Maxwell's Retirement Read Online Free PDF

Julie, who seems to have a bit of a problem but doesn’t seem able to explain what it is.’
    ‘Julie,’ Jacquie smiled. ‘Why don’t you come in? Perhaps it will be easier for you when we are inside. I’m afraid our son has had a bit of a bump at school today and is asleep in the sitting room. Shall we go into the dining room? I can leave the doors open and then I’ll hear him if he calls, but we won’t wake him up.’
    The girl looked from Maxwell to Jacquie. These two were difficult to read, not like her parents, who left no doubt about what they felt; mostly anger. But Mad Max made it easy for the girl by stepping aside and gesturing her upstairs with a courtly wave.
    ‘After you, ladies,’ he said, adding, ‘I was about to make some tea, Julie. Would you like some?’
    ‘Have you got any Coke?’ she asked, not really knowing if old people had such things in the house. ‘Diet, if you’ve got it. Citrus Diet for preference.’
    ‘Goodness me,’ Maxwell said. ‘My very own favourite, in the soft drink line. Well, well. We must have been separated at birth or something. Coke it is. Is that all round, heart?’
    Jacquie smiled at Maxwell and then at the girl, standing uncertainly on her landing. She ushered her through the door into the dining room. ‘I’d rather have tea, if that’s still on the cards,’ she said. ‘Can there be biscuits?’
    ‘I’m sure there can,’ he said. ‘Abyssinia,’ andhe went off to the kitchen, with a sneaky check on his two boys. Nolan was curled up with his fingers in his mouth and the cat was curved into him, like a spoon. See it every day though he might, Maxwell could still hardly credit the sight of the hard-bitten assassin sleeping with the enemy. He just hoped that Metternich wasn’t playing the long game and was not planning a major coup, such as eating Nolan one evening when everyone’s back was turned.
     
    Shouldering the dining room door open and balancing a tray, Maxwell could only marvel again at the woman he had married. She was sitting next to Julie, who was now noticeably calmer. They were looking through the thin volume of Maxwell and Jacquie’s wedding photos. Julie was cooing and pointing wordlessly, to emphasise some esoteric fashion speciality invisible to Maxwell and to men everywhere. She looked up as he came in and set down the tray, her eyes still red-rimmed but her mouth now in an uncertain smile.
    ‘These are lovely photos, Mr Maxwell,’ she said. ‘You look very smart.’
    ‘Oh, yes,’ he said, passing her her Coke, with ice and a slice. Jacquie got her tea just as she liked it; in a mug and thick enough to stand on. He sat down opposite and smiled. ‘I polish up quite well, don’t I?’
    Julie was one of the Sixth Form girls whoactually thought that, ancient as he was, Mad Max would stand up quite well with the likes of … well, that was always a difficult list to start, but with the old actors her mum liked – Sean Connery, that was one. Piers Brosnan, he was all right. She looked up under her lashes and admitted that Mad Max wasn’t quite in their league, but he looked very nice in his wedding photos and very proud as well. Mrs Maxwell was nice as well. Really understanding. Tears stood in Julie’s eyes again and Jacquie patted her hand.
    ‘Come on, now, Julie. Explain to Mr Maxwell what you have just told me.’
    The girl looked at Jacquie doubtfully. ‘But, Mrs Maxwell … will, I mean, does Mr Maxwell …?’
    Jacquie smiled and looked at her husband, sitting in a posture of confused alertness opposite. ‘I think what Julie means, darling, is that she isn’t sure you will quite get what she is talking about. It’s a bit technical.’
    ‘Technical?’ Maxwell was puzzled. ‘You’re not doing CDT, are you, Julie? IT? Anything like that?’ Encyclopaedic though his knowledge was, Maxwell could not keep
all
his students’ timetables in his head.
    ‘No, Mr Maxwell. I’m doing English, Geography and History. It’s