Chapter 38
“You’re a hard girl to pin down – but I saw you on TV!”
“Sorry Will, William took me to Canada to get my stuff, it was a flying visit as they say, a quick turnaround there and back, I saw Illyria – god it was awful, I feel so sorry for her – and then some journalists caught me as we were leaving, and I thought that there and then was as good a time as any to announce my retirement from competitive sport”
“So that’s it then, as regards the academy and your skating career?”
“Yup, pretty much!”
“Have you thought anymore about what you want to do?”
“Not a clue, although there MIGHT be something in the offing
“All sounds exciting!”
“It is Will, it’s exciting and scary and – I keep thinking, there’s a big wide world out there…”
“Yeah!”
“I’ll phone you on Sunday okay, we can arrange something”
“Okay bye Buffy”
“Bye Will”
“Was that Red?”
“Uh huh, why?”
“Did I hear you mention Sunday?”
“Yes, I was going to phone her, why?”
“Only I thought, how about a nice old fashioned picnic in the park – she could bring a friend – what do you say, a foursome?”
“I say great – Mr Duggan and mom are going to that exhibition in Merrydale…mom reckons it’s just to check out the opposition, but I think, well...they HAVE been working together late such a lot recently…”
“And you don’t object, do you?”
“No – course not! – At least he’s rich! – I didn’t mean that to sound so mercenary! I mean-“
“Hey babe, with your dad’s track record, I know what you mean!”
“A picnic will be great, it’s been so - oh hold on…that’s my mobile………
Buffy sort out her purse and took out her phone, she didn’t recognise the caller number.
“Hello?”
“Hello, is that Miss Buffy Summers?”
Buffy immediately thought ‘journalist’ and was about to let rip when something stopped her.
“Who is this please, and how did you get this number?”
“My name is David Crowther, and I work for Hamnett and Thorne, the publishing house – I got you number from Miss Illyria Rubinskya”
“What do you want?”
“Well, now that you’ve announced your retirement, we were wondering whether you’d like to write your story”
“My story, I’m sorry, I don’t –“
“From what made you want to be an ice-skater, up to the Olympics, and the plane crash –“
Buffy sat down on the couch
“But – well, I’ve never done anything like try and write a book before!”
“Don’t worry, it could be what is called ‘ghost written’ that is somebody would write it for you”
“But how would it be my story if somebody else wrote it?”
“They would use your words”
“How could I be sure of that?”
“I promise you Miss Summers, it would be strictly legal and above board, we wouldn’t print anything you didn’t want us to”
“I don’t want to talk about the allegations against coach O’Connor”
“Then you don’t have to, anything you don’t want to talk about, you don’t have to. It could just be your story about a little girl who grew up wanting to be an ice-skater”
Buffy frowned
“But would that sell?”
“Of course it would sell – you have a great fan-base”
Buffy blinked, she didn’t really know what else to say.
“Look, if you’d like to come to the office, we have one in LA, you could meet with the people who could help you, answer all your questions – there’s no obligation, and if you wanted, you could bring your own legal representative to over-see any legal matters”
Buffy looked at William
“Okay, when?”
“How about...Friday?”
“No, not Friday, I’m going to – I’m busy”
“Monday then – at 11.00am?”
“Okay”
“If in the meantime you change your mind, ring this number, day or night time and you can cancel for any reason”
Buffy took down the number and said goodbye, and then she began to explain to William.
“Publishing company want me to write a book on my life – it could be ghost written………
“They do a lot of sport stars – I read their one of Dennis Young a few years back, it was very good”
“Who’s Dennis Young?”
“Oh, an English cricketer from way back, bit of a hero in his day, favourite with my dad…he struck all sorts of records, came from an ‘unconventional’ background – most cricket players came from public school, university, the middle to upper classes that sort of thing – but this guy, he was from the back-streets, dragged up, lived in hand-me-down clothes, bowled rolled-up newspaper balls to anyone who’d hit ‘em back to him”
“Do you think I should do it?”
“Why not?”
Buffy smiled – why not indeed – it would keep her occupied for a time while she sorted out what she wanted to do…
“I’ve got loads of scrapbooks, with newspaper clippings and that”
“Why have it ghost written – I’m sure you could do it yourself, I know you’re a whiz on the old computer” William said with a smile
Buffy smiled – why not indeed?!
******************
“How long will the drive to San Diego be?”
“Depends on the traffic…I was thinking, how about if we go Thursday evening, stay in a hotel overnight and we can both be fresh in the morning, not all tired and hot from travelling?”
“Sure – that would be great”
“If I could get this deal…it would be brilliant!”
“What would you do exactly?”
“Well, Quentin told me that a friend of a friend of a friend, has a sixteen bedroomed old folks home”
“Uh huh”
“And they only have five residents now, as they want to close down and retire themselves”
“Where is it?”
“Santa Barbara – they want two million dollars for it – it would be perfect, I could have it converted into a twelve bedroomed clinic, with two operating theatres, a recovery room and a nice consulting room – it’s all on the one level, no stairs, there’s already a car park, AND nice gardens, there would be no problems with city hall with the conversion, they checked for me”
“Wow – and do they know you want it?”
“They’re giving me three months to come up with the cash, then if I can’t, they’ll put it on the market – I’ve got a lot of thanking to do to Quentin – he knew what I wanted to do and put me in touch with them!”
Buffy grinned
“Go Quentin!”
*************************
“Going somewhere nice?” Joyce asked wandering into Buffy’s bedroom watching her daughter putting things in an overnight bag.
“San Diego – William’s going to see the milk company about some sponsorship about a project he hopes to get up and running – I’ll tell you more when I get back”
“And you’ve decided to write the book yourself – Hamnett and Thorne eh – they do some beautiful coffee-table books - I HAVE got a clever daughter!” Joyce said with a grin
“It was Will who suggested I could do it rather than a ghost writer, and I thought, why not?”
“Why not indeed!”
“Plus, thanks to the brilliant mom I’ve got, who kept all these scrapbooks about me…it’ll be easy as pie!”
Buffy grinned at her mother
“That must be the lunch-time mail………what time are you going honey?”
“Not until later this afternoon, why?”
“No reason – I’ve got the day off that’s all”
*****************
“There you go, strong, black half a teaspoon of sugar…what’s that you’re reading honey?”
Buffy looked up from holding the letter she was reading that had come in the lunchtime post
“I don’t know if this is for real!”
Joyce frowned, reading upside down, Joyce could see ‘Channel 6 Sportscast News’ on the letter heading.
“What does it say?”
“It’s asking me, if I want a job!”
“Does it now!”
“The America’s Ice Skating Trophy is coming up in two months time, they want to know if I’d like to go out and be a commentator for their channel!”
Joyce grinned and asked
“And would you?”
“I don’t know – no! Yes – I don’t know…why me?”
“Because you’ve announced your retirement, and they want somebody who knows what they are talking about, I suppose!”
Buffy read the letter again…
“Let me look”
Buffy passed Joyce the letter
“It’s got a contact number for you to ring”
“I know!”
“Well, are you going to ring it or what?” Joyce asked with a grin.
Buffy’s mobile rang and when she saw it was William, she pounced
“Hi baby!”
“I’m a little stunned, actually!”
“Why’s that kitten?”
“Come over, and I’ll tell you”
“That’s what I wanted to know, could I come over – I’ll bring lunch”
“Bring enough for three, it’s mom’s day off”
“Sure thing – I’ll be half an hour”
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