Of Sea and Sand by Jonah
Simon and Garret are here again,looking after their young family.If you are unfamiliar with this family,we first met Simon in 'A Letter from America' back in 2019. He was a teenager then,now he is well into adulthood. Garret originated in another author's story. I want to thank Jacob Lion, in the USA for his permission to use his characters in my story. That's one of the things I want to make plain,all the characters in this,and all my other stories are wholly fictitious. They aren't based on real people. The other thing I want to make plain is that, while Simon and Garret are both gay, as are some other characters, this is a story about love - not sex,lust,or any other substitute,but real Christian love. If it's pornography you want, you'll have to find it somewhere else. Lastly,this story is brought to you by Nifty,free of charge. Nifty doesn't charge me to publish it, nor you to read it,but it does cost money to bring it to you. Please consider donating to Nifty at https://donate.nifty.org/ so that these stories continue to be available for all to read.
Chapter 6
Our digs in Ethelred Road,Cliftonville,were part of a large Victorian terrace. Three steps led up to the high front door and,as soon as Philip rang the bell, it was opened by a large and ferocious looking lady. She would have been in her late 50s, or early 60s, and wore a dress with a floral print that went out of fashion back in the 20th century. Her greying hair was clipped tight and she wore very little make-up. She surveyed the assembled party and then replaced the ferocious expression with a smile.
"You must be Mr.Ito," she told Grev, in accents of East London.
""No I mustn't," replied Grev,"but just about everybody else is."
She was having no truck with that.
"Well never mind. Come on in. I'm Mrs.Kesteven," she said as she reversed into the hall and seemingly drew us forward.
As I was the last in I closed the door behind us as soon as we had deposited our luggage in the hall.
"I'll take that up for you in a moment or two. Make yourself comfortable in the lounge and I'll put the kettle on."
She led us into the Lounge, which was large and furnished with three settees all facing a largish television.
"This is Mr. Stockdale," she told us, indicating a middle-aged man who would not have looked out of place with a knotted handkerchief on his head, "and those are the Ryan family," indicating a group of people behind the furthest settee. A man and two young boys poked their heads above the parapet and waved, "and this is the Ito family, except this gentleman," indicating Grev,"who isn't Mr. Ito."
We managed to sit on two of the settees. The sound of childish laughter emanated from behind the other one. Mr Stockdale was seated at a table by the bay window, seemingly engrossed in a crossword.
"I do a late dinner on Saturdays," Mrs. Kesteven confided,"on account of people arriving. It's usually at five o'clock,but it'll be nearer six today. Now who wants a cuppa - I've got squash for the children if they'd prefer."
The boys preferred and she departed.
A cheerful looking young lady entered from the hall carrying a small girl of about two-ish.
"That's funny," she told the child, "I could have sworn we'd find Daddy and the twins in here."
A boy's head popped up from behind the settee.
"Mummy!" he shouted in glee.
Her husband struggled to his feet,the other twin hanging from his neck.
"Where'd you go," he queried with an obvious geordie twang.
"Only just past the Lido," she replied with no geordie accent. "We'd have been late for dinner if we'd gone much further."
"It's later on Saturdays,"
"Oh, well never mind. Here, take Crystal. I'm going to get myself a wash before dinner. I feel as if I've done a shift down the pit."
Her husband disengaged himself from the boy and took his daughter from her. Instead of returning behind the settee he sat down on it with the girl on his lap.
"Come on you two, sit yourselves down," he told the boys. "You'll be too excited to eat your dinner. Here Tommy, take your sister."
He passed the girl to the nearest twin who balanced her proudly on his lap. The other twin immediately began trying to play with her.
"Sorry about the chaos," his father said to me, "I'm Rob by the way."
"Simon," I replied. "This is Grev and that's Garret. The boys are Barry, Philip and Lloyd in that order."
"Good to see you. You've seen Sharon. I'm afraid Crystal keeps her busy. The twins are Tommy and Timmy. We try to keep them in different clothes but they're not above swapping things round just to confuse people. It's their favourite game."
Our boys' favourite game seemed to be sitting on the settee and watching the twins. They didn't do it for long because Mrs.Kesteven came back with orange squash for them.
"Tea Mr.Stockdale?" she called to the gentleman in the window.
"Err thank you," came the reply from somewhere in Yorkshire.
""What about your lads Mr.Ryan? Do they want squash?"
""Oh No thank you Mrs.K. We'd better not feed them any more sugar."
"Oh yes, we'd better leave some room for all the sugar in that trifle we've got for afters," said Mrs. Kesteven, with a wink at Tommy (I knew it was Tommy because he was still holding his sister).
She left the room but was back in a few seconds with a tray of tea things, which she placed on the table - Mr. Stockdale folding his newspaper to accommodate it.
"Has Sharon gone upstairs?" the landlady enquired as she passed around the teacups.
I smiled quickly in affirmation.
"She's getting a wash," Rob said.
"Oh, well dinner's in about ten minutes. I'll give her a shout when I've taken the luggage up. Enjoy your tea and go through when you're ready."
We did precisely that and a dinner of sausage and mash with carrots and onion gravy didn't go down at all badly - and Mrs. Kesteven hadn't been joking about the trifle.
After dinner all three of our boys disappeared behind the settee to play a long, drawn out game of Top Trumps in which the Ryan twins joined. Mr. Stockdale went out after dinner so we sat around and chatted to the Ryans. They were down for the week from their home in Northampton. Rob did indeed hail from South Shields,while Sharon was from Northampton. Rob worked in a brewery and Sharon was a housewife who occasionally sold Tupperware. Crystal didn't say what she did, but she was in bed not long after dinner anyway.