Scrap CH THREE part 33

Scrap CH THREE part 33
Patrick is still asleep when they pull up in the dockyard queue so Frank pushes the door shut so as not to disturb him and wanders over to the café for breakfast. ‘You’ll never guess who I’ve got in the cab,’ he says to Scotty as he joins him at a table by the window, ‘only Patrick Chapman. Picked him up on my way home about 3am and he was so shattered he got straight in the bunk and passed out. He’s dead to the world out there so I’ve left him to sleep. Goodness knows where he’s been but his mother will be relieved to see him.’ Scotty has finished his food and his number is called on the public address speaker. ‘Sorry mate, we’ll have to catch up later; glad he’s back though, I know Ken and Pat have been worried about him.’
Two hours later and Frank pulls the rig up in the yard. Patrick falls out of the bunk in a panic, woken by the noise of shouting. ‘It’s alright; it’s only the mechanic asking if the lorry needs anything doing to it before it goes out again.’ His young companion looks worriedly out the windows, checking to see any sign of his father. ‘He’s in Spain with that Lesley,’ says Frank, ‘I can take you straight round to your mum’s if you like.’ The lad looks down at his filthy clothes and says he would rather get cleaned up first. ‘Okay, you can come back to my place but I’m going to give Pat a ring anyway and let her know you’re coming home.’
Janet Stewart is sitting on the wall outside her house when the 4 litre R draws onto the driveway opposite and she peers in at the passenger as they go by. She jumps down from her perch and runs across the road, arriving at the door just as Patrick is stepping out. ‘It is you, what on earth have you done to yourself?’ She asks, eyeing him up and down and grimacing at the wreckage. ‘Nice to see you too,’ grins her friend, ‘come in and I’ll tell you all about it.’ Frank frowns; ‘not before you get cleaned up,’ he insists. ‘Okay, come over in an hour, if that’s okay with you Frank?’
The big man is snoring in his bed when Janet taps on the window of the front door exactly an hour later. Patrick is looking a lot better as he lets her in and leads the way to the kitchen where he is making some tea. They sit at the breakfast bar and there is a pause as neither knows where to begin. ‘Did you go to the drama school? What’s it like? Have you met anyone famous yet?’ Patrick says he enrolled as planned and has enjoyed the classes, even though they have to do some weird stuff like pretending to be animals and overdoing the emotional bits. ‘I made a bit of a tit of myself at the end of term,’ he continues, taking a long gulp of tea, ‘one of the actors who comes in to give us stagecraft lessons offered me the chance to travel to Bristol with him in the holidays so I jumped at the opportunity, thinking it would help get me a bit part in the play he’s starring in. How was I to know that when he said I could be his dresser he meant something completely different and I wasn’t having any of that so I stayed for a few nights trying to get a holiday job but everybody said I was too young so I had to give up and set off home. I’d been on the road for a week when Frank spotted me and I’m glad he stopped because I’d just about given up.’ Janet makes sympathetic mumblings but has no idea what the actor was expecting him to do. Good Catholic girls have no idea about life in general and she is just glad to see her friend in one piece.
‘I got my 10 GCE’s,’ says Janet, hoping that Patrick wants to know how she is faring too, ‘two A’s five B’s and three C’s. I even got Geography, which I was dreading after that field trip we went on.’ Patrick laughs at the thought of the five days they spent in Wiltshire sheltering from the rain and getting their wellies stuck in mud every time they ventured out. ‘It wasn’t exactly a success, was it?’ ‘I’ll be in the sixth form when we go back,’ the girl continues, ‘there aren’t many of us left, just me, Alan King, Margie Smith and Ian Foster from our class. I’ll be doing English Lit., English Lang., French, Maths and Biology.’ Patrick looks surprised, ‘why did you choose Biology?’ She says she had to pick something so decided on that. ‘Did Frank tell you about the new haulage company? It’s Frank, my dad, Jason Coward and his sister Rosa Casey. They’ve called it CRS Transport Ltd and they’re collecting the new trucks on Monday.’ Patrick is astonished to learn of this development. ‘Does my dad know he’s losing his two best drivers?’ Janet shakes her head, ‘he will go mental when he finds out. He’s due back from Spain on Saturday and I think they’re planning to tell him then. They still all meet up at the Bay on Saturday nights so I expect it will be headline news once they drop the bombshell.’
They chat about nothing in particular for a while then Patrick says he supposes he should get off to his mother’s place and face the music. ‘At least I’ll get fed there and get my laundry done,’ he grins, ‘it’s not all glamour being a student you know.’
Janet remembers the note from her father and leaves it next to the kettle for Frank to read when he emerges from his slumber. A return load has been arranged for him at the factory where they make instant mashed potato. Frank will be pleased with this as he always manages to chore some extra boxes for sale at the local greasy spoons.