Cat O'Nine Tales: And Other Stories Read Online Free Page A

Sue. “Our current account is showing a credit of a little over
ten thousand pounds. You’re a ten thou- sandaire .”
    The chairman
laughed, and invited the board to raise their glasses to Chris and Sue Haskins.
    “My spies tell
me, Chris,” added the chairman, “that you are likely to be the next president
of our local Rotary.”
    “Many a slip,”
said Chris as he lowered his glass, “and certainly not before Sue takes her
place on the area committee of the Mothers’ Union. Don’t be surprised if she
ends up as national chairman,” he added, with considerable pride.
    “So what do you
plan to do next?” asked the chairman.
    “Take a month’s
holiday in Portugal,” said Chris without hesitation. “After five years of
having to make do with the beach at Cleethorpes and a
plate offish and chips, I think we’ve earned it.”
    That also would
have made a satisfactory conclusion to this tale, had officialdom not stepped
in once again; this time with a letter addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Hoskins from
the finance director of the Post Office. They found it waiting for them on the
mat when they returned from Albufeira .
    Post Office Headquarters, 148 Old
Street, London EC1V 9HQ
    Dear Mr and Mrs. Hoski
    The Post Office is in the process of re-evaluating its property
portfolio, and to that end, will he making some
changes to the status of some of its older establishments.
    I therefore have to inform you that the board has come to the reluctant
conclusion that we will no longer require two category A status facilities in the Cleethorpes area. While
the new High Street branch will continue as a category A post office, Victoria Crescent will be downgraded to category B. In order that
you can make the necessary adjustments, we do not propose to bring in these
changes until the New Year.
    We look forward to continuing our relationship with you.
    Yours sincerely,

    Finance Director
     
      “Does
that mean what I think it means?” said Sue after she had read the letter a
second time.
    “In simple
terms, love,” said Chris, “we can never hope to earn back our original
investment of two hundred and fifty thousand, even if we go on working for the
rest of our lives.”
    “Then we’ll
have to put the post office up for sale.”
    “But who will
want to buy it at that price,” asked Chris, “once they discover that the
business no longer has category A status?”
    “The man from
Britannia assured us that once we’d paid off the debt it would be worth a
million.”
    “Only while the
business has a turnover of five hundred thousand and generates a profit of
around eighty thousand a year,” said Chris.
    “We should take
legal advice.”
    Chris
reluctantly agreed, although he wasn’t in much doubt what his solicitor’s
opinion would be. The law, their advocate dutifully advised them, was not on
their side, and therefore he wouldn’t recommend them to sue the Post Office, as
he couldn’t guarantee the outcome. “You might well win a moral victory,” he
said, “but that won’t assist your bank balance.”
    The next
decision Chris and Sue made was to put the post office on the market as they
wanted to find out if anyone would show an interest. Once again Chris’s
judgment turned out to be correct: only three couples even bothered to look
over the property, and none of them returned for a second viewing once they
discovered it was no longer category A status.
    “My bet,” said Sue, “is that those officials back at headquarters knew only
too well they were going to change our status long before they pocketed our
money, but it suited them not to tell us.”
    “You may well
be right,” said Chris, “but you can be sure of one thing–they won’t have put
anything in writing at the time, so we would never be able to prove it.”
    “And neither
did we .”
    “What are you
getting at, love?”
    “How much have
they stolen from us?” demanded Sue.
    “Well, if by
that you mean our original