Bob of Small End (46 page)

It was
depressing to see the changes so he returned to the rail track and
followed it back to where it crossed the road above his house. He
joined the road and walked along it until he came to the bridge
over the river then he took the river path. He was glad that that
part hadn’t changed. He took his normal route for the rest of the
afternoon. He stopped to admire the view occasionally and when he
came to the riverside pub he drank a pint in the garden, looking at
the river and almost fell asleep. Afterwards he took the footpath
that crossed the fields and led to the village. There was still
time for a nap before having his bath and going to the Crown.

Chapter 17 Spring cleaning

Bob was the
first to arrive at the pub that night. Len poured his bitter and
asked how the business was going.

“
Too
soon to tell Len. Ask me in a month’s time.”

“
You
call your company ‘
Small End Wooden
Toys’
I’ve heard.”

“
Yes
that’s right.”

“
And
I’ve been told that you’ll be visiting shops from now on, not
making the toys.”

“
Yes I
will. I had a booth at a conference for gift shop owners in
Bournemouth Thursday and Friday and I think we’re going to be very
busy. We’ve hired a young man and we’re looking for another two. Do
you know of anyone looking for a job?”

“
Don’t
think so. I’ll ask around and see if anyone else knows of somebody.
Young men you said. What do you mean by ‘young’?”

“
Teenagers mainly. Boys who won’t ask for a man’s wage. Boys
we can train and, if they can do the work, keep. Then we’ll pay
them more.”

“
Oh,
boys who have just left school. That’s what you mean.”

“
Yes.”

Joe came in
and joined Len and Bob at the bar. He ordered a beer and they left
Len and moved to their usual table.

“
The
shop’s been busy this week Bob. I’ve looked in a couple of times.
Ken and that new guy are always on the machines. You must have
hundreds of toys now.”

“
Not
hundreds Joe, I wish we did have hundreds. I went to the conference
this week and I’ve got about a hundred retailers wanting toys. I
just don’t have enough to give them.”

“
That’s
the conference that Rose goes to each year?”

“
Yes.
She told me about it and I’m very glad she did. Meeting the
retailers at the conference will make things much easier when I
visit their shops. They’ll recognise me. What have you been
doing?”

“
Weeding
mostly. I had to spray one of the fields, cabbage white
butterflies. They’re going to ruin the cabbages if I don’t get rid
of them.”

“
I get
them too. I usually look for their eggs, squash them and kill any
caterpillars I see. I can get rid of most of them that way but it
takes a long time.”

“
Spraying’s the only way I can handle them.”

“
What
are you shipping?”

“
Carrots
and new potatoes. They’re no trouble to grow but I don’t have
enough helpers.”

“
That’s
the same for us,” and Bob told him that they didn’t have enough
toys for the retailers who asked for them. They supped their beer
and were quiet for a while.

“
How’s
Jane managing Joe? She must be very busy with the show right
now.”

“
She is,
although it’s not as bad as it was when they were putting it
together. She’ll be along later.”

“
Have
you seen it yet?”

“
No.
I’ll probably go next week. How about you?”

“
I’ll
probably go next week too. Ah here’s Jack and Rose. And Jane. I
thought you said she’d be late.”

“
I guess
she’s left someone else in charge. She missed lunch today and is
probably hungry.”

“
Yes I
am Joe,” she said. “I want something to eat then I’m going back.
What’s on the menu?”

Bob fetched
one, took their orders to the bar and returned with drinks for
Rose, Jack and Jane.

“
I very
glad I went to the conference Rose,” he said when he sat down. “I
collected ninety-nine cards from interested retailers and
forty-four want toys as soon as possible. That’s because lots of
them had been talking to you or to Leo, I think.”

“
Well
lots talked to me about your toys though Leo is much better known
than me so most probably went to him. You’ve told me that he sells
more toys than I do so that’s probably why they decided to stock
them. I’m selling them now, three today.”

“
Perhaps
because there’s four bus loads at the show tonight,” said Jane.
“The house is full and we had to turn late comers away. Any of you
going?”

“
I’ll go
next Friday Jane” said Joe. “Save me a seat.”

“
Okay.”

“
And one
for me on Friday too please, next to Joe,” added Bob.

“
It’ll
have to be Saturday evening for us Jane” said Rose. “I can’t close
the shop early on a Friday.”

“
Okay.
Four tickets, two Friday and two Saturday evening. I’ll get them
when I go back. I’ll tell you what I know about the new Centre now
‘cos I must leave soon. The contract has been let to a big
Southampton company. They say it’ll only take four weeks if the
weather’s good. If that happens then we’ll move in during June. I’m
told the company has also bought one of the sections north of the
rail lines so that’ll make them finish our job quickly.”

“
I took
a look at it this afternoon,” said Bob. “It doesn’t look very nice.
A giant, flat, muddy spread. No hedges or trees. No farms.
depressing.”

“
Be
better when it’s built,” said Jack.

“
Yes I
know,” said Bob. “Oh, anyone know of a couple of teenagers who
might like to work in our shop?. We need more helpers.”

“
Same
for me but I need men able to do a hard day’s work without
complaining,” said Joe.

“
Nay,”
replied Jack.

“
Nor
me,” said Rose.

Their meal
arrived. Jane hurried through hers then left. The rest of them
stayed until nine when the pub filled with people coming from the
show. Bob had mixed feelings as he walked home; he was happy to
have spent the evening with his friends in a half-empty pub but the
crowd that entered at nine reminded him that Small End was quickly
changing. It was becoming less like the village he knew and
drinking in a noisy crowd spoilt the fun. ‘I can’t stop it so I’ll
have to accept it,’ were his thoughts as he entered his front door.
Once again he forgotten to turn on the railway lamp.

The sunlight
woke Bob Sunday morning. Should he close the blinds and try to
sleep for another hour or two or should he get up? It wasn’t really
something to question because he knew the answer; he was a morning
person, always had been. The only time he stayed in bed was when he
was sick and, apart from colds which didn’t stop him from working,
he hadn’t been sick since he was a child. He lay in bed thinking
about what he should do that day.

The most
important task was to make a list of their months expenses. He
already had a fair idea about how much they’d spent from an
estimate he’d calculated when talking to Ken; about four and a half
thousand pounds. They could cover that.

All right,
what else did he have to do? The garden was weeded, the washing
done, his workshop clean. Then it struck him; this was the time of
the year when Betty did the spring cleaning. Since she had died he
had never done it. ‘So that’s the first thing I must do; the spring
cleaning. I’ll do the accounts in the afternoon. Or evening, if the
cleaning takes a long time.’

Yesterday he’d
thought he’d have kippers today but he liked to take his time when
he ate those for they were a treat. He’d leave them for another day
and have porridge today. Now, how did Betty spring clean? She
started at the top of the house, he thought, did the bedrooms then
moved downstairs and worked on the bathroom and the lounge. The
kitchen was last for some reason. What did she do beside dusting
all the furniture and hoovering the floors? Ah yes, she took the
curtains down and shook them outside. And put the carpets on the
washing line and beat them with on old tennis racket. She probably
tidied the shelves as well. He could do those things but it would
take all morning and it’d be hard work. So he got up, ate breakfast
and started.

He cleaned
Sam’s room first and removed the two posters that were still on the
walls. He rolled them up and put them in the closet besides three
pillows and a suit Betty bought but Sam didn’t like. ‘I’ll give the
suit to the Salvation Army. He won’t want it now.’ He dusted the
six books Sam had left on the top of his dressing table then
decided to give them away as well. The longest part was shaking the
curtains and beating the carpet but Sam’s room was finished in
half-an-hour.

Regina’s room
took over an hour. They had used her room as a stock room and it
was full of boxes, books, magazines, dolls, dresses, a drawing
easel and old equipment. He cleaned as well as he could but decided
to phone Regina before throwing away anything of hers. His room was
relatively easy, he normally cleaned that each week. Just the
curtains and the carpet to do. He had finished the upstairs by
nine-thirty and stopped for a rest and an early coffee.

As he was
cleaning downstairs he had a thought. The shop needed room to store
the toy sets and they were going to use his workshop but it would
be nicer to use Sam or Regina’s room. It could be fitted with
shelves whereas his workshop couldn’t, at least not without
removing the benches and he didn’t want to do that. He’d move all
of Sam’s furniture into Regina’s room, all except the bed. Sam had
told him, when he was invited to stay for the night, that several
of the springs had been broken many years ago when he and his
friends held jumping competitions and it was very uncomfortable for
him to sleep there now. ‘I’ll throw the bed away and Regina’s too
and give the sheets and pillows to the Salvation Army, that is, if
they want them.’

As soon as he
had finished cleaning downstairs he dismantled both beds and took
the mattress and the pieces to the side of the house, ready to be
picked up by the dustbin men. He’d call them tomorrow to tell them
they were there.

He was very
tired by now but content and glad he’d cleaned the house. It felt a
bit like he’d been tidying his life too, making it a little more
like it really was these days. No children living at home really
meant he needn’t keep all their stuff around. Mementoes of Betty
he’d always keep; her photographs, the pictures she loved more than
he did and her recipe book. He used the book now when he wanted to
try a different dish. But he hadn’t kept any of her clothes; Regina
had taken them to a thrift shop a few months after she died.

After lunch
and an hour’s nap in his chair, something he really didn’t want to
do but felt too tired to resist, he emptied the box that contained
the business bills on the kitchen table. He sorted them twice, once
by date and then by who had paid the bill. Then he headed a lined
paper, ‘April, 1996,’ and made six columns underneath. He headed
them: ‘Date’ ‘Item’ ‘Cost’ ‘Paid?’ ‘Total’ and ‘Notes’. He didn’t
know what he would put in the ‘Notes’ column nor did he know if
Simon would think these were the correct headings to use but he
understood what they meant and he could describe them to Ken.

The first
entry line read 3, Saw, £45, Yes, £45. He put, ‘by Ken,’ in the
notes column. To him that meant ‘On April 3rd they bought a saw and
it cost £45, they’d paid for it already and they had spent £45 to
date and Ken paid for them. The second row read: 3, 500 boxes,
£22.12, Yes, £67.12, by Bob.

He continued
doing this until every expense he knew about was written down. The
total spent came to £5,268.18. Of course most of these bills hadn’t
been paid yet but that’s what April’s expenses were and they’d have
to send off the cheques within a couple of weeks. Well, they had
£6,345 in the business account so there was enough. The ones that
had already been paid would have reduced the amount in the bank but
it would also have reduced the amount they had to pay. The only
extra they might have to pay would be for the new girl and for some
more petrol, unless Ken had bought something he didn’t know
about.

So they had
enough money in the business account, just. What was not spent in
April should last until they started receiving money from the
retailers around the fifteenth of May. Paying the helpers each week
made it very tight until money started coming in. But after that it
would be easier. They didn’t have to buy any more machinery and,
come to think of it, the rent for the van had already been paid
until the end of May.

Now he’d check
what he had in his own accounts. He looked at his savings book and,
as expected, he had just over £5,250. And he had about three
hundred in his checking account. This meant he could easily add
more to the business account if that was needed. He felt better
immediately. He needn’t worry. They were going to be all right.

He made a pot
of tea and opened the tin box of chocolate covered biscuits that
Regina had given him for Christmas. He chose the biggest one, a
covered digestive biscuit, and ate it slowly. Then another. And
another. Then he put the lid on. ‘That’s enough for now,’ he said
to himself, ‘or I won’t eat any supper. Now I’ll make a to-do list
for next week.’