Lost Lad

Lost Lad

A Mystery set in Derbyshire 1960

by

Narvel S Annable

Copyright 2003 Narvel Annable

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available

from the British Library

ISBN 0 9530419 6 4 (original paperback version)

Originally published by

Narvel S. Annable

[email protected]
www.narvelannable.co.uk

For

All victims of homophobic school bullying

FOREWORD

by

John Holmes

of

BBC Radio Nottingham

Narvel has a penchant for subjects 'close to home', but until now he's always written about the lives of others in relation to his own.  There was the social history focusing on his "Heanor Schooldays" which inspired the entertaining and intriguing novel which follows.  Such was the influence of his first teacher, not only has he written an affectionate reminiscence of "Miss Calder's Children", but he's also woven a fictional murder mystery, "Death on the Derwent", around the formidable schoolmistress!  His major biographical work centred on his former teacher His Honour Judge Keith Matthewman QC.

"Lost Lad", in contrast, places Narvel centre stage, along with five other pals on a cycling holiday in Derbyshire.  As the journey unfolds, one member of the gang goes missing and it takes nearly a half century before Narvel finally reveals to us the secret of his devilishly clever conjuring trick.  Here is an interesting tale in which the line between truth and fiction is blurred.  How much is true?  Even I'm not sure and I'm part of it when Narvel visits me at BBC Radio Derby requesting help from our listeners.

I've never featured in a mystery thriller before, and I must say that I've enjoyed every minute of it.  And stand by: there could be a sequel!

MAP

Pronunciation

In the speaking voice of some of the characters, I have attempted to show the Derbyshire accent.  A principal feature is the closed 'U', which is sounded 'oo' as in 'took',
not
the sound as in 'boot'.  The native Derbyshire tongue makes no distinction between the past tense of take - 'took' and 'tuck' - something to eat.  To the Derbyshire ear, the open 'U' or standard pronunciation of 'tuck' sounds rather like 'tack', a short nail.  Accordingly when local Derbyshire folk say 'duck' (which they often say), I have indicated it as 'dook'. 

Relatives are often referred to as 'our' pronounced 'arr', such as 'Arr Fred'.

In an attempt to maintain the flavour and accuracy of the 1960's, I have referred to African-Americans as Negroes. 

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 Fantasy of Death

Chapter 2 The Dreaded Confrontation

Chapter 3 The Agony, the Erotic and the Ecstasy

Chapter 4 Looks Good, Feels Good, Tastes Good

Chapter 5 The Golden Oarsman

Chapter 6 Journey to the Far North

Chapter 7 Adventures Along the Cromford Canal

Chapter 8 Water-cum-Jolly Dale

Chapter 9 Fairies, Goblins and Sacrificial Groves

Chapter 10 Wormhill

Chapter 11 A Gallery of Light in Tideswell

Chapter 12 Hell for Leather

Chapter 13 The Servant at Cressbrook Hall

Chapter 14 "He Comes Not Still, tis Dark No Moon"

Chapter 15 Acetous, Aloof, Cold and Haughty

Chapter 16 A Seductive, Suggestive, Silver Tongue

Chapter 17 Cracker Biscuits in the Cottage

Chapter 18 Guzzly Granddad

Chapter 19 Dolly, Dolly, Deep Dark and Devious

Chapter 20 A Writhing Tangle of Lubricated Bodies

Chapter 21 Butch Numbers and Bitchy Queens

Chapter 22 Babbacombe to Horsley Woodhouse

Chapter 23 Put Ya 'At on Joey!

Chapter 24 Clothes of the Dead

Chapter 25 The Hustler the Pimp and the Murderer

Chapter 26 Sluts Slags and Strumpets

Chapter 27 An Appeal on BBC Radio Derby

Chapter 28 The Other Twin

Chapter 29 Ghosts

Chapter 30 The Thoughts of Simeon

Chapter 31 Nymphs, Naiads and Dryads

Chapter 32 St John's Chapel in Belper

Chapter 33 Fantasy of Life

Introduction

My first novel published in 1999 was called "Death on the Derwent" - A Murder Mystery set in Belper 1949, ISBN 0 9530419 2 1, which features the formidable Miss Florence Calder and her cantankerous sister Miss Madge, as they go on the trail of a clever criminal in a leafy, smaller Belper, half a century ago.  Miss Florence Calder was a real person, the subject of my first book - "Miss Calder's Children" - A Social History of Belper,  Biography and Critique on Modern Education, published in 1997.

For this second novel it seemed fitting that I draw on the setting and atmosphere of my second book, an autobiographic work published in 1998 - "Heanor Schooldays" - A Social History, ISBN 0 9530419 1 3, which majors on the period 1955 to 1960.  It tells the story of two schools.  The hard forbidding Dickensian Mundy Street Boys School was claustrophobic, hateful and cruel, but in the September of 1958 I went down the hill to William Howitt Secondary Modern School which was open, sunny and leafy - a culture of kindness. 

For this fantasy of my imagination I have subsumed part of "Heanor Schooldays".  The pupils in this novel are fictitious, but are a composite of the types of boys I have known, those good people who changed my life for the better in that wonderful period of 1958 to 1960. 

It is the passage of four decades and these considerations which are the inspiration of this book.  It is an attempt to re-visit the 'lost' world of a happy adolescence which once existed in a place we all knew as William Howitt Secondary Modern School. 

Apart from a few agreed cameo roles, all the characters in this book are pure fiction.

Chapter 1

Fantasy of Death

Simeon Hogg was thinking of death. 

His 12th grade history students, silently sitting before him in their correct places, in neat rows, scratching away on their exercise books were quite oblivious to his utter despair.  To them he looked much the same as ever, old, stern, hard and unfeeling, staring at them with a familiar forbidding countenance which held complete control.  Of late he seldom smiled, had become even more strict than ever: no talking would be tolerated, no turning round, no fidgeting and no rocking on chairs.  

Simeon Hogg was thinking of death.  He was sitting very still in this chamber of silence, looking at his class when, suddenly - he was visited by a grotesque fantasy.  An intriguing thought which was possibly born out of the depths of his misery. 

            What if he suddenly died?  Here and now in front of these thirty young people.  He would not fall over.  As ever, as an example to others (especially other staff) he was sitting bolt upright, perfectly balanced on his chair.  The authoritarian eyes, if now unseeing, would continue to remain open and, as ever, continue to maintain discipline in that classroom.  The occasional face would, now and then, look up to test the rigorous regime and, quickly, return to work. 

Suddenly the bell would shatter the oppressive silence, ringing out to announce the end of the school-day.  In most other classrooms it would trigger an immediate uprising of excited youthful humanity - all rushing and crushing to the door, a joyful evacuation and escape from the Dwight D Eisenhower High School located on the south side of Lincoln Gardens, near Detroit, Michigan in the USA.  In most other classrooms the sole adult voice would be raised to out-shout the din caused by the stampede in a futile attempt to, perhaps announce homework, or at least try to end the day in a civilised manner with a few words of conclusion.

But this was not most other classrooms.  This was the dreaded Room 76, the room of Mr Hogg who had thirty-four and one half years of experience in dealing with youngsters who (possibly from other more lax members of staff) might have formed the extraordinary idea that the bell is a higher authority than that of the schoolmaster.  Mr Hogg's students had long learned the lesson that he, and he alone, at his pleasure and convenience, dismissed a class in his own time - and that time was usually at some point following the sounding of the school bell.  After his short valedictory address, they would hear the command 'stand' followed by 'lead on' when each row in turn would file out of the door.