Porterhouse Pete

"Did Mickey tell you that Dr Simon's appointed me to manage her projects?"

"Yeah," the man nodded with a sour look on his face.

"Well, I'm not impressed. For a start you parked the skip in the driveway in front of the garage, so the Doc had to park outside in all weathers and it's mid-winter—"

"So?"

"So, she's a doctor, so she might be called out in the middle of the night and have to scrape the ice off before she can answer what might be a life and death call. And you had all the bloody car park to put the first pair of skips down."

"Yeah s'pose," he muttered.

"And you've estimated 20 skips, whereas any idiot can see you only need 10, I would allow 11 or 12 for a bit of leeway, especially as you are using Calloway Skips, who are more expensive but sticklers for not overloading. What is it with Gubby's that you usually use, have you upset them?"

"Owe them too much, they won't let me use them again until I settle the account."

"So, I'm going to knock eight skips off your quote."

"Hey, Pete, she accepted the quote as it was."

"So, Jason, tell me. You use her surgery, so does your missus, and your two kids and your Mum and Dad and most of your local customers, so how's it going to look on social media when everyone knows you've ripped off our new Doctor, who's only been here a few months, knowing how hard it is to attract decent doctors to this neck of the woods?"

"Yeah, OK, I'll knock off the eight skips."

"And what's with having only one skip, and not getting it collected before Christmas, Calloway's mostly have two-skip trucks and 12 skips over three days is a steady four skips a day and all done in the three days you're supposed to clear the tarmac surface."

"Well, we thought it might take a few extra days—"

"Oh no you don't, those extra days at a hundred pounds a day is for contingency for unavoidable delays or if delayed by the client. You've been here two days before Christmas and as far as I can see you've done about half a day's work, and in the most convenient place for you but inconvenient for everyone else. And you've already been paid up front for those two days, so you're not getting any more payment until you catch up."

"But—"

"But nothing, Jason. I know why you started before Christmas ... so you could get in your Christmas beer money in. Then you started excavating at the entrance at the end of Doctor Simon's drive but you haven't put in the kerbstones to prevent your new saw cut in the existing tarmac from crumbling as you drive over it. If you'd done that properly before Christmas it would be set hard by now, so any damage there is down to you to put right. And by starting pulling up the tarmac at the entrance, you'll be continually going over broken ground."

"But—"

"But nothing, Jason. We know why you started before Christmas as I've clearly told you. In the dark when Dr Simon's goes to work and comes home, she probably thought you had done a lot more than you have. Now Mickey tells me that Merv's away, was he here before Christmas?"

"Only for a half-day, Pete."

"You're charging for three men, six days, seven hours each a day, that's 186 hours work and it looks like you've done about eight hours so far. I want to see this garden cleared, filled with topsoil and raked ready for turfing in four days. You need to get some more blokes in, hire a dumper truck with a hydraulic lift to empty into the skips and get four skips a day here from Calloway's and do it tout bloody sweet!"

"Shit, Pete, I'm never gonna make any money from this job at that rate."

"You've already taken and spent your Christmas beer money, Jason, so now you're gonna have to pay the piper. Otherwise I'll let everyone around here know (a) that your work is basically incompetent and (b) that you've tried to rip off the new Doctor."

"Yeah, OK, Pete," Jason said, getting his phone out and thumbing through his contacts, "the Sadler twins were asking me on Saturday night if I had any work, I'll give them a bell. Calloway's should be open at nine."

***

April Dunlough was awake and listened to the exchange between Pete and the contractor, who she vaguely recognised on looks but not by name, until Pete mentioned the name Jason. She kept out of sight in the new room next to the kitchen and spoke to Pete when he came inside.

"Jason sounds like a chip of his Dad's old block," April grinned.

"Yeah," Pete said, "the Denhopes are pretty bloody hopeless, I imagined that Dr Simon had asked around for anyone who did landscaping down at the surgery and was probably recommended to use the Denhopes by Jason's sister Ruby, who was a Receptionist and also known as Mrs Mervyn Wills."

"Rube, I remember, so, she married 'Mucky' Merv?"

"Yeah, no accounting for taste, I s'pose," Pete grinned.

During their reminiscing about people they knew as teenagers, Pete pottered in the kitchen and prepared a late breakfast for April. She noticed his limp and the scar damage to his once-handsome face.

"Well, when Dad got me out on bail, he and some of his mates beat me up in the car park up near the lighthouse. My leg was probably badly set by the doctor at the hospital all those years ago but that was the least of my problems at the time. I had a lot of problems because my head had been slammed in a car door several times, which caused me to lose 40% vision in my left eye and the resultant brain damage meant I had to learn to walk again and I never really got the full movement back in [my left leg."

"Why happened to your Dad, Bob Potter?" April asked.

"My father was convicted of aggravated assault with grievous bodily harm, about six months after the incident I suppose, and he was sentenced for two years. He was let out after about a year but he disappeared, never returned to the family home. The restaurant here was closed as Bob's business was bankrupt by then, but the bank couldn't sell it so it remained empty for years other than a couple of aborted attempts to open another restaurant here, the last one was, oh, probably ten years ago."

"I'm sorry I dropped you as my boyfriend, Pete, my family, particularly my father, my agent and the studio making the soap show I was in, all insisted that you were guilty as charged and I was to drop you. They didn't like the bad publicity I was getting.mYou also told the doctors that you didn't want to see me at the hospital after the attack, which, well, made it seem to everybody like you were guilty."

"I didn't want to see anyone at that time, I was hurt badly by the accusations, was really depressed and thought I was completely friendless. Being accused of a crime I didn't commit and then been tried and punished by a kangaroo court that included my father and a bunch of his cronies, and all that time I was being told that I would stand trial, the police were certain of conviction and kept telling me if I confessed they would go easy on me. I wasn't going to lie about that. I was at my lowest ebb all through that year, until they came into the prison hospital one day and said I was free to go."

"Oh my god, but I thought you were convicted of the attack on that young girl and imprisoned for that year?"

"No, I was never convicted of assaulting the little girl, which is what I was originally charged with but I spent twelve months on remand in Channings Wood Prison Infirmary awaiting trial and undergoing treatment for my broken leg, a couple of eye operations and then rehab learning how to walk again, before my mum and I heard from the police that charges were being dropped for lack of evidence. So, in the end there was no trial as there was no evidence linking me to the attack on poor Ann. You know me, Apes, and you knew Ann. Could you honestly see me raping her and beating her so badly she was in a coma when she left here needing better hospital treatment in London? But because there was no trial and no outright acquittal, many people around here still think I'm guilty and treat me with suspicion."

"So why have you not moved away from here, started out again somewhere new?"

"I've thought about it but I've got Annie here now, and mum's in a local care home. I couldn't leave them and I can't take them with me, so I'm stuck. I suppose I've lived in limbo for the last twelve or thirteen years."

Then Annie came down after unpacking her clothes and their conversation about the past stopped.

Pete called his lawyer Craig Connors and fixed up an appointment to see him the following day, the secretary passing back that they had already had a couple of calls from disgruntled newspaper publishers. "But don't worry my love," the secretary said, "Mr Connors'll sort 'em out for you."

Craig Connors was an old teammate of Pete's, in fact they were a pair of centre halves from Sandmouth Bay Juniors FC days and played together in the same team for eight years until Pete permanently moved to play for Exeter City. Craig was thin and lightweight, while Pete was a giant and had watched his back throughout their playing days. Now, Craig the solicitor helped Pete with the various scrapes he got in through his duties at the night club.

The plasterboard was delivered as promised and Pete made a start putting up the full sheets and cutting out to fit as required. Annie helped hand him the pins to tack them to the frames and April helped hold sheets in place as they were being pinned. April taped up the joints and Pete and Annie mixed the plaster. Both girls tried to spread on the thin plaster coating but most of it ended up on the floor, then stood back in awe as Pete smoothed on the mixture with hardly dropping the odd splash and smoothed it apparently effortlessly.

"I'll put on the kettle, then Pete, do you want to come and help me, Annie?" April asked. And Annie joined her in the kitchen, but kept looking around the corner watching her father make the operation look easy.

By the time Rebecca's came home after surgery finished after it was already dark, the two rooms looked virtually finished and ready to paint or paper as soon as the plaster dried out.

"Wow! Pete, Annie, April, you've been brilliant!" she exclaimed, "and I even managed to get the car in the garage with that skip out of the way."

"And we have supper ready," piped up Annie, "I helped cut up the vegetables and April boiled up the turkey bones and brown meat to make a soup starter, while Dad cooked the chicken dinner."

"I can tell, Annie, it smells delicious and I've been salivating ever since I opened the front door. Come on, let's tuck in, I think we've all built up a well-deserved appetite today."

***

Tracie put on her "April Dunlough" wig, made herself up using April's colour palette and then donned a scarf to hide her face behind big sunglasses in December and used the big limo to take her to the shops. The paparazzis seem completely taken in and Tracie's dumb response to every leading question about the state of her marriage was fended off and lapped up by the media.

Meanwhile, back in Sandmouth Bay, the remaining die-hard photographers faded away through lack of sustenance in the shape of a story about the celebrity actress.

***

Rebecca pushed her plate away and had another quick slurp of wine. "Fabulous, Pete, Annie, April, you can stay as long as you like at Porter House. Phew! I'll sleep well tonight. What's happened in the old car park today, in the car headlights I picked out four skips out in the yard."

"Yes. Well," began Pete, "I pointed out to Jason that he had made a basic arithmetic error in the quote over skips and saved you £400 off his quote. Jason managed to get the first full skip collected, two empty ones dropped off, which he filled and got collected and then got another four dropped off. He managed to hire a dumper truck with hydraulic lift, which he should've allowed for at the outset to save two men a day, but he's taken on a total of four men so he can complete the tarmac removal within two days, which is a day longer than he quoted. However, he will start the rotovating, lay down the weed suppressant and spread topsoil concurrently to save the lost day and still complete before the New Year holiday starts. So you'll be more than ready for laying the turf in February. He's putting the kerb stones in at the end of the drive at the end of the last day but because that should have been done already, he will make good and do that at his own expense as a reflection of his goodwill to you Doc, saving another £200."

"Pete," Rebecca smiled, "stitching your head in the early hours of yesterday, inviting you into my home and getting to know you is the best thing I ever did. Two days ago I was a stranger in town with patients at the surgery reluctant to transfer to my list. But look at me now, I'm friends with the beautiful April Dunlough of TV fame, who has helped cook a meal for me, a friend of your even more beautiful daughter Annie, I already love April's Mum Alice and her sweet boyfriend Julian. And we've had a couple of fantastic adventures with the paparazzi. And you would not believe the number of patients at the surgery who I've seen today who have thanked me for treating you with the respect they felt you've long deserved. Pete, you've improved my social standing in this town more in the last two days than I had any right to expect."

"Madam Doc, you are welcome. You have my eternal gratitude. You've given me back the feeling of being a respected member of the community again, something I haven't felt for twenty years." He held up his glass, "Thank you, Doc for being my heroine in green scrubs; thank you, Annie for being my lovely helper and for glossing over the time I couldn't come around because I felt ashamed to be your father; and thank you April for giving me a lovely glimpse of you when you were a gorgeous girl who treated me as a human being again."

"Oh Daddy, we loved you so much, and Mum kept telling me how much work you had to do and how little money you had. I was just grateful seeing you after so long at Christmas. And, Mum and me had noticed you peeping at us when school ended, and I'm sure we saw you at school sports days."

"Pete," April says, "I am so glad to see you again after so long and I have warm memories of how we used to be so happy as kids. I cannot thank you enough for saving me yesterday and making today relaxing and so much fun."

Chapter Six

Friday 30 December

April announced she was ready to return to her everyday life, all the furore in the press over her recent life had shifted to France over the last couple of days as her soon-to-be-Ex was bearing all the criticism about the break-up of the celebrity marriage.

During Thursday and Friday Pete was completing putting up curtain rails throughout the large residence called Porter House, April and Annie helped hang the ready-made curtains from the rails, pinning up the hem ready for Rebecca to sew up on her machine. Meanwhile, outside, the last of the skips were ready for collection and the area earmarked and covered with tarpaulins for the delivery of topsoil to complete the garden.

Annie decided to visit one of her friends near Tracie's flat, so Tracie left Pete and April alone to help put together the beds and flat pack wardrobes for the bedrooms. April used the time to reminisce about the times Pete and she were together. April smiled mischievously at Pete.

"Remember the barn at Macready's Farm, Pete?" she asked coyly.

"How could I forget the place where we first made love?" Pete grinned back.

"It was certainly a first time for me," she looked at his response, "you seemed to know what you were doing though, so I never asked at the time."

Pete put his Allen key down and replied to the implied pointed question, "It was the first time for me too, Apes, there was no-one before you, nor really anyone since. I was quaking in my boots and operating under the control of doing whatever came naturally, trying to make sure I didn't hurt you or upset you."

"You never hurt me, Pete, you were so careful, caring, gentle and sweet; it was me that hurt you, abandoning you so abruptly as I did. We never spoke, my studio and parents heard and believed the rumours and I cut you off without a word."

There was a moment of charged silence between them, so full of memories.

Pete broke the silence with a change of subject. "That barn was converted into a house, the field behind it was turned by Macready into a small housing project, and the farmhouse was converted into a pub called The Prancing Horse."

"Really? I'm amazed, that farmhouse was office and the farmyard just a builders' yard when I knew it. Do you know how the barn turned out?"

"Yes, I do, I actually learned my joiners' trade working on that barn for over two years."

"You worked for Macready's?"

"Yes, Jim Macready gave me a job once I was able to work again after I relearned how to walk. Jim was a keen football coach when both his sons played and I played for one of his teams when I was under 11 through to under 15. I worked for him as a general labourer for a few months building up my strength, doing whatever he asked me to do, I was that grateful. Then he offered me a carpentry apprenticeship for three years after I worked with an old-school joiner-carpenter George Smith and he said I showed aptitude and he was prepared to teach me, with a day off a week at the tech learning the carpentry trade. Under my own steam I attended an evening class a week to learn joinery."

"So why did you end up as a nightclub bouncer?"

"Ah, well, I worked for Jim for eight years but then Jim had a stroke and his eldest son took over."

"Carl Macready?"

"Yes, the eldest son, the one I played football with, only we never got on because I took over the captaincy from him after our first season and he hated me for it. As soon as he took over the company he put me on all the worst jobs and generally messed me about, so I handed in my notice and had to drive to Torquay to work for a firm over there. I did that for a couple of years, but my mum was beginning to suffer from early onset of dementia and I needed to be close to home because she ran a B&B and it was all getting too much for her. I didn't realise Until I got power of attorney over her finances that she had been running the boarding house at a loss for years and, without my wage coming in, we were rapidly going under. So I did all the work around the house from breakfast to dinner and after putting her to bed I worked as bouncer at the Starlight. Then I started to hear from neighbours and guests that Mum was wandering the streets at night in her night clothes and not in her right mind. The doctor said she needed constant care and so I had to put her in a home. We had to sell her house in order to fund her time in the home, so I was homeless. I couldn't get help from the council because technically I had made myself homeless."

"Damn, Pete, I never knew any of this."

"It's all water under the bridge now, Apes. Anyway, Macready's barn is now known as Ridgecrest Barn and was last on the market a year or so ago for £875,000, not bad for an old barn that used to store skirting boards, doors and sheets of plasterboard, and the odd pair of lovers with nowhere else to go."

Mid-afternoon April's limo arrived at Porter House with Tracie on board. April and Tracie embraced and April said she would keep in touch and let them know how she was getting on and wanted to be kept up to date with how work on the old Porter House was proceeding.

While Pete returned upstairs in the bedrooms, installing fitted wardrobes, Tracie and Rebecca talked about Pete's history and what happened to him, because Rebecca had heard so many conflicting stories, many from medical staff at the hospital who didn't really know him and many stories seemed to be second or third hand.

"Look, I was only about 12 when this incident happened and woke up the whole of this quiet little town. I knew this girl Ann Jackson from school," Tracie said, "She was my bestie in junior school and we were still close at the Comp. We lived close to each other near to the old wrecked pier here so we sat together on the bus to and from the big school. But it was about the time we changed schools that she changed her personality."