Take a Chance on Me

by Carol Wyer

  Outside, a figure dressed in black unfurled from the base of the apple tree and hurried away over her garden fence.

  Thirty-Three

  The Art Café was almost full when Charlie arrived the following morning. She didn't normally drop by when she wasn’t working but she woke up feeling discombobulated and didn’t fancy a morning in by herself. The thrill of her achievement the day before was waning and she wanted some company.

  ‘Hi Charlie,’ shouted Art from behind the counter. ‘You forgotten what day of the week it is?’

  ‘Ha! You’re so funny, Art,’ she replied, scooping a menu from the counter to read.

  ‘Leave the jokes to Charlie,’ said Patricia, bustling up to the counter, pad in hand. She kissed Charlie on the cheeks. ‘Well done, honey. I’m so proud of you. I spoke to Sam last night and he told me you had done the challenge. That took guts to go down the wire. Have you found out how much money you raised yet?’

  ‘No, it’s still coming in. Vivienne is in charge of counting it up. I hope to get some idea later today. I get another challenge then, too. I just came in for a quick bite to eat before the show.’

  ‘I recommend my sticky toffee pudding with custard. It’s scrummy.’

  ‘Sorry, I can’t eat that. It’ll put inches on me and since the belly dancing I’ve managed to keep the weight down. I’ll have a slice of carrot cake instead and a peppermint tea please when you’ve got time. Thanks. Patricia, do you need a hand?’

  ‘No, I’ve got it covered. It’ll die down soon. You go and sit down.’

  A couple vacated the window seats in the Quiet Room so Charlie settled down there with her notes for the afternoon show. Her phone vibrated. She pulled it out of her pocket and read the message:

  I’m back on Wednesday. Fancy meeting up? Rob

  With all the excitement of the challenges she’d forgotten about him.

  How about after my radio show on Friday? I’ll meet you at the hospital. X

  You’re on. See you at the main entrance at eight.

  Patricia arrived with the tea and cake. ‘Someone looks happy,’ she commented.

  ‘I’ve just arranged my first date in years,’ replied Charlie. ‘I feel all giddy now.’

  ‘That’s terrific news,’ said Patricia. ‘Is it the guy that came in here yesterday, asking about you?’

  ‘Er, no. Rob’s not back in the UK yet. What did this guy look like?’

  ‘Tall, good-looking. About forty years old. Stubble on his face. Reminded me of that chap, Matthew Fox from Lost.’

  ‘That’s Jake. He’s not a contender.’

  ‘He saw the poster about you in the window and asked what you were up to this time. He nearly spluttered coffee over his suit when I told him.’

  ‘He thinks I’m bonkers. Was he with a woman?’

  ‘No. He was with a young boy. They spent some time in the shop looking at all the goods, and then bought a beautiful anthracite necklace that Lucy, the young designer from Uttoxeter, made. It was the first piece of jewellery I’ve sold of hers. She’ll be so pleased when she finds out.’

  ‘I suppose they were buying it for Abigail.’

  ‘Who’s Abigail?’

  ‘I’m not sure. She’s a stunner. She’s either his girlfriend or wife. I don’t think she’s Toby’s mum. She’s far too young. Toby likes her though, judging by the hug he gave her at Alton Towers.’

  ‘Oh, never mind.’

  ‘I don’t mind.’

  ‘Of course you don’t,’ said Patricia with a knowing smile.

  ‘I don’t mind. I’ve got a date with Rob. I don’t mind at all.’

  * * *

  A couple of teenage girls, one slightly shorter than the other, both with shoulder-length curly black hair and dark eyes were hanging about in the corridor near the studio. Charlie smiled at them.

  ‘That’s Charlie,’ said the taller one, nudging the other. ‘Hi Charlie, we’ve brought some money for you. Our nan is in the Florence Nightingale ward. She’s been here for two weeks. She loves listening to the shows. You read out a request for her last week – Gladys Powell.’

  Charlie nodded. She remembered Gladys. She spoke non-stop about her twin granddaughters. This must be them. Charlie remembered their names.

  ‘You’re Naomi and Iona,’ she said.

  The girls looked pleased.

  ‘She told us all about you doing the belly dancing and the roller coaster ride.’

  ‘We saw you on YouTube,’ said the smaller of the two. ‘That was really funny.’

  ‘Nan asked us to say something about the challenges at school to raise some money and we did. Mr Ingram, our head teacher, made an announcement at assembly. It’s not much, but we hope it helps keep the radio station going. Nan has converted us all. We listen online at home. You’re our favourite presenter.’

  The girl handed over a large plastic sweet tin. It was labelled ‘Charlie’s Challenge’.

  Charlie removed the lid and gasped. It was full of pound coins, five-pound notes and even a few ten-pound notes. ‘This all came from schoolchildren?’ she asked.

  The girls’ heads bobbed in unison. ‘And some of the teachers and parents,’ said the taller one.

  ‘There’s two hundred and eighty-two pounds,’ announced the smaller one.

  ‘You must come into the studio and meet everyone so they can thank you.’

  Naomi and Iona excitedly followed Charlie into the studio where Sean was leaning back in his chair staring at a computer screen.

  ‘Afternoon, Charlie. Hi Ladies!’ he continued, raising a hand of acknowledgement to the girls.

  ‘Sean, this is Naomi and Iona. They’re Gladys Powell’s granddaughters. They’ve raised a lot of money for us. I thought they could come and meet some of the team.’

  ‘Sure. George Hardman is on for the next twenty minutes. Why don’t the girls go in and say hello to him. They can even say hello to their grandma on air. That’ll surprise her.’

  Naomi went pink. Iona giggled.

  ‘Do you want to be on the radio and say hello to George?’ Charlie asked.

  Naomi nodded. Iona tittered some more. George was the most handsome of the presenters. A joiner by trade, he was putting in a few hours a week at City radio in preparation for a career change into radio. He had an easy manner. Many a nurse had fallen for his winning smile.

  ‘Sean, let George know after the next record and I’ll take the girls in to meet him.’

  While the girls were chatting to George and telling the audience how they raised money for the radio, Sean had a chance to talk to Charlie.

  ‘I uploaded the video to YouTube before I came in today. Take a look.’

  He clicked onto the site and pulled up the video. The video only lasted a minute and fifty seconds but it captured the event perfectly. Charlie relived the afternoon as she saw herself whizz down the zip wire and then play the pink plastic kazoo. She looked as cool as a cucumber and even managed to smile at the end while waving her kazoo at the camera. This wasn’t the Charlie who sat at home watching old films in her tatty jeans. This wasn’t the same woman who hated almost everything about herself. This Charlie radiated confidence and exuded a zest for life. She stared at the images again.

  ‘That looks so professional,’ she mumbled. ‘I can’t believe it’s me. I look different.’

  ‘You knock yourself too much. That’s how we see you, Charlie,’ Sean winked and went back to the desk ready to cue in the news.

  The girls left the studio, excited at having met George.

  ‘We’re going to visit Nan, now,’ said Naomi. ‘She’ll be so pleased that we mentioned her. See you again.’

  Charlie thanked the girls again for the donation and headed to the back room where she waited for Mercedes to arrive and her radio slot to begin. Vivienne came in carrying an accounts book.

  ‘Total so far, five hundred and sixty pounds, twenty pence,’ she said.

  ‘Is that including the contribution made by the local school?�
�� asked Charlie, nodding at the jar Vivienne held in her other hand.

  Vivienne nodded. ‘Yes. It’s not a bad start.’

  Charlie felt a bit disappointed. ‘Somehow I expected it to capture people’s imagination. I’d hoped for more than that. Guess I’m being greedy. People don’t have lots of disposable income.’

  ‘It’s very difficult to make people comprehend the importance of the radio station, Charlie. If you were raising money to help a sick child or a hospice, that would have greater appeal. The problem is that many people don’t understand how a radio station can help people unless they’ve been in hospital and seen for themselves. It’s particularly difficult when we’re just one little station broadcasting to a small audience in an ocean of radio stations. Nowadays, there’s so much choice, especially with Internet radio. You did incredibly well to raise this much. It took six months on the charity stall in the market to get a similar amount last year. Don’t be deflated.’

  In spite of Vivienne’s enthusiasm, Charlie felt depressed. Somewhat naïvely, she had thought that it would only take a few challenges to be able to save the radio station. It was clear now though that it was going to take more than that. She couldn’t let it knock her though. She had a show to present.

  ‘Knock, knock,’ said Mercedes, banging on the door. ‘Wazzup?’

  ‘I didn’t raise as much money as I wanted.’

  ‘Pfft! Is that it? That was only one challenge. Ah, my poor unsuspecting guinea pig. I have much more planned for you,’ said Mercedes, giving her best evil laugh.

  Thirty-Four

  ‘Today’s Sunny Sunday joke comes from eleven-year-old Tom Baker on Nicholas Ward. Thank you Tom. Tom’s joke is: Doctor Doctor: I’m addicted to Twitter. Sorry, I don’t follow you. Boom, boom! That made us all laugh in the studio. I hope you’ve enjoyed the show and you’ll join me tomorrow night for more jokes.’

  Charlie shut off the microphone and picked up her handbag.

  ‘Don’t go just yet,’ said Sam. ‘I want to see your face when I read out the next challenge. Sit down opposite me and we’ll do it live.’

  Charlie moved opposite Sam and let him prepare for the show. He cued his first song.

  ‘You enjoying it then?’ he asked.

  ‘I suppose, in a funny way, I am. It’s quite exciting wondering what I’ll be doing next. It’s certainly kept me busy. I haven’t had time to drip about the house being miserable.’

  ‘Somehow I can’t see you as miserable. Now me… I can do miserable with bells on,’ he chuckled. ‘Ever since I retired, I’ve been a right old grumpy guts. Brenda says it’s my age. I think it’s because life’s turned out to be quite different to what I expected. I thought when I retired, we'd have more time together and enjoy getting to know each other again. I thought we might go hiking at weekends or go on some big adventure and hire a campervan to tour Europe, or buy a motorbike and head off up to Scotland. Oh, I don't know what I expected. I didn’t bank on her having other interests and friends, or the grandkids always being at ours. They're great kids but... well, she never wants to be away from them. In fact, she sees more of them than she did of our own kids. She’s always busy. She never seems to have time for us. Life doesn’t always go in the direction you hoped, does it? Still, I don’t need to tell you that. Oops, here we go. The track’s almost up.

  ‘It’s Sam the man here again. I’ve managed to keep the lovely Charlie Blundell behind for a few minutes so we can chat to her about the next challenge which is in an envelope in front of me. We discovered several audacious challenges dropped into our box last week and this one was selected at random.’

  He picked up the envelope and ripped it open in front of the microphone and sucked air through his teeth dramatically. ‘Diving with sharks is popular with many backpackers and gap year students and often they go diving in cages to see these creatures. Not for our Charlie. There’ll be no cages involved. We’re challenging Charlie to have a close up encounter with ten-foot sand sharks. We’ve arranged for you to be sent to South Africa to dive with the toothy monsters.’

  Charlie’s mouth dropped open.

  ‘Oops, sorry, I don’t mean South Africa. I mean Blue Planet Aquarium in Chester. Oh people, if you could see Charlie’s face now. She looks like she’s going to thump me. I think I’d better play the next song. I was going to play the theme tune to Jaws but I couldn’t find it, so here instead is “Swim” by Madonna.’

  * * *

  Mercedes was sitting in the technician’s room wearing a diving mask and a snorkel when Charlie marched back in.

  ‘Very funny, Mercedes! Whose idea was this? Diving in a tank of giant sharks.’

  ‘I think it was Ernest Peters in Esther Ward. He’s only in for a few days for minor surgery and said he rather liked the idea of you in a wetsuit. He’s a cool guy, especially for eighty,’ said Sean while Mercedes removed the steamed up mask and snorkel. ‘He used to be a diver for the navy, years ago. I’m sure he’ll give you some pointers.’

  ‘I’m guessing there’s a bit more to this than just rolling up and ogling a couple of sharks.’

  ‘You guessed right. We’ve enrolled you on a PADI diving course. You’ll be doing the learning bit online, followed by five confined dives at a local swimming pool. I’ll give you details of when and where. The two open dives, sadly, won’t be taking place in Barbados, but at Dosthill Quarry in Tamworth,’ continued Sean in a matter-of-fact voice. ‘If you manage the online course without any problems, and fit in your dives on the dates we’ve provisionally chosen for you, you should easily be ready to go to Chester in four weeks. Once more that’ll give us time to raise interest in the challenge and some funds. Mr Peters will be chuffed. You’re okay with this, aren’t you?’

  ‘I’m not sure yet. I’m more worried about squeezing into a wetsuit than swimming with sharks at the moment.’

  ‘Hey, who doesn’t look good in neoprene?’ Mercedes chipped in, placing the snorkel and mask on the table. ‘The mask’s for you. It’s just been delivered anonymously to the studio with love from a well-wisher.’

  ‘Who? Who knew I was going diving?’

  ‘Dunno. Someone in the know must have leaked it out. Sam knew. Art and Patricia know. Maybe they blabbed. Or, maybe Mr Peters told his family. Anyhow, you have some equipment to play with and an online course to study, so off you go, little mermaid. We’ll get on and do the hard part, raising funds, getting sponsorship… and trying to find an insurance company willing to insure you.’ Mercedes handed the mask and snorkel to Charlie. ‘Oh, before you go, you might want to watch this to help you.’

  She rummaged in a plastic bag, pulled out a DVD and passed it to Charlie.

  Charlie regarded the cover and shook her head, trying hard not to smile. It was a copy of Finding Nemo.

  ‘You are too much, Mercedes,’ she said. ‘Hilarious. Just hilarious.’

  * * *

  Charlie sat in her car, hands trembling. She could not tell her friends. It was irrational. She was behaving like a child. She had already overcome her fear of heights. This was bigger, but she could overcome this too. She hoped.

  ‘Charlie Blundell you are a big baby. Get a grip,’ she said out loud. It did not help. Her mobile rang, interrupting her thoughts.

  ‘Hello?’

  ‘Hi, Charlie. It’s Susannah. Susannah from the belly dancing classes. I’ve been listening to the radio shows online. Just heard all about your latest challenge and wanted to wish you good luck. I might have another idea to help raise money for the station.’

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Did you see the film Calendar Girls?’

  ‘Yes, but there is no way on this planet I’m taking my clothes off for a calendar. Not even for charity.’

  ‘Hell, no! I thought you could do a Challenge Charlie calendar with photos of all the challenges you have done. January could be you eating that gruesome locust. February, a photo of you with us belly-dancing girls. March, you on the roller coaster. April, you and Mer
cedes zip-lining. There’s a very good picture of you both on the hospital radio website. What do you think?’

  ‘Hey, that’s a great idea. I’ll tell the team about it. Thanks Susannah. So, how are you getting on at the gym?’

  ‘Pretty good. I’ve lost another eight pounds and Dave says I’ll soon have no belly left to dance with. I feel much better. I was scared I’d get diabetes like my mum, but since the classes I’m a lot healthier. I’ve changed our diet at home too. Less crap. We both eat home-made soups and casseroles now. I’m really glad I went to those classes. I'm not so moody and I have loads more energy, as Dave’s discovered,’ she gave a low suggestive laugh. ‘What about you?’

  ‘I don’t have much time to exercise but I’m still feeling the benefits of the classes. I do some of the moves at home in front of the mirror each evening. But worrying about these challenges has helped keep the weight off.’ Charlie wavered remembering what her next mission was to be.

  ‘You okay, you sound a little less perky than usual?’

  ‘I…er… I’m struggling with this next challenge. Promise you won’t laugh if I tell you something?’

  ‘Of course I won’t laugh. Not unless it’s hilarious, then I might not be able to help myself.’

  ‘I suffer from selachophobia.’

  ‘Isn’t that a wheat allergy?’

  ‘No,’ said Charlie, laughing in spite of her anxiety. ‘It’s a fear, and I mean total fear, of sharks. I have no idea why, but it started when I was a child. I wouldn’t take baths when I was little because they scared me and on one holiday with my parents I ran screaming from the hotel pool yelling ‘Shark!’ because I thought I saw one in the water. You’re not smirking are you?’

  ‘No, not yet.’