The Opportunities of Youth

by Donald Phillips

Chapter Ten

  Abandoned, November 1982

  When he arrived at the office on Monday Morning there was a note on Tony’s desk in Angela’s hand telling him Cheryl would there at ten o’clock and could he wait for her. Tony had a meeting at Social Services at ten o’clock with Reece Jones and he was damned if he was going to break it for Cheryl Baxter who, if she arrived at all would probably be late. He thought about it and wondered what form of deviousness the woman was up to now. He knew she had been disciplined for not attending the training course, but he also knew that she had pulled her little girl act and claimed she was under severe stress at home. This had not saved her completely, but had pulled the punishment down from a written warning to a recorded verbal warning. Derek had told him about this and had not been pleased about it.

  He picked the phone up, rang Reece Jones, and asked if they could move the appointment forward to nine. Reece agreed and Tony went straight round there.

  When he got back Cheryl was sat at her desk reading something. She looked up and gave him a big sunny smile.

  “Good morning Tony.”

  Tony felt his hackles go up. If she was being nice what was the witch up to? He nodded.

  “Good morning Cheryl. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

  He had not seen her since her brief appearance at the training course. She smiled again and showed what she had been studying. It was a road atlas.

  “Have you ever been to visit the Social Services office at Clevedon? They run the other half of this area and as that is part of our patch you really ought to get to know them.”

  Tony frowned. That was Roy’s patch as far as he knew some twenty-five miles away. He had Weston and half way up to Bristol while Roy had the other half. Theoretically Cheryl’s job was to overseer everything with a few placements of her own just to keep her hand in and provide backup for him and Roy. He smelt a rat. She saw his hesitation.

  “I know that is Roy’s area, but you should know it as well. What if Roy was ill or left? You and I would have to cope until things got back to normal. Besides Sue thinks we should all know each others jobs and patches.”

  Tony relaxed. So that was it. Sue had told her to do it and after her recent run in with Derek she had decided she had better toe the line.

  “OK, who’s car do you want to use.”

  She gave him another sweet smile.

  “Oh I think we had better use my old banger. I hardly think your car is appropriate for me to arrive in.”

  Tony bit his tongue. This snide remark confirmed his opinion that Cheryl’s sudden amiability was not the genuine article. He collected his jacket. Cheryl stopped.

  “Tony could you leave the jacket here? A full suit makes us look so formal don’t you think?”

  Tony shrugged into the jacket.

  “I have just spent the last hour in Social Services here Cheryl and they all wear suits, even some of the women, so I don’t think it will send them the wrong message.”

  Her sudden scowl, quickly smothered told him this had not pleased her.

  They got into Cheryl’s old clapped out Beetle and the first thing she did was turn on the tape player and switch it up to full volume. Tony guessed this was to prevent small talk and although The Beach Boys would not have been his choice he thought he could stand it for the twenty minutes or so it would take to reach Clevedon. He tried to block out the noise and concentrate on the problem that Reece had just given him.

  The new referral, David Jones, was designated educationally subnormal. Below average height and build he had just left sheltered schooling and just like that would now have to go straight into coping by himself in the big bad world for the sin of having reached the fine old age of seventeen. He lived with his father on the local council estate as his mother had pissed off years ago. His father was a habitual criminal who had spent half of the last thirty years in prison.

  Reece had told him that the father was of above average intelligence, but chose to follow the criminal life. He found being in prison easier that being out as everything was provided and he could spend his time reading and relaxing instead of having to work for it. Every time he got into debt or found life getting difficult he would commit some minor crime and go off to prison for a while for rest and recuperation. Reece warned him that the father would be more difficult to cope with than the son and expressed sadness that a fellow countryman should have sunk so low. He obviously took this very badly.

  Tony had told him that he would take the kid and try to find him somewhere he could work without being bullied. He thought about the local golf club. He had a couple of other kids working there who were in similar circumstances and thought if the kid could cope physically the it might be the answer.

  He realised they were entering Clevedon when Cheryl switched the music down. The pulled into the edge of the road and parked on a double yellow line. Tony assumed that Cheryl realised this and climbed out of the car. Cheryl did likewise and locked it. Without a word she started off down the street and Tony had no choice, but to trail after her. About one hundred yards later she turned into a modern building that had Avon County Social Services written on it. She went up to the reception desk. The woman behind it smiled.

  “Can I help you?”

  Cheryl smiled at her.

  “I would like to see John Hughes.”

  The woman shrugged.

  “Sorry, but he is in a meeting at the moment. Can you come back in an hour?”

  “No” said Cheryl and turned to leave.

  Tony was flabbergasted. He made a quick apology to the woman, gave her one of his cards and said he would call John Hughes later in the day. He turned and went after Cheryl. He caught up with her at the car. She was crumpling up the parking ticket that had been under one of the wipers. She looked around and saw the warden who had just placed it there. She walked towards him and tossed it into a litter bin some two yards from where he stood. She gave him a great big beaming smile and walked back to the car. She unlocked the driver’s door and put one leg into the vehicle. She turned to Tony.

  “ I have to go to Bristol now. You can catch the bus back to Weston over there.”

  She slid the rest of her body into the vehicle and starting the engine drove off and left him standing there. For a moment he just could not believe it. He counted slowly to ten and while doing so realised that this was a turning point. Then he went into the local tobacconist and changed a pound for various other smaller coins. He walked along the street to a pay phone and went inside. He dialled the ACYOP head office number.

  “Avon County Youth Opportunities,” said the voice. "Bloody trainee," thought Tony. "Just my luck."

  He thought for a moment.

  “Can you put me through to Sue Mandelowe’s phone please.”

  There was a moment’s silence and then the trainee came back on.

  “Mrs Mandelow has someone with her at the moment I am afraid. Can I take a message?”

  Tony felt the frustration strike him like a fist. He struggled to remain calm and then he felt the iciness that sometimes came over him when he was really angry and was suddenly calm.

  “Please tell Mrs Mandelow that Tony Filton needs to talk to her urgently about Cheryl Baxter and it cannot wait. If I cannot talk to her then she has my resignation as of now.”

  There was a moment a silence on the other end and Tony felt sorry for the girl trainee, but thought it would give her some wonderful gossip to share with the rest of the clerical trainees for the rest of the day. She recovered.

  “Just a minute Mr Filton.”

  There was another pause and then Sue’s voice came on the line.

  “Tony, what the bloody hell is going on.” She sounded annoyed.

  “What is going on Sue is that mad witch Cheryl Baxter brought me over here on the pretext of meeting the Social Services personnel and then drove off and left me here without transport. I want someone here to pick me up within half and hour or I will get a taxi and charge it to ACYOP. The
n I will write out my notice and deliver it to you in person, as I can no longer work with this crazy woman. Either she goes or I do and I don’t much care which it is. I will be outside the Social Services offices in Cleveland for the next half an hour.”

  He hung up and went to sit on the bench at the bus stop Cheryl had pointed out. The wind off the Bristol Channel was icy and it reminded him of how the Baxter bitch had tried to get him to leave his jacket at the office. The woman really was crazy. He had been there twenty minutes and thinking he would have to find a cash point before he could get a taxi when he saw one of the ACYOP minibuses coming along the street. He stood and waved to catch the driver’s attention. The minibus pulled into the bus stop and halted. Tony opened the front passenger door and climbed in.

  The driver was a stocky and very fit looking man of under average height. He was in his mid thirties, balding, had a full, closely cropped beard and looked more than averagely fit. He spoke.

  “Tony Filton? They said to look for a guy in a suit. Car broken down then?”

  He held his hand out and Tony shook it, tensing his hand for what he knew was going to be a stronger than usual grip. It was.

  “Keith Derrick, Land Use Unit. Sue said to take you back to the office. Have you arranged for the tow truck for your car?”

  Tony nodded. He was not prepared for this to be all over ACYOP until he was ready.

  “My car will be fine, thanks Keith, who is looking after your kids?”

  Keith smiled.

  “There are two groups of us working at an old farmyard a few miles from here renovating it for use as a City Farm. Unusually for an old ruin it has a phone, which is why I got the job of picking you up. My mate can handle both groups for an hour or so. What unit are you with?”

  Keith was driving the minibus as though it had a Ferrari badge on the front instead of Ford and Tony would be glad when they reached the office. He took his eyes from the road long enough to tighten the seat belt and answer.

  “Special Unit.”

  Keith nodded as if he had seen the light, while at the same time overtaking a bread van regardless of the bend and the double white line.

  “The bloke with the MGB. Saw it when you were up here on induction, nice car.”

  Tony sighed. People seemed to know more about his old MGB and his clothing than they did about him. Keith thought for a moment.

  “You work with Cheryl Baxter, don’t you?”

  Tony nodded and Keith continued.

  “You be careful there mate. I know she looks very shaggable, but take my advice and keep it in your trousers. Not worth the risk that one. She could get you into trouble.”

  Tony nodded and bit his lip. The thought of shagging Cheryl Baxter had never entered his head. Strangulation and dismemberment of her had crossed his mind frequently, but definitely not shagging. After this nothing much more was said and Keith concentrated on breaking all previous records for the trip from Cleveland to the Bristol Office.

  After Keith had dropped him at the gate Tony walked up the stairs to reception. The receptionist who Tony now knew was called Sandra, looked up and froze.

  “News travels quickly,” thought Tony. "The Trainee must have blabbed."

  Sandra made herself smile.

  “Hello Tony, Sue is expecting you. She is in with John Jeffries and you are to go straight in.”

  She smiled again and pointed into the main hall of the school. Tony followed her pointing finger and crossed the main floor walking between the various desks to John Jeffries office on the far side. Everyone kept on working away and only a couple of people he had met before gave him a nod. Obviously Sandra had a closer mouth than her trainee. There was a piece of paper taped onto the door with Jeffries’ name on it plus the original legend etched into the glass that said History. He tapped on the opaque glass of the door and waited. It opened almost at once and Sue Mandelow stood there.

  “Come in Tony and meet John Jeffries.”

  Tony entered the office. Behind the laden desk was a large man in his late fifties. He had thinning hair and glasses and his dress told Tony that an office was not his natural environment. He was more of an outdoorsman. Jeffries stood and shook Tony’s hand before collapsing back into his chair, while at the same time indicating another chair to Tony. He folded his hands over his large stomach and looked at Tony.

  “OK tell me about it. All of it.”

  Tony looked at Sue who nodded in return. Using as few words as possible and keeping it entirely unemotional Tony went right though it. When he had finished he gave a small shrug.

  “I think that is everything, but the main point is this. I have put up with this woman’s madness and deviousness for over three months. In any industrial or commercial environment she would have been fired weeks ago. I thought I could outlast her until you all realised what was happening and fired her, but that has not happened and as far as I can see it is not going to happen. This morning I suppose was the last straw and I have had enough. I can live with her not wanting me in the job, but eventually her petty spitefulness will get to me when I least expect it and I will do something stupid. That of course is what she wants. Apart from that I feel that I am not getting any backup from any other quarter and you people would rather I went away and stopped rocking the boat than get rid of this lunatic who really does have some enormous mental and emotional problems. You must have heard about her performance on the training course?”

  No response.

  “This is my limit I am afraid. If I have to keep working with Cheryl Baxter I will hand in my notice. Over to you.”

  John Jeffries chewed his lip.

  “How many kids you got?”

  “None.”

  “No. How many trainees have you got?”

  Tony was a bit confused. He had thought the question was asked to show him that childless people did not understand teenagers. He realised that he was getting a little paranoid and forced himself to relax. “Ice cold Tony. Pretend he is the Union’s Convenor. Ice Cold.”

  He made a show of counting them up on his fingers.

  “Thirty two.”

  “You can’t handle that many and do the job properly, Tony. Fourteen is the maximum recommended”

  “Yes I can. Cheryl Baxter gave me more than that the day I arrived. Half of them were with farmers who were exploiting them. None of them had seen anyone from ACYOP for two months and I had to transfer eight of them to other placements. If you want to know why ask the Safety Officer.”

  He paused.

  “I reckon I could take up to forty if I had to, but that would be the limit.”

  Jeffries looked askance.

  “What about the requirement to see them every two weeks to check up on their progress?”

  “I see them all every week to do that. I see the kid first, on his own, to see how he is getting on and what he has been learning and then I talk to his immediate superior. It takes half an hour. Every other week I take the kid out of the building to a cafe or we just sit in the car and just talk to him. The placements did not like that at first, but they got used to it when I explained that kids do not tell you the truth when their workmates are in earshot. Doing it like that you soon know if everyone is happy and if there are any problems.” He shrugged. “Most of the kids like what they are doing. If they don’t I move them before it becomes a problem. Most of the time it is because they just don’t like the work or there is a clash of personalities. I give each kid two moves before I start getting heavy about work is for money and sometimes you have to work with people you do not like much.”

  He shrugged again.

  “After all, I know what that feels like.”

  John Jeffries sighed. He looked at the ceiling for a moment. When he looked down Tony was holding out a sheet of paper. Jeffries looked at it warily.

  “What is that?”

  “It is a list of all the placements I have got trainees in. Why don’t you ring any three and check up on how satisfied they are?”r />
  “There is no need for that Tony, I am sure everything is alright.”

  Tony looked at him for several seconds.

  “No you’re not or you would not be giving me that line about too many trainees. My guess is that is what Baxter has said.” He put on a little girl voice. “Tony doesn’t understand how fragile some of these kids are, John. He treats it like an industry. Get them placed and on to the next one. The whole thing is overstretching him and will end in disaster when several of these kids all crash at the same time.”

  Jeffries sat up straight. Tony had evidently touched a nerve.

  “She might be right.”

  “How can she possible know about it when she only has eight trainees, all of whom are placed in just two kiddie nurseries. When has she ever experienced several kids falling off the twig at the same time? I have been running at least twenty, that’s the number Miz Baxter assigned to me in my first week, since I got here. That is over three months. I took a fortnight’s holiday a month ago. None of the kids fell off the twig and I bet if you asked her Baxter does not even know I was missing for two weeks.”

  Tony could see that this had hit home. He softened his approach.

  “Look Sue, John. I am happy here as long as I can keep Baxter off my back. I am a professional trainer and from what I have seen there are very few of us in ACYOP. If you prefer the Baxter approach just tell me and I will resign. After all, I cannot go to the Union as it seems Baxter is now my Shop Steward” He took a deep breath. “It is like this. Get her off my back, and by that I mean completely off my back, move her somewhere else, or accept my resignation. Nothing else will work.”

  He stood up, but Jeffries held up a hand to stop him.

  “You are a Union member?”

  Tony smiled.

  “When I started here I was told that Cheryl Baxter had wanted someone else for the job. Armed with that knowledge I joined the Union on my first day of induction.”

  Mandelow and Jeffries exchanged looks. Tony knew that something was up, but was past caring. He stood up.

  “I am going to find a type writer in the office and type up my resignation. I will leave it on Sue’s desk and wait to hear from you. If you want me to stay you know what is needed, if not you have the resignation. I would appreciate knowing by Friday.”

  He stood up and left. From outside he saw Sue Mandelow had taken his seat and was leaning across the desk talking urgently to John Jeffries.

  As Tony walked across the hall of the school most of the desks were empty as most of the staff were across the road in the pub, at what was euphemistically called lunch. He looked around, as he needed a typewriter. He saw a woman who had given one of the talks at his induction, Anne Jones. He remembered her name because when she was giving her talk Paul, who already knew a lot of the staff in ACYOP had nudged him.

  “Anne Jones,” he said, “best arse in ACYOP:”

  Tony had looked at the woman. About twenty-eight, more pale and interesting than sexy, but in the tight trousers she was wearing he could se that she did have a great bum. He had then forgotten the whole incident, but now he saw she had a typewriter on her desk. He approached.

  “Hello, Anne isn’t it. You gave a talk at our induction.”

  She smiled back at him.

  “Hello, you’re the MBG man I think.”

  She had a soft Irish accent that was at odds with her surname, but looking down at her hand he saw she wore a wedding ring that explained it. He tried the charm approach.

  “Southern Ireland I think, but I am not good enough to pinpoint it exactly.”

  Her look said she knew he was turning on and it didn’t bother her one way or the other.

  “That is about what I would expect from an ex Personnel Manager. What are you after?"

  He was gob smacked. Had his CV been zeroxed and passed around to every bloody staff member. His face told her exactly what he was thinking. She laughed.

  “They broke the rules when they employed you Tony and had to get permission from the County Council because you hadn’t been unemployed for more than a year. It went to the Union and you only made it by a couple of votes. One or two of the shop stewards were definitely against it, but I understand you are proving them all wrong.” She smiled again. “I am glad about that because we have too many bloody teachers here already and another one was not a good idea.”

  Tony was speechless.

  “That Pratt that Cheryl Baxter wanted for my job was a teacher?”

  His voice squeaked on the last word. Anne nodded and then qualified it.

  “Oh he didn’t finish the training. He was OK until he had to actually go into a school and face some teenagers and then he just fell apart. Of course he is Cheryl’s cousin so I expect failing as a teacher may run in the family.”

  Her voice was not exactly friendly. Tony absorbed this.

  “You and she are not exactly friends I take it.”

  Anne pointed to a small frame on her desk that Tony assumed had a picture of her husband or other family member. Anne turned it to face him.

  It had a cheap gold medal of the kind schools give to eleven years olds that win the high jump. It had a cup embossed on it. Underneath that was a brass plaque upon which was engraved,

  “For having the best arse in ACYOP.”

  He couldn’t help it. He tried not to, but that only made him snort. Anne glared, but then softened.

  “It was started by the Land Use crowd, you know Keith Derrick?” Tony nodded. “They came in in January and put a notice on the wall saying that there was going to be this competition and people were encouraged to vote for the woman who best fitted the description. Amazing Grace went ballistic and they had to take it down. We all thought that was the end of it, but they put it up again in the gent’s toilet. The management must have known, but they let it go, probably even voted. Then one Friday in the pub over the road they came in and announced the winner. I wasn’t even there as I was at Social Services that day. I came in at three and nearly every bloke in ACYOP was in here. I had to fight my way to the bloody desk.”

  She paused as if remembering.

  “There it was this little plaque. I picked it up to read it and everyone started clapping. Then Keith Derrick pushed through the crowd and gave me this great big bouquet of flowers. I blushed so much I think it must have Actually reached my arse, but what can you do? I put a good face on it and made a short speech about how honoured I was and then they all clapped again and went home.”

  Tony pointed to her ring finger.

  “What did your husband say?”

  “He was delighted. He works over in the Council offices. Over there they have a Golden Spanner Award.” She explained. “Given to the girl most likely to tighten your nuts. He has been boasting about it ever since.”

  She looked up at him from under her eyebrows.

  “Your Supervisor was the only one who was really not happy about it. She said first that it demeaned women. When that go no reaction she started on only certain types of women get treated like that by men. The type they think might be available if you flatter them enough.”

  She gave him the same look again.

  “I had a short talk with her in the ladies toilet. She denied it all of course, but I think the thought of having to remove my award from her own arse persuaded her to call a halt to the propaganda. Now what is it you came over here for?”

  Her direct approach sent him back to what he was doing here. He borrowed the typewriter and a sheet of paper and an envelope and typed out his resignation, including the reasons. Then he sealed the envelope and left it on Sue Mandelowe’s desk. As he left he lifted a hand in thanks to Anne Jones and went down to his car.

  Tony didn’t tell Tas about it when she phoned him that evening. He knew that she would have encouraged him to find another job and he liked this one. He left it alone thinking that by the time he picked Tas up on Friday evening one way or another it would all be resolved. For the next four days he would c
arry on as usual.