It all began with a phone call.
Mr Taylor, the manager of the firm where my husband had been hurt whilst installing some new lighting, asked me if I could call and see him soon to discuss the accident. Naturally I assumed this was to talk about his compensation. John, my husband was a self employed electrician and had only recently started working for himself. It had taken all our savings to set him up with everything he had needed to work for himself. Money was so tight that I'd left my job working at the local bank in order to do all his office work and save on having to pay someone else to do it. This job was the biggest John had ever undertaken to complete and we really overstretched ourselves ordering the materials to get the job done knowing that when we were paid at the end for the whole job we would be able to clear all our debts in one go and set us up for the future.
I arranged to see Mr. Taylor the day after at one o'clock. I dressed nicely in a business like blouse and skirt which was to just above my knees. I wanted to make a good impression so I made sure I was looking my best by wearing 4" heels which accentuated my long legs. Just to tell you a little about myself, I'm 28 years old with light brown hair highlighted with blonde streaks. I have a 34c – 25 – 34 figure and although I'm only about 5 feet 5 inches tall I do have quite long legs. I've been married to John for 4 years and love him very much.
Anyway I arrived a few minutes early to see Mr Taylor but wasn't kept waiting for very long before being shown in to his office. "Please take a seat Mrs Jameson"
"Thank you" I replied "and you can call me Carolyn"
"Well Carolyn, I don't know how much you know about the accident, but this is the first accident we have had at Taylor International Trading for almost 10 years and we take it very seriously. Naturally we have had to inform Her Majesty's Inspectors for Health and Safety and I must say they have been very thorough in their investigation of the accident, which is why I have asked you to call today. How is John by the way?"
"He should be home from hospital in a couple of weeks, but he will be unable to work for about 6 months. The doctors have told me that his broken thigh will be slow to mend but his back injuries are not as severe as first thought and he will be okay in time with plenty of rest" I answered.
"Well, what I wanted to talk to you about is the finishing of the installation of the lighting in the new factory. As you know the contract was for payment at the end of the job and I cannot see how you will be able to finish it now due to John's broken leg so I want to know what you propose doing about it."
"But I assumed you had wanted me to come in to discuss compensation for John's accident from your insurers. I'm not sure what you are saying really"
Mr. Taylor leaned forward and rested his chin in his hand before going on "Well Carolyn there will certainly be no compensation involved. The Health and Safety experts have all concluded that the accident was all John's fault and completely avoidable. He was taking unnecessary short cuts to get the work done on the cheap and make more profit. What I have to look at now is getting the job completed and I can only think of two ways to go forward. One is that you sub contract out to someone else who will have to be paid by yourself or two, Taylors sub contract the work to the next lowest tenderer for the job. If that happens we will deduct all of the extra payments we have to make from what we owe you. As you have not even completed half the job I believe we will not owe you anything at all when the job is done"
"You can't do that" I shouted "It's not fair"
"Being fair is not what this business is about. Your husband gave us a price to do a job. We borrowed money from the bank to pay for that job. Either you pay someone else for the next four months of the contract to get the job done for the same price or you walk away now" said Mr. Taylor, very firmly.
"Look Mr. Taylor" I pleaded, "we don't have any savings left. We are two months behind with our mortgage and John has had to buy a new van to get this job done. We have only made two payments on it. Please can't you help us some way?"
"I'm sorry Carolyn but business is business. We are not a charity. We have our shareholders to think of."
I played my last card then "well then, I'll have to talk to our solicitor to make you pay what you owe us."
"Carolyn, please take my advice. You don't have a leg to stand on. Sorry that was an unfortunate turn of phrase but really, the contract you signed is absolutely watertight. My advice would be to save your money on legal fees and walk away. We'll try to give your husband some work in the future but for now it's over."
He was right. It was over. We had literally ploughed everything we had into the business and now it would be all gone. The building society had already written to us warning of our missing payments and now we wouldn't be able to pay the van loan. If the building society called in the loan we would be left homeless.
I sat at home worrying about what I could do next. Get another job I thought, but that was probably easier said than done in today's economic climate. With a heavy heart I trawled through the job vacancy page in the local rag, not that it took much reading as there were few jobs about which I could have applied for, but then I spotted an advert with just a couple of lines to it.
'Young ladies always required for strip club work. Good pay. Ring and ask for Gary', followed by a mobile number. Could I do it? I don't know but I knew I had to do something as soon as possible, certainly before John came home from hospital. With trembling fingers I reached for my phone and rang the number.
"Hello, Gary speaking"