[4:30pm in a City of London Dealing room]

“Coming for a drink Bill?” asked one of the Dealers to another.
“It is Friday and we’ve had a very good week plus it is Henley finals weekend. A bunch of us have wangled passes into the Leander tent. Lots of lovely fillies on show. There’s one with your name on it if you want it.” He added.

“A filly or a pass?” asked a half interested Bill who was gazing out of the office window at the river Thames and Tower Bridge.

“Both if you have a mind…”

“Sorry Tony, I would love to but I’ve been summoned,” replied Bill with a sigh.

“Summoned? I guess it’s not to court as it is Friday. Parents?”

“Nah. My parents are probably somewhere in the Pacific on their boat. The summoner is my Godfather.”

“That bad?”

“Depends. Harry is a strange man. He was a top dealer here and then he gave it up almost overnight.”

Tony thought for a second. Then he smiled and asked,
“That’s not Harry Winchester by any chance?”

“That’s him. You got it in one.”

“Man, that guy is a mega and I mean mega legend here. Apparently, he made a fortune on Black Wednesday while the rest of the market tanked around him.”

“That’s him and yes he did exactly that. Apparently, he saw it coming and put a load of options in place. Then bang, he made a killing while as you say, the market tanked. He was the only trader to come out on top that week.”

Bill then added,
“That’s all in the past. He runs a smallholding in deepest Sussex. A far cry from life here.”

As the pair left the office, the sun broke out for the first time in days.

---

Later that evening, Bill arrived at Harry’s home. His yellow Ferrari was just about able to negotiate the slightly rutted drive to the farm building without ripping the very expensive exhaust or the even more expensive body panels off.

The noise of the V-12 engine must have broadcast his pending arrival as his Godfather was waiting for him outside the house.

“Hello Harry,” said Bill as he extracted himself from the car.

“Nice wheels. You made it up the track ok then?”

“Just about?” replied Bill as they shook hands and went inside the house.

“You are staying the weekend, aren’t you?” asked Harry as he handed Bill a pint of his Cider.

Bill smiled.
“If I have too much of this, I’ll be staying longer than that,” quipped Bill.

Harry just grinned as they sat down in the large kitchen.

After downing some of the excellent Cider, Bill asked,

“Ok Harry, out with it. Why did you drag me down here as such short notice like this?”

“Direct as always eh Bill.”

“I was taught to be like that by who? Oh yes, you.”

They both raised a glass and laughed.

“The short version of a long story is that I’ve not long for this earth. Well, unless I can get a new ticker in the next few weeks or so that is. The stress of all those years of wheeling and dealing has finally caught up with me. The Docs told me on Monday. Get your affairs in order they said. Six months at the outside.”

Bill went ashen faced at the news. He’d always viewed Harry as indestructible.

“Don’t fret Bill. I’ve known this was on the cards for some considerable time. I just didn’t expect it to be so quick. If I don’t get a new heart within the next month to six weeks then I’ll be too weak to accept the new one after that.”

“So, I’m getting my affairs in order.”

“What’s that got to do with me?”

“This. This place is all yours.”

“Me? I know sod all about running a smallholding. I’m a City boy. Born like Del Boy in Peckham and I’ve lived within three miles of the river all my life. You should know that.”

Harry smiled.

“Neither did I when I bought this place. Like you I was a city boy.”

“But…”

“Nonsense. I know that you have made a pretty packet in the City. How much was the Ferrari then? One hundred grand or was it more than that? Time for you to bow out and enjoy life. You really don’t need much more dosh now do you?”

“Pah. Getting up at the crack of dawn to run this place is not my idea of fun.”

Harry laughed.

“Let me explain the situation.”

Bill took another large swig of the cider and sat back to hear the bad news.

“Firstly, I made you a joint owner of this place more than 10 years ago. So, when I go it is yours with zero tax liabilities. Then there is my money. After Inheritance tax and the like, there will be a shade over eight figures coming your way.”

Bill looked shocked.

“Don’t look so shocked. I’ve been tracking your investments for the past five years. You are dammed good at what you do. In many respects you are better at it than I ever was. As a result, I’ve made a lot of money over the years but especially from your moves since '13. It is only fair that you get your share of it when the time comes.”

“Harry, I know you. You never give a penny to anyone or anything without getting some return back. So, what’s the catch eh?”

Harry grinned.

“You have to run this place for a minimum of five years. Full time. Oh, and you can’t just get someone in to manage it for you either. This place has to succeed or fail on your work alone.”

Bill groaned. He should have seen this coming.

“Why? Why five years?”

“To get you out of that toxic environment before it kills you. I’ll wager you all the cash you have on you that your BP is well over the average. I can tell from your whole body that you are stressed.”

Harry looked at Bill for some acknowledgement of his words but none was forthcoming so Harry carried on.

“I can see the signs in you because that was me back in the day. I started to get these pains but ignored them until one day I could hardly walk so I went to the Doc’s. He sent me off to the Hospital for a load of tests. Stress induced Angina they called it but with early signs of my ticker wearing out. They also said that it was a warning. So, I quit, came down here and have been running this place for the past twenty-two years.”

“Are you with me so far?”

Bill still remained silent.

Harry sat back and carried in a soft voice.

“Now it is time for me to meet my maker. Since the Doc’s gave me the thumbs down, I’ve done some research. Almost three quarters of the traders I knew from back then are already pushing up the daisies. As far as I know, two of them even died at their desks. I don’t want that to happen to you. After all what is the use of having all that money if you are dead and can’t spend it eh?”

Bill had been knocked six ways from seven by what Harry had said.

“Drink up and then I’ll show you around. You need to know what ticks at least superficially before you take over.”

“Who….” Bill started to object but Harry was already walking out of the door and into the small kitchen garden.

As he followed Harry, a feeling of inevitability started to come over him.

---

An hour later the two men returned to the kitchen.
“I’ll rustle up some food. Rabbit ok? I shot a couple a few days ago,” said Harry.

“Rabbit is fine,” replied a less than enthusiastic Bill.

“Good. Go and get your things from your car. Your room is as usual, left at the top of the stairs.”

After dinner and an excellent bottle of local wine, most of which was drunk by Bill, the two men relaxed.

“What do you think of my little domain now that you have had the short form tour?”

“It’s hardly little.”

“Sixteen acres in old money is pretty small.”

“What is your bottom line like?” asked Bill.

Harry smiled.

“I make enough to keep the place solvent but that’s not the main goal.”

“If making money is not the main goal then what is?” asked a slightly bewildered Bill.

“Living the ‘Good Life’.”

“Life isn’t a TV series you know?”

Harry laughed.
“It is based upon some very real premises despite it being a work of Fiction. Life here is good. Doing what I’ve done for years is positively anti-stress. Here you Eat the food that you grow and cook yourself, not being in that polluted air of London and I don’t just mean the Diesel fumes. There is the noise and people… far too many people. That’s something I didn’t realise until I’d been down here for a few months. All those people and none of them speak to each other unless they really, really have to. Down here, I know all my neighbours and strangely enough, we talk to each other.”

Bill didn’t answer so Harry reached over to a shelf and took down a volume of photos.

“Remember this?” asked Harry as he passed it to Bill after opening it up at a pre-marked page.

Bill saw the picture and went red in the face.

“I didn’t know anyone else knew?”

“Your Mother took it and gave it to me.”

“Why you?”

“Turn over the page and you will see why.”

Bill turned over the page and saw a picture of his Mother with another woman. After a second or so, he recognised Harry. Harry was fully dressed as a woman.

“Meet Penny, my not so occasional alter-ego”

At that moment, Bill knew the reason for Harry giving him the farm.

“You can be yourself here. No interruptions and prying eyes.”

All of the things that Bill had buried deep at the back of his mind for so long came to the front in a great tidal wave of emotion. He started to cry.

Harry came and sat next to his Godson.

“It is time for Simone to live don’t you think? And I mean properly live on her own terms!”

Between wiping his eyes and trying to speak, he nodded back at Harry.

Harry went on to say,
“I wanted to be successful just to prove that I was not a failure. In the end, it got me right here,” he said putting his hand over his heart.

“The docs at St Thomas’s gave me two years at most if I didn’t quit there and then. I went away twenty-two years ago this very weekend to Henley. Got totally rat arsed, thrown in the river and woke up on the Monday morning feeling like shit and looking like crap. I threw a sickie that day as I tried to put my life into perspective. I had no family apart from you and your parents. All I seemed to live for was my job, making other people shedloads of money and getting pissed on a far too frequent basis. That Monday, I took the decision to quit there and then so went into the office very early that Tuesday and cleared my desk. I left letters of explanation for all those that mattered and walked out before the early boys came in. Never went back. Bought this place and been here ever since. That two to three years turned into more than twenty.”

Bill was sitting motionless trying to take in what Harry was saying.

“We are very similar, you and me. You live for the job as did I back then. Would you be getting pissed on Pimms this weekend at Henley if you weren’t here? I bet you would. Does what happened to me seem familiar to you?”

Bill nodded his head.

“Well, I got out and lived another life. My legacy to you is to do the same. What was your bonus last year? One hundred Grand at least if not more? After tax, what did you spend it on apart from that yellow blob out there, a bigger apartment in Docklands?”

Harry let that sink in.
“What is your aim in life? You already have more money than most people earn in a lifetime. Take my advice and get out before it kills you.”

“That picture? How?”

Harry chuckled.

“Lets’ say that fate conspired for your mother to tell me all about you before they took off on their trip. What was that? Almost three or is it four years ago? Anyway, it is time to be yourself. She told me that it was as if you were a different person when you left your female side come out. She didn’t like what you had become in the City but she understood why. She made me promise to do this before agreed to go on the trip let alone actually going. Well, I’m doing it and that is it. My bucket list is now complete. I can go to my grave with a happy heart.”

Bill knew that Harry was only telling part of the story but Harry was like that, always had been and always would be even it that was not for much longer.

---

That night in bed and with only a few owls calling for company Bill knew that what Harry had been telling him about his lifestyle was so very true. He was literally killing himself. There had been a fair number of Weekends in the not too distant past where he’d not gone home from leaving work on a Friday until the following Monday evening. He’d gone into work direct from wherever or whoever’s pad he’d crashed out at on the Sunday night. He’d even taken to having a couple of changes of clothes in the Office for those very situations.

The awful truth was that his current lifestyle would probably kill him. He fell asleep unsure if he had the nerve to take the next step.

---

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear. Bill woke up and could hear Harry already out and about. From the sound of his voice, bill could tell that he was feeding the chickens.

In the end Bill had to get up and face his Godfather. It was decision time.

Harry on the other hand had other ideas.

“Not yet. Stay here for the weekend. Tell me before you leave on the Sunday. Now get dressed and ready to go out. We have a stall to run at a Farmers Market.”

Bill only had time for a quick cup of tea. That was all Harry offered.
“We don’t do Coffee here. Bad for the old ticker you know,” replied Harry when asked.

Harry’s stall sold produce that he’d picked the previous day before Bill arrived. From Early Potatoes to Broad Beans, Peas and Raspberries. Whatever was in season, he took to market. Bill was like a fish out of water to begin with but by the time they’d sold pretty well everything, he was getting used to how things worked.

In the pub afterwards, Harry introduced him to a number of other traders.
They were all pleased to see him. Bill was not so pleased with Harry suggesting that Bill was going to take over from him. It was evident that Harry was trying to paint Bill into a corner where he had no other option but to accept.

---

Sunday evening came around and Bill was preparing to leave.
“Well, are you going to take this next step and get out of the rat-race?” asked Harry.

“I really don’t know Harry. Can I come back next weekend and tell you?”

Harry smiled and shook his Godsons hand.

“Deal. Just don’t short me eh? The time to my last settlement is not far off.”

“I won’t Harry. I promise you that.”

[to be continued in part 2 of 4]