Bob Sykes was one of the chaps who always seemed to have money to spend. While the rest of us in the “gang “ had to wait for the next letter to arrive from Granny and the neatly folded ten bob note slotted in between the pages of Basildon Bond or an exeat Sunday with the parents and the loose change from father's pocket once the luncheon bill had been settled at the Lamb Inn, Sykes always had money in his pocket.
“How dew do it Sykesy?” we'd ask him. He always reply in that very annoying way of tapping the side of his nose and saying even more infuriatingly, “Take care of the pennies and the pounds will look after them selves.”
Someone in the gang, probably Blake, named Sykes “Ten Bob Sykes” because he nearly always pulled a crumpled ten shilling note from his right trouser pocket at the school tuck shop counter. The rest of us had pennies or a shilling or two if we were lucky but Sykes, “Ten Bob Sykes”, always managed to come up with the folding stuff.
It gave him friends of course but not real friends like me and Blakelock. Ten Bob Sykes so-called mates were brown nosing him just because he had money. Mind you he wasn't actually all that generous with it. I suppose it's because of that that the trouble happened.
If he'd been the sort of decent chap who'd have divvied up when a bloke was a bit short or if he'd lent a couple of bob without wanting it paid back the following week with interest, then he'd of been all right. Having the money gave him a sort of power I suppose. Having Blunt too, Blunt who was in the upper fifth and who boxed for his house, he was a bloke you wouldn't want to argue with. Blunt had bloodied Cunliffe and Cunliffe was quite a big bloke. Blunt had landed him one on the nose before chapel one morning and Cunliffe's nose didn't stop bleeding until after the last Psalm. He looked a frightful mess and he hadn't got a handkerchief so his shirt was covered and he got into a right state and a bollocking from Jones. Blunt was “Ten Bob Sykes” minder and collected the money that was owed to him when it was due. You didn't ever want to borrow money from “Ten Bob Sykes” unless you absolutely knew you could pay it back on time and with the extra required.
Mother always said, “Neither a lender nor a borrower be”, which was all very well for her to say but she didn't have to buy stuff from the school tuck shop every day or owe Dyer three and six for some quite rare Commonwealth stamps.
Anyhow that's how it was that I asked Sykes, “Ten bob Sykes”, if he'd lend me half a crown for two weeks. In two weeks I knew that I'd see my parents and that I'd be back in funds by then. No worries. “Ten Bob Sykes” reached into his right trouser pocket and produced half a crown. He tossed it in the air like a referee at the start of a match and coolly caught the spinning coin after it had arced its way upwards above both our heads. He caught it and quickly placed it on the back of his upturned left hand keeping the coin covered with his right.
“Heads or tails. Double or quits,” he said in his annoying voice.
“What d'you mean Sykesy?” says I.
“I call heads or tails. If you win you don't have to pay me anything but if I win you have to pay me back double.”
“Five bob if I loose?”
“Nothing if you win,” said “Ten Bob Sykes”.
“Why don't I just borrow the two and six and leave it at that Sykesy?” says I.
“It's a toss up or nothing,” said “Ten Bob Sykes”.
“Go on then, “says I at which “Ten Bob Sykes” scooped the coin from the back of his hand and flipped it up into the air again. Before it had even finished it's assent he shouted “Heads!” and sure enough the half crown coin landed heads up on the floor. “Ten Bob Sykes” bent down and retrieved his coin.
“That's five shillings in two weeks time and don't be bloody late. No excuses accepted.” He reached into his right trouser pocket and fished out a half crown coin and flicked it at me with disdain.
“Don't spend it all at once,” he said coldly. “Ten Bob Sykes” wasn't a nice person at all and I felt that I had perhaps made a mistake.
I paid Dyer another instalment for the stamps and stocked up with sherbet fountains and Caramac and had some left over for a couple of Battle Picture Library comics and a trip into town to the Rex cinema to see the Magnificent Seven.
It was a bit of a blow when Father wasn't well and he and Mother couldn't make it for the exeat as had been planned. Actually it was several blows once Blunt had caught up with me and the tooth that the dentist had filled last term needed to be done all over again thanks to Blunt.
“I'll be dealing with you every week until you pay up Sykes what you owe him,” was how Blunt left me spitting blood and saliva in the corner of the music room.
As luck would have it Blunt broke his femur in the inter house rugby match the following Saturday and was carted off to the RAF hospital where he was laid up in plaster for months. It was a bad break and we all heard the snap as it ricochet around the games field rather eerily. Blunt made a hell of a fuss.
Without his “heavy” support “Ten Bob Sykes” wasn't much of a threat. He sulked around and barged into me a couple of times saying “You owe me,” out of the side of his weasel mouth. But that was all. With Blunt out of the way at least there would be no pain and “Ten Bob Sykes” would just have to wait until my funds were once again in a liquid state.
“Ten Bob Sykes” didn't wait though. He went to Jones, who went to the Head of House to report that some of his money had been stolen. He said that he had seen me take a ten shilling note out of his pocket and that was that.
I was called up before Head of House and vigorously denied the charge.
“Well. Sykes has said he saw you. You say that you didn't do it. It is a serious charge and we need to get to the bottom of it. “
I could of course have told the truth about how “Ten Bob Sykes” had lent me half a crown and how I hadn't paid it back yet because of how my father being sick had meant that I hadn't got any more pocket money and that Blunt had beaten me up and all that. I didn't because you don't tell Jones or Head of House anything like that. You never tell them anything.
Any how the storm blew over. My desk and tuck box were searched but no money was found and the Head of House decided that under the circumstances he would be keeping a close eye on me and that for good measure I'd be gated for four weeks.
“I don't know if you did it boy,” he said to me, “But I don't want any of this sort of nonsense to happen again.”
I think it was Blakelock, my friend, who discovered that Sykes “Ten Bob Sykes, ” had a double sided half crown. It had heads on both its faces.
“How the hell d'you find that out?” says I to Blakelock.
“I saw Sykesy using it the other day when he was talking to Sparrow about something. It fell on the floor and rolled off and when Sparrow picked it up he said, 'Hey Sykesy this coin has got two heads'. Well Sykesy wasn't very happy and grabbed the thing back off Sparrow saying maybe it has and maybe it hasn't. And that was that.”
“The bastard,” says I.
After lights out one night me and the “gang” got around Sykes, “Ten Bob Skye's”, bed and we put a pillow case over his head, dragged him out and off into the bathrooms. Someone kept KV while three others held Sykesy firmly by the arms. I asked the questions.
“You'll get nothing out of me,” said Sykes, “Ten Bob Sykes”.
But we did. My father gave me one of those Swiss army knives for Christmas, the red handled thing, with lots of useful blades. It was with the combination of the sharp knife and the saw that I managed to cut through Sykes, ”Ten Bob Sykes”, little finger on his right hand. He howled like a baby but we put a pair of socks in his mouth. His blood, and there was a lot of it, turned the whole Swiss Army knife red, not just the handle.
The deal was that when he came out of the San he went to Jones and Head of House and told them that he'd made a mistake. He hadn't seen me take any money and he'd made up the whole thing.
His little finger had been caught in the dormitory window when it slammed shut and sadly no one could find the tip of it. I flushed that down the bog.
Sykes, “Ten Bob Sykes”, knew that if he didn't do what he was told he would loose another finger or worse. He did what he was told. I paid him back the half crown I owed him but he couldn't put it into the pocket of his trousers because his right hand was still bandaged up.
He always had money in his pocket but it stayed there for the rest of that term any way.
I think he became an investment banker where as I followed my father into the family butcher's business.
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