The Happiest Days by Jonah
This is a story about love - real love - at work in the lives of good people. It follows on from "Halls of Academia," but the story really began many, many moons ago with "A Letter from America". There are no real people herein so, if you think one of the characters is based on you, or on somebody you know, have another think and come up with a different answer. Having said that, I didn't invent every character. A couple of them were originally crafted by another author. I have to (well, actually, it is my pleasure 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 13 Awake my Soul
We were up, showered and breakfasted in good time on Sunday morning. This was partly because the boys were excited about the concert and, strangely, felt the need to tell Garret and Riku all about it. I say "strangely" because, well - surely they knew that Garret and Riku had been there. The answer to that one is, probably not. Garret and Riku had been on the stage - not sitting with us. The boys had, of course, been watching the stage, but had found it impossible to relate the celebrities on the stage to the people seated at the breakfast table with them. Watching the stage had been like watching the television, and the boys knew that what was beyond the glass screen was not real. Besides, the boys habitually exalted celebrities to the rank of gods, and deities - saving one - were not people you could actually talk to over breakfast.
Garret didn't always attend Church with us on Sunday mornings but, on this occasion, he and Riku both did. Apparently that had been Riku's idea. He had talked Garret into it without realising that he had done so. He had assumed that Garret would be attending with us, had told Garret that he would like to accompany him, and Garret had felt duty-bound to attend. As I mentioned earlier, Garret's spirituality is streets ahead of mine - only his Church-going lags behind.
Dinner, on our return to Newton, was not long in coming. Garret had put in the joint before we left for Church, and all was soon ready. This was important since Riku had a train to catch.
Yes, the famous concert pianist was heading home to Horndean, and the love of his life. Steve must be the most patient of all men. He was Riku's partner, and agent. He spent most of his days arranging for Riku to be elsewhere. Obviously, he didn't like Riku being elsewhere, but he knew that Riku's work made him happy, which was the thing that Steve wanted above all else.
We all accompanied Riku to Norwich Thorpe Station and saw him off on his train to London. We were all sorry to see him go. We extracted a promise that it would not be another eighteen years before we saw him again. Nobody believed that of course - it was not a promise that it was within Riku's power to keep - but it felt better to have secured it.
The remainder of Sunday dragged. Even running diesel-hauled trains in the garden didn't cheer anybody up much. I don't even think that anybody was sorry to see bedtime.
Monday morning was a different matter. We intended to try to get Philip back to school. Garret was not going, as he was required in court, so I had to drive both boys to school before making for the CTC.
I had two metalwork sessions in the morning and an R.E. session in the afternoon, followed by a free period, which left me with plenty of time to pick the boys up from school. We were back a good hour before Garret got home.
Garret sat and had tea with us and then we let the boys play in the garden.
"Well?" I asked as soon as Garret and I were alone.
"He's going down,"Garret replied. "The jury took a little while, which is why the late finish, but they came up with a verdict, which was guilty with a recommendation for the maximum sentence."
"Can they make such a recommendation?"
"Well they thought they couldn't, but when the judge asked if they had considered entering a plea for mercy or for leniency, the foreman said absolutely not and, in fact, they had considered recommending the maximum sentence. They were surprised when the judge said he would take that recommendation into account."
"So when is the sentencing?"
"At mid-day tomorrow and, since Philip is with us, Linda recommends that one of us attends."
"Well, since you missed school today, that had better be me. I'll give Grev a ring and ask him."
I felt embarrassed at having to ask Grev for yet more time off but, knowing him as I did, I was not at all surprised when he told me to take the day off.
Out in the garden, Lloyd was giving rides to Garret and Philip. I saw that the signals had been set to "clear" so there was no need for me to intervene until the time came to put the train to bed. It was a warm day, so I liberated ice-cream from the freezer and served it up on the patio - the train taking a break for the purpose.
An hour later, I opened up the signal box and set the signals to "danger" so that the train could be put away. A rosy sun was dipping below the horizon and the evening would soon start to cool.
Lloyd was clamouring for hot chocolate, but I didn't feel inclined to oblige since they had so recently had ice-cream. In the end, I compromised by allowing them a glass of milk. They both headed upstairs without further ado.
"How'd Philip get on at school?" Garret asked as he poured us each a tot of whisky.
"Jean said there's no problem," I replied. "She looked in on him this morning. His class teacher is still letting him sit with Lloyd and he seems happy with that."
"Has he shown any interest in his dad's trial?"
"I don't think he even knows about it. He certainly hasn't mentioned it. He seems happy here, so I suppose he doesn't want to make waves."
He knocked back the last of his whisky.
"OK, well it's my turn to tuck them in. Fancy an early night?"
I don't know what I thought he was suggesting. Certainly we were both turned in before ten o'clock. The sun had risen and the sun had set. That was the end of Monday and God saw that it was good. Those were good days - mostly.