Free Riotous Retirement by Brian Robertson, Ron Smallwood

yes of course you could,” Helga responded “but that is against company rules.”
    There certainly ought to be such a rule, she thought, even though she had never come across it. Anyhow she was not having Gabriel creating bloody chaos while she was away, as he most certainly would.
    Eventually management took the problem out of Helga’s hands and announced that they had a locum who would take over from her for the time that she was on leave. They informed her that they would send him to work with her for three or four days before she went on leave—which scuppered Helga’s plans to take an extra day off prior to her leave period without telling anyone, unless she was skilled enough to get this bloke’s friendship and co-operation.
    Terrence Mulligan arrived on a Tuesday before Helga was due to go on leave on the Friday.
    “I’m very pleased to meet you Ms. Marchmont,” said Terrence as he stepped into Helga’s office and held out his hand toward her.
    “Just call me Helga, everyone is on first name terms around here, Terry,” she said as she shook the offered hand, observing that, despite Terry’s youth he certainly was full of confidence. 
    And Helga led the way outside where she introduced him to Alex. “Take the buggy and give Terry here a tour of the village would you, Alex? Let him see what he is to be managing for the next couple of weeks.”
    “So, you been managing villages for the company for a while then, Terry?” Alex asked by way of introduction as they climbed into the buggy.
    “Oh no, not me. This is a completely new experience for me, Alex, I just completed my RPI course with the company.”
    “RPI course?”
    “Rapid Promotion Induction course,” replied Terry. “I finished uni only three months ago but you’ll be able to keep me right won’t you, Alex? ” and Terry gave Alex the broadest most self-assured smile Alex had seen in a long time. Alex’s mouth moved in what could have been construed as a confirming gesture. He said nothing.
    For the next two days Terry learned the routine of the office and observed Helga interact with various villagers including Gabriel—who managed to bail him up for at least 20 minutes for a lecture on the recent evolution of the Bovary clan. This was followed up immediately by another lecture from Helga about how on no account was he to take any advice from Gabriel or indeed let Gabriel influence him in any way whatsoever.
    But warnings about Gabriel were really the only piece of sound advice she gave to Terry. For the most part she did her best to nurture his self-reliant and buoyant manner as much as she possibly could and was, of course, able to get away on leave late Thursday afternoon as planned.
    Now this acting position was, for Terry, part of his RPI course, no matter how dubious a plan it was to have a young virtually untrained  person in charge of a retirement village. But Terry was about to find out that experiences gained during the next two weeks would live within his memory as pivotal in making decisions about his future career.
    During the Friday, the first day without Helga, there was a terrible storm. Alex and the gardener had done the best they could to keep all the roads in the village free of fallen branches but other than that there was little they could do. When early evening came Alex had gone home and Terry was for the first time in his young life totally in charge without help or advice—but still confidant though!
    The telephone rang. Alex picked up. “Manager Burnside retirement village.”
    “There’s no response from Maggie,” said a lady’s voice.
    “Sorry, this is Terry the manager. Now, who am I talking to please?”
    “That’s not the point is it,” said the lady in a slightly louder tone.
    “Okay, okay, who is Maggie then?” Terry said.
    “Well you know, surely you have been here long enough to know that Maggie lives at number 48?”
    Terry hastily scribbled down 48 on his pad. “Okay so what you are