Lottery Dreams Ch. 06: Smell of Fear

They had been stripped from the old factory in Ampswell, to be taken from there to London. After sitting on the warehouse floor, for a week, they has been shipped to their sister company in France. To be finally shipped to China. Why they should be sent there, was still a mystery. As was the reason why Cobol should want to get rid of them. Why close down? Why strip the plant from the building? And if so? why continue as if nothing had happened?

It made no sense to Charley or the other lottery winners. There was the possibility that outside forces were acting upon the factory for some sinister reason. But why? What could they possibly hope to gain from a silly little place like Cobol holdings?

If it was not for the pursuit of the lost ticket, Charley would certainly have given up trying to find a reason. The new world of modern finance was so strange to Charley and the others, that nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He had taken advice on investments and tax avoidance from men who spent so many months of the year living in tiny exotic countries, which only they owned. The size of a cricket pitch, these countries existed sadly to furnish these men with an excuse to move their money around the world. So how could it be any crazier, to take some perfectly good machines, and ship them to the other side of the world?

Gerald handled the whole affair when it came to foreign travel. All Charley did, was simply board the plane. With a hire car at the other end, they found themselves driving through the lush French countryside, in search of a machine plant warehouse.

"See all these trees along the side of the road, Charley?" Gerald motioned to a long line of trees, seen on almost every country road. Napoleon planted them. Two centuries ago, he came up with the idea, that if he had to march troops across the country, they need somewhere to shelter from the sun. Far thinking bloke."

He was indeed, thought Charley. This was the world he was in now. A world where you had to think far ahead about what you were going to do, and how you were going to do it. Napoleon earned his wealth. So did most people in the world. Charley was part of a little gang that had struck lucky. Stumbling upon the money. No more entitled to it, than if they had found it in a bag on the side of the road. There was no honour in how they had got their money, and Charley was picking up the increasing feeling that people resented them for that. They were like freaks. Bungling, incompetent grease monkeys that had been handed something they should not have.

Yes, he was guilty of winning the lottery. The counsellors had warned them about that. Even all those years stuck in the factory did not help. That was how Charley saw it now, even though in his heart he wanted life to hand him a golden ring, he still knew he was not entitled to it. Far from it. What was he? An ignorant peasant lost in a world of exotic creatures.

The freight yard for the haulage company was a dull-looking building, which seemed to hold no secrets. Charley and Gerald got out of the car in the fierce sunlight and looked it up and down.

Gerald spoke several languages, and( although they had only ever been used for ordering drinks for foreign businessmen) he got them inside. His language skills were rarely used. Most people only wanted the basics, in his line of work. Money talked louder than anything else, and once he had established that, Gerald found he could get along fine. Today was no exception.

Strangely, Charley recognised several old machines from Cobol, sitting there in the depot. Odd to see them in such an alien environment. That was a piece of him there, and they were all travelling a strange rout now.

It all came to a dead-end, and Charley decided to leave it at that. The guillotines were bound for China, to begin a new life, and there seemed little point in going after them. What could he do chasing a container ship? Gerald said he had a friend with contacts in Kwala Lumpa, one of the stops, but Charley could see no future in it and gave up.

He was so out of his depth here, there seemed little point. Charley was lost in a world of computers and paperwork. Nothing made any sense to him, and he realised he had to learn a lot more about the world before he could take it on.