The Farmhand - 2. The Farmhand cont...

The ambulance arrived and took an unconscious Mark to hospital. This way he would be able to go through his gate, the gate he fought every day to overcome.

I went with him, while Baz stayed behind. Mark didn’t even know I was there. I silently watched as the paramedic took Mark’s vitals. I spoke only when I was asked a question. I was so scared for this lad, I hardly knew, but already he had a place in my heart. I was a dad of two young girls, and I was a good dad firm but fair, is what my wife Sue says.

Mark hadn’t seen much love, if any at all, from the scars on his body, not just his back. I had seen more of them when the paramedics had cut off his jeans. I shrugged as he looked up at me, I didn’t know why the scars looked so recent, and the doc said his mum was dead. Was there another abuser? Or was it Mark himself?

He was rushed into a cubicle to wait for doctors; I explained all I could to the various nurses that checked him over. I silently watched as a needle was put into the back of his hand and a drip attached, bloods were taken, with urgent labels stuck onto the small vials. I felt awkward, in the way, until a nurse took my hand,

“You can hold his hand you know, let him know his dad’s here for him.” I looked at her and then at Mark,

“I’m not his dad miss, I’m his employee, he’s my boss,” she apologised and giggled,

“The way you’re worrying and fretting, you’re acting like one. Hold his hand anyway; what harm can it do?” she smiled, and I shrugged and sat by the bed and took his hand.

It swallowed mine so white so calloused; this lad had worked hard all his young life. I was thirty five and had my own work experience, and my hands were not as hard used as this one. As the curtains were closed round us, I smiled at the ashen face and swallowed the lump in my throat. I stroked my hand in his hair, dad indeed? Hahaha, you’ll laugh when I tell you, if I tell you.

The doctors eventually came, and I was asked to leave while they did their examinations. I went and got myself a cup of tea. It was a good half hour until I was called back.

A doctor shook my hand and told me they were taking Mark up to an observation ward, the drip he had in was feeding him a massive dose of anti-biotics and he would come round soon. He also needed a blood transfusion as a matter of urgency. I nodded, taking it in and then thanked him. Then I followed the group of nurses and auxiliaries as they pushed the bed to the lifts, and then up onto the ward. He was given a single room with his own bathroom. And we were left alone for a few minutes. I sat by the bed and took his hand again. I felt the need to say something as I looked at the back of his hand I stroked it, “You’re one amazing, impressive, lad you know Marky? I don’t know one person who could do what you do” I looked at him to make sure he was still asleep, “Your mum Marky? She shouldn’t have done what she did, you’ll tell me all of it one day, but those scars on your body, that cubby-hole, your whole life, trapped there at the farm. I don’t think I could have survived that.” I stood again as a nurse returned with one bag each of saline and blood, and she attached them to his drip-stand and then made sure the flow was correct. Then she smiled,

“If you haven’t noticed he’s coming round, would you like to help him sip some water? Just sip it though, no gulping,” I blushed and let go of his hand quickly; it was an initial reaction I regretted as she looked at me and frowned. “Are you ok?”

“Yes, yes I’m fine thank you…water, you said water right,” and she giggled again and patted my arm, and then left. I felt a little silly until Mark groaned and I lifted his head carefully and held the plastic cup to his lips. He took just a little and I laid his head back down, he then muttered something and blinked a lot.

It was then my phone vibrated in my pocket and I pulled it out to look. My Wife couldn’t get to school to pick up the girls, so I had to. I quickly replied “on my way.”

I stroked through Mark’s hair, and told him I had to go, and I would return to his farm straight away after that. And I left.

~0~0~0~

I kept in touch with the hospital through the night. Mark was recovering so quickly. The drugs and the blood doing what they were supposed to do. I laughed with the nurses about him being one of the worst patients they had ever had. Not because he was complaining, but because he was making them laugh so hard with his odd Yorkshire ways.

I went to sleep a lot happier that night. I slept on the couch to keep Max and Noah company. I couldn’t have Max on my legs like Mark did, I don’t know how the lad could sleep, or walk the day after with that happy lump laid up his legs.

The next morning Baz woke me up at 4:45. That was the time Mark started his chores so the animals would be used to that. After a quick wash and tea, we were outside. The gate bell rang at around 9am. I looked at Baz and wondered who could be at the gate. It was twenty minutes away from the house, with no way of seeing it. I went at a run to find out to discover a private ambulance sat there.

“What the fuck?” Was the first thing I had said, I went out to talk to the driver. To discover Mark had signed himself out, and that he had been given drugs to enable him to come back. I nodded and waved them through and followed at a jog pace.

By the time I got back Baz had helped to get the wheelchair Mark sat in inside the house. And they were about to lay him on the couch. He was awake but out of it, as he grinned and his eyes rolled.

One of the paramedic’s chuckled, “He’s one very horny guy from the things he’s been saying, apparently he hasn’t jacked once today,” he chuckled again, and then looked at his colleague.

Mark stirred and then grinned, “Lukey Cookie! I had a dream about you; the nurse called you dad hahahaha,” Baz cracked up at that quip, he laughed hard,

“Mark’s eighteen you’re thirty-five, it would just work! Hahaha,”

I rolled my eyes and grinned, it wasn’t worth replying to. The paramedics gave us instructions, about what to expect, and to watch if he tried to get up. And then they left. Baz went back out to finish the chores and I sat with Mark as he slowly came round. I gave him water to sip until the full effects of the drug had worn off.

As Mark recovered from the drugs, we talked, and I discovered so much about him. Things like his cruel mother, and her so called religious friends. They sounded more a sect of some kind. How he had virtually run this place from a boy of twelve. He knew far more than I did about pigs and his life style of self-sufficiency, than I did. Baz and I were here until Mark could cope on his own again. I didn’t want to leave. This place and Mark had a magical quality. A peaceful, serene place where, nothing really mattered that much, yeah the health and well-being off Mark and the animals were important. But nothing else seemed to be. His life was pretty simple.

The post man delivered twice a week, with such a long track to walk, one couldn’t blame him. The small monthly shop was mainly bulk purchases. And this was delivered by the old farmer, who lived at the other end of the track by the main road. It was at least two miles away from the gate.

~0~0~0~

A couple of days passed and Mark grew stronger. The doctor came out every day with a nurse and they took bloods and vitals. And the doctor brought me in to explain.

Mark had, had a massive infection that had hit a lot of his organs and now they were not working properly. One of them was his pancreas, which produces the body’s natural insulin. Mark was now type two diabetic, but it could be managed on a small change of diet without the need for drugs at this point, he was lucky. His anaemia was more serious, his body couldn’t absorb the tablet form of iron without causing nausea, so he would need it injected, with a need for further transfusions when necessary. Mark would need to be able to inject himself, for when Baz and I left him. Mark chose his stomach two injections a day either side of his navel. With all that done they too left. And the following day Baz left. I couldn’t, I didn’t want to.

So I stayed on a volunteer basis for a few more days, as each drew to a close, I hoped the next wouldn’t be my last. The work was hard, but this was Mark’s life, he did it every day, alone.

And then there was this guy Chris, from Facebook, so pissed at Mark for not being there, so pissed Mark hadn’t answered his messages. Mark sat up all night every night in an attempt to please this guy. He barely slept, and grew more and more stressed, until I had to ask what was wrong. He sat and cried at his desk, this Chris and Mark halfway through a scrabble game. He insisted on more pictures of Mark.

This creep really had Mark on a string, he said he loved Mark and they made plans for the future. Mark had even researched what this Chris wanted of Marks place, a gay holiday park, of all things. Well it was remote, secluded I could even say isolated there wouldn’t be a problem with neighbours.

Then Mark looked at me his eyes tear filled, and he asked me to take some pictures of him, he would wear boxer shorts and wouldn’t have his head in them. I could understand why he wouldn’t show his face, he’d had eighteen years of being told he was ugly and worthless and shouldn’t have been born. I agreed, I didn’t know why, probably to stop that look he gave me. So I took pictures, of his back and front and one with his arse in the air, another of his chest. I gave him the camera and left him to it.

The next day saw Mark still on his PC an hour after he should have been out and doing chores. He had his hands over his face as he wept, now what? This fucking creep needed to fuck off, and leave this innocent lad alone.

I sat down beside him and rubbed his back. He stiffened, not used to being touched, but I wanted him to know I was there.

“OK lad what now? And don’t fob me off with, it’s nothing, this is not nothing, look at you.”

He wiped his nose and looked at me, “he still doesn’t believe me Lukey, and he thinks I’m a fake,” I breathed in heavily,

“And what do you have of him lad? Eh?” I began to get angry and raised my voice, I couldn’t help it, but the fear in Mark’s eyes stopped me dead. I sighed softly and lowered my tone, “You have a Facebook page with a profile picture of two guys kissing?” I pointed at the screen, “I know you’re not his friend yet, so you can’t see the rest of the profile, if he has one.” I tried to see past his hands as he covered his face again, “Mark? What does he want now?”

“He wants a recent pic, a pic of me now, in front of the pc,” He looked at me his eyes filled with pain, “if I don’t do one he’s going to go and not come back,” I watched as his bottom lip quivered, “he’s all I’ve got Lukey, all the rest are women, nobody else wants to know a sad sack like me.” I growled as I stood up and walked round him to stoop down the other side.

“Listen to me Marky, this guy’s a creep. You have pictures, you have info, you have friends he can ask if he’s that interested,” I stroked back his hair.

“You don’t need him Mark, you really don’t, if he really loved you, he wouldn’t do this to you.” His face changed and he looked angry,

“You don’t understand Lukey, its ok for you, you have a wife and kids and a life away from your place,” he pushed me aside and stood up. He then turned all the lights on, “you best leave Lukey cos I’m doing the damn pic.” He sat down again and looked at me, “He’s the first person who’s actually interested in me; he likes me, he says he loves me, do you know what that means to me?” I opened my mouth to speak, and changed my mind.

I walked out and sat on the low stone wall, a few feet from the back door, I wondered what I could do, if anything. The next second a loud bang behind me saw Mark crash through the door, his face wet with tears, and the pain in his voice as he cried out, made my heart twist painfully.

“He’s gone Lukey! Vanished! He accepted my pic and nothing, just gone.” He began to stride away towards the woods, he then turned and screamed, “Never ever again Lukey, never ever again, will I show anyone my fucking, bastard, ugly face!” he then ran as fast has his long legs could carry him to the woods, Max hot on his heels.

I shook my head, and sighed, I’d leave him alone for now, and I’d investigate this prick myself. I went back inside and got myself a beer before I sat at the pc. I did the usual searches, first Facebook, Yahoo and then MSN, this guy had really gone, no such email addresses, no MSN profile, no Yahoo, and no Facebook, this guy had really vanished. But it was what he’d left behind that bothered me. The lad was broken before, now he was in a thousand pieces.

I sat up all night that night; I waited for him to come back but he didn’t. He walked in the door about 5am with his clothes, face and hands smeared with mud. He gave me a look, and then stripped off completely at the sink; his naked body was smeared with mud too and scratched from brambles I guessed. I knew not to speak. I then made him a coffee, a pint mug of unsweetened, no milk, mud, just the way he liked it. After drying himself off, he found out some clean work clothes, and then without a word went back out to the chores.

This lad was in pain, a deep pain, I didn’t know if I could help heal. I just followed him out and worked with him.

It was a few days later he actually spoke, he told me he no longer needed me as a volunteer, and my heart sank, until he turned round and smiled and threw a bucket for me to catch and said,

“You’re hired, three days a week and we will see how it goes, and three shifts 5am till 11am, fifty quid a day, will that suit you?” Will that suit me? Of course it will suit me, I grinned.

~0~0~0~

So March turned into April. We had reached a stage where we were comfortable with each other, the work became easier as I got used to the general routine. What bothered me more each day, was Mark’s wellbeing, he no longer cared about himself. He threw himself into the work, until he was fit to drop. He ate healthily, that’s one thing I could say this lifestyle did for him. But he worked so hard, and slept so little, he began losing weight. At 6ft 5inches, he didn’t carry any fat I could see, he wasn’t skinny either. So I kept an eye on him.

One Morning, I found him sat at the pc, in search of something to read. I know he’s tried bisexual porn to see if he could decide on his sexual orientation. So I sat beside him and smiled, then I typed in gay fiction, he gave me a puzzled look, but went along with me and we found Gay Authors.

Without joining he looked around as much of the site as he could. He found a story called (In)visible. He read a little of it and joined. So many welcomed him, and he ventured into the chat room. And that brings us to today really. Within a week he had friends and now he has many.

One in particular, he’d met at the site, friends at first and blossomed to more. Now they plan to meet, and its love.

The transformation is almost complete; Mark shows improvement every single day.

I am now here Monday to Friday, and stay in the annex. My home life is stable and my wife and children support me all the way. I’m here for as long as Marky needs me.

And If I was ever to be called dad again, I would be honoured.