سکان روی دیوار

The Wheel on the Wall

‘Well, just take a look at that wheel!’ Earl Cooper said to Candy, his wife. ‘It must be much older than anything we have back home.’

When Earl Cooper travelled he always thought of home. But there weren’t many really old buildings in Texas. Now he was in Portsmouth in the south of England. Portsmouth, Earl knew, was one of the best places to see old ships. Earl liked old things. They were staying at a pub which was very near to the sea. They could see lots of ships from the pub - that’s why they liked it.

Earl was looking at the wall outside the pub. The pub’s name, The Old Swan, was on the wall. Next to the name was a wooden ship’s wheel and in the middle of the wheel was the name of a ship, HMS Swan. The wheel was old, Earl could tell. And it was there, just above his head.

The Old Swan was hundreds of years old. Earl knew because it said so on the sign by the wheel. It said that in the past sailors used the pub before they went to sea. Now the pub sold food and drink to tourists. They watched the ships and listened to the sea birds while they ate their meals.

Earl Cooper was sixty years old and both of his children - Marylou and Earl Junior - were parents themselves. Earl didn’t work anymore. He had enough money. More than enough.

Earl looked at the sign again. It told him how the oldest part of the pub was from 1350. The pub was bigger now, of course, but all of it was old. ‘How can a place be so old’ thought Earl. And it was still being used.

‘Are you getting ideas again, honey’ asked Candy. They always called each other ‘honey’. ‘You and your ideas! Sometimes you’re just like a little boy, you big old thing!’

Candy liked to say things like that. But she liked him just as he was. Her husband loved finding out about the past.

Earl knew all about his family name of Cooper. The family came from Portsmouth - that was why they were on holiday there now. The last Cooper to live in Portsmouth was his great-grandfather, Benjamin Cooper. Benjamin sailed from Portsmouth in 1875 at the age of nineteen. He wanted to make himself rich in America.

He didn’t make himself rich but he had a good life. Benjamin died in Texas when he was sixty-three years old in 1919. It was just after the end of the First World War. Benjamin was waiting for his son, Ralph, to come back from the war in Europe. Just before Benjamin died, Ralph came back to America. He only had one arm now but he had a new wife. Ralph was Earl’s grandfather.

Ralph Cooper always remembered the old things he saw in Europe in the war. He just loved stories about the past. He gave that love of the past to his children and to Earl. Earl was always his favourite grandson. Ralph told Earl lots of stories about old England. Other children heard cowboy stories from their grandfathers: Earl got old England.

Earl remembered Ralph. ‘And here I am,’ he thought to himself, ‘standing in front of one of the oldest buildings I’ve ever seen. Not only that, it’s in the very place where my great-grandfather, Benjamin Cooper, came from.’

Earl knew something else, too. Benjamin Cooper came to America on a sailing ship called The Swan. It was already an old ship in 1875 and Earl thought that there was nothing left of it now. But now he knew there was something left of the old ship. And there it was - the wheel on the wall of the The Old Swan pub.

Earl knew he wanted the wheel. He wanted to take it home to Texas. It was a part of his family history. It had to be his.

Earl and Candy had a good meal that evening, some fine English beer and then a good night’s sleep. When he woke up, Earl knew just what to do. He told Candy all about it while they were eating breakfast.

‘You know, honey, that ship’s wheel is from old Benjamin Cooper’s ship. I just know it. That’s why I want to take it back home.’

‘I understand, honey,’ Candy answered with a smile. ‘But it’s part of this pub now.’

‘I know’ said Earl with a loud laugh. ‘But we can buy it! What do you think, Candy?’

Earl looked very happy and everyone in the room heard his laugh. People were looking at him.

‘But honey,’ asked Candy, ‘what if they don’t want to sell? What if they don’t want anybody else to have their ship’s wheel? After all, they’ve had it for all these years. It could be very expensive. They don’t give things like that away for nothing, you know.’

‘I’ve thought about that, honey,’ Earl replied. ‘And I agree with you. But everything has a price and I’ve got the money. Hey, they’re a business, aren’t they? They understand money all right, you just wait and see.’

After breakfast Earl asked to see Tony Thatcher. The Old Swan was Tony’s pub. Tony was a small, thin man with a big smile. He wore nice clothes and was always friendly to the people who came to his pub. With rich tourists he was very friendly. His red Jaguar sports car was usually outside the pub. It was what they call a ‘classic’ car - it was old and cost a lot of money.

Tony Thatcher took Earl to his office while Candy had a coffee outside by the river. Earl said he could give Tony a lot of money for the ship’s wheel. He told Tony about Benjamin Cooper and his family history. But Tony said no at first. After all, the wheel was very old and it was part of the pub’s past.

‘You can think of the past, Mr Thatcher - can I call you Tony? - or you can think of today. And with the money, Tony, you can buy another sports car. Maybe another old Jaguar? And, as I’ve told you, the wheel is part of my family’s past, too. So you could say it’s going back home, in a way. So, what do you say?’

A month later, Earl and Candy were smiling as they looked at the wall of their house in Houston, Texas. Earl thought to himself that, at last, he had a piece of his family’s past. He was happy.

In Portsmouth, Tony Thatcher was happy, too. He was putting another Jaguar into his large garage. He was careful not to drive into any of the six ships wheels in the garage. A friend of his made the wheels for him.

They were just like the one that Earl bought. And there was another wheel on the outside wall of The Old Swan now. Old or new - Tony thought there was no way that a tourist could ever know which was which. Never in a hundred years.