“what have you left?, fucking well tell me” he was shouting
“I spy with my little eye something beginning with…., oh hang on a moment” Pip was on her phone ringing Charles, “my friend is just talking to your daddy, what’s that Pip, yes of course Charlie boy can come along next week, we can play threesomes again” I said out loud.
“well got to go, got plans to make, people to find, tell daddy I’ll see him next week, bye” and then I terminated the call, Pippa handed me her phone “hello Charles, this is Lindsay, I would love to see you next week, your welcome to stay overnight if it is too much for you to travel back home again on the same day ,we have a spare room”
What Allan did not know was, a few days beforehand Pip and I had sent Charles an invitation to attend a house warming party, I had told him his sister Margaret would be attending and that he was more than welcome to come along too and bring someone with him if he wished.
The following week on Saturday afternoon we had our house warming party at The Genie House with a few members of the family present, Pippa and I had gone and collected her dad from the nursing home and had him stay for the weekend, joining us were her aunt Dorothy and her daughter Daisy, Nat came along with her mum Ellie, and my mum Barbara had brought her brother my Uncle Bill, Lesley joined us too with her mum Peggy and Charles was there with his son Michael, he did not stay overnight, the next few hours were taken up with lots of talk on families and how wonderful it was to finally meet each other’s family.
At one stage during the party Pippa was sitting on my Uncle Bill’s lap, flirting, and I think Uncle Bill was enjoying himself.
“Pip what you doing?” I said to her
“just entertaining darling, old habits die hard you know” she said with a laugh.
I got a chance to speak to Charles and his son Michael, Charles did not appear to recognise Pip or myself, thankfully, I asked Charles about his other children and Charles mentioned they were all doing fine except for Allan.
“oh dear, what’s the matter with Allan then?” not well?” I asked sounding like I cared
“well one day last week I was watching the television and thought there was not a lot on to watch so I went to put a DVD in the machine and realised there was already one sitting in there, must of left it in there from last time it got used, I love to watch old black and white war films you know, so I pressed play to see what it was and oh my, I got the shock of my life” said Charles
Said DVD must of got accidentally left behind by some tourists last week, oh deary me, how did that happen? I thought to myself rather tongue in cheek. After Pippa had hit Allan with my lamp at my flat and knocking him to the floor, she took out her phone and filmed him lying on my floor crying, and fondled his penis for good measure, was only a few seconds, but those few seconds she had put together on a disk and kept it repeating the same thing over and over and become an whole hour worth of Allan crying like a baby whilst being fondled.
“oh my, what was on it then?” sounding shocked
“I don’t know if I should say” said Charles
Then Michael chipped in and said “he was lying on a floor of a bedroom by the looks of things, totally naked and crying his eyes out, and the next thing we saw was this hand stroking his, you know what?”
“what do you mean, stroking” then I said in a whisper so only Michael and Charles could hear “stroking his willy do you mean?” and trying to look like I was shocked.
“yes, my brother is a homosexual, always has been, we suspected he was when he was about sixteen, long story, but he had a male friend stay over one night, when I went to wake him up the next morning, they were in bed together, not a pretty sight, he has tried having girlfriends in the past, one in particular he was devoted to her, cherished the ground she walked on, beautiful redhead she was, a gorgeous girl, but she left him for a woman would you believe, now I have nothing against gay people don’t get me wrong but porn like this could get into anyone’s hands and I am a Member of Parliament, I have my reputation to think about, Allan does not seem to think about that and well it is not the sort of thing my father at his age should be seeing, god knows what Allan was thinking, it is not the first time he has brought disgrace upon the family”
“oh dear that’s awful, so is he alright now?”
“I think he’s had a breakdown of some sort, I found in his bedroom he had ripped all his suits to shreds, his bed was a mess, Michael and I took him to a hospital and he is undergoing psychiatric assessment, obviously he is not well, clearly depressed, but I have told him his behaviour is getting out of control and could become very embarrassing to the family, I told him its either that or I will cut him out of my Will” said Charles
“what about his job?”
“they have given him some extended time off, he has been working with the Secret Service for a long time, I don’t think they want to lose him, but I honestly think the job is getting to him, he is not allowed to talk about what he does you see, nature of the work etc but I think all this secrecy is becoming too much perhaps” said Michael.
Inside I felt a small snigger of delight, poor cousin Allan, never did get another text from him.
“your friend looks very familiar” Charles said to me pointing towards Pippa
“does she?, Pippa just has one of those faces that makes you think you have seen her before”
“yes people do sometimes don’t they” said Charles and then Michael said “Lindsay you look very familiar to me, were you up in the High Street in Hampstead last week?”
Oh god how do I answer this one I thought, “well yes I was, Pippa and I were having a girly day out, shopping, you know what us women are like, Oxford Street is so packed we thought we would try another part of London and ended up in Hampstead, nice area isn’t it?”
After everyone had gone home, Pippa and I started to clear away all the remnants from the party, it had been a good afternoon and evening, Pippa swore blind that my Uncle Bill was flirting with her Aunt Dorothy, and Peggy and Charles were delighted to see each other after so long apart, family should not be divided but sometimes due to circumstances outside our control, they are, people should really mend that bridge before it becomes too late.
Epilogue
Pippa and I went up to visit Uncle Bill’s on the following Sunday and spent a few hours laughing and joking with the family, then we made our way to the cemetery, I wanted to introduce her to my grandparents, plus Pippa was going to take some photographs of the cemetery for our website that she had put together.
“it’s cold in here” Pip started complaining
“cemeteries are always like that” I said
“there’s a lot of dead people in here”
“yes Pip, you would expect that in a cemetery”
“all these bodies lying around make me think, god I need to have a shag soon”
“Pip not in front of my grandparents please, and how can you think of that while in here?”
“easy, I think of it all the time, no chance of picking up a bloke in this place then is there?”
“no, have you gone off women then?”
“no, just….”
“there’s a very good chance you could pick up a woman in this place though” I said as I winked at her.
“can we go home now I think I need to lie down” Pippa said with a laugh.
Every family has its secrets, some people however leave a trail to follow without them realising they are leaving a trail, and Pop I followed your trail to the other family, my mother has a secret but she told me about that, her adopted son, my brother, maybe one day I will find him when I get the urge to go looking, some people cannot keep a secret, they feel they need to tell someone, that could be a dangerous thing depending on the type of secret it is, married people have secrets too from one another, Pip and I have a secret, I hope to god no one ever follows my trail.
Our website is about to go live today, we are ready to begin our new venture, I thought it only
fair considering Pip paid for most of the outlay on the house and business that her name should be incorporated into the business as well, so from today if you need a photograph taken at a cemetery, or a photograph taken of where your granny once lived, or if you want your family tree researched, or if you are trying to find a long lost relative just call or email Harrison & Andrews, let the new adventure begin.
The End
Dear Readers,
Ever since I can remember I have always wanted to be a writer, an author, when I was younger I used to write short stories and poems, but I never had anything published and never allowed anyone to read what I wrote, it was just a hobby, just a way of being creative. Now I am a lot older and hopefully wiser and more braver, I have started my passion for writing once again.
This has been my lifelong dream to write and publish something that I have written.
Hope you have enjoyed my first published works.
Yours truly
Linda .A. Hardy
June 2015
About the Author
Linda .A. Hardy was born as Linda Ann Hardy in 1963 in Croydon, Surrey, England, at the age of nine her family emigrated to Australia where she grew up in Perth, Western Australia, her family became Australian citizens when she was twelve years old, she has also lived in Tasmania and in 2014 moved to Queensland.
Linda became interested in genealogy at the age of fifteen and has been pursing the hobby ever since, in her spare time she enjoys reading on her kindle, photography and watching Formula One Motor Racing.
This is her first published work, watch out for more from Lindsay Harrison and Pippa Andrews in the future.
You can follow Linda on Twitter: @LindaAHardy
Cover Photograph by Linda A. Hardy
The Other Family Page 19