HALLS OF ACADEMIA BY JONAH
This is a work of fiction so be aware that every character herein is also fictitious. If you think you recognise yourself, or somebody else in here - you don't. Some places, and some institutions in here are real, but the people attached to those institutions in the story are not. At least one character is the creation of another author, Jacob Lion, in the USA. My thanks to Jacob for his permission to use his characters in my story.
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Chapter nine
Well we stayed the rest of the week in Harrow. On Saturday we accompanied Joe on a trainspotting expedition, taking in Kings Cross, St. Pancras, Liverpool Street, Paddington, Victoria, Clapham Junction and Waterloo. After that it was Northern Line to Euston and local to Harrow and Wealdstone. Miriam was helping with the food bank so Jacob and dog had a peaceful day.
On Saturday evening we went up to Maida Vale to have dinner with Luke and Rikki. Luke, apparently, was the chef in that household, though Rikki admitted to boiling eggs occasionally.
We saw the Davises again on Sunday morning at Cannon Lane Methodist Church. It had been years since Jacob had accompanied his parents to Church and we got a surprise too.
Many years ago the Rev. June Bennett had been superintendent of the Harrow and Hillingdon Methodist circuit. It had been she who christened Jacob when he was less than a day old. Now Methodist ministers don't stay in the same place, but have to move somewhere new every five years until they retire. Well June had retired and was now living in Pinner as a supernumery minister. She occasionally still took services but she didn't take that one, which was led by a local preacher. She was, however, there in the congregation and it was good to see her.
After Church, Sunday dinner was at the Davises, which was something Garret had never experienced before. As a professional chef, Joe knew how to serve up a Sunday meal that you wouldn't forget in a hurry.
Jacob, still sporting a luridly coloured left eye, was reticent. It was almost as if he feared that to speak would cause offence. Of course, he could not put on the spoilt brat act in front of his parents but, when I was alone with him in the kitchen, he still would not initiate a conversation. If I initiated one his responses were mostly monosyllabic. They would have been totally monosyllabic if the word "sorry" didn't have two syllables. I'm sure that, if I had accused him of continuing to breathe, he would have apologised for that. Well, he'd had a nasty shock and felt guilty about it. Was that all, I wondered.
After the dessert was polished off, I followed him to his room. I don't think he noticed me. I'm sure that when he closed the door in my face, it was unintentional. I knocked and it was opened immediately.
"Can we talk?" I asked.
He shrugged. I stepped inside and closed the door.
"Do you not want to talk?"
Another shrug.
"So what have I done that you don't want to talk to me?"
"Sorry Simon, It's not you."
"It's you?"
An almost imperceptible nod.
"So what have you done that you don't want to speak to me?"
"You don't really know me. If you did, you wouldn't want to talk to me."
"Are you still an obnoxious brat?"
"I don't know. I hope not."
"So what do you not want me to know - and you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
He hesitated, and you know what happens to he who hesitates. Well he didn't do it for long.
"I'm gay, and I've never told anyone. I can't tell my parents."
"Why not? They know I am, and Garret, and Jonah. They're probably the least homophobic straight people I know."
"Yes, but what if they're expecting grandchildren?"
"Aren't you a little young to be thinking about that?"
"Be serious. I know they know other gay people, but it's different when it's your own son."
Time to cut through the crap.
"Who is it?"
""What?"
"Come on Jacob. I'm a teacher, and I wasn't born yesterday. You're not worried about outing yourself to your parents. You're nervous about outing somebody else to their parents. Are you really serious about him?"
He just stared at me with his mouth open. I smiled - hopefully reassuringly.
"The really important question is how serious is he about you," I said quietly. "You already know how much your parents love you. They won't stop loving you - won't even be a little disappointed. That leaves his parents. If it's really serious, don't you think your parents might be able to help you there?"
"It's not that simple. I wouldn't know what to say to them. It's not an easy thing to break to them after hiding it all this time."
"Well how about I take you back in there and plant a dirty great sopping wet kiss on your lips? Do you think that might do it?"
"Nah," he retorted. "I'm fussy who I kiss. Do you think Garret would do it? He's sexier than you are."
Well, unflattering as that was, it was nice to see his sense of humour reawakened.
We didn't put my plan into operation. It wasn't needed. In fact, it was obvious that Miriam had guessed what Jacob and I had been talking about. Jacob's boyfriend may have had a problem, but I'm sure he would soon know that his parents were on side.
When we finally took our leave, Jacob waved us off as enthusiastically as anyone.
On Monday morning Peter had to go into the City for a chambers meeting. The rest of us took a taxi to Liverpool Street and caught the 1030 to Norwich.
Garret had, apparently, learned to catch locomotive numbers and was doing so for Lloyd. Over the past few days, Garret and Lloyd had bonded a lot. I expect you've noticed that they haven't featured all that prominently in the last couple of chapters. That's mainly because their activities didn't often include me. I bonded a little with Adam, since his father disgraced himself, but that was about it.
It was nearly dinner time when our train arrived in Norwich Thorpe station but, weighed down as we were with luggage, we weren't about to go exploring the city. Instead we got a taxi to take us to Sprowston Police Station where we filed into the lobby. I told the constable on duty who we were.
"Mr. Khan," he said. "Thanks for dropping in. I think we've got everything we need from you in the way of statements. You can't give us one about Wednesday night because you weren't there. One of the arresting officers is here at the moment though and I'm sure he'd like a word. He'll probably give you a lift home, since it was us that asked you to leave your cars at home. Oh, and we got our garage to check them over in case she'd tampered with them before our officers got there. It's just as well you did pop in though. We've got your new keys here. I'll get them for you and see if Gary want a word.
He was only gone a minute and returned, not behind the bulletproof screen, but through the locked door and in the company of a good looking young officer who I instantly warmed to.
"This is PC Gary Slade," said the deskman. "He was one of the officers who arrested your sister-in-law."
"Good to meet you," I said, shaking the officer's hand. Garret did likewise.
"It's good to meet you too," he replied. "That's a better greeting than I got from your sister-in-law. She just threw petrol over me and tried to burn me alive. If Colin had moved more slowly, I wouldn't be here now."
"Well I'm glad she failed. Is she still in custody here?"
"Excuse me Mr Khan," the desk officer interrupted. "These are your new house keys, if you don't mind signing for them here. Gary's going to run you home, so he'll have plenty of time to tell you all about it."
Well that's what happened. Lloyd and Adam got their second ride in a police car.
"She have to appear in court tomorrow," Gary told us. "You won't be needed though, just Me, Colin and the custody sergeant."
"Where does the custody sergeant come in," I asked. "Did she try something at the Police Station?"
"She've tried to harm herself twice since she've been in custody," he replied. "I think she's looking at a very long time in a secure mental institution - probably the rest of her natural life."
Well I couldn't argue with that. To my eternal shame, I was not even sad about it. Within a quarter of an hour we were saying goodbye to Gary outside our house.
"Oh, just one thing," he said before he drove off. "Were you planning on going out this afternoon?"
"Well one of us will have to pick Peter up from the station," Garret replied.
"OK," Garry returned. "I've got to get our garage to come and fix your cars. I'll get on to them as soon as I get back. If they can't get it done in time, give us a ring on that number and I'll pick him up."
An hour later Lloyd and Adam were doing something in the boys' bedroom and Garret and I were relaxing in our room when there was a ring on the doorbell. There was a police car parked outside so we were not surprised that it was Gary again.
"Hi Simon," he said as soon as I opened the door. "Our motor pool man is busy dismantling a car taken in a drugs raid, but he told me what to do. Can you pop the bonnets on your cars for me?"
" I can on two of them," I told him. "Pete has his own keys. It's a pity you didn't check Marion's possessions before you drove out here. I bet she's got a key to it."
"Doesn't matter. We can send someone out when your brother gets back."
Within five minutes we had two serviceable cars on the driveway.
It was five o' clock when Garret picked up Pete from the station. He'd called in at Morrisons so that we had food in the place. Of course we didn't know how long Pete and Adam intended to stay.
One thing I did know was that the NNR had rostered me on Tuesday, so another visit to Sheringham was on the cards. Would Pete want to hang around long enough to bring Adam on the railway?
Either way, it needed to be an early night for me so, after supper, I checked that Lloyd and Adam were Ok, then turned in for the night.