The Toymaster's Castle

Chapter One - A New Job

I never thought I was going to find a job like this - in fact, I wasn't really expecting to get any sort of job at all with the permanent depression the economy had been in for the last couple of years.

And Marchwood Enterprises was an absolutely stunning place. Their offices were totally amazing; right at the top of one of the biggest, poshest tower blocks in Canary Wharf... one of the most impressive addresses in the whole of London. You could see for miles and miles and I could have just stared out of the windows for hours. Luckily, the little desk they'd given me was right by the glass door to the lobby bit by the lifts. That meant I couldn't see any windows which was probably a good thing or I'd have never got anything done!

And everybody was so smart and stylish... I really didn't feel like I belonged there!

I was working with somebody called Mandy. She was one of the super glamorous ladies that seemed to be floating around everywhere but I was quickly getting the impression that she didn't really have all that much idea what she was doing. She was trying to persuade their super high-tech printer-copier thing to print out the staff handbook for me and she was making a complete mess of it.

"Should I have a go?" I suggested cautiously. I mean... I wasn't feeling exactly comfortable in those super swish offices and I didn't want the posh people to think I was being pushy or anything.

"Yes please!" she replied and she sounded quite ridiculously grateful... I guess I didn't have to worry about that anymore.

So I went over to the machine and printed out the handbook... pages folded in half and stapled with a different colour cover sheet. I mean... I'd always found that sort of thing pretty easy in my 'Office Technology' course at college but, for some reason, most of the other kids seemed to have real problems with it - particularly the girls.

The machine was right outside the big boss's office and, as I was busy doing the printing, I got the feeling I was being watched and, when I looked around, he was giving me a bit of a funny look. He was on the phone so he couldn't say anything but, when he saw I'd noticed, he did this funny twitchy eyebrow thing in my direction.

He was a lot younger than I'd have expected for such an important person and he looked quite amazingly smart in a suit and tie and things and, for some reason, the idea that he was watching me did funny things to my tummy.

So, when I was done, I scurried back across to Mandy who was just sitting there and messing about with her fingernails. She was basically amazed and told another couple of the girls who made a complete fuss about it and generally gave the impression that I'd just performed brain surgery or something.

Then she asked me to make coffee for the big boss guy. Luckily, the lady who taught the 'Office Technology' course had worked out that, even though it wasn't on the syllabus, it would be a good thing for us to know how to produce 'executive quality coffee'. So every lesson, one of us would get to practice!

Of course, it might just have been an excuse to get a nice cup of coffee made for her!

So I produced a cup of my finest brew and carried it along to his office.

He was busy on the phone so I sort of hovered by the door, kind of secretly inspecting him.

He was a big man - tall and broad and, though he looked pretty solid, he didn't seem to be carrying too much extra weight around with him. He had long, fair, slightly wavy hair and a couple of days of stubble on his chin. His eyes were blue and, just at the moment, they were sparkling with irritation.

But, when he saw me, he gave me various hand wavy type instructions which basically told me to come in, put the coffee down and wait.

And, as I was waiting, I took a sneaky look around - his office was even more posh than the rest of the place with a thick carpet and beautiful wooden furniture. He even had some sort of small palm tree behind his desk. And his chair basically looked like a leather throne!