O/T 1000 word story

bolt's story ended with "holding a......"

…. huge stuffed penguin. Anastasia’s secret passion was taxidermy. She had a particular fetish for Antarctic mammals ever since her late mother had force fed her Fox’s Glacier mints for her tea instead of cooking for her. Her secret lair in an industrial estate near Penge was a taxidermist’s dream, stuffed wall to wall with penguins, walruses, sealions and her pride and joy, her piece de resistance, a family of Polar Bears authenticated as being photographed by Shackleton on his ill fated expedition of 1913.

Cecil had funded Anastasia’s passion. On One level he was vicariously happy to see his friend so fulfilled away from the humdrum normalities of everyday life but on another level inside him a hidden passion raged, a passion of unrequited love and long dormant longing. Cecil himself had not known the love of a woman for several years, ever since his tragic accident with an outboard motor whilst in the throes of love making on a speedboat on Lake Lucerne and he had long since reconciled himself to a life of solitude and discomfort in the groin area only partially improved by expensive private physiotherapy and plastic surgery.

However now he knew that Anastasia was becoming dangerously consumed. Would he be asked to fund yet another expedition to base camp in South Georgia? Would her oft mooted but never followed through burglary of the Natural history museum be brought up once again? Just as he caught sight once again of her delicate stockinged ankles encased in the finest leather she spoke. She spoke in exactly that tone that he knew he would be powerless to resist…

“Cecil” she said “I need a new challenge and I think I have finally found it”

“Yes my dear? What is it?”

“Poker”

“Poker?” he replied with incredulity.

“Yes Cecil I intend to donate my precious collection of stuffed icy mammals to my home country, Macedonia. The government there has agreed to establish a foundation in my name and show the exhibits in a new facility in Skopje for generations of Macedonian people to enjoy and learn about the wonders of Antartica”

Cecil was for a brief moment left speechless. Anastasia had always been headstrong, indeed this was what attracted her to him, but this was a departure he could not have expected. Furthermore he knew the lease on the industrial unit could not be assigned for at least another eighteen months and he wondered what the South East London commercial lettings market would make of a space filled with glass cabinets, freezers and lit in a very unusual shade of lilac, Anastasia’s favourite colour.

Anastasia continued “Yes I met a fabulous young lady when I was in need of a Parliamentary ombudsman investigation into the seal cub culling exploits of the LibDem MP for the Isle of Wight on his holiday last year and she told me about this wonderful beginners competition at the Victoria casino in London. I accompanied her to this establishment and now I have a new passion”

Cecil was just beginning to recover his composure, this had come as a real bolt from the blue and he barely managed to stutter….

“W..w..w..w..w..What do you need from me?”

“Well Cecil I propose an arrangement. For starters I’m £10,000 down on my first foray into casino table games. I would like you to cover that for me. Next I need a new tank to fund a year on the festival poker circuit, £100,000 should cover that”

Cecil replied “and what do I get out of this arrangement?”

“I will give you unlimited access to my body every time I lose a 50-50 race with Ace King”

Cecil sat back, a warm glow settling over his disfigured body and a strange and unusual stirring sensation begin to intrigue him underneath his crisp Savile Row seat.

He instantly agreed and asked Anastasia when her expedition to the famous casino venues of the UK like Walsall, Blackpool, Luton and Yarmouth would begin

“Well” she said “My new talon-ed friend fancies the £100 rebuy at the Western next week, just off the A40 near the Hangar Lane. I think I will accompany her and will report back to you straight afterwards”

Anastasia turned and sashayed out of the room, turning at the last moment to fix Cecil with a piercing glare of determination.

Cecil was alone again, alone with his thoughts and his passion but at last with a prospect of requiting what had become his life’s mission. He moved to his desk and unlocked the bottom drawer in his antique mahogany bureau. He did not want to act in haste but he knew he had to call on the services of his most trusted friend in the underworld, a man who could monitor Anastasia on he forays into pot odds, string bets and self dealing. That man would be an independent witness each time the cards went on their backs, in the hope that Anastasia would soon be on hers on his four poster bed. That reminded him, he made a note to himself on his Savoy headed notepaper, change the sheets and get rid of the hoover nozzle, just in case.

Sixty miles away in deepest Essex the phone rang, the dulcet tones of a Bryan McFadden ring tone spreading across a normal surburban house inhabited by Cecil’s enforcer, a man known for being able to see round corners and get the job done whilst very effectively maintaining the bumbling air of a complete buffoon whenever in the public eye.

The man answered “Yes, Kev here darling”

Cecil grimaced at the over-familiarity shown by his cohort from the wrong side of the tracks but knew that he would have to bear it for the prize that was finally within his grasp was so close he dare not spoil his chances of fulfilment at last.

“I have a job for you, London next week. You need to watch a poker competition and report back to me on the fate of a particular lady”

Kev smiled, he had after all had years of practice for this very job.

“Yes Cecil that will be no problem. Tell me more”