This piece was written as a Writers' Group exercise to include the line “He took another sip of whisky as he stared into the flickering fire”
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At first, the business went well. Jake and Melanie had been
introduced by a mutual friend, some twenty years ago, and decided not only to
become friends but to go into partnership in a commercial sense as well. When
the opportunity came along to rent a small shop in a row of similar premises on
the edge of town they jumped at the chance and opened for business, as a
general hardware store, shortly afterwards.
This was the 1960s, before out-of-town shopping centres had
become the norm, and that made it perfectly possible for a small enterprise
like theirs to succeed. This was also the time when DIY was becoming more
popular, and there was therefore a local demand for basic tools and supplies
for the average have-a-go plumber, carpenter and decorator.
But times moved on, and the profits began to decline over
the years, particularly after B&Q opened up on a trading estate not far
away.
Jake had a shock one day when an invoice arrived from a
supplier that was for considerably more than he was expecting, and which could
not be covered by the previous month’s takings. Melanie had not seen this
invoice, and Jake hated the thought of admitting to her that the business was
in trouble. He therefore decided to go to a man he knew and see if he could
borrow the money to pay the invoice.
Jake realised that this was a slippery slope. He could not
simply raise a loan every time a big bill arrived and hope to pay it off from
future receipts, especially if the money coming over the counter was not enough
to pay off the loans plus their steep interest charges. He needed another
source of income.
Down in the basement of the shop was a small room that the
partners had never used. The door to it was blocked off by piece of furniture,
and they had both forgotten that it was there. Jake was down in the basement
one day when he decided to move a few things around and he came across the door
to the hidden room. Once he was inside the room he had his big idea.
It did not take long for him to assemble all he needed to
start his new venture, namely a small distillery. From basic ingredients he
found that he could produce a colourless spirit that had to be high in
alcoholic content, something like poitin or American moonshine.
He told Melanie that he had decided to volunteer at a day
centre on the other side of town, and that he would need to leave the shop in
her capable hands at frequent intervals in order to carry out his voluntary
work. This was perfectly OK as far as Melanie was concerned, and the shop
rarely needed two people to run it these days, what with business being nothing
like as brisk as it had been in the past.
However, this was simply a ruse on Jake’s part to sneak down
to the basement and work at the distillery, where he soon built up quite a substantial
stock of his firewater.
Jake’s next problem was finding a market for his product. He
thought that he might have a word with Murphy, who ran a small bar in the
premises next door to his shop. He had to be careful how he broached the
subject, but he need not have worried. Murphy had no problems at all with
taking supplies of Jake’s product, of which a sample had been provided for
Murphy to taste, in a small hip flask.
Murphy reckoned that he only needed to add some colouring to
it in order to pass it off as whiskey. He had some bitters behind the bar that
would do the trick, and was able to show Jake how this would work, by adding a
dash to the hip flask, giving it a small shake, and pouring a small measure
into a glass. It looked just like the real thing. Murphy explained that he
would sell it to customers who had already had a drink or three and so would
not notice the difference.
Not only that, but Murphy knew a few other possible
customers for the stock that Jake was accumulating in his basement room. They
sealed the deal. Jake was at last convinced that he could solve his financial
problems and pay off his debts, with Melanie being none the wiser.
However, Melanie’s knowledge was increasing at the very time
that Jake was doing business with Murphy. Two men walked into the shop and
approached her. They asked to see Jake, and were told that he was not available.
“We’ll have to talk to you, then”, said one of the men.
“Your partner owes us money, and we’re here to collect it. In cash.”
“Owes you money?” said Melanie. “How much?”
“Fifteen thousand pounds”, said the second man. “Have you
got that in the till?”
Of course she had not. She blurted out that she had been to
the bank that very day to deposit all the cash that had been kept in the safe,
so there was nothing she could do until tomorrow.
“We’ll be back tomorrow, then”, said the first man. “We’ll
expect to collect it when we call”.
To say that Melanie was shocked was an understatement. She
knew that business had not been good, but she had no idea that Jake had been
borrowing from loan sharks to keep it afloat. She also knew that the bank
account had nothing like fifteen thousand pounds in it.
In short, she panicked. She ran to the office at the back of
the shop and grabbed hold of the box file that contained papers relating to the
shop’s insurance policy. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the
policy was up to date and covered accidental fire damage including total loss
of stock.
The shop contained plenty of inflammable items that could be
spilled accidentally and set alight by a carelessly dropped cigarette, for
example. She could definitely get away with it, and she had to do it now.
She loosened the cap of a large can of paint thinner which
she allowed to fall from a high shelf, splashing all over the floor at the rear
of the shop. Her story would be that she had been having a crafty smoke between
serving customers and had rushed to the scene when she heard the crash,
dropping the lit cigarette in the process. She had narrowly escaped the blaze
as she rushed outside.
As a piece of quick thinking it was flawless.
However, what was not flawless was the state of the
floorboards at the rear of the shop. Some of the spilled paint thinner found
its way through the cracks into the room below, where the distillery was
bubbling away. When the flames reached the stock of highly volatile moonshine
the whole lot exploded, bringing down the building and blasting Melanie out
into the street. She was badly injured but survived.
Of course, Jake and Murphy heard the explosion and were soon
on the scene of devastation. Jake rushed over to Melanie to comfort her and
wait until the ambulance arrived. When it did, he accompanied her to the
hospital, with Jake wondering how on earth he would explain everything to her
when she recovered.
The fire brigade was also quick to arrive and soon brought
the flames under control, watched by a shocked crowd of local people.
Naturally, everyone wondered how on earth this tragedy could
have happened, and all sorts of theories started circulating among the
watchers.
These included Murphy, who had a better idea than most as to
what might have caused it. He still had the hip flask in his hand, which he
reckoned was the best clue of all.
He took another sip of “whiskey” as he stared into the
flickering fire.
©John Welford
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