She turned round at first and studied the back of her legs checking her calves and then thighs, tensing them up making sure they were still muscular. She checked her bottom too, from the side, to make sure it was not sagging and she was pleased to see it was still perfectly round and very firm. Then she turned again and checked her stomach and it was pleased to see that it was still perfectly flat and when she tensed she could see the outline of her stomach muscles. Happy with what she saw, she turned off the shower’s taps and stepped out of the bath. She took one of the thick, luxurious towels off the heated rail and dried her body then threw the towel on the floor when done and did not bother emptying the bath: the maid would return to empty and clean the bath and room. With the robe back on she opened the door using the solid gold handle and walked slowly along the marble floor. Bizarrely she noticed that she was drifting along the hallway, not quite walking in a straight line. ‘I think I am a little tiddly!’ she said out loud and then she caught a glance of her face in a mirror and noticed how flushed her cheeks were. ‘I am a little tiddly!’
By now she had reached her bedroom door which she flung open to be greeted with the delightful smell of a chicken Madras that had been placed on her bedroom table. Upon smelling and seeing the food Sally realized how hungry she was so she promptly sat down at the table and quickly started to eat the delicious and spicy curry. With the curry were two types of naan bread, two poppadums and a large portion of pilau rice. Halfway through this mountain of food she started to get full so she had a little break during which she turned on her television and flicked through the channels until she found something remotely watchable.
It was a programme that made a normal person into a manufactured pop star and this seemed to be the preliminary heats. At first Sally, who continued to slowly make her way through the food, could not believe the rubbish she was watching. Some bloke had just taken to the stage with four judges watching and a large audience too and literally screamed at them instead of singing to them, and then had the nerve to change this scream into a rant when he was rejected. Next to see the judges was a young pretty girl who was practically shaking with nerves. Sally however quickly realized that this pretty girl could sing. One of the judges rejected the girl but the other three, another man and two women, accepted her. The other man sounded Irish and the women seemed nice enough. Then the next person came onto the stage.
The first thing Sally noticed about her was her size. She was a bit on the large side Sally thought, but, as could be evidenced by the previous contestant, first impressions do not count; she might be able to sing. After some initial opening questions one of the lady judges asked her to start. Bizarrely the participant turned her back on the judges and then bent over so all they would be able to see would be an enormously large butt. Poking over the top of her tight spray on jeans was a purple thong and at this sight Sally burst out laughing.
‘Can I get a little spanky, spanky!’ And on each spanky the girl spanked her own bottom.
Sally stopped laughing and instead just sat there bewildered. She presumed that this was some kind of joke until the camera changed and showed the horrified faces of the judges. One of the female judges was doubled up with laughter and the Irish judge was trying desperately to contain his mirth.
Sally realized that this was in fact meant to be a serious audition and she started laughing too. And it got worse because that was all the poor girl did. She remained bent over spanking her own butt repeating those words for another thirty seconds although to the judges it must have felt like an eternity.
Eventually one of the judges asked her to stop. ‘Well, that was a unique performance.’
‘Thank you.’
‘No, you misunderstand me, unique for totally the wrong reasons. Did you seriously, seriously expect when you woke this morning that if you did a song, sorry, that is disrespectful to songs, a routine like this that we would put you through to the next round?!’
‘I was hoping that it was what you were looking for, uniqueness?’
The Irish one took over. ‘The problem is you didn’t sing. You just spanked your own bottom!’
At those words the woman, who had managed to control herself, burst out laughing again. The other female judge asked the woman whether she wanted to put her through to the next round and between bouts of laughter she managed to state a negative and then all the judges responded in the negative.
For one horrible moment it looked like the girl was going to question their decisions but instead she just said, ‘Thank you for seeing me,’ and left quietly and quickly.
All through this Sally had been laughing loudly and by the time the commercial break had finished she had eaten her fill and settled herself on her bed still watching the programme. Slowly but surely the previous night and the early morning caught up with her and her eyes got heavier and heavier until they slowly closed.
An hour or so later there was a discreet knock on the door and her father entered the room when there was no answer. He approached the bed and saw her daughter fast asleep, her black hair cascading over the pillow. A lump caught in his throat as he saw the image of his wife present in his beautiful daughter. He walked to the side of the bed so he was directly over her and placed a delicate kiss on her forehead. She was lying on the thick duvet so he pulled each half over her so she was wrapped up in the blanket and then walked over and turned off the television. Quietly he walked back to the side of the bed and kissed her forehead again. He studied her for a few moments and then walked back to the bedroom door and turned off the light. Opening it quietly he left the room casting a glance over to his beautiful daughter’s sleeping body and closed the door leaving her to her dreams.
Chapter 18
The Z4’s rear end hung out around the sharp left hand bend and for a second, to the casual observer, it looked like the car was on the brink of spinning out of control. Instead, the reactions and skill of the driver snapped the BMW back into line with a touch of corrective steering. The power of the car forced it to over-steer, so even though the car was still turning left, the wheels were briefly pointing to the right. In a split second the driver straightened the car onto a short stretch of road and then reached a sharp right hand bend and the process was repeated.
The rear wheels of the car were smoking and screeching and no doubt if Michelle’s parents could have seen what she was doing they would have both collapsed in a heap of severe shock. Now she reached a longer straight stretch of road and she floored the accelerator enjoying the feeling of the g-forces pressing her body into the seat. She knew the country lane like the back of her hand and she knew the braking point for the upcoming hair-pin bend. Pressing the brake pedal she quickly changed down through the gears, leaving the revs high so the engine was screaming every time she changed gear. With a touch of the brakes her left hand left the steering wheel and applied the handbrake. She slid gracefully around the corner, again applying corrective steering when necessary and then floored the accelerator at just the right moment to maintain the optimum level of momentum. The car quickly reached seventy miles an hour and twenty yards before a thirty mile an hour restriction she firmly pressed the brake pedal and dropped the speed of the car to the appropriate speed. After another half a mile she took a right and a quick left turn and then stopped the car after a few hundred yards outside her grandfather’s house. She quickly checked her hair and then stepped out of the convertible roadster. Michelle walked up the garden path and rapped on her grandfather’s door, leaving the Z4 to cool down after its speedy trip through the country.
*
The fact that Michelle was able to drive in the manner she did was down to having the daughter of a billionaire as a best friend and the billionaire having an ex-professional racing driver as a chauffeur.
Just over a year ago when they had both just acquired their provisional driver’s licenses, Mr. Gallagher arranged for Silverstone Racing Circuit to be put at his disposal for a few days. It was his plan to have Ray teach Sall
y evasive driving tactics for her own security should she ever require them. Sally reluctantly agreed to this, she thought it was such a male thing to be doing, if she could take her best friend along with her. It turned out to be “one of the funnest times of their lives”.
For three days, under the direct supervision of Ray, all they did was throw expensive cars around the Silverstone Circuit using both the full Grand Prix circuit and the smaller, tighter inner circuits. First of all they started in brand new Mini Coopers and then they were upgraded to Subaru World Rally cars that were just about road legal. Then to master the art of sliding round corners using vast amounts of over-steer, Ray introduced them to the perilous TVR Tuscan that was vastly overpowered for the handling capabilities of the car. The girls spent most of that afternoon spinning around in circles after trying to over-steer round some tight hair-pin bends.
However, under the expert tuition of their teacher they mastered the TVRs and were then upgraded the next day to two supercars from Sally’s father’s collection. The first was a Ferrari Enzo, price approximately four hundred and fifty thousand pounds. The second was the fastest, most expensive road car ever built, the Bugatti Veyron, priced at around a million pounds.
Sally and Michelle spent the rest of the third day flying around Silverstone in these two brand new supercars, honing and mastering their newly developed skills. At the end of the day Ray announced that they were now competent and then told them that Sally’s father wanted them to spend a day with him every six months to keep their skills finely tuned.
*
Michelle thought of these three days as she waited for her grandfather to open his door. She knew the next day was approaching fast and it was a highlight of each half year for her. Sally could, although she never did, go to her daddy’s garage and use a million pounds sports car whenever she felt like it, whereas Michelle had to wait for the day to come round when the supercars arrived in a truck at a racing circuit somewhere in the country. Sally had told her during a drunken moment a few months ago that she had been sworn to secrecy by her father with the fact that he was in negotiations to let his daughter and her best friend go for a lap each in a sports car around the streets of Monaco on the weekend when the Monaco Grand Prix was due to take place. Obviously the negotiations had failed because it never happened; even Sally’s daddy had a limit to what his money could buy. Her reverie was interrupted with a rattle on the other side of the door as her grandfather removed the security chain and opened the door.
‘Grandfather! How are you?’ Michelle flung herself into the old man’s embrace and gave him a big long kiss on his left cheek.
‘Well, I was feeling a bit down but now I feel top of the world! How are you precious?’
‘I’m fine. Glad to see you.’ A small dog approached slowly down the hallway to see who the visitor was. Upon seeing it was Michelle its tail started to vigorously wag and he leaped up on to his back legs and pawed at her legs. ‘And here’s Jack! Hallo boy!’ Michelle scooped up the small King Charles spaniel into her arms and received lots of licks on her face for her troubles. ‘Now, now! You are drowning me boy! Here you go, down you go.’ She placed the old dog gently onto his feet and linked an arm with her grandfather. ‘Now then Arthur, what treats have you got planned for a young lady who is just itching for a good time?’
‘You missed out the word beautiful!’
‘Oh grandfather, why can’t all men be as charming as you?!’
‘You’ll find someone as good as me one day.’
‘I don’t think I will!’
‘No, neither do I actually. I’m one of a kind!’
Michelle laughed kindly at her grandfather’s joke and they made their way along the hall after closing the front door. ‘Well, I was hoping we could do what we usually do. Take Jack out for a w-a-l-k to the Rose, have a meal and play some bar games. If I remember rightly I owe you a drubbing at pool!’
Arthur spelled out the word walk because even in his advanced years the word when spoken in full still sent the spaniel crackers. And Michelle let a smile flash across her face at his mention of pool.
She knew he was a pool-shark. However, since they had started playing he had only ever won a handful of games and these usually occurred when Michelle pocketed the black ball out of sequence. For about six months she just simply thought he was not very good. He kept on losing and no matter how hard she tried to throw the game she always ended up winning. Her thoughts about him quickly changed after one night.
*
The Rose and Crown was a quiet local pub, regulars in every night, same people drinking the same drinks. One night though there was a group of rowdy young men present who had obviously mistaken the pub for a noisy high street bar. Her grandfather and she had just started their second game of pool when the men crowded themselves around the table. When they saw how poorly the players were they became even cockier. Every time Michelle bent over to take a shot there was a chorus of wolf-whistles and they gave her grandfather advice every time he approached the table. Halfway through the game one of the men placed money on the table and stated one of them would play the old man for the table. Arthur jokingly accepted the challenge.
The game went badly. Her grandfather missed the easiest of shots and at some points appeared to be shaking. He got badly beaten and then bizarrely asked the young man whether he wanted to make it interesting. Arthur produced a twenty pound note and the young man could not accept the bet quickly enough. He placed a twenty pound note on top of Arthur’s and re-racked the balls.
‘Grandfather. You don’t have to do this. It is okay. Let them play if they want to.’
‘Come on now darling. It is not as if he is playing for pride. He lost all his pride during the last game!’ Michelle’s cheeks flushed and her grandfather looked her straight in the eyes and winked.
The game went almost as badly as the first. Arthur was getting badly beaten and he had seven balls left whereas the young man only had the eight-ball to pot to win. At first Michelle did not notice. It was only when Arthur approached the table after the man had snookered himself on the black and then fouled that Michelle realized something; her grandfather had played the first and much of this frame with his right hand. He now lined up with the cue firmly in his left and Arthur cleared up without moving. Every shot he took the cue ball ended up in exactly the same place it had started from. Michelle stood there gob-smacked as did the young men. She had heard that some professional snooker players sometimes play shots so they do not have to move around the table but not her grandfather!
When the black was sunk by Arthur he reached over and took the two twenties and gave them to Michelle. He then turned to the men and said, ‘Let that be a lesson to all of you. First impressions don’t count for much and you should always know your opponent before accepting bets. None of you noticed I played with my left hand when playing with my grand-daughter, but with my right during our first game. Oh, and believe me when I say that if I had wanted to I could have beaten you quite as easily with my right hand. I believe that means the table is now ours to continue playing on?’ The men sheepishly nodded. ‘Good. And, if you don’t mind, I would like to play with my grand-daughter without the lewd comments.’ The men, humbled, nodded again.
Michelle silently re-racked the balls and the men quickly finished their drinks and left the pub. She broke off and one of the balls ended up hovering over one of the pockets. Somehow her grandfather managed to miss the ball and sink the white ball into the pocket.
‘Oh well, thought it was too good to last - back to usual!’
Michelle did not say a word.
*
Her grandfather sat rocking in his rocking chair with Michelle opposite him. Jack was curled up in a ball at his feet staring at Michelle as she told her grandfather what she had been doing that week. She missed out the previous nights antics but let him know that she had a new boyfriend. Michelle knew that he would not like the thought of his precious grand-daughter spending the nig
ht at a man’s house so she left it there but he would like the thought of her having a boyfriend. He asked his name and she told him Simon, and after he had told her about his trials in getting the garden prepared for winter which she politely listened to, making comments to show her genuine interest.
After this conversation he stood up and announced that it was time to go to the Rose. Michelle nodded in agreement and went and got Jack’s lead from the cupboard under the stairs. When Arthur had stood up so had Jack and it looked like he was contemplating leaping onto the rocking chair until he saw the lead in Michelle’s hand.
Instead of leaping onto the rocking chair though he leapt up into the air and started yapping and woofing and running in circles throwing in the occasional leap for good measure. This continued until Michelle approached the dog, dropped onto one knee and held out her hand. Arthur had spent a considerable amount of time training his pet and Jack knew that these actions meant calm down, we’ll put your lead on then we can go, so he trotted across to Michelle and sat down. She attached his lead to his collar and then stood to leave. Her grandfather meanwhile had been to get a thick coat, scarf and flat-cap and they made their way back down the hall and left with Arthur locking the door behind them.
On the walk to the pub they went a longer way to give Jack a good run. They walked across big open fields, Michelle always linking arms with her grandfather, Jack sprinting off into the distance and then sprinting back to stop at the their feet for a pat and a stroke and then he was off again. It took them about forty-five minutes to walk to the pub were upon entering Arthur and Michelle were greeted by near enough everyone present. They sat down at a table that was free and instantly people approached asking Arthur and Michelle about their lives. Arthur had quite a reputation for being green-fingered and some of the questions focused on his skills in the gardens. Some of the people who did not come into the Rose very often asked specifically whether he was okay and let them both know that their thoughts were with Arthur and Michelle.
Everything to Nothing Page 14