Today the sun shone, it shone bright and hot and I had a simple task clear out a cupboard in the local community hall. The ask for help was so simple any idiot could cope with it...
"Just help me empty the green cupboard, check it and take it to the tip." Asked the vicar's wife very nicely.
I've been using the hall for a number of years, it started with my daughter attending dance lessons every Saturday morning, being the only man in the circle it took a while to get to know some of the mums but my daughter made friends with another girl and suddenly I found I was chatting to her mother, after that I seemed to have become an honorary mum and became part of the group.
Several of the mums were members of the 'Mothers and Babies Club' and regularly took part in a quiz planned for a few weeks later, looking for another to make up a team of eight I became a member of 'Saturday Dance Mums'. Now I've taken part in a number of quizzes over the years and at the age of twenty-five I don't think I do too badly, I held my own and with the brainstorming on our table we came a very respectable third place and only seven points behind the leaders.
However throughout the evening there had been constant calls to the quiz mistress that we couldn't hear her, after the prizes had been awarded and we were packing up our group of eight arrived at the conclusion that I Terry would be able to do the job better. How that was established I have no idea, it most certainly didn't com from my lips. The hall has a sound system, not a particularly good one but it was adequate for a quiz. However the lady mumbled a lot and repeatedly failed to keep the microphone near enough to her mouth.
Moving on four months found the same team of eight sitting in the same position in the hall for the next quiz and the same lady sat on the stage mumbling away to a distant microphone. Following a dozen or so complaints of not being able to hear she threw a wobbly, stood and halfway through the second round of questions she left the stage. While the noise of chatter rose as we discussed what was happening, my team rekindled the notion that I, Terry, should take to the stage and they started chanting; Te-ree, Te-ree, Te-ree and in next to no time the remaining teams joined in chanting.
So what does muggins do? Muggins, Terry, stands and walks to the front of the hall to see where the vacant quiz mistress had gone. The door to one side of the stage leads to a passage and an external door and through the open door I saw the very same grey haired lady driving away in her very old Morris 1000. Climbing the steps to the stage the babble of chatter died and applause took over.
At school I'd done an amount of drama but mostly the backstage part of it but nothing since, walking to the vacated table I picked up the microphone and tapped it. I heard nothing from the loudspeakers, flicking the switch up I tapped again and hearing the sound bounce back I held up my hand and for the first time in nine years spoke into a microphone, the foulest possible smelling microphones metal grill;
"Errr... Ladies and Gentlemen... err it's a weird situation. Are there any organisers here?"
The room fell silent, silent enough to hear the proverbial pin drop until someone coughed.
"Urrrm right. I'm Terry and I'll try to umm..."
I walked to up stage of the table and looked over the piles of paper. I was shaking, physically shaking as I stammered;
"Moving on to question four,"
A little ripple of applause made me wait.
"Question four, which king burnt the cakes?"
The deathly silence turned into whispering and I heard several names; 'Alfred, Harold, Edward etcetera.' And gradually the noise of chattering rose.
"Question five..."
By the time I'd asked all ten questions of the round my shaking had eased, I was still feeling nervous but my hands had stabilised.
"If you'll swap papers with your neighbours I'll read out the answers..."
After the papers were marked they swapped back and finding the score sheet I noted the scores down as the teams called them out.
After round four was completed I read out the running scores and announced the current winning team as we stopped for our food break, my knees felt like jelly as I stood and stumbled my way back to my team.
After the congratulations had finished I asked what it sounded like but having heard no complaints I'd thought it must have been okay.
"Brilliant, terrific, amazing, perfect." Were the four terms I heard that stuck in my head.
After the break I continued with rounds five to eight, announced the final scores, handed out the bottles of wine to the winners and tubes of Smarties to the team in last place and thanked everyone for coming. A lady walked forward and taking the microphone from me was about to speak but first I watched her flinch as she smelt it.
"On behalf of the scout leaders I'd like to say a big thank you to you Terry for doing a brilliant job." A round of applause made her stop, "and taking over from Ruby. I'm sure everyone here is of the same opinion that we all heard every word." More applause, "and will you do the job again next time please."
This time there was a big cheer with the clapping. She gave the microphone back.
"OO I hadn't thought about doing this again, this is just a one off helping out. Thank you all again for helping make this work, good night, safe journey home and God Bless."
I started stacking the piles of paper then switched the microphone back on. "Excuse me again please; does anyone know where things go?"
A man walked forward and introduced himself as something to do with the drama group and helped put the sound equipment away in a cupboard. Doing so he reiterated others comments about me doing a good job and thanked me again. By that time the bits of snack things of mine left on the team table were in the carrier bag they came in, I had my empty beer glass to go into it and there was the pile of papers I'd been working from with the laminated 'jokers' but everything else had been cleared and stacked.
Luckily another lady, Judy or July, came forward and offered to take the papers and return them to the quiz mistress, Ruby, who it seems was the sole organiser for the event. She also suggested I wrote my name and phone number on the papers.
Four of 'my team' were waiting for me and placing my glass in the bag one of them was holding for me I suddenly started feeling very heavy and shaking again. Realising my adrenalin store was virtually depleted I knelt down on the floor before anything sinister happened as I felt myself collapsing.
There was great concern about my wellbeing but a few minutes later I felt much better and slowly stood. I'd walked to the hall but the husband and wife, the only other male on the team, insisted on giving me a lift home.
I made a mug of tea, showered and went to bed. Waking I found a half full tea on the bedside unit and seeing the time was 08:30 I got up thinking I needed to make plans to collect my daughter from her sleepover with nanny and grampa.
The phone rang just as the news started on the radio, being an unknown number I answered a little gruffly; "Hello yes?"
A deep female voice; "Good morning, is this Terry?"
Still a bit gruff; "Yes."
"I hope I haven't woken you. I'm Ruby; I understand you helped out last night."
"Oh Ruby yes."
"I'm so sorry Terry, I used to get help running the quiz but recently it has just been myself and getting the complaints last night was the final straw. I really don't want to let the teams down but I simply can't cope with the whole thing on my own."
"I see."
"Now I've heard from several people how you did a really good job and I wonder if I can rely on you for help in the future?"
"Really?"
"I'd be extremely grateful if you could do what you did last night as I can easily cope with the rest."