Grearly’s

by R J Dent

Everyone in town knew that Vic Mottram hated Brian Grearly. Grearly’s death meant that Mottram would probably find a way to take over Grearly’s. He’d always wanted it, ever since it had opened five years ago.

Grearly was the owner and proprietor and staff member and designer of Grearly’s. Grearly’s was an experiment in catering and style which had succeeded far beyond Grearly’s wildest expectations.

Brian Grearly was the only child of Richard and Carla Grearly. They were both schoolteachers at the local Junior School. It was where they’d met, it was where they’d had their wedding reception; it was where they had worked all their lives; it was where they still worked – and it was, not surprisingly, where they wanted their son to work too. They probably thought of it as a family tradition or something. Anyway, Brian Grearly had other plans. When he was twenty-one, he left university with a degree in Business Studies and Accountancy and went into business for himself. He had no money – and no visible means of income, but somehow he managed to convince a local company to finance the building of his chip shop. He also managed to persuade various other local companies to supply him with his catering goods, including equipment, utensils and foodstuffs. He had obviously been a very good business studies student. He also seemed to live reasonably well during the construction of his premises. Grearly’s genius had been to have his chip shop built in what’s known as a ‘prime location’. He also had the shop built to his specifications – again a mark of his genius, for the chip shop looked like no other chip shop on earth. And finally, all he sold was chips.

First then, the location. Grearly’s was built on the biggest corner of Fiveways. Fiveways is not named on any map, but it exists all the same. It’s simply the place where four major and one minor road converge. Along both sides of each of the necks of the major roads are shops and businesses. There’s a supermarket, a bakery, a launderette, a post office, a barber, a hairdresser, a pet shop, a chemist, a hardware store, a betting shop, a book shop, a newsagent, a cafe, a bank, a florist, a video library, an estate agent, a dry cleaner, a greengrocer, a wine shop, a butcher, and so on and so on. Only on the major roads. Grearly set his business up on the neck of the minor road – where there were – and still are – no other businesses. He made sure there was a big patch of tarmacced parking space in front of and at the sides of his establishment. And on it he had his building built. So now for the building.