The New Church Roof Ch. 07

He sat back looking happy.

The rest of us were stunned.

'Wow,' said Sue, 'that is so amazing. People are so generous.'

'And,' said Evan, 'if we decide whether we take Lucia and Georgio up on their offers to have four waiters rather than two there is an extra $4,000 which would take us up to $146,700.'

'That is fantastic news. Re the extra places, as far as the boys are concerned I am happy to take part but I am conscious that as Sue and I are already 'promised up' as it were, as are Kay and Pete. I think it would be really good fun but I wouldn't want Evan and Danny to think we were hogging the fun times. As I see it from the girl's point of view it is very different. From the amount of money offered I think you are going to get seriously harassed to remove a lot of clothing and maybe more. You may not want to be there.'

I could see Kay and Sue thinking about this and Sue was eventually left to say 'Well it could be fun and if Jane and Frannie are happy for us to be there, maybe we could offer some moral support. You know be there to help you girls.'

Well that had us four guys laughing until the tears flowed.

'You two, providing moral support?' said Evan. 'You just want to be there in case there is a cock to hold.'

Sue tried to look upset but couldn't do it for giggling. I know Jane would have been there like a shot. What was I saying? Jane was going to be there. I needed to have a word with her about where to draw the line.

It was decided. We would all go along and the fund would benefit by another $4,000.

The next job was to sort out dates and the most important was for the skiing week.

We decided that the third week in March was good for all of us and we managed to find suitable dates to offer for our promises. I guess we were going to be busy for the next few weeks.

I was really looking forward to it.

All that was left was to circulate the key hosts with the summaries of the finances and then present a cheque.

How the hell were we going to do that without the pastor asking awkward questions.

We decided in the end that we would change the name of the account from Party Fund to New Roof Account and leave the pass book with a note in the pastor's letter box.

We would agree with the Bank that they would accept new signatories and that the old signatories would disappear.

Luckily one of the guys at the party worked at the branch and he agreed that while he could not hide anything from auditors, or indeed the Pastor if he got too inquisitive. He would tell him that Donors who wished to stay Anonymous had set up the fund, and hoped that he would not take it any further.

We left a little note in with the passbook that said,

'Members of your Congregation and other Friends of your Church are delighted to be able to make this contribution towards the New Roof. Sometimes a little naked greed can produce spectacular benefits.'

We felt that it paid lip service to our evening but implied that the money came as a result of a Financial Operation of some kind.

We were there in church however the following Sunday when the Pastor announced the gift. The poor man was almost in tears, as were many in the audience, although theirs were tears of amusement not wonder.

I wondered whether we could organise another one. Maybe not for a year or two.