Chapter 1
Roger and Helen Barratt owned a medium sized hotel in Torquay in Devon. It was a seafront property with pleasant gardens and splendid views across Torbay. The hotel was three stories high and had thirty rooms, mostly en-suite. It had a large dining room, a games room and a pleasant lounge bar for residents. They had owned the hotel for over twenty years after previously having had two smaller guest houses, one in Torquay and the other a few miles away, in Brixham. They had three children, two boys, Roy and John and a daughter, Anita. The children had grown up in the hotel, living on the upper floor which Roger and Helen used as their family home. Since Roger had turned sixty the previous year, they left the day to day running of the hotel to their eldest son, Roy and his wife Carina. When Roger had turned fifty-five, he and Helen had purchased a large bungalow, only a few hundred yards from the hotel, up a hill, with once again glorious views across the bay, where they now lived. Roy and Carina now occupied the top floor suite of the hotel, but now that there were only two of them and their two young sons, they had cut down on the accommodation that they needed, thereby creating four more guest rooms. One morning after having a leisurely breakfast, Roger went into his study as he did every morning to check his e-mails and to check on how his various stocks and shares were performing.
“Helen”, Roger suddenly yelled, “you`d better come and look at this”.
Helen came through from the kitchen wiping her hands on a tea towel closely followed by their daughter, Anita who still lived at home. She had no real ambition to follow her parents and older brother into the hospitality business, wanting instead to become hair stylist, for which she attended college three days a week to gain her qualifications. John, also wasn`t interested in the family business and he was currently away in Guildford at university where he spent two days a week, than the remainder of the week getting practical experience at the Royal Surrey County hospital, training to become a doctor.
“What`s wrong”? Helen asked as she saw her husband sitting behind his desk, staring at the computer screen with his mouth hanging open. She hurried round the desk with Anita right on her heels to look at the screen and to find out what had had such an effect on her husband. Displayed on the screen was an e-mail from the National Lottery informing them that their lottery numbers had come up in the previous night`s draw and that they were now winners of a staggering £36.5 million, having matched all the numbers. Helen swayed and fainted dead away and Anita just caught her before she fell and would probably have hurt herself by banging her head on the desk. Anita just looked at her father in utter amazement. “Is that real, Dad”?
“Sure looks genuine enough”, Roger replied “but I`ll need to phone the lottery people to make sure”. Helen was now sitting on the floor, and as she came out of her faint, she looked up at Roger, with tears streaming down her cheeks, and managed to splutter “I hope that`s not some kind of bad joke or scam”.
Roger was already reaching for the phone on his desk, and after scrolling the screen down he dialled the lottery helpline whose number was shown at the bottom of the e-mail. The phone was answered on the second ring and Roger explained the reason for his call. There was a short pause and then a voice came back on the line. The two women couldn`t hear what was said but when Roger jumped up and threw his arms in the air, whooping at the top of his voice they guessed that it was good news.
One week later:
Following their surprise news, things had moved quite quickly. Roger and Helen were invited to Lottery headquarters near London to be presented with their prize funds. The lottery company treated them almost as royalty, with chauffer driven limousines, and even a private aircraft to London. They were accommodated in the Dorchester hotel on London`s Park Lane, one of the capital`s best. The day before their big presentation, a limousine arrived to take them to Exeter airport where there was a private plane waiting for them. Of course all their neighbours had heard about their fantastic win and many turned out to wave them off from outside the hotel. The whole family was going to London for the presentation. Roy and Carina and their two boys were travelling with Roger and Helen as was Anita, John however had said that he would meet them in London, as it was near to Guildford. When they arrived at Exeter airport, they were treated like the VIP`s that they now were and shown straight through to the VIP lounge without any fuss. There were local reporters there as well as a crew from the local TV station all begging for interviews. Roger and Helen paused inside the terminal and spoke to the gathered press for some minutes before being politely ushered through to the aircraft apron by the airport staff. The private plane was a twenty seat executive jet which would get them to London in about an hour. There was a stewardess on board and once they were shown to their seats, she came round with flutes of champagne for the adults and soft drinks for the two boys. The captain joined them for a toast before returning to the cockpit to begin the take-off. A shade over an hour later the plane touched down at Heathrow and promptly taxied to the VIP area and separate terminal, where they were met by a representative from the lottery company. They were shown out to a waiting limousine for the drive into central London and their hotel. The girl representative said she would meet them at the Dorchester as she had her own car. The drive took about forty five minutes with passers-by looking with curiosity at the limousine whenever it stopped. The windows were smoked glass so it was impossible to see inside but the family could see out perfectly well. When the limousine drew up outside the Dorchester, the doors were opened by uniformed staff, and they were shown into the large lounge which had been laid out for a small press conference. The girl representative arrived only minutes after the limousine and she quickly took charge of the proceedings. There were two TV cameras set up ready and a small stage where she showed Roger and Helen to seats behind a group of microphones. Once they were seated and comfortable, the representative opened a side door and ushered in the TV crews and about a dozen reporters. The TV anchor person took the stage and introduced Roger and Helen and then opened the room for questions. The press conference was over ten minutes later and the representative said she would see them all the next morning.
“Well, that`s the first part done, you`ll be getting used to all the attention soon, and you`ll think your previous life was tame compared to your new life. I`ll leave you now, and I`ll be back in the morning to take you over to Lottery headquarters for the presentation. You`re free to do whatever you want for the rest of the day, but be warned, if you go out there are still lots of press people about hoping to get a glimpse of you”.
“Before you go”, Roger said, “there will be two extra people tomorrow morning as our middle son is meeting us here later, with his fiancée”.
“No problem Mr Barratt. I`ll make sure that we have enough car spaces for you all”.
The next morning just after nine thirty the representative was back and this time she had two limousines outside. Roger, Helen and the rest of the family were already waiting in the foyer when she arrived.
“Good morning everybody, how are we all today? We`ve got two limo`s today and I`ll be travelling with you. I`d suggest that Mr and Mrs Barratt and maybe your eldest son and his wife ride in the first car with me, and the rest of the family in the second one. We`ve managed to get hold of a celebrity to present the cheque to you, and after that there will be a light luncheon served before we bring you back here. You will have your dinner tonight here in the hotel and then tomorrow we`ll get you all back home so you can start enjoying your new found wealth.”
“Who have you got”? Helen asked.
“We were really lucky; he just happened to be doing a concert at Wembley tonight and agreed to do the presentation for us. Mr Rod Stewart. It`s good for his image as well so he was only too pleased to agree”.
Roger had a wide grin on his face, “That’s fantastic, he`s one of my all-time favourite singers”.
Lottery headquarters was located some miles away in Watford and the representative said the journey would take about an hour, time enough for drinks before the presentation at twelve thirty. The actual presentation would only take about fifteen minutes then it would be an open session for friends, family and press reporters for about thirty minutes, which would also give them all a chance to meet and speak with Rod Stewart. Lunch would follow and the representative said that they should be back at The Dorchester around four in the afternoon. When they were all seated comfortably in the luxurious limousines, they moved out onto Park Lane. Roger expressed surprise when a Police motorcycle moved out in front of them.
“What`s with the Police”?
“Don`t worry, Mr Barratt, this is standard practice. We always get a police escort out of central London when we have big winners like you. It saves a lot of time and we don`t have to stop so often, inviting people to try peering inside at you and the family.” As she spoke the rear blue lights of the escort motorcycle came on and the bike led the limousines out into the busy traffic.
The journey to Watford took about fifty minutes with the police escort leaving them just north of the M1 junction at Brent Cross. The limousines sped up the motorway and when the drivers exited at Watford, another police motorbike appeared to escort them the rest of the way to Lottery headquarters. As they approached the headquarters building, the road was lined by well-wishers, all hoping to get a glimpse of the latest big money winners.
“News travels fast, once we released details of your presentation to the local press, they would have made sure it was common knowledge to get as many people here as possible. They all like to see winners, and also of course there`s the added attraction of Rod Stewart”.
At the gate the crowd surged across the driveway and tried to surround the two limousines but the police officer switched the siren on and took the limousines quickly through the gates which were promptly closed by the headquarters staff. The presentation went without a hitch and at the end the whole family was formally introduced to Rod Stewart prior to moving through to another large room where they would be free to mingle. Only selected members of the press were allowed inside the building to keep it from turning into a free for all. At the end of half an hour Roger and Helen`s arms were aching from all the hand-shakes and Helen`s head was thumping from the pressure and bright flash lights of the numerous cameras. They were all glad when the session came to an end and the press people were ushered out and the family taken to yet another room where the luncheon was laid out. Roger got on very well with Rod Stewart, finding that they shared a common hobby of model making. Rod asked what they intended to do with their winnings and Roger and Helen filled him in with details of the trip they already had planned. This was going to take them round the world, but not on cruise ships as might have been expected but on trains and planes instead. The whole family was going on the trip, with the hotel in Torquay being put in the charge of a manager for the six months they would be away. The plan was to travel to Europe first, travelling through France, Germany, The Czech Republic and Austria to Switzerland. For the trip from Devon to Paris, Roger`s travel agents had chartered a plane which would take them direct from Exeter to Paris. Once in Paris, a chartered mini coach was arranged to convey the family through Europe culminating in Lucerne on the shores of the lake of the same name, in Switzerland where they planned to spend about ten days. From there it was to be a short trip for one final overnight stay in Zurich, although that was subject to change, depending on how close their hotel in Lucerne was to the airport at Zurich, from where they would then fly across the Atlantic to New York, once again a special charter aircraft provided by Swiss Air, where yet another charter coach would be waiting. They planned to stay in New York for three days as there were a couple of things they all wanted to see, The Empire State Building, Ground Zero and of course, The Statue of Liberty not to mention the shopping. The coach would run them around the city as and when they needed it as well as an organised city tour. Most times they would probably use the subway or buses to avoid parking problems for the coach in the central areas of the city. The coach would then take them to Washington DC for another week then it was board a train to travel across the continent to San Francisco. The train would have a specially chartered carriage exclusively for the family. The trip across the states was scheduled to take six weeks, with their private carriage being detached from the train at the points that Roger and Helen had selected as places they wanted to visit, then being coupled to other trains for the onward journeys. From San Francisco it was back to a chartered aircraft for the long flight across the Pacific Ocean to Australia. They would fly into Perth in Western Australia then travel east on the transcontinental railway to Sydney. Next was a short trip to New Zealand, once again in a chartered coach taking in both North and South islands before heading off to Japan and finally a short stop in Beijing before making the long flight home of course obviously, another private charter.
