The Astro File

By Tony Bull

Where's the thrill in gambling when you're bound to win?

What can Lucky's new project be about? This is the question that troubles betting shop office manager Daphne when everything his new system predicts seems to be coming true. And why did he need to borrow money from her to test it? She really didn't want to think badly of him because she knew he was basically very nice as well as good-looking and very clever. Perhaps the files which came with the old computer really did contain information needed to forecast the future...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tony Bull
• Release date: May 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301117048

Tony Bull

Tony Bull is a native of Hampshire, England, where he lives in the New Forest with his wife, Beryl. He has been writing as a creative hobby for many years and was eventually persuaded by friends and family to publish some of what they consider his 'better' pieces, starting with his first full-length novel, Final Reckoning, a crime mystery set in the Isle of Wight and New Forest, and continuing with Tinkers Creek, a historical novel set in the American West, and The Astro File, a farcical novella inspired by memories from his early career in data processing and computers.

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The Astro File

by Tony Bull

Smashwords Edition

Published by:

Tony Bull at Smashwords

Copyright © 2010 Tony Bull

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No part of this book may be reproduced in any form,

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without permission in writing from both the copyright

owner and the publisher of this book

This is a work of fiction. Events described here are imaginary.

Some settings exist but characters are fictitious and not intended to represent specific persons.

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This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Chapter One

Harry Winnall was Mum’s brother and he was a bookmaker. He liked to tell people he'd got where he was in the world by coming up the hard way through horse racing, first as a bookies' runner, then setting up his own stall and marking up the odds on boards beside the race course and using tictac to communicate the odds between his staff and to other bookies. As soon as betting shops were legalised, however, Harry took the opportunity to, as he called it, move indoors. Now, twenty years later in nineteen eightyone, he owned two betting shops, a couple of bingo halls and a fruit machine franchise.

Daphne was his Office Manager. She was twentynine years old and she enjoyed working for Uncle Harry, from whom she had acquired over the years a good understanding of the laws of risk and chance as demonstrated within his gambling businesses. She was therefore unlikely to take any unnecessary sort of risk, although as her hobby, which she kept a close secret - not even telling Mum about it - she did put aside a portion of her salary every month to invest in stocks and shares. If this was gambling, she thought, at least it was more genteel than betting, and in its own small way it was turning out to be quite profitable, too.

Daphne's life had become settled in a comfortable groove, living at home with Mum, when one day Uncle Harry acquired a second-hand computer, which he took in lieu of a gambling debt. He was told it could do all kinds of wonderful things, so he gave it to Daphne to help her run his office.

‘We got to keep up with the times, my gal. Computers is all the rage nowadays,’ he told her.

‘But I don’t know anything about them, Mr Winnall.’ (She always called him that at the office).

‘Nothin to it,’ said Uncle Harry. ‘Just type it in and it comes up on the TV, like, and that bit there types it out. Bloke showed me. Dead easy he said. You’ll soon get the hang of it.’

Daphne was a little anxious about it at first but she always thought of herself as a sensible girl, so after a bit of thought she decided to ask at the library on her way home.

The librarian recommended a book, of course. She took it home and explained to Mum what Uncle Harry wanted her to do. Mum thought it was all very well as long as Harry was not making too much extra work for her. That evening Daphne read about data entry and storage, tape files and disk files, while Mum did her knitting as usual and watched the television.

Next morning, following the instructions in the book, she managed to switch the computer on and type a few words which promptly disappeared when she tried to print them. This happened several times and made her cross, so she switched off and got on with her work as usual. When Uncle Harry came in, he asked her how she was getting on with the computer. She thanked him but said she preferred her old Remington typewriter. He said he was counting on her to make it work and she'd better get on with it.

So she persevered and after a week, when she'd worked out how to design form-letters and had started learning to make tabulations of accounts, she was beginning to enjoy herself.

Harry, however, was not impressed. He could see no sign of wonderful things coming out of what she was doing, and that was when Mr Dipp came on the scene. He took over the