A Good Runner: Part Eleven

~ beetleypete

This is the eleventh part of a fiction serial, in 741 words.

Trevor Clemence.

There was little choice for Diane but to reurn to her family home in the small town of Witney, in Oxfordshire. She explained away her resignation by telling them that she had not got on with her colleagues, and had an idea to go to work in Hong Kong, where teachers were usually in some demand. In fact, after only one week at home, she managed to secure an interview with an agency in London that was happy to forward her details for a vacancy on their books. Within a month, she was packing to leave, using the last of her salary to buy an airline ticket.

The house in Essex had been rented through a local company, and that rental income would cover the mortgage costs and management fees. As for the green Consul Cortina, she gave the keys and paperwork to her father, and asked him to sell it for her.

Nigel White had little interest in cars, even though he could drive, and owned a smart Rover car. He placed a classified advertisement in the local weekly newspaper, offering Diane’s low-mileage car for offers around four hundred and twenty five pounds. Then he parked it inside his double garage, and more or less forgot about it.

Trevor Clemence was a man who hadn’t had that much luck in his life. He was fired from a carpentry apprenticeship for always turning up late for work, then had joined the army at the age of eighteen. He didn’t even complete his training, as after knocking out a drill sergeant with one punch on the parade ground, he was thrown out. Not long after, he managed to get work helping a window cleaner in Witney, and he was allowed to drive the van on learner plates, eventually passing his driving test first time.

His boss let him use the van outside of work, and he soon met Shirley, who was working in a roadside cafe on the A40 nearby. They married when Trevor was twenty-one, and went to live with his widowed grandmother in the town. Two years later, the man he worked for offered to sell him the window-cleaning round, and negotiated a weekly payment to cover the cost of buying it, and the old van that came with it. Trevor was very pleased with himself. He now had his own business, and he was only twenty-three years old.

Bad news arrived in the shape of the winter of 1963. With the weather so bad, most of his regular customers didn’t want their windows cleaned. Trade dropped off alarmingly, and his weekly takings were reduced by half. Plans to start a family had to be shelved, and Shirley was unhappy about that. Then one afternoon as he was on his way back from cleaning the windows of the vicarage in Minster Lovell, he crashed the van in a country lane, after skidding on ice.

There wasn’t enough money to pay for the repairs to get the van roadworthy, and with no van, he could only do the windows of a few local shops that he could walk to, carrying the smaller ladder. It wasn’t long before he had lost the majority of his customers, and he had only paid off less than half the money he owed his former boss. Shirley was working at the tea rooms in Witney now, but her wages were barely enough to buy the shopping, and pay their share of the bills. His grandma only had her old age pension, so the new year of 1964 was a dismal prospect indeed. Faced with no alternative, Trevor had to give up the business, and get a regular job.

All he could find was work as a labourer for a local roofing company. They would pick him up in a lorry at the end of the lane every morning, and he spent all day carrying roof tiles up and down ladders, after unloading them from the flatbed at the back. At least the work was regular, even though it was tiring and monotonous. By the end of that summer, he had managed to pay off his debt, build up his strength, and had tried to talk to Shirley about renting their own place and starting a family.

Her attitude surprised him. “To be honest, Trev, I’m pretty fed up. Don’t think I want kids after all. Not with you, anyway”.

Three weeks later, she was gone.

30 thoughts on “A Good Runner: Part Eleven”

    1. I saw a very old car in Dereham recently. It was a 60 year-old Wolesley model 15/60 in great condition, being driven by quite a young man. It made me wonder about all the owners who had driven it before. (Photo of a similar car via small link.)

      Best wishes, Pete.

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  6. Poor Trevor, he’s had some proper bad luck in life. It’ll be interesting to see what he does with the green car? Maybe his luck will change but I’m worried it will double with a “bad luck” car. If only I could warn him! Loving this series, C

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  7. (1) When Diane left for Hong Kong, the headmaster said, “Yeah, there she goes now.” And then he added: “She take her boat to Hong Kong. Well, bye bye sugar. And not a minute too soon.” Of course, he fantasized that King Kong would one day rip her to shreds.
    (2) If Constance Reilly married Trevor Clemence, she’d be Constance Clemence.
    (3) Trevor should have become a boxer. He could knock out an opponent with one punch in the ring, and be declared a winner! (With his winnings, “Trevor the T-Rex” could purchase a muscle car.)
    (4) Diane prefers women. Wait till Trevor finds out Shirley does, too. #Laverne&Shirley
    (5) After Trevor gave up window cleaning, he looked around for a window of opportunity.
    (6) Overheard:
    Shirley: “To be honest, Trev, I’m pretty fed up. Don’t think I want kids after all. Not with you, anyway.”
    Trevor: “Shirley, you jest!”
    (7) Trevor was simply not Shirley’s cup of tea.

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