Keeping Afloat by John Liley

Author:John Liley [John Liley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781907991066
Publisher: Loose Chippings
Published: 2011-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

7: LOOKING FOR MONEY

Already, the ‘new’ bus was beginning to play up. Under the accumulated weight of fourteen passengers, miraculously attracted as a group from Oklahoma, together with their baggage, the springs on one side were sagging. From the back axle, too, sticky grease was escaping. Whoever at the Traffic Area Office in Manchester awarded the magical ticket had clearly been no clairvoyant. A series of electrical mysteries made the latest visit to Paris a harrowing one.

‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ I declared at the hotel where we met our clients, ‘I’m sorry to be so late but we had a small problem on the way. Please do not concern yourselves; it’s all fixed now.’ Somehow, I sensed, I could have been more cautious. ‘We have a three hour journey ahead of us, so please make yourselves comfortable.’

Amongst the dreams that visit me from time to time, one is of being a student, with exams imminent and an impossible amount of swotting still to be done. Another sets itself on the expressway beside the Seine in Paris with the engine mysteriously dead and a busload of people wondering why they paid to get into such a mess. During waking hours both have actually happened.

‘Ahem, we appear to have a fault, ladies and gentlemen. Excuse me for a moment while I take a look.’ Pulled in beside the barrier, with traffic hurtling by, I remember thinking what a good job it was we did not pursue one of the dafter resolutions at our director-shareholder’s meetings - that we should paint the company name on the side. With the bonnet lifted I wiped a few things, tweaked a wire on which the insulation had partially melted, then, before the apprehensive throng, climbed in to try the ignition. Miraculously, the engine started up again, then continued to run.

It would do this wholeheartedly, I was to discover, only with my foot flat to the boards. Anything less, and it started to miss again. ‘You’re early,’ the crew declared with indignation as I bowled up beside them. They had only just finished getting the boat ready, and had not had time to change.

‘I didn’t have much choice,’ I told them. ‘If we’d stopped at all, I’m not sure we could have started again.’

Expenditure by now was critical. Try as Bob might - and the Oklahoman group was a major coup - bookings for Secunda were not keeping up. Somehow or other we managed to continue. I remember spending the cash given as tips to pay for the laundry.

Beside the bonfire one night, an elderly passenger gave me the benefit of his wisdom. I had not described to him our predicament, or even spoken of our worries. Probably, they were evident enough: in the state of our bus, for example, or the way we were running short of towels.

He was another of those who spoke extremely slowly. More an American characteristic than a British, it conceals very often, as remarked upon before, an extremely agile mind. As a

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