The Sins of the Father
by N Fourbois
Chapter 11
Carl switched his mobile phone off completely so that he and his sons wouldn't be interrupted.
"I think this weekend it was clear that neither your mother nor I were surprised when you, Hugo and Magnus, came out. We've watched you grow up. We've watched the way you interact and to begin with we believed it was simply the way that twins behaved. I don't have to explain to you how twins are conceived, do I?"
"No, we've done it at school," said Hugo, "the split egg and the two eggs fertilised at the same time."
"I've got a question," said Rufus.
"Go on."
"When twins of the same sex are born, how do you know whether they are identical or fraternal? After all, one new born baby looks very much like another."
"With fraternal twins there are two placentas, with identical twins one."
"Thanks," said Rufus.
"Nothing prepares you for having twins," continued Carl. "You can read books, you can talk to the parents of twins, but while it is helpful, it doesn't answer many questions. Our concern in bringing you up was that you should be treated as two individual human beings, with your own personalities. For instance, we never forced you to wear the same clothes, and it only happened with school uniform, say, or a team strip if you were playing sport, and I must say it was sometimes difficult to treat you equally at the same time. I think you'll agree it worked. You have developed different personalities, you do express yourselves in different ways, you Magnus with short hair and you Hugo with longer hair."
"Is that why I'm circumcised and Hugo's not?" said Magnus.
"Blame me for that," said Carl, "not your mother."
"I'm not blaming anybody," said Magnus. "I just want to know. I'm content with being cut."
"Gets him more boyfriends than Hugo because they're curious," said Rufus mischievously.
"No, it doesn't," snapped Hugo.
"We'll stop that discussion right there," said Carl. "It might just explain the philosophy behind your upbringing. Back to Saturday evening. When you two came out officially it was no surprise to either your mother or me. What the surprise was, was when you, Rufus, came out as well. Several emotions played on your mother's mind, foremost of which was 'what have I done to produce three gay children?' You were sensible just now, Magnus, when you said you weren't playing the blame game. Women's minds, however, work differently and in this case it started as self-blame, but that soon changed because of another factor in our family."
"What's that?" asked Hugo.
"Let me say one other thing before I get on to it," said Carl. "It is easy for me to understand your sexuality, but it isn't for Mum, or women in general. For example, what do you know about lesbians?"
"Not a lot," the boys agreed.
"And neither do I. I can't understand why two women should find each other attractive, what they get up to… anything. And so it is for your mother. She can't understand why two men… or boys should be sexually attracted. So that explains part of your mother's troubles."
"Is she going through the menopause?" asked Rufus in a very matter of fact way.
"Yes," replied Carl, "but that didn't start last Saturday. We now come to the third facet of the problem and this is the part that is taking the greatest toll on your mother. It may well make rather a lot of things clear to you.
"Do you want drinks or anything before I start on this? I fear it may take some time."
"I'll have a Coke and I'm going for a pee," said Hugo. Rufus went into the café to find the waitress.
"Are you all right with this, Dad?" asked Magnus.
"Yes, I'm okay. I've had five afternoons and several sleepless nights to think about it. I want to get it off my chest." The boys had re-assembled and the Cokes were served before Carl started speaking again.
"Every family has skeletons in the cupboard and we're no different. I don't expect you three youngsters to know much about the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. His plays are dark and in one the protagonist learns that his illegitimate son has been born with congenital syphilis at which he cries out 'The sins of the father are visited on the children.' That's not original Ibsen. You'll find it's a quote from the Bible. Now don't worry. No one in the family has contracted syphilis… unless any of you know differently."
"Dad!" exclaimed Hugo. "Whatever we might get up to, we're very hygiene conscious."
"Okay, Hugo, calm down. I'm not getting at you. I'm trying to make it easier for you to understand. You will remember Björn, my cousin, your first cousin once removed to be technical."
"We've met him, haven't we?" said Magnus.
"That's right," said Rufus. "He's the one who lives with his boyfriend somewhere in Sweden. Oh, I see. So you're saying the gay gene has been passed on to us."
"Partly, but you have to be careful as nothing's been proved as far as that's concerned," said Carl, "but hear me out. There's more to it. Björn and I were very close as boys. We spent our summers together in Sweden and sometimes the Christmas holidays too. We did what teenage boys often do together. We did stuff and had fun."
"What sort of stuff?" asked Hugo.
"I'm not going into detail. I don't ask about what you get up to and I doubt whether you boys have ever done anything we didn't get up to." You could sense the testiness in his voice.
"For goodness' sake, Hugo, shut up and listen," said Magnus. "Dad's trying to tell us something."
"In the winter we would sometimes have a sauna and as part of that we would beat each other with birch twigs. It got a bit rough at times and we discovered that we positively enjoyed causing pain and the feeling of pain. It would turn us on and definitely make us do stuff together, which was more intense after a beating. All this came back to me last Monday when I came home early, found the overhead door of the garage wouldn't open, got out of the car and, hearing a thwack and a shout, I looked through the gap in the curtain and saw you three. It was too dark to make out who was who, but I assure you, it was a great shock. The sins of the father… not only homosexuality, but also sado-masochism."
"Does Mum know anything about this?" asked Magnus.
"My homosexuality, yes, the other, no. She had to know about the first one before she married me. I thought it was all in the past, an adolescent phase. It was, and along with it the sado-masochism. It made me sympathetic towards you two, Hugo and Magnus. It helped me keep your mother onside… until Saturday that is, and until Monday for me when all these emotions came pouring back. And that's it, that's the situation with your mother blaming everything on me and not even wanting to sleep with me, and what's worse, me suffering bouts of lust, which fortunately for the present I can control. But for how long?"
The boys looked at each other in silence.
"Have you noticed how your mother has been burying herself in her work this week?" said Carl. "She doesn't normally bring work home. It helps her to avoid me." The conversation had come to a natural close. "I've got the car in the car park. Do you want a lift home?" The boys were ready for that. They had done enough walking for one day.
Over the weekend life was as near normal as it could be. On Monday it was back to school. The Upper Sixth was kept busy in order to keep them out of mischief. The fifth formers were given induction courses into their A-level choices and in between there had to be fitted Sports Day, the Swimming Gala, Speech Day and the Service of Thanksgiving and preparation for the Leavers' Ball. School broke up on Thursday afternoon and Saturday midday Hugo and Magnus would be on their way to Newquay for a week to celebrate their new found freedom.
On Saturday morning Magnus and Rufus were having breakfast in the kitchen.
"Where's Hugo?" asked their mother.
"Still in bed," replied Magnus. "I think he had a bit too much to drink when we were at the pub last night and he's trying to sleep off a hangover."
"He'll have to get up soon and pack or he'll miss the coach to Cornwall."
"I'll go and see how he is," said Rufus. "I'll give him a hand to pack." However, his intentions were not so altruistic as they sounded.
He knocked on the bedroom door. No reply. He went in and saw Hugo lying there naked and sweating, although there were no covers over him. Rufus seized the opportunity. 'Okay, bastard,' he thought. 'You like games with the cock cage. It's my turn now.' Hugo's dick was in that state where it was slightly swollen, but nowhere near morning wood. He had to act quickly before Hugo woke or Magnus came upstairs. Fortunately he knew where everything was. He drizzled a light film of baby oil over his brother's cock. That spread of its own accord. Hugo was still sleeping. Okay so far. He took the apparatus out of its claret velvet bag and laid the cock ring, cage and padlock on the bed. Now the tricky bit. He fitted the ring round Hugo's balls and cock without trapping any pubes. He warmed the cage in his hand, then carefully slid it over Hugo's cock, lined up the holes, fed through the padlock and snapped it shut.
Hugo woke up.
"Piss off, Rufus. I don't want to get up. I feel like death warmed up."
"Okay, bro, but the coach leaves in two hours' time," and he left the room.
Magnus went upstairs to sort his brother out. Hugo was a little more awake.
"Hey, what the f**king hell is this?" shouted Hugo.
"Hmm, looks like a cock cage from here, bro," replied Magnus in a placid voice.
"Bloody hell! Who stuck that on me?" Magnus shrugged his shoulders while trying to suppress a snigger.
"Not me. Hey, you'd better shake yourself or you'll miss the coach. Drink some water, lots of water."
Magnus got his brother packed and ready for the coach. Carl was playing golf and Veronica had gone into the office and so they had to make their own way to the bus station. By then Hugo had become a little more human. Rufus helped his brothers with their stuff to the bus station. By the bay for the Newquay coach stood a pillar box. The postman had just locked the door after making the Saturday collection. The bus driver had packed the luggage in the hold and was in the midst of checking the passengers' tickets. The twins were just about to climb aboard when Rufus said
"Hugo, you'll need this," holding up a padded envelope.
"What's that?"
"The key… and the little red velvet bag."
"So, you little shit, it was you."
"Revenge is best served cold," and before Hugo could snatch it from Rufus's hand, he put it through the slit of the pillar box.
"Rufus, how did you know it was me that put the cage on you?" asked Hugo defiantly.
"I didn't… but I do now," Rufus laughed triumphantly and flipped him the finger. "The key's safely in the hands of Royal Mail, addressed to you personally in Newquay."
"Are you two lads coming aboard or not?" said the driver impatiently. Magnus pushed Hugo up the steps onto the coach.
"And he only stuck on a second class stamp," said Hugo fuming. Rufus waved goodbye as the coach pulled out of the bus station. This time he used all of the fingers on his hand.
"Magnus, what am I going to do?" Hugo was beginning to calm down. "The lads are going to wet themselves with laughter when they see this and be taking the piss all week."
"It's all right. I'll protect you."
"Like hell you will."
"As far as I can see, you have two options. You can invent some elaborate story that no one's going to believe and that'll make them laugh even more or you could tell the truth. Then they won't laugh quite so much and you might even get some sympathy eventually. You must have been mad to do it in the first place, and how long have you known Rufus? Sixteen years. You must have realised he'd get his own back. Still, one thing. Just be grateful that your arsehole is still available. There are devices that can stop you being shafted as well. For the first few days you're going to be the most popular kid in the dormitory. Enjoy."
"Just wait till we get back and I get my hands on that little creep."
"Uh uh, no. You started it and you're quits at the moment. If I were you, I'd put it down to experience and leave it at that." Hugo sulked for the remaining part of the journey.
For the rest of Saturday and Sunday Rufus was at home with his parents without any respite. Although everyone was pleasant, he could sense an atmosphere. Both his father and his mother paid him more attention than normal and it made him think of his friend William's description of his own divorced parents' competition for his affections. Admittedly Rufus did miss his brothers. They had always been there and despite the current spat between him and Hugo there was a lot of brotherly love between the three, and of course they had always provided him with a refuge from their parents when he had been in trouble or parental protection and attention had got too much for him. His mind fast forwarded to the autumn when Magnus and Hugo would be off to university. 'I suppose in a way this is a dummy run,' he sighed.
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