Thirteen Letters. Chapter Three.

I slept well in my lovely king size bed, it seemed rather big for just me in it, but I wasn’t complaining.

In Maxine’s office the following day, Maxine gave me a long list of my so-called job description. She started of by saying, “Before anything is signed by you, you will need to show it to eleven people that you trust and I too will do the same, all of us will read the terms and conditions, at the same time and only if all of your friends agree and you, will we proceed. It all sounded like a big deal, a big responsibility, that seem to be well planned and thought out.

Maxine went on, “Everything is all my own idea, down to the very last detail.” Then she said something profound, “I had a dream many years ago, and it has never left me, I have until recently done nothing with it, but it always came back again and again, and I feel now is the time finally do something with it.” I kept silent as I didn’t think my dream was on a par with hers, my manager.

Maxine gave me an A4 size envelope, and said, “Open it and have a brief look at it, you can read it in more detail later, at your leisure,” I, with nervous fingers opened the letter as she looked at me, there was a lot of stuff in there, in those four pages front and back, beautifully typed. My mind raced as words seemed to jump out at me, nothing made sense, and my tummy flipped. I did feel afraid, and then she said, “Choose your friends carefully and next week at a date you set, let me know and we will all meet up here in my office, show them all the letter and let them read it, after the meeting, if everything is agreed or not there will be a nice buffet for us all.”

And with that, I felt better again.

I had done what Maxine had said, and contacted friends I trusted, some with my life! Over the course of the week, I had met up with them all and had shown them the terms and conditions they all thought it was fantastic, and to, “Go for it.”

The following week we all met up at Maxine’s office, my eleven friends and hers, there was air of excitement, it was certainly a good idea of hers to include my friends too, so now I didn’t feel alone in any decision I was about to make, or to make in the future.

Maxine welcomed us all and all were introduced from her side and I introduced my trusted friends.

Maxine then said to me, “The first thing you will be doing for the first year will be singing,” I was instantly alarmed as I can’t sing for toffee, she was ahead of me and said, “It’s ok, you wouldn’t be singing a note, it will be all high tech and will never be live, I will explain nearer the time.” She went on, “Then after a year or so you will be cooking with a famous chef from the UK, once every three months in front of a live studio audience,” Maxine added, “There are not many things that you will be given an opportunity to choose, but the chef that you will be cooking with, you choose who you would like that to be, and if he or she agrees then I will offer him or her a very good price to do the trimonthly, hourly show.” If that was the case, that I could choose, then that would be easy for me, for I already knew who that would be, and I’d already heard that Maxine didn’t like him.

The terms and conditions was explained to me and to my friends and both Maxine’s Team and my Team agreed on them, even though some seemed rather extreme.

In fact one of the T&C that I thought was strange was that whatever I earned, my eleven friends and Maxine and her eleven friends all of us would get paid the exact same amount….. but as strange as it was, it didn’t surprise me. But one of the most bizarre T&C was when Maxine said while looking at number one on the list was, “You and I are never to touch, never to shake hands, never to hug, even to the point of death!” I had to smile then, she saw me smiling and asked, “What, why are your smiling?” I then said, “Before I ever met you, I was given thirteen things that I had to write down and seal, and put into my bank, the words that I have handwritten on each of the thirteen letters didn’t make sense to me until now, you saying that, is what I have written down, “No touching to the point of death!” I will go and get that letter out of the bank today.” Maxine replied, “Why don’t you take them all out today?” I said, “No, I am only to take them out as you say or do your half of what I have written down, then my half and your half will become whole.” David asked, “Well who gave you the information to write down?” I replied, “I think he calls himself god, but I don’t believe in him,” David said, “Neither do I.” Maxine said nothing, for a good minute and then she said, “Well, I can tell you this much, I own you 100% your body and the God that I believe in, it is He, that owns your Spirit and Soul.” She wasn’t cross, she just seemed to have a smirk, on her face.