Ben Halpern and his bit on the side: Chapter 4

Ben arrived in Fixby well before the agreed hour. The events over the last 24 hours had been as momentous for him as they had been painful. In that spirit, he was determined to be on time for his rendezvous with Frazer. To gather his thoughts and consider how he might present them to his most trusted of friends, Ben strolled as inconspicuously as he could around the village. Since he now in all seriousness considered himself to be gay, he observed the men with his newly inquiring sensibility. He had always had an eye for what he called, “A well-turned arse” and would easily admit as much to his friends in the pub, after a match. But now, a wish to do right by Oliver added an entirely new and dizzying dimension, to what had been a mere minor peccadillo.

Less compelling, but real enough, the so very recently retired burglar cast a discerning eye over the prosperous looking houses and just in the way of professional curiosity, wondered what treasures there might be within. Someone was casting a no less discerning eye in Ben’s direction. The younger of two women parted her lips in an encouraging smile as they passed. Perhaps the marks left on his face by Tate’s thugs were a bit of a turn on. But moments later when he glanced behind him, it was the older women who glared back at him.

Meanwhile, Frazer was getting from his car and was about to make some comment or other about Ben being on the sniff as usual and was stopped in his tracks.

“What the hell happened!?,” he exclaimed. The shock upon seeing his closet male friend bruised and battered gave his voice a harshness rarely used and certainly not directed at people Frazer cared for. His arms unhesitatingly embraced Ben, who began quiet sobbing sounds.

“Don’t squeeze too hard it hurts; besides people round here might get the wrong idea,” Ben sniffed. “There were two of them, so I didn’t have a cat’s chance in hell.”

A wan smile played on Ben’s lips, Just for a moment, as he searched Frazer’s features for approval. He continued cautiously. Arms interlinked, they crossed Greenwood Park

“I’m in love with a guy. Full on I mean; not in a bi way like you do.”

“Uhh! Ta very much.- I think I know what you mean.” More gravely Frazer added, “Is this why you were beaten up?”

“Oliver would be worth being beaten up for, if it ever came to it. But no, it wasn’t because of him. He is why we are here though; and he is why I need a big favour.”

“So, your first ever guy is called Oliver then? Whatever the favour is, consider it done; Anything Sunshine. Anything at all.”

Fixby, (pop 400,) lays just within the Eastamptonshire county boundary, having been put there very much against its wishes 50 years ago. There is a plaque in the village hall saying so. Chocolate box scenery and a much admired duck pond, draw foreign visitors and visitors from other parts of the UK, numbered in their tens, on a good day. But what is of peculiar satisfaction to most Fixbians is that the rest of Eastamptonshire seems to take the hint and stays away.

“God they are a snooty lot,” whispered Ben as the pair sipped Earl Grey tea and nibbled cake of the same ilk.

“Sod that for a game of soldiers,” retorted Frazer, “this crook has you beaten up and you want to do bugger all about it!”

“yeah, and guarantee myself a cosy spot in one of Her Majesty’s nicks if do.”

“Point taken Sunshine,” conceded Frazer.

For more than 30 minutes he had listened with anxious care, only interrupting his friend to ask for further points of clarification and to order a second round of tea and cake. Ben had told him more or less everything, taking care though to omit most names of the guilty and anything in the telling that might incriminate others if it ever came to a court hearing.

“If it comes to it, I won’t have you telling lies under oath to cover up for me Frazer.”

From beneath dark fair hair, Frazer’s grey-blue eyes beamed as he took in the implications. Silently he swore to himself that he would never speak under oath against his friend, no matter what happened.

“I’ve always suspect your bits of naughtiness, I suppose,” confided Frazer. The sentence sounded ridiculous to him as he spoke it, but it is not every day, you learn that your best mate had another life in crime until literally yesterday. “But I will stand by you, whatever happens- and I won’t need to tell a single solitary lie to do it.”

“I fucking love you Frazer,” sobbed Ben.

“And I’m quite found of you, Sunshine.”

The two embraced across the table with Ben crying out as Frazer accidentally touched bits of him that hurt.

“We should leave, we have an audience.”

“Yes, we have,” Frazer agreed.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” began Frazer taking Ben’s hand with a flourish. “If I had a hat to pass around, I would. But instead, my lovely assistant and I, say bless you; bless you one and all…”

Bowing to their left and to their right, they moved backwards towards the tearoom the door.

“….And we wish you a very good afternoon.”

‘Tut tuttings;’ a ‘disgraceful’ and a trilling of, ‘something must be dones! something must be dones!,’ followed in their wake.

“who’s a posh marra then,” said Ben. I am impressed”

“Just a fine bit of acting. Glad you appreciated it though.”

Small as it is, Greenwood park is dominated by a tree planted to mark the restoration of King Charles II in 1660. Beneath its canopy the two stood.

The friends stand at the same height, arguably with Ben’s spikey brown hair and blond highlights giving him centimetres of advantage.- Well according to Ben, it does. For the first time since they met at 3pm, Ben’s brown eyes looked contented.

“What? What? Am I wearing your shirt or something?”

“That’s it!” Frazer slapped his palm against the venerable tree.

“Your shirt? It’s not. I told you; I bought fresh threads after I left Tate’s office.-Well to be strictly accurate,” Ben corrected himself, “after I left the pub.”

“No you cock-end,” mocked Frazer.

The discreet silver necklace and the similar earrings Ben had always worn since they met in their mid-teens were missing.

“I couldn’t work out what was different. It is your necklace and earrings, they are missing.”

“Ah, those.” Ben became as serious as he had been when they were talking quietly in the tearoom.

“The thing is, when I go to meet certain people,” quickly Ben corrected himself again. “I mean, when I used to meet certain people, I always made sure not to wear the necklace and earrings. They were all crooks and not one of ‘em to be trusted. Oliver doesn’t know it, but they are in his bedside cabinet.”

A noisy family group showed every sign of approaching the impressive tree. In wordless agreement therefore, Frazer and Ben left the park for their motor cars.

“Speaking of Oliver,” began Ben. “Can I stay with you for a day or two. I don’t want to go home and I don’t want to see him again.- Not for a day or two anyway.. That is the favour I mentioned.”

The two friends paused beside their motor cars, taking a last look at the big tree.

“My old man thinks I am away for a few more days; if I go back to ‘ Harry Halpern & Son, Plumbing and Domestic Heating Engineers,’ he will only find work for me to do. You know what a slave driver he is.- And, I need to be alone with my thoughts and my best marra for a bit.”

“With you and the mysterious, but clearly entrancing Oliver both living in Skelthorpe, that sounds like a plan,” said Frazer, who internally was still reeling from all that Ben had said.

Ben took the lead and in truth Frazer was glad to be alone for a while as he followed. Ben needed to be alone with his thoughts. So did he. As the cars drew to a halt at 5 Chapel Street, a few doors along John Poole was at his own front door.

“Hi John,” Frazer called to him.

“Cosy,” Ben remarked tactfully. When Frazer described his new home as small, it turned out that he wasn’t exaggerating. Quickly he changed the subject.

“That neighbour either hates your guts,- or has the serious hots for you, I reckon.”

“My substantial living room; and through here we have the award winning kitchen.

“Both, I think. Hates my guts and yes, has the serious hots.”

Ben, who was already putting the kettle on and inspecting the small fridge and cupboard space like he owned the place, paused. He had been about to wonder where the washing machine might be. Frazer sensed a concern.

“John Poole. A really lovey guy. He asked to spend the night,- ‘hit the roof,’ he called it for some reason. As gently as I could I declined; You know what I’ve got going with Angela and Trevor Aldiss.”

Ben nodded as he made the usual tea for Frazer and coffee for himself. It gave him sudden and quite inexplicable pleasure to realize that his best friend and the wonderful Oliver had something in common: They both drank strong tea.

“I handled the whole thing, badly,” sighed Frazer, lost for a moment in sad recollection. “John said something silly about me and a woman who lives here in the housing co-op and I stormed out.”

Frazer and Ben had bonded in school cookery classes and although the acquired skills would ensure that neither would ever starve, it was the former who went on to expand his culinary skills. So it was that in his small kitchen the two enjoyed a good meal as Ben rhapsodised and at length, about Oliver Groves.

It soon became clear that Frazer knew of Oliver. Oliver was a familiar figure riding his tricycle in Skelthorpe. Like many other people in Eastamptonshire, he also knew of Oliver’s father, Raymond Groves the widely respected and discretely powerful member of the County Council.

“I Believe I know where Oliver is at this precise moment,” announced Frazer whilst Ben paused long enough to take a gulp of beer. He glanced at his watch. “Oliver should be arriving at Parva Saint Clement on the final leg back to Skelthorpe.”

He enjoyed the perplexity on Ben’s face and savoured his wine before putting his guest out of his misery.

“The Clarion Socialist Cycling Club: My delectable Angela is a member as well.”

“Angela as in Angela and Trevor Aldis?”

“Is there another in my life?”

“Guess not,” came Ben’s response, with it’s usual hint of vague disapproval whenever Frazer’s relationship with the Aldises came up.

Frazer reached for another bottle of beer for Ben and refilled the wine glass for himself.

“I’ve decided I want take Oliver somewhere quiet, out of the way and special,” announced Ben breaking the silence that had fallen between them.

“Yes?”

“I am going to tell him everything. Make a clean breast of it and have no secrets.”

We all have secrets thought Frazer, thinking of the secrets he shared with Ben,-and some he did not.

“You have only known Oliver,-biblically I mean,- for a day or two and in every other way for what, a week?; two weeks?

“It doesn’t matter!,” was Ben’s heartfelt response. “I love him. God help me Frazer, it’s like booze and dope without the hangover.”

“ I see that. Everything you’ve said about him today shows how you feel about him. But what about him of you?”

“I believe he feels something special toward me, at least and maybe more.”

“And what about your crimes; which reminds me do you have any convictions?”

“No a single one grinned Ben with an air of triumph he did not bother to hide. “Besides, I would tell you first if I had.”

“I suppose you would, Sunshine. I suppose you would.”

“Don’t you see Frazer, it’s thanks to Oliver that I want to go straight? Without the beautiful and good Oliver, I couldn’t do it. In fact I would never have considered giving up burglary and the rush I get from it, but for Oliver.”

Frazer seemed to be taken aback at the intensity of Ben’s words, becoming aware a that Ben held the glass of wine to his lips.

“Drink this,” said Ben, gently.

“You realize that if you ever hurt Oliver, his father will have your guts for garters, don’t you?”

“Well, I love Oliver, so that will never happen. Besides,” Ben added, having the good manners to blush as he spoke, “I never thought that being shagged by a bloke could be so totally wow. And just between ourselves, no girl ever shouted ‘harder, harder’ at me and ‘make me pregnant,’ no matter how passionate things became.”

“Did you know that Oliver is totally bonkers about old cars by the way?”

“That’s a bit left field. But yes, something he said did give me that impression. Why? How do you know?”

“Well,” said Frazer apparently restored to his usual equilibrium. “So too is the radiant Angela and she told me.”

“And, and,” urged Ben.

“And,” continued Frazer, “you know my Fiorentine friend Andreas Hance Sebastian Metanin is a chauffeur…,”

“With a Daimler limousine for hire,” shouted Ben.

“Yep!, said Frazer, “and if you hire Andreas and his limo in the next few days, I think I can get you mates rates for an evening.”

“Oh Frazer,” gushed a very happy Ben, grabbing the other’s head and kissing him full on the lips, “like I said, I love you.”

Later, Ben was mildly astonished. “It is no bigger than your living room,” he gasped bringing to mind the less than generously proportioned room, next to the even smaller kitchen, down stairs. If Ben was astonished, Frazer fumed with anger when he saw the bruises on Ben’s Torso. The bruise on his face was bad enough but his back and ribs were black and blue thanks to Sidney Tate’s thugs.

They squeezed into the telephone box sized shower as Frazer carefully applied soap and warm water to Ben’s injuries. That these could have been worse and that Sidney Tate commended his thugs for obeying his direction to chastise Ben Halpern leniently, only added unknown insult to injury.

Frazer’s bed took up most of the room.

“Cosy” was the word applied to the bedroom by Ben, as accurately as he had applied it earlier to the living room.

“I warn you sir,” laughed Frazer as naked they snuggled into bed, “If you make advances, I shall scream.”

Was that a slight chubby leaning innocently against his bum, Frazer felt? And was that a gentle kiss to the nape of his neck? In this happy state, they fell into sleep.

“I decided to make breakfast just to prove to you that I can cook as well,” announced Ben, as Frazer entered his own kitchen. The coincidence that Frazer like Oliver, liked strong tea, remained as much a joy to Ben as it had been the previous day.

“Thanks for yesterday. Thanks for everything really. I now definitely know what I am going to do.”

“Oh your welcome Sunshine”

It seemed that Ben really did know how to scramble eggs.

“I won’t stay and hide for a day or two, like I planned to do. I’m going home and then back here to County Hall to collect Oliver from work. At least it will save him the commute home to Skelthorpe.”

A few minutes later John Poole was leaving home for work. 8 a.m. the two cars remained outside Fraser’s house. He did try not to be a noticing kind of person and to simply return the greeting Frazer offered him. But how could he not notice the way Frazer embraced, indeed carefully embraced the hot looking guy with the spikey brown hair with its blond highlights?.

“Speak very soon, Sunshine,” he heard Frazer say as the two men got into their cars and drove away. -Frazer to maintaining the life saving equipment at the Royal Eastamptonshire County Hospital and Ben to the much smaller business presided over by his father.

To Be Continued.