Those Left Behind - 20. Sociability

“Dad, we’re going the wrong way, The Garden’s the other end of the High Street.”

Ludo grinned, “Humour me.”

Ludo had collected Damian from school at lunchtime. It had proved surprisingly easy to arrange some personal time with him, Ludo had simply contacted the school, and they had seemed amenable. Perhaps they didn’t really know, either, what to do with a lively and intelligent ten-year-old whose Mother had abandoned him, seemingly in a quest for more excitement and money.

Instead of going home, Ludo had brought a picnic, but once they got to the High Street he turned left, towards the grungier part, the one where there were rather too many charity shops, at least two shops boasting everything for a pound and under, and a hardware store where you might find something useful but had to search amidst a load of plastic rubbish.

Past the old Territorial Hall, now some sort of night club, they turned right, up Thomas Lane, towards the old parish church. The building wasn’t that old, late Victorian, and it was now hemmed around with developments from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, leaving only a fraction of the old church yard. This had been turned into a sort of park, the centre piece of which was a large old yew tree. Ludo had happened to read about this in the local paper and had stored the information up.

They stood in the churchyard, in front of the yew.

Ludo nodded at the tree, “Yews are poisonous.”

Damian sighed, “I know that Dad, we don’t go near them.”

“Ah, but in the Medieval period they used to plant yew trees in graveyards. They were a symbol of death and rebirth because of the way they can spread.”

Damian nodded, “When their branches touch the ground they root.”

“But because they were poisonous, they deterred animals.”

“Animals?”

Ludo smiled, “From digging up the graves.”

“Yuk. Gross.”

“Well, poor people wouldn’t be able to afford coffins, they’d be buried just in a shroud.”

“What’s a shroud?”

“A sheet sewn around the body.”

“So, they’d be buried in a bag?”

“That’s right. Easily dug up.”

“By an animal…” Damian’s eyes widened, this was the sort of information he liked, scientific, accurate and perhaps a little bit gruesome.

“When they built the original church here about 900 years ago…”

“Is that the church?”

“No, it got old and decrepit and the Victorians decided to build a new one. But they left the trees in the churchyard.”

“Wow. So that tree…”

“Has always been said to be 900 years old, and now scientists have done some clever modern dating, and they think that it might be 800 years old.”

Damian grinned, “That’s so cool.”

Ludo sat on one of the benches and let Damian examine the tree, noting the way the boy was careful not to touch anything. Amazingly, Ludo had remembered to bring wet wipes and gel with him, so they were able to have a ceremonial hand cleaning before having their lunch. For once, Ludo did not take Damian to task for talking with his mouth full, as the boy chattered about the age of the tree and speculated what it had once looked like.

All this meant that they were quite late getting to The Garden. The coffee stall was there, and they had biscuits and juices, so Ludo armed them with more supplies and set off down the main avenue. The two admired the herbaceous borders which were still in magnificent bloom. Ludo wondered how on earth Gordy and his tiny staff managed to do it, to keep everything looking so spic and span when Ludo struggled with his small garden. As they walked along, Damian read the informative labels that were tucked in front of many of the plants, relaying to his Dad the useful information. Where he struggled with the Latin name, Ludo was at least able to advise. His Latin from school was ropey at best, but he could still manage to remember how to pronounce the words.

Unfortunately, Damian wanted to know what the Latin words meant, so they kept stopping to do a lot of Googling. It hadn’t been how Ludo had expected to spend the afternoon, but it did exactly what was intended, just the two of them doing something together. Halfway down, the grass path widened and there was a pair of benches, so they sat and had coffee, juice, and biscuits. A few of the plants had been named for people, and so Ludo was dutifully looking these people up and relaying salient points about them to Damian.

Gordon found them, he and Alessio appeared from behind one of the hedges. Neither man proved to be wearing anything under their overalls, which wasn’t a surprise. But their behaviour when they first appeared and spotted Ludo and Damian, had been suspicious, as if caught doing something, and the way both had started to fasten the bottom of their overalls had added to the image. So, was Alessio finally letting Gordy have his way with him, rather than just teasing? Ludo was intrigued, but doubted whether he would find out quickly.

For a start, he stood little chance of getting Gordy on his own as Damian was pestering the man with all sorts of questions about the plants and their names, things they’d not been able to find out for themselves. Ludo hoped that the boy had been too preoccupied with plant names to notice Gordy and Alessio’s behaviour, the last thing Ludo fancied was to have to confirm what the two men had been doing just before they emerged from the hedge.

Ludo didn’t have to worry, later when they were sitting in the High Street eating fish and chips for their tea, Damian did not even mention anything. Their talk was filled with plant names, Latin, Yew trees and how nice Gordy and Alessio were (because they’d taken the time to explain things to the boy). Ludo and Damian were sitting on a bench in the street eating out of paper rather than eating in, though in fact the chip shop was tiny so eating outside was almost preferable. And to Damian it was a real treat, a guilty treat almost because it wasn’t something they would have done if Jackie had been around.

So, all in all, it was a good day. One where they managed to forget everything that was going on. When they got home, Adam and Arthur were just back, having gone on a jaunt of their own. The two boys happily disappeared upstairs, telling each other about their adventures. The two men relaxed on the sofa and did the same.

Arthur cocked an eye at Ludo, “So? A success, then?”

Ludo nodded, “We never once worried about the case or Jackie’s arrest. And we did things together.”

Arthur laughed, “Researching plant names!”

Ludo became mock annoyed, “I’ll have you know that we made a great team. And the 800-year-old yew went down a bomb too.”

“And fish and chips? I thought you were going to do something special?”

Ludo’s eyes twinkled, “Ah, that was special. Eaten out of paper sitting in the High Street. Something Jackie wouldn’t have countenanced.”

“Great.”

“There was one thing.”

“Problem?”

“Curiosity. Nothing to do with Damian. We’d sat down to have coffee, juice, and biscuits in The Garden, on one of the seats along the main border, when Gordy and Alessio appeared out of one of the hedges.”

“And?”

“They looked a bit furtive, as if they’d been up to something. And I’d swear that both were fastening up the bottom buttons of their overalls.”

Arthur laughed, “Not like them at all. You reckon…”

“That Alessio has stopped teasing and started to let Gordy have his way? Perhaps.”

“Did you find out?”

Ludo pulled a face, “Damian was around all the time.”

“He notice anything?”

Ludo shrugged, “Don’t think so. Leastwise, there were no awkward questions, he was too busy processing all the stuff about plants and Latin names.”

Arhtur smiled, “Thank goodness.”

“What did you two do?”

“Went over to Ely, walked along the river, looked at the boats, had an ice cream, enjoyed holidaymakers getting into trouble trying to manoeuvre into the lock and generally have a great time.”

“What about food, you did eat?”

Arthur gave Ludo a look, “You think I could keep Adam from his food. We went to a rather nice café on the river, great views and fantastic pie and chips, at least according to Adam.”

***

Inviting the twins over also proved easy enough. Marilyn and Angus didn’t have anything on but were simply delighted to get a Saturday afternoon and evening to themselves. Evidently the afternoon was going to be devoted to useful things like visiting B&Q and looking for new bedroom furniture, but Marilyn assured him that they would make great use of the evening.

Ludo didn’t inquire too deeply; he wasn’t that interested in Damian’s friends’ parents’ intimate lives. But Arthur, by contrast, had laughed and told him not to be so squeamish, and the man had started conjuring all sorts of fantasies, the most unlikely one being the rather homely-looking Marilyn covered in chocolate, being eaten by nerdy Angus. TMI indeed.

The twins, Graham and Edwin were indeed live wires. Luckily it was warm, so once they had been delivered, their over-night bags stowed and they were shown their sleeping quarters, they stripped off and donned costumes and disappeared into the garden to create havoc under the sprinkler.

Ludo had been worried about the boys deciding to take their trunks off and play naked, the way they usually did, but Arthur had emphasised that it wouldn’t help making a big thing of it. After all, if there was something wrong with getting naked, then they were doing it all the time. He had a point, and Ludo wanted Damian to grow up comfortable in his skin and not obsessed.

It proved a red herring. The four boys messed around, but there was nothing to worry about. After a remarkably long time under the water, when Ludo laughingly suggested there was a danger of them turning into prunes, the four youngsters dried off, changed, and demolished the cake and juice, before disappearing upstairs.

Ludo and Arthur never did work out what the four were playing, it seemed to be some sort of complicated game. But it hardly mattered. Dinner was Arthur’s famous DIY pizza, which was a big hit but meant that when the four boys collapsed to watch a film on TV, the two men were on kitchen clean-up duty. The film the boys were watching was one that they’d rented online, and it proved a reasonable success. At least keeping their interest.

Morning was, inevitably, a bit chaotic, but when Marilyn appeared to collect her sons, she happily came in for coffee and as they chatted the twins were full of everything they had done. All in all, it could be counted a success; again, Jackie had neither been mentioned nor thought about, it was just an ordinary sleepover. What more could you want.