New Story – With new ideas and directions to hand. I’m writing this and posting it straight onto Steemit – You can’t get more exclusive than that! Episode 2

Robin nodded. “Maybe,” he said.

The guy looked at me again.

“Come here, kid,” he said.

I shook my head slowly and deliberately. “No. Tell me what the job is and if I decide I’m ok with it, we can get to know each other, but not until then. If I don’t like something, I’m walking away.”

“How old are you, kid?”

“My name is Ash and I’m nine.”

“Nine?” he said with a hefty dose of scepticism. “You’re nine and you talk to adults like that?”

“I talk to adults like they talk to me. I’m a fast-learner but I’m not taking any shit from anyone.”

His head drew back and he blinked as he thought about what I said.

Then he laughed.

Robin looked at me and he seemed scared.

The guy broke off laughing when he started coughing and Robin went over to him and handed him a glass of water. He took it and sipped from the glass, hunching over as though the coughing fit hurt.

Robin took the glass and put it back where he’d found it. I took advantage of the distraction and looked around the room. The TV was relatively new. The armchair was too, but it was covered with throws and blankets so I hadn’t noticed before.

The rest of the furniture, the sofa, the sideboard and the coffee table were decent enough, but old.

“Right kid,” he said. “I mean, Ash.” He’d caught my frown and corrected himself. “Right, Ash, the job. You come ‘round here every day before school and again after school. No excuses, I will rely on you coming every day.”

I nodded to show I understood. It wasn’t a nod of agreement, not yet.

He looked at Robin. “Are you sure he can handle this? I don’t want to be let down because it’s too much.”

“I can handle it,” I said.

“I also need you to empty this,” he said and pointed to the bucket at the side of him.

“It’s only piss,” Robin said to reassure me.

“OK,” I said. “What else?”

“Sometimes I might need you to make me something to eat. Nothing fancy or complicated, just a sandwich or some soup.”

“Before or after I empty the piss bucket?” I said with a straight face.

The guy looked at me for a moment and then a grin spread across his face and he started cough-laughing again.

“Are you sure you’re only nine?” he said once he’d calmed down. He clutched a hand to his chest.

I guessed his lungs hurt from all that coughing.

“How much?”

“A fiver a week, paid on the Sunday.”

“A tenner, paid on Friday,” I said.

“Fuck off, kid, I’m not made of money!”

“Empty your own piss bucket,” I said and walked out.

As I walked, I second-guessed myself, wondering if I should have gone for £7.50 rather than the tenner. I was down the steps and across the road before Robin called to me. I waited for him to catch up.

“You lucky bugger!” he said. “I only got a fiver a week.”

“To empty someone’s piss bucket? You’ve got to be kidding. I should have asked for twenty. At least I’d feel better that I hadn’t sold myself short.”

“He wouldn’t have gone for twenty. He only just agreed to the tenner. You start tomorrow,” Robin said.

“Oh, ok.”

“I’ll meet you here just after eight, ok?”

I nodded.

“There are a few things you need to know. He sleeps downstairs now. He didn’t when I first started helping him. The bathroom is upstairs but there’s an outside toilet to the back. Unless it’s really cold or raining, I take the bucket and tip it down the outside toilet.”

“Right,” I said. I got the feeling there were a lot of other things he wasn’t telling me but I waited. I figured he’d get around to whatever it was.

“He has a woman come in every other day, she cleans the kitchen, living room and sometimes the bathroom. She’s not allowed anywhere else. She tries it on, but he keeps his bedroom door locked. He only trusts me with the key, ok?” Robin took the key from his pocket. He seemed about to give it to me but had second thoughts.

“I’ll keep it for a while, until he trusts you.”

I nodded. I could do without that responsibility anyway.

“What’s his name and what should I call him?”

“His name is Justin Massey. I started off by calling him Mr Massey and he soon told me ‘Justin’ was fine, so I suggest you do that.”

Robin walked away and I started for home.

“Oh, one other thing,” he said.

I waited… here it comes.

“Don’t get close to him if you can help it. I always keep the piss bucket between me and him. He gets a bit gropey.”

There it was.

“That’s why you told me about the job, because he doesn’t like girls,” I said.

“Yeah…”

“But he doesn’t think I’m a girl, which is why he agreed to a tenner a week,” I said.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I can tell him you’re not bothered if you like?”

“No, a tenner a week to empty a piss bucket and dodge his groping hands is fine. I can do that standing on my head.”

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