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.Besides which they’re inclined to be more appreciative and much less demanding.Lofty was trying to put her at her ease in his clumsy way, offering her fags, but it seems she doesn’t smoke.That says something in her favour, I thought.Then he came up to the counter for the grub.‘They’re almost ready,’ said Flo.‘I’m putting you grilled tomatoes on, OK?’‘Eh? Oh sure, sure Flo,’ said Lofty.He’s just that bit slow on the uptake.Flo put both plates on the counter.‘It’s going to be a chequebook order,’ said Fatchops.‘I don’t mind,’ said Lofty.‘Where d’you pull it, Lofty?’ said Fatchops, ‘– and don’t tell me it’s the landlady’s daughter.’‘I didn’t pull it,’ said Lofty, ‘I gave the young lady a lift from Bury.Owt else you want to know?’‘Yes,’ said Fatchops.‘Is that your load outside with the prefabs or chicken houses or whatever it is they are on?’‘Yeh.What about it?’ said Lofty.‘Well it was just coming on heavy rain when I came in,’ said Fatchops, ‘and I thought that the bloke whose load that was, was going to have a hell of a job with it if he didn’t loosen up his loading ropes on account of the wet.’‘Ta, mate,’ said Lofty, ‘I’ll attend to it.’I was going to say that he’d better not forget or else he’d have a load of trouble later but I didn’t because I thought it might make him suspicious, which he’d have been quite right to feel.So he goes back with the two platefuls of grub to this little bird sitting at the table.Then one or two drivers join in the chat about what things can happen to your load in wet weather if you get your ropes shrinking and they pull your load to one side.Then this leads on to one chap telling about a load of sheepskins he’d had and how they began to slip.Of course another driver has to top this with how he’s going up the Shap in winter with fifteen ton on and he has to stop and the whole thing starts slipping back.Now if there’s one thing gets on my wick it’s drivers talking about their wagons and their jobs.All an engine is to me is a block of metal under a bonnet, and its only purpose, so far as I can see, is to get you from one place to another.So there I was joining in but not taking a blind bit of notice and thinking to myself what a pity it was I didn’t have any company for my little ride back to London, whilst here is this quiet little bint noshing it away with Lofty.Anyway he gets his grub down in record time – he’s got a terrific twist on him – and tells his lady companion that he’s going out to ease off his loading ropes.At least that’s what it looks like to me the way he’s talking to her and the signs he’s making with his hands.He’s a very slow thinking sort of bloke and talks to you like you were deaf and dumb.Now when I see him go off I say: ‘This place is getting into a real clutch-and-gear-joint.I think I’ll go across and have a little tune on the old juke-box to brighten things up.’Now as luck would have it the juke-box chances to be up against the table where this Annie is sitting all on her todd.So I look down the list and I happen to remark, more to myself than to her, ‘Blimey, they’ve got a load of old ’uns on here.’I looked out of the corner of my eye to see what its reactions are and it gives me a little smile.It looks dead lonesome in its own little way.‘Did you come in with Big Lofty?’ I said.I’ve only watched her come in haven’t I.But I find that a very good approach with a bird to say something dead ordinary at the start.It wasn’t well timed because she’s chewing a mouthful of sausage so that all she can do is give me a nod.Still it makes it think maybe I’m not so bright.Always keep your best lines tucked away for the right occasion.I keep on looking down the list of records because a bird like that is like a child, they’re soon overfaced if you go for them, you’ve got to let them come to you.So without turning to it I start singing Lofty’s praises.‘He’s a good bloke is Lofty,’ I said, ‘a real good mate, one of the few drivers you can rely on in these days.He’ll never let you down.You’re in good hands with Lofty.’‘Yes, he seems nice,’ she said.‘Oh a good-hearted geezer is Lofty,’ I said.‘He’ll give you anything.He’d share his last cigarette.’‘Yes, he seems generous,’ she said, a nice smile coming to her eyes.‘He’s his own biggest enemy,’ I said, ‘he’ll even share his girlfriends with his mates.’ I took a gander at her and another through the window at old Lofty who I could just make out going round his wagon easing off his ropes in the dark.‘I suppose I’m fussy, but I never fancy that sort of game,’ I said.‘One bloke told me that he’d even lend you his wife, like the Eskimos do – I wouldn’t fancy a thing like that, for one thing she’s as big as he is—’‘I didn’t know he was married,’ she said.‘Oh he’s got at least one wife,’ I said, ‘being a trunker, see, a long-distance driver, away from home every other night.They usually have a wife at home and the landlady or her daughter at their digs.Well you can’t blame them.It’s not the sort of life I’d fancy.What was I saying now? Here, but aren’t some blokes funny, I’d hate anything like that, sharing a bint – I mean a gal.Where are you making for, Annie?’‘London,’ she said.‘How did you know my name?’‘Lofty was talking about you,’ I said.‘Where are you making for in London?’‘Well no particular part, I’d like to get a place to stay and a job if I could,’ she said.‘Don’t stay at one of these hostels whatever you do,’ I said.‘You get an odd class of women in there, you know the sort I mean.You’ve got to look after yourself.What kind of job?’‘I don’t know,’ she said.‘I’ve worked mostly as a packer in a mail order firm.’‘What kind of males?’ I said.Same as I always say, you’ve got to make ’em laugh a bit.‘Here I might be able to help you,’ I said.‘I’ve got a mate whose a foreman at one of these sweet factories in London [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]