Would You Believe Him?

by Jack Hollinson

  Shu arrived home.

  ‘Weekend at last,’ she sighed. She saw the anxious look on Barry’s face. ‘What’s the matter?’ she asked.

  ‘I am afraid I’ve blown it. Onwell have fired me.’

  ‘Fired you? But why? Shouldn’t you get a month’s notice.’

  ‘I don’t know. ‘They just gave me a month’s pay and made me redundant - just like that. I suppose it’s down to the job centre though I can’t think what I will do.’

  ‘Oh dear, oh dear,’ said Shu, picking up their cat, Choosie. She cuddled him close to her face, thinking. She would often do this, keeping her thoughts a secret and Barry had often tried to make her talk to him and express herself.

  She didn’t and this could have been for many reasons which included Shu leaving Barry alone to make up his own mind. She thought that she was in no position to advise, with her lack of English and knowledge about Barry’s position, but it was what he really wanted!

  As was already proven, Barry was a trier and, the next week, he went to the employment agency and looked for a job. One which immediately came to his notice was a shop assistant’s job in the local department store. Jobs were very scarce in the locality at that time so he went for the interview and got the job. It had a miserly salary but, seeing as it was an unspecialised job, he could see why and he kept telling himself that it was saving him money on travel to town and it was just to fill in time so that he could think about his future.

  Barry was working on the stationery counter where a very short old lady was the Supervisor and a girl was an assistant. The department was never busy and so Barry got extremely bored, very quickly. The man who had interviewed him - the buyer - and given him the job, looked a bit gay and he would often come around to talk to Barry. As Barry was quite handsome, this buyer obviously fancied him so Barry made plans never to be alone in the storeroom with him!

  On one occasion Barry had to go into the storeroom with the girl in his department and he was somewhat surprised to see a very scared look come over her face. He wondered whether she expected him to make a pass at her or rape her or something, but Barry only went for beautiful creatures - who were few and far between - and, besides, he was married!

  After about four months in the job, Barry was applying for new jobs for he had decided that he couldn’t stand selling stationery and he had to get back into graphics. He went for an interview with a large publishing house in the next town and was offered a job selling classified space for a business publication. The salary offered was quite low and with the extra travel he wouldn’t have been much better off than he was with the department store, so he continued to look for work and went to the capital as most of the graphics agencies were based there.

  He almost got a job working for one of the biggest design agencies in the country, but just didn’t have enough confidence in himself at the second interview. He was asked if he could do any job given to him and instead of lying and saying, ‘yes, I can do anything’, he was honest and said that he would do his best at any task. That was not good enough - he didn’t get the job.

  He ended up in a tiny design agency employing eight people, plus a few one-man bands, and a design studio in the same set of offices. His job was as Production Manager and even after his absence from graphics for five months; he picked it up again quickly. He was given the job because of his neat appearance and willingness to settle for a relatively low salary. He even had to have an interview with the accountant to settle his wage requirements, but his pleasant manner got him through.

  The staff he had to work with included two young account executives; the Managing Director; the accountant and his female assistant; a young telephonist and an executive. It was a fairly happy atmosphere and Barry got on quite well but, as before, the work came in fits and starts and he often endured long periods of boredom. He rectified this, somewhat, by buying the Times newspaper which gave him plenty to read.

  Lunch-times were always frenetic because at 1 o’clock, work disappeared and backgammon boards appeared all over the office. The executive went into the Managing Director’s office with a straightening of the tie, the accountant went into the print buyer’s office with his assistant hot on his heels and eventually, Barry learnt the game and played with whoever was not playing. Occasionally, this included the Managing Director who liked to play for money and soon, Barry started to enjoy these events for he won a few games and also some money. The real experts were the print buyer and the accountant - Barry never played the accountant but, once or twice, played against Brian, the print buyer, who didn’t even seem to be trying but beat Barry at every game.

  As Barry had time to sit and think when he wasn’t doing things, he could watch the people and the relationships between them. The two account executives got on well, maybe became they were both foreigners, David being from New Zealand and the other, Bella, from Poland. They were always very smart and had fun, joking with each other. Bella was quite nice to Barry and, on the odd occasion, seemed to fancy him but David, on the other hand, could be pleasant at one moment, then really nasty the next. Barry got used to this for when work had been held up for some reason and David was waiting for it, he spat fire in his direction, hoping for results. Barry managed to control his short temper and just told him the reasons for the delay and he could do no more for he didn’t want to start a swearing match.

  The overall reason for this problem was David’s relationship with the female Managing Director. Every evening, David waited until most people had left and then went into her office, closing the usually ever-open door behind him. When Barry was working late, he saw this and guessed what was possibly happening but every night! Crikey - that was some going!

  Barry also often wondered - but never knew - what was going on between the accountant and his assistant for she was always roughly two feet away from him, lapping up his every word. She hardly had a nice word to say to Barry - just abrupt instructions from time to time. This could have been because of the accountant’s strong personality which she adored and so she had no time for anyone else.

  Barry stayed in the agency for a couple of years but, by then, he was again getting fed up with the job. He started looking around again and found himself being interviewed by the Progress Manager of a large international graphics agency, which went well and he was offered the job of Progress Executive. This was the next step up the ladder from production assistant and he had to supervise and encourage the make-up of artwork. He was doing both jobs at present so had the right experience to tackle the new job.

  The Managing Director of his present agency was upset at Barry’s resignation and tried hard to get him to stay. She even asked David to be pleasant to Barry, but when that had no effect, she gave in gracefully.

  Shu was delighted with Barry’s new job and, in fact, his whole family was pleased.

  His Mother thought that Barry was in a good position and should stay there for a long time. Of course Barry had not mentioned his accident and almost thought that he had conquered his limp but this was not the case and, on the first day of his new job, he felt people’s eyes boring into him.

  The department consisted of a manager and two senior executives all about fifty-five or sixty and five other executives of Barry’s age, or younger. It was quite a lively department with people dashing in and out all day, but Barry was not given much work for a long time and so, again, the boredom set in. Barry wondered whether the lack of work was because of his limp and people thought that he couldn’t do anything, being disabled. So Barry had to sit and wait to be given more clients.

  He observed the people in the production department, which was quite an education! The manager worked on the biggest account and there were three assistants and a typist. The typist was one of two girls working in the section - the other being the secretary to the Director of both departments. The production typist sat in her section and giggled at a
nyone who came in, being egged on by the production executives. She certainly didn’t like Barry and seemed to think herself amusing by poking fun at him. Two of the three executives had their own brand of humour whilst the other executive was a quiet, young, married man. Barry respected him the most as he just did his job, without using any confrontational tactics to get a few laughs from the others. Barry soon realised that he had to settle down and get to know this bunch slowly.

  The days turned to weeks and his position improved, both in his work and socially. He was soon given a fairly major client to handle, a major Japanese equipment manufacturer, and so his time was put to better use. He found that he could fill most days with work if he kept a consistent check on the progress of each job going through. Socially - well - things began to happen there, too.

  One of his accounts was with a large supermarket chain and client contact was handled by a senior accounts manager who had a son in the firm. The assistant at client contact level was a handsome young man and Barry noticed - more than once - just how friendly he was getting. Barry tried not to take any notice but, one day, he had to take some layouts to this man’s office.

  ‘Well hi, Barry - how are you?’ Matt gave his usual enthusiastic greeting.

  ’I’m okay, I suppose. I’ve got some layouts here for you to show the client. The copy -date is looming so could I have your comments by next week?’

  ‘Yes, sure Barry.’

  ‘You look very casual today,’ murmured Barry, looking at Matt’s attire of jeans and casual shirt.

  ‘Oh, I’m not seeing clients today,’ replied Matt. I’m going home at lunch-time for a bite to eat. Do you want to come and see my pad?’

  ‘Err... well thanks a lot but I’m already going out,’ lied Barry.

  Of course, it could have been two men out for a laugh but Barry knew better. He had never seen much of Matt and it just didn’t seem right to go to his flat.

  ‘Oh, never mind, perhaps some other time,’ shouted Matt, as Barry made a quick exit.

  Of course, it was Barry’s good looks and quiet nature that were getting him into trouble - just the target for some to take advantage of. Luckily, though, this Matt never bothered him again - he’d obviously got the message!

  The next confrontation came with a truly extrovert female on the accounts handling side. She had a very loud mouth and was not really attractive enough for Barry, so he had never shown much interest in her. She was working on one of his accounts and one day he had to take some proofs up to her.

  When he got there, as usual, she was on the phone and showed no sign of coming off for a second to listen to Barry. He walked around her square patch of floor space in the open-plan office section of the fourth floor. Five minutes dragged by and so Barry was just walking away when she put the phone down,

  ‘Don’t storm off in a huff,’ she said.

  ‘So you are free at last. Listen, I need these back in two days so please can you get approval, sharpish.’

  ‘Well, I’ll try but I need to get some films from the basement. Can you help me look?’

  ‘Yes, okay, I’m not too busy at the moment,’ said Barry, who was usually willing to help others.

  They walked to the lift with Barry being his usual quiet self and the girl, Lucinda, strutting ahead and looking quite pleased with herself. They got out at the basement and walked along the corridor between the storage areas.

  ‘You know, Barry, a lot of things could happen in these dark areas of the store,’ Lucinda said with a provocative gleam in her eyes.

  ‘Oh, you think so’ said Barry and continued walking.

  ‘Yes, a lot of things,’ murmured Lucinda.

  By that time, Barry had reached the room they were heading for and the projectionist was there.

  ‘Hello, there, we’re just here to collect some boxes. What’s in them Lucinda,’ asked Barry.

  ‘Oh, just the commercials for the client, Stampdorn.’

  ‘I’ll get them for you,’ said the projectionist and went away.

  Lucinda just stood in the room looking intently at Barry and he knew that she might want something but he was not going to betray Shu and there was another reason. When he had made love to Shu in the morning, he always felt exhausted for the rest of the day and, by the evening, was ready to go to bed at 9 o’clock. If he did it now, he would have no rest after and he would have to work all day and he also knew that he couldn’t because he feared that everyone would guess - especially Shu! So Barry took no notice and carried the boxes up to the fourth floor.

  ‘Well thanks a lot,’ shouted Lucinda, burning with anger because of her missed opportunity.

  ‘It’s a pleasure,’ said Barry and walked off, smartly, but when he thought about it during the afternoon, he wondered if he had done the best thing.

  Things were getting a bit stale in his relationship with Shu.

  Whether it was boredom or whether they were falling out of love, Barry didn’t know as he got home one evening

  ‘Shu, we must speak.’

  ‘What about?’

  ‘I think we need some time off from our relationship,’ said Barry, with a sad look on his face.

  ‘Why? What have I done?’ asked Shu, baffled at the statement.

  ‘Well, you haven’t done anything particularly wrong, it’s just that I need some time to think about where I’m going. And maybe you need some time to yourself as well.’

  ‘What will you do? Where will you go?’

  ‘I’ll go back to mother, for a while. She’s still got a three bedroomed house with only two people living there, so...’

  ‘Back to mother, eh?’ said Shu, with a look of scorn on her face.

  ‘Yes, that’s right,’ scowled Barry. ‘I’ll be off tomorrow morning.’

  They slept in separate beds that night and the next morning Barry took very little time to pack his clothes into a suitcase.

  ‘I’ll phone you and discuss things and how I feel next week. Goodbye,’ and with that, Barry had gone, leaving Shu standing silently on the doorstep.

  He made the journey in under an hour and was greeted by his mother.

  ‘Hello, Barry. Come in and take your suitcase up to Ivan’s old bedroom. You’ll be sleeping there because Anthony has your old room to himself, now.’ As Barry walked past her, he could hear her mumbling, ‘I thought you got married too young,’ but took no notice. He knew he had been right at the time.

  Barry’s grandparents on his mother’s side had just moved out of their beautiful, five bedroomed detached house into a two bedroomed bungalow, much nearer to Patricia because she had guessed that as they grew older, they would need much more assistance from her so it would help if they were nearer. The next day, Barry decided to go and see them and find out how they were.

  ‘Hi, Nan, and how are you?’ said Barry when he got there.

  ‘Plodding on, I suppose,’ said his grandmother, wearily. The move had been a big operation for her and she was getting used to the new surroundings slowly. ‘Your granddad’s in the lounge. He’s not feeling too good, these days,’ she whispered. ‘Your mother has told me why you are up here but please don’t tell him - it would upset him too much.’

  ‘Oh, right. Hello, grandad. Are you watching the cricket? It looks like a good day for it.’

  His grandfather glanced from the television for a moment and looked up at Barry.

  ‘And where’s my girlfriend?’ He had immediately noticed that Shu wasn’t there.

  ‘She, err, she’s at home, doing some work. I didn’t bring her up, today,’ said Barry, trying to sound convincing.

  ‘Make sure she comes up next time,’ said his grandfather. ‘Or else there’ll be trouble!’ He liked Shu very much and that’s why he called her his girlfriend. Barry nodded and laughed.

  ‘Oh,
take no notice of him,’ said his grandmother, who was used to her husband’s ways. ‘I’ll tell him when he’s better.’ She said this because he had suffered a mild stroke, the previous year, and although he made a very good recovery at the time, he had gone downhill since the move. Barry stayed a little while longer, offered his help in any way that they needed and then left to go and prepare for the coming week.

  The week progressed and Barry, using the nearest railway station, met an old friend whom he had known when he was in the scouts.

  ‘Say, hi, Barry. What are you doing over here?’ It was Roy, a year younger than Barry, but a friendly sort of man.

  ‘Hello, Roy. I’m just staying at my mother’s for a while.’

  ‘Yeah, I see, but I thought you were married to that Japanese girl?’

  ‘Chinese, actually. Yes, well, I’m at my mother’s house at the moment.’

  ‘Oh, I see.’ Roy was quick to catch on and Barry was not good at lying. ‘Had a bit of a split-up, have you?’

  ‘Temporary separation, you could say. I’m just finding my feet.’

  ‘Well, good luck. You need it!’

  Barry could see that Roy genuinely thought that he had had a great deal of hard luck and he was wishing him well. Barry was pleased with the good wishes and the two chatted all the way up to town.

  When he got home, that evening, he went in to find his mother with an ashen face.

  ‘What’s the matter, mum?’ he asked.

  ‘It’s your grandmother. She’s had a heart attack and she’s died.’

  ‘Oh no, what? I thought she was fit and it was grandfather we had to watch out for,’ said Barry, clearly grief-stricken.

  ‘Yes, so did I, but all that worry must have put too big a strain on her heart. Oh, it’s not fair.’ Patricia’s red eyes swelled with tears and Barry had to console her. ‘It’s not nice to say this, but I’m glad you’re here, Barry.’

  ‘I know what you mean, it’s okay,’ said Barry, comfortingly. ‘Is it all right if I phone Shu and tell her? She’ll be sorry to hear this.’