Usual Disclaimer: If you are not of an age to read this because of the laws of your country or district please desist. If you are a bigot or prod-nosed fundamentalist of any persuasion find your monkey-spanking literature elsewhere and keep your predilections and opinions to yourself. Everyone else welcome and comments more than welcome.
This is a very long tale. It unfolds over a good number of years. What is true, is true: what is not is otherwise.
ALADDIN'S AWAKENING
By
Joel
CHAPTER 45
(PART ONE)
How Life Changes! Part A
July 1947 - September 1947
[Note: As accents, grave, acute, circumflex, etc., are difficult to cope with in ASCII and it's downloaded forms, they have been omitted, unless the word-processing program takes over!]
What struck me immediately was how much Aunt Lilian resembled Ma. She rushed up to me and, although much shorter than me, embraced me round the shoulders with tears in her eyes as I bent towards her and held her to me. She spoke in heavily accented English.
"Oh Jacques, at last!" she sobbed.
I held her tight with my free hand trying to hold myself steady and not put too much weight on my leg. She relaxed and looked up at me with such a smile.
"You are just like your father," she said, wiping her eyes as I let her go.
She settled down. Johann, who was standing behind her was introduced. He must have been about five feet ten inches, but we could have been brothers as he was almost the mirror image of me. That is, mirror image except in colouring. We both had blue eyes but my black hair was matched by his corn gold short locks. He also had a fresh, healthy-looking complexion with no crops of nasty spots! We shook hands solemnly and then I introduced Tony. As Aunt Lilian had spoken in English I did that in English, too. However, Tony wasn't to be beaten.
"Enchantez, madame," he said, as they shook hands and he bowed low. I really thought he was going to kiss her hand.
He turned to Johann. "Bonjour, Johann mon ami," he said and smiled. Johann responded with a delighted smile.
"Et tu, mon ami," said Johann with that delicious smile.
Well, well, perhaps he wasn't the solemn lad I had pictured in my mind and which had been reinforced by my first perception of him. I only knew that Switzerland was famous for inventing cuckoo clocks and had William Tell as a national hero and that Calvin was a puritan of sorts. A latter day puritan was before me. Johann had on a very beautifully tailored black coat, buttoned high. He was wearing fine black cloth knee britches, black socks and highly polished black shoes. The two English boys looked positively scruffy against him. School blazers and trousers, school ties and grey shirts and pairs of shoes that looked as if they could do with a good clean. But, we had been travelling!
Not to worry! Aunt Lilian knew we must be hungry and we were bustled off to a restaurant near the station where we had a thick soup, slices of meat and vegetables which tasted gorgeous, plus cups of really strong coffee. I, as usual, was famished and a hint of a smile played over Johann's lips as he pushed the little basket holding the piece of bread belonging to him towards me. I knew better than to refuse and vowed I would repay him in some equally cousinly way. That smile was there as he watched me demolish my heavily laden plate.
Over lunch Aunt Lilian reverted to French, speaking slowly and clearly and Tony nodded as he understood her well. So far, Johann had only spoken a few words but I asked him, in French, what was his school like? He cast his eyes heavenwards and I had the distinct feeling that if Aunt Lilian hadn't been there he would have said something like "Merde!". He just said he was taking his baccalaureate a year early and would go on to University to study Law like his father.
So, I had another clever cousin to go with Gareth and Rhys. I said my cousin Rhys was at Cardiff University reading Law and that our cousin Charles Bradley Hamilton in the States was also doing the same at Boston University. This was one snippet of information I had gleaned from Uncle Alfred's visit. Aunt Lilian asked about his twin spunky brother. (She didn't say 'spunky' but my image of them..... well! I can't help it if my imagination runs away with itself sometimes!). I said I thought he was studying Economics as his father said he wanted to go into business somewhere. Anyway it was time to make a move as we still had the journey to Neuchatel.
We went back into the station and caught the train. I was entranced. I had never seen such scenery. Ma had said the mountains were for looking at, not climbing. The backdrop looked immense! All too soon we drew up at the mainline station to be greeted by an older version of the young man in the wedding photo, Uncle Johann. I was hugged again and we were soon bundled into his car, an old large French Citroen. We drove out of the town along the lake and then up a drive to a typical Swiss chalet. This one was large and in its own grounds.
"This is your home, my boys, for the next two months," he announced in impeccable English. I found out later he had spent a year at Oxford University after being exiled to Strasbourg and before he married Aunt Lilian.
Johann was deputed to see us to our rooms. He hefted my suitcase and haversack and Tony and I followed him up the stairs. We finished up on the fourth floor which Johann had more or less to himself. His bedroom, facing towards the lake, was huge, much, much bigger than mine and there were two large side rooms besides. Beds for us two had been laid out in one of these but Johann took immediate charge. He took one look and switched to English, which he spoke slowly and carefully, and asked if we would like to have the beds put into his room. It couldn't be done until tomorrow, but...? Of course we said 'Yes'. He said it would be arranged, 'demain', 'tomorrow'!
Tony and I were both worn out so after a light supper of soup and cold meats we asked if we might be excused and go to bed. I slept like a log. For once never a sexual thought entered my head!.
I was awakened by the beautiful smell of fresh coffee with a smiling Johann handing me a cup. Tony snored on. We talked in a mixture of English, French and German. He said his main language used at school was French but he also knew the local Swiss dialect as well, as well as being able to get by in German. I found out he'd been dressed in his school uniform which he had on again this morning. The school was a private one, very exclusive, very formal and very strict. I could see he was very bright and I said he should come to England before he went to University as he would be a year ahead. He grinned and said I should arrange it for him!
Tony soon surfaced from his slumbers as I waved a cup of excellent coffee under his nostrils. I had got out of bed as I had got into it, in the nude. I noticed Johann eyed me up and down as I took the cup from the tray he was holding and bent down to entice Tony from the arms of Morpheus. I think Johann's eyes opened wider as Tony sat up, then stood up, quite unselfconsciously and stretched, bending back so his semi-erect partial morning hardon was very prominent.
He sat back on the bed and his cock stiffened until it was in its usual morning upright position. I suppose as the pair of us had seen each other in all sorts of conditions and positions morning, noon and night he never gave a thought to Johann being there. It was all done so naturally.
Nothing was said but all was noted, I could see, by the silent witness.
As Tony came too, shaking his head, he smiled across at Johann and said "Guten tag". I remembered having told him that to say to Hans. Johann smiled and said, in English, "Good morning, Tony," and then giggled. Tony stood up and said "Must have a pee!" and disappeared off to the bathroom. Johann looked at me. I grinned at him. "New word?" He giggled again and nodded. We heard the sound of water splashing from a most inconsiderate Tony. Johann nodded and giggled again. I said he shouldn't say that if he had to put his hand up in class.
Tony emerged from the bathroom and asked what were the orders for the day. I had to translate that for Johann. He said if I could walk to the town I could have coffee in a caf‚ while he showed Tony some of the sights. Tony washed and dressed, he said we could both wear shirts and shorts. Tony said people wouldn't notice the strapping round my knee as I had a stick to lean on. Johann said he had to wear his school uniform in the town as it was 'de rigueur' but if we went out of town he would be able to wear shorts like us except he had none. I got off the bed and riffled through my suitcase. For some reason I had put in the old corduroy pair which no longer fitted me. I gave them to him and his eyes lit up.
I said he should see if they fitted him. We watched as off came his jacket, then his shoes. His knee britches were undone below the knees and then removed. His legs above his long black socks were pale but with a dusting of glistening, golden hair. He put on the shorts and stood. White shirt and brown shorts. They fitted perfectly. He was a proud lad - and handsome, too!
He quickly changed back and watched as I sauntered off to the bathroom to wash. I could hear him and Tony chatting as I washed myself. I came out, still undressed, with Tony and Johann still deep in conversation. Both were seated on Tony's bed with Tony waving his arms around as he described our friends and happenings at school in a mixture of English and better than schoolboy French. Johann was grinning, joining in with words when Tony got stuck. He was going to be a good companion, I knew.
Both watched as I sat and put on pants, a pair of khaki shorts which had belonged to Chris when he was a Scout and were still OK to wear. I mean, not too tight, but I did rather fill out the front. There was one of his khaki Scout shirts as well from which Ma had removed about a dozen Scout badges.
"Will we be meeting any of your friends?" I asked.
Johann was silent for a moment. He looked a bit perplexed. He then explained that he didn't have any really close friends. Arnold Bechtelman was a friend who lived in the next village where his father was a doctor and a Professor at the University but he had said he was going to stay in Interlaken for the holiday with relatives. He had class-mates, boys who went to the same school, but, they were just boys who went to the same school. He said many were richer than his father and their fathers used his father as their lawyer. I got the feeling that some of them looked down on him. There seemed to be a very distinct social pecking order. I thought they were missing out. He was too nice to ignore or to be looked down on.
He explained that many of the boys lived some distance from the school and travelled in each day by railway. A few were boarders and they were especially snotty and cliquey. He said that he did have another quite good friend other than Arnold and that was Pascal Seuss whose father owned a big hotel in the town. Some of the boys were quite rude to Pascal and called him 'Garcon' as they would a waiter. I nodded at Tony. Pascal would have two more friends before we went home.
It was over breakfast I made the discovery that Aunt Lilian was a medical doctor. She had got fed up being classified as 'hausfrau' and had gone back to University and had qualified two years ago as a children's specialist. I said I didn't think my mother knew that. She laughed and said not many people did until she put her nameplate up on an office in the town. She was very popular and was doing very well and was also doing some research work with a man named Piaget at the University.
As Aunt Lilian didn't have to get to her doctor's office until nine o'clock she said she would drive us into town. Uncle Johann had already gone at seven to catch a train to meet a client somewhere. She left us near the University and said she would meet us for lunch at Pascal's father's hotel at twelve. I wasn't too bad at walking now. I just had to take it easy with my left leg and I walked rather slower than normal. Not that it mattered, there was plenty to look at and when we got to the Quai du Port Johann said we would take a boat somewhere a couple of days to see other places. I was left at a caf‚ on the Quai Osterwald with strict injunctions not to wander and not to fall into the water, even if I said I could swim. One-legged crabs were at a disadvantage, so Tony said. I said as soon as I got hold of him he would see that a one-legged crab could still nip. Johann stood and enjoyed the badinage and he and Tony strolled off laughing and giggling together, both turning, at a signal from Tony, and blowing kisses at me. The young puritan was having his strait-laces unloosened a bit! So brown legs in shorts and pale legs encased in puritan black marched off leaving me.
I had been left with a pile of Swiss francs and a couple of notes. I had no real idea of exchange rates and how much things cost but a very pleasant waiter came and I ordered 'une tasse de caf‚'. He smiled and brought back a cup and a pot with separate milk and sugar. He explained in careful English that I was one of the first English customers since the war ended and I was welcome to have anything I wanted. He was very chatty and I told him my story. He knew of both Uncle Johann and Aunt Lilian. He said his father and his boss were clients of the law firm. He said he had visited England and had been a waiter in Eastbourne for a summer in 1936 and had learned his English there. I said I came from further North than that and he wanted to know what was London like now. All this chat was between him serving other customers, who all greeted me most pleasantly, and bringing me a refill pot and a delicious pastry.
Once he asked me what it had been like in England during the war. I said our part of England hadn't been too badly affected but I had experienced the doodle-bugs, the flying- bombs. He nodded and said he had heard of them. He said he'd had to do his Swiss National Service and he was still in the reserve.
I then remembered Ma had heard that one of her relatives had got to Switzerland. He looked very solemn at this.
"We have many people who like the Germans," he said carefully. "Many tried to get through but were sent back." He made a cutting movement across his throat. "My friends helped many to come across. Perhaps your relation was one."
I said I didn't know his name but that he came from Strasbourg. He grimaced.
"The Germans told the French people it was a German town and they should go." He shrugged his shoulders. "But where? Many tried to come here. But!"
I said I would ask my aunt and he said he and his friends had gone into the mountains to help people across the passes. It had been dangerous and they had to be careful in case as even the police were not 'sympathique'. I thanked him for telling me. I said I had made friends with two German prisoners of war and I thought there was something horrible about war. He nodded his head.
"We have been lucky. But... if Hitler had won...." He shrugged his shoulders again, "Who knows?"
He asked me what might be the name of my mother's relation and I said 'Fontane'. A little later I saw him in deep conversation with an elderly man. When he brought me some more coffee he said he had spoken to his boss and he would enquire. He said his boss had been in charge of those who helped.
Time passed quickly and it didn't seem long before I heard Tony's distinctive voice and Johann's accompanying giggle. They were immediately served with their own cups and the waiter and Johann nodded at each other. When the waiter went to the kitchen Johann explained that he was Pascal's eldest brother, Nicholas, who worked at this caf‚ as his father was thinking of buying it as the owner wanted to retire. He wasn't supposed to know this but Pascal had told him and that was why I had been deposited at a table here. What did I think?
All I could say was that I thought that both the coffee and the pastry were excellent. Of course, Tony immediately wanted to know 'What pastry?' and mewed and moaned until I ordered one each for them.. They said they were hungry anyway as they had gone up steep streets to the Chateau and had looked in the Collegiale church. Tony said it was well worth seeing and when my poor, ancient old leg was a bit better they might find a wheelbarrow and I could push him up the last hundred yards although there were cobbles. I said he would be lucky to have two usable legs when I'd had a go at them. Johann laughed and said Tony's knees were 'cobbly'. We both laughed and said he meant 'knobbly'. He had heard the English phrase 'knobbly knees' somewhere and had half-remembered it. Tony playfully swatted him and said he would have knobbles and bumps somewhere if he wasn't careful.
In the end Johann looked at his watch and said we had better go to look for his mother at the hotel for lunch as it was nearly twelve. Nicholas came to the table and said something to Johann in their local 'Romandie' which was too rapid for me even to get an inkling. Johann smiled and said that the owner had said 'l'addition' had been settled. I said to say thank you and to ask him if his brother would like to come out with us on Monday. I think Johann was a bit surprised but as he spoke so Nicholas broke into a broad grin and nodded at me. I think that was arranged.
We were waiting on the pavement as Aunt Lilian drove up. The lunch was good, I was getting to enjoy Swiss food!
After lunch we went back to the chalet and Tony and Johann went up the flights of stairs to the bedroom. I didn't venture as my leg was a bit stiff. There was a small bathroom on the ground floor with a toilet so I was OK. When they came down I saw that Johann had changed into his newly acquired shorts. When his mother saw him she laughed and said he looked quite English. He said if he was with us he wouldn't wear his school uniform and his mother laughed again and said he would have to sit in the sun a bit. Tony whispered to me that there were now three beds in a row in the big bedroom. Ha ha, we would have to wait and see.
He and Tony went off exploring up behind the chalet during the afternoon. Aunt Lilian and I sat in comfortable chairs on a stone-flagged patio while she asked me all about Ma and Pa. She said she hadn't really heard anything since 1939 and had been so worried. Uncle Johann had asked for a message to be sent through the Swiss Embassy and I said we had received it. I said about the other message - about the man who had got into Switzerland - and that Pascal's brother had asked his boss. Aunt Lilian nodded and said she wasn't sure who it was. They had distant cousins in other parts of France as well. Then she said Monsieur Chaumont, Nicholas's boss, was a good man. She had heard many stories of his clashes with the police and the bureaucrats during the war. She also smiled when I said we had invited Pascal Suess to join us on Monday.
"Johann is a quiet boy," she said, "He is a very good student. But he is shy and some of the boys are very... aggressive. He would like to play tennis but there are some of the boys who play all the time and others do not get the chance."
I said I liked Johann very much. Aunt Lilian smiled and said she thought I was so like my father. He was kind, thoughtful and made a great impression. I laughed and said he must have done as he married her sister. She laughed.
"My Johann is very precious to us. He needs good friends. I think you and Tony will be. If you can help him and Pascal as well that would be good."
Much later the pair came back giggling. I discovered after Aunt Lilian went in to instruct the maid to bring out afternoon tea that they had sunbathed. Johann whispered, "Il etait nu!" Trust Tony, flaunting his eighteen-years-and-a-week-old cock, before my, I guessed, virginal young cousin! "Et, tu?" I asked him. He shook his head.
Oh well, I wagered to myself he would be just like us within the next, four, five, days?
At dinner that evening Uncle Johann wanted to know what we had done. He laughed at his 'English son' who had told us not to change into trousers for the evening meal. He said I was a bad influence on Johann just as my father had been on him. I said he had taught my mother to whistle and ladies in England didn't do that sort of thing. He laughed again and said he would get Aunt Lilian to show how she had learned to yodel!
All this was going on while we were being served the most delicious meal by the maid. I had never had escalope de veau before. Those thin slices of delicately covered meat melted in the mouth and I could see Tony savouring every mouthful as well. Aunt Lilian watched as we ate and as we finished the main course said it had been something special as her cook came from Austria originally.
My aunt and uncle were obviously well off. The big chalet. Two cars. The private school for Johann. A cook, a maid, a handyman. All this must have been costly. Then they were looking after Tony and me as well. I was worried about the expense. I know the messages to home said not to worry but I knew Ma had been a bit concerned. It wasn't we were poor at home. I supposed Pa got a good salary as head of the laboratory and Ma worked there as well. Mrs Peters had gossiped about Tony's dad being the richest man in Kerslake. I had little knowledge of finance. I hadn't even had a paper-round. I suppose I was cushioned. I had stayed at Ulvescott in a large house. Uncle Dick in Cardiff had a big house, nowhere as big as Ulvescott, though. Lady Bing's house was even bigger and none of them seem to worry when hungry boys stayed with them. Ulvescott must have cost a lot to maintain. I knew while we were out during the day ladies came in from the village and did cleaning and washing and ironing to help Mrs Brown and Dora. But, all this was in the background. Here was I, eighteen next month and I didn't have a clue about money - I knew what I had in the Savings Bank - but what was that against having to earn money. What about my life at Cambridge? I knew I had a hundred pounds a year for the Exhibition. That was a lot of money, but.....!
That evening after the meal I walked in the garden with Aunt Lilian. I tried to ask her what we could do to repay her and Uncle Johann.
"You have repaid us enough so far. You have survived the war. I have been so worried about my sister and her family. You will be a good friend to Johann." She put a hand up and stroked my face. "If you were only half the man your father is, I would love you like a son!"
A peculiar statement. I wondered what she meant. She went on to say that Pa had made a great impression on the rather staid French family. Uncle Alfred was already staying there but had been rather overwhelmed by it but, with my father's youthful cheerfulness, even though he was well in his twenties, everything seemed to come to life. When Uncle Johann arrived, the black sheep of an ultra-strict Swiss family, things had really come to life. I didn't enquire why Uncle Johann was considered to be worthy of exile to France and all Aunt Lilian would say, with a twinkle in her eye, it was to learn good manners. Aunt Lilian said her father, my grandfather, had also been strict but had warmed to the three young men and readily given his blessing to their marriages with his daughters. The rest was history. Uncle Johann had settled down and completed his doctorate in law and had moved here to Neuchatel rather than staying in Zurich where his father had a factory although he kept an office there as well. She then said the war had been dreadful for them, too. There were plenty of restrictions, especially on the people who were known not to be friendly towards the National Socialists. Uncle Johann, like many, had been able to steer a middle path, otherwise things would have been really rough.
It was interesting. I think I learned more European history that night and on subsequent talks with Aunt Lilian when Tony and Johann were away on their own 'avventures' during the afternoons. I learned that Uncle Johann had helped quite a few Jews in getting visas for Portugal, but Aunt Lilian said they never knew what happened after that.
Several mornings I was left at the caf‚ and Nicholas and I had many talks while he waited for customers. He said he'd been scared a number of times while in the mountains waiting for groups or even single people who were being led over the passes.
He said the great danger came from those in the town sympathetic to the Germans and the number of German spies who were around. His stories reinforced the impressions I had got also from Aunt Lilian of a very tense, very dangerous atmosphere of suspicion and hatred which it would take many years to erase. With a smile he said I could pay my bill each time in future and my friends had to help me as they always chose the most expensive pastries!
All this was to happen in days to come. After that first major dinner and my talk with Aunt Lilian it was time for bed. We had plans for the weekend. A boat trip and quiet! But first a good night's sleep!
Johann was fiddling around putting things tidy as the handyman, or whoever had moved the beds, had left whatever Johann had round his own bed strewn over the beds. I noticed he had a pair of pyjamas which he put on his pillow. Tony was already in the bathroom as I stripped off completely and looked at the strapping around my knee. The strong elastic bandage would need to be changed in the morning. Perhaps, as Aunt Lilian was a doctor, she might help me redo it. I was quite adept at keeping it neat - my SJAB training had impressed the nurses at the hospital when they had taught me how to put the bandage on.
Johann asked if my leg hurt. I said only if I spent too much time putting weight on it. It was getting better week by week but I had to be careful not to trip or fall. Johann came and stood by me as I sat on the edge of my bed and pulled the elastic a bit tighter. I saw he was gazing at my cock as well.
Tony came out of the bathroom just wearing a towel round his waist and sang out "Next!" Johann said I should be next as he still had to put some things in the cupboard. I went into the bathroom and spotted, seeing the reflection in a mirror, that he was eying me again. Tony and he were getting on very well and I could hear them still chattering together. Mainly laughing about Uncle Johann saying Aunt Lilian could yodel. Tony said he would like to hear that. When I'd finished in the bathroom I came out and got straight into bed, nude. Oh, that bed was so comfortable. I had fallen in love with the duvet the first night. Bliss.
Johann disappeared off to wash, pee, etc., and Tony came over and sat on my bed.
"I am enjoying myself," he said quite fervently, "Thank you for inviting me." He grinned. "And that food! Oo La La!" He gurgled. "I'll be fat as a pig if we have that every day."
"You'll wear all that off with Johann hoiking you up the mountains!"
He grinned again. "You're lucky," he said, "You've got some really nice cousins. Johann's great! And, I think my French is improving I can follow most of what's going on. Still can't think fast enough to make long sentences but Johann helps. He's good. I like him!"
Johann still had his underpants on when he came out of the bathroom. I had a good look at him as I had turned as best I could while talking to Tony without putting too much weight on my knee. He was slightly sideways on to me as he folded the shirt he had worn during the day and I could see he was a very comely young lad. He had said when we going down to the caf‚ that the only sport he did was tennis and that not very often. He hadn't said but Aunt Lilian had explained why he couldn't, or didn't play more. But as I stared rather openly at him I could see he had those nicely rounded buttocks that class-mates of mine also had who did a lot more sports and games than he did. I wondered if his well-muscled thighs and general tone were the result of the mountain walking which he had said he liked to do a lot.
Tony stood up and went towards his bed and I saw Johann watch closely as Tony removed the towel from his waist as he went round the foot of Johann's bed to his own on the left hand side. I noticed Tony's cock was slightly plump as he got into bed under his duvet, also quite in the buff.
Johann was not to be fazed. He stripped off his undies and, as he stood up, I saw the whole of my tall, slim, sixteen-year-old cousin for the first time. His chest and stomach were smooth and not very muscular but there was no fat, puppy or otherwise, on his well- contoured torso. His nipples were two pink circles with the tiniest hillocks in the middle of each. His navel looked quite deep. Mine was, too and Tony had often said I could always eat celery in bed as I had a good receptacle for the salt! Johann had no hair trailing on his belly at all, just a curly patch of darker hair than the gold on his head surmounting his cock. He had a beautifully defined boyish cock, uncircumcised just like his watching Kerslake cousin, and this hung centrally above two quite low-slung damson-sized young bollocks. I noticed as he held his arm up to place his pants on top of his shirt on the shelf above his bed there was a small tuft of dark hair under his arm. I could see my cousin was all boy. He must have been aware of my scrutiny as he turned and smiled at me and slid into bed under his duvet, also bare. With a slight flourish the pyjamas on the second pillow on his bed were pushed onto the floor.
It was still quite light in the room although the curtains had been drawn almost across the big picture windows and everything was still for several minutes. I wondered what I should do. I hadn't had a wank since leaving home! Five days! I was rather desperate. It was a wonder I hadn't had a wet dream the night before but I think I must have been much too tired.
I was contemplating possibilities. One. Wait until I heard steady breathing from two sleeping lads and toss off surreptitiously. Oh! What to do with the results? I had tucked a handkerchief under the pillow but that would be soaked. I giggled to myself thinking that tomorrow I would probably be blowing my nose on dried cum and inhaling essence of Jacko! Two. Another possibility was to wait again and then creep out to the bathroom and have a wank sitting on the lav. I still had a bit of difficulty standing on both legs putting my full weight on them. I imagined all that spunk suddenly squirting out. I would have to make sure I had my left hand cupped or hold plenty of bog paper to catch the flying load. Oh, fuck! My shaft was getting hard just thinking. Three. Do nothing and hope if I did have a wet dream the spunk would have dried by the morning and the sheet wouldn't be too stained. But... Knowing the amount I generally produced... Oh, dear! I was searching for possibility four in the absolute silence of the room. I suppose five minutes had passed since we'd go into our respective beds. Another five minutes passed while I racked my poor brain trying to think what else I could do with the monstrous hard-on, which Oh, shit! was now pressing against my bare belly. I shifted slightly to get a bit more comfortable. I'd noticed both the other duvets had shifted slightly in the time I had been thinking so they must be settling down too. I was just clenching my teeth in frustration when a sudden movement from Tony's bed caught my eye.
Oh God! Tony's duvet was thrust away from him and in the pale light he began to wank himself, "se battre sa viande", ou, "se frappe l'eveque" as my young Swiss cousin might say. I didn't know what young Swiss boys said but there was Tony giving a signal for next oldest Jacko "aller au galop de son asticot"! My nearly seven inch 'maggot' was soon exposed as I, too, pushed away my duvet and a dual contest of beating, bashing or galloping ensued. No contest really. Both of us had years now of joint masturbatory activity and knew exactly the speed which both enjoyed. I'd noted this with all the lads I'd wanked off with more than once. We all fell into the same rhythm and speed as near as dammit. Here were we two making sure that not another night was missed but even so it was something to be savoured and not rushed over.
I was watching Tony's right hand across the hump in Johann's bed and matching my stroke with his. I was also aware that Johann's head was swivelling watching Tony, then me, then Tony again. Johann's duvet went flying and there was my young Swiss cousin doing what the 99 percent of lads who are not liars do as often as possible. He was exercising his 'fleche', his 'fut', his 'queue', as he told us those names later. In sequence, three boys squirted their pent-up load, Tony, me, then young Johann. I heard him give that sort of delighted gasp I'd experienced myself and heard Tom, Lachs, Flea, even Tony, give at that sublime moment. As he lay staring upwards, his hand still encircling his rampant 'chibre' Tony nodded his head towards him. I nodded and two boys vacated their own beds and joined the other lad in his wider bed, one each on either side of him. Arms automatically went round his shoulders and a kiss each was deposited on his slightly sweaty forehead. The cum deposited on our own chests and stomachs was collected and mixed with his own warm, quite copious, deposit. He was still silent as Tony and I touched each set of lips with a drop of our mixed seed. This was obviously a new experience for him and he, at first, tentatively touched his lips with his tongue. Then he murmured 'Encore' and this time he sucked the gobbet I scooped up and licked his lips fully. Both Tony and I exchanged second drops as well.
Nothing more was said. Tony retrieved Johann's pyjama jacket and wiped the three of us. Johann giggled, then reached down and pulled up the duvet. We covered ourselves, snuggled down against each other and fell fast asleep.
I should report that the two side beds were not slept in for the whole two months after that. No reasons were given. Each day the beds were all remade. I noted clean sheets going on the other two beds every three days or so. It must have been obvious no one was sleeping in them. But, I suppose the routine of a carefully managed Swiss household did not allow for any variations in habit!
The next day was Saturday and Uncle Johann and Aunt Lilian took us for a boat trip on the lake. At two landing stages we got off and did a wander. The two boys went off while I walked much more slowly with my Aunt and Uncle. Uncle Johann wanted to know about my father and whether he had given up playing Rugby. I said he had, but I had been in the school First XV and, even though I hadn't played in the Spring Term this year, anyway, because of the weather there were no matches and I'd been in hospital, I had been awarded Full Colours which was quite an honour. Uncle Johann said my father and Uncle Edward had taken him to the Oxford and Cambridge match while he was at Oxford and he wondered how lads managed to play such a rough game. He said he had played some football as a boy, soccer, but he wasn't really a sportsman.
We sat and had morning coffee at one caf‚ and then at another stop we had what Uncle Johann called a light lunch. I grinned at Tony as we tucked into a Swiss mountain of rosti potato and some kind of meat. He and Johann disappeared off for over an hour during the afternoon and came back giggling and grinning. It was when we got home Tony explained Johann had told him he possessed 'une bonne queue'. I said he should watch it as 'queue' was feminine and after he'd digested that and realised it, I said it was rather strange for the French to have that gender for a boy's best friend!
That night explorations began. Without anything being said I washed first and got into Johann's bed. Tony was next, then Johann was placed between us. No questions, nothing. As Tony nibbled at his left ear I licked under his chin. Wow, the same effect as on me. He almost cooed with delight and even more so as I moved down to feather his right nipple with my tongue and Tony found that sensitive spot on his neck just where the collar- bone joins the breastbone. Johann was getting more and more worked up and beating a veritable tattoo on our backs with his hands, tapping and grasping and almost snorting at the same time. I moved further down, pushing the duvet away as I descended to the prize. His prick was six full inches at least of steel rod wrapped in a velvet skin. He gasped as I took the first inch or so into my mouth and pressed his loose foreskin away to reveal his sculptured end. I bobbed up and down and sucked. I held his balls in their sac and rolled them gently in my fingers. His balls rose and, as his thighs jerked, his sweet young boyjuice squirted into my mouth. I sucked every drop from him, trying to keep as much in my mouth as possible without swallowing it. I slid up the bed against his slightly still jerking body and saw his eyes were staring straight out with his mouth partially open. I fixed my lips over his and tongued some of his boycream into his mouth. He sucked eagerly until Tony tapped me on the arm. "Me, please". I moved across Johann to his lips and we tongue-fucked for a minute or so until his tongue was sticky with Johann's sperm. I could feel Johann's hot breath on my shoulder and his arm reached round me and gripped me tight.
"Bitte, s'il vous plait, please......" He was lost in his store of languages. "Sehr gut, so good," he mumbled.
Tony and I then laid either side of him and hugged him, our own massively hard erections pressed into his thighs.
"Me," Johann said at last when he had calmed down somewhat. A quandary. 'Me' wanted to satisfy the two boys who had pleasured him so deliciously. But, which one should 'me' cope with first. I was his choice. Tony aided him in his enterprise. I was already worked up to just below boiling point. Tony's licks under my chin and the renewed gasp from Johann when he realised just what a mouthful my cock would be was when I knew I wouldn't last much longer. I helped Johann by ringing my prick and withdrawing my foreskin as he took the first two vital inches in. He was good. No teeth. A tongue touched under my ridge and my dick pulsed, my spunk machine switched into high gear and I nearly drowned the poor lad in the amount I shot into his mouth. Too much for him, spunk dripped from his lips and chin as I drew him up me and Tony and I cleaned his face and shared my spunk with him.
Tony was also too far gone to bear the touch of lips around his ridge. As Johann lay between us Tony placed Johann's left hand round his shaft. Johann was well aware of what was needed and well-practised, perhaps, in his solitary hours even with his non-preferred hand, and immediately started to gently pull up and down. Tony was also on a hair-trigger. A single grunt, a shove against Johann which transmitted to me through his rigid body, and I received the full brunt amidships as Tony shot a colossal load straight across Johann. After Tony's climax had subsided a bit three lads giggled and hugged each other and shared drops of Tony's warm spunk. The unworn pyjama jacket came in handy again that night as it did on countless nights after.
Sunday morning came. Johann had a smile on his face. Truly the cat who had not only lost his cream but had experienced the full force of his English cousin's outflow and witnessed the power of his English friend's ejaculatory apparatus! Before he got out of bed he hugged both of us. He quickly donned the wank-stained pyjamas and disappeared off appearing five minutes later laden with a tray with a big pot of coffee, cups, and three large pains au chocolate. He shed his pyjamas and climbed in between us. In the meantime while he was out of the room, two lads needing a good piss had relieved themselves and got back into bed and sat, silent, grinning at each other. As well as a couple of wank stains on the sheets there were several flaky crumbs as well when we finished having sat side by side, cold plates gingerly balanced on flaccid genitalia to start with, arms round the lad in the middle.
As it was awkward to drink and eat by those on the outskirts, Johann said we should hold our cups and he would feed us. The toad deliberately shifted the plates each time he picked up our pastry so, by the time we had licked our chops clean of fragments of chocolate and swigged down the last of the coffee, the lads on the outskirts had raging hardons. He took the plates and handed them to me to place on the small night stand by the bed. It took a moment for me to do this but by the time I turned back he had turned to Tony and, sliding down the bed a bit, engulfed a good four inches of his thick cock into his mouth. If he wasn't practised at this before he was a quick learner. He ringed Tony's cock with the fingers of one hand and drew back his foreskin as his head went up and down and his cheeks were drawn in as he sucked. Tony's face was a picture. His eyes were screwed up tightly shut and his mouth was open wide almost in a grimace. His chest was heaving as he let out little guttural grunts. His hips jerked about a dozen times then rose as he filled Johann's waiting mouth. He put his hands down and drew Johann's head away from his pulsating prick. It was still jerking and dripping the last remnants of his eruption as they tongued and shared Tony's seed. Johann turned and leaned over me with his sticky, whitened tongue stuck out.
I sucked it into my mouth and savoured Tony's taste once more.
"Et tu?" asked Johann as we parted.
I said in my most careful French, without the appropriate verb and noun, that I wanted to look straight into his eyes as he.... Here I made the appropriate movements with an open fist. He grinned. "Fait'une branlette," he said.
He ringed my cock and very slowly and deliberately he drew his English cousin to those wonderful heights, higher than any Swiss mountain. My Matterhorn was scaled as I gazed deeply into those beautiful blue eyes of his and he stared back into mine. We hardly blinked and I kept eye contact even when I gasped as I felt the subterranean earthquake begin and my seething hot magma surged up to explode like a volcano all over me and my cousin's chest and neck.. He gasped too, but continued his stare until I broke the spell and moved my head to his and whispered, "Thank you" and kissed him full on his open red lips.
Tony meanwhile had reached round Johann and was gently running two fingers up and down his hard rod. As Johann and I kissed his mouth opened wide and a spray of warm boycum landed on me. I was the recipient of two lots of warm and wet cream that morning!
Well, we had to get up. Johann explained that the family always went to church. It was expected. In fact, he had to go otherwise there would be problems at school next semester. Semester. I liked that word. It sounded more important than term. We each had a bath. We all smelt pretty rancid but were three clean cherubim when finished. Johann took a while to get the meaning as I said cherubs always were naked in pictures. He laughed and said all the pictures he'd seen they had.... Here, he put a finger and thumb about an inch apart, wrinkled his nose and pointed downwards at Tony who was standing naked, combing his hair, with four inches drooping down, and then shook his head!
At least both Tony and I had clean white shirts to wear with our school blazers and trousers. Johann looked even smarter in his best puritanical school outfit.
We had more coffee and another pastry downstairs and were ready for the ten o'clock service.
I must say it wasn't too bad. The hymns and chants were a bit dirge-like but Tony enjoyed himself. I knew he was a star tenor now in his local church choir and, I must say, he had a powerful and good voice. One hymn, when the organist started playing the introduction, caused him to smile. He whispered "Ein' Feste Burg" and launched into the French version in the hymn book very lustily. He did cause a few heads to turn because he sang so well. I was even more amused when we came to the words 'En vain sa fureur veut ebranler nos coeurs'. What had Johann said earlier. 'Une branlette'! I knew 'branler' meant to shake. Here was another verb. I must look it up.
At the end of the service we had to be introduced to numerous people. There were many of Johann's school-mates present but I noticed that a few just ignored him. Two were especially large and spotty-faced. They kept giving Tony and me surreptitious glances but didn't come over to us. We met Pascal Suess who was there with his father, mother and younger brother. He was a couple of inches shorter than Johann. He shook hands very formally with us and bowed his head. Then he said he would be very pleased to come with us the next day. The two large lads looked even more askance when they saw us talking to him. His brother, Walter, was about twelve and was a smaller version of him. He was very shy and wouldn't try any English. I said to him, in French, that perhaps one day he might join us as well. He smiled shyly and nodded his head.
As we walked to the car I asked Johann who the two large boys were. They looked about the same age as me. Johann grimaced and said quietly he would tell me later.
After lunch we boys changed into shorts and shirts and while the other two strolled off up the mountain path I settled down in the garden with the first of the Simenon books I read, in French, that holiday. Uncle Johann said he had read some of Ma's first book - I had brought that and a copy of the second one which had come out 'to capture the Summer market' - and he liked Inspector Buck. I said I thought Ma had modelled him on our neighbour, Inspector, now Superintendent, Buchanan. He laughed and said he would be as famous as Sherlock Holmes one day! I said the publisher was ready to print the third one ready for Christmas. He nodded sagely and said Lilian's sister had always been clever.
That evening I showed them all the family tree and asked Aunt Lilian about her father's family. Uncle Johann laughed and said he probably knew more than she did as he'd talked a lot with my grandfather. I found out that the original Jacques Fontane had been sent by his father to Paris to study as a doctor. The family did not originally come from Strasbourg but from Clermont Ferrand down in the Auvergne. Uncle Johann got a map of France and showed us. He said that after he qualified Jacques had gone back to his home town with his English wife and practised as a doctor there. Uncle Johann said he thought the family were concerned about the English wife, especially as she was a Protestant but from the family stories she was well-liked and made a great impression. Aunt Lilian went out and brought back a large photo album. She opened it to a page near the beginning where there was a double portrait of a man and a lady. They both looked rather stern and wore very formal clothes. He had on a high-necked tailcoat and she a very full black dress.
"That is Jacques Fontane and his wife, Charlotte," she said, "I think you would say in English they are your great-great-grandparents. That photo was taken in 1880 it says on the back."
I gazed at the picture. Charlotte had been born in 1822. She was fifty-eight in the photo. She looked quite old.
I said she was a Crossley and that Tony's great-aunt was Mrs Crossley but she was a Crossley by marriage. Johann looked puzzled at this and his father explained it to him.
"So, you are almost cousins," he said in precise English, "And mine, too!".
Tony and I grinned and nodded.
Aunt Lilian turned the pages and I saw more of the family. That first Jacques' eldest son was also Jacques.. He was a juge d'instruction, a type of lawyer. He and his wife were in several photos from the 1890's onwards. There was one of him with three young girls taken in about 1910. They were his grand-daughters, Ma, Aunt Lilian and Aunt Annette. I knew Ma hadn't got any of these photos and Uncle Johann said he would get copies made. Lastly there were photos of my grandfather. A big man, in his clerical clothes in one photo, in an academic procession in another and several with his daughters and my grandmother. She smiled in every photo and looked so much like Ma I gasped as the page was turned.
Uncle Johann went on to say that Charlotte's Protestant background had stayed in the family, but when my grandfather wanted to study theology he had to go to Germany, to Berlin, to get his degrees. So in 1884 he had gone there and learned the language and ended up with two prizes for his doctoral thesis eight years later. He had stayed in Germany as an assistant pastor for a few years and then had met my grandmother on a visit to Strasbourg. Strasbourg was then a German town but he settled there, married grandma, was a full-time pastor there and then was appointed to the University after the First World War when the town became French again.
So my family tree was getting complete. I thanked Uncle Johann and asked him if he could write it all down. He said he would because it was important. He said he knew his father's family right back to 1500 from the church records in the village where his family had lived for over four hundred years. He said we would have to meet his father. I saw Johann's face at that moment. He didn't look pleased.
I then told them about Piers Crossley and the very strange experiences I'd had at Ulvescott. I didn't go into detail about some of the happenings but I said I was so like him. I had said this mostly in French and Tony had been able to follow. When I finished he tapped me on the arm.
"You haven't said you and he have birthmarks in exactly the same place."
I stood up and drew up the leg of my shorts. My dark strawberry mark was clearly visible even with my tan.
"His mother told me," I said.
Bed that night was a variation on the night before. This time I told Johann that when I was with my new cousins we did it all together. He was puzzled at first but once we had arranged ourselves on the floor with pillows we were well away sucking each other. Johann was soon bobbing and sucking on Tony's meaty pole while I had Pascal's full six and a bit inches well into my mouth. Tony, with his accustomed expertise got me going by finding that knot of skin just under the back of my ridge. We were soon huffing and puffing as three loads of boyspunk flooded three hungry mouths. Hungry for the taste of our companion's young seed and hungry to give more and more pleasure to each other. We lay huddled together just feeling each others bodies. Johann kept feeling my biceps on my right arm. He whispered "Tu as le bras fort". I explained I lifted weights "les poids". He nodded. "Poids et halteres". I smiled as I think he meant weight-lifting - the real McCoy.
I explained that these were small weights. Tony was following all this and suddenly chuckled. "Non, non," he said, "poids, non!" and then made wanking movements. He poked my biceps.
"Onze, douze fois tous les jours. Pour quatre ans, eh? Big muscles!"
I said he was lucky his dick didn't wear out or fall off the amount of time it was handled. Johann's glances switched from one to the other during this altercation. "'Is dick fall off? Veut dit?" We all giggled as I explained what I had said. "My dick, OK," said Johann in English, "Two times each day - I get good muscle, no?"
We then discussed our respective habits. Johann said he usually did it twice a day. I said I was a two or three times a day lad and Tony said the same. We found that he and Pascal had done it together twice. Pascal was two months older than Johann and this had happened on a trek they had done into the mountains with a school party when they were fourteen. They had shared blankets on a hard floor of an old barn and Johann shyly said they turned towards each other and their hands brushed against each other's hard pricks poking out of their pyjamas. It was a matter of moments before two boys had caressed and felt the newly grown lengths. Both boys had shot quick loads against the blanket covering them. Johann said he didn't realise until then what a mess two boys could make and they were scared their schoolmates might notice the stains in the morning. He said that Pascal had explained everything to him as his big brother Nicholas had told him all about boys growing up. Johann had read about it in one of his mother's medical books which he said he suspected she had left out purposely for him to read. He said the next night they had laughed together when they felt for each other immediately and found "deux petits souris" peeping out of the fronts of their pyjamas. They also heard other boys as well. He and Pascal had done it together the next time on Pascal's fifteenth birthday when Johann had visited him in the flat the family had at the top of the hotel. They hadn't done anything else but he had heard two of the older boys when he was a bit younger accusing one of their fellow pupils of wanting to suck their 'pipes'.
He then said the two were those boys I'd asked him about that morning. Neither was liked at school as they were bullies. One was Hubert Sussmayer, whose father worked in the Police Department and the other was Heinrich Fugelman, whose father was a minor judge and both men were suspected of being over-friendly with the Germans during the war. Johann said the boys didn't like him because his father was known to be an honest lawyer and had made a bit of a name for himself by presenting the case for someone who was accused on some false charge and also because he was over a year younger than them but was in the same class. They didn't like Pascal for that same reason and also as his father had a hotel and they were the ones who called him 'Garcon'. I said from what I had seen no one couldn't like Pascal. Johann smiled and said he liked him very much. I guess you were always good friends with the boy with whom you shared your first experiences together!
All this time we were still lying on the floor on the thick rug stroking each other's backs and sides, tracing the contours of our bodies and feeling our developing adolescent physiques and build. Both Tony and I were now, I would think, fully grown. I weighed about twelve stone, which was good for my height, and little of that was fat. I gripped Tony's meaty buttock and compared it with the equally firm but classically rounded shape of my cousin's smaller, more compact rump. Tony had a nice body and was justly proud of that six and a half inches of prime English beef between his legs.
I was fully recovered now after that deliriously sweet first encounter.
I felt a very determined hand grip my fully erect cock.. I gasped as Johann pulled back sharply and my foreskin was abruptly drawn down. He whispered "Mon cousin, c'est pour tu!" and quickly we trio of rampant hedonists were being sucked or sucking our new partners. Tony's cock was like him, firm, chunky with a good head on it! I laved and sucked on him while young Johann so lovingly and carefully did the same to me. I heard Tony gurgle as Johann came first. On that last upward climb of tension and then release he had renewed his movements on my prick and was sucking so, so hard I wondered if I could maintain such a vacuum on Tony. I tried and almost simultaneously our pricks jerked and pulsed as our second come of that night erupted into waiting mouths. Well, Tony! You and I must take some beating when it comes- ha ha - to amount. Both Johann and I had plenty in our mouths and extra sprayed over our cheeks. I even felt drops of Tony's warm juice on my ear. The three of us collapsed together and hugged and mewed in each other's ears, the other two licking eagerly at my cheeks and ear while I lapped up my own thick cream from around Johann's mouth.
Johann's poor pyjamas came in useful again to wipe any residue left. Tony said he could do with a constant companion in bed who would Hoover up his nightly effusions in such an efficient way as me and Johann. I had to hush him when we got back into bed and he had said this as I showed Johann how ticklish he was and if I hadn't clamped my mouth over his he would have started to yodel!
Monday morning we just smiled at each other, got up, all pricks erect, peed, washed and attired ourselves in shorts and shirts to have breakfast downstairs and wait for Pascal. First though I went with Aunt Lilian to her study - accompanied by the boys - where she replaced the strapping round my knee. They wanted to see the scar which by now was completely healed. I let them gently touch my kneecap and they could feel the steel pin Mr Foljambe had inserted. Aunt Lilian said she would get Professor Bechtelman to X-ray the knee in a fortnight's time and if he thought all was well I could leave the bandage off. She thought I could do a short walk each day but watch my step, no wrenching or sudden movements. I was able to flex my muscles more now without them pulling too much and I could bend my knee much more easily. What I was nervous of was putting my full weight on my leg, just in case. Aunt Lilian said I should practise doing that a few times every hour and she would also take me on Wednesday to the clinic where I could have some massage.
Pascal turned up exactly on nine o'clock. I asked him why wasn't Walter with him? He said his brother was very shy especially about meeting 'the big English boys'. Of course, he was dressed in his puritanical school outfit. Then Johann and he giggled together as he certainly wasn't going to spend the day with us dressed like that. Tony had the answer. He had a spare pair of Scout shorts. A second pale-legged young Swiss was soon ready and, accompanied by my hefty walking stick, we set off up the path behind the chalet. Johann and Tony were soon yards ahead. Pascal walked slowly with me. We didn't speak, I think he was happy to just be accepted.
I think we must have walked about a mile. The scenery was beautiful, big expanses of grass with trees dotted here and there and downwards we could see the lake stretching out away from us. At last we came across a water-trough. "Pour les vaches," explained Pascal. There was a stone seat nearby and we sat side by side and just looked. After some time he turned slightly and smiled shyly. "Johann is a good boy," he said carefully in English, "He is my friend". I said, also in English, that I thought my cousin was a good boy and I hoped, Pascal looked puzzled at that word, I quickly said "J'aime a croire que tu aussi.." would be my friend and Tony's friend. He said that his brother Nicholas had liked me and had encouraged him to come today. I thought, that was what big brothers were for.
The other two came back soon after with Tony singing something and Johann looking puzzled. "Zat Tony....." I thought I would have to work on his TH's ".....he keeps laughing and singing."
"And what does he sing?" I asked.
Johann shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "I do not know, vot is it, Tony? He zinks it is so funny."
Tony got the two boys to stand together then began to sing in his very melodious voice, "Pale legs I love, beside the Shalimar..."
I grinned. It was true. Against us two rather tanned English boys two pairs of sturdy Swiss legs looked decidedly lacking in colour. "He is taking the mickey," I said.
"Vot is zis mickey?" asked an even more puzzled Johann.
"Oh," I said, "He's only pulling your legs..." Tony and I collapsed in giggles seeing the stupidness of the English idioms.
Johann and Pascal were looking at each other and mouthing "Pulling our legs".
I then explained it was English humour. We were tanned, they were white-legged. There was a song - I had heard Mrs Marcham sing it several times - about 'Pale hands I love'.
Tony had to butt in and sing the whole first verse, correctly, which sounded pretty good, finishing up by announcing it was one of four Indian Love Lyrics by Amy something or other and his mother was always singing it. The fool then went down on his knees in front of the boys and clutched them around their lower legs while looking up at them and bursting into song again, "Pale legs I love....".
They loved it. English humour. Legs pulled, metaphorically and literally. Taking the mickey. Droll, friendly humour. Jokes! "Why did the chicken cross the road?", "Why did the rabbit cross the road?" "Because it was the chicken's day off!", "Knock, knock!" "Who's there?" "Cows" "Cows who?" "No, cows moo!", "What did the zookeeper call his pet zebra? "Spot", "Would you hit a woman with a child?" "No, I'd hit her with a stick!", "What has four legs and flies? "A horse on a hot day!" "What has two legs and flies? A pair of trousers!", and so on, and so on. We were like two Junior School kids. They must have thought the English were quite mad! The staid, upright, stiff upper lip Englishman in the European mind was knocked for six that day. Knocked for six? We said we would tell them about cricket. A side was in until it was out. When it was out the other side was in.... When the bowler bowled six balls it was an over, and then it was an over again.... If no runs then it was a maiden over.... And so on. But that laughter was the key to the development of good friendships.
That first day set the scene for all the days the four of us were together. Generally we split into pairs. We made it a rule that the Swiss boys should speak as much as possible in English and Tony and I in French. We insisted we wanted proper French and if they had any schoolboy rudenesses they had to tell us when they used them. We said the same about English and my first hour with Johann was spent repeating phrases such as "thirty thousand feathers on a thrush's throat" and "what a waste, which watch Walter wants" to get him to say his TH's and W's correctly. We laughed and giggled and he tried hard to get me to do a proper guttural R.
Aunt Lilian and, especially, Uncle Johann, spoke to me in German. All my long conversations with Aunt Lilian were in that language. She wanted to know everything about her sister and her dear husband. She asked me about the war and I told her about my experiences at Pin Mill House with the boys when the doodle-bugs came. She hadn't been to England but said as soon as possible she would come. Uncle Johann always talked about the time he spent at Oxford and being shown the sights of London by my father and Uncle Edward and he always talked about English beer. She said she missed seeing her other sister but wondered if she might one day get to America. She laughed when I talked about Uncle Alfred. She said he had been one of her father's cleverest students and had been amazed at how my father managed to transform the rather stuffy American to the laughing, jolly man she knew so well in the end.
On the Wednesday Aunt Lilian took Tony and me into Neuchatel and I was deposited at the clinic where a very efficient lady massaged and manipulated my leg. She strapped it up a slightly different way which felt very comfortable and said I should come back after I had the X-ray so she could check on my progress.
After church the next Sunday I saw Aunt Lilian in deep conversation with a tall, thin man and the pair of them kept looking over at us. It turned out he was the organist and had been told by members of the congregation about Tony's singing. "Would he sing a solo?" Tony was a bit flustered and it was arranged we would meet at the church on Tuesday evening at six o'clock. Tony was asked what he would like to sing. He said he'd sung a piece from the St Matthew Passion at Easter in church at home. Perhaps that might do. He had sung it in English but he knew that it really should be in German. The organist went back into the church and came back with a vocal score. Tony skimmed through the pages and pointed.
The organist raised his eyebrows. "Mein Jesus schweigt zu falschen Lugen stille." He looked quizzically at Tony. In a soft voice Tony sang "To witness false my Saviour answers not". The organist smiled. He said something rapidly to Aunt Lilian.
"Could you learn to sing that in German?" she asked.
Tony looked at me and handed me the score. I noted 'Rezitativ: Aria'.
I scanned the words "Um uns damit zu zeigen dass sein Erbarmens voller Wille". I thought as long as he knows the pronunciation he'd be OK. "I'll help him," I said. "I can play this on the piano."
Up until then I hadn't been near the upright piano in the drawing-room of the chalet. I hadn't brought any music with me and I didn't see any around in the room. I actually really wanted to play.
Open mouths all round. At least from Johann and Aunt Lilian, Uncle Johann was away chatting to two rather prim looking ladies.
So it was arranged. Tony would have a crash course in German pronunciation. And, I would be playing Bach!
That afternoon Aunt Lilian and I listened carefully as Tony read through the German to the Recitative. Luckily the piano was in tune and I played the underlying, limpid, detached chords as Tony sang the new words softly. Aunt Lilian had written them out for him while Tony and I sat side by side on the piano stool. At last he smiled, stood up, patted me on the back and launched full-voiced into that beautifully cadenced set of words. We played and sung it together several times. Aunt Lilian pointed out how to put emphasis on certain syllables. Uncle Johann and young Johann had been out somewhere and when they came in both were amazed at the progress. The harder part was to learn the aria. Aunt Lilian took him off to walk in the garden to read through the words, "Geduld!", "Patience!" "Wenn mich falsche Zungen stechen...." "When such false tongues may charge me...".
I practised the wonderful opening noting that it should have a cello accompanying as well.
When they came back in I played through the opening and Tony came in full-throated with "Geduld". I played on and he sounded really good with the false tongues passage next. He said we could take the score the next day and he would learn the German words off by heart. He knew the melody and Dr Baines, who trained their choir as well as being the substitute Cathedral organist, had told him how to interpret the words so he would sing the German words in the same way.
I found that Uncle Johann had inherited the piano when his mother died.
He said she played it 'in her boudoir' but his father had a grand piano in his house. Aunt Lilian said they still had it tuned every six months and went off and came back with a bundle of music books. As I knew quite a few pieces off by heart I played about six pieces and was congratulated. So, Tony was to sing and I was told I had to entertain the family!
To be continued:.......................