Playing her way 2 - Chapter 10

© D.L.

Emily stretched and yawned, slowly becoming conscious of the light creeping in around the curtains. Raising her head, she looked across to see that the other bed in her room was empty. Glancing at the clock, she noted it was gone nine in the morning on Boxing day.

Getting up she wrapped her grey furry dressing gown around her shoulders, covering her pink satin pyjamas. Exiting the room, she checked the position of the lock on the bathroom door. Seeing the emergency unlock slot was horizontal instead of vertical, Emily correctly deduced that the bathroom was empty. After using the toilet, she washed her hands and face before descending the stairs.

"Morning sleepy head", Marilyn stated seeing her only child enter the room. Arnold, Marilyn and Anna were sitting around the kitchen table drinking tea, all of them having finished eating breakfast. "There is tea in the pot if you want a cup."

"I think that is the latest I've seen you sleep," Anna added, "I guess you must have been tired after yesterday."

Emily thought for a moment before replying. "I slept well. Better than I have for a while. I don't think I was tired, just more relaxed and less stressed. Yesterday was the first day in a long while, possibly years, where I haven't had to worry about my gender presentation. I'm comfortable when at school, but have to take precautions, and there is always that worry in the back of my mind. Before that, I was constantly worried about coming across as too girly. As a girl, I can always be tomboyish, while it less acceptable for a boy to be girlish."

"Tomboyish?" Anna asked with raised eyebrows, "You've worn skirts and dresses every day except for two days while your aunt visited, and even then you changed into a skirt as soon as you were back on school grounds."

Emily sighed, "Okay, I'm nervous when wearing trousers that a bulge might show. Especially with feminine styles, as they are often cut tighter. I don't like hovering in the middle, I would rather there be no confusion. Yesterday I was able to just be myself without needing to worry about my secret getting out. At least that secret. I didn't reveal my online identity, I got away without having to mention my main source of income."

"I'm surprised that nobody twigged that you're Generation2k," Anna replied.

Emily finished pouring a cup of tea and carried it and a bowl of milk and cereal from the counter to the table. "Susan already knew, obviously. As does Aunt Molly. Tom is more into first person shooters and speedrunning. He's never gotten into Minecraft, and as my channel is around 75% Minecraft, he wouldn't likely be one of my subscribers. I don't think Jack is a Minecraft fan either, although he is into Raging Squirrels, so would know of my online identity. If anybody puts two and two together, then it would be him. Eddie, bless him, isn't the sharpest knife in the draw."

"Although it's now used more as a derogatory term, Eddie is borderline on the medical definition of retarded," Arnold added. "Helen didn't realise she was pregnant until quite late, and in the meantime, she was prescribed a type of antibiotic that isn't regarded as safe for pregnant women. She stopped taking them as soon as she realised, but had been on them for a fortnight before realising the mistake."

Anna nodded, unsure how to respond. Emily continued, breaking the potential awkward silence, "Uncle Bill only does simulation games, usual war related, and his Youtube habits follow similar subjects. Documentaries and aircraft footage I believe. I don't think Aunt Liz plays many games, and wouldn't watch a gaming channel on youtube. The same goes for Uncle Dean and Aunt Helen. They do watch a bit of Youtube as far as I know, but not gaming related content."

Marilyn looked at her daughter as she sat eating her breakfast. It was getting harder to see signs of the former boy, even though the dressing gown was distinctly unisex in appearance. The glimpses of pink around the edges did enforce the overall appearance of a girl, given the hairstyle and mannerisms.

"Is dressing as a boy causing you trouble," Marilyn asked softly. "We thought it would be less stressful than having to explain you change to everybody. You seem a lot less passable as a boy than you used to be. Are you worried that you might be perceived as a sissy at the moment while portraying Jason?"

Emily put her spoon down in the empty bowl and sipped her beverage thinking, "Yes and no. I'm not particularly fond of being seen as a girly boy. I would much rather be seen as a girl with a hidden birth defect. However, I do get your reasoning. In some ways it easier to carry on pretending to be a boy rather than having to explain I'm a girl to people who might have rather negative reactions."

Arnold sighed. "You might want to consider getting some trousers on. Steven said he would pop round later this morning. He's gone out to the sales and will come round afterwards. He did ask If we wanted to go as well, but I figured that you wouldn't want to go."

"You have three women in the house and you figured a shopping trip wasn't going to be a popular choice?" Emily asked.

"While I like shopping, and like a good bargain, I can do without the crowds," Marilyn responded, "besides, I figured you wouldn't want to trail round the shops as Jason. Especially clothes shops, as I doubt you would want to visit a furniture store or buy a TV or washing machine, which is what is usually going cheap in the sales."

"We don't have room for any more furniture at school," Anna added, laughing, "and we already have a nice smart TV. I bought one for us at half term."

"Of course, she had to buy one an inch larger than Svetlana's, just to wind her up," Emily stated.

Anna giggled, explaining, "the price keeps dropping. I actually spent less than what Svetlana's cost. Plus, have you tried to buy a small TV lately? They seem to have stopped making them. The smallest I could find was 22 inches, and they are a rarity. I actually had trouble finding one that wasn't too large for the space available."

Emily stood up and put her cup and bowl in the sink. "I better get dressed before the ape arrives. Is the monkey coming as well?"

Arnold rolled his eyes at the sarcastic references to his cousin and his son. "I don't think Raiden will be coming, but you never know."

~o~O~o~

Emily was coming down the stairs when the doorbell rang. Once again she was dressed in her male persona, this time wearing a pair of jeans along with the Christmas jumper. Arnold reached the door as Emily reached the bottom, so were both present when Steven came inside.

"Arnold, Jason," Steve greeted. Looking at the younger family member he added, "Still not got a haircut then."

Emily humphed and flicked her head as she turned and headed into the front room, causing her ponytail to swing widely. It was mounted low instead of its usual higher location and was less in volume and length due to not containing the extensions she often used.

Steven followed Emily into the lounge with Arnold bringing up the rear. Marilyn and Anna were already in the room, watching TV.

Anna regarded the guest with a critical eye. She could see why Emily called him an ape. The man did seem to have an overabundance of hair on the parts of him visible, the most noticeable being the bushy beard, but also on the back of his hands. He was quite stocky with muscular arms. However, his legs were short in comparison with the length of his torso. Looking at his upper half, you would expect a tall person, but he was relatively short at only five foot seven. The net effect was that his long arms resulted in his hands being lower to the ground, similar to an ape. The sheepskin coat made him look like a wanna-be Del boy, something that may be accurate if Emily's description earlier was accurate. Anna had been warned that Steve was even more left-wing working class than Arnold, and may not be receptive to Emily's transgender status.

"Steve, this is Anna. Anna, Steve," Emily made the brief and to the point introduction as she sat down next to her guest, putting her arm along the back of the couch where Anna was sitting. Anna responded by leaning into Emily, who then lowered her arm round the girl. Although it had felt weird to both of them when Anna had first suggested posing as Jason's girlfriend to maintain the charade, they had both gotten used to being in close proximity.

Steven hadn't expected the other guest, but seeing the behaviour realised that the girl must be Jason's girlfriend. He decided not to make a comment about the boy finding himself a girl, deciding it may be in bad taste. He was actually slightly surprised the boy was in a relationship, as something about his mannerisms always suggested he may be homosexual. He placed a box on the coffee table as he sat down in an available chair.

"I got some things here you might be interested in, Jason. Some computer games I came across cheap. I didn't bother wrapping them, as I wasn't sure if you would want them. You may even have copies already, as I wasn't sure what you might already have."

Emily didn't respond other than a slight raise of eyebrows and a curious glance into the box. She suspected the chances of these games being legitimate were remote. When people refer to dodgy goods as 'fallen off the back of a lorry', the lorry in question was most likely driven by her father's cousin. A long distance driver by trade, he also owned his own truck which he did jobs in on the side, in addition to the hours working for a national company. Some of which were transporting things that reputable transporters wouldn't touch.

Pulling a DVD sized case out of the box, Steven proudly shew off the cover, causing Emily to burst out laughing.

"Whats so funny?" Steve asked. "This is a brand new release, it isn't even out in the shops yet."

Getting herself under control Emily replied, "True, and it won't be for several years yet. Rockstar hasn't even started writing Grand Theft Auto Six yet. They are still milking Grand Theft Auto Five and the online multiplayer. Besides which, they won't be releasing it for the Playstation 2. It went out of production years ago. Playstation 4 is the current generation. Playstation 5 may even be out by the time the next GTA is released."

Taking the box, Emily turned it over to the back. The were two text blocks on the back. The English block had an exceedingly generic description written with virtually no grammar and comically bad word choice. A sign of translation done by someone with only a slight understanding of the language and possibly done using inadequate software. Turning to Anna, she asked, "Can you read this?"

Anna examined the box, "No, it's not one of the languages I'm familiar with. It might be Indonesian. That is probably a heavily modded version of one of the third generation games, probably San Andreas. I've seen some videos online of heavily modded versions with ridiculous lead character replacements, including Wolverine and Dragon Ball Z."

"I think you may have been had," Arnold stated, "even I can see it's a rip-off. Haven't you seen any of the Playstation adverts on TV recently?"

"Damn, I've got two dozen copies to sell," Steve declared.

"You could try selling them as novelty fakes on a car boot, but you still might have trouble, as they are obviously not licenced products by the owners of the copyright," Emily replied.

"Okay, that one might be a loss, but this next one is definitely a winner. I've got a mate who can get me as many copies to sell as I like. I've seen this being advertised, and know a load of people who are playing it. Raiden has actually had a copy of this running on his laptop. How about a boxed version of Raging Squirrels with all three expansion packs included. Or do you already own a copy?"

"Oh, I'm definitely interested in this one," Emily stated. "I do have a copy, but only with the first expansion. Mainly as there is only one expansion written and it's only available as downloadable content. Also, the game can only be downloaded, not bought on disk, so I'm interested in what exactly is on the DVD."

"Here, try it out," Steve said handing the disk to Emily, who reached down the side of the couch where her laptop was sat in its bag. With Anna's temporary bed taking up room in her bedroom, Emily had switched to using her father's study as a recording studio, and she had been editing the footage she recorded with her father on Christmas eve the previous evening on the couch before heading to bed.

Emily fired up the powerful laptop, and then for safety fired up one of the sandboxed virtual machines she used for testing. As soon as she loaded the disk, the virus scanner started to pop up warnings about trojans and spyware. Quarantining the errant files, she fired up the debugger and decompiler she used for looking into the source code of libraries on her system. Within a few minutes of searching, she was able to identify how the copy protection was being bypassed.

The game communicated with a central server to verify user accounts. Unable to figure out how to remove the copy protection, the hacker had instead created a fake proxy server to intercept and replace the communication with the server. Providing the game code with a cached copy of valid credentials.

Emily smiled as she realised that not only would the crack cease to work in a little over a week, due to the encryption key using the month as a salt, meaning the cached credentials would cease to work, but also because the hacker had to use a real account in order to obtain valid credentials from the real server.

Emily immediately logged onto the private management interface of the authentification server and disabled the account in question.

~o~O~o~

While Emily was investigating the pirated copy of her game, Steven struck up a conversation with Arnold.

"I saw Farcombe Engineering in the news," Steven stated, "Looks like you've been having some issues."

"You could say that," Arnold replied. "Do you remember those robotic parts you transported for us?"

"I remember the stop at Brum Vegas on the way up. The lads had a grand old time," Steven replied. "I do remember that equipment, though, it was a bugger to get on the back of the lorry, we had to practically drag it on as the forklift trucks couldn't take the weight."

Arnold nodded, "Yeah, well one of those decided to throw a bloke across the room. Several broken bones and a nasty concussion."

"No wonder Farcombe was forced to sell," Steven deduced, "I bet he was being taken to the cleaners. That's got to be worth half a mil' damages at least."

"His wife was talking about several million, but I doubt they would get that," Arnold replied. "It's in the hands of our insurance company. Stanley is nowhere near as greedy as his wife. He's only a few years off retirement age. I reckon if he's offered what he would have earnt until retirement, plus a little on top, he'd take the deal and walk. Possibly find a job elsewhere part time. A couple of hundred thousand, a quarter million tops."

"Still got to sting a bit," Steven reasoned. "Even if insurance does pay, they're going to get it back in premiums."

After a pause in the conversation, Steven broke the silence, "What's the new boss like? Guess there won't be any more unofficial jobs for a while?"

"The new CEO is German," Arnold stated, "and I think he fits the stereotype. Efficient and by the book. No more cash payments for odd jobs. I made sure you are on the list of preferred suppliers, but it'll have to be properly VAT invoiced."

"Are they going to be bothered about me being your cousin, assuming they make the connection?" Steve asked.

"I don't think the new owners have anything against personal connections, as long as it's done transparently," Arnold answered. "Besides, I have a feeling I'm not going to be involved in the purchasing side as much."

"You screwed up the invoices again?" Steve asked. "How's the stock of toilet rolls?"

"Toilet rolls?" Anna queried.

"I accidentally ordered a thousand instead of a hundred," Arnold replied, "They were so cheap I didn't notice the slip. They were a fraction of the cost of what you buy in the supermarket."

Emily laughed, "It didn't help that Dad also thought he was buying one hundred individual rolls, not packets of a dozen each. I know the factory has a fair amount of employees, but even they would struggle to get through twelve thousand rolls."

"We stored what we could, then sold the rest off at cost," Arnold stated.

"I took a van load round the car boots," Steve added, "made a tidy profit."

Anna listened in interest as Steve related some of his other recent exploits. The guy was definitely dodgy. She made some mental notes, planning to send an email to Hans to keep a close eye on any dealings with Steven Bridges.

"I'm taking on the role of health and safety," Arnold explained. "So unless you know where to get a job lot of safety guard fencing, I doubt I will be sending any work your way for a while."

~o~O~o~

"So this mate of yours," Emily asked, "the one who does the disks? Who is he?"

"Why? You want some extra copies for your mates?" Steve replied.

Emily grinned evilly, "No, I want his name and address for the report I'm submitting to the police via the crime stoppers website."

"What the fuck?" Steven replied angrily, "I'm no fucking snitch."

"Fine, I'll give your name instead," Emily said in a casual manner. "Assuming the police even bother to follow it up. There is no guarantee that they will do anything, although they have been in the news recently showing off how much counterfeit goods they sieved on the run up to Christmas."

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Wouldn't I?" Emily's grin grew to Cheshire cat proportions, "Who do you think tipped the police off about Raiden's drug stash? How is he enjoying probation by the way?"

"Oh my god," Marilyn exclaimed, "that was you?"

Steven jumped to his feet with the intention of getting into his younger relatives face. However, Anna was too quick and blocked his path.

"Back off," the Russian-Asian girl commanded, "unless you want to end up in the hospital."

"I've seen her toss our gym teacher across the room, so I would do as she says," Emily stated.

"Didn't you say yourself that it was a good thing Raiden got caught," Marilyn interrupted, trying to calm the situation. "If he wasn't in prison, he'd have most likely been involved in that botched bank job that his so called friends tried to stage. It was probably for his own good."

Steven snorted and relaxed a fraction "suppose he was getting a bit out of hand. But there is a slight difference between ratting out someone going off the rails and a simple selling off a few CDs. Not as if anybody's getting harmed. Big faceless companies can get stuffed."

"Except the authors possibly losing out a chunk of money," Emily countered, "This ain't a big budget game retailing at forty quid. I can understand the excuse that some people are not going to pay a lot of money for it anyway, so they aren't necessarily a lost customer. However, this only sells online for a fiver, not much more than you are probably going to flog it for."

"So what if some company losses a couple of Hundred quid?" Steven asked.

"Did you bother to read the text pasted on the back of the case?" Emily queried, "crap print out from the website by the way. Have a look at the credits, the name of the band should ring a bell. I'll give you a hint, they played at Raiden's eighteenth."

Steven snatched up one of the disks from the box he had left on the coffee table and scanned the fuzzy bearly legible writing. The name of the heavy metal band that Jason and his friends had formed, and who had provided music for his son's birthday party, was not quite clearly listed under the heading of 'additional music by'. The main artist being listed as Generation2K.

This time it was Emily being aggressive as she invaded her relatives personal space, "All the contributors get a cut of the profit. It might only be fractions of a pence per copy, but it's a nice bit of pocket money. Might be enough for each of us to buy a half decent car by the time we can learn to drive. So why the fuck shouldn't I be upset about someone trying to rip me off?"

While her cut was much more than she had stated, due to having solo music in addition to being a third of the programming team, Emily was giving the true figure for the other band members. Emily had asked the other band members if they would allow her to submit a copy of one of their recordings, actually taken from a live performance done at Raiden's party, to the project, in return for a small share of the profits.

The other band members agreed. They were distinctly amateur, and we not likely to earn much other than for a few performances to friends and family. They also didn't expect much to come from it. They had already earned over a couple of hundred pounds, and that would likely rise to several thousand over the lifetime of the game.

"I'll deal with it," Steve declared. "I'll point out it's affecting a member of my family. Stealing from family ain't on. Might have to buy him some more blank disks, I don't know how many he's already ripped."

"Doesn't matter," Emily stated. "They will all stop working next week. Whoever broke the copy protection didn't do a very good job and the cached credentials are going to expire. That is assuming any device these disks are used on is still working by then. The amount of crapware and viruses crammed on the disk is enough to cause most computers to self-destruct. I'm going to have to nuke the virtual machine I just used to read it, and thoroughly check my main OS in case anything slipped past the sandboxing."

"Sounds like you're quite the expert in copy protection," Steven replied, "had much experience in breaking DRM? You've never been bothered by genuine articles in the past, you have had plenty of stuff off of me in the past."

"I realised a few years ago that the stuff you were peddling wasn't that genuine," Emily stated. "Admittedly I fell for it for quite a few years, but I'll put that down to being too young to know better. However, that's no longer the case. Being on the receiving end does put a new perspective on things. I'm willing to overlook piracy where software is so expensive, it is unaffordable to a whole section of users. In some cases, developers are greedy and ask for their content to be ripped off. I do try and stay legit as possible."

Arnold chuckled, "Some of your items are pretty obviously rip-offs. Kevin Clien underwear? Reebook shoes? The Beighley bicycle with the 'B' shaped suspiciously to look like an 'R'."

"Hey, they may have been imitations, but the quality was still there," Steven countered. "Jason rode that bike for years."

"Until the pedal shaft corroded and broke, leaving me free-wheeling," Emily replied. "Although I am willing to accept that might also be poor maintenance."

"What about all those music tracks you've shared with Raiden?" Steven asked.

"I now subscribe to a streaming music service, so I can listen to whatever music I like now without licencing issues. The few tracks I have that are not on the service are from bands where you can't even buy the music anyway," Emily stated. "Also, most of the tracks I gave Raiden are off YouTube and can be listened to by anyone, anytime. Technically, listening to them offline is dodgy, but I'm willing to overlook that, especially as there is no way Raiden would have ever paid for the tracks anyway, so it's not like the artists are losing a potential sale."

"How certain are you that the copy protection will kick back in?" Steven asked. "My mate said all traces of the copy protection were removed."

"Your mate is talking B.S," Emily answered. "The software periodically checks the licence against a central server. This copy is using cached credentials that will expire at the end of the month. Even if the checking was removed, which it isn't, you need a valid username and password to swap content online, which is one of the things making the game popular. The fact that you can design and share your own levels is a selling point. You could remove the copy protection, but you would render large chunks of the game useless if you did."

Steven wasn't quite convinced, "You seem awfully sure of yourself."

"I should be, I spent over a fortnight researching security and encryption in order to implement the copy protection," Emily replied. Seeing the surprised look on everyone's faces, she realised what she had just said and blushed.

"Wait, you worked on this game?" Steven asked in surprise.

Seeing his daughter's breathing getting faster, despite the outward appearance of remaining calm, Arnold decided to intervene, asking, "How much do you know about the game you are selling, and more importantly who wrote it?"

"Some games company in conjunction with a bunch of YouTubers," Steven replied. "Paradox studios?"

"Paradox are the distributors," Emily stated, "They helped get the game on Steam and on the console marketplaces. The actual game was written by Moonlighter Studios, which consists primarily of members of the Moonlight Minecraft server, plus a few other individuals, including some fans with programming knowledge who offered to help."

Marilyn studied the CD case, which included the credits printed from the website, "CrazyVikingMan47, TangoFoxtrot, Generation2k, T.Button, Iksaw663, KurtKMint, JumboGiant. Obviously their pseudonyms, not their real names."

"Tom Button uses his real name," Anna countered.

"Hey, isn't Generation2k that tranny kid? Saw an article on it in the newspaper, made a big fuss after some other kid got beat up by mistake," Steve recalled.

"That tranny kid," Anna growled angrily, "is a close friend of mine."

"Hey, I meant no offence," Steven put his hands up in a defensive posture.

"I suggest," Marylin interjected, "that you avoid using what could be regarded as derogatory terms. 'Tranny' is not a good abbreviation for transgendered, and I hope for your sake your reference to 'it' was in relation to the event, not the individual."

"Look," Steve replied, "I'm sure he's a nice lad, even if he's slightly screwed up and thinks he's a girl."

"The only one screwing up around here is you," Emily stated, "It's a recognised medical condition. Scientific research has found differences in male and female brains, and it is possible for brain and body to not match. Therefore, when an individual has been diagnosed and is in the process of transition, it is customary to refer to their gender as being that of the destination, rather than the source. In other words, she is currently putting up with a birth defect, and ignorant baffoons like you."

"Sorry," Steven apologised. "I should have realised you must know this person, given that you did some of the music, and a bit of the coding. Each to their own, I have nothing against the kid, and wish her the best of luck."

"Apology accepted," Emily casually waved her arm. Seeing that her friend didn't seem to be too upset, Anna relaxed back onto the couch.

"Jason's connections to Raging Squirrels are being kept quiet," Arnold explained. "There has been a bit of transphobic backlash against Jenny, and Jason has had enough problems at school already, without giving the troublemakers any more ammo. One kid was already put into hospital because of being mistaken for her."

"How's the new school going," Steve asked. "Haven't seen you about much lately."

"That's because I haven't been about much lately," Jason answered. "Did dad tell you where I'm going to school?"

"Somewhere the other side of Reading," Steve nodded.

"About 200 miles the other side of Reading," Emily clarified, exaggerating slightly by rounding up to the nearest hundred. "The music may only earn me enough for a car, the coding helps pay for a place at boarding school."

"Seriously?" Steven replied. "Wow, you're turning into a proper toff?"

"Hardly," Emily rolled her eyes.

"You don't have to wear a suit to class then," Steven joked.

"Naw," Emily replied. With a mischievous grin, she added, "Just a blazer and a pencil pleat skirt."

"I think Mrs Rogers would have something to say about turning up with no underwear or a blouse," Anna added, "Although Mr Yates might appreciate the view."

"Not from me, though," Emily countered, "I don't have enough up top to pull that look off."

Steve looked on in surprise, realisation slowly dawning on him. There had been something off about Jason since he arrived. The talk of the transexual and the involvement with computer game suddenly suggested a possibility.

Picturing a skirt on the person on the couch, combined with the posture and the long hair, Steve began to see that he may be looking at a girl. Indeed, the more he thought about it, the more sense it seemed to make.

He had read about Generation2k. A male to female transexual of around the same age as Jason, who also had started at a boarding school at a similar time, and was using the money earned from the game, along with YouTube earnings and Patreon support, to pay for a private education.

"You're not joking, are you?" Steven grew serious.

"My daughter is full of surprises," Arnold stated with emphasis. "She is also fed up of pretending to be a boy, and I suspect she will be changing out of those jeans into a skirt at the earliest opportunity."

"I didn't exactly bring a lot of clothes home with me," Emily countered, "considering you were insisting I spend my Christmas holidays as a boy."

"I just happen to have some designer dresses going cheap," Steven stated, recovering from his surprise. "They are in the boot of my car."

Steven was about to say 'Jason' but realised that might not be the best of ideas, "Jenny, I presume?"

"Actually my name is Emily. Jenny is my stage name. Also, if you tell anybody my secret I will kill you."

"My lips are sealed, I won't mention your transition to anybody," Steve promised.

"You can tell people about Emily," Arnold stated. "We are no longer going to keep that a secret. But don't tell anybody that Emily is Generation2k. We don't think any of the death threats are serious, especially as most of the complaints seem to come from bible belt Americans who have no idea where she even is, let alone be able to do anything about it."

"For some reason, I keep getting mistaken for Canadian," Emily answered, "No idea why. I might have said sorry a few times, but I don't think that I otherwise sound Canadian."

"These designer dresses," Anna queried, "are they actually real? I get the impression you mainly deal in imitation goods."

"Want to take a look?" Steven asked, smelling a possible sale.

~o~O~o~

"Got yourself a new car then," Arnold observed as Emily and Anna lifted the large box out of the back of the Volvo estate.

"Had too," Steve replied. "The jag gave up the ghost, blew the head gasket."

"Too costly to repair?" Arnold asked.

"I did buy a new engine off eBay for a couple of hundred," Steven replied. "but my mechanic mate, Arthur, who usually does my car and truck, has slipped a disk in his back and can't work. He's sold his business and has taken early retirement."

"What are you going to do now?"

"Probably sell it, if I can, otherwise scrap it. Pity, it was a good runner, but starting to show it's age."

"I know that look," Emily stated, seeing the grin appear on Anna's face.

"How much are you willing to take?" Anna asked.

"Why? you interested in buying?" Steve laughed, "you seem a bit young to drive."

"Actually, I can drive," Anna replied, "Just not legally on public roads. I also happen to know a bunch of girls who would love to get their hands dirty fitting a new engine to a car."

"The grease monkeys?" Emily realised who Anna was referring too. "Our school has mechanical engineering as a course, including a fully fitted garage workshop."

"As well as training for being a car mechanic, it also acts as a primer for anybody wishing to do any other form of engineering at university," Anna added. "While I'm not looking at that as a career path, I'm into business and languages, I know girls who are, and would like the challenge."

Having carried the box indoors, Emily and Marilyn started to inspect the contents, a number of dresses neatly folded in garment bags.

"So what is this car exactly," Anna asked.

"2008 X-type Jaguar estate. 170,000 miles on the clock. 2 Litre diesel. The replacement engine is also a 2-litre diesel with only 84,000 miles. Pale blue with ivory leather interior. Reckon I can get a grand for the lot on eBay."

Anna stroked her chin, considering her options. "I might be persuaded to pay that much, although that would depend on the condition. I do have the problem of getting it transported 200 miles away. I would have to factor the cost of transport into what I would be willing to pay."

"Let me have a word with my mates," Steven replied. "If I can borrow a low loader for my cab, I can tow it wherever you need it."

"I'm here until new year," Anna replied, "In the meantime, let's have a look at these garments."

"I don't think Gucci is spelt with a 'Y'," Emily queried as they started to look through the various garments on offer.