The Race

by Ian Berry

  The whole thing seemed to take forever but in fact took less than an hour. Just as well as we had to get Rio to school. She had stuff to tell us.

  “Take my camera with you. I’d rather not take it to school anyway. Download the pictures to your machine at the plant and send them to Dan.”

  “Sure about your camera?” asked Saskia. “About us taking it I mean?”

  “Yes, absolutely. Better with you than in the office at school. I know you’ll look after it.”

  With Rio delivered on time, we continued on to the plant.

  “Late this morning Saskias? Oversleep did you?”

  “Actually no, Petra,” said Saskia. “We were up about five. Done a photo shoot. The light’s so much better at that time of the morning. Don’t you think so.”

  “Go on. The pair of you.”

  “Petra,” I said gently. “Just for once, it’s the truth. Come up to the office when you get a break and we’ll show you.”

  “Saskia, I’m ... Ah, yes. I’d like that, thank you.”

  In our office, I connected Rio’s camera to our computer, downloaded all the pictures from this morning, then carefully put the camera away. All the pictures were sent onwards to Dan at the paper. I knew there was a plan, I just hoped he and Rio were working to the same plan. I had plans of my own which involved the picture of Saskia and me standing back to back.

  “Need to check James is ok with the name and logo thing. I’m printing just this one. Won’t be wonderful but it’ll show him what we’ve done.”

  “Yeah. I like that one.”

  “Going to get Dan or Rio to print it on a photo printer. Then frame it and give it your dad. What d’you think?”

  “Oh, brilliant idea! This we must do, no question or argument. Can’t we do it here, now?”

  “Sorry Twin. We don’t have the right sort of printer. Best we can do is an ordinary inkjet. Gives results like this. Ok, but not wonderful.” I waved the sheet the printer had just chucked out.

  We went to see James. Amanda wasn’t immediately around so we used plan B, which involves tapping on the door and waiting.

  “Come on in. Oh, hello, you two. Didn’t expect you in today.”

  “We’ll only be out some of the time,” I said. “Need to check something with you.” I handed over the picture. “That’s what we’ll be wearing on Sunday.”

  “Wow. You look a bit nice like that. Is that the logo on your hats? Oh, and the name on your overalls. Good idea, I like that.”

  “Thanks, James. Barry say’s if there’s anything else you want your name on on Sunday, just say.

  “A couple of seats for Lydia and me springs to mind.”

  “Consider it done, Boss.”

  “I need to speak to your Barry anyway. I’ve got a proposition for him.”

  Neither of us said anything. Eyebrows were raised in question and we waited for James to explain.

  “You know I like to do stuff for the employees, children’s party at Christmas - which I need to speak to you about later - and stuff like that? We used to do a plant outing each year but we gave that up when we couldn’t get everybody to agree where they wanted to go. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh, yes. I think that a corporate trackday several times a year would be a good idea. Fully paid for by the Corporation. What I’d like to do is get you two to persuade some of the women to have a go and see if we can’t get a girls versus boys competition going. Any thoughts?”

  “James, that’s a wonderful idea. Can we tell Barry? Get him to speak to you about it?”

  “Yes. In fact I insist on it. Naturally all events will be organised by the SPD. Up for it?”

  “Try stopping us!” said Saskia.

  We were in quite high spirits when we left James. “Don’t know about you but I need a hot chocolate,” I said.

  “Me too. The cafeteria calls.”

  Down in the cafeteria we were spotted by some of the drivers. “Hi Saskias. What’ve you got there? Something for the noticeboard?”

  “Not really,” I said. I went and joined them while Saskia went to collect refreshments.

  “Come on. Let’s see. Oh wow. You two look great. I like the hats. Got any more?”

  “Hm. Maybe. What about if we get enough for the whole Section? Fancy wearing them all the time?”

  “I like that idea. What d’you think, you lot?”

  There was much muttering. The consensus seemed to be they liked it. As far as I knew, their uniform didn’t include a hat or cap. That was about to change. Saskia returned with mugs.

  “This lot want to nick our hats.”

  “Good idea. I think they’d look great.”

  “The SPD might organise it. That ok with everybody?”

  “Yes, seems to be,” said Charlie. “What’s the getup for anyway girls?”

  We explained about the race on Sunday. “It started out as a request to go watch a trackday but it’s turned into a sort of event to raise awareness for Barry Grenville’s operation. Try to get him some more punters.”

  Charlie had a thoughtful expression. “Want a support act?”

  “What d’you mean, Charlie?” asked Saskia.

  “Well - me and Steve over there used to do truck racing a few years ago. You drive a tractor unit as fast as you can round the circuit. Fun to watch ‘cause the thing looks like it’s going to tip over most of the time. Won’t really of course. We could borrow a couple of the Corporation rigs.”

  “Really? That could be good. Not a race though, against the clock, one at a time.”

  “We did that too. Works like cycle racing when two cyclists set off half a lap apart and see what the difference is when they finish. Not really racing, you can’t come unstuck trying to overtake.”

  “Right,” I said. “You’re on. Subject to a couple of things. One, you have to check with Sir James. Bear in mind the Corporation Insurance won’t cover you if anything happens. Two, we need to check with Barry Grenville that he’s happy with that. We’ll get back to you about point two.”

  “And we’ll let you know about point one,” said Charlie. “I’m looking forwards to it actually.”

  “Since you’re here and have offered your services,” I said. “I shall tell you a secret - not to be revealed on pain of pain.” I told them about James’ plans for trackdays. I told myself it was market research. The consensus seemed to be ‘brilliant’.

  Now we had to get the telly people sorted and do a more general press release. We have lots of nice people working with us, Jeff offered to do the press release while Melanie offered to sort out the mailshot. We thanked both of them, told them where to find the pictures from this morning, found the DVD we needed, put some pictures on a spare memory stick and left to visit the TV Newsroom.

  I’d expected a bit of faffing around at the TV studio but a surprise awaited us. The Receptionist knew who were, didn’t even ask our names. She picked up her phone, muttered into it and a girl appeared from the Newsroom as if by magic.

  “Ray’s told everybody what you’re doing. We’re really quite interested. We were going to contact you for a bit of background but you’ve saved us the bother.”

  I thought very quickly. I didn’t want everybody to know that Barry had a problem, that wasn’t fair. A small fib seemed in order. I whispered to Saskia.

  “Not going to tell them Barry’s got problems. Make it up as I go along. Follow me?”

  “Yeah. Where you go, I follow. Make it good.”

  They got us sat round a table with various interested parties, mostly taking notes.

  “It started when our photographer friend asked if we could arrange for her to take pictures of stuff going fast. You know her, Rio? She was around last week?”

  There was much nodding.

  “We thought maybe ra
cing cars, so we rang Barry Grenville at the circuit who’s a friend of ours. He traded us Rio taking pictures for the two of us doing laps in his pocket racing cars. You will appreciate that he doesn’t get many girls on his trackdays, perhaps he wants to encourage them to try.”

  Now for the fibs, listen up Saskia. “The last time we did this, Saskia beat me, despite it being only the first time she’d done it. I at least have a background of sorts, my Uncle Richie used to race at club level. Now, we can’t have this. I’m going to try and see if I can win back the crown for the Chandlers. Needless to say, it’s currently being worn by the Hunt family.”

  “But why go to all this trouble to publicise it? Speaking to us and, as I understand it, the local paper.”

  “All to do with exactly that - publicity - and helping a couple of our friends along the road to achieving what they want to do in life. That last is not important to outsiders and we won’t elaborate. But the circuit itself, and the Robinson Corporation - who we work for of course - there’s nothing like a bit of publicity.”

  “And we are quite well known,” said Saskia. “Rather than have you lot descend on us at the last minute, just for a change we can try to control our own destiny a bit.”

  There was general laughter at this - which was what Saskia had been trying for of course.

  “Do you have a DVD machine? Play this and you’ll see what it’s all about.”

  They did this. The DVD wasn’t long, only about five minutes. Then I produced the memory stick. “Some publicity shots.”

  This was pushed into a computer and the pictures brought up on a monitor.

  “Hoo. Somebody looks tasty!” That got him a glare from the several females sitting with us. “Sorry, sorry. But you do.”

  “Ok. Can you make anything from all this? We don’t mind what you do.”

  They went into a huddle. There was a lot of muttering. I didn’t listen in with super hearing, they’d tell us in a minute. Instead, I whispered to Saskia.

  “Ok with everything so far, Twin?

  “Seems ok. Not sure about this rivalry thing. I don’t want to be better than you.”

  “And I don’t want to be better than you but it’s a good excuse.”

  “Let’s go with it. Oops, they’re back.”

  “Ok. Not live. You probably won’t be able to run the timetable accurately enough and there’s no slot on a Sunday anyway. So we’ll shoot it single camera and chop it up in time for transmission on Monday. Ok so far?”

  We nodded. There was obviously more yet. There was. I was unprepared for exactly what the ‘more’ would be.

  “We’d like you in the studio on Friday for the early evening slot. Can you wear the overalls?”

  Oh blimey! Now what had I let us in for. I leaned over to Saskia and whispered to her, a ‘normal’ whisper, “Are we all right with this?”

  “Don’t see why not. We can let Jeff tell us what to expect and give us advice.”

  “Ok. Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutant.”

  “What, Twin?”

  “Latin. Means ‘Hail, Caesar, those about to die salute you’. Details later.”

  “Ok. Your Friday program. Let us know the time and place.”

  One of the girls said, “I heard the Latin. It won’t be that bad.”

  “We’ve been interviewed before, Frank over there actually did it, at the flour mill thing. It seems like it’ll be different in the studio somehow,” I said.

  While we’d been talking, the DVD and memory stick had been copied. I supposed the pictures of us would go into file somewhere to be dragged out now and then whenever we did anything interesting.

  Saskia drove us away from the studio in quite high spirits. “We’re going to be on the telly again.”

  “Looking forwards to it, Twin?”

  “Yes. Aren’t you?”

  I thought hard. Ever since I’d been changed to be a girl, my destiny was no longer my own. My destiny was to be a girl companion to Saskia, no matter what my past had been. If she was happy then I found I was too. I discovered I was looking forwards to it. Two Saskias against the world.

  “Yes, Twin. I find that I am. You’ll note from the pause that I thought about it first. I had to, give my background. I had the thought about two Saskias against the world. The world had better watch out, I think it ought to go and hide.”

  Fifteen

  Naturally we had to buy a copy of the paper on the way home. Archie had us on the front page! There was a smallish picture and a headline. It said ‘Saskia V Saskia’ then underneath in smaller letters ‘The Showdown’. The picture was my favourite one of us back to back. Under all that was ‘details on page 5’.

  Page 5 seemed to consist mainly of Saskias. There were four pictures of us. The headline said ‘Saskia to race Saskia’. Then it said ‘by Dan Myers - pictures by Rio Ashworth’. Dan had written a fairly factual piece, leaving out the fact that Barry’s company was in difficulties. As I read it, I got the impression that Dan seemed to think we were some kind of Supergirls. We were super girls - without the capital letter - but not that wonderful.

  “Dan seems to see us through some sort of Superglasses,” I said. “We’re not like this - are we?”

  Rob had been reading over my shoulder. “Not all the time, no. Just some of it. Don’t worry about it. Anybody who knows you well knows you well - if you see what I mean. Anybody who only knows of you probably thinks you’re like this anyway. It’s called exaggeration for effect.”

  “Seen the bit at the side, here on its own?” asked Saskia.

  “Called a boxout,” I said “Hm. Interesting. It says five days to go. Blimey. He’s asking for opinions about which of us is going to win. They’ll be running a book next.”

  “What’s this running a book, Twin?”

  “Taking bets,” grinned Rob before I could answer. “Who do you think is going to win?”

  “Saskia,” said Saskia emphatically.

  “I’m not so sure,” I said. “You won last time, and by a clear couple of seconds as well. Just because I have the background doesn’t mean I have the ability. I think you are genuinely better than me. Don’t forget, we’re not going to practise, I think you’ll win again.”

  “Not going to let me are you?”

  “No. That wouldn’t be fair, to you or to me or to anybody who might want to make a bet of any sort. You wouldn’t let me win would you?”

  “No - no, you’re right. For all the reasons you just said.”

  I stuck out my hand. “In that case, may the best girl win.”

  Saskia shook my hand, then hugged me and gave me a kiss - something we didn’t do very often in front of her dad.

  “Must remember the handshake in the TV studio,” I said. “It’ll go down really well.”

  “TV studio?” asked Rob.

  “Crumbs. Forgot to tell you, Dad. So much stuff sloshing around in our heads. Friday. Local news. They’ve got us to go to the studio and sit on the blasted couch. Probably going to fire difficult questions at us.”

  I had a sudden thought. I began to laugh.

  “And what are you laughing at? You’ve got to be there as well.”

  “I know. It’s something you’ve just said. Sit on the couch you said. What colour is the couch?”

  “Er - red. Why? - oh.”

  “Yes - oh. What colour are our overalls, the overalls they’ve specifically asked we turn up wearing?”

  “Red. We’ll disappear as soon as we sit down. What a hoot.”

  “We won’t disappear but it won’t look too good.”

  “You could make a joke out of it,” said Rob. “Take a blue sheet or something with you and spread it on the couch before you sit down. I’d laugh at that at any rate.”

  “Dad, you’d laugh if your
pants were on fire. No, that’s unkind, can I take it back?”

  Rob allowed her to do that and we moved on into the evening in good spirits.

  Wednesday’s paper had rather less text from Dan but still contained prominent pictures from Rio. The opinion boxout was split almost fifty-fifty. Actually it was fifty two percent Saskia and forty eight percent me. We weren’t bothered at all. It was all down to what we did on the day, not about who wanted us to win.

  Wednesday evening brought communication from Rio.

  “Hi Rio. Where’s the fire?” asked Saskia as she answered the phone.

  “Hey, that’s my line, Saskia,” said Rio. “Anyway, got a little problem. Dan’s heard about the truck racing. He wants pictures. I think he forgets I’m still at school. If I arrange to be out of school tomorrow lunchtime, can you pick me up, take me to the plant and then bring me back. You’ve still got my camera anyway.”

  “You said keep it until you asked for it,” said Saskia.

  “It’s fine. Good actually. Means it’ll be in the right place.”

  “Ok. School gates at lunchtime. Remember to make careful arrangements, don’t want you in detention.”

  Saskia pressed ‘end’. “Hm. All the truck stuff must be sorted. Need to speak to James and Charlie and his sidekick in the morning.”

  Thursday. James had apparently arranged special insurance for the two trucks. I carefully didn’t ask him how much it’d cost. Actually I shuddered to think. Charlie and Steve were tasked with getting the trucks prepared, polished and so on. They were put on standby to be pushed around by Rio. We told them there wouldn’t be much time.

  Because she already knew what the loading yard looked like, Rio had a good idea what she wanted before she began. We had her back at school within the stipulated time. We’d even managed to get her on the outside of some lunch. Ok, she ate it in the car going back to school but at least she got to eat. She left us to send pictures to Dan on her behalf.