1972 School Magazine

'U/l'o 'lror{J C"{u u-Nu['o* o[ru^y' weor', a grey '*ff? Colin Nelson had two children and a plain middle-aged wife. He did not marry for anthing as romantic or unreliable as love. He married Mary because, as her mother had said "She sews, cooks and loves to potter around the house". Even the two children were there for a reason. Someone had to inherit the family name and look after him in his retirement. But surely that practical, timid little man could not have embezzled $100,000. Could his imaginative desires have been that strong! What happened to Colin Nelson? He is dead. He died of a heart attack resulting from nervous strain in a las Vegas bound plane. He died with a very very sliglrt moustache. Ashleigh Merritt, 54

Monday to Friday, he wore his grey suit (that didn't show the dirt so much) and black tie to the bank, where he worked and had worked since his father had inttoduced him twenty-three years ago. In that time he had received two rises in pay and one promotion to clerk. He was last to leave at night and caught the five minutes past six commuter train home, where his dinner would be waiting. The usual trivia between husband and wife was exchanged, the newspaper read and then Colin retired at ten o'clock to his bedroom, in order that he could get the necessary sleep for the next day at the bank. Colin Nelson was bogged, stuck, trapped and securely shackled. He would be the most practical, withdrawn, mousey man that I have ever seen. As he lay awake at niglrt with his wife curled in sleep like a cocooned caterpillar remote from its surroundings, visions, dreams, thoughts and ideas came willingly to his mind. A moustached and suave gentlemen with greying temples walks into the Casino of the Las Vegas "Sands". Wandering indifferently between the tables, he tosses $1,000 chips carelessly on a number. He waits for the almost sure returns. (He is noted for his uncanny,., luck in gambling) and moves on. Or, if thinp are too dull, Jre is to be looated at his plantation. The idearof the "Big White Master" appeals to him. Power has a certain magnificent awe-inspiring quality that is lodged deep in his eyes. His thrills come from risks taken and fantastic enacted. His idiosyncrasies and eccentric (by the average man's standard) habits are accepted because of his wealth. On the day preceding his twenty-fifth anniversary with the bank, Mr. Nelson rose as he always did, donning his usual grey suit, now with reinforced elbows. Whilst shaving, he missed the hairs on his upper lip and looked in the shaving mirror and examined his grey eyes. He kissed his wife goodbye at the door and walked, almost danced to the bank. This could have been due to the watch that he was wearing, which had been given to him the last night by the bank for loyal sewice. He locked up as usual that night but he missed the five past six. His dinner was put back in the oven. In the morning the employees thought it odd that the clerk had not arrived. It took the manager a few days to discover the $100,000 that had been cleverly and meticulously removed from the books.

Llrftr **

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