Brian: Taking Courage - 29. Legal Wrangling

The solicitors’ office was in an unlovely modern office block almost within sight of the Cathedral. It seemed to house a whole variety of firms and as they waited in the foyer on uncomfortable brown leather sofas, Toby amused himself by reading down the list of other firms in the offices, wondering what they were. A young man appeared, twenty-something, floppy blown hair, a suit and rather a posh accent. He led them upstairs, to the firm’s offices.

The office Gordon and Brian were shown to was remarkably unprepossessing and seemingly contained little more than a desk, chairs and endless shelves full of box files. Sitting at the desk was solicitor, Frances Wilson, was a sturdy-looking middle-aged woman wearing remarkably sober clothes and heavy rimmed glasses, but her eyes lit up when she smiled, and she seemed to make Toby relax. Brian had thought that the boy looked tense and a bit white but could hardly put himself up as a model of calmness. He was pleased that Gordon was with them as he seemed to be able to appear calm, at least.

Tea, juice and Rich Tea biscuits fetched, Frances was about to start when Toby stood up and gave her a copy of his diary. "I’ve written this, about stuff happening when I was a Mum’s, what I remember. Dad thought it might be useful. He's not seen it, but Gordon checked it."

Frances started ask to what it was but halted as she glanced over the first page, inhaled and nodded, "Thank you, Toby. This will be very useful. As you will find out, there have been positive developments, but this will go with your Father's recording and other items to back up any arguments we might have."

Once she had filed away Toby's document and the boy had sat down, she folded her hands and looked at them. "As you realise, I have been in contact with Toby's mother, Ms McAdam's solicitors to attempt to formalise current custody arrangements and to ascertain what grounds we had for requesting a review of the Maintenance. It may come as no surprise that my dealings have proved somewhat frustrating. It has been difficult to pin details down because, as I understand it, Ms McAdam's solicitors were unable to persuade their client to come to a decision regarding her needs. Evidently Ms McAdam and her partner plan to travel and those plans were 'up in the air'" Frances Wilson's face at this point was a picture; clearly, she had no sympathy with folk whose plans were up in the air.

Brian nodded but refrained from saying anything. The news came as no surprise, Deirdre never had been able to commit to a particular course of action. He did lean over and squeeze Toby's hand, giving the boy a smile.

"It therefore came as something of a surprise when confirmation came through from Ms McAdam's solicitors. Evidently, she and her partner are planning on travelling for an extensive period of time, she has resigned from her current employment and her house is being let. She is happy that the current custody arrangements stand, that Toby lives with his Father, until such time as she is settled next year when arrangements for Toby to visit can be made, but it is envisaged that Toby will live with his Father until his schooling ends. She will be voluntarily relinquishing all Maintenance", she looked at them over her glasses. "I must add that this needs to be confirmed by the Court, but that this commitment", she held up what was presumably the undertaking from the solicitors, "is firm. You have questions?"

Brian turned to his son, who looked gobsmacked, "Sport?"

Toby blinked a few times, "Mum's planning on going travelling with Jasper until next year. I won't see her until then?"

Frances Wilson nodded, "That is my understanding. Had she not told you?"

"She said she was going to go South for a bit with Jasper, and that she'd be coming back for visits. She's really going, and I'll be able to stay with Dad?"

"Yes, that is what will happen."

"And Dad won't be paying Mum anything, so he won't be poor?"

Brian looked startled at this statement, but Frances Wilson simply gave a dead-pan agreement. There was more, there was paperwork, there were documents for the court. Brian handled all of that whilst Gordon took Toby to a café. Brian found them sitting watching the tourists drifting about the Cathedral Close as the building closed for the night.

Gordon looked up, "Is this actually happening?"

Brian shrugged, "Looks like it. I think she might have warned us. She never said anything to you about all this, sport, didn't discuss it until you asked her last week?"

Toby shook his head, "Not at all, it was the usual boring stuff about school and that. I thought that she was going away on holiday for a bit. I wasn't keen to visit them because of Jasper but I figured that I'd see more of her when she came back, but…"

Brian squeezed his son's hand; it was clear that that boy was upset. How could he not be. Whilst the relationship with his Mum was a difficult one, this was official confirmation that she was planning to bugger off for a long time, perhaps for good, and hadn't thought to mention it till he’d asked her. And even then, things had been up in the air. Toby knew his Mum, how she could change things at the last minute.

The confirmation that your Mum was leaving was a big thing when you were nearly 15. He had a think and looked at Gordon, "There's a lot for us to think about, sport, and we don't need to rush things. Courts'll take some time to rubber-stamp stuff. Just now, we need a treat, how about we go to the Plain and Honest Burger for dinner and try to not worry, eh?"

Toby nodded and a slight smile came to his face, Gordon frowned, "You're going to need to phone Deirdre and get a clear idea of her plans."

Brian raised an eyebrow, but nodded, "I figured that. How about we phone her when we get home, sport, we can put her on speaker and both sort things out. That sound good?"

Toby nodded, "Yeah, thanks."

"Is there any of your gear still at your Mum's?"

The boy pulled a face, "I don't think so. Nothing important and…"

"You don't want to be there when Jasper is. OK. We can see what she says, maybe I'll just go and collect it, if there's anything."

"Can she change her mind?" Toby was looking anxious again.

"Well, she can. But it'll be bloody expensive, and her solicitor won't be best pleased, and I doubt the courts will either." Gordon snorted, "I think she'll be stuck with things like they are now. You living with us. Stability and all that."

The Plain and Honest Burger wasn’t very busy. It had booths round the sides and longer sharing tables in the middle; Brian reckoned they should easily get a booth. But before the girl at the welcome desk could deal with them a voice shouted, ‘Hiya Toby’, closely followed by a loud shushing noise from a parent, presumably.

There was a slight, blond boy standing by one of the booths waving, with two rather resigned parents sitting in the booth behind him, Toby’s friend Justin and his parents, Liz and David Wells. The three of them went over to say hello, it turned out the Wells family had just arrived.

Brian didn’t know the family that well, more from Toby’s chatter than anything, though they’d bumped into them enough times when Toby was doing things with Justin. Both Justin’s parents were blond, both rather tall, both socially conscious, as far as Brian could remember one was some sort of social worker and the other was involved in a community arts project.

There was a collective suggestion that Brian, Gordon and Toby should join the Wells family, but the booths were not really made for four adults and two teenagers. Brian was about to suggest Toby join the family whilst he and Gordon ate separately, when Toby piped up with the idea that the four adults sit together and the boys could sit at a nearby empty table, ‘So you can keep an eye on us’. Justin’s ‘Yay’ demonstrated the boy’s enthusiasm for the idea. Brian hadn’t anticipated spending the meal with two people who were hardly friends, but it was Toby’s treat, and the boy was clearly happy.

“Ok, sport, as long as you two are quiet and don’t make a mess.”

“Dad!”, a roll of the eyes.

“And as long as it’s OK with Justin’s parents too.”

Liz and David Wells looked more amused than anything. Justin was a live wire, and Brian had noted before Liz’s way of dealing with him by remaining very calm, something Brian wished he was able to do.

The move was achieved with little fuss and the waiter, a cheerful lad of South Asian heritage with an accent that suggested he came from Northern England, so a student probably, was lively and charming, and treated the two boys with exaggerated courtesy.

“I’m sorry if we muscled in on a special treat.”

“Not at all Brian, after all I think it was our son who engineered things”, Liz pulled a face and sighed. “We’re here because the water’s out in our street thanks to some idiotic emergency works repairing damage that should have been covered by routine maintenance months ago.”

David gave a dry laugh and put his hand on hers, “Don’t get my wife started on the iniquities and inefficiencies of privatisation. Short answer is we both had tiring days and didn’t fancy slumming it, so we pushed the boat out. What about you? From what little Justin said, Toby had a meeting about his Mother.”

“That’s why we’re here, a bit of a treat”, Brian paused and looked over at Gordon.

“Little bugger found out today from the solicitor that his Mum’s taking off travelling for an unspecified period”.

Both the Wells turned to Brian, shocked, “That’s terrible. Had she said anything?”

Liz frowned, “I asked Toby about his Mum last week, just vaguely, and he said she was ‘all right’”, Liz gave a small smile. “Not that Toby was ever very forthcoming.”

David looked serious, “Is all this official?”

Brian nodded, “Through the solicitors, she’s relinquishing Maintenance, the lot. When she and Jasper settle, he can visit”, Brian gave a snort.

“Thing is, the kid likes living with us and seeing his Dad properly for once”.

“But he still wants to see his Mum, despite Deirdre messing Toby and me about”.

Liz looked fierce, “That’s terrible.”

David stared at Brian, “You think she and the Jasper bloke will settle?”

“Candidly, no. She says he’s the best thing to happen to her, but…” Brian shrugged.

Gordon looked fierce, “He’s a nasty piece of work, Toby won’t go near him. You know about the fuss with the copy of Gay Times?”

“Which our son purloined for Toby”, Liz rolled her eyes, “We’ve had words about that”.

“Well Toby’s worried that Jasper will say something.”

“My Mum knows Jasper’s Mother, bloke has quite a reputation.”

David looked concerned, “Have you reported this?”

“Well, what is there? My solicitors have a copy of my recording of Deirdre’s diatribe about not having a gay son.”

“What!”

“Sorry, I forgot that you probably never heard details of that. When the two of us met, after she’d found the Gay Times hidden in Toby’s room, she went off on one because Toby was gay, and Jasper wouldn’t approve.”

“What the…”

“Yeah. I managed to record some of it on my phone. And Toby has written down all he remembers of Jasper’s bits of nastiness; evidently, the man spent rather a lot of time belittling the boy’s interest in plants and ecology and that.”

“Nothing homophobic, thankfully”.

“But concerning”.

“So…” Liz was clearly full of questions, but too polite to bombard them.

“Toby lives with us. Gordon inherited a flat in Parborough from his uncle and it has room.”

Liz laughed, “And the famous balcony. I’m glad Toby has somewhere to grow plants at last.”

“We both work locally, which is something.”

“For Ares Solutions, who do security for private clients.”

“And Gordon’s Mum suggested that we’d best get married soonish.”

David nodded, “Sounds a good idea, make things a bit more regular.”

“Try and give Toby something a bit more settled. I know I’ve not been around much”.

“Come on, Brian, ever since I’ve known you, you’ve been trying to spend more time with Toby and Deirdre has usually frustrated you.”

David raised an eyebrow and nodded, “What the man said”.

Liz looked from Brian to Gordon and back, “So how did you two meet?”

Brian looked over at the boys who were apparently having a quiet but intense conversation whilst demolishing huge burgers, chips and salads. Gordon explained how they’d met working for the Emir. Conversation then spread, but when Gordon made a passing reference to his Father, Liz picked him up on it and they ended up discussing Drew’s work.

---

“That pair are a couple of canny operators.”

Brian just gave an interrogatory mmm, the two were relaxing on the sofa whilst Toby tended his plants.

“Well, we had a good long chat, all friendly, and they found out all about us”.

“And we learned little about them. Yeah, true”.

“Still, they seemed nice enough”.

“Perhaps we should think about doing something with them”, Brian raised his voice, “What do you think, sport?”

Toby came into the room, “Dad?”

“Justin and his parents, how about we do something with them?”

“Like what?”

Brian shrugged, “Dunno, you have a think. Picnic at the Arboretum, or maybe drive to the coast.”

Gordon looked up, “Something you two lads would enjoy but which gives us oldies at least something to do. There’s that archaeology place where they’ve all the old stuff they found in the fens”.

“Old stuff!” Brian rolled his eyes.

Gordon smiled, “Ancient woodwork, then. Just thought it might be an idea.”

Toby looked at the two of them, “You mean do something like a family?”

Brian wrinkled his brows, “Like family? We are a family, aren’t we? Sport?”

Toby thought about it then nodded, all serious, “Yes. I’d like that.” Brian gave his son a hug.

---

The call with Deirdre had been rather grim. She had been defensive about her travel plans and when Brian tried to ascertain details, she had got annoyed, accusing him of getting at her. He had tried to stay calm and reminded her that Toby was listening too. Toby talked to his Mother, and she had answered his questions to an extent, but the conversations had certainly not been warm. At least Brian reassured himself, he and Deirdre hadn’t descended into their usual sniping and Toby had heard as much as they could hope for from his Mother’s own lips. She’d finished telling him that he should enjoy his trip away with his Dad.

It was only when they were in bed together, that there was time and privacy to discuss things further. Gordon put a hand on Brian's chest and gave it an affectionate rub, "So, what's eating you? You've been quiet, so I know that something's off, presumably about Deirdre and Toby."

"Something like that. I was thinking back. When Deirdre got pregnant, it wasn't planned."

"You were taking precautions, though?"

Brian wrinkled his nose, "There was some issue with her pill, genuine problems I think, and it was before the Morning After pill was easily available, besides I don't think it occurred to us."

"Till she found out she was pregnant?"

"And wasn't best pleased. We always intended to have kids, but this was way too soon. I was overjoyed and assumed Deirdre would be too. She was on the fence about it, worried about her job; she mentioned an abortion and I was horrified. I think, in retrospect, my enthusiasm for a family sort of influenced her".

"Why didn't you get married?"

Brian shrugged, "Money. Timing. Deirdre wanted to do it properly. We were always waiting for the right moment. The Army had always been on the cards for me, and it seemed a good plan, steady income and that."

"And Deirdre?"

"I think she had visions of having a bit of freedom but…" Brian pulled a face.

"Juggling a job and a toddler put the mockers on that."

"Yeah. And when we started to fall apart, Toby became a weapon, a way of getting me to do stuff.”

“Blackmail?”

“Of a sort, I suppose.” Brian gave a big sigh, “I wonder now, whether it was all my fault, whether she wanted kids with me at all."

"Hardly that. It's all a pigs breakfast and you won't help Toby by going all morose and rehashing history. Plan and look forward."

"That's what Mum says. Worrying about the past won't change it."

"Look, when he's a bit older, you can talk more, I'm sure he'll have questions. And besides, a lot of this is in your head. You can't go around telling him what you think Deirdre thought nigh on 15 years ago."

Brian sighed, "You're right, I need to focus on now."

"But you need to talk to Deirdre, or at least message her. Tell her she needs to keep in contact with Toby, otherwise the boy will be upset."

"Dead right. I'll do it now."

Brian grabbed his phone and messaged Deirdre, explaining how Toby was worried that he and she wouldn't be in contact. Surprisingly, she answered quickly and reasonably, for her. Still a bit sharp, but she said she would try and send Toby photos of their travels.

When Brian relayed all this to Gordon, he grinned, "Sounds good. As long as she doesn't include photos of Jasper."

---

Lunchtime the next day, Gordon was taking a break to have a sandwich whilst scrolling through personal emails on his phone, when he exclaimed.

“I’ve got and email from Liz”.

“Liz?” Brian looked at him dubiously.

Gordon gave a mock sigh, “Liz Wells, Justin’s Mum?”

“What does she want, she’s not contacted me?”

“Well, it’s about Dad. She wants to know if he’d be interested in getting involved in the community arts project.”

“Your Dad?”

“It’s not beyond the realm of possibility. In theory, he’s up for folk doing things for themselves, freedom of expression and that”.

“But?” Brian raised an eyebrow.

“He’s busy, he’s got a big downer on middle-class do-gooders, and he might think she wants something for nothing. Which is probably true”.

“So?”

Gordon pulled a face, “All I can do is ask”.

“What’s involved.”

“Anything from giving a talk or inviting folk to your studio, to hosting a patrons event or giving a painting for auction.”

Brian laughed, “I can’t quite see your Dad and Mum graciously hosting rich patrons.”

“Sucking up to the capitalists, you mean?” Gordon grinned, “Problem is, they’ve been doing it for years. Have to. If they want to sell their work.”

---

Gordon had an afternoon meeting, so Brian was home first, and by the time Gordon arrived, Brian was clearly itching to talk to him.

"Mum phoned."

Gordon looked startled, "Everything OK?"

"Deirdre went round to see her today."

"Voluntarily?"

Brian snorted, "Yeah. And it seems the two had a half-way civilised conversation."

"About?"

Brian shrugged, "Toby."

"Ah, following your little exchange."

"Mum didn't give me all the details, but I gather that Deirdre's a bit torn."

"Toby on the one side and Jasper on the other?"

"Something like. But she always fancied travel."

"And ended up at home with a kid whilst you travelled the world."

"I think it looked like that from her point of view. She sees this as an opportunity but doesn't want to lose touch with Toby."

"That is, she doesn't want to come home finding he resents her."

"Something like. Mum thinks she'll make a real effort to keep chatting to Toby. And Mum told her straight that Jasper’s not good for Toby and that Deirdre needs to accept that and make it work. I think Mum gave her ‘you need to love people as they are’ speech."

Gordon pulled a face, “No harm in that. What was Deirdre’s response?”

“Thoughtful. At least she didn’t blow up, and she says she plans to try. Mum suggested Deirdre come back for a few days at the end of Summer, on her own and catch up with him.”

“Think that’ll happen?”

“Don’t know. But Mum wasn’t dismissive.”

“We’ll need to keep reinforcing that we’re here to support Toby, and that there should never be a need for him to see Jasper. That is, if Jasper stays around.”

Brian shrugged, “No idea about that one. None of her previous squeezes have, but they seem to be spending enough time together this year.”

Gordon grinned, “Nothing like a good holiday to knock the gilt off the gingerbread.”

Brian smiled, but looked thoughtful, “You think we should try to see them?”

“Deirdre and Jasper? God, no! Your last meeting was hardly a balanced way of sharing parental duties, was it?”

Brian snorted, “True enough. But she went as far as chatting to Mum.”

“That’s probably as far as she’s willing to go. After all, why didn’t she just talk to you?”

“Deirdre? Well, we’ve not been in the same room in years without it descending into a shouting match, or at least cross words. Not sure we know how anymore.”

"Well, it’s more positive news than we might have thought. Hope she keeps to it, or the kid'll be disappointed otherwise.”

“All we can do is wait.”

“’Fraid so. Look, to change to subject, I was thinking about Ralph.”

“You want to pursue things?”

“No. Still keep quiet, but I thought I’d better mention it to Mum and Dad.”

“In case they’re in contact with those friends again?”

Gordon decided to get it over with.

>Sweetie, this is a real surprise.

"After we left you on Saturday, we were in Parborough shopping and had an encounter that I wanted to talk to you about."

>An encounter? Is Toby OK?

Gordon laughed, "Oh, he's fine, nothing to do with him. In Parborough, we almost bumped into Ralph, except he turned tail and ran."

>Ralph?

Evie paused.

>As in the boy you were friendly with at school. The one who went back into the closet, or whatever it was he did?

"Pretty sure it was him. He had twin girls with him, around the right age, and it looked like Ralph. And older version."

>With less hair

"But when he saw us, he went white as a sheet, turned tail and ran, hustling the girls in front of him."

>Interesting. So he still thinks of the episode as embarrassing even now.

"We were wondering if he was in the closet but interested, sort of thing?"

>Doesn't want to have embarrassing reminders, you mean. But love, that was 15 years ago.

Evie paused.

>Or more.

Brian shrugged, "It happens. He might have been pretending for all that time."

>Surely, the best thing to do would be simply to brush it off, ‘Gordon was just a school mate’. Who’s to know?

"Problems of a guilty conscience?".

>Whatever the man's problems, it's no real concern of ours. He clearly doesn't want to meet you, so I think you have to let it go. Accept that it was a mess, is in the past and won't be mended.

It was sensible advice, and Gordon aimed to take it. But something still niggled.