go in with him and start up their own haulage company, which sounds exciting but there are risks involved and they need to have a think and more than a bit of discussion before coming to a final decision. Since the new regulations regarding Operators Licences mean that once one is granted you can operate anywhere in the Country there have been several drivers starting out on their own with just one vehicle each. If they can do it, why shouldn’t Frank? They can use Jay’s premises and have a proper workshop built on the land and with all the storage space there would be no problem having a few hundred used pallets stacked up ready for re-sale. Jason has made it sound so easy and the pals are tempted to just jump in, but Scotty has Dawn to consider. She took a bit of convincing before agreeing to buy the new house, how will she react to this idea?