Chapter 2-10

"Oh here he comes" was the call from from the lads in the Rolls-Royce paint shop as I crossed the shop floor to the office, "The condemned man, only one more week till the ball and chain are attached." They continued in unison. It was 8:30am Monday morning and I had already had a fake ball and chain in my locker and a picture of me with a giant thumb on my head stuck to my back, but it was all in good fun. This coming Saturday I was going to marry Jane, and most of these guys were coming, 200 guests! How did that happen? But it's what Jane wanted and that was fine by me. I fell into my chair in my office and fired up the only PC in the factory, part of my job was to plot where all the cars were and in what state of build, it entailed walking round the massive factory at least 5 times a day and at the moment I was having trouble concentrating, all I could think about was whether we had covered everything for Saturday. 

I was sitting for only a few seconds when my radio burst into life, "Could you report to the trim shop" came the call from my boss, I grabbed my radio and sighed before replying, "On my way!" I snapped, all I wanted was 5 minutes to catch my thoughts. I made the walk to the trim shop not really paying any attention to what was going on around me, as I entered the shop floor I nearly had a heart attack. "SURPRISE!!!" the whole of the trim and paint shop shouted, I looked round to see a banner with the word congratulations across it and a table laid out with food and drink, it was a lovely gesture as all the lads had clubbed together to give me a proper send off, you see today was my last day, as I had booked 4 days holiday before the wedding so I could get everything organised. 

One of the lads put on some music and we ate and drunk, it was a great atmosphere the manager had given us 3 hours to have a little party and we were going to make the most of it, then my heart dropped, I spotted a police woman talking to one of the trimmers. I hated strippers and I thought the guys knew that, I dived into one of the offices to try and avoid the embarrassment. As I closed the door she caught my eye, dam! I thought, it was then I noticed there was a policeman too, what were they thinking? I couldn't hide so decided to try and talk my way out of it and waited in the office to join me, where maybe I could reason with them. 

As they entered the office the policeman spoke first. I don't remember the exact conversation, maybe I don't want to, but Jane was dead. She had left for work with me and died at work, I didn't, at this stage, know when or why just that they needed someone to identify the body and I was the contact they had been given by her employers. I left with them to head to the hospital....how did I feel? Just numb.....