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A Grave Matter

 

Common Ground

 

 

Vivienne and Terence met on their first day at university.  She never liked names to be abbreviated.  So, when he said it was always ‘Terence’ never ‘Terry’.  She approved.  Vivienne did not like childish names.

 

When you meet someone, you discuss common ground.  Sometimes opposites attract.  But for Terence and Vivienne it was their common ground that drew them together.  They really did have things in common.  Vivienne and Terence were both intelligent, they both had ambition and they both did not want a family.  Both Terence and Vivienne were only children.

 

And they both loved food.

 

Not in a gluttonous way.  Terence and Vivienne explored food magazines, watched all the TV chef competitions, followed all the food trends and practised all of them at home.  And most of all they dined out and dined out well.  They liked fine dining, they liked the finer things in life. But, although they ate well, they also ate fit.

 

Daily runs, Pilates, spinning.  Fit bodies and fit minds.  They were fit for anything.

 

Both Vivienne and Terence had promising and successful careers after university.  Terence was a specialist in financial IT and Vivienne was a lawyer.  They both worked hard, they both had ambition.  It was what they had in common, common ground.  Hard work and ambition brings rewards, rewards they believed they were entitled to.  Their affluence was evident in the house they lived in, in the cars they drove, in the holidays they spent together.  But there were no people carriers, there were holiday resorts for couples, couples like themselves.

 

They had everything under control.

 

 

 

The End of the World

 

 

You cannot be in control for ever.  Things in life change.

 

If the financial world collapsed then so did Terence’s world.

 

The end of the world was redundancy.  It was not even the loss of earning that Terence felt the hardest, it was the loss of standing in the community, the community that Vivienne and Terence had created, had subscribed to.  Jobs are what define you.  It was everyone asked of you when you met them for the first time.  It is the questions friends ask you about every time you meet – how are you progressing?  It was the question Terence always asked.  It was how people were measured, measurement of their standing and Terence had lost his.  He was not standing tall.

 

So, Terence didn’t want to meet anyone.  His energy had gone, his drive had gone.  He stayed indoors.  Even the pursuits that had always interested him seemed stale.  Vivienne considered that Terence had gone stale.  If his job had defined him, Terence did not have a definition.  Terence had lost all his ambition, including his ambition to enjoy life.

 

Terence was too young to retire and he had been too ambitious to retire.  However, the decision was made for him.  But he had always been a planner, he had made the decisions in his career and now he had lost that power too.

 

The trouble was that Vivienne was also ambitious.  They had trodden similar paths.  That was why they were drawn to each other initially.  It was a passion they shared and now only one of them was walking the path.  Vivienne was also ambitious – and she was also successful.

 

The balance had changed.

 

 

 

If it’s too Hot

 

 

There was a pay-out and Terence wanted to take a risk.  They had never been risk takers.  Terence and Vivienne had always stuck on their pre-determined path.  A path they had built for themselves.

 

But Terence wanted a stand in the community, to stand in the community again.  He wanted to be in the hub of the community.  Terence wanted to buy a pub - a country pub - a pub within a community.

 

Vivienne’s immediate reaction was horror.

 

Then Vivienne was unsure.  She needed persuading.

 

Terence had been on many management courses – communication, delegation, assertiveness and most important of all – negotiation.

 

Persuasion was a skill Terence had learnt.

 

 

 

 

 

Two - Many Chefs

 

 

It was like when they first met.  It was the planning, the dreams that brought them together.  It was the detail, the strategy.

 

Location, décor, atmosphere and most of all the menu.  It brought them together, although they had never been apart.  Not since that first day in university.

 

They had been on one road.  Focused.  The focus now was different; it was the end of the road.  They would just have to build a different road, a change in direction.  The things they agreed on were the things that brought them together.

 

They had two things to focus on.

 

Vivienne and Terence wanted an impeccable menu.  That would be the focus they shared.  And they planned their menu together – they had never been closer.  It was a love they shared.  Terence and Vivienne made another decision.

 

There would be no children allowed in their pub.

 

Terence and Vivienne did not like children.

 

 

 

Prep

 

 

Imagining a business and running a business are two different things.  It brought them together.  Planning and organising.  The main thing was the menu.  Terence and Vivienne had worked tirelessly. 

 

The menu was perfect.

 

 

 

 

 

Nibbling Away

 

 

Anticipation and apprehension were their feelings.  Their venue was perfect.  A small country pub on the outskirts of a village.  Their menu was perfect, hearty and healthy.  All ingredients balanced with precision.

 

They opened their doors with anticipation and apprehension.

 

They opened their doors.  Wide open.  Wide open arms.

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But nobody came.

 

 

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The food, their fresh food, went off.

 

So did their aspirations.

 

No nibbling of food, only fear nibbling away.

 

 

 

Entrée

 

 

For two weeks they stood alone.  They stood apart.  They hardly spoke.

 

Then one day the door opened.  It was a breezy, wintry day and the young couple looked cold.  It was a simple request.

 

“Are you serving food”?

 

It sounded like poetry.

 

They thought their hearts would explode.

 

“We’ll just have to get Arthur, he’s still in the car”.

 

Terence ran over to hold the door open for the old man.

 

They wanted to make a good impression on their customers, their first customers.

 

Arthur arrived.

 

 

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Arthur was seven.

 

 

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Vivienne and Terence’s policy was not to allow children into their pub – but they were the only customers they had.  They could not turn them away.  And they wanted food.  Terence and Vivienne would make an exception – just this once.

 

Vivienne proudly presented her menu, the menu she had been working on for weeks.

 

“What do you fancy Arthur” his father asked.

 

Without hesitation Arthur replied “Chips”.

 

“Three portions of chips please” said the Mum.

 

Terence and Vivienne were dumbfounded.

 

Vivienne folded away the menus.

 

She produced three portions of chips.

 

 

 

Mains

 

 

The next time they came, they came with friends.  And the friends brought their children.

 

And they all ate chips.

 

“I told you they make the best chips in the world” chirped Arthur, as if he had stumbled upon a secret the he could now share.  Arthur was boasting.

 

Despite herself Vivienne felt proud.

 

So, word spread and the crowds grew.  The customers did not only eat chips – but they all brought their children.

 

It was supposed to be a child-free pub.  None of the customers had noticed the signs and none of the customers noticed when Terence discreetly took them down.

 

Vivienne always gave extra chips to Arthur.  The old man who was seven.

 

Terence and Vivienne suddenly had a reputation.  They had a pub, a country pub, a village pub, they had a reputation for food, a reputation for being child-friendly.

 

Vivienne and Terence did not like children.

 

Except Arthur.

 

 

 

Stick and Carrot

 

 

How could they organise a Christmas Party for the children?  They did not know where to start.  Someone in the pub had mentioned it as an idea.  Then it snowballed and it wasn’t even snowing!

 

Vivienne and Terence had succeeded, if profit is success and if building a community – a hub – is considered a success.  So, if they considered themselves railroaded into the idea, they had to do little work.  Customers volunteered gifts, food and decorations.

 

Then one of the locals dropped the bombshell.

 

They had a costume but no-one to fill it.

 

The customers had anticipation and apprehension but they asked.  It really wasn’t a question.  For a question you have to have choices.  He did not have a choice.

 

Terence was going to have to be Santa Claus.

 

The man who did not like children.

 

But there would be a reward the locals cried – a mince pie, a glass of sherry and a carrot for Rudolph.

 

 

 

 

Cheesy

 

 

They clamoured all over him, the children, the brats.  They were all children he knew, that he recognised.  Not one of them seemed to recognise him.

 

But Arthur winked at him.  He was eight now and knew more than the others, the others that were only seven.  Arthur also knew when to keep his mouth shut.

 

They clamoured all over him, receiving gifts with delight.  Terence had never understood the term ‘eyes lighting up’.  He did today.  It was an ocean of smiles.  Brighter than any light on a Christmas tree.

 

They clamoured all over him and he loved it. 

 

His eyes lit up.

 

 

 

 

Just Desserts

 

 

 

Vivienne’s eyes were alight when she told him.

 

She was apprehensive and could not anticipate his response.

 

Vivienne was pregnant.

 

All Terence thought he wanted was a pub, the hub of the community.

 

But he discovered he wanted his own community.

 

All Terence wanted was her and their child.

 

It was an ocean of smiles.

 

 

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You never know which path to take, what road to build.  Sometimes it is the way you do not want to go down which leads the furthest.

 

 

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