“They're lovely
grounds Dad, all those trees and the rhododendrons are beautiful.”
Dan was looking out of
the window daring the world to smile at him.
“Probably hide the
kennels behind there”
“Kennels?”
“Guard dogs.”
Jenny replied somewhat
too cheerily
“Oh Dad come on now
it's a lovely home, you even said so when you agreed to look at it.”
“I said it looked
nice, Mata Hari looked nice.”
Jenny saw a lovely
rolling lawn with a stand of trees and bushes and an idyllic Mansion
style house at the end of the sweeping drive. A perfectly idyllic
place to live. Dan saw Stalag Luft 17
“They put elastic
bands round their bollocks and half starve them.”
“Dad please...”
“Probably do the same
to all the poor old sods locked up in there.”
They were pulling up to
the steps leading at the front entrance.
“Dad your being
ridiculous of course they don't do that now come on, look the
managers waiting to greet us by the door isn't that nice.”
As Jenny went round to
open the car door for her dad he was already out and brushed her hand
off his elbow as she tried to lend some form of support necessary
only to her
“Probably saw us on
her telly when we tripped the perimeter alarm.”
“Dad be quite.”
Jenny shushed him
whilst taking the proffered handshake from the beaming manager who
couldn't fail to have heard but gave no sign of having done so.
“Hello you must be
Mrs Shaw I'm Ms Belden the manager welcome to The Lawns and this is I
take it is Dan.”
Dan was in before Jenny
could open her mouth.
“Well you can take it
and put it back again it's Mr Argyle to you.”
The Beam never even
wavered, Dan thought maybe a bit too much Botox and she was stuck
with it.
“Of course, Mr
Argyle. Maybe you'll allow me to call you Dan when we know each other
better, please come in let me give you the guided tour.”
Ms Belden turned to
show the way in so she missed Dans 'never happen love' and Jenny's
backhand slap to his shoulder with another hissed 'Dad'.
Just as they went
through the door there was a deep throated 'woof'.
Dan turned to Jenny and
smiled. Jenny pretended not to notice and said as cheerily as
possible.
“Oh you have a dog.”
Ms Belden replied
without breaking step on the way to the lounge.
“Oh that's just Alfie
my old German Shepherd. He's just a soft old thing everyone loves
Alfie round here.”
“Has he been done.
Dan asked smiling at his daughter.”
“What a strange
question.”
Ms Belden caught
Jenny's look at her dad and realised something was going on she was
not privy to.
“Yes he has though
he's that old now I doubt it matters anymore.”
“Not romancing any
walking sticks then?”
Ms Belden was about to
reply but Jenny stopped her.
“Oh this is a lovely
lounge, isn't this a lovely lounge Dad just look at the view.”
Dan looked at the view
briefly and then looked around the room which depressed him even more
if that where possible. An open lounge with high backed chairs around
the walls most with an occupant in varying stages of senility. Just
sitting there watching daytime TV with the sound down or asleep
though some looked as though the sleep was more permanent.
Queue here for the
undertakers he thought. Is this really it. It's like a bloody
warehouse for the terminal. Come to the Lawns and die, but not until
we've had all your money off you. Jenny had suggested it but it was
his house and pension that would pay for it.
His protestation that
he'd rather his money went to his grandson fell on deaf ears. She'd
married that four eyed, suited prat with about as much personality as
the bloody computer he sat at all day but he seemed to be on a good
salary though for doing what Dan hadn't a clue. He wanted his
grandson to do something with his life but currently he was a 13 year
old clone of his dad. Glasses, school uniform, class swat. Another
high salary earner in the making but no life in the kid at all.
Dad your not looking
isn't the view lovely.
“Yeh you can see the
sun glinting off the guard tower.”
Dan's attention had
gone straight past all the greenery to the electricity pylon barely
visible.
Ms Belden, full of
false, professional bonhomie, looked straight past Dan and spoke to
Jenny.
“Oh I can see he's
got a strong personality we're going to have some wonderful times
when he comes to stay.”
Dan looked at Jenny.
“Am I here, I mean
did I leave and a five year old's stood in my place.”
Ms Belden obviously
heard but carried straight on with the sales pitch, sounding just
that bit too well rehearsed. They eventually finished the guided tour
and sat in the office for an interminable length of time while Ms
Belden went through all the how much, when and how often. Before
Jenny managed to extricate the pair of them with sincere promises to
think about it, couldn't make any decisions on the day, have to
consult my husband. Ms Belden gave her one of those long embarrassing
handshakes that leaves you counting your fingers while wiping the
sweat off.
Dan had been watching
the other hand convinced it would be reaching for Jenny's purse.
They drove away in
silence for a long while before Jenny broke the stand off with a
resigned
Well what did you
think. Already knowing the answer.
“Posh wrapper with a
load of senile old codgers inside sat round the walls hiding the damp
patches.”
“Dad do you have to
be so negative all the time.”
“Oh come on Jenny
they were already dead from the neck up, the place stank of piss and
strong disinfectant, there was practically a ground mist in the
lounge, mindless crap on the tv which nobody was watching and some
god awful radio station on just for the benefit of the staff.”
Silence filled the car
for some time
“We could have a look
at another one next week if you want.”
Jenny sat up straighter
in amazement.
“Do you really mean
that.”
Yeh, I suppose.”
“Oh wonderful I'll do
another search on Google when I get home.”
You do that he thought.
Must be a lot of homes listed on there. Nice drive out, pub lunch,
should be able to keep this going for a long while yet, I wonder if I
should drop a couple of hints about maybe finding one on the coast.
No comments:
Post a Comment