500 words a day

720 words 13th august 2009

He’d achieved one of his two life long ambitions, to become a dog-trainer. Having said that, if the second tuned out like the first, maybe he wouldn’t pursue it after all. He’d been a dog-trainer for 3 and a half years now. When he took that business plan to the bank manager, and later heard he’d been approved for the loan, £500000 – a lot of money but it was needed he was ecstatic.


He had a lot of things to lay out for up front. There was the land, that was crucial, he needed somewhere he could have a lot of space for the dogs to run around. He wanted somewhere for guests to stay so they could come for a week long residential course, that was the ideal, but so far he hadn’t go round to building extra accommodation. He was lucky to get the land cheap from his uncle. What he didn’t know, and only found out when the old bugger died, was that it wasn’t all his. Some of it, that he’d assured Geraint had been all his, the three lower fields and the woods, ideal for the dogs, actually turned out to be leased from the big Farm cross the road. Henry Thraithwaite the 3rd, he found out. Something of an arsehole, so he discovered. The lease was due for renewal a year after he bought it and 2 months after his thieving uncle had died. He needed to pay, in advance, 3 years lease to use the land, with certain restrictions or add on costs depending what he had planned. Dog training, naturally enough, appeared to come under the heading of add-ons. In all he’d needed to pay £200,000 for the three years to use it as he pleased. Although he’d gott he land cheap, only £120,000, it now didn’t seem so cheap. It only left him with £180000 to build his home and the kennels for the dogs and buy the various training equipment he needed. So the whole accommodation for guest idea had been shelved and looked like being shelved for as long as he could see.


All in all the whole plan hadn’t been as successful as he hoped and although he’d had regular customers since opening, the repayments on the business loan used up most f his income. Now he had started to fall behind and had racked up considerable debts on his credit cards.





So, when he reflected on going for his second lifelong dream, living by the beach, or at least retiring by the beach, he wasn’t all that keen and certainly not all that confident.





That afternoon he had another meeting with the bank to try and reschedule some of the finance in  the light of al the new information that had come to light about the lease and the additional costs. He had some hopes, based solely on the tone of voice that the Manager had on the phone when he’d set the meeting up. He also planned to meet up with Henry Thraiwthwaite the 3rd to try and persuade him to be a bit more generous and alter the terms or cost of the lease and also to explore the possibility of buying the land outright. This he had to do before he met the bank manager so that he had all  the facts with him. They seemed to be very keen on that and saw a lack of facts and information as proof that the plan was flawed and quite possibly fraudulent.


That evening he planed to visit the Big Farm and he was armed with a secret weapon, one of his Aunt’s special pie’s, this one was a cherry pie, her absolute best as far as he was concerned. This aunt had no connection with the evil uncle, who came from a whole other side of the family – his father’s side. This side, his mother’s,  had a reputation, well deserved, of being excellent cooks for many generations. According to his Mother, who had skipped this particular family skill, his aunt’s pies had been used to mediate and resolve in many a fight and argument. She had no doubt that it would win this stupid farmer over to his side. So he had high hopes as he trudged across the fields towards the manor house.











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Steve Wybourn





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