Westpoint Tales - the Lost Years, 4

They sat for the best part of an hour while Ross and Robert said all they knew about Conrad Keenan, which was not much at all really. All they knew for sure was that nobody knew the real Conrad. People thought they did, but they didn’t.

When he was on-air, doing his radio show, he was everybody’s friend. Off air he had no friends, none at all, and it didn’t seem to worry him. He didn’t take part in any activities outside the classroom and was only ever seen at school. He was very bright, top-of-the-class stuff, but just not involved. People tried, of course, to start conversations with him, but it never worked. He wasn’t offensive, but it was like he was Teflon-coated, things just slid off him.

He was never abused in any way, people just let him be. Apart from the fact that Westpoint High did not tolerate bullying in any form, the way that his uncle, the Toucan, used to use his radio show to belittle and humiliate bullies was still legend in the town.

He never had, but no-one doubted that the Seeker could easily destroy anyone he wanted to, so they were all very careful around him. He’d never had a girl-friend, or a boy-friend, but they were sure he could if he wanted to.

Robert said, “Maybe his balls haven’t dropped yet.”

The other two told him to shut the fuck up; there was no need to be crude.

What did he look like?

“Pretty average. Brown hair, blue eyes, all the usual bits.”

Ross disagreed. “He’s more than average, he’s a good-looking kid.”

“What are ya?” Robert replied. “Don’t you go turning gay on me. No offence, Superboy, but I’ve already got two gay brothers and that’s enough!”

“Ask Trina if I’m gay,” said Ross. “She’ll laugh in your face. You don’t have to be gay to know that someone’s good-looking, and he is. Why do you want to know all this, Justin? You haven’t got your eye on him, have you? Billy would kill you!”

“No. I haven’t got my eye on him,” Justin laughed. “I just want to know about him, that’s all. I know someone who likes him.”

“We know a hundred people who like him. Hey! It’s him, isn’t it – Nicholas? That’s why you’re interested, your new friend has got a crush on Conrad. Well you can tell him that he hasn’t got a snowflake’s chance in hell.”

“I’m not saying that it is Nicholas, but if it was, he’s good enough for anyone. He’s a great kid.”

“Maybe he is, but he still wouldn’t have a chance with Conrad Keenan. Nobody does.”

“Okay then. Thanks Guys, I appreciate this. You will remember to give my message to Nicholas, won’t you? And, Boys, be nice to him, he needs friends.”

“We all do, Superboy. We all need friends.”

“We do. But some of us have got friends, friends and family. Some of us have got nothing.”

“Okay, Justin. Are we finished here?”

“Yes, I guess so. Thanks.”

“Good! Because I’m bloody starving. Catch you later.”

Ross went into the house, closely followed by his other half. “Laters, Superboy.”

“Later, Guys.”

‘I wish I had a twin brother when I was 14.Oh – that’s right, I did!’

Sunday lunch was a casual affair – basically ‘help yourself and get your own.’ Jeremy thought that was a great idea, but Billy said “no”. He would get lunch for him and it was not going to be all ice-cream and fizzy drinks.

He asked Justin what he would like and Justin replied, “I suppose that a plate of ice-cream is out of the question?”

“You suppose right. I’ll get you a sandwich.”

“An ice-cream sandwich?”

“Shut up, Justin.”

Cecily watched Billy getting the food ready. “Do you always wait on Justin, hand and foot?”

“No Mum, it’s just that we stick to what we do best. I look after the food, Justin does the cleaning.”

“Oh. Okay, that makes sense.”

Lucas and Margaret didn’t stay long. Their boys were getting ‘scratchy’, so they went home hoping that they’d go to sleep in the car. They usually did.

Justin said, “They do? I wish that Jeremy would. He never sleeps in the car, he’s scared he might miss something.”

Billy agreed, “Right! He’s something else, our boy. He’s got my looks and Justin’s brains.”

Robert said, “How do you work that out? Justin’s not his real father.”

Cecily snorted. “Don’t you believe it! Ask him who his daddy is and he’ll tell you Justin, and then Billy. It’s never Billy and Justin, Justin always comes first for Jeremy. Always!”

“And so he should,” said Billy. “Jeremy loves Justin.”

“Everybody loves Justin,’ said Ross. “You do, Mum does, I do and so does Robert. Everyone loves Justin.”

“They do,” Billy nodded. “Maybe because he loves everybody.”

Justin said, “Everybody can shut up now.”

When they were about to leave, Cecily said, “Can you come out for dinner next Saturday? John and Brian will be here for the weekend, it’s their birthdays – Brian on Saturday and John on Sunday. Dianne and Grant are coming with them too.”

“Okay, sure,” said Billy. “It’s not holidays at university already, is it?”

“No. They’re all going back on Sunday.”

“What can we bring?” Justin asked.

“Nothing. Just bring yourselves.”

“And Jeremy?”

“Of course! Bring Jeremy if you want to be allowed into my house.”

“We’ll do that then. Come on, Sunny, time to hit the road now. ‘Bye everyone.”

On the way back into town, Jeremy asked, “Can we go to the park?”

“What do you say?” Billy replied.

“Please! Please Darling, Beautiful Daddy, can we go to the park?”

“Okay. We’ll stop at the Square for a few minutes.”

“No. Not the Square! I want to go to the park at my beach.”

“You want to go to the park where?”

“At my beach.”

“He means Carvers’ Beach,” said Justin. “He has decided that it’s his beach because he’s a Carver.”
“You can’t own a beach, Jeremy,” said Billy. “Beaches belong to everybody.”

“Not this one. Carvers’ Beach is mine!”

“Don’t argue with him, Sunny. You can’t win.

Okay, Jeremy. The beach belongs to you – you and about a hundred other Carvers. You could spend a few hours cleaning up your beach, it’s probably pretty messy after last week’s storms.”

“Cleaning it up? It’s not really my beach. It belongs to everybody.”

“Sure – when it suits you it does,” Billy laughed. “We’ll go to the Carvers’ Beach playground for a few minutes.”

“Thank you, Daddy.”

“You’re welcome, Son.”

“Hah!” Justin laughed. “You guys should go into business. You could call it ‘Sunny and Son’.”

“Superboy, Sunny and Son,” said Jeremy.

“Hah!” said Billy. “Gotcha there!”

“Jeremy, My Love. Don’t you start calling me ‘Superboy’.”

“Everybody else does.”

“Well they shouldn’t. I’m not Superboy, I’m Justin.”

“No you’re not. You’re Superdaddy.”

“Superdaddy? That’s a new one. Okay then, you can be Super-son.”

“I already am!”

“Shut up Jeremy.”

Billy turned right at the bridge, instead of turning left to go into town, and drove out to the suburb of Carvers’ Beach.

When approaching the bridge over Marvin’s Creek, Justin said, “Remember when we went on an expedition up Marvin’s Creek?”

“Yeah, of course I do. That was a good day, even if you didn’t find any lost Carvers.”

“Every day with you is a good day, Sunny. We didn’t find any Carver boys then, but we’ve sure got one now!”

“We have! He’s a good one too.”

“He is; simply the best. No red hair though. Jeremy, how would you like to have your hair dyed?”

“You leave him alone. Jeremy’s hair is fine just as it is.”

“Dammit. It’s about time that we went back to the Ferryman’s Hotel site too.”

“Shut up, Justin. Not today.”

“Dammit again.”

They arrived at the park – the Domain at Carvers’ Beach, and stopped by the children’s playground. Jonathan was there with all four of his twins, Marty and Andy and Justine and Jonathan, (known as ‘Junior’).

He greeted them delightedly. “Hello my Lovely Brothers! It’s really good to see you. I’m totally outnumbered here. Do you want some more kids?”

“Thank you, but no. We’ve got all that we need. Jeremy outnumbers us all on his own.”

“Yeah! They’re your problems, Jonathan. How come it’s just you here with the mob?”

“I’m just giving the girls a break. They’re at home with the babies. Claude’s got morning sickness again and now Lana thinks that she has too.”

“Some people never learn!”

“You need to be more careful with that dick, My Brother. It’s a lethal weapon!”

“Nah, it’s all good. Anyway, you should talk. If you two could breed, you’d have a tribe by now.”

“We’d still be struggling to keep up with you.”

“Uncle Justin! Uncle Justin! Come and play with us,” Junior called from the swings.

“Okay! I bet I can go higher than you can.”

“You won’t!”

Justin went to join Junior and Justine on the swings. Marty and Andy grabbed Jeremy’s hands and led him over to the climbing tower. Billy and Jonathan sat down, in the shade, to watch them.

“Jonathan, do you ever regret it? The way your life has turned out I mean.”

“No way! No regrets at all. How about you?”

“No regrets. My life is the best. I’ve got the two greatest boys in the world and they’re all mine.”

“Two boys?”

“Yep. Justin and Jeremy. One little kid and one big one.”

“You’ve got that right. Justin’s always going to be a boy at heart.”

“Yeah, a Superboy.”

“A super, old, boy.”

Claudette and Lana, with the babies, arrived in the mini-van late in the afternoon. They brought a picnic-tea with them – Billy’s Burgers for everyone.

“You know, Billy,” Claudette sat down next to him. “It’s about time you were thinking of a burger bar out here at the beach.”

“You might be right. It’d do well in the summertime anyway. I’ll talk to Mum about it.

“You do that,” Lana agreed. “It’s past time there was some development out here. It’s a popular place but it’s a long way to go to get something to eat.”

Justin arrived with a giggling, squirming twin under each arm, Marty on his shoulders and Jeremy on his back. They all collapsed in a pile on the grass.

“Good thinking, Guys. We should start a Baby-Factory shop too. We’d make a fortune off you lot.

“Justin!”

“Yeah. I know, ‘shut up, Justin’.”

Jonathan, carrying Andy, arrived back from the beach. “Hey Girls. Peter and Jay are over there by the water.”

“They are?” said Lana. “I’ll bet they’re not swimming. Tell them to come over and join us, there’s lots of food here.”

“No, they wouldn’t come. They’re busy.”

“Busy doing what, dare I ask?”

“Not what you’re thinking. They’re recording the sound of the waves on the sand. Peter’s got an idea for the Summertime Symphony that he’s writing.”

“Recording? On the beach? Your brothers are obsessed, Superboy.”

“No they’re not, Lana. Well, maybe Peter is. Jay’s not, he’s just patient. He does whatever Peter tells him to. He’s a good guy, is Jay.”

“He is! You’ve got great brothers, Justin.”

“He has,” Jonathan agreed. “Especially me.”

“Shut up, Jonathan. Shut up or I’ll hug you.”

“Behave yourself, Superboy. There’s kids here you know.”

“Nothing wrong with hugging, Claude. In case you haven’t noticed, Jeremy and his cousins are hugging each other all the time.”

“Yes, they are. I wonder where they got that from?”

“Shut up, Claude. Here,” he handed her another burger. “Eat. Feed my nephew.”

“It’s a niece actually. I had a scan yesterday.”

“A girl? Cool. About time we had another girl.”

“We? What do you mean, ‘we’? Do you want to go through the delivery for me?”

“Not likely! I wouldn’t want to take that away from you.”

“Gee, thanks a lot!”

“You’re welcome, and I mean that. I’ll shut up, shall I?”

“Yeah, you do that.”

When they were loading the cars up, getting ready to go home, Jonathan came back from buckling Justine into her seat. “Thanks Justin. I’m glad you turned up today. One thing that you’re always good at is tiring the kids out. We should get some peace tonight.”

Justin stood looking back across the Domain. “Good for you. Our little dynamo is not even starting to get tired yet. Robbie Keenan lives over in one of those houses, doesn’t he?”