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“How did she find out?” Scottie said as soon as I opened the door. The sheets of rain followed him in through the shop door.
“Fucked, if I know, but they are not getting another penny from me,” I said.
Scottie joined me on the counter top that would be where customers would pay for their magazines. Swinging my feet and kicking my heels against the wood, Scottie put a hand on my knee.
"You will ruin my paint work, keep still," he said.
I jumped down and circled the set of tables in the middle of the floor. Each table had a square box with a tilted floor to place magazines and comics to easily flick through. Whatever Adaline wanted to display could be put in these boxes. I got the idea from an old vinyl shop I found in Nairobi. She hadn't seen this part yet.
“What is the respectable time to call at a house?” I asked Scottie.
“Respectable time? Are you stuck in Victorian times? We need to get there now. Kick them out of bed if we have to. They promised not to say anything. You paid them money not to tell her. We had the perfect cover story.”
“Why won't she come and have a fight with me about it. I didn't think she'd find out so soon. When she did, I hoped to be her husband and about eighty years old where she wouldn't have the energy to kick me,” I said.
“Are we going or what?” Scottie asked grabbing the van keys from the counter.
“You drive, I need to think,” I said.
Scottie made quick time of getting to Adaline's parent's house. He idled the van for a moment, then revved the engine for a few more seconds before he turned off the engine.
“That will wake them up, most people hate a car being revved early in the morning outside their bedroom window. The curtain twitched,” he said pointing to the upstairs window above the living room. “One of them is awake.”
We got out, slamming both doors hard. If they confessed to telling Adaline, I wasn't sure what my reaction would be. I hoped that Scottie would hold me back from punching a sick old man.
I hammered on their front door and rang the doorbell at the same time. I could see Adaline's dad slowly descend the stairs through the frosted glass. I tried to erase the sight of him scratching his balls as he got to the bottom step.
The chain was on when he opened the door a crack. He immediately closed the door. It surprised the hell out of me he pulled the chain back and opened the door wide. He scratched his scruffy grey and black stubble while wincing into the sunlight.
“What do you want son?” Darren asked. The stained t-shirt hung from his body, covering his belly but not his boxer shorts.
“Who is banging on our door?” Clare shrieked from the top of the stairs. She was clutching the bannister and stepping down each step one at a time. The thud of each step down shook the vase of flowers on the bookshelf in the hall. I waited for her to make it to the bottom so they could both hear what I had to say.
“You better come in, it's freezing standing on this doorstep,” Darren said.
He left the door open. Scottie had passed me and stepped over the threshold first. He made a beeline for the bathroom. He was up the stairs and half way back down by the time I’d closed the door.
“They’ve trashed that fucking bathroom,” Scottie seethed, he pointed to the top of the stairs in case I wasn’t aware where their bathroom was. “Wet towels are all over the floor, the floorboards are soaked. Why the fuck did I repair their sodden boards only for them to do it again?”
I’d never seen Scottie this angry. He took pride in his work, I suspected that he did, but his reaction confirmed it. I couldn’t have been more proud. It was a shame he’d seen it so soon into his career how people treated excellent workmanship.
“What do you two want?” Clare asked.
They had both taken residence in their armchairs while we stood with our back the TV. Adaline’s dad flicked on the TV but muted the sound. At least he had some decency.
“You promised that you wouldn’t tell Adaline,” I said. “She knows and is fuming. I don’t know why this has made her so angry, but she is.”
“We didn’t tell her shit, son, we kept our promise. There’s no way I’m risking the rest of the money you will give us.” Adaline’s mum said. “Do we look stupid?”
She coughed for a full minute then reached for her cigarettes and lit one. Adaline’s dad did the same puffing big plumes of smoke in our direction.
“We didn’t tell her, she flew out of here the other day like a crazy woman.” Adaline’s dad said.
“What do you mean?” Scottie asked.
We sat down and waited for an explanation.
“She came as she usually did, we told her about our windfall on the horses. Adaline said she wasn’t looking to be paid back so we could relax. She offered to get us fish and chips to celebrate. When she came back, we were arguing but stopped as soon as we saw her coming up the drive. We ate our fish and chips, and I went back to watching the horses.” Adaline’s dad said.
