The Sins of the Father
by N Fourbois
Chapter 32
Rufus managed to get through the school day unscathed. His close friends had been magnificent in the help and support they gave him, but even they wanted to go home at the end of school. After hearing the news, Eddie hung around the bike sheds until Rufus turned up, fortunately by himself, so that he could have a word with him and share some moments from when his own parents split up. Eddie had to be careful. His adolescent beauty was by now famous throughout the school and although he had justified his reputation for being a tart, he was certainly no slut and since the incident near the beginning of term he had become a no-go area. He talked about what William had told him and said he might take him and Toby up on the offer at half term.
"You do that, Eddie. They'll give you a good time, but I won't be joining you. You see, I've got a boyfriend and it would be inappropriate behaviour… unless he were there of course."
"I'd better be going," said Eddie. "I'm late as it is. My mother will start to worry that something else has happened to me. Rufus." He almost whispered this. "Can I give you a hug?" Rufus looked around. There was nobody about.
"Just a quick one. In case someone comes." Eddie put his arms round the sixth former and drew him in. Rufus could feel he was half hard and backed off a little. Then he felt a gentle kiss on his cheek. He blushed and pulled away.
"Just a little thank you for what you did to help me. See you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow, Eddie," and the junior quickly mounted his cycle and was off.
Rufus was not in a hurry to get home that evening. What did he have to look forward to? His father might or might not be there. His schoolmates weren't around any more until the morning. He must get in touch with Mike. He needed him, but he knew he worked long hours, made more difficult by the fact that he worked for his mother and so little sympathy could be expected from her to him.
Rufus stowed his bicycle away and used his key to let himself in by the front door. He had a stack of homework to do. He needed to ring Mike, ring the twins and attempt to call his mother, and that was the order of priorities.
"Hallo!" he called out.
"Hi, Rufus, I'm in the study," came the reply. That was relief.
"Hi, Dad. How are you?"
"I'm okay. I still haven't managed to raise your mother. What about you? What sort of day have you had?"
"Better than I thought. The guys at school have been really decent. I felt I had to tell my mates. The teachers have been good too. That note certainly helped. Have you heard from the twins?"
"Eventually, leaving messages. I've arranged to call them at eight tonight."
"So Mum's been in touch with them?"
"I haven't the slightest idea, but I don't see why she should call the tune all the time. She's the one who walked out. She can have a hissy fit all by herself or with this friend she's staying with. Now she's no longer here I don't have to give in to the moral blackmail any more."
Rufus had never known his father to be so vehement and matter-of-fact, especially where Veronica was concerned. He was pleased that there was no trace of whisky anywhere, either on his father's breath or in a glass or a bottle. Hiding the bottle had obviously worked and Carl hadn't been out to buy any more.
"Rufus, I'm sorry to sound so strict or uncaring about your mother, but you won't understand yet what stress and pain she has put our family through over the last few months. I've done my best to hide it from you boys, but as the saying goes, never try the patience of a patient man."
"Will you let her come back, Dad?" Rufus stared hard into his father's face, steely blue eyes staring into steely blue eyes, as he asked the question.
"Of course I will. This is her home, but she will have to want to come back of her own free will. I'm not in the mood to persuade her at the moment."
This exchange galvanised Rufus's attitude. He had never felt so at one with his father. Pragmatically he had little choice. He had been de facto rejected by his mother. How many weeks, months, years ago had he been rejected by her in her mind? In this instance the twins had no part to play. They were over a hundred miles away and liable to remain so for twelve weeks or more. He could rely on Magnus, but now Hugo's unassailable position in the family hierarchy had become public knowledge, what support could he expect there? With the benefit of hindsight everything had become mind-numbingly obvious. The psychology and dynamics of it all appealed to his mindset. The intellectual faculty had conquered the emotional one.
"I'll cook supper tonight, Dad."
"No, it's okay, son. I've already started. You've got your homework to do. You mustn't let your schoolwork suffer. Have you heard anything from Michel?"
"No. Everyone I call is on voicemail. I'm going up to ring him now."
"You know he's got open house here, don't you? If you need him tonight, he's welcome to stay. We like… What am I saying? I like him very much. I think you make a nice couple."
"Thanks, Dad," and Rufus gave him a great big hug.
"Half past six supper, I would say at a guess. Love you, Rufus."
"Love you, Dad."
Rufus reached his room, dumped his backpack and took off his blazer and tie. He fished out his mobile from one of its pockets and pressed the speed dial button for Michel.
«Trying to connect you. Please hold the line.»
"Bloody hell! No!" but he held on long enough to get a ringing tone and an eventual reply.
«Hi, Rufus, what is it? I've been trying to get you between shoots.»
"We have to keep our mobiles switched off at school. They're very strict about it. What I wanted to tell you is that my mother's walked out on us."
«Shit, no! You're joking. Now that explains rather a lot.» It had to happen sooner or later. Rufus burst out crying on the phone. «Hey, Babes, don't take it so bad. There, there. I'm sorry I couldn't get in touch earlier. Look, I'm at work. Finish about eight and I'll be right over. I'll stay the night you need me.» Rufus managed to stop his tears. «I'll ring Mum to tell her where I am and get this shoot finished and I'll be there. Love ya, Rufus,» and the phone clicked off.
Rufus went and washed his face, then finished changing out of his school uniform. He made another attempt to ring the twins, using Magnus's number of course, as he was sure of a more sympathetic response. Success. It was ringing. Magnus answered.
«Hi, bro, how's it going?» he answered cheerfully.
"I take it you haven't heard about Mum, you sound so cheerful."
«Mum? No. She hasn't had an accident or anything like that?»
"No. She's walked out on us."
«Walked out?»
"Yes, left home… yesterday, and we don't where she is. She won't answer her phone and she left strict instructions we shouldn't try to find out. Where's Hugo?"
«In the shower.»
"Can you get him?"
«Er… difficult. It's not our shower he's in. He's with a friend.»
"The other thing is we weren't supposed to tell you before she did, but she's had thirty-six hours. Can you ring Dad when Hugo gets back? He's cooking at the moment and we're eating at half past six."
«Okay, Rufe. We got a message to ring at eight, but now I know what it's about we'll call him about half past seven after we've had our supper, and we'll try and ring Mum too. Speak to you soon. Hugs.»
Rufus finally got down to his homework and was surprised how much he got done before his father called up the stairs to say that dinner was ready. Over the meal he told him the twins would ring and that their mother hadn't been in contact with them yet. He said that Michel would be here as soon as he'd finished work and might be stopping the night.
"We'll have to discuss practical things," said Carl "like getting the shopping in."
"We could do it on line."
"That's okay if we know what we want, but I'd rather do it the old fashioned way, even if it does take a bit more time. The washing's no problem, though the ironing might be a bit of a learning curve."
"We could ask Mrs Spiller to do that and then only what needs to be ironed."
"You seem to know a lot about it, Rufus."
"We get taught that sort of thing in PHSE lessons, along with the propaganda that ironing is not just women's work." They both laughed, probably for the first time since Veronica had left them.
They cleared away the supper things and Rufus went back up to his room to make sure he had got his homework finished before Michel arrived. He felt a little more relaxed now. Things were not so black as they had seemed. He thought back to the 'abhorrent' word. Even that seemed risible and with the state of things he felt his mother was having a more difficult time than they were. About eight he went downstairs to hear about the conversation Carl had had with the twins.
"That was deviousness," said Carl. "What on earth was going through her mind telling us to wait until she had told the twins and then not doing so?"
"Maybe Mum didn't want to unsettle them."
"She wanted to unsettle us, though, and she must have known they would find out one way or the other."
"Perhaps she thought she could come back here in a few days and then pretend to the twins that nothing had happened."
"Anyway, they're concerned, naturally, and wanted to come home. I told them that they were to stay where they are. There's nothing they can do. They wanted to trap Mum at work, but I said that would have the opposite effect to the one intended. So they're going to try and get her to answer her phone."
At that moment there was a ring at the front door. Carl went to answer it closely followed by Rufus. As they thought, it was Michel who dropped the cardboard roll he was carrying and took Carl into a hug, and then Rufus into a big hug. Carl took him into the sitting room where they chatted politely, but even Carl could see that the boys wanted to be on their own and he excused himself saying that he had some work to get on with. They went up to Rufus's room and as soon as the door was closed they went into another big hug, this time with the normal sexual arousal. They went and lay on the bed in an embrace and Rufus started to tell Michel what had happened over the past few days.
"Is Mum turning up for work, Mike?"
'Oh, yes, but we've all noticed that she has been rather fraught over the last couple of weeks, difficult to work with, which she isn't usually. Not that I have had much to do with her as we've got a big contract with a women's magazine that she's overseeing because it's got to succeed. We thought that's what's stressing her out."
"Maybe, but…" and then Rufus started telling Michel what his father had told him about her relationships with the rest of the family. That opened Michel's eyes.
"I didn't know about that."
"There's no reason why you should. Mike, do you think you could give her a message? Just to get in touch. That's the worst part. If she can't live with us, okay, but at least speak to one of us."
"I'll try. I'll try anything to make you feel happy again."
"Do you mean that? Will you stop the night? I need you. The guys at school were so good to me, but at four o'clock it was all switched off until the next day."
"Of course I will. I thought you'd never asked," Michel said with a grin. "You know what I said. I always carry a clean pair of undies in my pocket." He tapped his hip pocket. "But since we got together, I never bother to carry condoms in my pocket any more." Rufus blushed. "I do need to leave early in the morning, though, to touch base with mother… and to pick up another clean pair of undies, of course." They both laughed. "I'll give her a ring in a minute so that she knows what's happening. You haven't got a sandwich handy, have you? I'm starving. I haven't eaten since lunchtime."
"I'll go and make you something while you're phoning. Come down to the kitchen when you're ready."
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