Brian: Taking Courage - 34. Holiday minus one

“Will you two be OK?”

“Dad!”

“Of course, Brian”, Noah looked every inch a boy trying to show he was a year older than Toby, and thus could be trusted. “I often do this. Mum and Dad don’t worry if I’m in the house on my own for an hour or so.”

Brian smiled, “OK. If you’re sure, but make sure you don’t set fire to anything or cause a flood.”

“Dad!”

Brian grinned, “Have fun, sport. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do and see you at your Gran’s tomorrow.”

The boys sat at the breakfast bar in Marina and Val’s kitchen as they attacked the juice and cake (shop bought, but good) that had been left for them. It was a last sleep-over, before the two families departed on their holidays.

Noah was paying great attention to his cake, “I told my Mum and Dad.”

Toby opened his eyes wide, “About?”

“Liking boys, that stuff.”

“I thought they didn’t approve.”

“It was something your Dad said.”

“Dad!”

“Yeah, that he’d been chatting about it to Mum and Dad, and they were cool, not like my Grandmother. We went to visit Grandmother on Sunday, and she was going on about something or other, the usual”, Noah pulled a face, “So in the car on the way home I mentioned that Grandmother wouldn’t approve of Gordon and Brian. Dad was amazing, he’s not normally emphatic like, but he and Mum made it clear. So that evening, I told them. You talk to your Dad?”

“About liking boys?”

“And the stuff we do together?”

Toby pulled a face, “Sort of. Well, Dad guessed and I kind of didn’t deny it. And he was worried you might not want to, you know…”

Noah laughed, “Fat lot of chance.”

“So, your Mum and Dad?”

Noah shook his head, “Are cool. They guessed about you and me. The usual ‘be careful’ stuff and not at school. All good”, he grinned. “And don’t say a word to your Grandmother”. He looked at his watch, “Anyway. I reckon we’ve got an hour. Want to go upstairs and get naked?”

Toby grinned, “You bet.”

---

Marina rang later that evening, ostensibly just to check in and confirm that Toby was settled in. The boys were evidently immured in Noah’s room.

>We had that chat to Noah. I think we have to thank you.

Brian laughed, “I might have mentioned that you and Val were cool with folk being gay, unlike Val’s mother.”

>Well, Noah came out with it on Sunday evening. Straight out. ‘Mum and Dad, I’ve got something I want to tell you’.

“Good for him. All good?”

>Lots to learn and probably quite a few awkward questions.

“What about Val’s Mother?”

>Hmm. We need to deal with that, he’s going to have a word at the weekend.

“Tell her about Noah?” Brian was a bit surprised.

>No. We thought we’d try and address the general gay thing first. Point out that whilst Gabriel is discreet, he is gay, that we and Noah have gay friends and it was offensive, she should keep that language to herself.

“Blimey.”

Marina gave an embarrassed laugh.

>Well Val will be a lot more diplomatic than that. But she’s never backward when it comes to her own opinions.

“Yeah, know the sort.

Brian put the phone down and stared at Gordon, “You catch most of that?”

“Noah came out to his parents?”

“Yeah. Have to admire him.”

“What I don’t understand is how did Val and Marina manage to bring up another gay son and remain so clueless. Sounds as if his Mother has carte blanche to say what she feels like.”

“How old’s Noah’s brother?”

“Second year at Uni, I think.”

“So, if he did a gap year then he could be 21 or so. Time enough to develop wings away from home.”

“You mean he stayed in the closet till Uni?”

“When Grandma and family were far away”, Brian frowned, “besides, I think he’s doing something like chemical engineering and plans to go into research. What little I’ve got from Toby, via Noah, is that the boy sounds rather nerdy.”

“So not a social butterfly, liable to scare the neighbours.”

---

Brian spent virtually the whole week making lists and assembling things. Planning for every eventuality. Gordon smiled tolerantly, crossed the odd thing off with a comment about what was in the house, what might not happen or pointing out that they did have shops in France.

Russ' PA had sent them information and a list of what was in the house, household utensils, bed-linen and such. There was TV, no satellite or cable, no Wi-Fi and the phone signal was poor. So, Tuesday at his Mum's when they collected Toby, they'd gathered up Brian's beloved board games. Toby had rolled his eyes a bit but then had to admit that they’d been great when he’d stayed in the cabin with his Dad.

Whilst at his Grandmother’s, Toby had been relatively quiet about the sleepover at Noah’s apart from affirming it had been most enjoyable and commenting that they had been fed well though Marina bought everything pre-made.

In the car on the way home, Brian decided to quiz the boy further, “So, sport. What did you really get up to at Noah’s?”

“Dad!” Toby sighed, “We had fun. Noah’s Mum got home about an hour after you dropped me, so we had chance to mess about.”

“Unsupervised?”

A cheeky grin from Toby in the back seat, “We didn’t set fire to anything and didn’t flood the bathroom.”

“That’s good. But you had fun, intimate fun. No problems?”

“Dad! Yes, we got naked, and it was ace. Noah’s brilliant. His Mum fed us plenty, which was great. They’d recorded a nature documentary for us, about fish, and Noah’s Dad watched it with us. Noah says his Dad’s fishing is boring, but his Dad had lots of funny stories and knew a lot about fish.”

“So, you’re going to take up fishing?”

“I don’t think so, but it was a fun evening. We put both mattresses on the floor, so we slept next to each other.”

“And will you be doing it again. Does Noah want to?”

“You bet. He’s going to message me when he’s due back at the end of the holidays, and there might be time before school for him to come over. That’ll be OK, won’t it Dad?”

“Of course. Don’t forget to send a message to his parents thanking them.”

“Of course.”

The visit to Noah over, there was only one thing for Toby to think about, and besides working and making lists, Brian was doing his best to not let his son obsess about the holiday. But there wasn’t that much else for the boy to focus on as Noah had gone off to stay with his Grandmother, Justin and his parents were similarly away, and Deirdre was out of town for the week on holiday with Jasper.

This latter really was holiday, it turned out that the two had gone to Spain. Brian’s Mum had had a few tart things to say about this, but when all was said and done, Deirdre’s not taking Toby away meant that they were able to. And the boy was really chuffed when his Mum sent him through a few photos, they were mainly of her in various parks, though Toby was impressed by the variations in local flora. Deirdre had added a wry (or perhaps tart) comment about Toby not wanting to see the photos of her on the beach, but they’d decided to take it in good part.

Feeling at something of an impasse, Gordon suggested that they set the boy on looking out details of the distinctive flora and fauna of the marsh where they were going. Toby set to with a will. Whilst the two men just knew that this meant the journey down was going to be littered with what Toby saw as useful and interesting facts, the sheer act of reading up about it and even sending an email enquiry to Noel at the Wetlands Centre, kept Toby occupied.

Russ was tied up with business; some travelling, and a lot of meetings was how he described it. But he found time to phone them one evening, with a saucy message for Brian and Gordon full of future promise, and a more sober one for Toby. But the boy appreciated it and talked about showing Russ around when he arrived at the holiday cottage.

Brian hadn’t the heart to point out to the boy that a) Russ might not want to do anything but chill, and b) the man might take one look at the cottage and decide to stay elsewhere. They had already verified that the town had a couple of decent hotels, just in case.

Work kept them fully occupied. Ares might have the necessary slack to cope with both men being way at the same time, but it still meant that they had to make sure everything was in place. There were a couple of late nights, and Toby spent more time with his Gran than usual, and even had an afternoon and early evening with Evie and Drew.

But both men had to admit that they were rather excited too, ridiculously so. It wouldn’t be their first trip away, and it was hardly a location or a venue to set the world alight, but there was something about travelling as a family that appealed.