The Secret Catamite Bk 1, The Book of Daniel (18 page)

"You wheel your bike and his,"
said Daniel to Simon, "I'll take mine."

Simon, quiet now, said nothing
but wheeled Gavin's bike over to his own, lying on its side, and
with one hand on the centre of each handlebar, stood with a bike
either side of him. Daniel picked up his own bike and wheeled that,
with his left hand, supporting Gavin on his right. They set off,
Simon following behind.

"You'll be OK," said Daniel.
"It's not far, is it?"

"No," said Gavin, "just round
the block."

"Come on then," said Daniel,
encouragingly.

"Thanks for the help, Daniel,"
said Gavin. "You're a mate."

"S'OK," said Daniel.

"Well, the others all ran off,
but you stopped."

Hearing the two classmates
chatting did nothing to calm Simon's feelings of insecurity. Of
course he knew Daniel had other friends, lots actually, he was
popular in a way that Simon could only dream of, and that made him
all the more wonderful in Simon's eyes. It was illogical to doubt
Daniel's loyalty to him, knowing all that Daniel did for him,
especially with regard to arithmetic. But seeing and hearing Daniel
and Gavin together, his sensibilities in this regard were
heightened. But then Daniel replied.

"Simon stopped to help as well."
Simon's heart leapt. Hearing Daniel talk about him to his friends
was a real pick up.

"Yeah, thanks Simon," said
Gavin, trying to turn his neck to look back, but failing and
wincing with sudden pain. "Ow!" He turned back.

"Lives near you, doesn't he?"
Gavin asked Daniel.

"Yes."

"You friends?"

"Yes," said Daniel, "he's my
best friend. He'll be at Henrys next year."

Swiftly from suspicion to
soaring the heights, Simon's mood took off, and he followed behind,
happy once more, Daniel oblivious to the smile now on Simon's face.
The small matter of first having to pass the eleven plus went
unnoticed.

They entered Gavin's short
driveway and limped round the side of the house to the back
door.

"Mum!" shouted Gavin as they
opened it. They leaned the bikes against the wall of the house and
while Gavin stepped gingerly into the kitchen, Daniel and Simon
stood outside, not entering uninvited. Mrs Strong appeared.

"Gavin, what happened to you?"
she asked, worriedly.

"Came off me bike," explained
Gavin. "These two helped me home."

"Hello, Daniel," said Mrs
Strong. Simon wondered how well Daniel knew Gavin. His mother
obviously knew him. But then he remembered what Daniel had said and
felt better.

"And who's this other little
hero?" asked Mrs Strong of Gavin, looking at Simon.

"That's Simon. He's Daniel's
best friend."

Mrs Strong beamed at Simon,
Simon beamed back, happy in the confirmation of his status from
Gavin, as a representative of Daniel's peers.

She now had a wet flannel and
was wiping Gavin's wounds with it. They looked a lot less serious
with all the blood and muck removed.

"Come in, boys." he said, and
Daniel went into the kitchen, Simon following. Gavin seemed a lot
happier now, and smiled at the two.

"Thanks for helping," he said.
Then to his mother, "The rest all ran off, only these helped."

"Where was this?" asked Mrs
Strong.

"In the spinney," said Simon,
feeling more confident.

"Gavin, what have I told you
about riding your bike in there?" Mrs Strong said sharply. Gavin
shot Simon a cross look. Daniel moved very slightly so as to be
slightly more between Simon and Gavin and his mother. But both boys
remained silent, Simon now feeling stupid.

Mrs Strong went on, "Still, it
was very good of you both to help Gavin. I'll see what I can find."
She finished applying a sticking plaster to Gavin's knee and then
disappeared into the house.

"Simon didn't know you weren't
supposed to be there," whispered Daniel to Gavin.

Gavin's look softened a bit.
"Never mind," he said.

Mrs Strong returned with three
boxes of jelly babies. "Here we are," she said brightly, handing
each of them a box. "One for a brave boy and one for two good
helpers each."

"Thank you," said Simon and
Daniel in unison.

"We'd better go now," said
Daniel.

The two set off, riding their
bikes again now, weaving slowly along the street.

"Let's go to mine," said
Daniel.

So they rode to Daniel's house.
He let himself in. Daniel had his own key for the house.

"Where's your Mum and Dad?"
asked Simon.

"Work." They dumped their coats
and shoes and Daniel led the way to his bedroom. It was much bigger
than Simon's, the house was bigger. It had a toilet downstairs as
well as upstairs. Daniel had a double bed in his room, and Simon
thought that was very special. The two usually played in Daniel's
room rather Simon's because it was heated, a major reason in the
winter. Simon sat on the bed and watched him tidy away some things
on the floor. Daniel turned to Simon.

"You OK?" he asked. Simon
nodded, his gaze fixed on his friend. Daniel came over and sat next
to Simon.

"Did you mean that, what you
said?" asked Simon, clumsily.

"What?"

"When you told Gavin I was your
best friend."

"Of course. You are." Daniel put
his arm round Simon's slim shoulders. "You know you are," he said,
grinning, and he put his other hand on Simon's thigh. Simon
responded by doing the same. He felt excited.

"We've got lots of time," said
Daniel. "Let's undress."

Simon nodded, ready as always to
comply, excited at the prospect without really knowing why, anxious
to lay to rest the doubts he had felt earlier and to re-affirm his
standing with Daniel. Daniel too had felt his friend's uncertainty
and while he enjoyed the feeling of ascendancy he got when close to
Simon, he began to feel it was more than that. He looked forward to
their times alone together, to seeing and in a way possessing
Simon's body, running his hands over his smooth flesh, revelling in
that Simon allowed the most personal caressing, and even more so in
the knowledge that Simon knew his own body so well and that he
would respond in kind, bringing him to climax even though he could
not yet achieve that himself. Daniel was aware now that this was
sexual in a way that his younger friend was not yet. He was not
sure how to handle this new dimension in his head, but felt he had
to be careful and not upset Simon, whom he knew, looked up to him.
He reflected on what he had said to Gavin, and it was true. Simon
was his best friend, there was nobody he was closer to and he knew
that Simon would never betray their secret.

In the glowing aftermath of his
sexual release, he looked at Simon lying beside him, and he felt
new emotion and hugged Simon tightly.

"What was that for?" said Simon,
slightly surprised at this sudden squeeze.

"For you," said Daniel,
happily.

The afternoon ended
happily for Simon too as the two boys relaxed in their sensual
intimacy and comfort of each other's touch, they lay on the big
bed, eating jelly babies and talking about the huge American
aircraft carrier that was the cutaway in the middle of
Daniel's
Eagle
comic until it
was time to get dressed.

Lying in bed that night with the
wind rattling around outside, Simon felt safe and warm under the
blankets and eiderdown, while the gales, like the troubles of his
world, raged on, but for the time being could not get to him. He
did not have to be concerned with lost roof slates and damaged
fences so he snuggled down and listened to the tempest outside,
content with his day. He knew that a few hundred yards away, Daniel
would be doing the same, and felt the closeness again.

1. 1956/11 Long
   Division
   

Miss Brown had worked through it
patiently with him, and he understood it then, or so he thought,
but now on a cold November Saturday morning, it had all gone. Long
division of money. Simon didn't know where to start. That feeling
of cold panic and helplessness came over him as he thought of
having to spend the next five years at Victoria Road with Barry
Spence. It was true that Spence had kept his distance since being
felled spectacularly in the school yard by a single punch from
Simon, and he was shorn of most of his hangers on by constant
pressure from Miss Day and Mr West, but Simon knew it wouldn't
last. Spence had said as much. "Wait till you get to Vicks, Scott.
I've got friends there who are going to beat you up every day."
Simon had no reason to doubt the truth of this and was
frightened.

Daniel was backing him, helping
him with these 11 plus papers he was given for practice, and he
knew that Daniel had turned down chances to go out with his other
friends from Hooray Henrys in order to help him with his maths. But
Daniel would not be there at the juniors when the exam had to be
taken. Simon shook with fear and a tear came. Daniel had told him
that in one place they were going to abolish the 11 plus. That had
sounded a good idea to Simon until Daniel said that it meant all
the children would go to one school. So that would not help his
predicament, and anyway, Daniel was against it. All right for him,
he was clever and had got to Hooray Henrys.

He folded up the test paper and
went downstairs. The fire was lit in the sitting room and he went
in to get warm. He sat on the settee, not the broken end, and
looked again at the test paper. If only he could understand it. The
numbers just seemed to dance in front of his eyes. He looked into
the fire, seeing patterns in the red hot coals. He closed the test
paper and picked up his book. He liked reading and was now one of
the best readers in the class. And that had improved his spelling
too. So he tried to shut his mind to the future and lose himself in
the story about space ships and mining the asteroids.

Mummy put her head round the
door. "Lunch is ready." Mummy always called it lunch, although
everybody else he knew called it dinner. He sat at the dining table
and started to eat.

"Frances, how do you do division
of money?"

Frances thought for a
moment. "Well, you start by dividing the pounds and transfer the
remainder to the shillings, add it on and then divide that, and do
the same for pennies," she said helpfully. Mummy and Daddy nodded
approval. Simon was left none the wiser. But what did that
mean
?

"I'll teach you to use a slide
rule when you're older," said Daddy.

"Thanks Daddy, "said Simon, wise
enough not to add that it would not help him now when he needed
it.

"Can I go round to Daniel's
after dinner, Mummy," he requested.

"I expect so, darling," said
Mummy, but with a glance at Daddy, who just shrugged.

Simon ate the rest of his dinner
and as soon as he could, took the hated paper, put on his coat and
went round the corner to Daniel's. Would he be back from swimming?
Maybe he was going out with some Henrys. He knocked on the back
door, which opened.

"Oh, come in, Simon, it's
freezing out there."

Simon stepped into the warm
kitchen. The Aga kept it warm. Mummy wanted an Aga, but Daddy said
money doesn't grow on trees. Anyway, there was nowhere to put
it.

"Is Daniel home please, Mrs
Gray?" asked Simon.

"Yes, he's about somewhere," she
answered. "Daniel!"

Daniel came in from the sitting
room. He was wearing his denim jeans. Simon felt a bit silly in his
short trousers.

"Hiya Simon. Let's go up."

Simon followed Daniel upstairs,
hanging his coat in the hall on the way.

"How was swimming this morning?"
asked Simon.

"Cold," said Daniel with
feeling. "but it went OK. Coach said I was really good."

Simon thought that was obvious.
"What about Layton?"

"He's OK. I like him, but I like
beating him better."

"Did you?" asked Simon as they
went into Daniel's bedroom.

"Yeah, in front crawl of course,
and breaststroke, just. But he well beat me in backstroke and
butterfly. What's that? Another eleven plus paper?"

Simon nodded. "You don't mind,
do you?" he asked anxiously. He saw Daniel's green Henrys blazer
and his long school trousers on a hanger on the edge of his
wardrobe door. Simon wondered if he would ever have a Henrys
uniform. It occurred to Simon he didn't even have his own wardrobe.
Daniel had lots of clothes.

"No, of course not. 'Help other
people at all times', remember? And 'Be Prepared'. You might not be
a scout yet, but you're going to be as prepared for the eleven plus
as you can be."

"Thanks, Daniel. You're
tops."

"I want you at Henrys. I know
you're clever enough, and I won't have you going to Vicks. I just
won't," said Daniel vehemently.

Simon didn't know what to say to
that. The two years in age between them sometimes seemed so much to
Simon, although he was only one school year behind Daniel because
of how their birthdays fell.

"Pull up the stool and let's
have a look," said Daniel.

The two boys sat at the desk.
Daniel looked at the test paper thoughtfully. Simon admired Daniel
in many ways, not least because he was so clever. So now he looked
at him and waited.

"Long division of money?" asked
Daniel.

"Yes, I just can't do it."

"Won't have defeatist talk
here," said Daniel crossly. Simon could be a bit nervous of Daniel
when he was in this mood. "Come on, let's look at this one. Fifty
eight pounds, six shillings and threepence divided by fifteen.
Write it out." Daniel pushed pad and pencil to Simon, who copied
the sum down.

"What do we do first?" Daniel
demanded.

"Divide the pounds?"

"Good, what's fifty eight
divided by fifteen?"