Free Lewi's Legacy by Graham Adams Page B

he enjoyed. He was appreciated, not that his father didn’t appreciate him, but Bill did in a different way. He was pleased that his employer was willing to invest in him as the new way, the young way and not making him feel inferior.
    He was sure that the constant ‘prodding’ of her father by Susan had a lot to do with it and he was most grateful for that. In these past twelve months he had only received three letters from his father in France. All three were from different addresses, the first from Paris, then Lyon and the third, received yesterday was from Marseilles. For the whole of this period Henry had a constant companion, his wife’s cousin to whom he was living with. By the tone of his letter, it didn’t seem likely that his father was going to return to England, certainly not in the near future anyway.
    Louis knew that up to the time he left school, his father had struggled to bring him up, especially after the shock of losing his wife. Thinking back, he had never heard his father complain, and therefore he assumed that Henry was happy. Now Louis realised that after his sacrifice, his father had finally found some real happiness at last.
    As usual, Louis wrote back to Henry’s new address with all the news from the car business and how happy he was with his adopted family. He also told him that he had passed his test first time, so he hinted that one day he would drive down to Marseilles and look him up. At the end of the letter he wrote a post script;
    ‘Bill tells me that they drive on the wrong side of the road over there, but that would be no problem for me as I do it already!’
    The third Monday in August, Bill showed Louis a letter he had received inviting him to Birmingham to catch a flight to Ibiza the following weekend and join all the other ‘Best dealership owners in the UK’.
    ‘I don’t know if I should leave you in charge for three days Louis.’
    ‘I think its great Bill, it’s the first time you’ve been appreciated isn’t it?’ Louis asked.
    ‘Well, if you’re sure you can cope without me?’ Bill asked him feigning a worried look. ‘I’ll give you a list of prospects that might be calling in to see me, are you sure?’
    ‘Look Bill it’s only a few days, what can go wrong?’ Louis asked.
    At dinner, Bill declared that he was going to an all expenses paid jolly in Spain and he was leaving Louis in charge. His wife came in from the kitchen with the apple pie, put it on the table and stood behind Louis with her hands on Louis’s shoulders. Squeezing his shoulders firmly she asked,
    ‘And what is Louis going to be in charge of then, Bill? Don’t worry, you go and have a nice time, don’t worry about us, we’ll be fine, won’t we Louis?’ She gripped his shoulders even more tightly. Louis did not get any of the innuendo in Annie’s voice, but he did feel a little uneasy as her fingers dug in deeply.
    One of the garage mechanics took Bill to Birmingham airport as the rendezvous time was at eight o’clock, so Louis didn’t see his boss leave. However he was at the office at eight, an hour before it opened, and Susan breezed in saying that she would be out at a friend’s all day and would be home late as they were all going to see the Kinks in concert in Nottingham that night.
    The morning dragged somewhat as he only had a few time wasters, ‘tyre kickers’ as Bill would call them. Annie brought two mugs of milky coffee into the office and chatted a while promising a sandwich later on. She had a different dress on that day, short, above the knee and quite flimsy material. As she left, and the sun was streaming through it, it seemed that her whole body shape was in full view. Louis tried not to look, but as if she knew, she turned and gave him a very strange smile. Louis was confused for a moment, and then he picked up the phone when it rang and thought no more about it.
    The afternoon’s business was much brisker; Louis completed three sales and two firm enquiries,