A Good Runner: Part Seventeen

~ beetleypete

This is the seventeenth part of a fiction serial, in 718 words.

Adrian and Sally.

Trevor put the car up for sale that September, placing an advertisement in the Exchange and Mart weekly newpaper. He was aware that the car would be five years old the following year, and his taxi driving had greatly increased the mileage. However, it was in great condition, and new cars were getting more expensive to buy all the time. So he asked three hundred pounds for it.

Adrian Lexham had just finished his degree at one of Oxford Univerity’s minor colleges. It was a passable qualification in French, but he had no real desire to start adult life as a French teacher in a private school, something arranged by his father.

As luck would have it, his maternal grandmother had died in July, and left him two thousand pounds in her will. Against the advice of his concerned parents, Adrian decided he did not want to return to the family home in Norfolk. His plan was to buy a car and tour France in it. Perhaps getting down as far as Spain. So he stayed on in Oxford, and began to look for a car to buy before he had to give up his room at the end of the month.

One reason why he was so determined to spend his inheritance seeing Europe was Sally. She was the object of his desire, and had been since he started at university. But she was attractive, popular, and definitely out of his league. Sally Brooks was one of those young women who seemed to break all the rules and get away with it. From a working class background in Kent, she had got into Oxford to study French with a natural flair for the language, and a wide knowledge of the country.

Of course, the fact that her mother was French had helped a great deal.

When she had been chatting to a group of admirers in the local pub one evening, and telling everyone how much she would love to spend a year travelling in Europe, Adrian had heard himself saying, “Actually, I am taking a year out to drive around France, and I may even go down into Spain”. That was the first time such a trip had ever entered his head, but he wanted to impress the girl. She had put down her glass, and called his bluff. “Well if you want a travelling companion to help with the cost of petrol, look no further”.

Unwilling to back down now, Adrian stood up. “You’re on, Sally. My round I think”.

After seeing the advertisement for the Cortina and making an arrangement to view the car, Adrian asked his friend Sammi Singh to give him a lift to Witney. Sammi’s dad was filthy rich, and had bought his son an MG roadster to run around in while he was studying at Oxford.

Arranging to see the potential buyer at his house, not the taxi office, Trevor wasn’t about to mention that it had been used as a taxi, as that would put off too many prospective buyers. The well spoken young man who arrived that Saturday afternoon didn’t even look at the mileage counter on the dial. He just walked quickly around the car, asked to look in the boot, and then suggested a test drive with Trevor driving. After ten minutes driving around the town, Adrian was nodding. “Seems like a good runner. Three hundred you say? If I can use your phone to arrange the insurance, I will take it today”.

The phone call was obviously to the man’s father, asking him to add the Cortina to his policy, and insure the car for his son to drive. He heard some mention of Europe, and that the car had to be insured to drive over there. Then he hung up. Trevor was handed three hundred in ten pound notes. Keen to hand over all the paperwork with the keys, Trevor started to tell him about the service history, the spare wheel and tools and such. But the excitable young man waved away the carefully-prepared folder. “Just the MOT certificate please, and the logbook. I’m not concerned about all the rest”.

Thirty minutes after he had arrived, Adrian was driving off in the car. He didn’t even notice Trevor waving goodbye.

37 thoughts on “A Good Runner: Part Seventeen”

  6. (1) “Adrian decided he did not want to return to the family home in Norfolk.” Mainly because of that grouchy old neighbor of theirs in Beetley.
    (2) Adrian “had no real desire to start adult life as a French teacher.” Instead he wanted to pursue that obscure object of desire (Jenny) that begat the expression, “All’s well that Buñuel.”
    (3) Jenny had a natural flair for the French language, Of course, the fact that her mother was French had helped a great deal. Cela va sans dire.
    (4) Years later, Adrian and Jenny, like Albert and Audrey, will take another road trip to southern France. #TwoForTheRoad
    (5a) I remember the day I looked in the boot. It was in the Boot Hill Cemetery in Pioche, Nevada. (I really dig old western cemeteries.)
    (5b) If Adrian really wants to look in the boot, he should drive to Italy.
    (6) Adrian didn’t even notice Trevor waving goodbye. That’s because Trevor didn’t even bother to wave.
    (7a) It goes without saying that Adrian believes in ferries. He just hopes his green car will be transported by a green ferry.
    (7b) Adrian is going to miss Jolly Olde England. That’s because absinthe makes the heart grow fonder.

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    1. Cars don’t have names in ‘my world’. I remember the first time I drove on the ‘wrong side’. I was okay until I came across a roundabout. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete. x

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