Chapter 7
Family Portrait
December 21, evening
Martin and Louisa arrived at Portwenn's town hall just a few minutes before the pageant was due to begin. As they walked into the large hall where the stage and chairs had been set out, Martin began immediately to search for Ruth, taking advantage of the fact that he could see above most people's heads. He found her quickly and, steering Louisa by the elbow to go with him, he equally quickly reached Ruth. The old lady was sitting on a chair near the front of the seating arrangements, but a bit to the side. She was holding a sheet of paper in her hand with a bemused and perplexed expression.
"Ruth!" called Martin coming closer and taking the seat next to his aunt, with Louisa right behind. "We need to talk."
"Yes," said Ruth, "but I think you need to read this first. I imagine you are almost as much in the dark as I was till a few minutes ago when Al played postman and delivered this letter to me."
Ruth handed the letter to Martin who held it up so that it would be visible to Louisa as well. They both recognized James' childish yet neat handwriting. They both read the following:
"Dear Aunt Ruth:
I talked to Al last night and he said I need to tell you what I did. I have to be a man about it. Al said he did it too to help his dad and you forgave him, so I hope you forgive me too, though Al says what I did is bad. But don't be angry with Joanie please. She helped only a little, I just told her it was a surprise for mum and dad and she does what I tell her (not always). Joanie is not guilty it was me.
Mum and dad needed to go on a second honey moon like Mikey's parents. I did not play a game on your computer, I got a train ticket for mum and booked a big room (really pretty, with flowers and all like mum likes). I used one of your plastic cards V.I.S.A. like dad used but with your name on it. The blue one. Al says it's like stealing money and that it's A LOT. Maybe that's not true, but if it is true I am sorry and I will work for you like Al did to pay you back. You tell me what you want me to do and I will do it. You don't need to write a letter you can just tell me. Please don't be angry, mum and dad will be happy now I hope.
Happy Christmas!
Your grand-nephew
James Henry Ellingham
Martin and Louisa finished reading at about the same time and were momentarily silent, taking it all in.
"This admits to the deed," said Martin, "but still does not explain why, not really. Why did he think he needed to send us on a second honeymoon? "
"Speaking as someone who has just found out there was anything amiss…"
"Oh Ruth," interjected Martin quickly, "we will pay you back. "
Ruth ignored him and continued: "… I would say the boy must have been really upset about something. He did say he heard you arguing loudly the other day. Something you said perhaps?" the old lady asked raising an eyebrow.
"The door was closed Ruth," said Louisa, "and I did ask James. He said he only heard angry voices. With the door closed I think it would have been difficult to make out what we were saying."
"James heard something falling or braking as well" said Ruth mildly.
"Yes, I bumped into some supplies and broke a vial" said Martin distractedly, without seeing the implications.
"In any case the boy thought it best to send you on a second honeymoon" Ruth continued. "I think he shows considerable foresight for such a young fellow, wouldn't you say? "
"A considerable amount of trickery I would say!" answered Martin quite cross. He did not think Ruth's wry humor was appropriate at the moment.
"The question is Martin, and Louisa, was the boy correct that this trip would be salutary?"
Martin blushed, which was an answer as clear as Louisa's sparkling eyes and pronouncement: "It was wonderful Ruth, one of the best times Martin and I have ever had together! We'll do it again. "
"Well then, James' perception that you two needed a little time-out together was accurate, and it seems unfair to punish him too hard for it."
"But he did steal! He must understand this cannot stand!" protested Martin.
"We will pay you back Ruth," added Louisa.
"Oh, I never know what to give you two for Christmas," shrugged Ruth. "I might as well give you this, something that you really enjoyed, apparently… " with a knowing little smile. "Village Madness is bringing in a fair amount after all."
"You say that because you have not seen the bill yet!" said Martin rather nonplussed by his aunt's nonchalance.
"Why, how much is it?" asked Ruth.
With an embarrassed look Louisa said: "Just the Churchill suite at the Savoy was 1,259 pounds."
Ruth actually laughed at that. "James definitely beats Al!" she commented. "And what a great ability to strategize…"
"And lie!" said Martin.
"…which should be re-directed, of course," continued Ruth. "His punctuation could be better, but he's a good speller... I don't want a penny from you two. The money question is between me and James. I'll do just as he suggested. I can definitely use an errand boy."
"But this will lead him to believe that under certain circumstances, or for any cause he sees fit, stealing is acceptable!" protested Martin.
"I don't think so," replied Ruth. "James is only nine and very enterprising, which is good, and he chose to take a moral action, or what would be deemed moral in his worldview: helping his parents out of trouble, as he imagined. I would not worry about his moral compass Martin, he just needs to mature. And he is very considerate about his sister."
"Yes," agreed Martin, "good of the little rascal to protect his sister. "
"You two though…" Ruth now sounded quite stern, "… either you buy a thicker door or you need to have your arguments well away from the children."
Martin felt duly chastised. He lowered his head and mumbled: "Yes, Ruth," looking himself like a boy caught red handed.
"There's a piece of humble pie," thought Louisa while nodding assent to Ruth.
"Look, they are about to come on stage. Before you give the boy a piece of your mind about stealing Martin," concluded Ruth, "you must consider that he is probably on tenterhooks right now, not knowing how the two of you are doing together… and not knowing how I will react to this letter. That does not bode well for the king of the elves' performance, does it? I think he needs to see there is a way out of this mess."
"What are you proposing? I'm not sure I understand," said Martin confused.
But Louisa caught Ruth's meaning all too well.
"Just play along," she said to her very puzzled husband.
As the children filed onto the stage they were soon able to spy James' white, tense face. He knew his parents and Ruth would be in the audience of course. Knowing James well, Martin and Louisa also knew their son's anxious look had nothing to do with performing on stage. Ruth must be right about this bit of psychology as well: James was indeed on edge.
When James caught their eye from a distance Ruth held his letter in sight and sent him one of her lopsided grins. This raised James' spirit immediately, but when he turned slightly to look at his parents he gaped: mum seemed to be kissing dad on the lips right in front of everybody! Other people did this, it's not as if he'd never seen it. But this was no quick peck. What was it? It was a kiss like sometimes you see on the telly or the cinema! Then mum let dad go, and waved at James happily. Dad was standing stock still and, James couldn't be sure from a distance, likely very red in the face. Until mum nudged him on the side and he also waved a little. How odd. But if they were kissing like that… the second honeymoon had worked! Yes, he knew it would work! He sent a huge smile back to his parents.
Louisa squeezed Martin's hand and whispered: "Thank you, he'll be fine now."
"Was that really necessary? In front of the whole village?" hissed Martin.
"Martin, did you hear anyone commenting? I didn't. We've been married and steady long enough that we're old news, nothing to gossip about."
That effectively silenced Martin, as there was no contradicting that point.
The pageant started. It was the usual fare, but the children performed really well. The show included the singing of a number of carols and it was quite enjoyable. The king of the elves, who had inherited his singing abilities from his mother, let his soprano soar with zest, and was really quite impressive, even though the stage curtains partially closed during his solo. At the end there was a lot of genuine applause, even from Martin.
Soon after it was over all the children started streaming from the stage looking for their parents. James and Joanie arrived running joyously to join their family. Martin though could not and would not pretend all was well. The pageant was finished, now was the time of reckoning.
Martin cleared is voice and the look he sent James sent a chill up the boy's spine, and up Louisa's as well.
"Joanie,"said Louisa, "we need to speak to James for a minute. I see Melanie right there. Why don't you spend a few minutes with her?"
Joanie shook her head disconsolately, looking at James, and mouthed without sound: "Disaster!" But she walked to Melanie, turning around to look back only twice.
"One of the staging rooms," Louisa said simply. She motioned towards the side of the big hall, taking a quivering James by the hand. Martin and Ruth followed.
Louisa closed the room behind her and hoped for both her men's sake that Martin could say what must be said without too much harshness.
Martin had decided to omit the talk with Al so that he would not appear as a spy in James' eyes. He decided to start with a simple statement of facts: "James… Ruth showed us the letter you wrote, and this morning your mother and I talked and figured out what must have happened. "
"What?" said James "You didn't talk last night?"
Both Louisa and Ruth had to suppress a smile, but Martin, after blushing briefly, was not amused.
"Be quiet James. There is no other way to put it. You are a thief. You took advantage of your aunt and stole her money…"
"I did not take the money in her wallet, just the card!"
"DO NOT INTERRUPT BOY, UNDERSTAND?" thundered Martin, and James looked so stricken that Louisa visibly flinched and had a really difficult time not to gather the poor boy in her arms. "Trust Martin," Louisa was repeating to herself to control her urge to intervene, "trust Martin."
"You are a thief and a liar," repeated Martin in a cold, angry voice, "using the credit card is the same as taking money from someone's wallet! You lied to Ruth, you lied to your mother, and you lied to me via text message. What on Earth were you thinking?! Why did you steal and lie in such a… such a devious manner just to send us on a second honeymoon?"
James was obviously understanding the gravity of what he had done fully for the first time. It had partially sunk in when Al told him, but not like this. He had never seen his father so angry and clearly disappointed in him. His dad never spoke to him so harshly. James felt himself shaken to the core and he started visibly trembling. He knew his father was a good man, so if he was so angry he must really think that what James had done was truly horrible. "You are a thief and a liar!" kept whirling through James' mind, his dad made it sound like it was the most awful thing in the world. He must explain. What to him had been a good natured, secret plan to help his parents was turning into a nightmare. He must explain.
"I heard you," said James, voice cracking and shrill, on the verge of tears, "I heard you, everything you screamed to each other. I took a plastic cup and put it on the keyhole, I could hear it all. That, that… when mum…" and here poor James broke down, he burst into tears and his voice broke, "…when mum had me in her tummy you did not want us! You did not want ME… You were with Edith instead…and… and you married mum just because of ME, but… is it my fault?...If… if … if you yell like that, then you divorce. I don't want you to divorce!" he almost screamed in the effort to control his voice, with tears streaming copiously down his cheeks now, in obvious despair. "I want you together, together, always! You have to want us dad, me and mum and Joanie!" and he was trying so hard to control himself but couldn't, his entire small body was shaking like a leaf.
Martin felt his head swimming, his stomach contracting, a cold sweat breaking through, and his hands trembling. How could he have done to James, his baby James, the same harm his parents had done to him, to make him believe he was unwanted? The feeling, never too deeply buried, of utter desolation, despair and guilt at knowing to be unwanted took possession of his adult being as it so often had when he had been as young as James. A tide of sorrow washed over him. He went down on one knee in front of his son, so they could be eye to eye.
"James that is not true, not true at all! It was a very bad misunderstanding between your mother and I. I did want you, I did love mum and you. It really hurt that I could not be with mum back then, but I so wanted to. Understand that, there is not a moment that I don't want you or love you. And your mother and I are fools to scream at each other like that, I'm sorry James, so so sorry, it will never happen again, I'm sorry."
"Second piece of humble pie," thought Louisa, relieved that Martin's harshness was gone.
"But be certain of this James," continued Martin, "if mum and I have a… lively discussion about anything, and even if we disagree a lot, it will never mean I don't want you, or mum, or Joanie. It will not mean we are getting a divorce. It will mean a difference of opinion, not divorce. "
Then Louisa, who by now had tears in her eyes as well, put one hand on James' shoulder and lightly squeezed, in a reassuring gesture. Her other hand went absently, but very possessively, into Martin's hair, raking fingers through his short cropped hair just as she had done the night before in bed, and she said with complete finality in her tone: "Never divorce, James, never. We made a promise to be together till death do us part, and we intend to keep it."
Martin looked up and sent her a look of infinite gratitude, then turned to James again, who was cleaning his face with his elfish sleeves and calming down a bit. Martin hugged his son tight and patted him on the back. They touched foreheads, in their old gesture of affection. Then pulling apart again Martin said:
"This does not mean it is acceptable to steal, however. You will have to make amends to Aunt Ruth. I trust her to find some tasks you can perform for her, with no tips whatsoever, for as long as she sees fit. Understood?"
"Yes," said James softly, grateful, relieved that the worst was over, and totally overjoyed that mum and dad were promising to stay together forever. He knew in his heart that he would never, ever steal anything again in his life, no matter the cause.
Martin got up and let James hide his face into his jacket, while he ruffled his son's blond hair a bit.
"Let's go back to the hall," said Louisa after a while. "I really need to talk to some of the parents. "
Martin nodded and they all walked back to the main hall which was full of children still in their costumes and running around joyously, with a throng of parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and seemingly the entire village milling around.
After all was said and done James still had a question though, and an important one at that.
"But dad," James said very seriously, "I do have to know something, I need to ask."
Martin looked down at his son and the look on that young face suddenly seemed that of a wise father to his child, in an impossible role reversal that had Martin quiver for a moment.
"Yes James?" said Martin dubiously.
"When you and mum decided to have a baby, to have ME… were you married or did you mount her?"
At that both Ruth and Louisa, as well as several people nearby who had overheard, could not help themselves and burst out laughing, especially at the sight of Martin blushing violently red and standing stock still with an apoplectic look on his face. Never had he had a look more pleading for help than in that moment, so Louisa controlled herself with effort while James muttered: "What did I say that was so funny?" But just as Louisa was about to speak, one of the many burly fishermen of Portwenn snickered and said loudly enough for Martin to hear: "Oh, he mounted her alright, no doubt about that, you look just like him boy."
Martin turned a shade of purple and Ruth, in her usual deadpan, commented: "Why is there never a medical emergency when you need one? "
Taking her cue from that Louisa said: "Martin, Mrs. Tishell was telling me about an article the other day, about meningitis symptoms and how to recognize them in children at school. "
Without thinking about it, as Louisa had hoped, Martin immediately answered: "Yes, meningitis symptoms can be hard to distinguish from those of other conditions," and from there he launched into a detailed medical disquisition which had the two effects Louisa intended: Martin's color slowly went back to normal as he visibly relaxed, and everyone got bored very quickly so the crowd around them dispersed.
James though pulled on his mother's sleeve and said: "But he didn't answer my question! "
"Shhh!" hissed Louisa in her sternest Head Teacher mode, so that James was immediately silenced. Then in a serious but gentler tone she whispered: "Later at home James we will explain as much as is proper to explain to a nine year old."
"Okay," nodded James and went to join some of the other elves as at this point he really needed a bit of fun.
December 25
On Christmas day the children woke up early and found that Father Christmas had been very generous this year as they each had many shining big and small boxes to open.
Martin was in charge of cooking the turkey and he had gotten up even before the children to make sure it would be ready by Noon, when Ruth was due to arrive. Louisa was in charge of the rest of their meal, busy all morning with vegetables, mince pies, pasties, Christmas pudding and cake, flowery centerpiece, and Martin lost count of what else. Of course the house was all decorated, with a very large tree sparkling with lights and shining ornaments, and a very prominent Cornish Christmas bush. With the turkey taking care of itself in the oven, Martin was able to spend nearly the whole morning with the children. Mostly he was Joanie's patient as she tried out all the medical instruments from her new deluxe set of OPERATION. Martin whispered the correct names of instruments and procedures into Joanie's ear, and she mangled them back to him enthusiastically. Louisa was stunned when she heard Martin pretend to call an ambulance at some point, and make a noise that sounded suspiciously like a suppressed giggle once when Joanie's o-perating on his stomach had evidently tickled him. But Martin also helped James build a huge tower with his new extra-large Meccano set, while occasionally checking the turkey and once kissing the back of Louisa's neck while passing by.
A little before Noon Ruth called. She requested her "indentured servant" James to come help her carry a box to the surgery. James did not mind, put on his coat and happily scampered down Roscarrock Hill and on to Ruth's cottage. The box was too heavy to carry for the old lady, though not too much for James.
Finally the great Christmas meal was ready and everyone was very hungry by then. The table was beautiful, Louisa had outdone herself spreading flowers and candy and artfully arranging their best china. Martin carved the turkey and the rest of the fare was passed or served around and eaten with good cheer.
At the end of the meal it was time to exchange all those presents that had not been brought by Father Christmas. There were scarves and books for Ruth; books for everyone from Ruth; a gold chain with an antique pendant for Louisa from Martin, which left her speechless; a miniature antique clock for Martin from Louisa, which made him itch to take it apart; and drawings for everyone from the children.
The children's pictures were nice, rather typical images of Christmas or of Portwenn, except for one, which was the picture from James to his dad. This picture showed a large dun horse next to a smaller, dainty brown horse, both smiling widely, and a stick figure of a farmer in front of them with a book in his hands. Added next to this unlikely trio were a smaller dun horse and an even smaller brown horse, both also smiling widely. This picture Martin decided to frame, as it was the most truthful picture anyone had ever given him. He hung it in his consulting room, and when anyone asked what it was he very menacingly deadpanned: "Family portrait."
The End
Happy and Merry Christmas everyone!
