Cuthbert, now twenty-one, had grown out of his gawky youth and now was slightly bordering on the podgy side. This was partly due to the amount of time he spent on the couch.
“Hi Cuthbert, you’re home early?”
“Hi mum, what’s for tea” he replied avoiding answering the question.
His mother looked at him shrewdly, “Did Mr Evans give you the afternoon off then?”
He was rumbled and he knew it. “Yes, this afternoon and every other afternoon,”
“Oh Cuthbert, you’ve been sacked again, what’s that, about the tenth job in a row?”
“Aw mum, let’s not talk about it now, Star Wars is on in a minute.”
“You’re just like your father!”
Cuthbert, smiled at his recollections of his father, who he had last seen on his sixth birthday. Telling Cuthbert that he was off to explore the world, which greatly impressed Cuthbert. His father was actually living two streets away, shacked up with the barmaid from the Red Lion.
“You’re going to have to get another job.” his mother sobbed, “I just can’t afford to keep both of us fed.”
In desperation, she phoned her brother. They had never been close, but he was her only hope.
“Adrian, I need a favour, please take Cuthbert on as an apprentice or something.”
“Hang on a minute, why? He hasn’t got a working bone in his body.”
She bristled at her brother’s remark, “You remember that vase you broke, Mother’s favourite, I kept quiet for you then, well, maybe I should tell her now.”
“Well, now you mention it, maybe I could find an opening, send him around to the shop tomorrow.”
“Good News Cuthbert, you uncle Adrian’s willing to give you a job.”
“That’s great mum, what does he actually do?”
“Oh, acquisitions I think.”
“Can you drive, Cuthbert?”
“I have had loads of lessons but”
His uncle cut in, “Good, I need you for a job this afternoon.”
His uncle explained what he expected him to do, it didn’t seem too difficult so Cuthbert went along with it.
He sat in the car down the road from the bank and waited.
The gang having reached the bank were pulling their stockings onto their faces, when Adrian began swotting a wasp away from his face. Cuthbert’s had taken his glasses off and was putting a plastic moustache on when he noticed him waving. He gunned the car into action. Seconds later the car came to a wheel-screaming stop outside the bank, the gang gave each other a bewildered look before jumping in their getaway car. They hadn’t even been inside the foyer of the bank let alone the vault.
Cuthbert, aka The Kid, was very pleased with himself and was confused when his uncle sacked him. As he had been sworn to secrecy, he would have to let his imagination, which always worked harder than he did, find a plausible reason for his mother.
