Welcome to the jungle72
‘OK.’ Well, it was Friday afternoon and no work was being done.
And Jerry, of course, was my boss and mentor, so it was smart to
keep on his right side.
‘Good man.’ Jerry rummaged in a desk drawer and pulled out the
remote control for the air conditioning which had been installed
as part of Saiwai’s refurbishment. He angled it towards Brenda’s
gold-sh bowl ofce. ‘How long do you reckon?’
‘I doubt you can do it in less than sixty seconds, Jerry. Any time
after that, you owe me.’ If Jerry could make Brenda remove
her jacket in less than sixty seconds he’d win. If it took longer,
victory would be mine. But it wasn’t simply a matter of bragging
rights. For each second below sixty, I needed to pay Jerry. And
he’d have to pay me for each second above the magic number.
All that remained was to gure out what each second was worth.
‘How much per second?’ he asked.
‘A pound?’
‘Make it ten.’ In a way he’d won the bet already. Ten pounds
a second meant nothing to a man of Jerry’s wealth. For me, it
meant the difference between living the high life for a month or
staying in every night with cornakes and TV.
He winked when he saw my worried face. ‘Start the clock!’ he
shouted.
Fifteen seconds ticked past, and there was no reaction from the
bowl. Jerry saw me smile, and immediately raised the stakes.
‘Fancy your chances, do you? Want to make it more interesting?
Twenty pounds a second?’
This was real money at stake now. Enough to hurt. Like a fool
I nodded agreement. Twenty-ve seconds gone. No movement
from the comfortably settled Brenda Leckie, but then her PA, a
lad from Manchester called Dan or Stan or something, blew out
a puff of air.
‘Look at him waving his hands around!’ shrieked Jerry. ‘Must be
getting mighty hot in there.’