Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2024 07:24:58 +0000 From: Jonah Subject: Harrovian life chapter 7 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 7 Garret and Peter had already left for Northwick Park when I got up and breakfasted on Monday morning. Since both of them were expected for dinner, I went and shopped and then made a start on peeling potatoes preparatory to manufacturing cottage pie. The peeling was interrupted by the telephone. "Jonah Cummmings." "Good morning Mr. Cummings, It's Lucy Manners. How is Adam." "Physically recovering but still in a bad way," I replied. "Oh dear, I am sorry to hear that. What I wanted to ask is whether either you or Mr. Khan can pop into the school sometime." "Can I ask what for Mrs. Manners?" I asked. "There are one or two things we urgently need to discuss." "I'm sorry Mrs. Manners but I don't feel that urgent need at all. In fact, since Adam isn't in school at the moment, we don't currently have any connection with your school." "I appreciate that Mr. Cummings but I still have a school to run and there are a few questions I need answered." "Such as how a child in your care can be abducted from school during break-time, and sexually abused badly enough for him to subsequently attempt suicide?" "Mr. Cummings, I have to warn you that that case has not yet gone to court." That was the moment when any little sympathy I might have had for the lady evaporated completely. Instead of expressing sympathy, or an apology, she had issued a warning. Well, so be it. "Then we have nothing to discuss. If you still have questions regarding the case, you'll have to put them to the police." "Mr. Cummings, Adam is still a pupil at this school." "Currently he is, but he is not in school. Whether he will resume school at your school is not something I can discuss with you. I'm not his parent." "But we still have a duty of care for him." "You had one last week as well. Now he is the subject of a police case in which you're not allowed to interfere. I'd strongly advise you to leave it like that - unless you have something that wants hiding or covering up." The line went dead. That wasn't wise. If I'd been suspecting something, she'd have just confirmed it. I didn't suspect something. Was it possible that the headmistress had known more about the School Welfare Officer's activities than she should have done? Well she certainly seemed keen to find out what I knew and suddenly hanging up like that suggested more than damage limitation. It was still a couple of hours to dinner time. I'd got time to go for a walk. It was a long walk to South Harrow police station, and I had no guarantee that Jason Roberts would be on duty when I got there, but any other officer could have advised me. When I asked the young constable on the desk if Jason was on duty he simply replied, "Yes, of course. SARGE...." Jason had been standing, out of view, in the stairwell. "Hallo Jonah, come on in," he said, moving to the locked door. "Evan, I'll mind the shop for a bit if you want to put the kettle on." The locked door opened and I entered into the heart of South Harrow Police Station. "Have a seat Jonah. What can we do for you?" "You can't Jason. It's just something I thought you should know. I had a phone call this morning from the headmistress of Adam's school. She said there were things we urgently needed to discuss. There was nothing I urgently needed to discuss and I wondered why she was feeling the urgent need." "Are you suspecting that she knew more about the SWO's activities than she should have?" "No, I'm not, but you are. Being a policeman, it's your job to have a nasty suspicious mind, but it's not mine." "Jonah, if that is the case, I'd just like to say how grateful I am that you acted on these suspicions that you don't have, and came here to tell me about them." "Oh, I didn't come to do that. I came because PC Williams makes excellent tea." Right on cue Evan Williams produced the tray complete with brown, porcelain teapot and an assortment of mugs. "Are we going to call round to see her sarge?" said Evan. "For why Constable? All she has done is been very active at a time when inactivity would have been wiser. If something is amiss, we'd do better to leave well alone and let her carry on doing it. She made a mistake this morning and, if we leave her alone, she might make more." It really was excellent tea. Back at the flat I found the potatoes on the boil. Garret and Peter had finished the job. "How's my grandson?" "Mrs. Coleman," said Peter, " says she had a long chat with him and she sees no reason to waste a psychiatric nurse on him." "She's quite confident of that?" "Very," said Garret, "but the psychiatric nurse in question begs to differ. He apparently told her in no uncertain terms that if she thought he was going to leave Adam all alone, she could think again." "What did she say to that?" "She says it's neither here nor there as she's discharging him tomorrow anyway. Billy can't follow him here." There was a very loud hammering on the door. "POLICE - OPEN UP," called a familiar voice. Behind Luke, in the stairwell was Rikki, to whom were strapped two very, very small children. "Come on in, and, Rikki, get yourself sat down." I told them. Both babies appeared to be asleep though that didn't stop the boy from clenching and unclenching his little fist. His sister moaned softly then curled closer to her mother. Luke sat next to Rikki and commenced helping her to unstrap her offspring. Cynthia was laid in her mother's lap whilst Luke took charge of Charlie. "You know you used to look like that Luke?" I commented. " That's just hearsay," Luke replied. "You've never met anyone who witnessed it." It was pretty certain that anyone who witnessed it was dead. Time to change the subject. "When did you get them home?" "Early on this morning." Luke replied. "We were home for ten o' clock so we had some dinner, then we couldn't wait to bring them round to see their grandad." "And you can see how excited they are," added Rikki. "They're excited inside," I told her. "The outward show of nonchalance is something they learned from their dad." "They learned it quick," observed Rikki. "They saw him for the first time yesterday." "They're Cummingses," I replied. "Tait-Cummingses," Rikki ammended. I was surprised since Luke had refused the hyphen when it had been offered to him. "Tait is Rikki's surname," Luke explained. "I don't get a say in whether they have it." "Even if we were married," Rikki continued, "I wouldn't have taken Luke's surname. I wouldn't mind so much if I had any brothers to carry on the family name, but there's nobody. I can't let it die out." "No, of course you can't," I conceded. "How's young Adam?" asked Luke. "Coming home tomorrow," Peter replied. "Best keep him off school till after the trial," Luke remarked. "There'll be newspaper publicity and his classmates might see or hear of it." "It's not legal to keep him off school," I reminded him. "What're they going to do? Send the school welfare officer round? You can legitimately keep him off sick. He's recuperating. They won't want any contact with him during the trial anyway" "His headmistress rang up here this morning." Luke looked surprised. "What did she want?" "To discuss some things urgently." "Have you told the Police?" "Yes - twice now." "Sergeant Roberts?" "Yes." "What's he doing?" "Nothing. Says she's just made a mistake and, left to her own devices, she might make others." Luke grinned. "Good copper, Jason. He's got that right. He could have written the textbook." "Isn't that entrapment?" "What did you say to her?" "Well, I reminded her that Adam had been abducted from her school and she reminded me that the case is yet to be heard. Classic case of wanting to have your cake and eat it, so I told her that she'd be better not discussing it, unless she had something to hide. She hung up on me." "So, if Jason hasn't warned her, you have. She can hardly claim entrapment." Cynthia, at this moment, grew tired of her father talking shop, and said so. It was hard to believe that such a lot of noise could emanate from such a small human. Flash took cover in the kitchen. He had been curious but, in the face of this onslaught, he decided on discretion. Rikki lifted the child to her shoulder to try to sooth her, but immediately wrinkled her nose. "You little stinker," she said. "Luke, can you get her bag from the car?" Luke handed Charlie to me. I don't know whether it was the noise from his sister, or being transferred from person to person that Charlie objected to. Whatever it was, he objected - loudly. Rikki produced a dummy-teet which I took from her and inserted it in Charlie's mouth. He sucked curiously for a second or two and then set to with a will. Suction was, apparently, more important than noise. This wasn't a large child either. The wartime Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, once said that all babies look like him. Well, I could see the resemblance. He appeared to have more hair than Churchill, of the whispy, ginger sort, but the great orator and statesman was faithfully represented. It was many years since a baby had been changed in my living room. Jacob had been the last. The pungent aromas brought back memories. Given that my parent's family had disintegrated pretty conclusively during my teenage years, I was by no means dissatisfied with mine. There seemed to be a rightness about things. We were late getting our cottage pie that day, but I never heard any complaints. Later on I put through a call to Social Services. I spoke to their director, Mrs. Hoylake, and told her that I had a child on the premises who had attempted suicide after being sexually abused by a non-family member. I was anxious to secure some kind of counselling for him. She promised to send someone to assess the situation in the next day or two. That was a bit more casual than I'd have liked but what can you do? It was probably too late in the day to do anything further along those lines so I got on with preparing tea while Rikki got on with breast-feeding the babies. I served up sandwiches and cake while Garret put the kettle on and everyone was soon sated. That done, Luke and Rikki took their family back to Maida Vale. That left us to amuse ourselves for the evening. We did that. Specifically whisky was served (to the adults - I hasten to add) and I put in a DVD of "HMS Pinafore" which kept us amused for a couple of hours. Given that tomorrow was to be a busy day, we didn't stay up long after it had finished.