Free The Watchers on the Shore by Stan Barstow

if I have a look round?'
    'If the bank says so.'
    'Yes, they do.'
    "Then it's okay by me.'
    'What are you doing?'
    'Stocktaking.'
    'I'll try not to get in your way.'
    'That's all right. Anything I can do to help, just say so.'
    He looks at some stuff on the floor at the end of the counter. 'Sheet music? Have you been selling this?'
    'No, I found it tucked away upstairs. I thought of chucking it out but I expect it ought to be accounted for.'
    He picks up the top sheet.'"Lily of Laguna". Good grief!'
    I grin. 'There is some a bit more recent than that. It was Mr Van Huyten's main line at one time. That and pianos.'
    Harrap looks round at me. 'You didn't find any pianos upstairs?'I shake my head. 'No, no pianos.'
    'That's all right, then.'
    He's a man of about thirty-five, medium height, nice build, dressed in a neatly cut brown suit with trouser bottoms just that little bit too wide. He's from head office, he tells me, here to look the business over and put in a report to his bosses. With his easy manner he gives the impression of knowing not all the answers but all he needs to know to get by. The rest he probably doesn't bother about. I'm always interested in people who seem to have it sorted out.
    'Just records, television and radio, isn't it?'
    'And a few electrical appliances.'
    He nods.
    'We did all right,'I say defensively.
    He nods again. 'I know. I've seen the books ... The owner hadn't been very active for some time, I understand.'
    'No, he was an old man.'
    'And you really ran the place.'
    'I used to talk over most things with him, and he signed all the cheques.'
    He walks to the window and gazes into the street for a minute before turning to look down the length of the shop.
    'It's a good position, and a nice roomy interior. A lot could be done with it.'
    'There were things I wanted to do, but Mr Van Huyten was too old for expansion and change.'
    'You can't stand still these days,'Harrap says, 'not with the competition there is. You either go forward or slip back.'
    'Unless you know your time's short anyway,'I say; 'then you don't care.'And for no new reason I'm suddenly full of bitterness and resentment, and anger with myself for not seeing that Mr Van Huyten was too far gone to plan for a business that would carry on in the same way after he was dead; a business that would perpetuate his name instead of becoming one more link in a growing chain. I'd have done it for him, and been proud to do it. But who'll ever know what went on in his head towards the end, or what changed between me coming to work for him and him losing his grip? Or even what he actually meant when he offered me the job with all kinds of hints about the future? Perhaps I should have seen the signs myself and put the cards on the table in time; told him straight the understanding I'd been working on. And perhaps a man like Harrap would tell me I should never have come in the beginning on such a half-baked pie-in-the-sky basis.
    'What would you have done?'he's asking me now.
    'Well, I'd have had this counter out for a start and a shorter one put in over there. It takes up too much floor space.'He nods. 'Then I'd have knocked the door to the stockroom out and made a showroom through an archway so's people could move about and see what we'd got.'
    'Yes, I think those things would be an improvement.'
    'Not that it takes a brilliant mind to think of them.'
    'No, but...'
    He goes off on another tack and starts asking me about myself until, after a few minutes, I have to stop him.
    'You're not interviewing me, are you?'
    He looks a bit taken aback at this straight question.
    'No, it's my job to report on the business.'
    'Well I don't go with it, y'know.'
    'You'll be out of a job before long, though, won't you?'
    'I've got another one.'
    'Oh, well then...'
    'I'm going back into engineering.'
    'You know your own affairs best. But if you'd wanted to talk to somebody at head office I could fix it. And I can make recommendations.'
    'They wouldn't let me keep