Uncle Norman
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HTML clipboardThere are two type of dog in Bulgaria. Dead ones and ones that bark constantly. I prefer the first type. Thus it was that I was woken every 15 minutes from my slumbers by some canine bastard baying at sod at all.
I was not a happy chap by the time I went for breakfast. It was good nosh and I felt better having eaten. I decided to surprise Mr Atkins and went tout to his village unannounced. It did not look any better in daylight. The village square was still grim, but the building where I had seen the UK van was more lively and there were loads of kids running about in the cold foggy morning. Must have been playtime.
I found Atkins house and it was an odd affair. Bulgarian structure with sort of Spanish features like arch windows and wrought iron and stuff. Sitting on the drive was a bloody great Hummer with US plates. Discreet and practical bearing in mind the roads. Actually don't tell the yanks, but they aren't very good. Far better with a Range Rover or any Land Rover for that matter.
I opened the metal gates and went in to the garden, it could have been the garden of a new build housing estate in the UK. I knocked on the door. Nothing. Knocked again and shouted "Hello" and eventually I saw the curtains upstairs twitch and woman looked out and gestured with her hand.
She was later twenties and looked as if she had had a rough night. I apologised for waking her and we exchanged pleasantries. To cut a along story short Atkins was not in as he had gone back to Spain urgently and he was not going to be back until when ever.
She invited me in for a cup of tea. The house was Ok in side but a bit cheerless. It was am ix between English, Spanish and French and a bit \confused. The girl was called Sandy and she was pleasant enough. Turned out Atkins and she were sort of engaged. Met in Spain and he had decided to leave Spain and get in to Bulgaria before the others. Had done OK in Spain in the past but things were going down the pan. Her dad was a builder and her parents lived over in Spain worked for Atkins in some way.
I asked about Tom and she said she knew him, in fact her dad had done some work for them.
"Small world" says me.
"No, Nigel (Atkins) had sorted out the alterations and building work for them"
"Had he?"
"Oh yes, he sold them the house"
"Yes he was the agent."
"Of course I am sure, I used to run his office, I was his secretary and PA."
"Oh I see Any chance you could ring him,"
"No we don't have a telephone here and I don't have any credit on my mobile"
"Maybe you should go and get some"
"No I cant, I will have to wait till Nigel gets back as I don't have any fuel in my car and Nigel takes the keys for his car when he goes away"
"Right" I said hesitantly not quite getting the reason for this last bit of info
"I cant get my car out becasue the Hummer is blocking the drive, so I cant get in to town eve if I had petrol"
" In other words you are hold up in a house in the middle of nowhere with no way of communicating with the outside world and no way of getting to a doctor or contacting the emergency services in the event of somehting goung wrong?"
"Oh its not like that" she said happily
"Well what is it like then?" I asked "Because from where I am stood it all sounds very odd"
The short answer to that question was Mr Atkins had been married five times and each of his five wives had left him for one of his friends. This time he had moved to a place where he had no friends and to make extra sure he locked his fiancé up with no phone, or fuel to get out and meet anyone. What got me was she seemed OK with this arrangement although the more I talked to her the more spaced out she seemed. In fact she really wasn't the full ticket.
I made small talk and mentioned the school down the road only to be told it was an orphanage not a school.
"Its a really shame" said Sandy those kids are all on their own in the world, most are just abandoned and nbosy cares for them. The Orphanage isn't very nice, more like an army camp than a place for kiddies. Nigel does lots of things for them though and gets bits brought over from Spain"
She shrugged "Dunno, bits and things, but he has found jobs for some of the older kids so they get on their feet and he has even helped younger ones get adopted"
Now then I don't know much about the adoption process, but I couldn't see how a five times married estate agent from Spain could be arranging adoption for abandoned Bulgarian kids nor could I understand quite why he would arrange for a young lady to occupy a hotel room where Tom was supposed to be. The other thing is why did Mrs Willis claim not to know Atkins when she had bought the house from him and he had organised the renovation work. Talking of which she had said she had the house before she was with Tom, although that maybe crossed wires on the part of the captive Sandy.
I looked at Sandy sitting there looking like death warmed up
"Sandy are you OK, are you sick"
"Me oh no, well yes a bit, I have ha d few problems, but Nigel has helped me loads"
"Thats good" I said "When you say problems what do you mean?"
"Oh its sort of my head, things get confused and I cant always think straight, but the medicines help, just I cant sleep at night and then fall aslepp during the morning"
"Is that since you have been here?"
"Oh no I used to work for Toyota in the Uk and it started then. They were reallygood to me but I was not coping with things and they tried to help me but I was embarrassed and some people said they would get rid of me and it was so complicated."
"I ran away to Spain. Actually I took my car and just drove here, there. Actually it was their car but they didn't mind and let me keep it and didn't tell the police but they really wanted me to see a doctor."
"who did"
"Mr Boss Mr Yakomoto (made up name) he said that if they could help me it would be better, but i was worried even though he was really nice. I just couldn't think, my head was going to burst. I knew I wanted to go to Spain but forgot why and about three months later I was in a bar and my mum and dad walked in. They thought I had been kidnapped but I hadn't. It was just lucky they found me. Then I stayed in Spain near them and started working with Nigel."
What do your mum and dad think of you being here?"
"I don't know really I haven't spoken to them for ages, never in when we try to ring or bad line"
"Do you ring or is it Nigel"
"Nigel does it for me because he says I am not good with numbers and shouldn't get upset"
"Why would you get upset?"
"Oh I do easily Nigel says I say things I don't mean and then I forget."
"Do you know your mum and dads number?"
"No I cant remember numbers, Nigel has it on his phone though"
"I suppose Nigel has his phone with him"
"Oh yes he needs it all the time for business so he has to have it with him"
I got her to tell me her mum and dads name and where they lived and then rang Cyclops and asked him to find their number and to see what the score was.
It took about thirty minutes of inane chatter before Cyclops got back to me. Mum and dad had not seen her for almost 18 months. Nigel had told them she she had done a runner and did not know where she was. They wanted to find her but could not afford the fees of a detective agency. They had told Cyclops they would do what ever was best for their daughter but they would really like her home.
I chatted to Sandy and then casually asked if she would like to see her mum and dad. She didn't say anything but drew her knees up under her chin and slowly started to rock back and forth. Her breathing changed and slowly she started to cry. I went over to her and put my hand on her shoulder.
"Sandy, do you want me to take you to see your mum"
through her sobs she whispered
"Yes please dad"
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 at 02:35 pm and is filed under Uncategorised.	You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
4 Responses to "Spain 9"
dl says:
Nice to have you back norm. No wonder you haven't bought me that curry you promised me last year.
Bendy Girl says:
I've read this post twice now, and it's made me cry both times! Hope you're doing well UN. BG
havingmycake says:
So many bad people and so many innocents… 🙁
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