Fast Fiction: Gollen And Co
Poor old Gollen. No longer on the scene. But he knew how to show someone the ropes, as Richard Mallinson’s story reveals.
The car they'd built wouldn't start. Gollen leaned in and twiddled a knob or two and then it went, driverless, along the old airstrip.
It stopped. They all ran to it. Gollen put his helmet on and got in. He fiddled about a bit and then it started and Gollen drove it to the end of the strip and back.
He pulled up in front of the others, the engine still running.
'Well?' said Rick Grever, 'how is it?'
'Fine,' said Gollen.
'Whose turn is it now?'
'Mine,' said Gollen and drove off towards the factory.
Ms Venetia Grainger jumped up and down and waved her college scarf.
*
'All you have to do is follow the procedures,' said Gollen, suavely.
'But I don't know any procedures,' said Ms Venetia Grainger.
'Oh god,' said Gollen, 'I thought you knew all the -'
'No, nobody's told me about them.'
'You mean that you've never, ever - ?' asked Gollen.
'No, I swear, never, ever, not once.’ She smiled at him. This will be my very first job since leaving college.'
'Well, then, I'll show you the ropes tonight,' he said.
She wondered what he meant.
*
Years later, when Ms Venetia Grainger had become chairman and managing director, some said that life was a damned sight better without old Gollen but others, including Rick Grever, weren't so sure.
Of course, Rick had never been sure about anything. He hadn't even been sure what the phrase 'show you the ropes' meant when Ms Venetia Grainger had asked him all those years ago.
Gollen had known, though.
