Whiteout by Jonah
Those who have read my previous stories will need no introduction to Simon and Garret and their family. Those who haven't - why not? This is the latest in the series that began a couple of years back with "A Letter from America" and it fits in right after "Christmas in New England". If you haven't read the others, don't worry. It will stand on its own. It is a story of love - the real sort. Some of its characters are gay, though that doesn't matter. They are good people. They are not, however, real people. This is a work of fiction and every character is also a fiction - created by me, except for Garret, who was created by Jacob Lion, in the USA. I want to thank Jacob for permitting me to use his characters. This story is brought to you, free of charge, by Nifty. Nifty brings all these stories to you free of charge and he doesn't charge us authors either. The cost is borne by himself and our donations. To keep this site going please consider donating to Nifty at https://donate.nifty.org/
chapter 13
On Tuesday morning I had a full car-load. Well, I had Ross, Barry, Philip and Lloyd. That's a full car-load when the car in question is a mini. I dropped the three youngsters at the primary school and reported to Jean Moffat to advise her that Garret wouldn't be in for a day or two.
"I'm glad you didn't take Lewis home for us," she confided.
"Problems?"
"Lewis' father is a walking problem. I simply don't understand why Mrs McGarrick has not yet murdered him. The man is agressive, argumentative, malicious, homophobic, bigoted, and that's being kind to him. Apparently Lewis did the right thing attacking Garret with the syringe. Mr. McGarrick would like to do the same to all homosexuals. In any case he wants to sue the school for putting his son at risk. Particularly, he wants to sue Garret, since it is obviously his fault because he's gay. He had a good mind to keep Lewis from school, he said, and I should be ashamed of myself for employing such teachers."
"Sounds like a nice chap."
"Believe me Simon, I really hope he does keep Lewis from school, since that would give me an excuse to send the school welfare officer round. Mrs. McGarrick is doing her best but how can you bring up a child with someone like that on the premises?"
"Well I hope it works out alright. I'll have to be getting on . I've got to get Ross to school too."
"Oh, you're Alice Coulter's boy aren't you?" she said, as if noticing him for the first time.
"Yes Miss," said the boy.
"How's your mum doing?"
"She's a lot better. She might be able to come home next week."
"That's good news. I bet she won't be driving for a little while yet though. If you need a lift to school, you come and see me."
"It's alright Miss. I should be able to manage."
"I fail to see how. You tell your mum she's not to worry about it. We won't see you stranded."
"No, honestly Miss...."
"Ross..." I interrupted. It was time somebody did.
He looked at me.
"Give it up mate," I advised him. "You won't win."
He grinned.
"Thank you Miss," he said.
That got the day off to an interesting start.
Arriving at the CTC I was met by Grev Kennedy, who had arrived at the same time.
"Morning Simon," he greeted me.
"Good morning Sir" (I had a student with me).
"How's Garret?"
"They kept him in overnight for observation."
"Good! Hopefully he'll be OK then. How's your mother Ross?"
"Doing well Sir."
"That's good too. When she does come out, have a word with Mr Ito or myself if there's anything you need help with."
"Thank you Sir."
Tuesday was a fairly uneventful day, though we learnt later that things had been less uneventful at the primary school.
Seemingly, after Jean had left the McGarrick household, things had come to a head and the end result had been that Mrs McGarrick had left, taking Lewis with her. Lewis had been brought to school but Mrs. McGarrick had expressed fears that her husband might try to snatch him. He did indeed make the attempt but Jean had summoned the police, one of whose number Mr McGarrick very unwisely assaulted. Social Services had taken charge of Lewis while his father was taken into custody.
At the time, all this was unknown to us as Ross and I descended on the University Hospital.
We both headed straight for the observation ward where Garret was sitting on the side of his bed waiting for somebody to collect him. He had collected a folder full of instructions for himself and information for his GP.
Having secured his discharge the three of us headed for the main building where we introduced Garret to Alice.
Somewhat belatedly I remembered that neither Ross nor myself had ever mentioned my sexuality to Alice. As soon as Alice clapped eyes on Garret, however, I thanked my lucky stars that Garret was gay. I'd have definitely had some competition for him if he hadn't been.
"Shall we just go and leave them to it?" I whispered to Ross. Neither of them noticed.
On Wednesday morning Garret insisted on going in to school. That was when we discovered the adventures of Lewis McGarrick. Garret phoned me at break time to tell me about it. I felt sick to the stomach since, experience had told me, the police would find it difficult to protect Lewis. In a way it had been fortunate that his father had been daft enough to assault a policeman.
We visited Alice on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. On Thursday the doctor told us that, provided she continued to improve at her present rate, Alice could be discharged on Saturday.
On Friday we were even more startled to be told by Paul Herbert that he was virtually finished with the building work and, as far as he was concerned, our house was once more inhabitable. I hadn't even realised that Norwich Union had given the job to Paul - otherwise I might have been tempted to go round to ogle Andy and Alan.
As soon as school was out we all piled into Garret's car and headed for Newton St. Faith. Andy and Alan were just packing up for the day but were pleased to see us. The only jobs that needed doing,they explained, were rehanging of curtains, and a little touching up of paintwork. They would be happy to stay and rehang the curtains if we needed the help. That was a tempting offer, but I had to tell them to get home for their tea and we would be fine. I'm sure Alan was disappointed.
That being done I fired up the central heating and changed the bedding.
The next thing to do was to go and load up our possessions from the George and check out. Garret and the boys did that while I shopped and ordered pizza for dinner. By the time Garret and the boys got back to eat the pizza I had already restocked the fridge and rehung the curtains.
I was sure that we would all sleep soundly. We had enjoyed the George, but it was good to go to sleep in our own beds.