Perfidious Albion, Chapter Five
Thursday, January 18th, 2018 12:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
challis_2070 posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
mindcrackloveLink to Chapter Four- https://mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/1181162.html#cutid1
Pyro pondered his options. Normally, during the summer, he went to either an arcade, or attempted to wrangle his study habits under control. Both were equally valid options, though he had no idea where an arcade was, and mamaí wanted him to make the most of it and get out of the house instead of studying. “Studying”, however, usually entailed making videos and posting them, not just, you know, traditional studying. He considered it an entirely valid option however, since he wanted to get more into various computer studies, and he wasn’t entirely sure what he wanted to do when he went to university.
He had talked to Dinnerbone the other day about their mutual friend, and all three of them agreed that, perhaps, they should just leave each other alone for the time being, unless they really needed something that only the other one could do. It wasn’t the most ideal solution, but it would certainly work for now. Just gotta find a way to not get so upset in the future, after all.
Mamaí had spoken with him about where the Catholic Church was, and while she was mildly ‘suspicious’ of some of his explanations, she had left it be. She had agreed that the church itself sounded good and that they could both go there this weekend. However, they needed to go over today and see if Baj could drive them, since Lasairfhíona wasn’t really able to walk quite that far yet. She was hoping that she’d be up to it before the end of the summer, though.
He was trying to figure out how upset mamaí might get, which depended entirely on what his uncle might choose to tell her when they mentioned the church and how they kind of needed help getting there. Ádh mór1, he could be so lucky that perhaps his uncle would choose to not mention it until they were getting back from church, or something.
All he could do was wait and see, he supposed. His uncle did claim to remember what it was like to be a teenager, perhaps that would work in his favour now.
-----
Baj contemplated what Lasairfhíona had told him on the phone. They (she and her son) were coming over because they needed to arrange something for this weekend. He had a niggling suspicion of what it could possibly be, and he wasn’t really sure how to react to it.
Paul had, after all, already been punished for leaving without permission, and if they were asking him to drive them to the church, that was certainly asking for permission ahead of time, so he was doing everything by the book, so to say.
Did he leave things in the past or should he tell Paul’s mother about what her son had done while he was here? There was very very very little chance that he had told her on his own volition what had occurred, after all. He remembered perfectly good and well what it was like to be a teenager, after all. Perhaps, in that case, he should let sleeping dogs, well…sleep, unless something terribly important came up where he had to make sure she knew what he had seen when her son had been here earlier. Yeah, that sounded like the best bet. Besides, if he had really meant to let her know, he could have done so at the time. Yeah. Perhaps leave it to be.
All told, the best thing to do now, however, was to go and answer the door, since he was pretty sure he had heard them walking over from next door.
Ding Dong!
Yup. Right in one.
“One moment!”
He hurried over (avoiding tripping over the carpet as best as he could) and pulled the down open for them, greeting them in turn. He really needed to tack the carpet back down. Yet another task for yet another day.
“Hello Lasairfhíona, Paul. How are you two today?” He smiled at them brightly, it was a really nice day out and he was glad to be able to open the house up a bit. Nice days were…not rare exactly, but rain was a bit more common than he would like. But you can’t get lovely gardens without the rain, so…
“Hello, Baj. We’re doing fine, thanks for asking.” Lasairfhíona smiled at him in respond, glad to have gotten out in the fresh air.
Lasairfhíona and Pyro entered the house and followed Baj to the kitchen, where they all spread out around the table. Baj and Lasairfhíona faced each other with Pyro between them, with his back towards the counter top.
“So, you said you wanted to talk to me about something happening this weekend?” he asking, looking quizzical at Lasairfhíona, even though he was pretty sure what the question was.
“Yes, so. I know there is a Catholic church not far from, but I can’t really walk that far yet, so we were wondering if, if you had time, if you could drive us there and back. Only if you don’t have your own church to be at, at that time, of course.” She thought she remembered Pól saying that Baj didn’t really go to church, but she wasn’t really sure.
Haha, he was exactly right on what they wanted to ask. And Paul looked surprisingly nervous, though he really didn’t need to be. He wasn’t going to open up past mistakes, as long as he didn’t make them again, and since he wasn’t, well.
“Oh, yes sure, I can do that. I know where the church is that you’re talking about, it’s easy enough to get to, though I’ll uh…park on the street after I drop you off.” He shuddered slightly, remember that truly godawful parking lot. And the old ladies. But mostly the parking lot.
“Oh thank you so much. You don’t need to be anywhere then?” She looked she knew what the answer would be, but was asking in order to be polite. He’d take the politeness, at least.
No.
“No. If I wanted to go to church, they have evening services, so I could go then, instead, it’s no big deal.”
Paul looked slightly amused at that, and Baj knew why, Paul knew that Baj didn’t attend any church and that he probably wanted to avoid the (perfectly nice) little old ladies from oh, it was only a month or two ago now, though it seemed like far longer ago.
“Sounds like an excellent plan to me, then. Thank you so much for your help, Baj. I’m hoping that by the end of the summer, I’ll be able to walk that far, particularly since I’ll get a rest once we’re there.”
“Oh, of course. Let me know when you want to see, if you want, I can walk with you then, or we can try seeing if my stupid brother might have off then, of course.” He was never entirely certain about certain things, but whenever he thought of the…two of them…he always wondered if, other than the fact that Paul existed, if they could get an annulment at this point. Probably not, or she might not accept it, but he was never certain. But that was so beyond what he wanted to mention while Paul was there that he shoved the entire thought as far down as he possibly could as fast as he possibly could.
“I was hoping he’d be here some weekends, but he…doesn’t really go to church.” Well, she had never known him to go to church, in any case. But she didn’t really talk to him about her going to church either, she just went. And brought Pól along when he wanted to go.
For the first time, Paul spoke up. “That’s not quite true, mamaí, he does go, but rarely. Something bad usually has to happen to make him want to go.”
“Oh. Does he take you with him?” As she said it, she realized the answer was probably yes, if her son knew where his father’s church was.
“He asks. Sometimes I go, particularly if you’re not there. I don’t like walking to our church by myself and he doesn’t like walking there at all. He finds it…intimidating, I think he said. It’s been a while since I asked, though. I think he’d go for you, anyways.” He shrugged slightly, seemingly unconcerned.
Both Lasairfhíona and Baj blinked him, assimilating this new information about Tom.
Lasairfhíona was the first to react to it.
“I had no idea. He really doesn’t talk about what goes on when I’m ill, just how you’re doing in school and such.” Which was incredibly frustrating when she wanted to know how her husband was doing as well, not just her son!
Baj nodded at her. “He tells us, I mean, his family that lives here, basically, uh….nothing. I mean, he speaks with our mother more often, but not me. We talk at best once a month, under normal circumstances. Which isn’t saying much, I’m not sure things have been normal since…” at which he abruptly stopped his train of thought.
“Hm? Normal since when?” She grimaced slightly, guessing at what the answer might be.
“Since he joined the army, I guess.” He looked incredibly reticent to continue this line of inquiry, and she didn’t really want to press him farther on it if she didn’t have to do so.
“I…suppose that makes sense. I am…” she was unsure what to say. She wasn’t sorry that he was different, as she had nothing to do with it, really. But she could feel faintly empathetic with them for having their son and brother change from how they had known him, she supposed. “I can ask him to write and call you all more often, maybe.”
“That…that would be nice, thank you.” He was grateful that she hadn’t said she was sorry for them. That would have hurt, and she had had nothing to do with his change, or at least, was not the primary cause of it. He would have changed regardless, they just might have seen him more often, and even then, knowing him, probably still not see him very much.
Paul looked back and forth between them, uncertain if he should say anything right now. He shuffled his feet and tapped slightly on the table to get their attention, pulling both of them around to look more directly at him.
“Um, ah. I didn’t know he didn’t talk to the rest of the family. He’d tell me about how you all were doing, made sure I knew his side of the family and what you all were like…” He knew that da got letters, lots of letters, but he had never seen them. Only the pictures. He wondered if his father was trying to keep the return addresses from him. He had told him once he’d like to send a thank you card back to them for writing, and da had gotten very angry at him for suggesting it. He had started to think that maybe his da hadn’t told them at all about him beyond that he was born. Was he ashamed of him?
“Oh. Yeah, mother sends him letters a lot. Like…I think she keeps Royal Mail afloat with all the letters she sends him. And since we talk to her, she co-ordinates all of the information flow between us, and makes damn sure your father is kept in the flow of it.” He really wasn’t kidding with her keeping Royal Mail afloat. She loved proper mail and loved receiving mail.
“Oh, very cool. That must be where he gets all the pictures from! I had wondered about that. We’d look over them when they come and he’d tell me who everyone is and what was going on.”
“Yup. I’ll let mother know that you like them, if you’d like.” She’d love it. She always pressed them on how they and their families were doing. She particularly loved when they’d write her back. Even calling made her happy, but letters were the absolute best.
“Um, actually, maybe you could give me her address, so I can send her a letter? I never see the letters, he keeps them, so I could never let anyone know that I liked the letters and pictures.”
“Certainly, she’d be glad to get a letter from you.” She was sort of convinced that her stupid son had never told his own son that she existed. They had told her and told her that Paul knew she existed, but they had no idea just how right they were and how happy he was to get letters and pictures from her.
Lasairfhíona smiled at Baj for that. She knew her son could and did easily talk with her family but he had told her before that he was worried that his father’s family hated him. She never knew what to tell him, other than she didn’t think that was true.
“So, ah. We’ll meet back here on Sunday morning, then?” She tried to get the conversation back onto the original topic.
“Oh yes. The service is still at nine in the morning, right?”
Lasairfhíona looked over at her son briefly before answering. “Yes, it should not have changed.”
“Well then, come over at like, 8:45 and we can leave at 8:50 so you can get in without having to deal with as many people all at once.”
“Sounds good to me.” Lasairfhíona nodded as she started to get up to head back over to the vacation house.
Baj smiled at them as he helped his sister-in-law to the door alongside her son and his nephew. Now that everyone knew what they were doing, he could hope to not get dragged into discussions about how Paul had been when he was here earlier.
Translations, notes, etc
1 Good luck
Link to Chapter Six- https://mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/1181536.html
Pyro pondered his options. Normally, during the summer, he went to either an arcade, or attempted to wrangle his study habits under control. Both were equally valid options, though he had no idea where an arcade was, and mamaí wanted him to make the most of it and get out of the house instead of studying. “Studying”, however, usually entailed making videos and posting them, not just, you know, traditional studying. He considered it an entirely valid option however, since he wanted to get more into various computer studies, and he wasn’t entirely sure what he wanted to do when he went to university.
He had talked to Dinnerbone the other day about their mutual friend, and all three of them agreed that, perhaps, they should just leave each other alone for the time being, unless they really needed something that only the other one could do. It wasn’t the most ideal solution, but it would certainly work for now. Just gotta find a way to not get so upset in the future, after all.
Mamaí had spoken with him about where the Catholic Church was, and while she was mildly ‘suspicious’ of some of his explanations, she had left it be. She had agreed that the church itself sounded good and that they could both go there this weekend. However, they needed to go over today and see if Baj could drive them, since Lasairfhíona wasn’t really able to walk quite that far yet. She was hoping that she’d be up to it before the end of the summer, though.
He was trying to figure out how upset mamaí might get, which depended entirely on what his uncle might choose to tell her when they mentioned the church and how they kind of needed help getting there. Ádh mór1, he could be so lucky that perhaps his uncle would choose to not mention it until they were getting back from church, or something.
All he could do was wait and see, he supposed. His uncle did claim to remember what it was like to be a teenager, perhaps that would work in his favour now.
-----
Baj contemplated what Lasairfhíona had told him on the phone. They (she and her son) were coming over because they needed to arrange something for this weekend. He had a niggling suspicion of what it could possibly be, and he wasn’t really sure how to react to it.
Paul had, after all, already been punished for leaving without permission, and if they were asking him to drive them to the church, that was certainly asking for permission ahead of time, so he was doing everything by the book, so to say.
Did he leave things in the past or should he tell Paul’s mother about what her son had done while he was here? There was very very very little chance that he had told her on his own volition what had occurred, after all. He remembered perfectly good and well what it was like to be a teenager, after all. Perhaps, in that case, he should let sleeping dogs, well…sleep, unless something terribly important came up where he had to make sure she knew what he had seen when her son had been here earlier. Yeah, that sounded like the best bet. Besides, if he had really meant to let her know, he could have done so at the time. Yeah. Perhaps leave it to be.
All told, the best thing to do now, however, was to go and answer the door, since he was pretty sure he had heard them walking over from next door.
Ding Dong!
Yup. Right in one.
“One moment!”
He hurried over (avoiding tripping over the carpet as best as he could) and pulled the down open for them, greeting them in turn. He really needed to tack the carpet back down. Yet another task for yet another day.
“Hello Lasairfhíona, Paul. How are you two today?” He smiled at them brightly, it was a really nice day out and he was glad to be able to open the house up a bit. Nice days were…not rare exactly, but rain was a bit more common than he would like. But you can’t get lovely gardens without the rain, so…
“Hello, Baj. We’re doing fine, thanks for asking.” Lasairfhíona smiled at him in respond, glad to have gotten out in the fresh air.
Lasairfhíona and Pyro entered the house and followed Baj to the kitchen, where they all spread out around the table. Baj and Lasairfhíona faced each other with Pyro between them, with his back towards the counter top.
“So, you said you wanted to talk to me about something happening this weekend?” he asking, looking quizzical at Lasairfhíona, even though he was pretty sure what the question was.
“Yes, so. I know there is a Catholic church not far from, but I can’t really walk that far yet, so we were wondering if, if you had time, if you could drive us there and back. Only if you don’t have your own church to be at, at that time, of course.” She thought she remembered Pól saying that Baj didn’t really go to church, but she wasn’t really sure.
Haha, he was exactly right on what they wanted to ask. And Paul looked surprisingly nervous, though he really didn’t need to be. He wasn’t going to open up past mistakes, as long as he didn’t make them again, and since he wasn’t, well.
“Oh, yes sure, I can do that. I know where the church is that you’re talking about, it’s easy enough to get to, though I’ll uh…park on the street after I drop you off.” He shuddered slightly, remember that truly godawful parking lot. And the old ladies. But mostly the parking lot.
“Oh thank you so much. You don’t need to be anywhere then?” She looked she knew what the answer would be, but was asking in order to be polite. He’d take the politeness, at least.
No.
“No. If I wanted to go to church, they have evening services, so I could go then, instead, it’s no big deal.”
Paul looked slightly amused at that, and Baj knew why, Paul knew that Baj didn’t attend any church and that he probably wanted to avoid the (perfectly nice) little old ladies from oh, it was only a month or two ago now, though it seemed like far longer ago.
“Sounds like an excellent plan to me, then. Thank you so much for your help, Baj. I’m hoping that by the end of the summer, I’ll be able to walk that far, particularly since I’ll get a rest once we’re there.”
“Oh, of course. Let me know when you want to see, if you want, I can walk with you then, or we can try seeing if my stupid brother might have off then, of course.” He was never entirely certain about certain things, but whenever he thought of the…two of them…he always wondered if, other than the fact that Paul existed, if they could get an annulment at this point. Probably not, or she might not accept it, but he was never certain. But that was so beyond what he wanted to mention while Paul was there that he shoved the entire thought as far down as he possibly could as fast as he possibly could.
“I was hoping he’d be here some weekends, but he…doesn’t really go to church.” Well, she had never known him to go to church, in any case. But she didn’t really talk to him about her going to church either, she just went. And brought Pól along when he wanted to go.
For the first time, Paul spoke up. “That’s not quite true, mamaí, he does go, but rarely. Something bad usually has to happen to make him want to go.”
“Oh. Does he take you with him?” As she said it, she realized the answer was probably yes, if her son knew where his father’s church was.
“He asks. Sometimes I go, particularly if you’re not there. I don’t like walking to our church by myself and he doesn’t like walking there at all. He finds it…intimidating, I think he said. It’s been a while since I asked, though. I think he’d go for you, anyways.” He shrugged slightly, seemingly unconcerned.
Both Lasairfhíona and Baj blinked him, assimilating this new information about Tom.
Lasairfhíona was the first to react to it.
“I had no idea. He really doesn’t talk about what goes on when I’m ill, just how you’re doing in school and such.” Which was incredibly frustrating when she wanted to know how her husband was doing as well, not just her son!
Baj nodded at her. “He tells us, I mean, his family that lives here, basically, uh….nothing. I mean, he speaks with our mother more often, but not me. We talk at best once a month, under normal circumstances. Which isn’t saying much, I’m not sure things have been normal since…” at which he abruptly stopped his train of thought.
“Hm? Normal since when?” She grimaced slightly, guessing at what the answer might be.
“Since he joined the army, I guess.” He looked incredibly reticent to continue this line of inquiry, and she didn’t really want to press him farther on it if she didn’t have to do so.
“I…suppose that makes sense. I am…” she was unsure what to say. She wasn’t sorry that he was different, as she had nothing to do with it, really. But she could feel faintly empathetic with them for having their son and brother change from how they had known him, she supposed. “I can ask him to write and call you all more often, maybe.”
“That…that would be nice, thank you.” He was grateful that she hadn’t said she was sorry for them. That would have hurt, and she had had nothing to do with his change, or at least, was not the primary cause of it. He would have changed regardless, they just might have seen him more often, and even then, knowing him, probably still not see him very much.
Paul looked back and forth between them, uncertain if he should say anything right now. He shuffled his feet and tapped slightly on the table to get their attention, pulling both of them around to look more directly at him.
“Um, ah. I didn’t know he didn’t talk to the rest of the family. He’d tell me about how you all were doing, made sure I knew his side of the family and what you all were like…” He knew that da got letters, lots of letters, but he had never seen them. Only the pictures. He wondered if his father was trying to keep the return addresses from him. He had told him once he’d like to send a thank you card back to them for writing, and da had gotten very angry at him for suggesting it. He had started to think that maybe his da hadn’t told them at all about him beyond that he was born. Was he ashamed of him?
“Oh. Yeah, mother sends him letters a lot. Like…I think she keeps Royal Mail afloat with all the letters she sends him. And since we talk to her, she co-ordinates all of the information flow between us, and makes damn sure your father is kept in the flow of it.” He really wasn’t kidding with her keeping Royal Mail afloat. She loved proper mail and loved receiving mail.
“Oh, very cool. That must be where he gets all the pictures from! I had wondered about that. We’d look over them when they come and he’d tell me who everyone is and what was going on.”
“Yup. I’ll let mother know that you like them, if you’d like.” She’d love it. She always pressed them on how they and their families were doing. She particularly loved when they’d write her back. Even calling made her happy, but letters were the absolute best.
“Um, actually, maybe you could give me her address, so I can send her a letter? I never see the letters, he keeps them, so I could never let anyone know that I liked the letters and pictures.”
“Certainly, she’d be glad to get a letter from you.” She was sort of convinced that her stupid son had never told his own son that she existed. They had told her and told her that Paul knew she existed, but they had no idea just how right they were and how happy he was to get letters and pictures from her.
Lasairfhíona smiled at Baj for that. She knew her son could and did easily talk with her family but he had told her before that he was worried that his father’s family hated him. She never knew what to tell him, other than she didn’t think that was true.
“So, ah. We’ll meet back here on Sunday morning, then?” She tried to get the conversation back onto the original topic.
“Oh yes. The service is still at nine in the morning, right?”
Lasairfhíona looked over at her son briefly before answering. “Yes, it should not have changed.”
“Well then, come over at like, 8:45 and we can leave at 8:50 so you can get in without having to deal with as many people all at once.”
“Sounds good to me.” Lasairfhíona nodded as she started to get up to head back over to the vacation house.
Baj smiled at them as he helped his sister-in-law to the door alongside her son and his nephew. Now that everyone knew what they were doing, he could hope to not get dragged into discussions about how Paul had been when he was here earlier.
Translations, notes, etc
1 Good luck
Link to Chapter Six- https://mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/1181536.html
