A Seat of Learning By Jonah
More of the adventures of Simon and Garret and their boys. This is a loving story of good people. It features men looking after boys but do not expect to find any indecency here. Only genuine love. Not one of the characters in this story is a real person or is, in any way, based on a real person. At least one character, however, is the creation of another author. I wish to thank Jacob Lion, in the USA, for his permission to use his characters in my stories.
I hope you will enjoy this story, and I'm grateful to Nifty for enabling me to bring it to you. Nifty does not charge either me or you for doing so, but it does cost money to do it. Please consider donating to Nifty at https://donate.nifty.org/ to help keep this site going.
Chapter 6
"Daddy?"
"Lloyd."
"When's Barry coming back to school?"
"Do you mean when am I coming back to school?"
"When's Barry coming back?"
"Do you miss him?"
"Yes."
"But you don't miss me?"
"We're seeing you now," put in Philip.
"And Mr. Gray talks to me and Philip when we're at school," added Lloyd.
"Mr Gray is allowed to, because he isn't your father, and I'll be allowed to eventually - just not yet."
"I s'pose so," muttered Lloyd.
"Barry's been hurt, but he can come back when his injuries are better," I told them.
"Are you coming in with us?"
"Yes Philip, but only for a little while."
I wanted a word with Jean. It was true that I'd passed the job of updating her to Mrs. Jenkins, but she'd want to know why she hadn't heard it from me.
I found Jean in the staff room.
"How long are you on secondment for now?" she asked.
"Not long. Perhaps another week."
"And you'll end up with three boys in your own class."
Crumbs! Mrs. Jenkins didn't let the grass grow. I was instantly on the defensive.
"Jean, it isn't as if we have a choice."
"Garret," she said firmly. You are going to have a problem, but it isn't the one we usually worry about."
"What?"
"We usually worry about teachers having their own children with them in case the children get picked on. Somehow I think that a group of three children will be able to take care of themselves. No, the problem you're going to have is preventing the rest of your class from wanting you to adopt them. You think Barry will be at Eastwold for another week?"
"No, he'll be with me from tonight, but I'll need to home-school for a week as his injuries might cause problems among the other children."
"Over my dead body they will. We can take care of him here. Bring him back on Monday. He'll be fine. He's a celebrity now and it'll be good for the other children to learn to deal with that. He's not the only one though."
"The only what?"
"That phony priest opened his "church" for local people but he encouraged people with families - especially boys. Two more of our children have complained that he used to play around with them and, in Portsmouth, where he was before he came here, a lot of older boys are complaining, including one who claims he was beaten. I've had to release Tommy Hill and Jess Humble so that they can talk to the police and Malcolm Platt has had to release two boys from St. Margaret's too."
"Does that mean the man is going to be big news?"
"Yes, but there are D notices on all the children concerned."
"Good. Well it's time I was on my way to Eastwold. Are you sure you want me to bring Barry back here on Monday?"
"There'll be trouble if you don't. We're not paying you to stop at home. Now go on with you."
On this occasion nobody met me on arrival at Eastwold so I made my way directly to Barry's room.
Barry was fully dressed - sans socks - and lounging on the settee with book, exactly as he had been on Thursday morning. I walked to the end of the settee, lifted his feet and surveyed the soles as before. The yellowness had gone but a few faint pink lines remained. Without a word he lifted his legs right up in the air and pulled back his trouser legs to expose his calves. Again only a few faint pink lines remained.
"Is your back the same?" I asked.
"Don't know. I can't see my back," was the answer.
I lowered his legs by pushing his neck forward, then reached down and lifted the back of his shirt.
"Yep! The same," I was able to confirm for him. "You can come back to school on Monday."
"Do I still have to stay here?"
"No, you can come home with me tonight if that's what you'd rather do," I told him.
"Can I?" he asked excitedly.
"No, I was only joking. 'COURSE you can. Why else would I have said it?"
"Don't know," he said quietly.
"Well get back in your bedroom, strip the bedclothes off the bed and fold them in a neat pile. Put any clothes you're taking with you into your backpack. Is the "History of Trains" yours?"
" It was Mr. Tolliver's but he said I could keep it."
"Then that goes in your backpack as well. I'm going downstairs to see about a cup of tea before we start lessons. Would you like orange squash?"
He had already passed the bedroom door in his excited dash to comply, but he came back for long enough to shout, "Yes please," and then vanish again. I set off downstairs in search of refreshment.
The rest of the morning was spent in an RE lesson. It took the form of the lesson that I had not used on Tuesday, but it comprised a two-way dialogue. Barry had questions. I almost said then that I had answers but, thank God, that wasn't true. I had questions too. Every true Christian has questions, and the answers come through diligent and honest living and fervent prayer. There are people who give answers - Reverend Esau Rathmore was one of them, but I wasn't one of those.
After lunch we spent an hour on English Language. After that we said goodbye to Mr. Tolliver and to Carl Druce then climbed into my Landrover Discovery and headed for Newton St. Faith.
Simon, blessed man, had got there before us and was in the boys' room putting together a previously flat-packed bunk bed. I made us both a cup of tea, provided Barry with lemonade, then proceeded to supervise Simon.
He bore it patiently for almost five minutes. At the end of that time he said,
"Barry, cover your ears. I'm just about to have a word with your teacher. It's a technical word and is hopefully outside your current vocabulary but I'm going to address it to the other Mr. Ito because it is becoming abundantly clear that he needs to hear it."
I turned to him, placed a hand behind one ear and assumed an expectant expression.
"Garret," he said, "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Now take Barry with you and collect our other two boys from school."
Well I did all of that and sent the boys upstairs to get changed out of their school things as soon as I got them home. Simon came out and thanked me. He said that he was satisfied with the new beds and then he sent Lloyd to get out the Baby Deltic and her train. I went to the signal box and opened it up to allow Lloyd to give the other two boys rides on the train. Simon, meantime, whose turn it was to make dinner, headed for Norwich to obtain pizza and ice cream for dessert. This was eaten on the patio, so as not to disturb railway operations too much.