Simon, known to close friends as Si was a bit simple to be fair. He met Sue many years ago in a town at the heart of England. They went to the same college, drank in the same pubs, ended up at the same parties and eventually Si plucked up the courage to ask Sue out. Si and Sue quickly became inseparable. They married and shortly after Sue gave birth to a beautiful daughter. They called her Coco.
The years passed and soon Coco started work, finding a job for a prestigious company which paid her handsomely. She left home, buying a beautiful town house in need of a bit of modernization. Coco was not like her mother – she had many admirers. She started to socialise with people from work, some of whom were incredibly affluent and began going to the best bars and upmarket clubs in the land. Coco had many generous boyfriends who would spoil her with lavish gifts, fine dining and romantic weekends away. Coco got a taste for the good life. She bought expensive clothes and furnishings from afar, looked amazing and received a lot of attention for a girl from relatively humble background. She was spending a lot of cash, living well beyond her means. She desperately wanted a new loft style apartment, one that fitted her vision of how she should be whilst still buying more of the expensive goods from abroad, from even more exotic places than before.
Unfortunately, Coco by now had run up thousands of pound of debt on her credit cards, to such an extent that decided she should sell her home to help clear some of the arrears. It wasn’t all bad, she managed to rent a rather swanky apartment in a new upmarket development on the outskirts of town. She was still in mountains of debt, even after selling her home and some of the more expensive gifts she had acquired. It was time to talk to her parents, Si and Sue.
Si and Sue were very annoyed, but not that surprised. It had been obvious to everyone that she had been spending on a scale she could ill afford. She was over 43 grand in debt. Her parents agreed that they would clear her debts on the promise that Coco would not be so stupid in future and curb her spending. ‘She needs to learn her lesson’, they thought. Unbeknown to Coco, Si and Sue contacted the lenders and negotiated an agreement. If they could arrange to pay just 8 grand there and then, that would be the end of it. The lenders would be pleased to see some money – Coco hadn’t even managed to pay the minimum balance for several months. Si and Sue didn’t have the funds to clear the debts, so they called up friends and family living in exotic places, on islands far away, where the sun always shone and fabulous yachts sat in the harbour. These saviours were only to happy to help, as long as they would get their money back at some point. It may take time, but Si and Sue had a vision. ‘Coco’s a good looking bird’ they thought. If we can marry her off to some rich guy in the future, we could get that money back. And then some.
Si and Sue paid off the debts with other peoples money and saved a fortune. They were very pleased with themselves. They gave Coco a bit of cash to help get her back on her feet. To teach Coco a lesson, they didn’t tell her about the agreement they had arranged to pay off the debts. Si and Sue said to each other, ‘Keep it quiet. She will be more grateful and should teach her to be more cautious in future.’ They suggested Coco sell some of her possessions to help pay back the loans. Coco tried, but some of the gifts had been well used, some damaged beyond repair and some were just not that good in the first place. Some of it even had to be given away to the local charity shop.
Coco tried to do the right thing but by now had a taste for the high life, still spending beyond her means. Fortunately, she met a very handsome and mysterious guy from America called Prentice, who had traveled widely, was charming and very, very rich. It was just what she had been looking for. They fell in love and were due to marry that summer.
Coco had continued to run up debts to loan companies and other credit card suppliers. She was also really behind on her rent. She now owed just under 30 grand to the new lenders, at least a grand and a half to her landlord and more worryingly, Si and Sue were still owed 30 grand from six years ago when they rescued her previously. What’s more, she now owed more in court costs, bailiff fees and charges from her solicitor than what she would have owed had she just paid the rent as had been agreed when she moved in. It was all getting too much for Coco. She let slip the size of her debts one evening whilst out with Prentice, sobbing uncontrollably into chest.
Prentice told Coco to worry no more – he would take care of things. He would clear her debts ahead of the wedding, so they could start afresh. He contacted the landlords and the credit catd companies, who were more than happy to help, if they could get back what they were owed. Si and Sue, though were very concerned. What if the truth come out when we are this close to getting what we really deserve. All of Coco’s friends loved Prentice yet none of them seemed to like Si and Sue anymore. Coco’s friends had sensed over the years that something was just not quite right with her parents. ‘After all we’ve done for that girl’ Si and Sue cried.
They talked with Prentice and told him about the debts they had paid off.
‘Yes, all 30 Grand’s worth’ they sniggered, ‘that’s what we are owed.’
With straight faces. 30,000 big fat ones.
‘Once we pay off the friends and family, we’re gonna be very, very rich’ said Sue.
‘We deserve it, as we are so very, very clever’ thought Si, as he poured them another round of trebles.
A Prison of Measured Time 