Spindown

By Geoff Ingram

Mel Stern’s days as a top-level motorcycle trials rider are over. He has built a successful motorcycle dealership and is determined for his family to make an impression amongst his affluent middle-class neighbours who are colonizing the country village where he lives. Mel wants his young daughters to ride ponies and have the things that his wife, Sheila, aspired to but couldn’t afford as a teenager. He comes to wish that perhaps he had chosen a different career path, something that his class-conscious circle of friends and acquaintances could admire rather than pity.

But somehow Mel can’t replace the thrill he used to find in competition. He is envious of his motorcycle riding protégé Shaun and his successes. He longs for a son who he can mentor and guide to national victories to match Shaun’s achievements. Mel’s continuing dreams of glory and his ruthless competitive streak lead to a series of contradictory life choices that become increasingly self-destructive.

Spin-Down is a new twist on the classic story of the adventurer who won’t settle for the comfortable life but keeps striving towards some ephemeral concept of recognition and respect.

Geoff Ingram
Geoff is a keen motorcyclist and observer of human nature. Spin-Down is a first novel. Geoff is married with three grown up children and lives with his wife in the Cotswolds.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Geoff Ingram
• Release date: Jul 4, 2017
• ISBN: 9781999761523

Geoff Ingram

Geoff is a prolific reader and has been in a number of bookclubs over the last 25 years. Geoff is also a keen motorcycle trials rider and is a member of a local club that organizes trials competitions in the Cotswolds area in the UK. Spindown is an affectionate yet serious look at the narrow concerns and ambitions of the weekend warrior and how they impact family and professional life. Geoff was born in 1959. He has three grown up children and lives in the Cotswolds.

Book preview

1

New Term

The Sterns are sitting down to Easter lunch. The dining room is in the wing of the old house that is reserved for the headmaster’s family. The elaborate plaster mouldings and cornices on the ceiling are faded and the room has lost much of its former grandeur. The house came into the stewardship of the local council in the Second World War and has received little in the way of upkeep over the last twenty years. However the dining room commands impressive views across the grounds and the living quarters for the family are spacious and very agreeable.

What’s the big theme going to be for next term then Alison? asks Henry.

I’m not quite sure admits Alison, I quite like the idea of doing something about Europe. Did you know that Britain might be joining the European Economic Community? I think that we could build on the themes of reconciliation after the war. The children could relate to some popular European cultural developments like maybe the Eurovision Song contest. She passes the plate of roast chicken over to her husband and cuts a few slices of meat for herself.

What do you think Mel? Could you get interested in the EEC?

I’m pretty sure I don’t know what the EEC is mother Mel replies whilst twirling a fork and leaning back on his chair but not sounding at all worried about this gap in his knowledge.

Don’t lean back like that, try and sit up nicely at the table his mother interjects.

Yes it’s a bit abstract isn’t it she muses. I doubt if either John Harkness or Judith Dobell could tell you what the European Economic Community is for let alone any of their pupils.

What you mean is that the trouble with Europe and reconciliation is that its all too abstract. It isn’t obvious who are the Cowboys and who are the Indians ventures Henry.

Yes Dad’s right, you need something a bit easier for the half-wits to be able to latch on to, like making the good guys wear a white hat, Mel’s face brightens as he feels glad to be part of a reasoned adult debate.

You mustn’t call them half-wits Mel, all the children that come to my school have missed out on the privileges that you have had. They have been sent here because they haven’t been shown how to control their emotions. They need to learn that they can’t react instinctively to whatever their feelings are telling them to do. Our job here is to help them to understand that actions have consequences. Our job is to encourage them to adopt a bit of responsibility for their behaviour before they go back to their regular school. Just because our pupils might lack a disciplined moral framework that does not mean that they are stupid.

Alison pauses to take stock of where the conversation was going before she slipped into the familiar lecture to her son.

However, I will agree that you are probably both right to caution that it might be hard to instil a sense of excitement and purpose and get the team pulling together for a project that seems as remote as the European Economic Community.

Why don’t you do something about protecting wildlife from the evils of modern industry? There’s that story about that oil tanker that ran aground and gummed up all the seagull’s feathers with crude oil suggests Mel’s father.

The Torrey Canyon, yes that’s not a bad idea Henry.

And you could tie it in with a visit to the Plumbridge wild fowl sanctuary to show some practical conservation work suggests Henry wanting to make the most of his opportunity to show his wife that he is interested in the affairs of the school and also to show his son that although Alison appears to be the dominant partner in their marriage that he is at least her equal in providing the ideas and direction.

Yes, we could get the children to excavate a pond and bring in a few ducklings and then get Peter Black to open the summer fete. It would strike just the right sort of note when I show the governors round before the summer holiday. That is really good thinking Henry.

Do you know a lot about geese and ducks and their conservation needs then mother? asks Mel quizzically.

Of course she doesn’t Mel but that is not the point. She just needs a big theme that she can write about in the newsletter, get all the kids doing some work for good causes and maybe even get an article printed in the Mercury.

Henry is being cynical Alison interrupts her husband. But the point is that I don’t need to be an expert in everything that we cover here at the school. I’m sure that Will Carter will be able to prepare some interesting lessons about how the advance of agriculture in the English countryside has only been achieved at the expense of draining the wetlands and clearing the forests and hence losing some of the natural wildlife that used to live there. I will probably ask Judith Dobell to plan a giant collage to put up on the main noticeboard in the hall illustrating some of the themes and then get her class to cut-out and decorate the sea-birds with rice grains and dried peas stuck on with glue. Judith will think of a good way to illustrate the farmers spraying dangerous insecticides on the land that drain into the rivers and kill off the fish; she’s so good at putting these things into pictures and images that the children will relate to. My job is to just set a few goals for everybody and get them all working together to make them feel that we are doing our bit here at the Grange to make the world a better place. Once they see that they are contributing to society then this will help the children to feel more self-confident and hopefully make them a bit more inclined to cooperate with the other children and teachers when they go back to their local schools.

Alison pauses again and scans through her mental list of the things that she needs to get ready for the new term and what each of the teachers has suggested as the themes and priorities for their classes. She calculates whether she can dove-tail any of their ideas with an over-arching ecological back-drop for the term. She remembers a gap in the rota that will need filling.

Anyway what have you got to do over the next few weeks Henry? Do you think that you’ll be able to help with organizing early evening games if the weather is OK? You know that Graham is only here till five each day next term and those teenagers in Severn class are so boisterous we have to do everything possible to wear them out between supper and turn in.

That should be OK dear, Mel and I will organize rounders for the girls and cricket for the boys when the weather looks OK won’t we Mel? I won’t be able to do Thursday’s though because Gareth wants me to do a regular weekly session with the marketing boys and the reps – reviewing the figures for each campaign and then going for a drink afterwards to keep them all fired up.

Alison’s focus moves on from father to son.

What have you got on next term at St Aubyns then Mel? Your end of term report was weak you know and really poor for maths. I want you to try and push along next term and try to get at least a ‘B’ in your end of year exams. You will struggle to get a place at University if you don’t get maths ‘O’ level you know. Are there any particular areas that you find difficult? I can get Graham to help go through some examples with you if it will help.

Mel’s expression becomes increasingly pained as he sees where his mother’s train of thought is leading. I can’t really see the point of the maths they’re teaching us at the moment. I mean addition and subtraction that all makes sense to me but when am I ever going to need to use angles and cosines? Look Dad, do you ever need to calculate the area of an ellipse during your day at the office?

Henry laughs. This is a hypothetical question because I don’t even know what an ellipse is. However I do need to be able to check how many barrels each landlord is ordering and then calculate the average takings they’re achieving for each barrel ordered to make sure that there’s no funny business going on. If you haven’t got a good grasp of arithmetic then you’ll be taken for a mug you know Mel.

Mel examines this advice and turns over its implications in his head.

Do you think that you’ll get into the cricket team this year then Mel?

I’m pretty sure I will Dad. I reckon only Ray Pederson is better at batting in my year and I could probably get in the team just for bowling as well.

Good to hear it Mel but don’t take it for granted. We’ll make sure you get some practice when we start organizing the evening cricket games.

Whilst his wife is looking ahead to rounding off the school year and impressing the parents and governors Henry is looking ahead to a summer of cricket with the brewery team when he can get away from helping at the school.

2

The Planning Weekend

Make sure that you are here for the monthly evening service then. You know how that Eileen Hartley comments on every teacher whose spouse doesn’t come to the service. Please make sure you are back in time so I don’t get the benefit of that look she does over the top of her reading glasses. The look that questions just who am I to be proclaiming about the school providing leadership and a moral framework for pupils when I can’t even bring my own husband to heel? Please can you just do that for me? Alison Stern is speaking to her husband with the calm and measured voice that she uses to address a junior teacher when explaining the changes in approach and behaviour that she expects them to adopt in the classroom. There is just a hint of weariness in her tone that suggests that perhaps she shouldn’t need to be saying this because, after all, it is self-evident.

Of course darling but I’ve got to put in an appearance and show that I’m still contributing new ideas, pulling my weight. It’s the annual planning weekend and at least it is only in Henley this year; Richard Cartwright was pushing for Harrogate. I only need to be away on Saturday night. There will be a summing up session on Sunday morning just to check that the bright ideas from Saturday still hold water in the cold light of day, a pep talk from Gareth and then I should be able to sneak away straight after lunch.

Is this the same sort of session that you have to put in on a Thursday evening with your ‘marketing boys’ then? Alison asks her husband sarcastically. The sort of session where creative ideas get smudged out in lipstick on shirt collars?

Look I don’t know what you’re talking about Alison. You know perfectly well that there is a lot of pressure on the senior team to demonstrate efficiency savings and sales growth. If I wasn’t making the effort to arrange these sessions and come up with new local marketing initiatives then Gareth would consider that I’m not pulling my weight. I can tell you that there’s nothing enjoyable about trying to get creative and pitching new sales ideas to our reps. Asking them to think conceptually is like asking them to believe that the world isn’t flat. They get dizzy and fall over if you ask them to start looking at things from new perspectives.

Mel wanders into the sitting room and breaks into a little canter. Are you going to come and watch the cricket match at St Aubyns tomorrow then Dad? We’re playing Mandleton Hall and I’m batting at number three.

Well that’s brilliant that they’ve promoted you up the order and I only wish I could be there to support you but I’m afraid it is the group planning weekend and I won’t be able to make it this time Melvo.

Your father is going to be working on improving his own strokes this weekend, he’s sweet talked some playing partner to help him in the nets or should I say fishnets Henry?

Have they laid on fishing for you as entertainment for this weekend then Dad? asks Mel seriously.

Your mother is joking and is getting just a bit paranoid Henry replies, glaring at Alison. No I’m really sorry that I won’t be there tomorrow but I promise I’ll be there for the match next weekend. Now how have you been getting on with that extra tuition with Graham then? Is it starting to fall into place yet?

Oh Graham is really solid but it’s such a waste of time working on maths problems when he has so many other interesting things to talk about. Did you know that he has a motorbike and that he rides it in competitions at the weekends?

Sounds like a lot of fun we should go along to watch him one Sunday. Henry acknowledges still keen to move the conversation in a different direction. Do you know what sort of bike he has?

Graham says it’s a Triumph tiger cub with low gearing specially for trials. It’s got wheel rims made out of aluminium alloy because they’re lighter and have a bit more give than steel ones if you hit a rock.

Sounds like you fancy a go at riding a motorbike yourself. There’s plenty of space round the school grounds and I suppose you wouldn’t be in the way of anyone ponders Henry mostly to himself.

Don’t start thinking along those lines. Alison interrupted. First it would cost a fortune, second it would go wrong after a couple of weeks and third it would only distract Mel from school and cricket. You just concentrate on coming up with some ideas to keep Gareth happy and stop dreaming like a teenager about bikes and barmaids. Now do you need me to iron you a couple of shirts to take tomorrow?

Mel’s weekend has been going well. On Saturday evening Alison is interested to hear about the cricket match and listens attentively as he describes the different bowlers for Mandleton Hall, their different actions and how he had put together a plan for how to attack each of them just from watching the first few overs before he came in to bat. Instead of making him do his homework she lets him stay up and watch ‘Softly Softly’ on television with her. She doesn’t interrupt the drama by commenting on the characters or the plot inconsistencies but allows herself to become involved with the drama with Mel. They are both elated and excited with the satisfactory resolution to the case.

On Sunday morning Mel volunteers to walk the school dog and takes three of the boys from the Grange along to kill a few hours before lunch. The boys are all older than Mel but they are happy to defer to his decisions about where to go on the walk and where the conversation should lead. They ask Mel what breed of dog is Herman? They are happy for Mel to set the tone for when they should be sensible and serious and when they should lighten up a bit and have a competition to see who can throw a stone furthest across the lake or walk the furthest along the top of the rail running around the edge of the gallops. Mel is happy to provide guidance and even begins to feel a little sympathy for the boys who seem to have had so little contact with the countryside before. As they wander back along the track in the school grounds that leads to the main building they follow a stone wall on the right of the track that is curving around the edge of the beech wood. As they follow the track a pair of legs swinging idly out from the wall is revealed in front of the boys. The legs are wearing black pumps and the boys raise their gaze to follow bare legs between the ankle up to mid-thigh and then over a loose blue and white striped cotton dress around some pronounced curves up to a pale face sporting a lazy smile. The smile is framed by ringlets of fair copper dappled hair.

Do you like what you see then boys? comes the mocking voice of Jennifer Priestly.

We’d like it a lot more if we could see what’s covered by that dress one of the boys replies. Come on show us yer knickers Jenny".

Yes well it’s not you that I’m asking now Duncan. I was more interested in what young Mel has to say for himself comes the reply.

Well I think you’re looking very pretty today Jenny. Mel offers blushing. Mel walks on with Herman whilst the other boys linger to taunt Jenny. Mel feels embarrassed but also secretly pleased that she has singled him out.

In the afternoon when he is yawning and staring out of the window whilst trying to finish his homework Mel detects a change in his mother’s mood. She doesn’t say anything but as she walks past him at the table in the living room Mel detects a disapproving sideways glance. The glance indicates that she has noticed that he has hasn’t added a single line of handwriting to the page since she last checked at least ten minutes ago.

Mel looks up as he hears Henry’s car coming up the drive. He can detect Alison’s disapproval levels rising even though she is behind him.

Mel gets up from the table and walks to the door to greet Henry. How was the planning weekend Dad? Well it didn’t go too badly Melvo. They liked my idea for finding more exotic drinks to sell to tempt all our drinkers who think they’re become too sophisticated for mild and bitter or port and lemon. We’re going to try to sign some deals with the continentals to sell fortified wines, you know, vermouth and the like.

My clever darling. You think you’re always one step ahead of the crowd don’t you? interjected Alison. I spoke to Gareth on the phone this morning and he was full of praise for how you sparked the debate yesterday. He’s such a thoughtful man Gareth isn’t he? Full of sympathy and asked if I was feeling better now. Such a shame that Henry had to head back home yesterday evening to look after his poorly wife.

Mel senses that the next phase of this conversation is going to be acrimonious and tries to head it off. We’ve had a good weekend as well haven’t we Mum? I was top scorer in the cricket yesterday and Mum has managed to get Peter Black to come to give a speech at the open day at the end of term.

Well that’s great Melvo, did you beat Mandleton Hall then?

You bastard Alison cuts across their conversation. She steps forward and draws her right arm back ready to slap her husband across the face. Her arm suddenly drops and her forward lunge is modified to a swivel towards the door as a sharp knock diverts her attention. Come she lowers her voice and slows her delivery as she composes herself.

The door pushes open and Eileen Hartley advances towards Alison and tips her head forward as she glances over her spectacles her eyes flitting back and forth between Alison and Henry. Sorry to interrupt Mrs Stern but I just wanted to say that the Curate just called to apologise but he can’t get over to take the service this evening. He has come down with the flu and asks if you will please accept his apologies.

No matter Eileen, I’ll take the service and Henry will give the readings won’t you dear?

Yes of course replied Henry, I’ll have a quick read through before tea to make sure I get the emphasis in the right place.

Yes Mr Stern is very good on moral emphasis isn’t that right Henry? Alison smiles as she ushers Eileen back out into the hall.

Don’t think that you’ve got away with this she hisses towards Henry as she walks back into the room after closing the door behind Eileen.

3

Speech Day

Mel has dressed for school and is trudging down the stairs looking idly out of the window where, under the canopy of the big beech tree, he can see the lawn at the front of the Grange and beyond that over the low hedge he sees the sports field stretching into the distance. It’s a fine day. The sun is already high and shafts of light shine though the gaps in the beech canopy making random dust particles sparkle briefly before a change in orientation to the light makes them fade from view again. Mel’s attention is drawn from the iridescence in the foreground by a vague brightness in the background. Something about this familiar scene is not quite the same today. Mel squints and the abstract white shape in the distance resolves into a canvas marquee with guy ropes just visible like strands of a web stretching out from the two main poles. Aha Mel murmers to himself the summer fete.

Alison is in the kitchen, forking scrambled eggs out onto a plate of toast and butter. She is wearing a faun coloured woollen jacket and a skirt with a charcoal herring bone pattern that she wears for formal school occasions. Her hair is neatly held in place with grips and Mel notices that her face looks smoother and her lips brighter. Mel suddenly realizes that he has hardly ever seen his mother wearing make-up before.

Morning mum. You needn’t have bothered getting breakfast for me. You must be busy with getting ready for speech day. I’ll serve myself and do the washing up before I set off to catch the bus.

This is your last week isn’t it Mel? And didn’t you say that you’ve done all your end of year exams? I was wondering if you could give school a miss today and help get the boys ready for the cricket match. Try and make sure that they’ve all got matching black trousers, white shirts and white tennis shoes and that they look reasonably presentable. If you arrange one last practice session with them this morning it will make sure they can’t sabotage any of the class-room displays. Oh and before the match will you run through with them again about how they’ve got to shake hands with the umpires and the visiting team and encourage them not to get all sullen and sweary if they lose the match. You know the form, make sure that they don’t wander off and get into mischief whilst they’re waiting to bat.

Sounds good to me Mum, we’re not doing anything much in the last week at St Aubyns, mostly it’s about the teachers getting to tell their favourite stories or organize stupid games. But I thought Dad and Graham would be handling the cricket match.

Your father got an urgent call from work and had to leave last night. Graham has got to do some last minute practising with the choir before the concert. I sat in on the rehearsal yesterday and heavens we must do something to introduce a bit more melody before we let them loose on the school governors today.

Yes I thought I heard a door banging and a car driving off last night, seems a bit late though for them to get Dad to drive off to London.

I don’t know; some emergency with the board meeting today or something. Alison tails off then refocuses. Somebody needs to look at the pool they dug for the conservation project and try and make it look a bit more like a pond and bit less like a building site.

I could get the boys from Severn class to look at that before cricket practice. Mel offers.

No you concentrate on keeping them reasonably clean and presentable. I’ll ask Judith to get her class to look at that this morning.

Mel puts on his practiced bright and breezy manner with the boys of Severn class. He encourages them that they can beat the team from Shaw Green School if they just stay calm. Take your time making your throws back to the wicket keeper or the bowler and don’t give away overthrows. When you’re batting don’t try and hit it out of the ground on the first ball you face. Wait for a couple of balls, just get a couple of block shots in first until you get your eye in, then you can start slogging when you’re used to the speed of the bowler.

What do we care about winning anyway? asks a solidly built teenager with a wearied air. "The sooner we’re all out the sooner we’ll get home and away from this dump. It’s not like we are playing for a place