This is the sixth part of a fiction serial, in 745 words.
Until Penny got back with the car, I went through the motions of ringing a few prospects, and chasing up the outstanding offers on some terraced houses in Pitsea. With the market doing well, sellers were geting edgy about accepting low offers, and playing the dicey game of holding out for the full asking price. There was no point talking to anyone at work about the weird 317 business. They might think I was losing it.
In between calls, I jotted down almost every combination of the numbers, realising I had forgotten to reverse them. So I ended up trying to think if 713 had any relevance, then I tried 731. But for the life of me, my mind was blank on all of it.
Penny dropped the keys on my desk. “The tank’s half full, so you should be okay”. She never had a lot to say to me, and made it very clear she didn’t think much of me. When I started there, she had only been there a few weeks herself, but that didn’t stop her acting like she was somehow in charge of me. Her husband was a copper in London, a detective of some kind. She liked to boast about all the serious cases he was involved with. She was his second time round, so considerably younger.
Coughlan wasn’t there when I parked the Mini outside the dismal-looking lot. I got out of the car and made my site appraisal in ten seconds flat. It would need a lot of work on the ground before anyone would use it, and once you allowed space for a portakabin or office shed of some kind, you would be lucky to squeeze ten cars onto the front. Then there was water, sewage, and power. It would cost a fair bit to have all those reconnected.
The big four by four arrived, and he put two wheels up on the kerb as he parked it. I looked at the shiny car, less than six months old, by the registration number. Not much change out of sixty grand for that top of the range model, and I doubt he even had insurance. How come nobody ever asked where some Pikey got all the money to pay for that?
His face was red as usual, high blood pressure probably. The beer-belly strained his shirt buttons, and hung down over his belt almost covering the fly on his trousers. As he walked forward with his hand extended, someone got out of the passenger side of his car. A woman. He had seen me a few times previously, but never asked my name. After the briefest of handshakes, he got straight to business. “Well, what do you reckon? How much are we looking at? Straight sale, or better a monthly rental”.
Before I could answer, the woman walked forward from the car. She was wearing a black coat over a black dress that reached down to her ankles. Her long hair was also jet black, and certainly dyed. She seemed to be about a hundred years old, but when she spoke, her voice boomed. “GERRY! STOP! COME BACK!” Coughlan jumped at the sound, and turned quickly, walking back to the woman. He bent down to listen as she whispered in his ear. Raising an arm, she pointed a bony finger in my direction, then moved it slowly to my left, then my right. He bent down again to hear her next whisper, then nodded his head.
Without walking back, he called to me from the side of his car. “Don’t bother. The deal’s off, we will use someone else”. With that they both got back in the car, and he drove off at speed, as if being chased by the police. Part of me was glad to see the back of him, but I knew John would be pissed off that I hadn’t secured the sale.
Back behind the agency, I parked the car, and walked down the alley. Then I popped into Sammi’s and bought a packet of cigarettes, a diet coke, and a Twix. That would be my lunch. I handed over two notes, a tenner and a fiver. As was his habit, Sammi counted the change into my hand, as I watched his turban bob around.
“Two pounds, one pound, Ten, fifteen, seventeen”. I looked at the coins in my hand. A two-pound coin, a one pound coin, ten pence piece, five pence piece and a brown two pence.
£3.17.
Love it. Thanks Pete
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Happy to hear it is keeping you interested. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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A very detailed description. You feel like you have been transferred to the plot. Thank you, Pete! I hope you have a nice weekend, so far. Here we are back in serious third wave, and Siberian weather conditions. Best wishes, Michael
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I think the small details matter in this story, Michael. Sorry to hear aboout your bad weather, and the infection rates.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Thank you, Pete! Telling the details makes it much more better to get the imagination. At least the weather is better as i remember from years ago. But its the virus thing making the weather much more worse.
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The old woman pointing a bony finger was creepy. She seems like a soothsayer. And of course the money. Well done, Pete!
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Thanks, Jennie. I think she was connecting to her Gipsy roots. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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I think so, too. Best to you, Pete.
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If it’s possible, I’m starting to feel sorry for Darren, no one seems to like him? I’m always rooting for the underdog, it’s my curse in life. c
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That really pleases me, Cheryl, as most readers dislike him already. As everyone will soon discover, he didn’t have the best start in life.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Well if a gipsy with second sight was spooked then maybe we should be…Sounds like we are in for a surprise…Darren’s not who we think he is maybe 🙂 x
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I think you can rest assured that Darren is who he is. But there is something amiss, that’s undeniable!
Next part coming up!
Best wishes, Pete.
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I will be over to read it I am intrigued, Pete x
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Darren continues to be the most popular man in town.🤣
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Must be something about him that nobody likes, Pete. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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I love the addition of the woman seer. I am still engaged.
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Thanks, Elizabeth. Mrs Coughlan seems to have retained her Gipsy senses.
She reappears briefly in a later episode.
Best wishes, Pete.
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I am surprised the plates on the “big four by four” didn’t read 317. Warmest regards, Theo
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We only have two numbers on more recent vehicles, Theo. (Since 2001 when it changed)
For example, a vehicle registered in Norfolk in 2019, might have the registration plate AR19KPF.
Best wishes, Pete.
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“The big four by four arrived.” (Here’s the other four.)
(1) Gerry Coughlan had top-of-the-range blood pressure. It sounded more positive that way.
(2) Bad citation: “The woman was wearing a black coat over a black dress that reached down to her ankles. Her long hair was also jet black, and certainly dyed. She seemed to be about 317 years old.”
(3) Coughlan and the woman both got back in the car, and he drove off at speed, as if being chased by the copper that had married Penny.
(4) Had Sammi been in Miami, he would have counted out $3.17.
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I have to correct you on (4). He would have counted out $4.40 at current exchange rates, necessitating a complete rewrite of my entire serial, including the title. 🙂 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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But you would have gotten an extra 83 minutes of sleep!
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(1) I would never pay full price for an itsea-bitsea Pitsea terrace house.
(2) Overheard:
Penny: “The tank’s half full, so you should be okay.”
Darren: “You mean the tank’s half empty?”
Penny: “Trying to be clever? You’re full of it, Darren!
Darren; “And you’re nothing but an empty skirt!”
Penny: “At least I put my money where my mouth is!”
Darren: “Penny for your thoughts. Or would you choke on it?”
Penny: “You may think you’re funny, but I find your jokes hard to swallow!”
(3) Moneypenny is more interested in 007 than 317.
(4) Penny’s husband was a copper with a tarnished reputation.
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Nice one with copper and tarnish, David. 🙂
Pitsea is a real place. Not a wonderful place, but a real one.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Darren is a coin collector. That’s why he said, “Your husband is a tarnished copper, Penny.”
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That woman saw a lot more than a neglect to zip shut his fly. Getting spookier ans spookier, Pete.
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She must have been using her ‘Gipsy powers’, Don. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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All very odd, especially the pointing to his left and to his right. Wonder what she saw and said? Do we need any of Darren’s back story to work out what’s going on?
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You will get some back story later, Mary. But I’m not giving away the secret just yet!
Best wishes, Pete.
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He did something awful and now he’s being haunted…I just know it!
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So you ‘just know it’, do you? Hmm…. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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That Romani blood is still flowing in the old girl. Maybe his parents looking over him, but why ? 🙂
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I’m as lost as you are mate. Can’t figure it out! 🙂
Cheers, Pete.
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Lol. It’s one of those ghosts that you don’t believe in, Pete.
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I suppose it could be, Stevie. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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He must have one of those aura’s of doom 🙂
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She seems to have spotted something, that’s for sure. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Yes 😱could it be that there are ghosts involved
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I wonder what that woman whispered to Coughlan that made them run off like that. It’s like she sensed something.
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She certainly sensed something. And it seems like she might have seen something too!
Hence her pointing finger?
Best wishes, Pete.
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Mysteriouser and mysteriouser…
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That’s my plan! 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Sounds like he’s got a couple of invisible ‘spirit minders’, one either side 😱
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That certainly seems possible, Chris. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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