NO TIME TO RUN - (out of time)
By Bob French
It
was a crisp February morning, the mist still hung over the meadows and fields
that led into the High Street of Little Easton, in Essex.
The air smelt of pine and damp grass. Roddy Crocket, ‘Davey’ to his
friends, ignored the early morning dog walkers and paper-boys as he strode
purposely down the High Street towards the little cottage next to the bus stop,
adjusting his large military ruck-sack as he went.
He knew not many people would recognise
him. When he left five years ago, he was a pimply, five-foot
three-inch boy who was always being picked on in school. Now he
stood six foot two, sported a tan that some would die for and was well
built. He felt sadness creep throughout his body, knowing that his
mother’s neighbour had written to him, to tell him that his mum was very poorly.
Once his platoon sergeant heard about it, he was on the first flight out of Afghanistan.
When he reached the bus stop, he glanced down at the
little cottage set back from the high street and was angry with himself. The
peeling paint, sagging porch, and the rose bushes and shrubs that his mother
cared for since his dad had passed, looked wasted and desolate.
He rang the door-bell, then realized that it didn’t
work, so he banged on the door a couple of times. Within minutes he
heard the “ow-ee” from Mrs. Jones, her next-door neighbour.
“Can I help you young man?”
“Mrs. Jones. It’s me Roddy. I have come
home to see what’s the matter with Ma; I can’t thank you enough for your
letter.”
“Come around the back. The front door is a
little warped.”
Roddy followed her around the side of the cottage and
his eyes picked up more neglect; windows cracked and drain-pipes leaking, then
he caught site of the once beautiful garden. It now resembled some
of the sites he’d passed through on patrol in the Helman Province.
Mrs. Jones pushed open the kitchen door and moved
quickly into the front room. The stench of body odour and dampness
stung the back of his throat. There sitting in his Dad’s old arm-chair
was his mum.
“Angie. I got someone who wants to see
you.”
Roddy’s eyes filled with tears as he stared down at
his mother.
He had to really look into her face to find the woman
who had brought him up, then cared for him when her soul mate and his dad had
passed.
In a frail voice, Angie called out his name. “Roddy
love, is that you. What are you doing here?”
“I’ve come home to care for you Ma. Help
get you back on your feet, thanks to Mrs. Jones.”
“Roddy love, I’ll let you get acquainted with your Ma. If
you want anything, I’m only next door.” With that she quietly left.
True to military fashion he stood. “Let’s
get you a cup a tea, then we can talk.”
It took him a few minutes to find a
couple of clean tea-cups, then glanced around the kitchen and thought that the
place needed a major renovation job. Then his eyes fell on a bundle
of unopened letters underneath her old green cardigan.
He scooped them up and put them on the top shelf of
the kitchen cupboard, promising to read them once he had got his mum sorted.
Sitting down opposite her, Roddy gently asked what has
been going on. Has she been poorly?
“Roddy Love, it’s the new land lord. He said that I
had signed a new contract which gave him the right to take over the upkeep and
maintenance of my home.”
“Did you?”
“Did I what?”
“Did you sign the new lease? Have you got a
copy of this new contract?
He could see his mother struggling with question.”
“Don’t bother just yet Ma, Let’s get you sorted
out. Do you mind if I have a wander around the place and see what
needs sorting first?”
She smiled with her eyes and nodded. “Will
you be staying long?”
“As long as it takes Ma. Don’t you worry.”
It took him nearly two hours to have a good look at
the damage that had been caused by neglect, then he came and sat down next to
his Ma.
“Ma, it’s going to take me a little while to get this
sorted, but I don’t want you to worry. Who collects your pension?”
“Mavis, next door. Why”
Roddy had to think who Mavis was, but his thoughts
were interrupted when she explained that Mavis was Mrs. Jones.
“And what standing orders do you have, like the gas
and electricity?”
“Oh, its that nice man, Mr. Green down at the
Natwest. He sorts all that stuff for me.”
“What about the rent. Do you pay for that
through the bank?”
Her voice quietened and he could see fear in her eyes.
“Ma, what’s the matter. Don’t you like the man who comes and
collects the rent?”
“No. I don’t trust him. Every
few months he tells me that the rent has gone up. I tell him that I
won’t pay any more rent unless he comes and fixes the gutters and windows.”
Roddy was beginning to see where this was going and
had to really control his anger.
“OK Ma, but don’t you worry. I will take
care of things. But I want you and Mavis not to say they have seen
me to anyone who knows you, including people you don’t know. I can
sort all this out if the people who are hurting you, don’t know I am here, is
that OK?”
For the first time his mother smiled and he knew that
she was on the mend.
“Right then, breakfast.”
Later that morning, Roddy climbed over the back fence
onto the road. He walked for about half an hour until he came to a
car hire garage and hired a non-descript hatch back. Then he went through the
local paper and jotted down various tradesmen who could repair and redecorate
his mother’s cottage. He explained that it was a cash in hand job.
That afternoon, having done a mega shop at Liddle’s in
Colchester, he drove home and parked his hire car next to the cemetery,
along-side several other cars. Then spent a couple of hours helping
his mother sort out the laundry, bedding and clearing out the kitchen. After
dinner, he sat down and started to go through the pile of letters that his Ma
had received.
By ten, it was time to crash. He had
assembled those letters demanding payment; those from the land-lord’s company
and those who were responsible for the upkeep of the cottage. he settled down
to go over the letters.
Something nagged him. It was a name;
Duggan. Then it came to him, Harry Duggan was one of the gang leaders who had
made his life at school unbearable. He grinned as he read that Duggan was part
of the landlord organization who took the rent. Then, to his surprise, he read
that Bert Duggan, the younger sibling of the Duggan empire, ran the maintenance
company responsible for the up-keep of the eight small cottages on the edge of
the village.
He asked Mrs. Jones if she would act on behalf of his
mother when any tradesmen came to repair things around the cottage or the
grounds. He gave her the names of the companies who would be doing the job. She
understood why the need for secrecy.
He then recalled that Ann, a girl he had a crush on in
the senior year of his school, had taken an apprenticeship with a legal firm in
Colchester, so he chanced his luck and once he’d found the firm on the
internet, called her. After a brief chat, he made an appointment to
see her.
They met at the Wimpey Bar and to his surprise
they hit it off. Once he had explained what had brought him back
from overseas, she was angry and promised if there was anything she could do,
all he had to do was ask.
“Ann, Can I ask you a huge favour?”
“From what you have told me you don’t need a favour,
you need to hire my firm to represent your mother in court.”
Roddy took his time explaining what he wanted her to
do, which she quickly agreed to.
Her first call, after checking with the Inland Revenue
to see if the Duggan’s had submitted their tax returns for this
year. Within an hour they had called her back and explained that the
firm had avoided any returns for the past four years. Before hanging
up, she warned the officer that the Duggan’s would almost certainly try to
destroy their accounts, and leave the UK
for Spain.
The legal wheels had started to grind. Then she wrote to Harry Duggan.
It was three o’clock on Friday afternoon when Harry
read the letter from Ann. It was a very formal and straight forward
demand:
‘It is noticed that your company has failed to present
your accounts for the past four financial years. You are there for required to
have all your accounts and supporting receipts for the past four financial
years ready for inspection by Wednesday next week.’
Harry’s face went white and quickly lunged for the
telephone and dialed Frank, his accountant. The phone was answered by one of
the clerks who explained that Frank was away for a week; funeral of his brother
or something.’
Harry, knew that he had to destroy everything and then
warn his brother to do the same before Monday morning, then head off to Spain.
It was reported in the local newspapers that the two
Duggan brothers had been arrested on Friday evening trying to destroy evidence
required by the Inland Revenue. They were expected to receive a
lengthy jail sentence each. It was also reported that the three
local tradesmen who had been shut out of the village had now formed a new
company who would care for and look after the original eight cottages in the
village.
Roddy pushed the door open to his mum’s front room and
was greeted by a smiling face; the face he remembered before he left home all
those years ago.
Copyright Bob French