Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2024 08:14:29 +0000
From: Jonah
Subject: Harrovian life  chapter 4

Harrovian Life
by Jonah

It is a few years now since Nifty carried the story "A letter from
America".  A good few stories have succeded it and the action has moved
about a bit too.  In this one it is firmly back with Jonah in Harrow, but
some twenty years later.  Simon, Peter and Luke have grown up and in some
cases have children of their own.  This story comes immediately after
"Whiteout".  It is a work of fiction in every sense so, if you think you
recognise yourself, or somebody else, in here - you don't. At least one of
the characters was originally the creation of another author.  I'd like to
thank Jacob Lion, in the USA, for permission to use his characters.  The
story is about love - the real sort - so if you're looking for pornography,
you'd best look elsewhere.  Nifty doesn't charge either you or I to publish
these stories, but it does cost money to publish them.  Please consider
donating to Nifty at https://donate.nifty.org/ so that he can keep these
stories coming.

chapter 4

At least Doctor Warren looked pleased to see me next day.

"Thank God!"  he remarked.

"Pleased to see me then Doctor?"

"Well, yes.  Look, I don't want to put a damper on that, but I'd be pleased
to see Sweeney Todd rather than Adam's dad.  You should have seen him
yesterday afternoon.  So help me if I wasn't feeling suicidal as well by
the time he left."

"Yes, I know.  Where do you think he went when he left?"

"You have my sympathy."

"No, you can keep that.  I brought him up from just before he was nine.  He
was always a sensitive kid and hadn't had an easy time of it.  His mother
died giving birth to him and when he was eight he attempted suicide
himself.  He believes his mother's spirit talked him out of it.  To be
honest, I don't have any choice but to believe it too, since it's the only
explanation.  His father was murdered by a terrorist not long after that.
His wife - Adam's mother - is a fruitcake.  Not a pleasant fruitcake, but a
homophobic, hateful, violent one from whom Peter had to protect Adam for
seven years, until she tried to set fire to a policeman with petrol and is
now in a mental institution. Peter is a good, kind and loving parent, but
he's probably had to cope with a few too many traumas."

"Crumbs," said the doctor.  "It just shows the folly of judging people."

"I could write you a thesis on that.  How's my grandson this morning?"

"Physically, almost better.  That artery must be functioning and his body
is replacing the blood on its own.  Mentally, that's not my field, but
we've got the psychiatrist coming in to see him at twelve o' clock.  She'd
also like to see you if you can be around."

"I'll be around if you need me to be, but you must realise that, sooner or
later, you're going to have to let his father do his job."

"Yes, I'm beginning to understand that but, for the present, our priority
is to work out what we need to do with Adam once he's better.  Oh, and I'd
better introduce you to Connor's replacement."

I followed him onto the ward where I found a god sat next to Adam's bed.
He couldn't be more than around nineteen or twenty and his dark brown hair
was exuberantly combed using either cream or gel.  His green eyes shone and
his features were perfect, He wore a short sleeved polo shirt and cream
coloured slacks with flip-flops.

"Jonah, meet Billy," said the doctor.

"Hi Grandad," said Adam.

"That your grandad?" said Billy.  "I can see the family resemblance."

East London - unmistakably.

"Doubt it," I said.  "His father was adopted."

"Silly," giggled Adam.

""Who's silly?"  Billy protested.  "The resemblance is there.  Look - same
number of eyes, same number of nostrils, same number of ears.  I bet, if
you took his trousers down he'd have..."

"Yes, we get the picture Billy," said the doctor quickly.

"What, you've got pictures of his knee-caps?"  said Billy.

He got very confidential with Adam.

"You have to watch these doctors.  They've got pictures of everything," he
said.

Adam giggled.  It was good to see that.

"I'll leave you to it," muttered the doctor.

"Have a seat Joanie," said Billy, expansively.  "Take the weight off your
plates."

"Jonah," I said.  "Who's your friend Adam?"

His name's Billy.  He's a cockney."

"I'll bet he isn't," I replied.

"Cockney born and bred," returned Billy.

"Born within the sound of Bow bells?" I queried.

"Bromley High Street," he returned.

"Won't do," I replied.

"Course it'll do.  You could see Bow Church from the roof of our flats."

"Look son," I said evenly.  "You might have been born in Bromley by Bow
but, since you've been born, the bells haven't been able to get a word in
edgeways."

Adam cracked up at that and, within seconds, Billy joined him.

"Well, well, well." said a new voice, " If it isn't young Mr. Goodman.  I
thought it was quiet, up on Psycho.  Did you have any hind legs when you
came in Adam?  It's just that, if you did, Billy would have talked them off
by now."

"Morning Mrs. Coleman," said Billy, suddenly on his best behaviour.

"Billy," acknowledged the newcomer.  "Adam, and you must be Mr. Cummings.
My name's Roberta Coleman and I'm a consultant psychiatrist.  I have to do
an assessment on Adam, but first I'm going to have a word with Billy.  Yes,
you heard that right.  He does shut up and listen sometimes."

They departed to the corridor, leaving me alone with Adam for the first
time for days.

"Nervous?"  i asked.

"No," he replied.  "I was, but there's nothing to be scared of in here."

"What if she lets you out?" I queried,.

A frightened expression flickered across his face.

"Is there something to be scared of out there?" I asked him.

"Billy's going to have his lunch," said Mrs. Coleman,"so we can have a
little chat.  Adam you look concerned."

Adam quickly rearranged his features, but it was too late.

"Adam," I said.  "You could probably do with taking on board that everybody
in here is on your side.  You don't really need to hide things from
Mrs. Coleman, any more than you do from me - though you do that too don't
you?"

"Sorry," he whispered.

"Adam," said Mrs. Coleman.  "Does that mean that you'd prefer to talk to me
on my own, without your grandfather here?"

The boy turned frightened eyes toward me.  I stood and said,

"I'll be right outside."

The tight smile that flickered across her face conveyed both grattitude and
relief.  Round the corner from the ward were a few chairs and a vending
machine.  I got myself a coffee and sat down.

I must have been there ten minutes or more when a cheerful voice said,

"Banished to the corridor then Joanie?"

"Yes, Wilhemina, and so are you," I replied, "so take the weight off your
plates and moderate your Hobsons."

He did the latter at least as he whispered,

"I might just take a butchers to make sure I'm not needed."

"You'll take a butchers when you're tired of working here.  Now sit down."

That found its mark.

"Alright Squire, don't get your fairies in a tiswoz," he said as he sat
next to me.

We chatted in this fashion for another ten minutes until the psychiatrist
appeared.

"Billy, you'd better get back to your patient," she said.  "Keep up the
good work.  Mr. Cummings, perhaps you'd like to follow me."

Now, if you are imagining, gentle reader, that her invitation suggested
that I had a choice in the matter, then I'm not the author I thought I was.
This was not a lady who issued suggestions.  I followed her to the lift,
ascended to the fourth floor, then seated myself on the side of her desk
reserved for lesser mortals.  She took the throne.

"You've got yourself a problem, haven't you Mr. Cummings?"

"Yes, I need to work out whether I should address you as "Doctor", or
"Madam"," I replied.

"Why not Bobbie?" she said.  "The junior staff call me that when they think
I'm not listening so, go for it."

"Well, if you're happy with that....."

"Adam is the problem," she said.  "We currently have him on suicide watch
until I can assure the medical staff that it isn't necessary.  You just
heard me tell his nurse to stay with him, so I don't need to tell you the
chances of that happening.  You do know that Adam identifies himself as gay
don't you?"

"No, but I suspected.  He knows that I do too."

"Yes, and he knows somebody else who does, or at least who knows that he
does.  Mr. Cummings, Adam is displaying all the symptoms of a child who has
been sexually exploited against his will, and who blames himself for it."

I had a thousand questions, but didn't ask any of them.  What she knew, she
would tell me.  What she didn't, there was no point in asking.

"You don't seem surprised."

"My son-in-law, who is a primary school teacher, gave me the five commonest
reasons why children truant uncharacteristically.  Abuse by an adult he
listed as the least likely, but it was up there."

"He's right - it is the least likely but, none-the-less, that is what we
are looking at.  I am also going to ask you, for the present, to keep this
conversation confidential.  Sadly, I will have to involve the police, but
they will handle the case with discretion and will expect you and I to do
the same.  That includes in your conversations with Adam, and within your
family.  Adam admitted to me that it had taken place, but did so in
confidence.  It will be written in my report, which will be under lock and
key.  My advice to the medical staff will simply be that his nurse is
retained.  I've allocated another nurse for the night shift."

"You'll be aware that his school, with the assistance of the school welfare
officer, will be carrying out their own investigation into the truanting?"

"You can't help them with that," she replied brusquely.  "If they ask
questions, you know nothing other than what they already do.  They will
work out that we will be investigating, but you know nothing about it."

You may imagine that it was a very unhappy Jonah Cummings who made his way
back to Rayners Lane after that interview.  It seemed that the dog was the
only other being who I could talk to.

When I returned to the flat, a surprise awaited me.  Yes, Peter was there,
and Flash was there, but I was not expecting to find Garret there.

"How is he, Jonah," he asked as soon as he clapped eyes on me.

"Pysically, about mended, but that's the only good news."

"Does that mean what I think it does?"

"I'm afraid so.  Now how did you get permission to abandon Norfolk?"

"Simon wanted to come as well, but I had to recommend that he didn't bring
the boys, under the circumstances.  My boss says stay as long as I'm
needed.  That supply teacher won't miss an opportunity to get his grubby
mitts on my job anyway."

"I'm not sure the police will be so pleased.  It might complicate their
case, having another homosexual on the scene."

"I doubt they'd be so silly as to think they're looking for a homosexual.
Hardly any homosexuals are abusive.  Most abuse is committed by frustrated
heterosexuals."

"Well there's no shortage of those" I remarked.  "Have you eaten?"

"I had a sandwich on the train."

"And Peter hasn't offered you anything since?"

"I was waiting for you to come home," said Peter.  "I thought we could go
out for a bite."

"Well, now that I have come home, we can do exactly that," I said, "if
that's OK with you Garrett."

"It sounds good to me, if Flash is prepared to go along with it."

"Get down Flash....down!" I said, pushing the dog off of the sofa.  Flash
uttered one sharp bark, but then retired to the kitchen where his basket
awaited.

We took a brief walk round the corner to the Imperial Cafe and provided
ourselves with tea and a hearty meal choosing, this early in the year, to
eat it indoors.  I presumed that it was the desire for space inside that
had prompted the proprietors to put tables outside, rather than optimism
about the weather.  In any case, it was a good place to relax and chat,
carefully avoiding the topic that Garret correctly guessed that I didn't
want to talk about.

Mobile telephones are a terrible thing and I was not happy for mine to
interrupt our meal, or our conversation.

"Jonah Cummings."

"Joanie, it's me....."

"It might be you Billy but, if you call me that once more it'll be you in
hospital - oh - I expect you already are.  What's happened?"

"Nothing Sir, but there are two policemen here that want to talk to Adam.
I just wanted to know if I should let them."