Free The Road to Redemption by Stephane Morris Page B

half awake half asleep reached for Alice, but it was Audry lying next to him. He went downstairs and had a scotch; he was now drinking in the middle of the night.
     
    “George and Mabel are coming over for lunch next Sunday,” Audry announced.
     
    “You mean George and Mildred,” he responded. “The outlaws.”
     
    “I wish you wouldn’t call them that Hon.” There was that bloody Hon word again.
     
    “You know they’re nothing like that stupid couple on TV ”
     
    He could think of nothing worse. He called them George and Mildred after the 70’s British TV Comedy, where George was an idiot and Mildred had to keep making excuses for him. But Audry’s father George was far from being an idiot like the one on TV, as John had known for years. He was a real pompous arse and John hated him, right back from the early days, when he was a gardener and George had tried to stop Audry from marrying him.
     
    The dreaded day arrived, with a long buzz on the intercom at the front gate. It was George keeping his finger on the button, demanding to be let in. Up the driveway in his 7 series BMW. It was several years old, because he had taken over its lease when he retired, a number of years ago. Like John he kept his car immaculate. Up he came and parked right in the middle of the driveway, as if he owned it, rather than in the visitors spot. John couldn’t resist when he and Mabel came in,
     
    “How’s that old car of yours going George?” striking the first blow.
     
    “That's a 7 series John, top of the line, not the small one like your 3 series. They don’t make them like that any more.” There was no getting George. Whatever you said he would come back at you. Straight into the lounge room and George plonked himself on the lounge, right in the spot where John always sat.
     
    “How about a beer Jonno? Just a light one I’m driving.”  Jonno, how he hated being called Jonno. It was George’s way of reminding him of his working class origins. He would have loved to respond by calling him Georgy Porgy, but of course he couldn’t.
     
    He got a can out of the bar fridge and tried to hand it to George.
     
    “In a glass if you don’t mind,” George said indignantly, “We’re not in the western suburbs now.”
     
    Mabel and Audry went of to the kitchen to prepare lunch while George ploughed on annoying John, in the living room.
     
    “Have you done anything about that superannuation yet, Jonno?”
     
    “You know I don’t believe in super George.”
     
    “Well you should Jonno. All you young people think about is, today. No planning for the future. What are you going to live on when you get to my age?”
     
    Here he goes again, thought John, sipping his beer and looking out the window towards Alice’s house.
     
    “When I was your age I had two funds going. How do you think Mabel and I can afford to go on expensive holidays each year? You know where we are going in two weeks time?
     
    “No,” mumbled John
     
    “We’re going on a luxury tour of Egypt, with a trip down the Nile, then on to Paris to stay in a luxury hotel, right next to the Louvre. Do you know how much a night at that hotel costs Johnny?”
     
    “No,” mumbled John again, but I bet you can’t wait to tell me, he thought.
     
    “$1000 a night, “ skited George. “Now where are you going to get that sort of money when you get to my age, if you don’t have superannuation?”
     
    “I don’t know George, you were in the industry that's why you are so keen on it.”
     
    He certainly had been in the industry, as a very successful Insurance Broker. I’ll bet he used to badger his clients so much they bought his insurance policies just to shut him up, John thought to himself.
     
    George held out his glass, as if to order another beer. John was getting angry now and tipped the rest of the can into the glass too quickly. It made a big frothy head on the beer.
     
    “John, when you pour a beer, tip the glass on its side so it