A Pocketful of Holes and Dreams by Jeff Pearce

Author:Jeff Pearce [Pearce, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Poverty & Homelessness, Azizex666, Social Science
ISBN: 9780141965932
Google: FkTbp05rNWMC
Amazon: B004GB1JUY
Goodreads: 10430581
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2011-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

16. New Beginnings

Our unannounced arrival home was a shock to everyone. Gina’s parents were pleased to see her – though I’m not so sure what they thought of me having been chased out of Benidorm by a judge! I went back to live with Dad and June and picked up where I’d left off, working with Barry on the aerials, while Gina stayed with her parents and worked as a barmaid four nights a week, leaving her Saturdays free to help her father selling shoes on his market stall.

One Saturday near Christmas, I was on my way to put up an aerial on a house near Park Road Market, where Gina was working, and I decided to call and surprise her. She was hard to find at first, as a big crowd had gathered in front of the stall, but as soon as she spotted me, she called out. ‘Jeff! Great to see you! Come and help me. I’m on my own – Dad’s had to go for more stock!’

‘Brown size nine and size four in pink,’ one lady called out, and I found myself serving a customer straight away. The slippers were stacked high, and Gina and her father, Bob, were selling them cheap. I carried on serving until Bob returned and then set off to get on with my own work.

Picking Gina up at around 7.30 that evening, we went for a quiet drink and spent the evening talking about the markets. I couldn’t believe how much I’d enjoyed helping her out that day. Memories came flooding back from when I was a young boy working with Mum on the market, and selling stockings out of a suitcase with Dad. By the end of the night, I’d talked Gina into going into business with me. I was convinced it was fate and meant to be, considering we were both from Liverpool market-trading families and that destiny had brought us together three thousand miles away, in Spain.

It was then that I came clean to Gina, telling her about my inability to read and write. I felt so ashamed and embarrassed at first but much better after my confession, and she was my right hand from that time on.

We spent a day visiting as many markets as we could, looking at all the competition and what people were selling. The possibilities were endless, but we wanted to sell something completely different from all the others. We eventually decided to go into business selling teenage girls’ fashion. I gave up the aerial business, and by the time Christmas was over we had told everyone what we were going to do and registered J&R Fashions as our trading name – the R standing for Regina, Gina’s full name. Bob gave us an old market stall and a canvas sheet he didn’t need any more, and I already had a van. Now all we needed was something special to sell.

Not having a clue about where to go to find it, we almost fell at the first hurdle.

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