The works jolly

[Ted Max]

The bus has been booked for weeks. On the company noticeboard is a sheet of paper which bears the legend: Summer Jolly - Sign Up or Miss Out. Using the pencil provided, 35 names have been scratched below the heading, some with amusing comments added.

The News Shopper's weather column has promised, and delivered, the fairest of mid-summer mornings. Eggs have been hard boiled; sandwiches wrapped; large flasks filled with tea, small ones with Scotch.

Sign up, then, for the works jolly. There's plenty of room for all.

[Ted Max]

At breakfast, Reg checks and re-checks the crisp, unfamiliar notes that lie in his wallet. He will leave little to chance today.

Maureen has bought a new lipstick and wonders, as she applies it for the first of many times this morning, if it would be too forward to sit towards the back half of the bus. If only Ena wasn't such a wet blanket.

[Ted Max]

The bus is parked outside the company buildings already. Mike and Ray, sharp-suited and booted, are discussing how to smuggle their crate of ale on board without the driver noticing.

The other workers, arriving in their drab work clothes, josh with the day-trippers, longing for some of that good humour to rub off on them through the morning's grind.

The driver rests his eyes, reclining in the first seats behind his cab, as if summoning his strength for the battles ahead.

(EDIT: Anyone else up for the ride?)

[Xena Worried prince]

Where is it going, what time will we be back and do you need a note from my mummy ?

[Ted Max]

These questions are all as yet undecided. It is up to you.

[Xena Worried prince]

then I shall ask my Mummy then if I can come, will we be home in time for the Magic Roundabout ?

[Ted Max]

this isn't going to work out, is it?

[Moos]

Tina checks in her handbag again - her spare pair of tights is in there. What if that pair gets holey too? She wishes she didn't have to go.

The handbag has an attractive butterfly clasp, which Tina really likes. She has her butterfly brooch on, too. Perhaps someone will notice, and then they could have a nice chat about collections.

The clasp clicks open and shut a few more times. The bus is moving off. She glances at her hand, and remembers to loosen her grip a little, too much knuckle is not attractive.

[Ten]

Is this bus the 185?

[Brendan]

Forced small talk about the weather and the bus covers up the uneasiness of the office dwellers more used to having work or alcohol there to lubricate their interaction.

Reg examines his shoes and shifts uneasily. He catches Maureen?s eye, smiles and quickly looks away again, the familiar heat of embarrassment rising from under his cardigan and up his neck.

They said that there would be food but Reg has packed some sandwiches just in case. He scratches in his bag intently, avoiding eye contact with anyone else. Egg and cress wrapped in wax paper. Long buried memories of hot summer field trips with school surface and suggest that his choice of filling may not have been the wisest.

[Ted Max]

It was her Mum that had insisted she sign up. All the young ones were going, she said. That Mike, for instance. It'd be good for her. Sitting at home with your butterflies all day, that's no way to get a man.

Inside her handbag Tina's chocolate bar, stored against an emergency, is already melting.

[Moos]

Mike stands in the aisle, ostensibly talking to Ray, his shiny jacketed elbow weighing down Tina's headrest. But his head is turned towards the front of the coach, where Sarah and Carolle are sitting together and laughing, and his remarks are for their benefit.

"Can't wait to get there - I'll be straight out for the Tornado. It's not that good - you get better at Blackpool - but it's the best there is there. Apparently somone died on it last year! Then there's the Tunnel of Love, of course..."

Ray peeks ahead to see whether Carolle's listening, then shrugs and sits down again.

Mike's bottom is just out of Maureen's eyesight. She leans forward a little, and turns around.

[Brendan]

With a belch of diesel smoke the bus trundles down the West Road away from the squat concrete office block, past the stores where the white vans come and go, around the roundabout on the Jubilee estate and off toward the green and grey of the English countryside.

[????]

halting only twice for unwanted and unuseful traffic censuses

[Xena Worried prince]

Tommy used to work on the docks, Union has been on strike and he is down on his luck. Gina works the diner all day, she is working for her man, she brings home her pay for love

Tommy thinks to himself that a day out is what the pair of them need as he ties the laces on his hand stitched Italian black and white brogues to compliment the navy blue pencil thin pinstriped suit he has just climbed into. The whole ensemble is topped off with a light blue silk shirt and a tie that his mother bought from Primark. He turns around to see Gina in an a- line pencil skirt, fitting the generous cures of her body like a glove, emphasising her legs to a T. she has her favourite silk blouse on from Monsoon with the top button undone to announce her femininity in a most alluring way.

Tommy smiles to himself thinking how lucky he is to have Gina, by his side in these times of Financial Turmoil and tells her he is just going to get the Model A Ford out of the garage to drive them both to the meeting point. Gina Smiles back at him and adjusts her hair before applying her favourite lipstick.

Later on they both board the bus and head to the back seats where Tommy’s friends Johnny and Simon are sitting, Gina has an intense dislike of Simon, which she can’t quite place a finger on, it could be the way he mentally undresses her every time he looks at her, it could be the fact that he takes every opportunity to press up against her when he comes into the Canteen to get his lunch or then again it could be simply because he is an annoying oink. Putting her loathing aside, Gina squeezes in between Tommy and Johnny, feeling the warmth of Johnny’s leg pressing secretly against hers, the excitement starts to well up in her throat again and she knows today is going to be even more exciting then Tommy thought it would be.

A the bus pulls off, Tommy Jokes with Simon “Whooah, were half way there, take my hand and well make it - I swear” Simon looks at him as if the ground has just swallowed him up and stammers “D.d.d.d.don’t take the m.m.m.m.m.m.mickey out of m.m.m.m.m.my Liking for sm.sm.sm.sm.sm.sm.sm.small b.b.b.b.b.boys” Simon was born with a stammer and no matter how many elocution lessons he went on he could never quite shift it, and it always got worse when Tommy was taking the piss out of him.

Simon often thought that his stammer was the only reason that Gina was Tommys and not His and he even believed that Gina liked the way he looked at her as it made her turn her head away from him and blush.

Oh yes the “trip” was going to be eventful for all of them today.

[Jeremy]

Johnny - realising that the others were probably going to have a threesome later on - decided to make his excuses and look elsewhere for companionship. He walks along the aisle, and spies Sarah and Carolle. "Hello Ladies".

[Xena Worried prince]

Gina's eyes hungrily follow every movement that Johnny makes, she casts her mind back to that time when they both worked on the night shift and how his arms Had felt warm and loving when he embraced her.

Tommy didn't notice the interaction between his wife and Johnny, he was too busy joshing with Simon to notice anything except when Tina slowly saunters down the isle towards the toilet at the back of the bus, his eyes fall briefly on hers before looking down at her plump young figure, Tommy liked them that way and ached to see what she looked like in a Thong covered in the chocolate that he knew very well was at that instance melting in her bag.

Simon eyed Gina again and thought about the idea of a threesome with her and Little Willy.

[Mikecg]

Oh No! thought Sarah, It's Johnny Prozak.

[woofmarkthedog]

Did you know that the "works do" is a tax deductable item for the company at around ?150.00 per person........just incase you were wondering.......as you do....well really..

Yessszzzz