by Paul Charles
He went over to his Corgi Classics collection. He felt at peace with the world and at peace with himself. He loved the sight of his multi-coloured display, supposedly one of the best collections of Corgi Classics in existence.
Corgi Classics had started in 1985, before the famous 007 Aston Martin and Beatles” Yellow Submarine and so on, which were now referred to as Corgi Obsoletes. Nash had a few of these but not many, he didn’t really collect them. No, he collected Corgi Classics and had mint copies with matching boxes of nearly all the thousand (or so) models Corgi had produced since 1985.
Collectors tend to place their collections in an easy-to-talk-up sequence and Nash’s was no exception. All the Chipperfield Circus set was together, all the US of A buses, all the Showman Fairground set, all the Morris Minors, all theVW vans, all the Bedford CA vans, all the Bedford Pantechnicon vans and so on were displayed in their complete sets. Nash’s sequence began with the police collection, and pride of place in that set was given to the Inspector Morse Maroon Mark II Jaguar. He had three of these worth about £150 each, not bad for a model which had come on the market four years ago at £9.99.
He lifted some models from the shelves as he moved along dusting them gently with a flexi-bristled make-up brush, very effective for this task.
Eventually he worked his way to the centre of his collection, his favourite section. His complete set of sixty-one Bedford OB buses. They looked so cute in their vibrant colours. From the greens of the Maltese model to the two shades of blue on the Premier Travel (Cambridge) model. And there in the centre, dead centre, of the entire thousand-plus collection was the famous green Southdown coach shining beautifully in the sunlight. The model looked so lifelike. Nash often wondered how grown men could enjoy so many hours of satisfaction from just standing and staring at model buses and cars and lorries. What was it about them? What was their attraction? For Nash it had to be their cuteness. The fact that some of them were so hard to find because the numbers produced fell way short of demand, and the rarer they are the more attention you paid once you’d tracked one down. And the chase itself, that in itself was something very exciting. Locating a rare model at some collectors” shop, bartering with the owner on the phone to try and have them reserve it for you until you’d a chance to go and view your prize. Then travelling to some far-flung outpost and discovering that the model was either damaged or its packaging was in poor condition so you would have to return home dejected. Equally there was the chance your rare model and its box, once you had found the shop, would be in mint condition. Then you try not to appear to be too excited about it just in case the price went through the roof in search of your initial smile. Collectors’ fairs, such as the one just over a week ago in the Electric Ballroom, were the perfect place to track these specials down. The only problem was that you were usually racing three or four people after the same model. The bartering would be less civilised, and louder, than on the telephone but that was okay too, that was a different kind of excitment. But all of this chasing and haggling made the enjoyment of your collection, particulary the rarer classics, so much greater.
The collector gently picked up his favourite Corgi Classic, the Bedford OB Southdown coach, to lovingly dust it. As he lifted it from its pride-of-place position with its very own mini spotlights built into the shelf above, he felt a slight resistance to his pull. As he lifted it further the resistance gave way and there was a loud click from within the model, and in its wake a short length of nylon thread which was pinned to the shelf.
Nash heard the further clicks of a mechanism hidden within his beloved Bedford OB Southdown coach. For some reason he found himself counting the clicks.
One: He felt his body drenched in sweat from the top of his well shaven head to the tip of his toes.
Two: Rory Nash felt nausea in the pit of his stomach. He felt his bowels try to activate, and he resisted this with severe butt clenching. At that precise moment he saw in his mind’s eye Primrose Hill. He saw Flute Burton, John Boy Stone, Jerry Mac Kane and Anna Elliot along with himself. They were all in the bushes and they, all the boys, were laughing and joking and all being mates, having fun together.
Three: He wanted to drop the Corgi Bedford OB Southdown coach. His instincts told him to drop it and run for the door but he was magnetised to the floor. His legs were as heavy as lead, they would not move at his command. The Southdown coach stuck to his fingers the way frozen metal does. He felt the only way he could remove it would be to tear the very skin from his fingers. He did manage to drop the brush and tried to use his free hand to pull the model from the other. The brush hand in turn became stuck to the Southdown coach.
Four: He wanted to shout, he wanted to scream. Then his mind flipped back to the Primrose Hill scene, where this time Burton and Mac Kane were holding Anna Elliot’s legs apart and Stone was holding her hands above her head. He saw himself above Anna and he heard his voice, a voice still young in years, tell Anna not to scream, not to struggle. He saw tears make their way down her face in spite of her brave attempts to hold them back. He saw her mouth the word, “NO!” He saw himself move closer to her, ready to engage her.
Five: Before forty-one year-old Rory Nash’s brain had a chance to translate the sounds of the explosion and the stench of the mess around his feet, he had ceased to be.
“And in the end, the love you take
Is equal to the love you make.”
John Lennon & Paul McCartney.
THE END
Inspector Christy Kennedy returns in The Ballad Of Sean And Wilko also published by Fahrenheit Press.
About the author
Paul Charles is an agent, promoter, author and fan of The Beatles, he was born in Magherafelt, Northern Ireland.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Jackson Browne for giving me permission to borrow the title of his magical song (from the Late For The Sky album.) To Ja for continuing to read and edit, and to Andrew and Cora for continuing to be my parents.
And finally, the John Lennon and Paul McCartney quote used in Chapter 50 is from “The End” Which is found on the Beatles’ classic album, Abbey Road.
Words and Music by John Lennon & Paul McCartney
© 1969 Northern Songs.
Used by permission of Music Sales Ltd.
All rights reserved. International copyright secure.
The Inspector Christy Kennedy Mysteries by Paul Charles, published by Fahrenheit Press
Last Boat To Camden Town
I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass
Fountain Of Sorrow
The Ballad Of Sean And Wilko
The Hissing of the Silent Lonely Room
I've Heard The Banshee Sing
The Justice Factory
Sweetwater
The Beautiful Sound of Silence
A Pleasure To Do Death With You
Also by Paul Charles and published by Fahrenheit Press
One Of Our Jeans Is Missing
Other Books from Paul Charles
Inspector Starrett Mysteries:
The Dust of Death
Family Life
St Ernan’s Blues
McCusker Mystery
Down On Cyprus Avenue
Other Fiction:
First of The True Believers.
The Last Dance
The Prince Of Heaven’s Eyes (A Novella)
The Lonesome Heart is Angry
Non-Fiction:
The Best Beatles Book Ever
Playing Live
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