(Part 01)
The Finchbottom Vale, which was nestled comfortably between the Ancient Dancingdean Forest to the south and the rolling Pepperstock Hills in the north, is those who are lucky enough to live there, thought of as the rose between two thorns.
The Vale was once a great wetland that centuries earlier stretched from Mornington in the East to Childean in the west and from Shallowfield in the south to Purplemere in the north.
But over the many centuries the vast majority had been drained for agriculture, a feat achieved largely by the efforts of famous Mornington Mills, of which only three had survived to the present day and even those were no longer functional and were in various states of repair.
There were only three small bodies of water left in the Vale now one in Mornington, one in Childean and third of course was Purplemere.
One of the inhabitants of Purplemere was Priscilla Abdul who was not someone you would describe as pretty, she had a rather large nose in the roman style, large round eyes, as black as coal and a small crooked mouth.
But Dave Maslen thought she was lovely, not that she had given him any cause to think that, in fact the opposite was true.
Pricilla was barely five feet tall, with ebony skin and long straight hair the colour of a raven’s wing and in addition to being short she was also stout.
She was born and bred in Purplemere but her ancestry was from far more exotic climes.
She was twenty seven years old but looked much older and she was the assistant chief librarian at the Purplemere Library and Pricilla lived alone in a one bedroom flat over the Vale Farm Pizza House.
She had hoped by her time of life that she would have had something a little better than that but life had not been that kind to her.
Pricilla had been on the way to a perfect life, she had a husband Marcus, a two bedroom house on a new development in Clarence and a baby on the way.
But apparently the universe wasn’t happy about that, because Marcus had an affair, but not some passing fancy, he fell in love with Pricilla’s sister, and so a year later she was divorced and she had lost her husband, the house, her sister and her baby and on the day when the story begins in earnest, she had just found out that her husband was now her brother in law.
Which was why the skin head, racist looking contract cleaner, that was always hanging round was getting on her nerves.
Dave Maslen was employed by “A Life of Grime”, who were contract cleaners and they undertook all kinds of cleaning, commercial and domestic and even had a crew dedicated to cleaning up crime scenes.
And he was not a skin head racist as Priscilla labelled him, he was completely devoid of hair, head, face and body as a result of a trauma suffered when he was a child when he fell from the top of a climbing frame when he was six.
(Part 02)
But apart from being a contract cleaner Dave Maslen was also a first class flirt, and his skin head was often his way in, because it was obviously not shaven, so inquisitive girls often asked him how he lost his hair and when they did he knew he was in with a chance so he really enjoyed flirting.
He had had some degree of success with girls that way but he hadn’t found a keeper yet.
But he thought Pricilla had great potential.
Pricilla didn’t realise that the bald cleaner’s interest in her was as a dinner date, she had assumed because of the way he looked and the fact that he did menial work, that he was ill-educated and a member of the National Front.
She had taken what she saw at face value.
He was bald because of a childhood mishap and had she looked at him closely she would have noticed he had no eyebrows either and it is not common practice for skin heads to shave them off.
He was also far from ill-educated he had 10 GCSE’s and 4 A levels and would have gone to University had his father not died.
He gave up his aspirations to take over the bread winner role in the household, because his mum has MS so she was unable to work.
He did “menial” work because that was all he could get at the time, but apart from the cleaning he also worked at Purplemere Garden Centre and at the Vale Farm Pizza House which was where he got his first glimpse of the smile she kept so well hidden at the library.
Of course he didn’t know that she thought he was some sort of a Nazi based on his appearance.
If he had taken her on face value he wouldn’t have given her a second thought but he hadn’t, he saw past the grumpy exterior to a sweeter softer centre.
But his problem was getting to talk to her, whenever he got close she would scurry away in the opposite direction like a beetle.
She didn’t mean to be judgmental about him she just couldn’t help it, everyone else there said he was really nice.
He was good at his job but he just scared her a bit, and he was a good looking lad with a well-toned body and a nice smile and he was no more than 23 years old.
It all came to a head when she had had a very busy week and by the end of it she was exhausted.
She was not in the best of moods either, she was a bit miffed that she had heard from her ex-husband and he was complaining that his new wife was very upset because Pricilla was still refusing to talk to her.
She was also hot and bothered as it had been a hot day and because they had to wear uniform at the library including black tights and her legs were sweaty.
Pricilla didn’t much like sweaty legs so she was looking forward to getting home and removing her black tights and letting some air to her legs.
She was so hot and tired that she couldn’t be bothered to cook so she decided to get a pizza.
(Part 03)
She walked into the Vale Farm Pizza House and was greeted by Roberto Obertelli, Roberto and his sister in law Annette owned the franchise and were also her landlords.
“Pricilla” he said flamboyantly and kissed her cheeks
“How are you?”
“I’ve been better to tell the truth” she said and then she ordered her pizza and paid for it.
As she was putting her card away she suddenly felt lightheaded and almost crumpled.
Roberto rushed to her and steadied her until she regained her composure.
“You go upstairs” he said and “I’ll send someone up with your pizza”
“I’ll be fine” she protested but Roberto was having none of it and insisted.
She did as she was told and went upstairs to her flat and really wasn’t feeling very well at all, not only did she have sweaty legs, she was sweating all over.
She opened her front door and went inside and despite the fact she was sweating profusely she shivered.
She didn’t want to sit down because she feared she may not get up again so she just pottered around for a bit until there was a knock on the door.
She walked slowly over to it and opened it.
“Oh God” she exclaimed “What are you doing here?”
And before Dave had the chance to answer she had passed out and he had to act with lightning speed to catch her before she hit the floor.
He settled her on the sofa and then phoned downstairs for Annette.
When she appeared she took a look at her and said
“Let’s get her into bed”
Dave nodded and then scooped her up and carried her into the bedroom and laid her on the bed then he took her shoes off and then pulled back the duvet and they had her ready to lay down.
At that point Annette looked at him with raised eyebrows which he took as his signal to leave.
“I’ll wait outside”
A few minutes later she called him back and when he went in she had the patient laying down under the duvet.
And on the end of the bed there was a pile of clothes Annette had removed
“Can you sit with her while I call the doctor?” she asked
“Yes of course”
Two day later Pricilla’s fever broke and Annette was sitting by her bed when she woke up.
“Where’s that ghastly man?” She shouted looking around the room
“The racist one”
“Who?” Annette asked and tried to calm her down
“He brought a pizza and was all smiley” she said with alarm
“Dave do you mean?” she asked and described him
“Yes him” Pricilla barked
“He’s gone home to change” Annette said “he’ll be back later, he sat with you all weekend”
“You mean you paid him to sit here all weekend” Pricilla said contemptuously
“Not at all, in fact he insisted he do it for nothing” she replied
“Why would he do that?” she asked suspiciously
“Because he’s a really nice lad” she replied “And he likes you, why don’t you like him?”
“I don’t like skin heads on principle” she replied and Annette laughed
“He’s not a skinhead, well he is a skinhead obviously but he’s a natural skinhead”
“What do you mean?”
“He looks like that because of a childhood accident” Annette explained
“Oh” she said “So he’s not a Nazi then”
“No” Annette replied and smiled “Now I think you should rest”
“Ok” she complied
“Annette” she called as she was closing the door
“Yes”
“Would you ask him to come and sit with me again?” she asked
“Of course” Annette replied and smiled
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