The Sins of the Father
by N Fourbois
Chapter 17
Magnus got stuck into his week of work experience in a better frame of mind than his brother had. He met Michel Ledivin, but, apart from a couple of coffee breaks, spent little time with him. In fact he spent more time on the practical side than Hugo had, learning about lighting and the use of still and movie cameras, settings and inspiring the models' movements and it was mainly with the female models, which came as a disappointment.
"Mum, are you trying to convert me or something?" he asked in the car on the way home one afternoon. She denied it and enigmatically replied
"If I were trying to convert anyone, it would be Rufus. You and Hugo are too far gone."
At the end of the week Rufus was talking to his brother, mainly trying to find out what to expect. Yes, he had gained something from it; yes, he had met Michel.
"He was great. Said he didn't get on with Hugo particularly because he made it clear from the start that he was the boss's son and he expected special treatment. I'll give Mum her due. He didn't get it. By the way, I told him to look out for you next week. I said you were the cutest one of the three of us and I told him you were unattached." Rufus blushed.
"I suppose you told him I was gay too?"
"As if… Don't worry, baby bro. For some reason he already knew that all three of us are gay."
And for some reason Rufus went off with his mother on the following Monday dressed in his tightest tee shirt and tightest jeans.
"Are you trying to make an impression?" his mother asked him.
Eventually he did get to meet Michel Ledivin (pronounced in the French way, naturally) and they hit it off immediately. Magnus hadn't been exaggerating, Michel thought. It had been Veronica's intention to keep them separated during the week lest Michel should lead her son astray, but circumstances dictated otherwise. On Wednesday Michel was due to do a shoot at another location and his manager's assistant had phoned in sick first thing. The manager grabbed the first available body since he needed a fetch-and-carry boy and Rufus turned out to be the only person available. Veronica had not even been granted the opportunity of saying yes or no. The 'location' turned out to be the drama centre in a local school, closed for the holidays, but its facilities included the stage and various rehearsal rooms, but more particularly the lighting. Rufus unloaded the baskets of costumes from the van and the odd bits of equipment they had brought with them. After that he watched while the team rehearsed the shoot and finally, when he was happy, the director said
"Take a fifteen minute break, then get changed and made up and we'll start filming. You'll find some vending machines if you turn right into the corridor."
"C'mon, Rufus," said Michel. "Time for a quickie." Rufus naturally thought of a quick coffee, but Michel grabbed him by the arm and they turned left as they went out of the rehearsal room. Michel stopped by a door marked 'Cleaners' Cupboard'. He tried the handle. They were in luck. The door opened and there was some space inside. "In here." They both disappeared into the cupboard and Michel checked that there was a handle on the inside of the door before closing it behind them. The only light came from underneath the door. Michel unzipped his cargos. "Get your lips and tongue round that."
"Do you always go commando?" asked Rufus.
"No time to discuss that now. You'll be surprised how quickly fifteen minutes will pass by." Rufus knelt down the best he could in the confined space and did as he was told. "I hope you swallow. I haven't anything to clean up with." Rufus took Michel's shaft into his mouth and just as he was prepared to bury his nose in Michel's bush, it came up against smooth skin. Rufus nuzzled the shaven pubic area. 'He must have been bursting for it,' thought Rufus as he fought to keep Michel's spasming cock in his mouth. Conscientiously he sucked it clean before Michel tucked it away and zipped up his trousers. Michel opened the door cautiously, looked out and the pair slipped out into the corridor. Before he left, Rufus found the light switch and switched it on and off to prove a point. "Mmm, thirteen minutes," he said, looking at his watch. "I thought we'd manage. It's not the first time you've done that, either, Magnus…"
"Er… Rufus."
"Sorry… Rufus." This slip of the tongue really was a Freudian slip, a term so often used incorrectly that it almost became a malapropism. Momentarily Rufus wondered what had happened the previous week.
"It is in a broom cupboard. Still, if it's good enough for Boris Becker, it's good enough for me. So, you go commando?"
"I do when I can. You do have professional demands as a model which mean I spend most of my working life trussed up like a ballet dancer in case I have a 'Terry Wogan moment'. It's nice to let the junk swing low when I can. And I always carry a spare pair of briefs." He patted the padded side pocket of his cargos. The rest of the day followed on as planned.
On Thursday it was Rufus's turn to appear as a model in a project. If it did nothing else, it did prove that a model's profession is not always an exciting one spent on the catwalks of the world's capitals. He was part of a still shot for a campaign for adult literacy courses in which he was one of a group of five. Veronica thought that he would be particularly apt, not because he was illiterate, but with ginger hair he helped to satisfy the whims of the PC brigade at the particular town hall that had commissioned the 'inclusive' poster.
"How patronising can you get?" Veronica said, "but it's the bread and butter of our trade and brings in the money between the really big and glamorous contracts."
"Have you got any of those?"
"Oh, yes. That was the one reason that won me over to taking on Michel."
At that moment Veronica's mobile vibrated. She looked at the screen.
"A text from Hugo. Two As and an A* in A-level." Meanwhile there was another one in the queue. "Magnus. An A* and two As. Wait a minute while I text back." She sent her messages of congratulation. "Your turn next week, Rufus." There were celebrations in the Lindstrom family that evening with a spontaneous trip out for dinner. For the time being the family was back together again, in spirit at least, but Friday saw the dawn of a normal working day.
However, it was time for Rufus to have some good news too. He was in the queue for the sandwich wagon when he felt someone pinch his butt. He spun round to see Michel grinning from ear to ear.
"You look as if you've won the contract of all contracts," said Rufus.
"Not quite, but I have won something. On the radio there was a competition, a phone-in one. The prize was two stalls tickets for the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, two nights at a top class hotel with meals, first class travel to London and two hundred pounds for incidental expenses. What I am really saying is, would you like to come out on a date?"
"Phew! That's just too much. When is it?"
"Saturday week. Travel Friday and return Sunday. And it's Swan Lake ."
"I'd better ask the boss first. What's her office number?"
"I don't suppose you've got a DJ?"
"Of course I have."
"So have I. It would be nice to dress for the occasion."
"Hey, I'd love to come, but let's get the first hurdle out of the way."
Rufus dialled 201 on an internal phone.
"Hi, Mum!" He explained how Michel had won a competition and was extremely careful to dress it up as a cultural experience and certainly not as a date. "It would be a fantastic way to celebrate my GCSE results."
«Slow down, Rufus. You haven't got them yet.»
"I know, but I can't have failed everything." His face lit up and he gave the thumbs up to Michel as he finally gained his mother's blessing.
Rufus had enjoyed his time working at his mother's agency if only because it gave him an idea of the size of the undertaking. He had never appreciated that before. But there were other reasons, not least the friendship he had struck up with Michel Ledivin. He was also given an insight into the gay world of artistes and other creative people and he realised what a double bind his mother must be in, for her attitude at home was less than tolerant of the gay lifestyle. She had shown forbearance as far as her sons were concerned, but now that she was discovering her husband's alter ego , it, or at least what she was believing, was destroying her private life and marriage. And she would need some friends when it finally happened. On the other hand her business, her ambitions were entirely dependent on the gay community. She could not bring herself to discuss it openly or unemotionally with Carl. Even this weekend away that Rufus was preparing to spend in London was beginning to tear at her inner reason, but she was still convinced she had made was the right decision.
And so Rufus was on a high when he drove home with his mother that Friday afternoon. His mother was discussing the practicalities.
"You must take your dinner jacket into the cleaners tomorrow morning to make sure you get it back in time. I'll pay for that for you. Have you thought of anything else you need? Clothes? You can't turn up at a five star hotel in sweats, trainers and tee shirt."
"No, I'm okay, Mum. Stop fussing." He told her that he would tell the rest of the family his good news over dinner that night.
Later that day the five Lindstroms were sitting round the dinner table. Hugo and Magnus were still full of themselves after receiving their A-level results, gaining their university places and with what they would do with the money their parents had promised for good examination results. Rufus might have appeared smug as he sat there, silently getting on eating his cod Mornay, but it wasn't smugness. He was lost in wonderment at his own good news, pondering why Michel had chosen him and suddenly as he was putting a piece of succulent cod in its smooth cheesy sauce into his mouth, it reminded him of the broom cupboard experience of the previous day. And he coughed and spluttered as it went down the wrong way. Magnus thumped him on the back which made things worse.
"Take a sip of water," suggested Veronica. Rufus went red in the face, not so much because he was coughing, but because he was only too clear in his own mind that the Mornay sauce reminded him of what Michel had discharged in his mouth… and there appeared to be a similarity in the taste. Once recovered, he found that it had at least turned the conversation away from his brothers' academic successes.
"I've had some good news as well," piped up Rufus.
"Go on. Spill," said Magnus.
"I'm spending the weekend in London at the end of next week to see Swan Lake ." Carl looked up with interest. Magnus and Hugo leant forward in a theatrical pose, their faces all mock agog.
"All alone at sixteen?" said Hugo in a sneering tone.
"Nooo!" protested Rufus. Rufus knew how to spin out a story. "With a friend."
"Who's going to take you out on a date?" challenged Hugo.
"Give him a fair hearing, boys," said Carl. Rufus took his time in replying.
"Oh, just a friend."
"WHO?" shouted the twins in frustration.
"Anyone we know?" added Magnus.
"Yes." Hugo gave a 'huh' of impatience and disdain. "Keep quiet for a second and I shall tell you." Veronica, being the only other person there who knew the answer, sat back and smiled, but the others were not paying the least attention to her. She was quite enjoying the scene. Then casually Rufus said "Didn't I tell you?"
"NO!"
"Oh, Michel Ledivin."
There was a five second silence before Hugo dismissively said "Oh, him." Magnus said
"I'm quite envious really. I hope you have a good time. You will tell us all about it afterwards, won't you?"
"He will," said Hugo. While this was going on, Rufus took a piece of his finger roll, mopped up some Mornay sauce and provocatively licked it off before putting the bread in his mouth. Magnus blushed immediately. Everybody stared at him, but Rufus took the pressure off by carrying on with his story. At the end of it Carl said
"Well done."
Hugo added "I can't think of anything more tedious than a weekend with Michel Ledivin… apart from two weekends."
"Shut up, Hugo," said Magnus. "You're only jealous because you didn't hit it off with him. Came the boss's son and got right up his nose."
"And I suppose you did hit it off with him?" said Hugo. Straightaway Magnus's blush returned. Rufus was enjoying all this when it dawned on him why Michel had called him Magnus. He tapped the side of his nose, giving Magnus a knowing look, but nothing further could be said on the matter over the meal table.
When the meal was over, the boys thanked their mother and put the dirty dishes into dishwasher while she went to her study to finish off her day's work and Carl went off to watch television. In the kitchen Magnus and Rufus rounded on Hugo.
"What the hell has got into you lately?" growled Magnus. "You're not still sulking over the cock cage, are you? Because you deserved that."
"You wouldn't understand if I told you," hissed Hugo.
"It isn't Mum and Dad?" asked Rufus.
"Stuff Mum and Dad. They're grown ups. They can sort their own problems out."
"It's not because you're not getting any sex and we are?" provoked Magnus.
"Shit! I'm not listening to any more of this. You can feed the dishwasher yourselves," and with that he stormed out of the kitchen and they heard the front door slam.
"What was that?" called Carl from the sitting room.
"Nothing, Dad," shouted Rufus back. "Only Hugo."
"That's all right. I just thought it might be your mother. Make her a cup of coffee, boys. Keep her on side. And if you happen to be making one for her, could you make one for me, please?"
The boys looked out of the kitchen window and saw it had come on to rain. They made the coffee and then disappeared upstairs and gave Hugo no further heed.
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