A New World Begins

*Ping*

You have a new online chat request waiting, Craig.

Dad: Hi Craig

Craig: Hi dad! Didn’t spot you online. How’s things?

Dad: I knew the Harry Potter invisibility e-cloak would come in useful. How was school? Any issues now you’ve started back? Did they miss you whilst you were away?

Craig:School’s fine. Apart from the dinners, I really miss the Allegheny food. My mates here can’t believe it when I tell them we could have steak and chips every day if we wanted to. Can’t believe I didn’t take any pictures of the Humvee either, nobody believes I got to drive one at college. I did get a picture of me in Nat’s Mustang though !

Dad: Yes, well, sometimes pictures are a bad idea… Best to just stick with the memories.

Craig: Yeah dad, don’t I know it…

Dad: I was going to say ‘If you make your bed, you have to lie in it’ but that might be an inappropriate metaphor…

Craig: LOL

Craig: Point taken, dad

Craig: 😊

Craig: There is some good news about school though. Mum insisted on going with me on my first day back and ‘explaining things’ to the headmaster. Just in case anybody gave me any hassle. I tried telling her that I’d actually get more hassle if she did go with me, but she insisted…

Dad: Mums, huh? Did she insist on licking her handkerchief and rubbing your face with it to remove an imaginary spot of dirt right outside the school gate?

Craig: Don’t joke, dad… I thought she was going to try and hold hands with me all the way in to school.

Dad: 😊

Craig: I swear she still thinks I’m five years old.

Dad: Must be tough now you have the brains of a six-year-old…

Craig: 😊 Don’t you start too, dad!

Dad: *Backs off* Cool it, tiger…

Craig: I’ll let you off dad, just this once…

Dad: “Phew”

Craig: Anyway, the good news. You know how Allegheny pushed me up a year for maths and science? Well, the headmaster here looked at my grades for last year here, and what the tutors at Allegheny said about me in their report, and he says I can try doing the same here for the remainder of this term. If I can keep up with the work all term, they’ll make it permanent for the rest of this year, maybe let me sit my A levels a year early too.

Dad: That’s good. I’m sure you’ll walk it.

Craig:If I pass my exams a year early, you could buy me a car so I don’t have to walk anywhere…😊

Dad: In your dreams!

Dad:Anyway, you’d still have to walk for another year. Can’t drive on the roads until you’re 17, smart-arse.

Craig: Minor technicality. How about if I drive on the pavement?

Dad: 😊 Well, it’s an interesting legal point, but I don’t recommend it. Prison food might be worse than school food.

Craig: Hmmm, sentenced to soggy grey spuds and tapioca pudding for twenty years. ☹

Dad: Let’s compromise: You pass your A levels a year early and I’ll buy you a roller skate.

Craig: A roller skate?

Dad: Just one. Don’t want to spoil you. You can have the second for your 18th.

Craig: Gee, thanks, dad! ☹

Dad: Upgrade you to a skateboard for your 21st !

Craig: LMAO !!!

Dad: So, school sorted and all with no problems then? Apart from mum tying your boxing gloves together with some string through your vest sleeves so you get them on the correct hands and can’t lose them? 😉

Craig: Don’t push it, dad!😊

Dad: Are you going to re-join the cadets? You said you were going to.

Craig: Are fish water-proof? Already done it.

Dad: 😊

Craig: Didn’t have a choice did I ?

Dad: You don’t have to do it for me, Craig. I thought you enjoyed being in the cadets.

Craig: Gotcha! Reeled you in like a fish.😊

Dad: *Scowls*

Craig: Went round to the cadet centre first Saturday morning back and asked if I could re-join. No ishhies. Well, it was either back into cadets or go shopping at the DIY place with mum every weekend. She probably wants to paint my bedroom pink now or sign me up for dance classes.

Dad: Another compromise? Ask if she’ll make you a camouflage tutu?

Craig: You’re amazingly brave dad, especially when you’re 5,000 miles away from me.

Dad: Well, I’m not going to say that when you’ve got your boxing gloves on!

Craig: 😊

Dad: Seriously though, Craig, bear with your mum. She’s just trying to be there for you if you need to talk.

Craig: I know dad. There isn’t a problem though. I even told a couple of mates when I was at cadets signing back up and it was fine.

Dad: You did? That must have taken some bottle. And they were okay about it?

Craig: Yeah, sort of. I don’t think they believed me. They were just making a few remarks about the cheerleaders – obviously they don’t the whole of that story. So I just laughed with them and said, ‘Yeah, they were so hot in bed I’ve decided to try guys too.’ It’s all old news now.

Dad: Nice tactic.

Craig: The CSM at cadets was dead chuffed to get me back. Said if want, I can go on the next Junior Leaders’ course – which is at the end of next month – and if I pass it, I‘ll get my first stripe. Of course, I’ll bloody pass it! I just need to talk mum into letting me go away for the weekend…

Dad: Hmmm, letting you out alone for a weekend, what could possibly go wrong?😊

Craig: Dad! *Scowl*

Dad: Just joking. I’ll drop a few hints when I speak to your mum.

Craig: Thanks, dad.

Dad: Something else too, Craig, back on the subject of cars…

Craig: AWESOME DAD! I knew you’d change your mind. It doesn’t have to be a brand new Porsche.😊

Dad: Nice try!

Craig: 😊

Dad: You know that garage about a mile down the road from the barracks? The one next to the chippy?

Craig: Yeah, I know it. I walk past it every day on my way home from school.

Dad: The guy that owns it is ex REME. I know him. I could always ask if he needs a slave for a few hours a week. You’ll be walking past just as they are getting ready to close up each day. If you offered to work there for an hour every night doing the tidying up they might be interested. It would allow the mechanics to get off home promptly while the owner is cashing up and checking stock. It would just be sweeping and tidying tools away and stacking tyres and boring stuff like that for you, but you’d be earning a bit of money you could start saving to buy a car with in a couple of years’ time. They’d probably teach you the basics of car maintenance too, promote you to assistant deputy tea boy and used oil filter changer if you work really hard… 😊

Craig: WOW! Such a career move… By the time Jackson is POTUS I might even have reached the dizzy heights of being the bloke who puts those paper mats in the footwells of the cars on sale…

Dad: I think you need to pass a special course for that…

Craig: Cheeky runt!

Dad: ! CRAIG !

Craig: I said Runt, dad… 😊

Dad: You’re really brave when you’re 5,000 miles away.

Craig: 😊

Craig: Seriously, it’s not a bad idea, dad. I might call in on my way home from school tomorrow night. Sound them out.

Dad: It’s always worth a try. Of course, if you don’t want to get all oily and greasy you could always ask mum if her friend who runs the hairdressing salon needs a pretty boy to sweep the floors and make coffee for the old ladies on Saturdays.

Craig: Dad,I could probably report you for stereotyping gays like that. Start plea bargaining! Now it definitely does have to be a brand new Porsche for my 17th birthday.

Dad: In pink?

Craig: You bet!

Dad: 😊 Okay, fair enough. I’ll cancel the Mustang…

Craig: Thanks dad

Craig: And dad

Dad: Yes?

Craig: Just thanks.

Dad: What for?

Craig: Just being you.

Dad: Well, if we’re being serious, there is something else.

Craig: Serious? That sounds serious…

Dad: Serious as a serious thing…

Craig: Why do I get the feeling you didn’t ‘accidentally’ stumble across me online tonight…

Dad: Well…

Craig: Stalked online, and by my own dad…

Craig:😊

Dad: I can hear the handcuffs jangling already…

Craig: So, what is it dad? Have the Bauers twigged to the gold painted bricks I swapped for their stash?

Dad: Not quite, but it does concern the Bauers. Well, Nathan Bauer anyway.

Craig: He’s okay isn’t he, dad ? I didn’t get chance to say goodbye to him properly. If…

Dad: Yes, he’s okay, Craig. It’s nothing bad.

Craig: So what is it?

Dad: I don’t know how he managed it, but he’s got hold of my phone number and called me. He asked if I’d pass his email address and phone number to you. He said the two of you never swapped contact details. He wants to get in touch with you. If you don’t want to, he said he’d understand and not bother you again.

Craig: We never swapped details because I didn’t expect to get dragged out of Allegheny so fast! You did give him my number dad? When’s he going to call? Did you get his details?

Dad: No, Craig, I didn’t give him your number or email. I wanted to check with you first. He understood that. He gave me his details, said I can send them to you and let you make the first move if that is what you want.

Craig: 😉 Gimme, gimme, gimme !

Dad: Craig, I said this was serious. Think about it carefully. I MEAN IT.

Craig: I KNOW DAD

Dad: I have to go now, but can we talk as usual on Sunday night? I just wanted to check things were okay with you now you’re back home and re-starting school, and to let you know about Nathan Bauer. Let’s talk on Sunday night and if you want them, I’ll give you his contact details then.

Craig: Dad, I can just go ahead and send him a letter to the school, or to his home.You can’t stop me.

Dad: I know you could, but you haven’t, have you? Maybe that’s worth reflecting on. Let’s talk on Sunday when you’ve had time to think. I promise, if you want them, I’ll give you his contacts details. Deal?

Craig: It’s a deal, dad.

Dad: Bye for now, Boots.

Craig: Bye dad.

Craig: Dad?

Dad: Yes?

Craig: Thanks, dad.