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.
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.
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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