Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2005 11:22:24 +0000 From: Jeffrey Fletcher Subject: Malcolm's Boys Part 11 This is a story that involves sex between males. if such a story is offensive, or illegal for you to read where you live, then do not continue, go and surf elsewhere. This is a work of fiction and in no way draws on the lives of any specific person or persons. If there is any similarity to any real persons or events it is entirely coincidental. The work is copyrighted (c) by the author and may not be reproduced in any form without the specific written permission of the author. It is assigned to the Nifty Archives under the terms of their submission agreement but it may not be copied or archived on any other site without the written permission of the author. My thanks to John and Michael who have read this through and made a number of corrections and suggestions. Any remaining errors , grammatical, spelling or historical or whatever are entirely my fault. Malcolm's Boys 11. Sunday 3rd July 2005. It was late when Janice and Malcolm awoke the following morning; far too late for any church going, even if any in the household had wanted to attend. Kevin would not have wanted to go to church with his parents anyway. They had a light breakfast, and Janice got on with preparing a proper Sunday lunch. She had bought a leg of pork a couple of days before. Malcolm had left Janice and Kevin to talk alone together in the kitchen. He thought they would talk more freely with him present. He went into the garden, and cut the grass, not something he usually did on a Sunday. The three of them sat down to a Sunday dinner. They enjoyed the pork, with its crisp crackling and usual trimmings. Janice also made a chocolate bread and butter pudding knowing that this was one of Kevin's favourites. At 2.00 they went into the sitting room to watch the tennis, as it was the men's final from Wimbledon. It was between the American Andy Roddick and the Swiss Roger Federer. Roddick as Number Two put up a great effort but lost in straight sets; but what better can you do when you are playing one of the allHYPHEN time greats of the tennis world? At the end of the game Janice went to make a pot of tea. "How much did you tell Jan," asked Malcolm. "Almost as much as I told you." "The possibility of New Zealand?" "Yes." "What did she say?" "She does not like the idea any more than you." "But she'd go to Heathrow to see you off?" "Ask her for yourself? "Ask her what?" said Janice coming into the room with a laden tray. "That stingy blighter didn't offer me any cake yesterday!" "I should think not. I like that cake too much to go wasting on you, boy." "You men! You didn't answer my question," repeated Janice. "He said you loved him more than me, because you were willing to go to Heathrow to see him off if he went to New Zealand; I'd said I'd go no further than Luton." "I didn't," said Kevin loudly. "You're like a couple of kids. Men never grow up." "Good," said father and son together. Janice was happy at the repartee. It showed that things were good between the three of them. They enjoyed their tea, and slices of cake. The time had arrived for Kevin to depart. Kevin gave a long and affectionATE hug to bothEACH OF – HE HUGGED THEM SEPARATELY his parents. Janice was pleasantly surprised that father and son should be so demonstrative. Tentative plans were made for Malcolm and Janice to go over to Potter's End to see Kevin's apartment. *** In the early evening Janice and Malcolm discussed who was to phone Katie and tell her the news of the day before. "You're a woman, and you can speak as one woman to another." "But you had much longer with Kev, and you can tell her about the visits from Michael, and Steve, and of Bruce Perkins if necessary." "If I phone I don't want you butting in the whole time with suggestions, and `tell her this', and `tell her that'!" "I'll go into the kitchen, and get us a snack, while you phone her." Janice got up, and left the room, leaving Malcolm to it. He dialled the number. Katie answered. M:- Hello Katie, Malcolm here. How are you? K:- As good as can be expected. The neighbours are being very supportive and kind. M:- We had a visitor yesterday. K:- Oh! M:- Kevin. Unfortunately Janice was in London for the day and did not get back until very late. I spent most of the day talking with him. and that's why I'm phonePHONING you and not Jan. K:- Where is he? M:- He's got a job in High Wycombe, and a small apartment in a house three or four miles away. K:- Sounds all very convenient for him. M:- You were right about one thing. K:- What's that? M:- New Zealand. He met someone there. K:- Another man? M:- Yes. K:- I knew he'd changed when he came back. Just didn't know why. M:- I don't think any of us would've guessed. Katie was silent for a moment. K:- Was that his first? M:- Yes. K:- So was it something that happened completely out of the blue? Why didn't he find another woman if he was desperate for sex. Why another man? M:- I think that's a question he's been thinking over a lot over the last few days. Though it was rather out of the blue, I think there had been some interest and attraction to other men before he went out there. K:- What does he want to do? M:- I think he's expecting you to want a divorce. K:- He's only too right there. M:- He said he'll support you and the baby fully. K:- That's the least he can do. I have taken some legal advice, and know what to do. Can I have his address? M:- I think I should ask him first. If you sent anything here, I'd send it on to him. K:- Have it your own way. I'd like to get things settled as soon as possible, but you know what it's like with anything legal. M:- The law's delays. K:- I want to be shot SHUT?of him. And intend to get out of him every penny I can! If he thinks he will see the child he's got another think coming. M:- I think he envisages that. It'll be up to the court. K:- Over my dead body! When I think that his penis which has made me pregnant was shoved up the dirty backside of a man, I want to scrub myself out with disinfectant. M:- I can understand your anger. K:- So he was with you all day yesterday? M:- He stayed the night. In fact he only left an hour or so ago. K:- My father said you'd end up coming round to supporting your son. M:- You didn't expect us to turn him away, did you? K:- Not literally, that would be too much to hope. But for him to stay the night is rather giving him the Pridham family seal of approval. M:- He wanted to see his mother, which I think was understandable, and Janice did not get home until just before 11.00. There was the sound of a sniff down the phone; Katie was very much her father's daughter. M:- Would you like to speak to Jan? K:- I don't think it's necessary. I've heard all I want to hear. I'll ring off. Thanks for letting me know the latest news. Give my love to Janice. Bye. M:- Bye. When Janice came back into the room she wanted to know how the phone call had gone. Malcolm reported the conversation as far as he could remember it. Janice suggested she would have put something differently. "Then why didn't you make the bloody phone call? I knew I'd make a mess of it," muttered Malcolm. "Sorry I spoke. From what you say I don't think it would have been possible to have a `good' conversation with poor Katie as things stand at the moment." They began to eat the salad and cold meat that Janice had prepared. "Have you told Simon what has happened this weekend?" "No. I haven't had a chance." "I've been thinking. I think I feel closer to Patricia than to any of our old friends in the village. We had a lovely day in town. We shared things about ourselves, in a way I've never shared with Elsie Kimpton, Barbara Ironside, and certainly not with our vicar's wife, HelenTHAT'S TOO DESCRIPTIVE: WHY NOTSAY "WITH HELEN PERKINS?. You've been a different man since you've made friends with Simon." Malcolm looked up sharply wondering what was coming next. "What do you mean?" "You seem happier, more fulfilled. I know I tease you about being a couple of little boys, but Simon and you are a couple of real men friends. I reckon you know more about Simon than you do about you any other man in the village, though he's only lived here a few years. I reckon you two share more deeply than most men friends do." "I think you're right. He's a good friend, even a best friend." Janice laughed. "That's the language of the young." "Well, you do say that men never grow up." "I know; and though we tease you, I think most women like their men to be that way. I wonder if one of the problems with men is that they don't have any close friends." "I don't know about that!" "What do most men talk about? Football and sex?" "So it is said. But Simon and I do talk about cricket and computers." He did not dare say that they also talked quite a lot about sex. "But you talk more seriously, about things that matter in this world? About yourselves, what you are thinking, perhaps even what you are feeling?" "Maybe." "The cricket and the computers shows the little boy is still there." "Just so you can laugh at us, and feel older and more mature than us. CLOSE QUOTATION "Maybe." They both laughed. *** Kevin had a quick and easy drive back to Potter's End. His small apartment was hot and airless having been closed up for a couple of days. He opened the windows to let the light evening breeze blow through and cool the place down. He did the jobs that he had to do, and found that they were done more quickly than he had expected. He decided to go out for a walk. During the week before he had bought an Ordnance Survey map of the area, and seen that there was an easy short circular walk of about two miles. He took the map and set off. The walk was mainly on paths through some beech woods, where he enjoyed shuffling through the beech mast as he had done as a small boy. Then we WHO ARE WE? HE SURELY went along a footpath across several fields, and then another track back to the road which ran through Potter's End. He was about half way round the walk when he saw a man walking a dog on a converging path. It was only when they got closer that he recognised that the other man was Geoff, the vicar. "Hi, out for an evening constitutional?" "Yes. I've been away for the weekend, and my flat was hot and stuffy, so I decided to go for a walk, and hope that it will be cooler when I get back." "I have to take this animal for a walk every evening. But it does me good, I do a lot of thinking COMMAwalking the dog. Have you had a good weekend?" They continued to walk across the fields towards the village together. "Been to see my parents. They live in a village in Hertfordshire." "Oh, where?" "Whitgest?" "Is that where Bruce Perkins is the vicar?" "Yes. Do you know him?" "Not personally. Isn't he something of a hard-liner. He writes polemical letters in the Church Times. Do you know him?" "Yes," replied Kevin firmly. "You sound as though you don't like him?" "You can say that again." "Can I ask why? Or is it too personal a question?" Kevin walked on in silence for several paces, and thought he might as well be hung for a sheep as a goat. "Bruce Perkins and I had words this weekend." "Was he on his usual hobby horse?" "What that?" "Homosexuality! The un-Biblical goings-on of gay members of the Church of England, and what should be done with them." "Exactly." "What put you in the firing line?" "I'm gay, and only recently come out as gay." "So you got it from both barrels?" Kevin laughed. "You can say that again. I hope I gave as good as I got." "Good for you." "You don't go along with Bruce Perkins then?" There was a note of surprise in Kevin's voice. "Not at all. I would have done, though perhaps not as militantly as him, when I first came to this village eight years ago." "What made you change?" "Two men." They were now nearing the church which stood with its flint tower and walls, partially hidden by a couple of beech trees and an ancient yew tree. "Come with me and I'll show you something." Geoff led the way round the church towards a recent grave. There was a robin seated on gravestone, it looked at them and then fluttered away into a bush. Kevin looked at the gravestone and read the inscription. "Ross James Author 1929-1997 Trevor Russell Historian 1932-2005 In death they were not divided." "As I said when I came to this village I was prejudiced against gays. Then someone told me that Ross was dying in one of the cottages across the green, and suggested I visitedVISIT him. Initially I didn't want to go. Gays, let them die their own deaths! But I went. The moment I went into that cottage I knew that I was in the presence of something wonderful, of something beautiful. Ross and Trev had lived together for over thirty years. There was such love, such wonderful love between them. Where did that love come from? For me their love was God given. For the last few weeks of Ross' life they were helped by a younger African-Caribbean friend, called Zach. He too is gay. He had such a love for the two older men. Where did that come from? True love is the sign of the working of God. I was soon converted from a rather homophobic vicar, to a very different person. I don't like the word homophile. Ross died and was buried here." "What happened to Trevor Russell?" "He had several lonely years. Much loved by Zach, the West Indian, and Adam his partner, but Trev missed Ross. Then on the day of the Queen's Jubilee celebrations up in London Trev met Harry, who he'd known when he was a kid at the beginning of the war. They were inseparable for the next few years." "Was Harry gay?" "Oh yes. They both worshipped regularly when they were here." "You didn't stop them receiving communion?" "Of course not. Harry had been a churchwarden for a number of years in Sussex. After Ross' death I prepared Trev for confirmation. I owe a lot to those two. Just wish I'd had time to know Ross better." "Would you welcome me at communion?" "Of course. Why?" "Bruce said he wouldn't." "Not all Church of England vicars are like Bruce Perkins, fortunately. Though there are too many like him around." They walked slowly back to the churchyard gate. "Thanks," said Kevin. "You have restored a little my faith in the old C of E." "Good." "You may even see me in church." "You'll always be welcome. But I hope you find a partner to love like Ross and Trev found in each other." "I may already have done. A guy in New Zealand." "That's strangeCOMMA Ross came from New Zealand." *** Later that evening Janice and Malcolm were sitting quietly reading. Malcolm had his head in the Observer newspaper, and Janice was reading a women's magazine. "Mal, listen to this. I'm reading an article in this magazine about homosexuality." "Filling in the blanks in your knowledge? Anything useful?" "Yes. Though a lot of it is saying much of what you and Paula have told me over the last few days. These last few days have made me think. I think I'm now glad that what happened did happen. I know bad things have been said and done. The consequences continue to spread around, not least in our own family. I think Kevin has made us all face up to an issue we had all kept firmly under the carpet. I think I now have a greater understanding of the whole gay affair. I think I'm now a more tolerant person." "Good. Perhaps you'll be a little more tolerant of my foibles," "Malcolm! Any one would think I'm always on at you." Malcolm gave his wife a very artificial smile. "We've all been at fault in some way. Perhaps if we as a family had been more open, and talked about these things, Kevin would have discovered himself earlier and not got married." "True." "I'm worried about Michael and Lois. They have become so strict and narrow in their thinking. I know that he and Kev have never really got on, but I think there should be something like a family loyalty and support, even if you disagree with what a brother is up to." "Michael has many good gifts. He tries very hard, but he does like laid down rules, and knowING exactly where he's going, and what's right and what's wrong." "I love him; but sometimes I find it hard to like him, especially when he and Lois are laying down the law." "And usually it's some Biblical law. I too've been thinking, Jan. I am fed up with Bruce Perkins. I have made a decision. I am going to cancel my giving to the parish church." "Malcolm!" "He's got the Church Council to curtail what they give to the diocese because of the new Dean. So if they think it is right to do that. I'm just following their example, only for the opposite cause. Some of my giving will be direct to the diocese. I think I may well give something to one of these gay charities." "I'll go along with you over that." "I don't think I'll be so frequent in church from now on. But I'll remain on the Electoral Roll, and go to the Annual Meeting and raise awkward questions for our dear vicar. It's about time he had some opposition in this parish." "I'd hadn't realised you could be so Machiavellian." "Perhaps I've just grown up a bit." They both laughed. They sat in silence reading. "Mal, listen to this. An interesting quote from an American soldier, `When I shot two men they gave me a medal; when I said I loved a man they gave me a dishonourable discharge.' Makes you think." "Sure does!" *** *** That ends the story. I do not want it to drag on, but I am sure there are readers with `what happened next' questions. So:- In the early months of 2006 Kevin will go to New Zealand to live with Owen. The uneasy relationships in the Pridham family, especially between Michael and Lois on one side, and Paula on the other, will continue for a while. As with all good families an uneasy truce and agreement to differ will form, until the next crisis. Relationships in the village of Whitgest will remain difficult, with sides forming on the issue. Malcolm will keep his promise, only attending the parish church at Christmas and Easter, and then mainly for Janice's sake. They both redirect their giving [which was generous] away from their parish church to the diocese, and make the fact known. The grape vine of gossip can be used both ways! Malcolm will go to the Church Annual Meeting and raise several awkward questions for the vicar. And the truth will be that he enjoyed himself greatly on that occasion. I like to interconnect my stories, so some of you will notice in the Ross Trevor and Geoff the vicar at Potter's End that I am alluding to Two Jubilees and One Spitfire. The discerning reader will have noticed I have left the way open for a possible third story.