A Traveller Returns to Dalton

Thad was pleased to see Sebastian and when he opened the stout bag that he handed him, his face lit up. He immediately offered to pay the younger man for the newspapers, but his friend and colleague shook his head. "They were all free at the lounge at Heathrow airport, and I knew that you would be able to find a use for them."

"I most certainly can; the boys can look through them just now, and check the reporting styles in the different journals for a start, given how the more right wing and establishment papers will have taken a different tone from those on the left. They will also be a good comparison to those from our own nation. I have copies of The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and The Chicago Tribune, plus The Columbus Dispatch. A friend of the Carmichaels has also sent me The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star for a Canadian perspective."

"I could ask my maman to mail me the Montreal paper if you like; I am sure she would be able to get a copy even now, although it would be in French," said Sebastian.

Thad nodded, then went on, "It was a strange sort of day here on Wednesday. I have never in all my time here seen so many boys in the auditorium at 6am; in fact, I think nearly the whole school was in there, all watching every second of the events that you witnessed first hand. There were quite a few tears shed in that room, let me tell you; it is the end of an era for the whole world, not just the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. There is talk online that those that are in favour of becoming republics in such places as Australia, Canada and New Zealand might seize the moment to launch campaigns now that she has gone, but if they launch them too soon, they will be accused of enormous disrespect towards the late Queen…"

"However, if they wait too long, and the coronation has happened, and Charles III is proving to be a popular figure with his moves to modernise the institution and create a leaner, more up to date Royal Family, then they will have missed the boat," added Sebastian. "In my personal opinion, I don't think that they would garner much support right now or even in the next few months; the wound is still much too raw…"

Their discussion then moved on to the activities of the Warblers, and the rehearsals that the boys had undertaken under Thad's stewardship whilst Sebastian was abroad. There had been some debate amongst the young men about their choice of music for the next stage of the annual competition in the middle of the following month, with some of the group favouring a change from what had been chosen to something that would mark the death of the Queen. "I hope that you knocked that idea swiftly on the head!" exclaimed Sebastian.

"Oh, I certainly did, because obviously you had already started work on the choreography for the songs that they had chosen to perform prior to the Christmas break."

"More importantly, there is the fact that about half of the competition will probably be doing a tribute song, and that will quickly get old with the audience, and the judges too. From any old Beatles number to songs that were written by the group Queen, there will be a virtual tsunami of British music."

Thad nodded, then said with a grin, "Although I trust that nobody would even think of doing the version of God Save the Queen by The Sex Pistols…"

"Oh I wouldn't be too sure about that; some of those based in the more right wing states of our nation might think that a fascist regime was no bad thing…" quipped Sebastian, and then both of them burst out laughing. "Of course, I shall point all of this out to the boys this afternoon at rehearsal, just in case some of them think that I can be influenced to make a change more than you. As far as I am concerned, we will be sticking to the good old, wholesome great American songbook; nothing controversial, just good tunes performed in true Warbler style. Some might see such a policy as dull in this day and age, but it has not done us any harm in our heats…"

"Then we blow them all away at the final as usual," replied Thad.

"Of course, and I already have an inkling as to what we will be performing for that crowd when we get there…"

"Much as I admire your confidence about that, Sebastian, a lot can happen in the heats," said the voice of Wes at that point, and then he was with them in the room, much to Thad's obvious delight. "Having watched the rehearsals last week in a spare moment, I do think from what I saw that we will undoubtedly progress, but then again, you never can be quite sure what will occur until the day itself…"

"Don't worry, Wes," replied Sebastian. "I shall be making sure that we progress by all legal means at my disposal; I mean, we all heard what happened during the heats in New Mexico last year, with the alleged kidnapping of the lead singers of the hot favourites by a couple of the parents of one of the rival choirs…"

"Indeed, Sebastian," Thad responded. "It was not one of the greatest moments in the history of show choir…"

"Although the police chase that they broadcast on television afterwards was quite something to see. I believe that both teams are actually back in the competition again this year, but they have gone to the lengths of increasing security at the respective schools and have appointed guards on their lead singers…" continued Sebastian.

"Honestly!" exclaimed Wes then. "Such things make me want to scream and disqualify both teams at once. It is supposed to be about having fun with music, not starting gang wars! There are too many shades of a certain Mr Clarington in all of that…"

"I agree. It's almost as bad as sending someone to a crack house because you see them as competition for your vocals," interjected Thad, anxious to prevent Sebastian getting upset by his husband's reference to the events of the younger man's Senior year.

Wes realised his error then, and with an apologetic smile to Sebastian, he spoke again. "Okay, so onto the real reason that I am here, which isn't just to tell my husband how beautiful he is… and we'll have none of those retching noises, thank you Mr Smythe. I have been sent here to pass on to both of you the best wishes of the late Queen. In particular she requested that I thank you, Sebastian, for taking the time out of your life to head over to the United Kingdom for her funeral. She really liked what you said about her on television…"

Sebastian looked dazed for a moment, then replied, "It was nothing really, no more than she deserved, given how important she was not just to her country but to the rest of the world."

"She hears all of that, but all that she says is that she was simply doing her job as her father and grandfather did before her. True, it wasn't the easiest of roles to undertake, and she would never have even considered retiring, but she saw it as her duty to be there for her subjects wherever in the world they were. Now she is enjoying a well earned rest, with no duty other than to enjoy time with her beloved husband and her family. As she says, now she is just Philip's wife and she is loving that."

"I have no doubt that he will be enjoying it too, having her back at his side after the short break and no doubt looking younger as well," said Thad.

"They certainly looked very happy together at our luncheon on Wednesday. Whilst the whole world watched her funeral - and they now believe that as much as 20% of the global population watched some of it live, and most of the rest have seen something of it since – she sat down to lunch with her family and our little circle of angels…"

"Seriously!? You all sat down and had lunch with them?" exclaimed Sebastian.

Wes nodded, whilst Thad said nothing, having already known that the event was happening, unlike his friend. "We did, and before you say it, Kurt was quite overcome by it, as he has always been a big royal fan. Blaine was just a little overawed by it too; Finn meanwhile said very little, in all likelihood because Kurt told him not to in case he went and put his foot in it. His wife, our dear Emily, was transfixed by the fact that she was sitting at the same table as the people she had respected from afar since her childhood. Seth on the other hand chatted away to them as if they were his family, and he seems to have formed the most unlikely of bonds with Queen Mary. The two Elizabeths got on like a house on fire in the meantime…"

Sebastian had sat in silence as Wes spoke, his eyes wide and his mouth open, but now he spoke. "Wait, did you say Seth had bonded with Queen Mary? The Queen's grandmother was at the table?"

"Yes, and her parents and her sister Margaret; and no, the latter did not drink like a fish throughout the entire meal, as someone who shall remain nameless might have suggested she would," replied Wes, as Thad's cheeks reddened a little as he was the nameless one…

"Well, all that I can say is that Jeff would have loved to have been there to witness that event and capture it in pencil on paper," replied the actor, and Wes nodded in agreement; it was after all a tableau he could never have pictured himself being part of when he was alive…

At that moment Sebastian looked at the clock, and made his excuses, as he had arranged to see Mrs Carmichael for lunch; she had asked him to join her as she wanted to know all about events in London from a first hand perspective. Her husband was not home for lunch, as he would be at a meeting of the Westerville Civic Association. He had discovered, as many retirees do, that every society in town wanted him on board; now that he did not have a school to run, his life experience and abilities were highly sought after by local organisations.

The fact that he would be absent worked in Sebastian's favour if he was being honest, because he intended to tell her the truth about everything that had happened in England and that included his breakdown. Then there was the fact that Drew had met up with and restarted the relationship with his ex-wife's grandmother. He wanted to talk to someone neutral about his feelings on that, because there was something about it all that made him feel a little uncomfortable; it was too convenient. He was sure that she would tell him that he was being stupid, paranoid even, but he couldn't help how his mind felt about it…

The moment that Sebastian was gone, Thad motioned to Wes to come closer, and as soon as he was there, he wrapped his angelic husband in his arms. He held him in silence for a few minutes, and then he said, "So what lies in the future for Her Majesty? Perhaps a catch up with the other world leaders she knew in her lifetime?"

"I am not privy to that sort of information, although I do have it on good authority that Winston Churchill is around, and well, so is JFK himself, so the three of them might have a lunch together sometime. That is well off in the future though; right now she is just enjoying the free time and being able to relax. There is one thing that I will tell you now, strictly between us, and that is that she expressed a desire to come and visit Dalton Academy at some point, so I might arrive with her and her husband quite unexpectedly one of these days. Of course, I will try and warn you beforehand if I can…"

"Please do Wessie," said Thad quietly. "I hate to imagine how I would react if I looked up whilst I was teaching and saw the three of you standing there at the back of the classroom. As for the others, well if Mrs Carmichael came across them, she would try and curtsey of course, and that could look a little bizarre to anyone else that came across her doing that in an empty room…"

At that precise moment, the lady in question was sat at her dining room table with Sebastian; even although it was just the two of them, and it being a light meal of homemade soup and sandwiches, the table was fully set. It had always been the same when the boys were invited to join the couple for dinner, as Sebastian remembered from experience. It had been strange, but it had left them all with impeccable table manners, and the knowledge of what cutlery to use and when.

The soup was a rich beef broth, which was very warming on what was a typical winter day in Ohio. "This soup is exactly what I needed for lunch," said Sebastian with a smile. "I was spoilt a little by being in London, where it is much warmer thanks to the prevailing wind direction and of course the proximity of the sea. It was quite a nasty shock when I stepped out of the door at Columbus airport, believe me!"

"I can imagine the contrast, although standing still in that one place in London for so long must have been chilling too."

"It wasn't the best, but we were all well wrapped up, and of course being in England there were numerous opportunities to have a nice hot cup of tea. What hit me most when I was there was the strong sense of community they had, with so much camaraderie and helping each other. I guess that was because we were all gathered there for the same purpose; to pay our respects to a lady that was an icon of our times…"

Mrs Carmichael nodded, and replied, "It still seems strange to me that she is actually gone. For most of my life more or less there was a Queen of England, and when they announced she had passed, and they said that the King was staying at Balmoral overnight, it was a huge shock to the system; it just sounded wrong."

"It changes so much, including so many little things that you wouldn't have thought about. I was speaking to Santana earlier, and she told me that Artie Abrams has had to reassemble the cast and reshoot a couple of scenes for the new James Bond movie he is directing because one of the characters said that they were working for Her Majesty's Secret Service; by the time the film is released, it will of course be His Majesty's Secret Service…"

Mrs Carmichael had a smile at that, then responded, "I did read about the lawyers now being KCs rather than QCs, which is expensive for them, but on the flip side, there was also comment about how the tax authorities have saved themselves and the nation a fortune by only using the acronym OHMS on all of there official stuff, instead of the full On Her Majesty's Service that the department previously employed on official stationary. As a result, they do not have to scrap anything or pay to have signage redone…"

"None of that alters one important fact, and that is how different the world feels now that she is gone; it is definitely a new era in global affairs, as the last global leader that could recall the dark days of the Second World War is now gone…" added Sebastian.

It was over a slice of homemade apple pie, served with proper English custard, that Sebastian decided it was time to broach the subject of Drew's shock meeting and all that had happened with that subsequently. Mrs Carmichael looked thoughtful once he had finished speaking, and after a minute or so, she replied.

"It would have been nigh on impossible to orchestrate such an encounter unless she had inside knowledge beforehand of all of your group's movements. Even then, how could they have known that our dear Jeff would smell bacon cooking, or that Drew would be one of the people sent to purchase those sandwiches? It was chance, pure and simple, and no conspiracy. However, I also have no doubt whatsoever that Ethan will not have been sitting idly by where this topic is concerned. He has the means at his disposal, through the Mackenzie Trust, to check every element of what you just told me."

"That is probably correct," admitted Sebastian, making a mental note to call Ethan at some point in the next few days to ask him if he had. "I guess that with my emotions and everyone else's running so high, and my desire to protect them all, I started to imagine things that were not there at all…"

"You were just being a supportive and protective friend, and a certain Mr Montgomery would be every bit as proud of you doing so as I am. As for your own tearful breakdown, I think that Jeff nailed it with what he said; it all just built up and in the end, it overpowered the walls that you had set up. That is not something that you need to feel ashamed about in my view; it just illustrates what a fine young man you are, and indeed, always have been. The troublesome teenage version of you that I first met was obviously just some sort of aberration…"

Sebastian would carry those words with him for the remainder of the school day, and he still had them in mind as he sat in on the Warbler meeting that afternoon. He had never really thought that way about the time between his parents' split and their subsequent divorce, and the day he had returned to the United States after the death of Kurt. He did not class his senior year at Dalton as part of his improvement; he had been better behaved at school, but he had still been an absolute nightmare at home. Of course, he had also allowed Hunter to take over the Warblers to stop the details of his own murky past coming out, and that had been a total disaster…

He had made amends for that the day that he had stood up in the witness stand in a New York courtroom and had without reservation told the world what he had done whilst he was in Paris in an almost flippant way; he had after all described himself as a clap ridden Parisian whore on record. That had only been the first of a group of things that he had done over the next few years to try and build bridges with all of the people he had hurt, starting of course with Dave. Then he had reconnected with Julian, and even apologised to his father for being the way he had been; more importantly, the latter had apologised to him…

He had a good life now, a very happy marriage, two children he adored. He had a successful Broadway career behind him, and had met royalty more than once. Somehow, it had all ended up going right after all. He couldn't help but wonder if to ensure what he had now would occur, some celestial force had needed him to make all of his terrible youthful mistakes first…

He only realised that he had zoned out of the room when his thoughts were interrupted by raised voices, arguing over the choice of songs for the forthcoming heats, and from what Thad had said, this was not the first time this had happened. He knew he had to be the one to close it down for good…

"Gentleman, please, enough already!" he yelled, and the room fell silent. "This is the moment when I interject and state that I agree with what I believe Mr Harwood has already said to you when this 'discussion' happened before. The bulk of our competitors will be doing their own 'tribute' to the late Queen, and that is why we should not! It isn't that we don't care, it's because we Warblers have never blindly followed the crowd, and never will as an al cappella choir. We go to the heats with the setlist that you all agreed upon unanimously and have been rehearsing since that vote. I will brook no further argument on this matter, the subject is closed! Just bear this in mind – if any of our competitors ask what our tribute to her is, you will be able to state that your faculty advisor went to London and attended the Lying in State, proof of which is available in the interview that he gave the BBC…"

There was a ripple of approval around the room then, and the topic was closed. The boys ran through their routines, and Sebastian had to admit that what had seemed rather rickety and awkward on the last day he had seen them before his trip was now well oiled and almost perfect; it just need a few minor tweaks and maybe a few flourishes to be spot on. As for the vocals, well they did need a little more work, but the basics of the harmonies were there and his chosen soloists were pretty darn perfect. He allowed them to leave a little earlier than scheduled, as the work was done, and it was Friday; it allowed the day students to get home a little sooner as well.

Thad arrived just as the last of the boys were leaving, full of smiles. "Well, Sebastian, how can I begin to thank you? This afternoon was a dream with all of those newspapers to use as reference materials, not just for the record they provide of a moment in history, but to illustrate how the differing editorial tone and the politics of the journal can make coverage of the same thing so very different… Changing the subject, how was lunch?"

"It was good; Mrs Carmichael said to me that had she been younger, she would have come to London with me; however, she is aware that she is now in her eighties, and the little twinges she felt in her seventies are more frequent and intense now. The funny thing is that I never see her or her husband as the age they are; I think that is because they are so active and have a youthful outlook."

"That much is true…"

"She made the point that for most of their lives there was a Queen on the other side of the Atlantic – right from the moment that they first went to school…"

Thad did the arithmetic quickly and realised that Mrs Carmichael was a little out, but he let it slide. He had another purpose at the moment. "Right, so I popped in to see if you could spare me fifteen minutes before you head home – I have a visitor, and I would like a witness to what they are going to say."

"That sounds a trifle ominous; I hope there is nothing wrong?"

"Oh, nothing like that; it is Skylar, and he told me that he had important news to pass on to me concerning the hospice and all of the memorial work for Seth. I felt that it would be better if we had another set of ears in the room given how much everyone is concerned with it."

Sebastian followed Thad to his classroom once again, and found the architect leafing through the colour photo supplement that had accompanied The Guardian, which made Thad grin. "Hey, Sebastian," Skylar said as he saw him walk in. "You were really good on the television, and what is more, I am assuming that it was all your own words, off the cuff… You didn't have Trent telling you what to say by whispering it in your ear through an earpiece…"

"Cheek!" exclaimed Sebastian, and Thad laughed as he knew Skylar had been winding him up. "No, there was no involvement of Mr Nixon, and nor was there an angelic intervention either, before somebody suggests that!"

Skylar smiled, and went on, "Well you are to be admired for going there to represent the brotherhood and to support the others. That funeral though was just so perfect, fitting for a noble lady. Okay, now that Thad has his witness, I can finally reveal that we have secured funding for two new hospice sites, one in Chicago and the other in Brooklyn. The land has already been secured, and well, I might have been brought in as chief architect on both…"

"That is wonderful news," exclaimed Thad, and Sebastian nodded in agreement.

"It is, but I have informed them that they should be given a more relevant, local name, and only after I did so did it occur to me that it wasn't my place to make such bold statements without consulting other interested parties."

Sebastian shook his head, and said, "I think that local names with resonance would be better, and I am certain that Thad agrees…"

"I do, and I am sure that all of the others will too."

"That is reassuring to hear, and I feel less stressed about things now, but I still think we need to have a full discussion with everyone. That done, then the real stress starts; I have to design and then help oversee the construction of two more hospices, and worse, there are discussions ongoing that might see another three added to the list ongoing as we speak…"

In New York, Friday had also been a day to return to the normal routine, but things still seemed a little strange for Drew, given that he was back at work for one day before he was off for the weekend. Jeff had headed down to the gallery, where his solo show was still going on; his sketches of the late Queen, displayed with her permission, were now mounted on black paper as a mark of respect, something that had not passed unnoticed. Unlike Drew, Jeff did not have that weekend off, as he had agreed to do meet and greet sessions at the gallery on Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday before the world had changed, so once again normality was disrupted.

He was still able to accompany his husband and son to the market in Union Square in the morning, where they browsed the stalls, picking up new things as ever, but then he headed home alone with their purchases whilst his husband and son went over to the usual supermarket in Brooklyn. He made a sandwich for his lunch, and then headed off to the gallery. The people that he would be meeting that day were not celebrities or fellow famed artists, but an eclectic mix of ordinary people, art students and fans of his work that had signed up the moment the sessions were announced.

He was happy to answer questions about his work in the company of people that shared his passion, his usual shyness dissipating, as he opened up about such things as the techniques that he employed in his work. However, he also knew that thanks to events in the bigger world, there would be a number of questions asked about his drawing sessions with the late monarch, and her admiration of his first great work, The Judging Angel, in particular. He did not need to think of his answer when the topic came up.

"I think that for a woman with a deep, firm Christian faith, one who held the title of 'Defender of the Faith' no less as titular head of the Church of England, it was an illustration of something that she firmly believed in; that we ascend to heaven on death and are there judged on the goodness of our life. As most of you will know, the man that is in the drawing as the angel is Wes Montgomery, one of my oldest friends and the most decent person I have ever known; he was killed by a drunk driver the year before. He was a law student, and hoped to be an arbiter of good and of justice; thus he seemed destined for such a role in his afterlife. There is a tiny part of me that hopes that he was waiting for her Majesty when she arrived in heaven, the embodiment of the image I portrayed. I am also certain that he would have found no fault with her credentials."

As his audience nodded, Jeff smiled internally, knowing as he did that what he had suggested was exactly what had taken place…