Max did not help by standing up in the shallows. Seeing Max’s nakedness made Graham very self-conscious and for a moment he wondered if Max might be ‘one of those people his father had warned him about’.
Max turned and beckoned. “Hop in Graham and have a go,”
“I haven’t got any bathers, and I don’t want to get my shorts wet,” Graham replied.
Max curled his lip. “Huh! You can swim in the nuddy.”
“I’d rather not,” Graham replied, going red with embarrassment.
“Why not? Are you shy? Do you think I will laugh at you?” Max asked.
“What if your parents come home?” he asked.
“They aren’t due back for hours. Don’t be a scaredy cat! Get in!”
“What about Cindy?” Graham asked anxiously.
Max shook his head. “She’s at netball. Come on, aren’t you game?”
Graham had no answer. Reluctantly, but stung by the dare, he took of his clothes. Hotly aware that Max was looking at him Graham self-consciously stepped in. To add to his embarrassment he quickly developed an erection. I hope Max doesn’t get the wrong idea, he thought. To hide himself he knelt down and placed his face in the water. He stayed that way while watching the sub buzzing around and around.
“It’s good isn’t it?” Max asked.
Graham looked up and nodded. At that moment Cindy appeared around the corner of the laundry. She stopped at the gateway in the pool safety fence. She appeared to be nude and was holding a towel in front of her. Graham could see bare flesh right down her side and on down her thighs to her legs.
“What’s this then?” she asked in surprise.
Max stood up and pointed to the toy. “We are testing our submarine,” he replied. To Graham’s surprise he made no attempt to cover himself from his sister. She looked down at his penis and curled her lip, then said, “That’s not a submarine. That’s just a little dick.”
Graham went red but Max just laughed. “No it’s not. That is my torpedo,” he replied.
Cindy laughed. “Huh! You won’t sink any ships with that! Now go away so I can have a swim.”
Max picked up the submarine and stepped up out of the water. Graham flamed with embarrassment and desire. He remained crouched in the water, covering himself with his hands. His heart hammered frantically. A red mist seemed to form in his mind. To his mingled dismay and delight, Cindy looked down and said, “Don’t be shy Graham. Hop out please.”
Graham was struck speechless. He wanted to; but he was terribly afraid. His mind seemed to split into the part that wanted to and the part saying no. He heard his voice answer, saying, “I don’t want to offend you.” He actually meant: ‘don’t want to get into trouble’, but was too afraid to admit that. Burning memories of her seeing him naked a few weeks before added to his confusion. And her mischievous smirk didn’t help!
Cindy shook her head. “You won’t. I see Maxy all the time.”
Now anxious to get dressed and out of there Graham stood up, blood surging and pounding in his skull. Cindy suddenly took the towel away from her front and handed it to him. “Here, use this one,” she said, her eyes flicking down to where Graham was now trying to cover himself with one hand. Graham was so surprised that he just stood and stared at the lovely vision of her nude form until Max sniggered and made a rude comment.
With a conscious effort Graham turned his back and began to dry himself. Behind him Cindy bent down to test the water. Then she stepped in. Graham was terribly torn, wanting to look but ashamed to do so. Almost overcome by a mix of emotions including desire and fear Graham towelled himself. Then, driven by urgent curiosity, he risked a glance at Cindy as he bent to pick up his shorts. He was rewarded with a delightful side view of her. The image set his pulses racing. She is really beautiful! he thought.
At that moment a car drove across the back yard and into the garage.
Cindy looked that way. “Mum and dad are home!” she cried. “Quick! Get dressed and get out of here!” Before the first surge of panic had washed through Graham she straightened up. Grabbing the towel from Max she pushed past them and fled through the gate towards her room, leaving the two boys in a state close to panic.
Chapter 14
LIFE’S MYSTERIES
Graham felt a surge of pure fear. Dropping the towel he grabbed his shorts and tried to pull them on, even though he was still dripping wet. But his haste was his undoing and his foot caught in the wet cloth. As he struggled to free it his eyes were fixed on Cindy as she ran naked across the lawn and around the corner of the laundry.
Max snatched up his clothes. “No time for dress. Bathroom!” he cried. Grabbing his clothes and the toy submarine he followed Cindy. Graham’s mind raced and he knew he only had seconds to escape before Max’s parents got out of the car and reached the doorway to the garage. For a fleeting moment he considered running away along the side of the house but he instantly rejected that as the neighbours or people out on the street might see him. So he snatched up the towel and his shirt and, holding them across his front, ran after Max, heart hammering with fear.
As he raced the 10 paces to the corner of the laundry Graham kept glancing at the garage door, dreading being caught in such an embarrassing situation. But he made the corner unseen and was around it in a flash. Gasping with concern he scurried through the back door and into the bathroom behind Max.
Max spun round and slammed the door, then quickly turned on the taps and shoved in the plug. “We will pretend we are playing with the sub,” he said.
Graham felt so scared he thought he was going to be sick. He quickly dried himself and then pulled on his shorts and zipped them up. Quickly hauling on his shirt he knelt beside the bathtub and tried to button it up. But he was shaking so much with fear that his fingers were all thumbs and he became very anxious. Max pulled on his shorts and placed the toy submarine back in the water. Turning its motor on he watched it butting its way around the tub. Max then finished dressing. He grinned and said, “That was close.”
Graham gave a sickly grin in reply. He felt terribly guilty and had lost all desire. With his heart pounding with anxiety and reaction he reached out and turned the sub around. There were voices outside; Max’s mum and dad. They will skin me alive if they find out! he thought. From outside he heard Cindy speak to them. There was a tap on the door and Max’s mum looked in.
“Are you boys dressed? Good. Come and have some afternoon tea when you have finished playing. And don’t splash any more water on the floor,” she said.
“Yes Mum,” Max replied. As the door closed, Max grinned again and winked.
Graham swallowed. He was trembling with emotion. “Sorry Max,” he said.
“What for?”
“Being rude to your sister.”
Max curled his lip and laughed. “Forget it! Cindy has been seeing me without clothes ever since I was a baby. She doesn’t mind. I told you; she is a real little nudist. She likes to show off. I often see her with nothing on.”
Graham was astounded. He was also intensely interested and felt a sudden rush of desire. But the subject so embarrassed him he was speechless for a few moments. Then he said, “That must be nice.”
Max just shrugged and said, “They are funny things girls. I don’t understand them. Come and have afternoon tea.”
Graham did not really want to be in the same room as Cindy’s parents but he could not see any way to avoid it without being impolite so he followed Max out to the dining room. Cindy was there with Max’s parents. Now she wore a short denim dress and a T-shirt. On her face was an impish grin and to Graham she looked very sexy. As soon as he saw her Graham felt a surge of desire, despite being very scared. He tried not to blush or look guilty but had trouble acting casual, as though nothing had been going on.
It seemed however that the parents did not suspect anything so Graham sat and accepted a glass of cordial and some cake. As he lifted the glass to his mouth his eyes met Cindy’s and she gave him a mischievous smil
e. It made his blood pound and he felt his heart lurch.
Both parents soon went off to do various things, leaving the three children alone. Max asked, “Are we going to play Battleships again?”
“If you like,” Graham replied. “What about after school?”
“Aw yeah, I suppose so. Where, your place or mine?”
“What about mine?” Graham suggested. “I’ve got the Ship Room. We could clear a space there or play out on the lawn.” He thought that it might be safer to be away from temptations over Cindy.
Max nodded. “That’ll be OK for a change,” he replied.
“Can I come too?” Cindy asked. Again she gave her wicked grin.
Graham hesitated. “I suppose so,” he agreed.
Max laughed and said, “Only if you promise to behave yourself.”
Cindy made a face. “Spoil sport! I wanted to see some more torpedoes.”
Graham blushed fiercely at the innuendo, while simultaneously experiencing a surge of lust which left him trembling. He was astonished at the strength of his own reaction and could hardly think straight or speak.
When he had calmed down a bit he managed to get himself under control. “I’d better be going home,” he said. He stood up and went to collect his ships, burning with embarrassment because he still partly aroused. While he loaded his ships onto the sheet of plywood he tried to hide this. As he left the room he walked quickly, hotly aware that Cindy seemed to be watching, a knowing smirk on her face. To escape her stare he fled. Walking down the street was an ordeal, as he felt sure everyone would notice and snigger. But he met no-one, and as far as he could tell, no-one even looked at him. Once at home he slipped into the Ship Room and waited until his body returned to normal.
But not his mind. For the rest of the afternoon and evening he was assailed by waves of lust and guilt. His thoughts kept returning to the scene at Max’s pool and he remained aroused until it hurt. Thoughts of what sex might be like began to slip into his fevered mind and he started to construct wishful fantasies which included Cindy. It was all very stressful and left him feeling both guilty and hopeful. To divert his mind he settled to planning his model battleship.
One of the books he had was an old encyclopaedia of his fathers. In it was a picture of Britain’s last battleship, HMS Vanguard. Graham decided he liked the look of her, and the name. But he wasn’t sure if Max would accept the armament of 15” guns. Remembering Max’s strong reaction to the submarine Graham decided to only put 12” guns on his model. That is only 1” bigger than Max’s battleship has, he reasoned. He should accept that. After all, my ship will be a bit bigger than his.
So he set to work to draw a rough plan. This allowed for four main armament turrets; two forward and two aft. Then he considered how many guns to put in each. The Vanguard had twin mountings giving a total of eight big guns but Max had put ten barrels on his. Graham decided that he would do the same: 10 x 12”. I suppose I can mount them in the same layout as Max’s? he thought. That means that the guns would be arranged 3-2---2-3. But somehow it did not seem right. Niggling at the back of his memory were things he had read about battleships.
That sent him to his father’s library again and he found a book on battleships of the World Wars. This included many good photos but also diagrams of each class of ship. That was even better. A few minutes flicking over the pages showed him that no British battleship of World War 1 had three guns in a turret. The only British ships he could find with three guns per turret were the Nelson and Rodney, both built in the 1920s and famous for their actions in World War 2. For a few minutes Graham considered making the model into one of them, but then he shook his head. “No, they both had 16” guns and Max will really get upset if I do that,” he told himself.
He resumed scanning the pages. For a while he lingered over the Austro-Hungarian battleships of the Viribus Unitus-class with their four triple turrets of 12” guns but again decided Max would be angered by that. Next Graham looked at French battleships with 10 x 12” guns but they were like the old British Dreadnought-class with two of the turrets set on either beam. Then he discovered the Italian ships of the Cavourand Andria Doria-classes with their 12 x 12” guns in a 3-2-3-2-3 layout, the middle turret being set up amidships. They made him think hard. So did the Russian Dreadnoughts but he did not like the way two of their turrets were in among the superstructure and funnels. That must have really restricted their fire ahead and astern, he mused.
American ships of the Nevada-class with a 3-2-2-3 layout caught his interest but they had 14” guns so he rejected them. That sent him back to leafing through the pages of British ships. He really liked the King George V-class ships of World War 2 with their 10 x 14 guns set out 4-2-4 but knew Max would get upset if he made one of them. The same argument applied to the R-class and Queen Elizabeth-class with their 8 x 15” guns. Then the Orion-class, Iron Duke-class and King George V-class of World War 1 caught his attention. They had 10 x 12” guns but in five turrets: 2-2-2-2-2. The centre turret was in among the superstructure but they looked like a nice design.
“That will do,” Graham muttered. He went to work with rubber and pencil and redrew his deck plan to fit five turrets. The result was more crowded and chunkier than he liked but seemed to fit so he accepted it.
For secondary armament he adopted the World War 1 design of putting the smaller guns along the side in barbettes. Twelve 6” guns seemed a good number so these were sketched on. Some small anti aircraft guns were also included.
With the main features decided on, Graham set to work. On the roughly shaped hull he sketched where the gun turrets and superstructure would go. The wood was then rasped and sandpapered again and a block of soft pine glued down as the main part of the superstructure.
By then it was tea time and Graham was absorbed by the life of the family and unable to return to The Shipyard until nearly 8pm. Before he went to bed two hours later he added a large block of wood to represent the bridge structure at the front, and a smaller block behind, plus several smaller blocks. He then hid the pieces in case Max did come over the next day.
In bed again he was assailed by hot thoughts of Cindy. He writhed with frustration and lay awake for hours fantasizing. Several times he became conscious that it was Cindy who was dominating his thoughts, not Thelma. But after brief periods of guilt he found his imagination again gripped by heated thoughts of Cindy.
One result of this was that he was tired and short tempered at school the next day. Another was that he felt very guilty when he saw Thelma. I hardly thought of her all weekend! he realized. This guilt was sharpened when she approached him and said that she would be attending his party. That made him very happy, but also added some stress. Now the party had to be good. The problem of party games resurfaced.
In class another issue was raised. All of the class studied a foreign language: either Indonesian, Japanese, German or French. Graham and Stephen had both opted for German. Thelma and Janet learned French. Before they went to language class, Old Wily, who was their Form Teacher, read from a notice.
“There is going to be a French naval ship visiting port on Thursday next week. The school is going to organize a trip to visit it. This is mainly for those students who are studying French but they wish to know if any others are interested.”
Graham’s ears instantly pricked up. A warship! He was gripped by a strong desire to go. His hand went up at once. As soon as Old Wily had counted how many wanted to go Graham asked, “Excuse me sir. Do you know what type of ship it is?”
“I think it is a destroyer,” Old Wily replied, “But I’m not sure.”
Another destroyer! Graham thought. That should be good.
“What’s its name sir?” Janet asked.
“Her name,” Old Wily replied. “Ships are feminine gender. I’m sorry I don’t know.”
Janet frowned. “Why are ships feminine, sir?” she asked.
“Just the way the language developed,” Old Wily answered. Stephen called across to Jane
t, “Hey Janet, are you going to go down and demonstrate against this ship too?”
Janet turned and eyed him coldly. “All warships are bad. But we haven’t thought about that yet.”
Graham burned at those words. He wanted to defend the navy, to point out its long history and why he believed it was important to have one, but he did not quite know how to word this. Nor did he want to offend Thelma.
David then surprised Graham by saying, “We shouldn’t go sir.”
“Why not David?”
“Because the French let off nuclear weapons out in the South Pacific; and they also oppress the native peoples in the islands.”
“What islands?” Thelma asked, her cheeks showing red.
“New Caledonia and out around Tahiti,” David replied.
Thelma frowned. “Where’s New Caledonia?”
“Out on the other side of the Coral Sea. It is a big island and it is closer to Cairns than Brisbane is,” David replied.
“Oh it is not!” Thelma retorted.
Old Wily nodded. “Yes it is. Sorry. Check your Atlas.” Graham stared at Thelma in amazement. How could she not know that? he wondered.
David continued. “And the French deny the local people freedom.”
“They do not!” Thelma cried.
“They do so!” David insisted.
A fierce argument began. Old Wily quelled this. “Stop arguing! None of you seems to have the facts. What you all need to do is get some proper information and then you can form an opinion.”
“Can we have a debate sir?” David asked.
Old Wily nodded. “Yes, good idea. We need two teams: the ‘for’ and the ‘against’. Who would like to take part?”
Janet put her hand up. “What is the topic sir?” she asked.
“That France has no right to be in the South Pacific,” said Old Wily.
“Oh they have so sir! They have as much right as us,” Thelma said.
“They do not,” Graham said. He spoke before he realized what he was doing but he was nettled because only a month ago he had given a morning talk on the French Foreign Legion and Janet had accused them of just being a bunch of criminals and thugs. To support his case Graham added: “The French use their Foreign Legion to guard their Nuclear Base at Mururoa Atoll; and also to keep control of the native people by brute force. They are Europeans and should go back to Europe and leave the islands to their own native people.”
The Boy and the Battleship Page 14