“Well?” said Sally when I arrived home from a meeting with my lawyer and the board of directors of my former company.
“How did it go?”

“They were very surprised when I offered to sell them my shares and patents for a cool thirty million.”

“And?”

“From their body language, it was pretty obvious to us that Ronnie and Sanjay have a third-party company lined up to buy the company after the IPO.”

I smiled.
“They dodged and dived all the questions we put to them on the topic of what is going to happen after the listing and would not look me in the eye. That told me all I needed to know. To buy my shares before the IPO would mean them having to borrow money that they don’t have or watering down their holdings before the listing and get into bed with a Vulture Capitalist. They’ll get fleeced. Think of it as a bridging loan at 50% interest”

“I never liked being in the same room as Sanjay. I always felt unclean after meeting him.”

“Yeah, but he was needed back when we started because there was no one else to run the CAD system. Because he was there almost at the start and stuck with us, he got a share in the company. Don’t say that I shouldn’t have done that. At the time, it was right but yes, hindsight is a wonderful thing.”

Sally smiled at me.
“You rehearsed that little rant, didn’t you?”

I felt myself go a little red in the face.
“Sort of. I knew that you’d go on about Sanjay, but what is done is done. They don’t want to put up their money in case their backhand deal goes sour. If there wasn’t one in the offing, I’m sure that they would have bitten my hand off to get total control of the company.”

Then I said,
“We did agree on one thing. My financial settlement. I put forward a number that was almost double what they were initially offering. Sanjay agreed to it without even blinking. I got it in writing and made them transfer the money to my account right there and then. Once again, there was no resistance. It all smells to high heaven.”

“What about the patents?”

“They huffed and puffed but the wording of my contract was clear and unambiguous thanks to you, my darling. They and the subsequent owners can’t get out of paying me royalties until they expire. We have a signed agreement to that effect. All parties have signed it.”

“You don’t seem all that sure that they will honour it?”

“It all depends on the due-diligence that this as yet unidentified, 3rd party will do. If it isn’t disclosed as a liability, then it could scupper the deal. If it is revealed then it could reduce the purchase price. There are very few long-term, as in more than, one or two years liabilities. The lease on the factory expires in twenty-one months which is why we had explored moving to one of those new units near the docks. With the government aid, the move would not cost us a thing but the first thing that the new board did was to cancel it. Again, it speaks volumes about them wanting to cut and run. After that? Who knows eh? I don’t and after today, I don’t really care. They know where they stand especially as their lawyer, Jack Robertson, had made it very clear to his clients that my contract was pretty watertight. He gave it right to Sanjay in the meeting. Any challenge to my contract would fail and that is thanks to you, my darling. I feel sorry for the workforce when they run for the hills with pockets bulging with money, but it is all out of my hands now.”

“So… there is nothing more you can do at the moment is there?”

Instantly, I felt a lawyer's question coming, but I nodded my head in agreement.

“Not what I can do but want to do and that is nothing more than to sit tight. They are going ahead with the IPO and hope that their fairy godmother arrives bearing oodles of lucre so that they can all head off into the sunset to one or more tax havens. Now that my financial settlement is in the bank, I can move on once we resolve the one bit of unfinished business with the shares and patents.”

Sally seemed happy with my answer because she changed the subject.

“Then, I take it that we can start planning our big move and Christmas? The more I think of it, the more that I am against them descending upon us en-masse and staying for nine or ten days. Two or three days are more than enough now that our dear grandchildren are in the ‘Terrible Two’s’ era of rampage.”

I tried hard to suppress a laugh but I failed.

“What’s so funny?”

“You my darling, you. Remember when our kids went through the same year of destruction? In previous years, you could always disappear off to work when things got a bit hectic around here. You won’t be able to do that this year now will you?”

Sue’s face remained placid for a second before bursting into a broad smile.

“Oh yes. The episode with my mothers’ wedding present. She was most displeased that her wedding anniversary present was destroyed before her very eyes, by her grandchildren in under an hour. It took her more than four years for her to accept our apologies.”

“And you don’t want the same thing to happen to you?”

“Well… there are four of them, whereas we had just two little terrors. We could be in for more than double the potential for havoc if last Easter was anything to go by. If we get this place ready to sell, then the last thing that we need is to spend a week or more repairing the damage that a week of them running riot here could entail.”

I could not find fault in her argument. A lot of that was down to her legal training. She’d been a very good law practitioner but the environment that had been in place since the takeover by the US ‘mega law firm’ was toxic. Everyone, who was not a partner was expected to work a minimum of 16 hours a day at least six days a week. Sally blamed the work environment that was portrayed on TV shows like ‘The Good Wife’ and ‘Suits’ for that. I never questioned her decision to quit when she did. Personally, I thought that it was long overdue as I could see how it was destroying her very soul. But, as they say, old habits die hard. I never resented her thoroughness. That trait had saved us more than once over the years.

“I was a bit early for the meeting today so I went for a coffee,” I said almost offhandedly.

“And you got scheming?”

I laughed.
“Not scheming but for some reason that film we sat through last Sunday when it was too wet to cut the grass came back to me.”

Sally remained expressionless.

“It was this American coming of age film called ‘Paper Towns’. Do you remember it now?”

“Sort of. Remind me about it again?”

For once I could not tell what my dear wife was thinking, so I went along with her.

“There is this girl… A young woman aged 18 who goes missing and leaves clues to where she has gone for this neighbour who has been in love with her since she moved in across the road to follow. He and his loser buddies go searching for them. They are losers because they aren’t in the ‘IT’ crowd at school. Anyway, they end up at this place in upstate New York that is a Paper Town. It does not officially exist but is a tool for the mapmaker to keep tabs on anyone who is copying of their maps. At one point, one of the friends searches for the town and the result says that the population has gone from zero to one. Do you remember it now?”

Sally smiled and said,
“Yeah. I could not stop thinking that there were so many holes in the plot it was silly.”

“Me too. But at the end, the hero has just bought a bus ticket back to Florida when he sees the love of his life. She does not go with him, but he went home happy and even went to their graduation prom on his own. That as we know from our children is just not a done thing. Billy no mates are ridiculed by those who had dates.”

“I remember that only too well, but I’m confused by what you are trying to say?”

I smiled.
“I’m saying that we should do what we need to do for us, like the hero going to the prom on his own. We buy somewhere and move or be close to it, but we do not tell them in advance about the move. Then, we just leave them to it on Boxing Day. I’d put up a few hidden cameras around the house to record what happens after we leave just for our own entertainment. We would leave little food in the house so it is clear that our departure was planned. If they came after us and found us then good but wherever we end up must not have more than one spare bedroom. It would solve the inevitable arguments about the wisdom of downsizing and all the money it would cost us and therefore not be given to them.”

Then I added,
“It would not surprise me that Nathan knows how much this place would fetch on the market and would love to get his hands on at least some of it. I’d love to make the move at zero cost to us. i.e., the sale of this place would fund the new place and all expenses.”

Sally laughed.
“Oh! You are so cruel and devious. The clues would be a test of how much they want to find us or are they happy freeloading for the holidays. Nasty.”

“Not nasty but it allows us to get away without the endless questioning that would come as soon as we mention that we are even thinking about it. That’s what happened the last time we mentioned moving to a smaller house. That didn’t go down well then and that was before we had Grandchildren.”

“I’m beginning to come around to the idea. The clock is ticking though. If we are to have all this done and dusted before Christmas then we need to get our skates on.”

I was about to reply when Sally put up her hand.

“What about selling this place? The last thing I want to get involved with is a chain.”

“Same here. With what we have in the bank, we can easily afford a deposit on a smaller and possibly fund all of a cheaper house and use this place as collateral until we sell it in the new year.”

Sally kissed me. That was her way of telling me that it was a done deal.

“There is one thing that would make at least Nathan not come after us.”

Her words took me by surprise.

“I know you don’t do social media, but I’ve been watching some of Nathan’s posts on Facebook. He has real issues with LGBT people. He objected to getting mixed up with a local ‘Pride’ event when they went over to Milton Keynes to do some shopping. Some of his posts on social media have been removed and he was even banned for a week from Twitter.”

That didn’t come as a great surprise to me. Nathan had been involved with the National Front for a short while when he was at university. That ended when his then-girlfriend Rayna put her foot down. Their big ‘them or me’ had happened in front of the whole family when we had them over for lunch on Easter Sunday. Marcus, our eldest son had supported his brother until it became clear that it was four against two. Rayna didn’t hang around and dumped him the next day. He quit the NF the next week but it was too late and Rayna would have nothing to do with him.”

“Does Kim know about these posts?”

“As far as I know, Kim uses WhatsApp and is not on Facebook or Twitter so I don’t know if she does or not.”

“What are you proposing for me then?” I asked fearing the worst.

Sally kissed me. I guessed that was to give her time to think. It gave me time as well. It didn’t take a genius to guess where this was leading.

“Do you remember when we first met?”

I laughed. It wasn’t my finest hour.

“I had to stand in as Fagin for the Uni production of Oliver. The fact that I can’t sing a note was well beyond the comprehension of the director. You did my makeup.”

I knew what she was leading up to.

“The answer is no way are you getting me to dress up as a woman just to spite our children.”

Sally gave me a look that put a deep sense of foreboding into my stomach.

“Come on Darling, it will be a hoot. Just think back to when we suggested moving down to Dorking. Even though we hadn’t even viewed a property, we were subject to some intense questioning about the place that we were not buying. How many bedrooms and how big the bathroom was, was it safe for the children to play in the garden, and lots more. If we want to have a clean break for a while, then the last thing we need is for them to follow us to wherever we settle and start criticising our new home before we get settled in.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“I know you my dear Susan. My guess is that you have a good idea where we’ll end up and also the sort of place you want to buy and that it will take a while to fix up and here, I’ll agree with you in that we don’t want people getting in the way until it is perfect. How right am I?”

Sally’s shoulder slumped. I’d hit at least one nail right on the head.

“Ok, ok. You are partially right… Ok, nearly all your assumptions are correct.”

I grinned.
“That’s because we know each other very well. Too well at times.”

“Then why not spice things up a bit. Jemma sounds like a good name to me!”

I could tell that I wasn’t going to win the argument today so I said,

“No chance. None at all. I’m going in my workshop.”

Sally knew that when I headed for my ‘den of invention’, she was not welcome for a few hours. That ended the conversation for the time being.

My workshop was in reality one half of our double garage. I’d converted it when I began to think about striking out on my own. It was fully insulated and even had a kettle. She had her sewing room, I had my workshop. A space to think and be creative.

I spent the next three hours tidying up the already spotless workshop. That pointless operation gave me time to think.

At first, it was just random thoughts but gradually, something solidified in my mind. Once I had something concrete, I went and sat at the desk near the door to the house. I opened a new engineering notebook just as I’d done for every project I had ever started. It was my way of getting my thoughts collated in one place. The inverter design that had allowed the company to flourish was first conceived in this very workshop and documented exactly where I was sitting right now. The first prototype was in a shoe box on the top shelf. I could lay my hands on the notebook of the project almost without looking. Now, I had a new project to think about even if it was slightly fantastical.

I began writing. All those random thoughts started to come together into some sort of order as they appeared on the pages of the notebook.

After one hour of writing, I was done. It was time to talk to Sue.

“Welcome back into the land of the living,” said a smiling Sally when I went back into the house.

She noticed the notebook.

“What wonderful world beating gadget have you designed today?”

That was an old joke between us. It was a great way to break the ice.

“The new me,” I said calmly.
“And the new you.”

Sally did a huge doubletake.

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that if we are going to make a break then we do it properly and for good. Sod Nathan and all what he stands for. Let’s face it darling, our children are not the most tolerant of people despite our best efforts.”

I sat down next to her on the sofa and opened my book.

“Remember what happened the year of the tsunami? All those people getting killed. Nathan just laughed. Didn’t he say something like ‘good riddance to bad rubbish’?”

“Yes, he did and there was one hell of an argument after that. You chickened out and disappeared into your workshop. I went out for a walk. He never apologised and it was brushed under the carpet. Why are you bringing it up now?”

I turned the page. On it, just one name was written.

“This is the name of possibly the most brilliant hardware engineer I ever met. Maheesh Hasaranga was killed in the Tsunami. I interviewed him just before Christmas and offered him a job as my deputy on the spot. He went home for the new year while we worked out his work visa. He’d been a post grad student at Newcastle Uni so it wasn’t going to be a problem getting the visa but…”

I sighed.
“Maheesh was not bad rubbish. He would have been a greater asset to humanity than our dear children.”

“You have kept this bottled up all this time?”

I nodded.
“We were just getting the company off the ground. Just keeping it afloat the five years after that what with the financial crash and everything. We had to take out another mortgage on this place remember?”

“That was hard. We got through it didn’t we?”

I took her hand and squeezed it. Then I turned the page in the notebook.

It read, “The new us.”

“That is for later. Right now, it is time for something to eat and drink. We can get it together.”

[to be continued]