Those Left Behind - 18. School Issues & Date Night

“So, what happened?”

Ludo and Arthur were sitting in the head’s office at the school. It was quiet, the pupils had all departed. The office was blandly modern; apart from the photographs of school sports day and other such images on the walls, it could have been anywhere. The head, a brisk middle-aged woman who had always struck Ludo as looking more like a manager than a teacher, looked uncomfortable and perhaps a trifle resentful.

“Two of the senior boys, known troublemakers, have been making remarks about your wife, Mr Wilson, and your relationship, gentlemen. Unfortunately, parroting opinions that they have picked up. I assume that I do not need to elucidate?”

The two men nodded.

“They have been persistent offenders and have now been severely punished, as well as getting a stiff lecture on tolerance.”

Ludo doubted that a stiff lecture would improve anyone’s tolerance; but he let that ride.

She continued in rather a stiff manner, “We pride ourselves on being a friendly and welcoming school, and I would hasten to add that you are not the first gay parents that we have welcomed. However, the very public nature of your relationship is a challenge.”

Ludo’s first response was to apologise, but Arthur got in first, “Whether well-known or not shouldn’t matter.”

She nodded her head and looked at them over imaginary glasses, “In an ideal world. And your case is so unusual.”

“A lot has been out of our control.”

“We realise that and sympathise. We are all learning, and I would ask that all of us, you and the school, exercise tolerance in these rather curious circumstances we find ourselves.”

The two men nodded. Ludo felt that really, she wanted the whole thing to go away, but it wasn’t going to, was it?

“Your two sons’ behaviour has been admirable, Damian in particular seemed adept at ignoring the boys.”

“That is what I’d advised.”

“Very wise”, she smiled, “such bullies are looking for a response.”

Ludo wondered where this was going. They’d been phoned to say that there had been an altercation, and that both Adam and Damian were in the nurse’s office. They were a bit shaken, but barring the odd scratch nothing was serious, thank goodness.

“Unfortunately, the behaviour seems to have emboldened others. Michael Mallion, who is normally such a nice boy, started this afternoon quoting opinions that would be alarming in an adult never mind a ten-year old.”

“What sort, the same as the other boys?”

“No, it would be easy enough to deal with if Michael spouted homophobic claptrap. These, however, were Biblical quotations, about sinfulness and evil, about the whore of Babylon, the wages of sin, something about Christ and the moneylenders, and of course, the usual homophobic verses.”

“Is the boy usually like this?”

“Not at all. Michael is not a particularly academic boy, so in other circumstances his feat of memory and of absorption of the Biblical message would have been admirable. However, these were all laced with personal comments, making clear that”, she cleared her throat, “if you’ll beg my pardon, that the sinfulness of your relationship was the direct cause of your wife’s evil and whore-ish behaviour”. She’d gone a bit pink, “I am, I think, quoting him exactly.”

“Good Lord. Strong stuff indeed.”

“I can understand why Damian might not let that sort of thing just wash over him.”

“There was a fight?”

“Yes. Luckily, the whole interchange took place in the playground, outside classroom 4C, which was occupied at the time by Mrs Wigg who heard most of the diatribe. Unfortunately, by the time she got outside, fisticuffs had started. I believe your son Adam was the first aggressor”, she addressed Arthur. “But as his friend was severely provoked, I cannot see how we can simply punish that. Michael is more problematic, as he is unrepentant as are to a large extent, his parents. They evidently hold very strong views.”

“What happens now?”

“I find myself in a bit of a pickle. I cannot, in all conscience, punish Michael for his parents’ sincerely held religious views. And the parents are”, more throat clearing, “somewhat trenchant. If I punish Michael for fighting and leave Adam and Damian unpunished then Michael’s parents will be able to claim that we are persecuting him for his sincerely held religious beliefs.”

“Ah, I understand. You plan to punish all of them?”

She nodded, “If that is acceptable, what I would like to do is give all three boys a light punishment for fighting and hold a class session on tolerance. After all, we are a multi-faith school, and it is important the children learn that strongly held religious views can exist side by side.”

“Will that be enough?”

She shrugged and gave a thin smile, “It will be a start, something to build on. We will also make clear to Michael’s parents, in writing, that it is unacceptable to make personal remarks about pupils and their families”, she gave a grim smile, “or staff, for that matter.”

They agreed with the course of action, and both men privately preferred a low-key approach over scorched earth. It remained to be seen whether Damian and Adam felt that they could live with Michael Mallion.

The boys were waiting for them, sitting in the bleakly utilitarian corridor outside the nurse’s office, drinking glasses of juice. Nurse was brisk and capable, and she informed them that no serious damage had been done. The boys looked a bit shame-faced and somewhat shell-shocked. They were quiet as the four of them left the school, but eventually Damian spoke up.

“Sorry Dad.”

Adam continued, “He was saying such horrible things about…”

“Yes, we heard.”

“It was all right with Jack and Eddie, they’re just stupid.”

“You let it wash over you.”

“Yeah, just as you said to.”

“Did you tell the teachers?”

“Yeah, and they put Jack and Eddie in detention for a whole week”, both boys looked gleeful.

“But Michael kept saying stuff.”

“He wouldn’t go away.”

“Kept following us.”

“Stuff about evil and wh…”

“It’s OK, we understand.”

“We didn’t mean to.”

“But it wasn’t stupid stuff.”

“It was out the Bible.”

“Jonny says that Michael’s parents are Bible bashers.”

“Which is almost as nasty a phrase as some of the things Michael was saying.”

“Yeah, sorry.”

“Not every nasty person is an idiot like those other two.”

“Jack and Eddie.”

“Yes. There are clever nasty people too.”

“Try not to let it get to you. I know it’s difficult, but fighting never helps, OK?” Damian nodded. “And if anyone starts spouting the Bible to you again, let us know.” Another nod.

“Dad, where are we going?”

The boys had noticed that they were not on the road home. They turned into the High Street and towards Sun Lane. There was a parking space in the road adjacent to the church, and a table free outside the coffee shop. The sun had gone in, but it was still pleasant, and Arthur took the boys inside. Each came out with a huge multi-coloured ice cream, and Arthur was carrying two coffees.

Damian’s eyes were wide, “Arthur said we could have three flavours each.”

Ludo laughed, neither boy seemed to be able to cope with their large ice creams. Adam already had a smear on his nose, whilst an alarmingly bubble-gum pink dribbled down Damian’s chin. If only all life’s problems were as easily solved.

The aftermath of the event rumbled on, as parents commented, offered support to Ludo and Arthur and even, in a couple of cases, said something to the boys as they left school. Michael Mallion’s parents evidently remained disgruntled that they were being persecuted for their views, but frankly it was hardly a witch hunt.

There was another aftermath too. Both Damian and Adam had questions about Biblical teaching, about what Michael had been saying, what it meant. Arthur’s Bible knowledge was marginally better than Ludo’s, but the two men rather regretted not having a friend who was well up on such matters. Mr Google eventually produced the right answers, and they were able to have a coherent discussion of a sort with the boys.

Arthur tried to explain that some people thought of the Bible stories as being just that, whereas other took them as literal truth, though this turned more into a discussion about parables, allegories, and metaphors. What neither man could explain was why some people believed as they did.

***

“Lesley assures me that the place is good, and according to Dot, half the staff at the college have been there”.

“And that’s why we’re here?” Arthur’s eyes wrinkled.

“Well, I figured it was nice to go somewhere people recommend and, well, we’ve never been on a date, have we?”

“Fuck, I suppose not”.

“Ah, there’ll be none of that”, again a naughty smile, “a good girl never puts out on the first date”.

But they held hands under the tablecloth whilst they studied the menu. La mamma was a new Italian restaurant that was pitching itself as a class above the others in town. For a start, they proudly proclaimed the chef’s Italian heritage and her strong regional bias. Quite who La mamma was, Ludo and Arthur had no idea, chef and staff were all young. The maître d’ was Italian, but the waiting staff were all locals.

The restaurant was in a former corner shop with big windows, a bar/counter and distressed brick walls. The furniture (deliberately) mis-matched. The service was friendly, if distracted, and they commented that it wasn’t a place to come, if you were in a hurry. Poring over the menu, working out what was what, Ludo wryly pointed out that when faced with difficult menu choices he usually was a coward and went for something safe.

Arthur smiled, “Somewhere, I’ve got a book about Italian cuisine, region by region.”

“Might be useful.”

“If I can find it, it’s at the house somewhere.”

“Speaking of which…”, Arthur’s house was a topic Ludo had tended to avoid. He dreaded the thought of Arthur going back, of their relationship reverting to a more distanced one, back to friends-with-benefits. He knew that this was silly. “Look. I’ve been dreading asking you this, but have you thought what you are doing about the house?”

Arthur looked puzzled, “Dreading it, why?”

Ludo looked down but ploughed on, “Because I’m scared, you’ll say you want to go back there, and I don’t want you to leave.”

Arthur laughed, “Daft thing. I’ve told you, I’ve waited this long, and I’m here for the duration. And truth?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t want to leave and neither does Adam. All we have to decide is what to do with the place.”

“Rent it out.”

Arthur sniggered, “Would need to sort and tidy it first.”

“It looks like a band box.”

“You’ve never seen the cupboards. Keeping things in case…”

Ludo rolled his eyes, “Tell me about it. Look, have a word with the cleaner and see if she or someone can do it regularly, keep it in good shape. Then we can make a project of it this Autumn.”

“OK. And no more worries like that.” Arthur looked at him intently.

“No. I’ll say if anything pops into my head.”

Arthur rolled his eyes, “Which I expect it will.”

Orders placed, bread, wine and olive oil delivered to table (along with an explanation of the provenance of the oil and details of the type of bread), there was then a pause. The two men looked at each other, and laughed, they’d spent so much of last week reacting to events that they had got out of the habit of talking.

“I was thinking that we’ve sort of got out the habit of just talking, it’s always been that there was something that needed talking about or doing.”

Arthur laughed, dryly, “I’m not sure whether we ever talked properly, did we?”

“I suppose not, we went from a beer after school, to old movies to…”

“You, rushing me in the kitchen.”

“Christ, when I think of that, I still don’t know what came over me. I’ve never really been that…” He paused.

“Never been that… Highly sexed, libidinous?” Arthur’s eyes danced.

“Yeah”, Ludo looked a bit embarrassed. “When Jackie and I had, you know, fallow patches it was OK. I didn’t obsess. But…” He went red.

“I’m glad my bum can have such an effect.”

“Hasn’t it before?”

“Well, I’ve never been one to have guys beating a path to my door. Oh, there were things at Uni, and after. But I was never spoiled for choice.”

“Most of the guys at work seemed to hook up with the girls there or something similar.”

“Yeah. What do gay guys do?”

Ludo shrugged, “No idea. I’ve never been in that sort of market, and I never dared go into a gay pub or anything. That would been to have admitted things, that fooling about with guys was more than that.”

“What about girls?”

Ludo frowned, briefly, “There was no-one special at Uni, and Jackie was more of a mate. We’d meet up for drinks and such. It was a bit like that film, you know about whether a bloke and a bird could be friends.”

“When Harry met Sally.”

“Yea. Was that the one where she fakes an orgasm in the restaurant, and some woman says, ‘I’ll have what she’s having’.”

“Yep” The two smiled, “But don’t be getting any ideas.”

Ludo grinned and gave Arthur’s thigh a brief tweak. “I was thinking, we ought to do more films.”

“You mean go to the cinema?”

Ludo pulled a face, “Too much bother. If we do manage to go out, we could come here.”

“So… Films?”

“Choose one, once the boys have gone upstairs, you can educate me.”

“Hardly. Educate each other, more like. There’s plenty I’ve not seen.”

“There you are. Once all this is over and thing have calmed down.”

Arthur rolled his eyes, “When!”

Food arrived and there was plenty to occupy them. Arthur, as the more experienced cook, had plenty to say but in fact the two enjoyed chatting about food. Ludo’s phone buzzed, it was Marilyn to say that the boys had settled down well and were in their pyjamas watching a terrible action film with the twins. She and Angus had retreated to the kitchen.

Marilyn and Angus were not particularly close friends, or even well known to Ludo and Arthur as parents. They had twins, Graham and Edwin, the same age at Damian and Adam, but in a different class at school, Still, the boys evidently got on well enough. The sleepover had been Marilyn’s suggestion. Previous attempts at having boys over had not gone well because of finding two boys whom the twins both liked, and the two boys got on with each other as well. As Damian and Arthur seemed to come as a pair, it seemed ideal.

The drawback - Ludo and Arthur would have to host the twins in a couple of weeks. They were lively boys, a bit of a handful, but it would be worth it. And the arrangement had the advantage of helping, in a small way, to normalise things; their family did sleepovers just like everyone else.

“We should do this more often”.

Ludo smiled, “One of the guys at work used to talk about being in some sort of baby-sitting club, he and his wife were constantly scrambling to accumulate enough points.”

Arthur stared at him, “Can we wind back at bit. A baby-sitting club?”

“A group of parents team up; you accumulate points by baby-sitting other children. Then spend the points on someone babysitting for you.”

“Oh, I get it. To have someone over, you’ve to got to have put in the equivalent hours?”

“Yep. Other people’s children.”

“Hmm. Not sure I fancy that.”

“Well, it’s that or pay good money.”

“Shit”

“The joys of family life. What did you do?”

Arthur shrugged, “Not go out. And the odd time Adam got invited to something I usually felt so knackered I didn’t bother. What about you two?”

“Usually, a paid babysitter, but Jackie was fussy. They had to audition first.”

“Audition!”

Ludo wobbled his head from side to side, considering, “Well, interview perhaps”, he smiled. “We didn’t, she didn’t allow just anyone.”

“Do you still have the details.”

“Of the sitters?” Ludo shrugged, “I remember one good one got too old, another blotted her copybook somehow. Jackie must have left a list somewhere”, he sighed.

“It’s OK, it was just a thought. Did you and Jackie go out much?”

Ludo snorted, “No. It was just too much of a faff, we’d eat in and if I was lucky, I’d…”, he waggled his eyebrows.

Arthur laughed, “Speaking of which….”

They wandered home, slowly and by a circuitous route, comfortable together and looking forward to a fun evening, alone.