Terry

I can't find my woolly hat and it's cold outside and Dave'll be opening the shop at 10. It's a quarter to now and I gotta leave. 'Jessy, you been hiding my hat again?' I say to Jessy, sat on the sofa. She whines a bit and then I feel bad for blaming her but she is always hiding stuff. I have another rummage under the sofa. I know the shop's only down the road but I like to get there early and put the kettle on while Dave puts the sign out and picks the music for the day.
I get there a minute after 10. The board is already outside. 'Plum Records', it says. The o of records is painted to look like it's a record that's been stuck on the sign. It was me what thought of that. Dave said it was real clever of me.
'Hello there Terry, you're just in time' Dave says to me when I get in the shop. I tell him about how I couldn't find my hat and maybe it's on account of Jessy hiding it from me as she does sometimes. I tell him sorry for my being late. This is only the second time in nearly 4 years working for him, so he tells me it's ok and I get to putting the kettle on. The music playing is Bob Dylan's 'Let's stick together'. Dave's a real big fan of Bob Dylan. Other stuff he likes is Pink Floyd and The Doors.

At 11 o' clock we get our first customer, only it's not a customer really, it's Jack. Jack comes in the shop a lot. He looks at the records and gets us to play them for him sometimes. His favourite bands are Motorhead and Iron Maiden and ACDC.
'Hello there Jack', says Dave.
'Alright Dave, alright Terry', says Jack. 'You two comin' down the Beehive tonight then?'
'Yeah' says Dave, 'We'll beat that out of town bunch on the quiz this week, right Terry?'
'Yeah' I say, and laugh because Dave says that every week. We do alright though, we're usually about second or third and we won once, back in December.
It's 60s music's my specialty. I like 60s music. Especially The Beatles and The Monkees and The Beegees, and I know quite a lot about the bands and that as well as being into the music. Sometimes me and Dave have this game where he asks me questions from his music dictionary to test me. Dave gets me to play when there's other people here too, and then they maybe join in with the game.

At the end of the day, Dave gives me a tenner for helping him out and we walk down the Beehive together. We like to get there early so as to get our best seats. Dave gets the drinks in and I have my usual Coke on account of I don't like the taste of beer so much. Jack has bitter and Dave has a lager. The Coke in the Beehive always tastes funny. Jack says maybe it's down to them getting Pepsi and pretending to everyone it's Coke on account of it's cheaper, so maybe that's why. I'm real thirsty today for some reason and I finish my Coke off before Jack and Dave have much of their drinks. I'm going to get me another one but then Jack says 'sit down Terry', and he'll get them in next.
The first round of the quiz is called pop trivia, which is what Dave does best at so we let him fill in most of the spaces on the sheet. I get one though about what year David Bowie's first album came out, which is 1967.
There's a bit of a gap between rounds one and two so Dave says 'let's play a game.'
'Yeah, a drinking game.' Says Jack.
I say 'But I'm only drinking coke, not beer', but Jack says 'That's ok Terry, you can play with coke' and laughs, so I laugh too.
Dave's game is called 'Gordon Bennet'. It's about naming famous people so I should be good at this says Dave, I can just do people from 60s bands. You're supposed to start off with Gordon Bennet and then coz his second name begins with a 'B' then the next person says someone's name what begins with that letter. Only I don't know who Gordon Bennet is, but Jack says that's ok.
Jack says 'Bob Dylan', I say 'David Bowie', Dave says 'Bryan Ferry' and Jack says 'Frank Zappa'...
But I can't think of anyone beginning with 'Z'. Jack says 'Drink while you think! Drink while you think!' and I have to drink my whole drink because I just can't think of anyone and my head is going funny, 'maybe from all the sugar', says Jack. I think maybe he's right coz mum didn't like me to drink a lot of sugary stuff, on account of it's bad for me.
It's round two now which is my best round, where they play bits of songs and you have to say what the band and the song is. Also you get extra points for the year, which I know if it's the 60s. I don't do as well as I usually do which annoys me, but Jack says it's probably the sugar as well, stopping me from thinking. I think that sounds funny and it makes me start laughing so I miss the last song I was supposed to guess.
The last round's anagrams which none of us are very good at so Jack says 'Why don't we play another game?' I wasn't very good at the Gordon game so I'm not so keen but Dave says 'go on Terry' so I say 'ok'.
Jack's game's different from Dave's game. It's called 'never ever' and it's a drinking game too only this time you don't have to try and remember stuff, only stuff about yourself and you don't have to drink while you think. Jack says he'll start to show us what to do. He thinks real hard and then he says,
'I've never ever... Had sex with a woman!'
I think that's a funny thing to say coz he told us once he did do that with a woman, back in October before last. He met her in the pub he said and she was real nice. He said some other stuff too but I don't think I should say about that.
Now Jack explains that you can lie when you say you haven't done something but what you can't lie about is whether you should take a drink or not. He says if you have done the thing the person says then you have to drink. This seems a bit backward to me but then Dave makes it simpler and says 'So if we have had sex with a woman then we should drink, but if not then we shouldn't'. Dave takes a drink then to show me how it's done. I'm still not sure of what to do. I sort of have done that thing he said but I'm not so sure if it really counts. I don't want to talk about that with them though and my head feels funny still from all the sugar and I get confused easy. I decide not to drink just in case I'm wrong, and anyway, I'm going off coke a bit now.
Jack's smiling at me so I think maybe I did it right. I have to go to the bathroom now and when I get back Dave and Jack are talking in real loud voices to each other. I ask what's wrong, but Dave says they were sad that we did bad on the quiz. I'm worried maybe it's my fault coz of laughing and missing the last question but Dave says, 'No Terry, you did good'. He says it's time for us to go now and he'll go back to my place with me to see I'm ok. That's a funny thing to say too, but I don't feel like laughing anymore. I feel a bit poorly. I think maybe mum was right all along and I shouldn't drink sugary stuff no more.

It takes us a real long time to get home, a lot longer than normal I think only it's hard to tell coz time has gone all funny. Maybe it's on holiday, I think and that makes me laugh a lot. I try and explain it to Dave but my words come out funny too. Dave smiles though so I know it's ok. I'm glad Dave's with me. Dave's my best mate.

When we get back to my place, Dave says 'sit down Terry' and he'll make us a cup of tea. I curl up on the sofa with Jessy. Jessy looks real sad looking up at me with her big brown eyes. Jessy was mum's dog before she died. I think Jessy still misses mum too.
'Here ya go Terry', Dave hands me a big cup with milky tea inside. 'Get this down ya', he says. Dave gives Jessy a little pat and sits down on the chair facing the sofa. I'm hugging Jessy and drinking my tea and for no reason at all I start to thinking about mum.
'Tell me about her', says Dave when I mention it. Dave never met mum. I'd only been working down Plum for a couple of months when she got sick and then she was in the hospital and only family was supposed to see her, which means me coz we don't have any other family. When I was a boy it was only me and mum. Dad left us when I was 10 and mum got a job cleaning and ironing for people round the village. We never had a lot, but we always had enough, that's what mum used to say.
I tell all this to Dave. I tell him about how mum didn't like me listening to music on account of she said it might lead me astray. I don't think it led me anywhere but she was right about the coke, so now I don't know.
'I miss her', I tell Dave. 'Now Jessy's all I got.'
'It must have been real hard for you', he says.
'Well, apart from the money.' I say, still thinking about Jessy. Dave's staring into his tea but he looks up when I say that.
'Money?' He says.
'Yeah, she left me a bit. Knew I'd be alright without her then see? She was good to me was mum.'
'Yeah,' says Dave, 'she sounds like a real nice lady. It's good that she left you a bit. Funny how the bank didn't take it. I mean, being as they took the house and all.'
'Yeah', I say, a bit too loud maybe, I'm getting mad about it all over again. 'That's why she didn't trust them. She knew what they was like. She was a clever lady, my mum. Much too clever for banks.' I know I'm shouting so I stop. Mum wouldn't like me shouting about her, I know. She didn't like loud noises, said they made her feel nervous.
'So if she didn't trust banks,' says Dave, 'what did she do with the money?'
'Well that's the real clever thing, see?' I tell him. 'Mum was so clever, she put her money where nobody'd ever think to look for it... Under her mattress. That way, nobody would even know she had it.' I'm real proud of her now. I know she was a clever lady and I'm smiling telling Dave this coz I know he'll be impressed by how smart my ma was. He is impressed too and he tells me so. He says maybe I'd be best to leave it there too since the bank might still want to take it off me.

We finish our tea and I think I must have fallen asleep at some time or other coz when I wake up it's morning. My head hurts so bad I can hardly open my eyes. I will never drink coke again, I think. I was bad not to believe mum when she warned me about it.
It's Sunday today, which is good, since the shop won't need opening and I don't think I can face it with my head like it is. I really like working down Plum, even though it's only a few days what Dave needs me. I know he don't even need me then really, but I like to help out. Most days I go down there anyway for a bit, say hello, maybe listen to some records. Sundays I get to feeling at a loose end, but I know Jessy likes having me to herself for a day. I give her a pat when I think of that and open up a tin of her favourite for her. I think about maybe taking her for a walk and buying her a proper treat. I could do with a bit of food for me too I'm thinking, looking in the larder. I get my coat on. Something feels wrong but I think it's just my head still hurting and maybe I should get some pills from the chemist as I'm out.
I go into the bedroom and have a feel under the mattress...

I get to Plum 20 minutes early as I like to do on a Monday, on account of it gives me a chance to give the shop a good clean. Dave is here already though which makes me surprised. He's already done the hoovering and there's a cuppa waiting for me. I say 'Thanks Dave', and when I go to do the dusting he says, 'Leave it Terry', and he'll do it. The Beetle's album Sergeant Pepper is playing from 1967, which is odd coz Dave always said he hated the Beatles, but I don't say anything in case maybe he forgot he didn't like them and if I remind him again he might turn it off.

At the end of the day Dave says 'Thanks Terry'. Then he goes all quiet and says, 'You're a great guy' and gives me my money, only instead of my usual tenner he gives me a twenty. I know I didn't do hardly anything at work today, but I think it's not that what he's saying thankyou for, so I just take the money and go buy Jessy her treat from the shops.