by Paul Kelly
“Of course you may. My name is Sylvia Rogers and I am married to Jason whom I know you have known him before he came her to Scotland.”
“Yes, I have known Jason and I want you to hear from me, the person who was mostly involved with the young male and female dancers in London, that Jason is an exceptional young man and you should be proud to call yourself his wife. Jason is what I would call a ‘male VIRGIN’ and there are not many of them around. I have had many years of experience in the dance business and I can tell you now that most of the girls who were trained at London for ballet are NOT virgins. The young one, Celia Wentworth who is with you now and who is doing the instruction of your young dancers here in Glasgow is a ‘lady’ you should be careful of as she has been to bed with most of the young male dancers in London and she boasts about this to everyone she meets, but please believe me whatever she says about Jason, he is what I say he is... a VIRGIN. I can spot these young people a mile off and thaw a my particular job when I was in the London Ballet School. Most of the young male ballet dancers are ‘poofs’ and think they are the ‘bee’s knees’ to every girl they meet and every girl, with a very few exceptions are willing to go to bed with any of these young ‘stallions’
I cannot stay any longer in Glasgow, but I want you to know and to REALIZE what a prize you have in Jason.
My name is Elizabeth Rutherford and I have only a short time to live as I have a serious cancer. but I jjst wanted to see you and apologize for the way I treated you when you were with me in London and when I was asked the reason why you left us in London, I told a fib I guess, when I said you were ‘homesick’ when I knew of course that the real reason was to get away from a character like me and I can understand that. May I wish you, Sylvia and Jason a very happy marriage with as many children as you could wish for and please. .. AGAIN, DO NOT TRUST CELIA... Bye.”
Sylvie knew that Elizabeth Rutherford was speaking the truth, but she had already given Celia the job of instructress to the dancers and she knew there was nothing she could do to change things then, but just to watch out for any strange incidents in the future. Had she told Jason of Elizabeth Rutherford’s visit and the message she had brought with her about Celia, things might have been drastically different.
Jason had a very different idea of what Celia Wentworth was like, but as with his very nature, he was reluctant to talk about that matter, even to Sylvie and it worried him when he thought of how the dancers would feel towards Celia as an instructress... not so much the female dancers, but the males in the company, as Celia was known to be a flirt and even more when it came to dealing with men or boys and she could be very interfering with relationships of any kind.
He knew he could not talk openly to Celia as she might have guessed that he was referring to any point of their lives together in London when she thought she was the only girl that Jason had looked at with any concern, but at the same time, he wondered how many other boys or men she had ogled so rudely as she had described in detail to Sylvie.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Celia went about her work with enthusiasm, but Jason kept a keen idea on how she treated the pupils who were under her care and she seemed to have ignored him and had forgotten about the lies she told when she was a pupil in London and I returned to my boring job as Freddie’s partner in the building company, but as with life in general, sometime things happen that brightens your life a little and this happened when Milly told me that she was pregnant and I sighed thinking... it was about time. Milly had told me on many occasions before that she THOUGHT she might be pregnant and I could never remember if she had married the footballer she used to dream about or if she just got bored one evening and decided she would have a fling, well whatever was the case, Milly had a little girl and she called her Minnie, not Milly as I thought she well might do. I wished her every happiness and joy in becoming a mother and I went home daily to my lovely wife Emily and the beast that we called Shindigger who gave us no peace if we sat down together or had a cuddle in the kitchen. He was EVERYHERE when Emily and I were together for whatever reason as he had to be FIRST and I thought it might be a good idea to get another little pet for company for Shindigger and that might occupy his attention and distract him from Emily and I, but Emily complained of a back ache and we decided that dog-walking was not the best for her and so the idea of another pet went out the window.
It happened as we thought well it might and Barney Wentworth called at our house to see how his lovely daughter Celia was getting on at the dance theatre as I am sure he thought she should have been the ‘boss’ of that place now that she was involved in teaching the dancers how to behave themselves and I laughed as I held my head down by the side of the settee. Barney went on about how beautiful his daughter was and how she would be able to have any fella she wanted but she was very particular and decided not to marry until the right man came along and I could see Emily looking across the lounge at me as she had the same thoughts that I had... WHEN... and we also thought that Celia would have jumped at the chance of marrying Jason, if only she had been asked.
Barney looked around the room as he settled himself comfortably in our settee and I knew he was waiting for a beer or something stronger but I wished he would get up and go and with a look from Emily, I knew that would be an impossible move and I gave him a glass of tonic water from the fridge, hoping that would be enough to satisfy him and he would go, but I was wrong. He sipped the tonic water and grinned, as he told us that he enjoyed the drink immensely and he could do with another one... and one led to two and two led to half a dozen before he made any attempt to move.
When he had gone, I wasn’t at all surprised when Emily asked me if our visitor had a home of his own and if he had, did he have a wife to accompany him in his drinking fits, but I could only shake my head and think again of the beautiful daughter Celia hoping she had found her vocation at last and that someone somewhere fancied her.
Gerard came to visit us on the following weekend with a little sad news to tell us that Eric and his girlfriend Linda had split up and that she found herself a new love when they went for a holiday to Inverness and Eric cursed the day that he went to Inverness as they had decided together that he and Linda would wait for any more holidays until they would get married and have a honeymoon abroad. I was surprised to hear that news as I had been given the idea that Eric’s girlfriend’s name was LAWRA, but as with most things in my mind, I was wrong or my memory was failing... Old age has that effect on you, you know and I was beginning to totter and my balance was impossible. Even my eyesight was failing and I was getting to be as deaf as a post, but as I had a quick glance at the newspaper one morning when I was on a day off from the office, I couldn’t help but notice the name ANN ANDERSON and I read on with interest as I was sure the name was familiar to me somewhere or other and then it came to me in a flash. That was the name of the girl who had come to me for a job and I had turned her down as she wasn’t as qualified as she thought she was. Was this the same Ann Anderson I wondered and it was the same girl she had been arrested for prostitution and drugs and I thought too she might be the person who had followed me one evening as I was leaving the office on my way home. I decided I would keep the newspaper handy and take it into the office with me the next morning and let Milly see it, but I looked everywhere in the paper and I couldn’t see a photograph and I looked again carefully this time to see the photograph of a girl on the back page, but it didn’t look as though it was in any way connected to the paragraph telling people about the type of person she was, but I kept the newspaper anyway.
When I did get into the office next morning Milly came rushing up to me to show me her edition of the morning newspaper where there was indeed a photograph of our dear lady friend who failed to get a job with us as a secretary. It gave the details of her life and said she had been ‘on the streets’ for many years; that she was a divorced mother of two children and that she was under suspicion for the m
urder of her husband.
I could see Milly looking at me as she shook her head in disbelief and left my office telling me she would bring me in a coffee and she had bought a new tin of biscuits to the office that morning and by the ones she had tasted... they were great, but as Milly told me... I was getting too fat and I should cut down on the sweet things or I would end up with Diabeatis.
But on the brighter side, one of our builders told us that his sister was getting married on the following Friday. She was a police officer and so was the man she was about to marry, but as it was a weekday that they intended to marry, there were only a few policemen who would be free to come to the ceremony, so surprise, surprise... about twelve of our builders and plasterers volunteered to go to the wedding whilst their places would be taken by members of our staff who had a day off work that day.
Everything went off well and the marriage to the two police staff could not have been better. Everyone had a wonderful day and nobody’s work was buggered up.
Chapter Thirty-Five
As I drank my the coffee and munched my biscuits, Milly came back into my office to tell me that one of our builders was sitting outside and looking like ‘death warmed up’ and I asked her to send the builder in to me and I would see what was the matter. I knew all the builders in our workshop and I felt sure I would be able to assist in whatever was required.
The builder who came in to see me was George Askew and he had been with our building company for well over twenty years. I knew him well and asked him to sit down and at that moment another tray containing coffee and biscuits came in with Milly smiling happily but George refused a biscuit at first, however when I showed him what was in the box, he changed his mind and helped himself to a few “Are you in any trouble, George?” I asked as I chewed on my biscuit, but George stopped chewing and looked around the office as if he did not know what to say and I asked him again if he was in any trouble, adding that if it was something to do with the work, I could probably help him, but he shook his head.
“It’s my son, Sir,” he started to say before I corrected him and told him to call me Felix.
“It’s my son Sir... oh sorry, Felix. It’s my son, Derek. My wife has been gone for the past three years and I think that was because I was forty-three when we got married but she was only twenty-seven. She’s gone off with a younger man now, but I have a daughter Pat... she is married and lives away from home and then there’s my son Derek... and it’s Derek that is giving me the trouble. I just don’t know what to do about him.”
I took another biscuit from the box and offered another to George, but he didn’t want one as he continued to tell me his story.
“Derek is something of a mystery is all I can say. Ever since he was at school and when the school holidays came round and he had six weeks where he would be as free as a lark, I never saw him when I came home from work and Pat who was living with us then said he hadn’t come home at all in that holiday time, but he came home about eight or nine in the evenings,” “Did you ask him what he was doing when he wasn’t at school, George?”
“Yes, I did... several times but all he would say was that he was in the library and I thought that was a funny things to say as he never ever bothered about the library before and I didn’t think he had any particular interest in any subject where the library would be of any use to him. He started to get a job, part time in the supermarket when he left school and he was only fourteen then. I think he used to be a shelf-filler or something like that. Nothing that would need any education and he is not the type who would want to go to university”
I thought when George went on about his son’s part time job at the supermarket that if I offered him a job as an apprentice builder or plasterer would that help in any way, but George shook his head telling me that he had already spoken to his son about that prospect but he wasn’t interested. George then went on to tell me that he had gone to the library himself on several occasions, but although he had gone to every conceivable floor in the library and there were may... his son wasn’t there and that was the real reason why he was worried.
I was at a loss as to what to say and Milly came into my office again to ask if we needed a fresh coffee, but from the look on my face, she left the office again and very quietly closed the door.
“George, may I ask you how old your son is now?”
“Derek is seventeen and will be eighteen in a few month’s time, why?”
“Does he have a girlfriend?”
“I don’t know, but I wouldn’t think so.”
“Does he have a boyfriend?” I asked hoping I was asking the right question, but George shook his head and replied that he couldn’t be sure, but added quickly he WAS sure that his son wasn’t gay and I had to take it from there as I was totally left in the dark and the only thing I could think to do was to suggest to George that perhaps Derek might be best seeing a doctor about his problems as it could just be a worry because his mother had gone off with a younger man and George left my office telling me that he thought my idea was the best and I arranged later for Gerard to see the boy, giving him a rough idea of the problem and Gerard agreed to see Derek Askew on the following morning at ten.
When I spoke to Gerard later that day on the phone and told him again of George Askew’s problems, he told me that he would certainly see the man’s son, but that he wasn’t trained as a psychologist and he felt that Derek needed a psychologist more than an ordinary doctor, even if that doctor was a surgeon. Derek’s problems were nothing to do with his body. It seemed to be all in the brain, nevertheless if Gerard could do anything for the young man, he certainly would do all he could to help him and as arranged Derek turned up at Gerard’s surgery two minutes to ten the following morning.
Becks, the Jewish woman who kept the records of visiting patients for Gerard came into his surgery but she knew all there was to know about Derek from the notes that his father had given me and Gerard called him into his surgery where he sat down in front of Gerard’s desk with a frightened look on his face.
“Your name is Derek Askew, is that correct?” asked Gerard and Derek nodded but said nothing.
“Can you tell me what I can do for you, Derek?” was the next question but Derek shifted uneasily in his chair as if he was unsure what to reply and then after a few moments of silence, as if he had suddenly thought of something that had come into his mind, he coughed before he started to speak.
“I think there is something wrong with me... in the way I think and what I do, but I am not sure what that is,” he said and before Gerard could say anything more, Derek went on. “When I was at school and I was only fourteen, I had a friend Robert, Bob we called him and he used to bring his little brother to school with him as his brother was only two or three years of age and I think his mother was dead, because that was why he brought this brother to school with him as his father had to go to work and naturally the father couldn’t tale the little boy to work with him”
And when Derek said that, it suddenly came to mind with Gerard that Derek’s father came to work for me as a builder and he relaxed a little more with his questions to Derek who sat back in his chair and looked around the surgery as if what he had said would be sufficient for Gerard to assist him, but Gerard waited, looking intently into Derek’s face and it was the silence that made Derek realize that he had more to say and once more he cleared his throat before he started to speak again.
“I didn’t like the look on the little boy’s face as I thought he might be blind or something as I looked at his eyes, and Bob told me that there was nothing wrong with his eyes but that he was Downs Syndrome and I felt very sorry for him as I had only heard of the Downs Syndrome malady but I had never actually seen anyone with it His name was Frankie and I felt very sorry for him, but even more so when Bob told me that he couldn’t leave him at home when he came to school because he... ” Derek stopped talking suddenly and
looked around the surgery as if in that way, he would be able to explain himself in some way, but Gerard quietly told him to continue.
“Bob told me that little Frankie... ”
“Yes, go on Derek, what did Bob tell you about Frankie?”
Gerard could see that Derek was having difficulty in expressing himself and he guessed it was because of the words that Derek knew he had to use and the conversation continued.
“Bob told me that Frankie pissed and shit himself in the house anywhere, but not in the lavatory... ” and when Derek spoke those words he got up from his chair and started to go towards the surgery door before Gerard stopped him.
“Sit down Derek. You mustn’t be ashamed of this way of speaking. It is normal for us to talk in this way and I am a doctor and I can understand perfectly. Please go on and tell me what you can so that I can help you.”
Derek sat down again and Gerard could see that he was blushing wildly before he continued to speak.
“I told Bob how sorry I felt for Frankie and he told me that Frankie had to be put into a nappie before he could be taken anywhere and that as there was no-one in the house when his father had to go to work, he had to bring him to school with him and I asked if there was any way in which I could help, but Bob only laughed and told me that I could hold Frankie’s prick so that he would aim straight and not piss all over the bathroom floor, but I did not think that was anything to laugh about.”
As Derek had finished what he was talking about he excused himself from Gerard and apologised for seemingly to be so rude as he walked across to the surgery door again to leave but once again Gerard called him back and asked him to sit down.
“And did you do what Bob suggested?” Gerard asked, not mentioning in any detail of the conversion and to his surprise Derek answered.
“YES, I went to Bob’s house after we left school at four o clock,” and added that he cleaned the toilet floor and wiped Frankie’s arse, several times before he left Bob’s house to go home.