AND STILL IN LOVE
Part Three -- A new companion
On Wednesday Mr. Roberts sent a message to James' office colleagues telling them that there would be a student coming to help out in the office the following week. The news was met with the quiet disinterest that was so commonplace in the dreary office. The arrival of a student in the office was something that the staff had experienced before. Roberts' son taught A-level law in a comprehensive school somewhere in the East End. Unlike his father the younger Roberts was very aware of social deprivation. He had worked for some time as a legal aid solicitor after qualifying and had become somewhat interested in the less advantaged communities of east London. His father reluctantly indulged him by taking a student for "work-experience" twice a year.
At the weekend James went home. His parents were taken a bit aback when they saw how tired their son looked. His father called him aside and gave him a lecture about duty to study and work hard. He wrongly assumed that a wild social life was the cause of his son's pallid look and couldn't hear what his son was saying about the work in the office being very demanding. Quite simply he wasn't listening. By Sunday evening the young trainee was exhausted by the constant lecturing and sighed in deep relief when he boarded the train to London at seven o'clock.
On Monday James arrived at his desk dreading the week ahead. There was a pile of new briefs to be sorted in the conveyancing area and he knew that this would mean endless searches and investigations of title. He set to it.
At ten o'clock Mr. Roberts walked in followed by a very awed young man. James looked up as Roberts introduced the youth to the staff.
"This is Gareth Fitzpatrick!" he announced, "Gareth will be working in this office for the next two weeks."
Andrea Kirk, the office senior, welcomed Gareth and invited him to join her at her desk. She sat and patiently asked the young man what he knew about work at a busy firm and what interests he had in the legal area. James was too immersed in a title investigation to take much notice of what was happening around him. In fact he was so involved that ten minutes later he didn't notice Andrea standing over his desk until she gently tapped his shoulder.
"James!" she said softly, "this is Gareth and I was hoping he might do some work with you today!"
James looked up. He wasn't keen on the idea because he was already overloaded with work. Trying to show the ropes to a new hand would slow him down rather than help him. He looked over at Gareth dreading the experience but quickly caught himself. Gareth's face was written all over with fear. James knew that the poor lad was well out of his depth and was acutely aware of it! He mustered a smile and proffered a hand to his new burden.
"The name's James!" he said forcing a smile that he hoped look genuine.
"Gareth!" the lad replied.
"Come on then Gareth, let's convey a few houses!"
Gareth pulled up a chair and James started to show him the contents of one of the files. It was a house in Southfields that had been divided into two apartments, one up and one down. The lower apartment was for sale but the owner of the freehold intended living in the upper apartment and only intended to sell the lower one. The purchaser, who was a client of Roberts & Grimes wanted to purchase the freehold outright and wasn't content with the leasehold interest that was on offer. As James explained the problem he realised that it wasn't making much sense to Gareth but he continued nonetheless. He knew this was going to be very difficult.
By lunchtime James was beginning to panic about his workload. He approached Andrea and explained that he wasn't good at explaining things and would prefer if Gareth worked somewhere else. This was the first time he had ever complained since arriving at the office and Andrea was stunned!
"Sorry James!" she said somewhat surprised at his request, "I put him with you because you're much of an age and there's nobody else your age in this section. I thought you two would get along!"
"I have too much work!" James said almost whining, "I'll never get through it if I have to work with him!"
Andrea sat back in her chair and smiled. At fifty-five years of age she was a very settled and balanced person. An excellent solicitor she had left practice when her children were born and only returned five years earlier when her younger daughter started college. As a mother she also saw something that she hadn't noticed until now, James was overworking!
"I'll take him for the afternoon and show him how to do a basic search," she said smiling, "and if he gets the idea I'll send him over to help you tomorrow."
"And if he doesn't?"
"He will!" she muttered, "he will!"
James skipped lunch and finished off the investigation into Southfields. He drafted the preliminary documentation, put it in the file and sent it over to Andrea. His next case was one in Cheshire. He sighed and looked at the eight remaining cases before him. Each looked more complex than the other.
Andrea took Gareth over to her desk and opening the file on Southfields explained what was needed and where each item could be investigated. Younger than her own children the lad was quite bright and quickly understood her directions. She walked over to James' desk took a file.
"Any idea about this one?" she asked cheerfully.
James looked up at her; she had taken the Whitechapel file. The case in that one was nightmarish. A purchaser was seeking details of the title on an old artisan's dwelling. The problem was that the freeholder was a defunct charity and there was only fifteen years left on the lease.
"That's a Settled Lands Act case," he muttered, "maybe this one would be better!"
He handed her the Cheshire one, "this one is easy enough," he said, "quite straightforward!"
"The one I have will do fine!" Andrea replied pushing the proffered file back, "he's a bright lad and he has to learn somehow!"
Andrea spent the rest of the day with Gareth showing him how to investigate title and how to organise the file for one of the solicitors. Gareth had no problem following her clear instructions and she was impressed by his ability to follow them to a letter and not have to ask the same question twice.
James prepared three more files for Andrea before the day was over. By six o'clock there was only four files left on his desk for the following day. Losing the Whitechapel case had saved him a half-day's work and he had a slight possibility of clearing his desk before Wednesday. He stood up to go home and noticed Gareth smiling at him.
"I hope I wasn't in your way," Gareth said.
"No problem mate," James replied, "I'm just a bit swamped with work at the moment!"
"You two boys will be working together tomorrow," Andrea said as she breezed past pulling her coat over her outstretched arms, "goodnight!"
"Goodnight!" they reliped in unison.
As they walked from the building to the Tube station Gareth and James exchanged civilities. Their lives had little in common and a friendship seemed unlikely even though they lived on the same Tube line. James got off at Baron's Court whilst his travelling companion stayed on to Aldgate. As he walked back to the hose James suddenly thought that meeting Gareth had been quite a pleasant experience. Something was changing inside him and he liked it. He lived in a house where his companions swore blindly all day, he never knew that people could live that way but he liked it. He had snatched furtive glimpses of the other boys' bottoms in the showers at school, but now he wanted to cuddle up to bald hairy Barry! He had never spoken at length to anybody from the East End before, but he liked Gareth -- London was such liberation from his polite and genteel upbringing to date.
When he got into the house he was greeted by a shout from Mike who was upstairs; "it's about fucking time ya got back!" he roared.
"It's me James!" James called back as Mike stuck his head over the landing rails.
"Sorry mate!" Mike called, "though ya were the red vixen!"
"Clearly you mean you were awaiting Cindy!" James smiled back aware of his grandiose accent.
"Yeah that slut!" Mike laughed, "went for bog-roll twenty minutes ago and never came back!"
James loved the way he lived in London.
Comments accepted at jc23a@yahoo.co.uk