“Have you been to the bank?” she asked him. “Yes, I’ve been down and got £200.00 out and I filled my car up this afternoon, so I’m all set to go” replied Andy. “Good. Here’s money to pay for the room” said Bella, handing £300.00 to Andy. “Thank you sweetie, that’s £500.00 in cash which is more than enough for the trip”. After another couple of drinks, they left and went to Bella’s, “I will just put my spare phone on charge for your sweetie” she said and went in the kitchen to fetch it, when she returned she plugged it in and sat down on the sofa. “It’ll be fully changed by the time you go in the morning” she said with a smile. They sat chatting for half an hour whilst she had a whiskey Mac and then they both went to bed; it wouldtake about six and a half hours to travel up to Scotland, so Andy needed to get some sleep. In the morning they both got up at 8.00am and after having a coffee and a couple of fags with Bella, he picked up the phone and charger and they said their goodbyes. “Have a good trip sweetie, take care and phoneme when you get there. “Said Bella. “I will” replied Andy before setting off.
He had a good trip up and once he’d booked into the hotel, he phoned Bella. “Hi sweetie I’ve just booked in – the room’s lovely. The windows open wide too so I can have a sneaky fag!” “Excellent” replied Bella, “What’s the rest of the hotel like?” “It’s perfect” said Andy, “the bar’s really cosy and there’s a pub just two minutes’ walk down the road.” “Fab. Did you have a good trip up, what were the roads like, were there any road works?” Bella said. She was fishing for information as she had to factor in any potential delays for their trip up, as timing was very important, any set-backs could ruin the plan. They needed to meet up with Andy after dark when the falls were still flowing fast, for the plan to work. “No” said Andy, traffic was fine on the M6 and no road works for a change”. “Excellent” said Bella, “well, you have a good stay, chill out a bit and I will see you in a couple of days.” “Ok” said Andy “I’ll catch you soon.”
Not long after Andy had left that morning Alicia picked Bella up and drove her to Derby to pick up the hire car, Bella had driven it back and parked it in the Hay mill Lane car park- out of the way and out of sight of the High Street and Alicia had picked her up from the car park and brought her home. They were going to set off the next day at 8.00am - that would give them plenty of time just in case of delays, to get up to Connell and get into position. They were going to travel up non-stop, they would take drinks and some food with them, that way they’d avoid stopping at services where they might be caught on CCTV - potentially incriminating them later. It was maybe a little OTT, but Bella’s OCD meant that she covered every eventuality, knowing they only had this one chance to get it right.
The day before Alicia had picked up the shrinking drug from her scientist friend Carol – she’d known her a long time and trusted her completely. Carol detested men having been fucked over several times in the past and had used the drug herself to dispose of a couple of prats who’d disappointed her. Alicia had, with Bella’s agreement, promised Carol that she could come round and join them when Andy was plump and ready for roasting, in lieu of paying for the drug; something Carol was very much looking forward to. She had told Alicia the drug was to be injected into any part of the body and explained how long the shrinking process would take, telling her that it would also erase Andy’s memory 10 minutes before he was shrunk. That memory loss would come in useful when he finally regained consciousness. She also gave Alicia a syringe to administer the drug telling her the exact amount to use to shrink Andy to one third of his original size.
“We need to get some sleep, it will be a long day tomorrow” said Bella. After pouring herself a whisky Mac they both went up to bed and talked for a while about how much fun they were going to have with Andy and after a while they fell asleep in each other’s arms. The next morning, they were up at 9am and after a light breakfast they loaded a large suitcase into Alicia’s car along with enough food and drink for the journey. The plan was to put the shrunken Andy into the suitcase to transport him back to Bella’s house and they’d agreed to place it in the boot for the trip back down, keeping him very much out of sight. After the drug was administered it would render him unconscious in seconds and the shrinking process would start to happen within those first two minutes, it would then take another three minutes for him to be fully shrunk down to 2ft high. Carol had reassured them that he would remain unconscious for about 8 hours giving them more than enough time to get him back to Bella’s and into the cage that she and Alicia had put under the stairs, having cleared all of her shoes and coats out, relocating them to the dressing room the day before.
They set off at 10am, Alicia drove the short distance to the car park where the hire car was parked and after transferring the suitcase into the boot along with the rest of their supplies, they set off for bonny Scotland. The weather was good and the traffic moderate and they made the trip in plenty of time, despite having to leave the M6 at one point and find somewhere without CCTV to have a pee before re-joining the motorway. Bella had studied the area carefully using Google maps and knew exactly where the phone box was that she would use to call Andy and the spot they would park to wait for him. It was now 17.50, Bella parked the car near to the phone box and got out of the car, it was quiet, and she could see no one around – the coast was clear; perfect. She walked the short distance to the phone box and entered it, picking up the receiver she put the coin in and rang the number of her spare phone. “Hello?” Andy said, not recognising the number. “Hi Sweetie, its Bel” “Aloha, where are you calling from? I don’t recognise the number?”. “Yes, pants, my phone battery died on me, I’m calling from a phone box here in Connell!” “Connell!! What the fuck are you doing up here?” asked Andy? “I have come up to surprise you and stay for a couple of days!” “Wow, that’s brilliant!! Where are you now?” “I’m in a phone box, just down the road, give me two minutes and meet me just up the road from your digs.” Bella then told Andy to turn right out of the Hotel and just walk up the road and she would be parked on the right in a lay-by, the plan was to head to the local for a beer and some supper. “Ok sweetie, see you in five” said Andy, and ended the call.
