Howard’s Way (4)

By Wolfie Steel

I unlock the doors of my car and we both climb into the ailing vehicle, now normally I would be praying to all the gods above that when I put the key in the ignition and turn it the engine will start, however, right here and right now I would just love for one of the many problems that the car has to show its face again.

It seems though that my car and Mason are conspiring against me, as for the first time in weeks I turn the key and the engine fires up first time. Well shit, now I have no excuses left and so I put the car into gear and begin the twenty minute journey back to the place that I once called home.

We arrive at the open gates of the house and I drive slowly up the driveway, I pull up outside the front door of the house and we both clamber free of the car.

“Well Tom, I will say this for you, you obviously have a decent eye for detail, the house is beautiful”

I grumble a little under my breath and then I fall silent. Suddenly I can hear the feint sounds of a lawn mower coming from the back garden, yeah just like Avril, take off without telling the gardener not to come back. Mason and I walk around to the back garden and in the distance I can see Vance Davis, a slightly oversized Collie, he is busy at work on his mowing machine.

Knowing that it would be dangerous to approach him mid mow I do what I always do when I want to attract his attention, I put the tips of my index finger and thumb to my muzzle and let out an ear piercing whistle. The mowing machine comes to an abrupt stop as Vance powers down the motor and then removes his ear defenders.

He turns his head and looks over his shoulder and I see his eyes go wide as saucers; he then jumps clear of his mowing machine and runs at full pelt towards me.

“Mr. Howard, oh my god are you a sight for sore eyes, I was beginning to think that you had been buried under the patio”

I chuckle at Vance’s wit; he always was one with a witty remark.

“No Vance, but knowing Mrs. Howard she didn’t exactly tell you anything of what has happened”

Being from the town next to Tarrant means that Vance was not up-to-date with my marital status.

“Well Vance, I’m afraid that Mrs. Howard and I have parted company, she has left Tarrant and lives in Austrailia, my two kids have moved away with her and are now at a college in Oz”

The Collie hangs his head a little.

“I’m so sorry Mr. Howard, you both made such a wonderful couple”

He then lets out a deep sigh.

“Well I guess that is me out of a job then?”

I’m about to answer the Collie when Mason beats me to it.

“Actually no, Mr. Howard and I would like you to stay on and keep the lawns and gardens in the same pristine order that they are at the moment please, if that is okay with you?”

Vance’s eyes light up at the news and I lean a little closer to Mason and whisper in his ear.

“Mason, I can’t afford to pay him for the work that he has done today yet because the money from your commission won’t have cleared, let alone having any thoughts of keeping him on”

Mason it seems just totally ignores me and continues to speak to Vance.

“Unfortunately Mr. Davis at this moment I don’t have cleared funds to be able to pay you for the work that you have done for today, however, I will pay you triple when you come to see to the grounds next time”

At first I can tell that Vance is not too happy about this arrangement.

“If it were anyone else I would say on yer bike, however, Mr. Howard has been good to me over the years and so I will do it just this once, I also presume that I will be doing quite a lot of dealing with you sir so I would like to introduce myself”

The Collie holds out his paw which Mason dutifully takes into his own, the Collie then continues.

“Hello sir, my name is Vance Markus Davis, and I have been the gardener here at Howard House for twenty years”

Mason makes his reply.

“It’s good to meet you Mr. Davis, my name is Mason Orlando DeLuth, CEO and Founder of the DeLuth Racing team”

A shiver runs down the Collie’s back.

“Oh wow, I thought that your face looked familiar, I watch every Formula 1 race, and it’s an honour to actually meet a team owner”

I snigger a little at Vance’s remarks, but then again I guess a little hero worship is acceptable; to be honest when Jack first told me of Mason’s interest I too was a little awestruck.

“Well guys, if you will excuse me, the lawn won’t mow itself mores the pity”

With that said the Collie heads back to his mowing machine to continue his work. I lead Mason to the rear door of the property in the vain hope that Avril has left the spare key in its usual spot, of course she is not going to make it that easy for me.

I stand and ponder about the entry situation for a while, occasionally looking at various windows in a thought that maybe I could break a small one that wouldn’t cost the earth to replace, unfortunately that idea gets blown out of the water thanks to the modern advances of double glazing.

Suddenly I am aware of the fact that Mason and I are not alone. Vance it seems has the knack of knowing when two dogs are plotting, thinking and scheming.

“So your ex took all the keys to the home right? Not a problem, because I am a general maintenance guy and not just a gardener, so I can also afford you entrance to the house, if anything is said unfortunately you lost your keys right?”

The Collie gives a playful wink as he heads towards his truck; he comes back a few moments later with a couple of screwdrivers and a weird looking contraption that I had no idea about. Five minutes later and the rear door to the house is open.

“I’ll head into Tarrant and get you a new lock for the rear door sir; I will also get a new one for the front door too, that way if your ex ever comes back here, she will not be able to get her ass in”

I nod in agreement and Mason takes out his wallet and gives Vance some money to cover the two new locks. With money in paw the Collie bolts from the house and to his truck, seconds later it is being driven towards Tarrant. Mason sighs a little.

“Well there goes the last of my ready cash; I doubt very much that we will see him back here again”

I place a steadying paw on Mason’s shoulder.

“Relax love, I trust Vance with my life, he is more than he seems, and he has been here for longer than I care to remember, I have on occasion left him with the house keys when me and the family went on holidays, besides, I still owe him his pay check so he’ll be back”

We begin the tour of the house, every room has been trashed by Avril, fortunately there is none of my stuff left here otherwise I dare say that would have been trashed too. I begin to shiver as the destruction of my once beautiful family home begins to hit me hard, Mason notices that I am getting upset.

“Tom, the house can and will be made beautiful again, all this destruction is just stuff that can be replaced, what matters more is that we can make this house into a home again, a blank canvas if you will, a new start for us both”

I know deep down inside that Mason is right, but it still doesn’t make me feel any better. We continue the tour of the house; mercifully it seems that the destruction is only superficial. Some twenty minutes later and the sound of drilling can be heard and so Mason and I head towards the sound.

We find that Vance is installing the new door locks; he is taking every care not to damage the ornate doors any more than is needed, an hour and a half later and the new locks are installed, Vance hands me the two new sets of keys and then heads back out to finish his gardening job, I turn to Mason.

“Well sweets it seems that we will need to keep that hotel room going for the week as it is going to take us a few days to get this place back into a habitable state”

Mason just wraps an arm around my waist.

“We will make a start today, I mean you have begun work on the design for the new boat, the guys at the yard can make a start on doing any repairs that are needed to the dry dock boat, I will help you to get the kitchen and bedroom sorted out and I will get the utilities reconnected, but Friday evening I need to head out to Monaco as we have a race meeting and as the team principle I need to be there, in fact I think it would be best if you joined me at the meeting, I bet you haven’t had a single day of relaxation in quite a while, so I want you to join me, as my partner you will get access all areas, and also corporate hospitality, think of it as a total weekend in which you don’t have to lift a single paw”

If I’m honest I have never been all that interested in F1 racing, oh sure I have watched the odd race on TV and I suppose that you could say that I have on occasion wondered what it would be like to be the pampered guest of one of the teams owners, for me though that was always a distant thought.

Mason has also hit the nail on the head when he said that I hadn’t had any proper relaxation in a while and so maybe a weekend away in Monaco would be just what the doctor ordered. I take my mobile from my jacket pocket and search through its directory to find the number for the yard, once I find it I press the call button, after three rings the phone is answered by Jack.

“Hey Jack it’s me Tom, look I’m going to be away this weekend, Mason is taking me to Monaco because he has a race meeting to attend, anyway I want the guys to check out the boat that is in dry dock and make any repairs that it needs, when we get back on Monday morning we will set about getting the boat ready for transport to the States”

Jack lets out a dry chuckle.

“When do I get time to travel to Monaco huh? Seriously though Tom, have yourself a great time, you deserve it, and don’t worry about the boat I have already tasked the guys with making sure that it is sea worthy again, I will see you Monday morning”

With that Jack ends the call, as I put my mobile back into my pocket I see that Mason is on his phone.

“...Yes that is correct, I want the sum of 3 million pounds to be transferred to the account number that I have just given you, it belongs to a UK Boat Yard named the Mermaid Yard...okay has the payment gone through?...good thanks for that, oh and by the way, in the next few weeks I will be relocating my race team to the UK, to a town called Tarrant and so I will need to transfer all of my funds to a UK Bank would that be a problem?...”

The Husky’s brow furrows a little as he continues his conversation.

“...So a major Bank like you does not have an outlet in the UK, I find that very strange, well I guess that I will be closing my account with you and then setting up a new account with a UK Bank...yes I’m sorry too, you have always been a good Bank...I will call you again when I have things sorted this end and then I will make the transfer of my funds, thanks for your help, goodbye”

With that Mason ends the call and places his mobile back in his jacket pocket.

“Unbelievable, I have banked with those guys for years only to now find out that they don’t exist in the UK, now I gotta sort out two new bank accounts, one for me and one for the team”

Mason rubs his temples gently.

“Oh well, I guess that I should maybe get my new accounts sorted before I do anything else”

We both head out from the house and towards my car, I then drive us to the bank that I use, both for my personal account, which is looking very empty at the moment, and for the business account, which is now singing to the tune of 3 million pounds courtesy of Mason DeLuth.

I use a little bit of the money that Mason has just transferred into the business account so that Mason can open his own accounts, at least then they will be established when he closes his other accounts down.

Once the mundane business of sorting out bank accounts is complete we begin a shopping spree so that we can start getting the house back into some sort of order. The rest of the day is spent looking at beds, side tables and kitchen stuff.

I look at my watch and see that it is fast approaching meal time at the hotel and so we both head back to the hotel for the night knowing that in the morning, we will both be back at the house to wait for the deliveries to arrive.