Working For The Bookie Part I

Away back in the mists of time I had a brief spell working for a bookie's shop in n in the backwoods of central Scotland.
I was out of work and between careers and needed some cash when the opportunity came to work in the bookies.
My uncle Jack had acquired a bookies shop at short notice. I always suspected the bookie owed him money or that the bookie needed money in a hurry when he sold up to Jack.
Anyway, the place was an absolute shitehole and needed cleaned-up quickly before opening. We managed to do this in a couple of days and come the Monday when we opened the doors we were raring to go. It was very small-fry though. He was through the back settling the bets. I was on the counter taking and paying-out the bets. He hired someone to work the weekends along with me, a strange girl called Connie.
From the start there were problems-:

1.Jack and myself hated each other.We always had. He was a prime asshole who owned a couple of shops and he was way dodgy. He lent out money and, while not a loan shark, he was too close to being one for comfort. He was my Mum's brother and she regarded him as the one of her family who had made some cash and loved him for that. I was offered the job cos he needed somebody quickly and I was hard-up enough to need it.


2.I couldn't count. A bad failing. I had never worked in a shop before and I was hopeless with change. The till never balanced most days .Sometimes up, sometimes down but rarely was it bang-on.Not great amounts of money but enough to greatly annoy Jack.

3. I was gambler and liked to bet.This meant I ventured into rival establishments and was on first name terms with his competitors some of whom were my friends. This got Jack very paranoid from the off.

4. Connie was a lunatic. A complete gossip and a slapper too. One of these thing would have been enough to annoy me but all three was too much.

I knew very early on that this was not going to work out and Boy, was I right !

To Be Continued..........

*Names changed in the interests of sanity