Take a Chance on Me (12 page)

C
harlie was tired
when she returned home. It had been a good day. She and Mercedes had explored the rest of the park and enjoyed the other more genteel attractions together. They'd visited the Haunted Hollow and had a raucous time at the
Ice Age 4D
experience. Alton Towers was vast and it had taken a while to navigate around the park and take it all in. She didn't see Jake, Toby or the stunning woman again.

She felt she had done something important. Although that seemed silly, part of her rejoiced that she had experienced the roller coaster. She couldn't quite put her finger on the feeling, but it was akin to feeling braver. She had made a positive step. Riding on the roller coaster playing a kazoo, at her age, had released some inner tension. It had brought out a more youthful side. Amy would have laughed herself senseless if she could have seen her mother at the park. And, of course, Jake had been there. She had enjoyed his attention. She wondered idly if Jake had thrown the plastic kazoo away or kept it. She rather hoped he still had it, then brushed all thoughts of him away. He had an attractive woman in tow and the chances of seeing him again were minimal, whereas the text she had received from Rob from Thailand left nothing to the imagination:

He wasn't one to mince words and, as far as she could remember, he had been good company. There would be nothing serious in any relationship with him and it had been a very long time since she had been with a man. The belly dancing lessons, along with her refreshed attitude, had awoken the woman in her. She hesitated, and then, fuelled by the achievement of the day, replied to the text:

Before she could change her mind she hit the send button.
What the heck
, she thought, it was about time she started enjoying herself again.

There was nothing she wanted to watch on television, so she settled down in front of her computer to plan her show for the next day. The film
Patch Adams
had given her the idea to try and bring humour into the patient's lives and her show centred on the principal that light-hearted fun would be a welcome relief for the patients in the hospital. She also believed laughter helped promote healing. On that basis, she spent hours collecting jokes from various online sites and forums. It was her mission to make every show as enjoyable as possible. Part of her wondered if Amy had been able to listen to a cheerful voice and lively music, whether it might have helped her come out of the coma.

She clicked onto the hospital website to get her emails and was surprised to see a link to a video on YouTube called ‘Charlie's Challenge'. She clicked on it and watched a video obviously taken by someone watching the Oblivion ride from the ground. It showed the cars groaning up the track from below, revealing the steel girders and structure of the ride. The picture switched to show the car sitting at the top of the ride looking as if it would fall off the structure at any given moment. Next, it showed the people on the ride. Some in the back car had their arms up as if doing a Mexican wave. The camera panned across some of the faces of the teenagers at the back of the car who gave a thumbs up, then along the front row where she recognised Jake whistling and herself white-faced but playing the kazoo with enthusiasm. The camera then followed the rapid descent of the car as it fell into the black hole to a loud chorus of singing. The video finished with the car emerging from the tunnel where it twisted and turned on the track accompanied by more whistling and whoops of joy, as well as the unmistakable sound of a kazoo.

Charlie sat in astonishment. Who had taken the video? More importantly, why had it already attracted six hundred views?

T
he following day
, Charlie was greeted effusively by the small team at City Hospital Radio as she walked into the staff meeting.

‘See you've created a video star,' Sam remarked to Mercedes. ‘You might have started something with this
Challenge Charlie
.'

‘It was supposed to help her gain some confidence and try to inject some excitement into her life. Looks like I might have to alter the goalposts a little now,' replied Mercedes.

‘Oh no, I know that look. You are clearly up to mischief. How does that husband of yours cope with you? I bet you wind him up all the time.'

‘No, he always makes me behave. It's his detective skills, you see. I'm powerless once he interrogates me,' laughed Mercedes.

‘Ah, the lady of the moment. Can I have your autograph please, Charlie? Will you remember us little people when you are a mega-important film star or TV presenter?' asked Vernon Toy, another of the presenters, as he came into the room and spied Charlie.

Charlie tapped him over the head with her rolled-up notes. ‘Idiot. It was a roller coaster ride. That's all.'

‘Ah! But what next? That's what we want to know. What will you be up to next?'

Sean came into the studio, trailed by a couple of other radio volunteers.

‘So, Sean, where did the video come from?' asked Mercedes.

‘I thought you'd sent it,' replied Sean.

‘No, I didn't take it. If I'd taken it, it would have mostly been footage of people's backs from where I was positioned.'

‘Oh, that's odd. I received a link to the video through the hospital website. There was no email address. It just said “For the attention of City Hospital radio”. I thought you sent it to me to upload on to the site. I put the link up last night and managed to load the actual video from YouTube onto our site this morning. It's attracting a fair amount of attention.'

‘One thousand hits when I looked,' said Vivienne, another technician who also worked part-time on reception at the hospital. ‘Anyone know why we're here?'

‘Meeting,' mumbled Sean.

‘Twit! I know we're here for a meeting. Any ideas what it is about?'

‘No. I thought it was about programme schedules and the like. Maybe they're going to let us have a wide-screen telly in the studio with a live link to Sky. I think they've got one like that at Winchester.'

Sam piped up, ‘Fat chance. We're on a tight budget here.'

Another presenter wandered in clutching cups of takeaway coffee, followed by a couple of hospital officials.

‘Good afternoon, everyone,' said a pale-faced balding man. His hospital nametag, Mr Andrew Carnegie, was on upside down. ‘Thank you for taking the time to come here for the meeting. I could have emailed you all but I wanted to talk to you about this face-to-face because I know how special City Hospital Radio is to you all.' Charlie felt a familiar sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. There was bad news. She could tell by the look on Andrew Carnegie's face.

‘It's a hard task raising the running costs on the radio station. Last year's fundraising events – the dinner dance, the charity stall at the local market, annual grand draw, and charity coach outings – brought in one thousand, seven hundred and forty-five pounds. We received support for the service from local businesses, local trust funds and members of the public, who all contributed in their own way, taking the total up to three thousand, two hundred pounds. But that was barely enough to see us through the year.'

The room fell silent. Charlie had a bad feeling about what had not yet been said.

‘I've been in discussions with the board, and although we believe that City Hospital radio is a valuable asset to the community here and you all work tirelessly and give generously of your free time, we're not going to be able to keep it running unless we find significant funding.'

There were gasps all around the studio. Charlie felt ill.

‘The equipment is, as you realise, old, and in spite of the efforts of this superb team, and we're all very proud of you, we're not going to be able to maintain it for much longer. On top of that, there are plans to revamp the current studio and use it to house vital medical equipment. The hospital is very tight on space and can't afford to have us taking up valuable room. They say we can erect a structure in the car park of the hospital and use that, but again that'll cost a large amount to set up and equip. We examined costs for running the radio. I'd like to share them with you to give you an idea of what we are up against. Sarah, can you run down the list of costs please for these good people?'

His assistant coughed then read out, ‘Ink toner for the printer fifty pounds; six months rental of phone line one hundred pounds; annual subscription to Sky for news bulletins and interviews three hundred pounds; annual internet access and infrastructure six hundred pounds; annual music copyright fees one thousand pounds; annual insurance one thousand, six hundred pounds; and new mixing deck seven thousand, five hundred pounds.'

‘Thank you, Sarah. In addition to that list, we not only need funds to relocate the studio, and we've had two quotes in for that, but we require funds for upkeep of the system in the hospital. We are behind the times compared to some hospitals. Really we should be offering a more modern Wi-Fi system, but as you know, some wards still have the old bedhead units and they each cost approximately seventy pounds to replace.' The team waited for the bombshell announcement that was now obvious.

‘So, it is with a heavy heart that I have to say the prognosis for our little station is not looking too good. If anyone has any ideas of how we can resolve this, or any other fundraising ideas, or a rich relative,' he paused but no laughs came. ‘Please let me know. Sorry to bring you bad news. Let's hope we can turn it around and keep going.'

He waited for any comments but silence hung in the air. Mercedes looked shell-shocked. Sam put an arm around Vivienne who was suddenly tearful.

Charlie stood dumbfounded. She couldn't let City Radio go off air. She would fight with every breath left in her to keep it going. The patients needed the station, the community needed it and she and the team here needed it. She thought about the video hits on the website, took a deep breath and said, ‘Excuse me, Andrew, I might have an idea to raise some funds.'

‘
A
re you sure about this
?' asked Andrew Carnegie, after Charlie voiced her idea.

‘Charlie, it's genius!' said Sam.

‘I can organise it all,' squeaked Mercedes. ‘I've got some wicked ideas.'

‘Not too wicked, I hope,' smiled Charlie.

‘So, the plan is to sponsor Charlie to do outrageous challenges. She'll take one of the team with her to video the event and Sean will upload the films onto YouTube and onto our website. We'll collect money, as and when she completes each challenge. We could also turn it into a sort of competition and get the public to choose challenges too. We'll pull one out of a hat each time and Charlie has to complete it. Sounds great. Any ideas for Charlie's first challenge?'

‘We don't need the public to choose challenges. I've got plenty for her and I know what the first one should be,' said Mercedes. ‘In fact, I've already prepared her for it.'

‘Okay, what do you suggest?'

‘Ta-dah!' said Mercedes, pulling out a leaflet from her pocket. Charlie caught sight of the front of it and groaned.

‘Mercedes you frightful fiend, you're going to test me beyond my limits.'

‘“Throw someone you love off a cliff?”' read Andrew. ‘“UK's maddest zip wire – four hundred and ninety metres long, fifty metres high and reaching speeds of forty miles per hour. Twin parallel wires cross the flooded depths of the old quarry, sheer cliffs rise on either side”. Sounds ideal. Sarah, could you please get a press release ready. We'll send you in four weeks' time, Charlie. That'll give us a chance to promote it and get some sponsors. If you could all tell everyone you know, we'll see how this goes. Well done everyone. Well done, Charlie.'

T
he four weeks
went by in a flash. Charlie tried hard not to think too much about the challenge ahead but it was difficult given everyone in the hospital kept mentioning it. Even outside of the hospital, she couldn't escape it. Patricia designed small posters about the challenge. She and Art put them up all over the town and plastered them on the door to the café.

The hospital presenters promoted the event with gusto. Sam spent every afternoon going around the wards and standing outside the hospital with a bucket, asking people to give generously to sponsor Charlie. And then there were the calls to suggest challenges. Charlie was most nervous about this. It was one thing to let her best friend pick challenges for her and altogether a different thing to let a complete stranger choose one.

‘So, if any of you want to issue Charlie with a challenge, write it out on one of our request forms and put it in the large wooden box at reception marked City Radio. You could win the chance to accompany Charlie and have your photo taken with her if she completes the challenge. If Charlie doesn't complete your challenge, we'll treat you and a partner to a slap-up meal at the Zagora restaurant thanks to Fatima. Let your imagination run wild – the wackier, the better. We'll be watching on Saturday to see if Charlie can overcome her fear of heights and slide down the UK's largest zip wire.

‘Right without further ado let's get onto today's
Challenge Charlie
track, which is “Flying Without Wings”,'
announced Sam, turning up the volume and settling back in the chair. It creaked. He poured a cup of coffee from his thermos and tore off the end of his corned beef sandwich. He'd be lost without City Hospital Radio. He hoped fervently that Charlie's idea would work. He'd been at the station for ten years. He told everyone he preferred working there to watching soap operas with his wife, but the truth was that he hated being at home. Brenda was always wrapped up with the grandkids, or her book club. She had so many hobbies and friends, whereas all he had was his music, and City. He didn't even want to think about what would happen if it finished. He was sixty-five years old, retired and lonely. City Radio was his life. He drained his cup and put his headphones back on. He hoped Charlie was up to it and silently wished her well.