Hi Buddy,
Good News the board want to meet/interview you! The plan is for you to fly over here for a few days, have a look around and informally meet the board. Then there will be a more formal presentation / interview to seal the deal.
Off the record you have no competition, so just don’t blow it and your home free!
I need to know your address so I can write to you officially and send you the airline tickets and itinerary etc. Let me know some dates that you are free but the sooner the better as far as we are concerned.
Regards,
Hank.
Had I been warned that this email was coming I would have anticipated feeling a sense of euphoria, however I simply felt satisfied, why was I not more excited? On reading back through the email I was confident about delivering a presentation on any aspect of my area of expertise. Yes, as immodest as it sounded I was that good.
Hopefully that would carry me in good stead for the interview. I hated interviews mainly because I was as bad at them as I was as good at presentations. Even the few I had been forced to undertake as my career at Luci developed had been dreadful. They were a necessary evil I rationalised and I was sure my presentation and reputation would precede me.
I wrote a response which contained my address and initially told Hank that I was free anytime, I then found myself editing it to suggest I travel in three weeks, after the bank holiday, then I hit send. Why had I done that? It seemed a strange thing to do, to put off the one thing I was waiting with baited breath for, oh well it was done now and at least I would be able to finish the course with my group, I thought to myself.
‘Sorted for moving day?’ Stacy asked.
What? Did she know? How could that be I had communicated with no one but Hank? However the dastardly Richard knew, as did Trudi who had been speaking to Sharon and Jon. My god was confidentiality a forgotten concept!
‘Well, errr. I erm….,’ I had no idea what to say and felt embarrassed and a little ashamed of my behaviour.
‘Don’t worry it will be fine.’
‘You’re sure?’ I was amazed she was taking it so well.
‘Oh yeah. I’ll pick Paul up first and get to you for about Ten. Do you think we will need more than one trip?’
“Moving day”, of course! My belongings that were still at Luci, the sense of relief I felt was so powerful that I was sure it would be virtually visible.
‘Sounds great. Thanks.’
‘Don’t forget,’ she warned. I waited wondering what was coming next, ‘We are clubbing tomorrow night!’
I was in fact trying to forget, desperately trying.
‘Morning Guy’s ‘I said as I entered the classroom.
‘Alright Prof,’ a variety of voices called out.
‘Now then, last day of the week.’
‘Can we go early?’ Tommo asked.
‘Maybe….maybe. Now then who wants to know more about Nefertiti?’
‘Yeah, but I’ve got a question.’ Tommo said.
‘What’s that then?’
‘Was she fit?’
All the boys gave me their undivided attention whilst Jade sighed and said ‘Gordon Bennett!’ as she rested her forehead on her desk’
Recalling that Stacy’s “are you fit then” comment was related to being ready to leave I could not fathom out why Tommo would want to ask such a question. I decided to hedge my bets.
‘What a strange question, she tended as queens do, to come as go as she pleased in her own time,’ they looked puzzled by this response. Realising I was on the wrong tack I changed direction ‘Also… she was young and although no records of physical fitness were kept by the Ancient Egyptians she did give birth six times, successfully I might add. Child birth was potentially fatal five thousand years ago, so she must have been fairly robust.’
‘No Prof,’ Jade said lifting her head from the table. These idiots wanna know if she was nice looking.’
‘Oh I see. Well, Nefertiti means “The Beautiful One Has Come,” so I assume she was.
‘Got a picture?’ Zeke asked.
Well there are hundreds of paintings and images of her in museums all over the world.’
‘Any photo’s?’
‘It was five thousand years ago Dumbo!’ Jade shouted.
They all laughed, including Zeke and I found myself joining in. We talked about Nefertiti’s early life as a queen, the battles that were fought and the intrigue of the Royal way of life. I was surprised to see that we had reached the mid-morning break without any serious disruption.
‘Ok, after break you are going to write me a short piece on her, making sure that you don’t make the same mistake that we talked about individually last time, ok?’
‘What no film?!’ Zeke was a picture of indignation.
‘Yeah afterwards. It is important you can try to write down what you hear as well as what you see. Then we will put the film on after lunch.’
As the day drew to a close I was satisfied to see that all of them had attempted to write something about Nefertiti. The boys with the exception of Kurt had focused on the battles, seemingly revelling in the bloodshed.
Jade had been captivated by the social changes that had occurred and had written nearly a whole side of paper. Kurt however was the one that surprised me the most; he had focused on the political intrigue and the ramifications of the various forms of deceptions I had told them about. He had not written as much as Jade but it was an insightful and concise summary.
‘Can I show you something?’ I asked Stacy.
‘Sure.’
‘Ok, I’ve been working on English with them and these are some of the first pieces they did for me,’ I handed over Tommo, Zeke and Sam’s first writing exercises.
‘After a bit of tutoring they each attempted to correct one aspect of their writing,’ I handed her that day’s work for the three boys.
‘Yeah, I can see. They still have a long way to go but it looks a bit better.’
‘Ok, now compare them to these two.’
She read the work I had given her before she looked up, ‘Well yeah, but it’s not really fair to compare these kids to university students.’
‘I’m not.’
‘So why are you showing me these two then?’
‘Because one was written by Jade and the other by Kurt, today.’
‘No!’
‘Yes and although they are nowhere near university standard they clearly show a level of ability that is seemingly untapped at the moment.’
‘I honestly thought they were pieces of course work or something from your university job.’
‘No, as I said nowhere near. But they show me that Jade and Kurt need to go somewhere else.’
‘Where?’
‘College.’
She looked at me with an incredulous expression on her face. ‘You’re serious?’ I nodded. ‘Well good luck with that mate!’
‘Why what the problem?’
‘Even if you could convince them to go, because they wouldn’t believe you. No college is gonna touch em with their school record.’
‘Oh,’ I had not thought of that.
Saturday morning dawned warm and bright, I was waiting outside for Stacy and Paul to arrive when Alfie appeared.
‘Wotcha mate,’ he said.
‘Hi Alfie.’
‘How’s it hanging? What you doing out here?’
Hanging? No, no idea. I had learnt to quickly move on from some of Alfie’s more confusing comments without exploring them too deeply, mainly as I was afraid of what I might find.
‘Oh, I am waiting for a lift. I am collecting some of my belongings and moving them to be stored somewhere else. Listen I wanted to thank you for the TV, it was really generous and immensely helpful. The guys I teach and the centre altogether really benefit from it.’
He just stared at me for a bit then simply said ‘No worries.’
I was surprised at his low key response, understated and Alfie where two words I would not
normally have expected to be in the same sentence.
‘I’ve had it for years and it was just lying around upstairs doing nothing. Least it’s being used now, course you could’ve just banged the DVD’s into a PC or laptop and they would have probably played ok.’
‘Haven’t got any of PC’s either,’ I said.
Our conversation was broken by Dolly the VW lurching to a halt, oddly Paul was sitting in the rear and Stacy could look across the front seats to grin at us. A switch was flipped in Alfie.
‘Hiya gorgeous! Ya never gave me your number,’ he said.
‘That’s right,’ Stacy replied, leaning across to open the passenger door. She did not offer the expectant Alfie any further comment as I climbed in. I looked at Paul quizzically and Stacy saw my confusion.
‘Ah, it’s ok. He’s just a big Jessie, doesn’t like the front seats. Too close to the windscreen, scares him!’ Paul made no comment so I just smiled at him.
‘I could make you a model!’ Alfie persisted.
‘Airfix?’ she called back. ‘Thanks for the TV!’ she added as we pulled away.
We arrived at the college and collected my boxes nearly filling Dolly to the roof, Paul was very concerned that he may have had to sit in the front as a result but after some logistical trickery and a bit of contortionism thrown in he managed to seat himself in the rear.
We returned to the centre and carried a box each upstairs as Stacy unlocked the various doors that led to the top floor apartment. I could not believe she chose to not live there; the whole apartment was painted white with high ceilings and large windows that matched the church style downstairs. As I walked in and put my box down I was overwhelmed by the sense of space and light. There was an almost tangible sense of tranquillity about the four rooms, a stark contrast to my current abode.
‘Beautiful,’ I said very quietly.
Stacy and Paul continued to traverse back and forth to Dolly bringing the rest of the boxes but I used the vague excuse of ensuring everything was ‘alright’ in order to stay where I was. As wandered through the rooms I was able to imagine that I was in another place and another time, not present day London.
‘Okey doke, that’s it,’ Paul eventually said. ‘Stace is down stairs and is gonna set the alarm we gotta go.’
‘Ok,’ I said as I reluctantly followed him.
We dropped Paul off and headed back to Henrietta Steet.
‘So, at the risk of sounding all girly. What are you wearing tonight?’ she asked me.
‘Oh, clothes of some sort I would imagine.’ What a strange question.
‘Nope! Not gonna cut it,’ she said as pulled up and turned Dolly off. ‘C’mon.’
‘Where are we going?’
‘Your place, I wanna check out your wardrobe.’
I didn’t actually have a wardrobe; I had hangers on pipework mainly.
‘No, no. no and no,’ she said dismissing my trousers one by one. ‘Ah these will do,’ she decided pulling out a pair of black chinos. What shoes you got?’ I pointed to my shoes. ‘Those,’ she decided selecting a pair. ‘Ok now shirts.’
After what felt like an eternity she declared, ‘I just thought you wore this type of shirt to work, they are all equally horrible!’ Don’t you have any, y’know trendy ones?’
‘That’s very unlikely,’ I conceded.
‘Ok, look here’s thirty quid,’ she said pulling some money from her purse.’ Go and get yourself a decent shirt.’
‘No, I can’t take any more money from you!’
‘If you don’t you won’t get in and it will spoil the night.’
‘How?’
‘Well you won’t be there.’
Was that such a bad thing? I thought to myself. ‘Maybe that’s for the best, they are not really my cup of tea, nightclubs. Y’know.’
‘Look not everything is gonna be Earl Grey in life is it? Give it a go, you might enjoy it! Anyway the girls and Paul are paying you in, this is my contribution. We all want you to come, I want you to come. In a trendy shirt!’ she said thrusting the money at me.
Chapter 13.
Standing in a men’s wear store on the high street was yet another trip into the surreal. I was used to buying my clothes online and was unsure about how to go about identifying what I wanted to purchase from the multitude of racks that seemed to be crammed into every corner of the shop. Added to that was the fact that everyone else in there seemed to be under the age of twelve resulted in me feeling somewhat perplexed.
‘You alright there?’ a young man dressed head to toe in black asked me, I was unsure if he was a customer or a member of staff.
My response of ‘No, I think I am in hell,’ made him pause for a moment before he said, ‘Looking for anything specific?’
Well of course I was! I wouldn’t be standing in the high street version of an explosion in a fabric factory if I was not.
‘A shirt,’ I offered.
‘Right, ok. Any particular sort?’
‘One to wear.’
A pause then, ‘Yeah sure. Got a style in mind?’
‘Sleeves and a collar?’ Was all I could think of. Then I had an inspiration, ‘Something trendy? For a nightclub?’
‘Ah, now we’re talking! What colour trousers will you be wearing?’
‘Black.’
‘Excellent, safe choice. Goes with everything!’ he stated confidently. ‘What type of look are you going for?’
Look? How on earth was I supposed to answer that? I didn’t even understand the question let alone have an answer. ‘What does that mean?’
‘Flash? Muscle? Old school?’
None of these things meant anything to me and all sounded hideous, ‘None idiotic?’ I tried.
‘Ah straight, ok no worries.’ He led me to a corner of the shop that did not seem to differ in any way from the rest of it. ‘These are the more…..conventional styles.’ Conventional was a word I liked, things were looking up. ‘Colour?’
‘What about it?’
‘Which one?’ he said gesturing to a rail that contained a kaleidoscope of colours.
‘White?’ I suggested.
He frowned, ‘Ermm nightclub, neon’s. Probably best not if you want to keep a low profile.’
Not having a clue what he had just said to me I replied, ‘Ok, what would you suggest?’
‘For you?’
Well yes! Who else were we talking about? ‘That would seem sensible,’ I said.
‘Ok, this one,’ he said pulling a shirt from the rack. ‘Light yellow, neon’s won’t touch it, understated, goes with black.’
‘How much?’
‘Twenty five quid.’
‘I’ll take it.’
Escaping from the shop with my new purchase I indulged in a nearly passable coffee at the optimistically named Super Coffee with my five pounds change.
‘Been shopping?’ a female voice asked.
I turned only half aware that I was now becoming used to responding to inane statements of the obvious.
‘Err, yeah!’ the sarcasm in my voice was clearly evident but died in my throat as I turned to face my questioner, ‘I have actually.’
‘Hi, I’m Louise,’ she said extending a hand and flashing a dazzling smile. Louise looked like the type of actress that was used to portray a solicitor in those “Have you been injured? No win no fee!” adverts. Attractive, smart professional dress and perfect makeup, it occurred to me that the only thing she was missing was a pair of glasses and a clip board.
‘Marcus,’ I said shaking her hand.
‘I always feel it’s best to meet someone in a venue such as this. It’s safe, neutral territory,’ she said.
‘Err sure,’ I had no idea why she had just said that. Surely approaching strange men was a risk regardless of whether you were in Super Coffee or a dimly lit back alley?
‘So single professional,’ she said. At first I thought it was a question but realised it was in fact a statement.
‘Err yeah, actually I a
m.’
‘Of course you are silly!’ she said with a slight nervous laugh. ‘I knew that!’
Compared to my surreal experience in the men’s wear shop this was rapidly heading for bizarre. I could only assume that she had noticed I did not wear a wedding ring and that my demeanour gave me away as an educated professional. She must have been very astute if a little weird I thought, unsure of what to say next I tried, ‘And you?’
She lost her smile for a moment, ‘Can’t you remember?’ she asked.
I was lost now, how could I remember the details of someone I had never met? I started to worry that she might be in some way deranged, was I at risk here? I looked around for a carer but as no one was paying us the slightest attention. I quickly reviewed my options, play along and subtly make my escape or run from the coffee shop as fast as I could and try not to scream as I did so. For the time being I elected to play along and try and extricate myself with the minimum of disruption, anyway if I ran she may have chased me.
‘Single professional as well of course!’ she said.
‘Really?…..professional what?’ Psychopath? I didn’t add.
‘I’m into drugs.’
Oh lord! She had made that revelation so nonchalantly it sent a shiver down my spine.
‘Actually I’m a dealer,’ she added. Every fibre of my being screamed at me to run, not only was she a psychopath, she was a drugged up psychopath!
She laughed, ‘I’m only teasing!’
I did not care, I just wanted as far away from this woman as quickly as possible.
‘So what about you?’ she asked.
‘Errm, academic.’ I said not wanting to give away anything about myself.
‘Really?’ Worryingly that seemed to have increased her interest. I needed to say something else that would make me seem boring, as hard as that was.
‘Yeah, I study……DNA.’ DNA? Why had I said that?
‘Really?’ again she seemed interested. ‘As in human DNA?’
Not if that is what you are interested in, ‘No. err…..animals.’ Animals? I knew nothing about animals let alone their DNA.
‘That’s fascinating.’
Oh god!
‘Have you been involved in any toxicology tests?’
‘Err no.’
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