A Moment in Time Pt. 02

"Sally, if I were advising you as your solicitor, it would be my duty to point out the course of action that I considered best in your interests. If then you instructed me otherwise, of course I would do what you told me you wanted done. In this case, I suggest that your interests would be best served by putting your house on the market.

"If your sister can raise the money to buy you out, all well and good. If not, you, as sole executrix, are perfectly free to instruct an estate agent with or without her consent. This, I think, is why they are putting so much pressure on you. Your parents could perfectly easily have made your sister or her husband joint executor. I am sure your parents made you sole executor to protect your interests, and that, in my opinion, is what you should do."

I am not a great one for giving advice, and I had kept my nose well out of Sally's private business, but this was just what I had been wanting to hear, and I suppose some of that must have shown in my face. Sally turned to me.

"I can see you agree with him. I suppose it is no good keep on putting things off, but honestly I just don't know what to do for the best. What do you think?"

"If Donald will act for you, I suggest you get him to send a letter to your sister, asking for access to the house so that you can get it valued. That gets the ball rolling. Then we can consider our next steps."

Don was very happy to act for Sally, so that was quickly settled. Then Don turned to Bruno.

"You're still located in the Town Hall aren't you Bruno?"

"Yes, 'til October, then we move over to Welford Place. Why?"

"Maybe you could arrange to be hanging around the lobby at around five thirty and walk Sally home; just to be on the safe side?"

"Of course I could, if that's ok with Sally and Dave?"

I answered for us both.

"I should be very grateful. I have been closing up early and going to meet her, but you would make a far more convincing bodyguard than I do. I'm the original seven stone weakling, complete with sand in the face."

Everybody laughed. I could see Sally wanted to protest at my self-deprecation, but she gave in with a smile.

A week passed, and nothing was heard from Sally's sister, so the next move seemed to be up to us. I asked Bruno, who seemed to be delighted to help, if he would escort Sally and an Estate Agent to the house the following Saturday. When he agreed, we asked Donald to notify Gloria of the day and time.

What we expected to find, I am not too sure, but what we found was the house empty and in a state of mess and dirt that horrified

Sally. The garden and privet hedges were overgrown and neglected, the windows were dirty and the curtains filthy; the pot plants that could be seen lining the window-sills were clearly long dead... The hall was a piled with local newspapers and junk mail, together with dozens of official-looking communications addressed to both sisters. Altogether, the whole place looked (and smelt) as if dossers had been living there. It was hard to believe that only a few months had passed.

Sally was embarrassed and humiliated to be conducting an Estate Agent round this poor excuse for a rubbish dump. Gloria and Don had clearly up sticks and moved away, and god knows who had been given the run of the place for a month or more.

Well, the problem seemed to be over, and so it proved. I came up with some money; Sally hired a professional cleaning company to bring the house and garden up to saleable condition, and six weeks later it was up for sale. Don and Gloria seemed to have vanished off the face of the earth, and desultory enquiries suggested that the Rev. Elisha had returned to Scotland to scarify a congregation in Arbroath. Don made the statutory checks to try to find Gloria, who was, after all, half owner of the house. In the end the money was placed in her name in a trust account, under the care of the family solicitor.

A few months later, Sally gleefully announced that she was in the club, and we got married at Leicester Register office, with rather more ceremony than would buy you a dog license, but not a great lot more. We had a great party later at the Mardi Gras roadhouse, with Bruno accompanying Ivy on his beloved Epiphone, and acting as the perfect Master of Ceremonies.

It is enough for us. Our target is to live happily ever after. Wish us luck!