Time Restored.
Chapter 2.
The Book.
Autumn 2021 CE.
They'd hardly given the new phone a second thought as the week had been such a whirlwind.
Monday was the most gruelling day.
They'd been driven down from Nottingham in a swanky limo on the Sunday evening and been put up in the Savoy just off the Strand.
The winning ticket itself was lodged and locked away safely and an independent solicitor had been present with them,
Notarising everything.
The next day they had to jump through quite a few legal hoops and were surprised to have had lie detectors strapped to them.
A barrage of endless and annoying questions about the purchase of their ticket ensued.
Questions like,
If neither of you had done the lottery in years,
Why just buy one ticket with one set of numbers on that day?
And,
Do you use betting apps?
And of Tim,
Have you ever been to a casino?
The grilling was over by Monday lunchtime and the afternoon was filled with a series of interminable meetings.
The advisors from the lottery explained the next steps in the process in much more detail and using language alien to Janet and Tim.
It was very exciting and tedious all at the same time.
They'd learned that the administrative matters would take a week but they were to stay at the Savoy at the National Lottery's expense.
It was suggested that they should both call their workplaces,
Saying that they'd caught Covid.
Neither the hospital or the garage could really cope with yet a single more absentee.
That evening they were treated to the taste of the Savoy at the grill.
The Arnold Bennett souffle was sublime,
Followed by the most sumptuous of beef wellingtons.
Nothing was off the card so they ordered the wine flight too.
The enormity of the change in their lives was sinking in.
So what do you do when you have no more need to work?
It was dawning on them how massive the changes in their lifestyles would be and they had no idea how they could possibly tell their friends and families.
The mornings during the rest of that first week were spent in meetings with financial advisors,
Lawyers and representatives of the Lottery.
The Lottery's main objective was to get them to agree on sharing their names with the press,
Something Janet and Tim were not too keen on.
The most interesting meeting was with a property expert called Anna,
With a surname that was unpronounceable,
Who had a touch of an Eastern European accent.
She advised them not to invest more than a fifth of their winnings in a property portfolio.
Janet and Tim had no idea that the more a property cost,
The more it would cost in annual upkeep.
This is not something you consider when you own a meagre terraced home in the suburbs of a busy city.
They were getting super excited about buying something much more spacious,
With rooms galore.
Maybe even with a housekeeper.
And they were gobsmacked at what you got for 10 million.
What's more,
They wouldn't have to restrict their choice to England,
Or even for it to be land-based.
Tim had always wanted a boat.
They had also been given access to a concierge,
A softly spoken woman from Wales called Sophie,
Who obviously knew how to open doors others didn't even know existed.
Sophie had arranged for a chauffeured car for them,
But they chose to walk everywhere and just be tourists,
Enjoying the sight,
Sounds and enormity of being in the capital for the very first time in their lives.
Like many that lived through lockdown,
They'd not had what you would call a holiday in over three years,
And would never have considered an expensive city break.
They were glad they'd elected for anonymity,
Pleased at how easily they could get lost in the melee of the West End,
Looking nothing like multi-millionaires.
Sophie had organised private boxes for them at matinees of several West End plays,
On the Tuesday through to the Friday.
They'd chosen Back to the Future,
A new version of Porgy and Bess called Summertime,
The Phantom of the Opera and Harry Potter,
The Cursed Child.
Tim had begrudgingly agreed to Jenna's choices of Summertime and The Phantom,
But ended up really enjoying them.
They were both getting into a new way of life.
After each play,
They browsed around some shops,
And popped into a few pubs,
Wrapping up the day in the series of amazing restaurants that Sophie had booked for them.
They ate food they'd never thought to try from all over the world.
They had been told on the Monday that their winnings would be paying for all of this,
And not to hold back.
There was no need to use their credit cards,
As the lottery would sort everything out.
They had also been given £1,
000 petty cash to treat themselves as they liked.
By the Friday,
The bank accounts were all set up,
And the money transferred into their possession.
Their mortgage was paid off,
And their new Tesla Model X was sitting at a dealership in Heathrow.
Everything seemed rather crazy to them.
They were reeling from how much things had changed in such a short time.
After seeing Harry Potter on the Friday,
They were booked in at the double Michelin-starred Aoki restaurant in Covent Garden.
They walked down Charing Cross Road,
By now getting used to finding their way around the West End,
As Jenna's eye was caught by an intriguing side street called Cecil's Court.
Let's look down there,
I think it's a shortcut,
She said.
Halfway down on the right,
They came across a charming and intriguing bookshop called Watkins.
Look!
Established in 1894,
Said Jenna.
Let's go in,
The meal's not for another hour.
Tim reluctantly agreed,
He was rather aiming for a pint or two before their meal.
They walked in,
And a rather grumpy female assistant said curtly,
We close in ten minutes.
We're not here to buy,
It's just a quick book,
Said Tim,
Who hadn't read a book for a number of years,
Or ever been inside a Waterstones.
The shop had an amazing old-world charm,
And as they got to the rear of the shop,
Out of the corner of her eye,
Jenna was sure she saw something move.
She turned quickly to see,
At shoulder height,
A book was sticking out from the others on the shelf.
She pulled it out,
And read the title slowly under her breath.
The Secrets of Temporal Alchemy,
By Graham Mount Templer.
The book looked intriguing,
And she was just about to read the sleeve notes,
When a polite cough from the assistant reminded them the shop was about to close.
Smiling politely,
They paid for the book in cash,
And exited the shop quickly.
