Lewi's Legacy (6 page)

6
The Awakening

Let’s get clean!

Just before Louis’s sixteenth birthday, his father’s job was suddenly in jeopardy. Old Mr Scattergood keeled over in the shop suffering from a major heart attack. Sadly, he died where he fell, with no warning at all. For a few weeks Henry struggled to keep the shop going, whilst his and the other staff’s future were being decided by the probate lawyer. Mr. Scattergood died intestate, which meant there was no will. All the proceeds passed to his wife who was disabled in a wheelchair, so the only course of action was to close the shop and sell the proceeds to the benefit of his widow.

Henry sat at home with little prospects of such a good job where he had been for over ten years. He looked back on his life since his wife died. Yes, Louis was a credit to him and he seemed to be making a good way in his life, but what about his own life? At the moment it was going nowhere. At that point he suddenly had a flash of inspiration; it was time to make a move, completely away from this miserable place, a new start in new surroundings.

He waited for Louis to come home from school to broach the idea with him. His decision was, to move to France and seek out a relative of his wife and perhaps there might be something there. It was a gamble, but there seemed little alternative, he thought to himself.

‘How long do you expect to be there dad?’ Louis asked when he got home. Even the young lad could see that this was the first thing that could come between him and his father.

Henry’s heart sank. With that simple question from his son, he knew that he would be going away on his own.

‘Dad, I’m sorry but I just can’t leave here right now that I’m friends with Susan, and we’re getting on so well, I really don’t want to lose her.’ Susan’s father owned a car dealership, and his deeper interest in Susan and cars were beginning to surface. Henry was not surprised, in fact he was a little pleased, as Louis’s interest was not entwined with his, and his son was spending most of his free time over there at the Gilberts.

Having left the Secondary Modern school with few qualifications, many of his school mates would have chosen working in the coal mines or at the local steel plant. Louis had no interest in manual work, and the idea of shop work took a serious blow after what had happened to his father, after all his time with Mr. S., and to be left with nothing, and on the dole.

It was four years since his encounter with Magda at the circus. He had developed well and even joined the school football team for a while. His running was an attribute to the team, but he quickly found out that just running in a football team was not enough. The physical side of the game like tackling was abhorrent to him and pretty soon he was mostly demoted to the bench, only called on to play when absolutely necessary. There was one benefit, Susan. She often sat with him on the substitute bench and she often waited for him after school to walk home with. Nearing the end of school life their friendship grew. It was quite normal to be holding hands, and of late she would give him a little kiss before they parted ways to home.

Louis often accepted her offer to have tea at her home, which was a large detached house next door to the car showroom. Susan’s father, Bill, enjoyed showing Louis the car showroom and the garage repair shop. He could easily see that the boy showed much more interest in the selling part of the business rather than the more physical side needed by the workshops. Secretly Susan was pressing her father to set Louis on as his assistant in the showroom, and finally her persistence paid off one evening at dinner. The meals provided by Susan’s mother were exceptional, and Annie made sure that there was always plenty on Louis’s plate, knowing his background.

They all sat quietly around the table after a good belt busting meal and Bill tapped his glass with his spoon.

‘Louis, a certain person in this room, who shall not be named, has told me that you might make a good car salesman, and I ought to offer you a job with me. What do you think Louis my boy?’

‘Sir, nothing would make me happier than to work for you.’ Looking at Susan who was beaming all over her face, he said, ‘When can I start?’ Susan walked him to the gate holding hands. He looked into her big brown eyes.

‘It was you who persuaded your dad to agree, thanks Susan.’ For the first time he pulled her to him and gave her a real hug, and of course she hugged him back.

He threw himself totally into his new job. His first task was to learn everything about all of the models of car that they sold. Bill told him that he wouldn’t be able to sell a car until he could to answer every question that a potential customer might ask. He also said that at every spare moment Louis would be asked questions, both by himself and the workshop foreman. Considering Louis’s educational results, he didn’t expect to have him in the showroom selling for long.

He hadn’t realised, however that the boy had become obsessed by cars and in only a matter of four weeks that Louis could answer any technical question on the whole range. Soon he was standing by his boss watching and listening to every tiny comment or statement that Bill gently put across to a visitor showing interest. He noticed that things were not going too well, and it seemed the inquirer was losing interest with Bill’s banter. In the corner of Louis’s eye he noticed a young couple enter the showroom, at once they were opening the car doors and sitting in the drivers seat. Louis kept a sharp eye on the couple as they got closer to Bill and the inquiring customer. He guessed they would have to wait until Bill was free.

‘Right Louis, this is your chance, don’t rush it, and let the customer lead, right?’ Bill whispered.

With more luck than judgement, the couple had been in before, so the questions were more direct, and he was able to guide them to a particular model that could suit their needs. Of course he expected them to want to wait for Bill to close the deal, and not a ‘wet behind the ears’ teenager, but no, they sat in the front seats firing questions at him and smiling at his prompt answers.

As expected, Bill’s customer did not buy, just took a brochure and went on his way. He looked around the showroom looking for Louis and his customers, but he couldn’t see them at first. Then he looked at the far corner to his office where Louis was sitting at his desk with the couple opposite. He walked in quickly and expected to take over from him, but instead of butting in he stepped back and waited.

‘And you’re happy with the price then? How do you want to pay for it?’ They handed him their cheque shook his hand and he organised delivery the following week. As they stood up and shook his hand, he turned and looked at Bill.

‘Ah Bill, this is Mr. and Mrs. Smith they have just purchased the purple Morris Minor, delivery next Tuesday.’ Bill shook their hands and they walked out of the office. ‘Well, Bill, how did I do?’

‘Firstly I’m not Bill to you, I’m Mr Gilbert. Secondly I think you did bloody well my boy, bloody well!’ He put his arm around the young man. ‘Who would have believed it?’ They both laughed heartily.

At dinner that evening, whilst Annie and Susan were in the kitchen preparing to serve, Louis broached the subject of his father asking him to go to France with him, as he was going to look for his wife’s family. He told Bill that he had already said no to his father. Susan overheard the conversation and rushed into the dining room.

‘Where will you stay, Louis? Dad, can he stay with us? Please!’ She pleaded. Her mother quietly stood behind Susan and nodded her approval to her father.

‘Well I don’t know Susan. It’s a lot to ask of the boy, living next door to his job, he might not like that’. Bill feigned a worried concerned look at Louis.

Susan looked at Louis, then her mother and then her father. Well Louis, what do you say?’ she asked.

‘I don’t know exactly when dad is going to France but I will ask him tonight and let you know. Louis answered. Susan jumped to hug him, he felt her strong arms around his neck and she pressed herself hard against him. Embarrassed, he pulled away as he looked at Bills face.

‘Then if all of you think it’s a good idea then of course, I’d love to.’ As he looked around the three of them again, just by the look on their faces, it was a full approval from all of them.

By November, he was well settled into a real family life for the first time, and his progress at the showroom continued to amaze his boss. In fact by that time there were very few occasions when the young man had to refer to Bill for any advice, he seemed to take to the job as if he was born to it. Just before Christmas Bill actually heard himself asking Louis for some advice on a car they rarely sold. The lad was a pleasure to work with; never before had he met anyone with such an appetite for car statistics.

Bill’s attitude to car sales was ‘slow and sure’, always allowing time for the customer to change his mind, after all it was, in most cases their biggest single purchase apart from perhaps their house.

At seventeen the following summer Louis was quite an accomplished little salesman. Yes he did make mistakes, but he never repeated the same one twice, and he was as just as enthusiastic on his last sale as he was with his very first one. By now, for every car that Bill sold, Louis was selling two, and every time a customer came into the showroom asking for Louis by name, initially Bill found this a hard pill to swallow. How could he argue though, his business had tripled in just twelve months, even the BMC car supplier was sitting up and taking notice.

One day Bill was out delivering a new car to a customer, an operation that was never rushed, as he taught Louis that a satisfied customer will always return to them when they want to replace it. Leaving Louis alone in the showroom was now quite normal, but this morning when he opened the door on his return, he could hear a raised voice coming from his office, and started to worry. The seventeen year old was at his desk on the phone looking a little flushed. ‘Well Adrian, it’s about time too!’ He put the receiver on its cradle.

‘What’s going on Louis?’ Bill asked

‘Don’t you remember, you asked me to order those six new replacements, didn’t you?’ Bill nodded. ‘Well, because he normally speaks to you, he tried to charge me ten percent more for each vehicle. What he didn’t know was that I had his last invoice to us on the desk, here it is, and I told him no way.’ Louis said.

Bill pointed to his chair and Louis reluctantly stood up as he pushed by and grabbed the phone. He dialled Adrian’s number.

‘Ah Adrian, sorry about the last phone call, my assistant got a little carried away, now what were you saying just then?’ Louis shrugged his shoulders and sauntered into the showroom, pretending to polish the nearest car to the office door. ‘What!’ Bill shouted down the phone, ‘What did you say? Yes that’s perfectly alright Adrian, thank you very much.’ He then replaced the receiver slowly.

Bill looked up at Louis as he came back into the office. ‘I was so angry that he had tried to take advantage of me, that I told him that we were doing so well that you were thinking of going over to a Ford dealership.’ Louis looked at Bill as he got up from his chair and walked over to his assistant. He beamed as he put his arm around Louis’s shoulder.

‘You just got me another fifteen percent. It’s time we talked about your wages my boy, sit down.’

The past year had certainly been one of self discovery. Louis had found something that he enjoyed. He was appreciated, not that his father didn’t appreciate him, but Bill did in a different way. He was pleased that his employer was willing to invest in him as the new way, the young way and not making him feel inferior.

He was sure that the constant ‘prodding’ of her father by Susan had a lot to do with it and he was most grateful for that. In these past twelve months he had only received three letters from his father in France. All three were from different addresses, the first from Paris, then Lyon and the third, received yesterday was from Marseilles. For the whole of this period Henry had a constant companion, his wife’s cousin to whom he was living with. By the tone of his letter, it didn’t seem likely that his father was going to return to England, certainly not in the near future anyway.

Louis knew that up to the time he left school, his father had struggled to bring him up, especially after the shock of losing his wife. Thinking back, he had never heard his father complain, and therefore he assumed that Henry was happy. Now Louis realised that after his sacrifice, his father had finally found some real happiness at last.

As usual, Louis wrote back to Henry’s new address with all the news from the car business and how happy he was with his adopted family. He also told him that he had passed his test first time, so he hinted that one day he would drive down to Marseilles and look him up. At the end of the letter he wrote a post script;