Usual Disclaimer: If you are not of an age to read this because of the laws of your country or district please desist. If you are a bigot or prod-nosed fundamentalist of any persuasion find your monkey-spanking literature elsewhere and keep your predilections and opinions to yourself. Everyone else welcome and comments more than welcome.
This is a very long tale. It unfolds over a good number of years. What is true, is true: what is not is otherwise. If you have trouble with the English educational system let me know. A dramatis personae will follow after a few installments - there are a lot of characters!
ALADDIN'S AWAKENING
By
Joel
Chapter 12
Part One
Tuesday November 9th 1943
I was one of the last into our form room in the morning and Huggy was already there managing to glare at us latecomers as well as giving Cleggy the benefit of his tongue over something or other. It also meant that he had others who'd transgressed in his sights and his wrath fell on Nobbo who came in with me and who hadn't finished the work he'd had to hand in yesterday. Huggy turned from upbraiding Cleggy and beckoned Nobbo, who, when standing in front of him, looked like a minnow before a whale. Huggy flapped his gown and chalk dust flew about.
"Clarke!" he barked, and the use of the surname meant he was displeased, "Where is the rest of the homework, please?"
Nobbo was bright red and the rest of us waited for his response fearing for the worst but the nasty amongst us were disappointed. Nobbo pulled a clutch of loose sheets of paper from his satchel. "It's all here, sir. I got the pages muddled yesterday and I did some more last night 'cause I found it interesting."
The rest of us gasped, Nobbo, or anyone for that matter, finding maths interesting was a most unusual phenomenon. Obviously, Huggy thought the same and Nobbo's reply had really taken the wind out of his sails - or at least his gown which settled about his ample figure as he looked down on Nobbo.
"I am most flattered, young Anthony, at your sudden realisation of the beauty of mathematics and your desire to pursue those elements we have been studying to further conclusion. It interests me also that in the space of two days you are the second seeker after the truth to have gone beyond the call of duty. Is there any particular reason for your interest?"
Nobbo looked a bit perplexed, "No, sir, I just liked doing those problems and carried on."
Huggy also looked perplexed then smiled, something Huggy was not renowned for, and took the proffered sheets from Nobbo, "Anthony, there are few times when one hears that treasure has been discovered at the foot of the rainbow and I am sure that this is one such occasion. Thank you for telling me that."
All that had improved Huggy's initial mood and so when it was my turn to be cross- questioned about my help for Tom I wasn't too concerned. In fact, Huggy also said that I showed remarkable economy in expression, whatever that meant. I'll have to ask Pa.
Matt stayed behind nattering to Tony as the rest of us went out at morning break so I caught up with Nobbo. "You were lucky, weren't you? Did you really do more?"
"Oh, yeah, I didn't have anything else to do 'cause I'd finished the book Benno had lent me so I went on with the problems and finished the page." He paused. "They were interesting, I found I could do them quite well, too."
I changed the subject and asked if he had liked the book.
"Smashing, ever so exciting, Benno's going to lend me another." He grinned, "Benno's OK, he doesn't get out much 'cause he has to look after his two younger brothers a lot. He came round on Saturday afternoon, though. Billy was out..." He paused and nudged me, "He's OK..., come over here and I'll tell you more."
We walked over to the edge of the playing field out of earshot of anyone else.
"Yeah, we had a long chat and he told me he'd found out at Easter about it when his cousin was staying with them and he found out he could make stuff then. His cousin's just a bit older but said he'd been doing it for ages and told Benno all sorts of things like your cousin told you."
"Yep, he wasn't caught over the hairy palm story, was he? 'Cause he said his cousin had told him about that!"
Nobbo's face widened into a great grin, "Yep, I remember that, but then what d'you think he told me?"
I shrugged my shoulders, "I don't know, you tell me."
"Oh," he laughed, "this is really good. He said he was looking out of his bedroom window one morning in half term week and saw his kid brother, you know, that one in the second year, go into their garden shed and shut the door very carefully so he wondered what was going on. He said he crept down quickly and went round the back and peered through a knot hole and saw the little sod was diddling himself and then he shot some stuff. Gosh, he was surprised 'cos the kid's only twelve and his cousin said it usually started to happen when you were at least thirteen or so. That's right isn't it? 'Cos that fits most of us, doesn't it?"
I nodded sagely and Nobbo continued without stopping for breath, "And he said he hasn't got any proper hair round his cock yet 'cause he's seen him in the bath plenty of times and his cock isn't that big either."
He paused at last for breath and as I didn't comment he went on. "He hasn't said anything to him yet about it and I'd already told him what had happened with Billy and me but he said he has a room to himself and the younger kids sleep in a different room so the kid hadn't seen him tossing off. So he doesn't know how the kid found out and his other brother's only nine and he thinks that was why that one was doing it in the shed. What do you think?"
"I suppose you found all this out after...?"
It was my turn to pause and Nobbo nodded in response.
"Of course," he said giving me another nudge, "I just mentioned when we were chatting that we'd all had a good laugh about hairy palms and that started it. I told him all about Billy and me and then afterwards he wanted to know if I'd done it with anyone else 'cause he'd only been tossed off by his cousin at Easter."
"I suppose my name came into it?"
"Yeah, and Matt and the others. He was very curious and really wanted to know if everyone was doing it to themselves."
Nobbo stopped speaking and looked across my shoulder, "Talk of the devil, here he comes!"
I turned to look and sure enough Benno was coming across the tarmac with a book in his hand.
"Hi, Nobbo," he called out as he approached, "I've brought the other book I promised you, it's called 'A Study in Scarlet'."
He handed it over and turned to me, "You've read the hound one, haven't you?"
"Yeah, and I'm reading 'A Speckled Band' and I should finish it tonight. It's ever so good, very creepy!"
"Oh, could I borrow it? I haven't got that one."
"Yep, of course, I'll check tonight 'cos its my dad's and if it's OK I'll bring it in tomorrow."
Benno paused, "No, I'll tell you what, don't bother to bring it, if it's OK I'll ride home with you tomorrow and pick it up then."
I don't think Nobbo heard all this as he had his nose in the first page and wasn't attending to us. I think I know why Benno made that suggestion. We will have to wait and see!
After school I cycled home alone as I had to do some practice before Mike turned up for his lesson with Pa. However, when I got in the first thing I saw was a note from Ma and an envelope addressed to me on the kitchen table. I read the note which said Ma had had a letter from Auntie Fay inviting us all to Cardiff for Christmas as Uncle Dick had something to celebrate and enclosed with it had been the envelope for me. I opened it and found it was from Alun.
"Dear Jacko,
Your mam will have told you about
the invitation for Christmas. Dad says it's to
be a special occasion and all the family are
invited. Grandma and Granddad will be here as
well. See you then.
I do hope you can come,
Your cousin, Alun.
P.S. Rhys and Gareth hope you can come too!"
I read it through twice, then realised Alun had pressed more heavily with his pen on the word 'come' both times. Cheeky sod! Of course I can come! Its months since Easter and a lot's happened since then.
I stuffed the letter into my pocket and went through and practised scales for half an hour. That made me quite peckish so it was back to the kitchen to ferret around for some food. I discovered four biscuits in a box, not much but two each for me and Mike. I had just made a pot of tea when he knocked on the back door. I don't know why but my dick was going stiff as I followed him back into the kitchen. I wanted to ask him about some of the things Nobbo had told me 'cos I expected he knew if boys as young as Benno's brother could really make stuff. Of course, I remembered Matt saying he had found out pretty early so I'll have to talk to him.
Anyway, I told Mike we would be away at Christmas and then he wanted to know what had been happening at school so I told him about Huggy's comments. He said that sounded like a great compliment and could he see my maths book. I really couldn't stand up as my cock was very stiff now and I was scared there would be a bulge so I pointed to my satchel on the table in front of him and said it was in there.
As he opened the satchel I wondered how was I going to control my prick? It was achingly hard now. He found the book and leafed through the pages.
"Yes, I see what he means. You put down everything very concisely even where you show all the working. There are very few crossings out and I can't see any wrong answers either. Do you like maths?"
I nodded and told him about Nobbo and what Huggy had said to him. I could see he was looking at the quadratic equations we had done before half term.
"Gosh, Jacko, you can do these better than I can. Look, I would have put in an extra line here."
He stood up and came round to my side of the table and sat beside me. Oh hell, my dong was really straining for a caressing hand to relieve it.
"I'd say you have a flair for maths. Like your dad and mine come to that. Mine got a first in maths before he did engineering and I think your dad did pretty well too from what I've heard."
Thank goodness my erection was beginning to subside and I shuffled on the chair to ease it a bit. Oh hell, why couldn't I just ask Mike all the things I wanted to and tell him things as well like he was my choice for our other musketeer? I suppose I was afraid he might laugh at me and anyway it was all a bit personal.
Just then Ma and Pa came up the side of the house so all I could do was to save anything I wanted to say until another time. When Pa and Mike had gone off to the study Ma wanted to know if I was pleased about the Christmas plans. I said I was and that Alun and the others were looking forward to us going. I didn't show her the letter but later that evening put it carefully in my secret hiding place.
When I'd been exploring the room soon after I moved into it I'd found a small loose board in the window recess just under the edge of the lino. I pulled back the lino and prised it up and slipped the letter in on top of various other things I had secreted there over the years.
Ma said I had better write back and she would put my reply in with her letter to Auntie Fay in the morning.
I thought long and hard but decided to keep it short and snappy.
"Dear Alun,
Thank you for your letter.
Ma is writing back to accept the invitation.
Tell Rhys and Gareth I am very pleased that
I am able to come.
Best wishes, your cousin,
JPFT (Jacko)."
I folded the sheet and put it into an envelope and carefully labelled it 'To Alun'. That should do, he should get the message! I was really looking forward to Christmas and seeing him again and I wanted to find out what my other two cousins were like as well. It's funny, I hadn't taken much notice of them before when they came to stay a couple of years ago as to a lad of twelve they seemed so much bigger and older and I thought it best to keep out of their way. I think I'd spent most of the week round at Tony's. Now I was much more curious.
The letter done I laboured on doing a mound of homework. As soon as I'd finished that I went downstairs and grabbed a sandwich and some cocoa, said goodnight to Ma and Pa and settled down in bed to finish the Sherlock Holmes book. It was no good, because even while I was reading I kept thinking of Mike and Alun and had to interrupt the last chapter to have what was now my nightly wank. At last, content, I finished the book and Benno could have it tomorrow. Oh, but I still hadn't asked Pa who Mary was!
Wednesday was just another day except that Ma had postponed our French circle and Benno was to come home with me to collect the book. That made it not quite another day because the inevitable happened. We arrived, I rather breathless as Benno rode his bike very fast, just after quarter past four.
We went straight up to my room as I said the book was there. He was impressed with the size of my room because he said his was much smaller. I showed him the steam engine but he didn't seem all that interested so as we looked at it I said Nobbo had told me he'd been round to see him on Saturday. He fiddled about with the engine without looking up.
"Yes, I went round and had a chat with him. He's quite a character is Nobbo."
This was a new term for me, I wondered how it fitted Nobbo as he seemed just an ordinary chap to me.
"Oh, how's that?"
"Well, he doesn't mind discussing things and telling you things, does he?"
"Oh, I think we all do. Matt and I have long talks about all sorts of things and last week there was Tony and Roo as well."
He stopped turning the flywheel on the engine and stood up straight. "I suppose I mean I haven't really got to know you others very well. Nobbo says I always seem to be in a hurry and I suppose that's true 'cause I have to keep an eye on my brothers a lot with mum working and dad away."
I nodded, "I suppose I'm lucky I don't have any younger brothers but it's a bit lonely too being an only child."
I thought a moment, "Hey, one of your brothers is in Roo's brother's class, isn't he?"
"That's right, that's James. He's in the second year with Kenny Barnes. They call him Kanga, don't they? But I've got a younger brother, Jud, as well and he's still at Junior School."
"That's an odd name, isn't it, Jud?"
He grinned, "His name's Judson, that was my mother's name before she was married and we call him Jud for short."
I thought now or never. "Nobbo told me about you seeing your brother James in the shed."
He looked rather surprised, I suppose at news travelling so fast.
I went on, "He's pretty young, I didn't make stuff until a few weeks ago although I'd tried before."
He visibly relaxed, "I found out at Easter."
"Do you want to now?"
He nodded and it wasn't long before we were inspecting each other closely. His prick was quite thin but had a lot of skin over his knob and his balls hung quite low all below a neat bush of dark hair.
I was rather surprised when his foreskin rolled back very easily and I told him mine had only just gone back without hurting. He was equally surprised and said his had always gone back even when he was a little kid and that when he had watched his brother jacking off although he only had a little stubby prick his end was all bare.
I tossed him off first and to begin with it seemed odd as his cock was so slender but had this end skin flopping back and forth. I pulled his skin as far back as possible and he soon shot a thin jet of come up in the air. He was a bit awkward when it came to my turn as he kept changing how he held my prick as he said he wasn't used to tossing someone else off but I did provide him with a good show of spunk in the end.
When we had dressed again he was full of questions and I found out he too was beating his meat every day. He told me he was quite jealous of his brother having found out about wanking so young and he wished he had as it was so nice. He said he wondered how his brother discovered about doing it but wasn't sure how to ask him.
Knowing that Tom and Dunc often had baths together I questioned him about their arrangements but he said that although he had to supervise their bath night James had recently told him he wanted to bath himself. I suggested he went in and got in the bath with him saying it would save time and then he could 'accidently' get a hard-on and see what happened. He thought that was a good idea so we had a good giggle over that.
About half past five he said he would have to rush as his brothers would be waiting at their aunt's house for him and if he was too late they would moan to his mum. As we went out to collect his bike he said he would see what happened and thanked me for the book and, with a twinkle in his eye, for everything else. "Toodlepip old chap," and he was gone at great speed!
In bed that night I reviewed my encounter with Benno and decided that he was someone I could get on with very well and, anyway, he was just like the rest of us. A thought struck me and I did a quick count up. Gosh, I must be catching up with Roo 'cos Benno was the eleventh, so I celebrated with another by myself! I musn't forget my diary in the morning.
Nothing much happened Thursday except Vince was still away so I had to endure Cleggy's grunts and shoves during games but on Friday there was an invitation for each of us to the party on the next Friday. There was much discussion of this during breaks so everyone went home in a good mood for the weekend.
The only thing to dampen spirits were two announcements on the notice board. Firstly, that all fourth years and above would be required to watch a match next Wednesday afternoon between our First XV and a school from the next town, luckily from two thirty onwards, and secondly, teams were listed for matches on the following Saturday. Guess who against? The Catholics again! I was picked with the rest of our usual Fourth and Fifth Year team with Cleggy now in the second row. Nobbo and Benno were to be the touch judges.
Again much discussion. I cycled most of the way home with Nobbo and he asked if I wanted to go round to his on Saturday afternoon and we could get all our homework done. I agreed as I thought we could also discuss Benno!
On Saturday Nobbo was in a real panic when I arrived. He hadn't realised he'd chosen to do Latin for one of his School Cert subjects and so had been coasting along this term until Billy had reminded him because the subject had been listed in his letter. It was also down on my list so we spent a good bit of time going over all the bits he should have learned which, luckily, I had already done.
He was less panicky at the end especially as we decided 'jacto' was a good translation for 'I toss off' and we actually tried it out on each other.
We then discussed Benno and were quite envious of his brother being able to come at twelve and a bit. Nobbo said he'd told Billy about the lad and Billy had said two of his pals maintained they'd shot stuff even younger but he hadn't really believed them 'cos he thought they'd been boasting. Billy hadn't come home by six so we had a second wank each to celebrate Nobbo's increase of knowledge of Latin and I went home to supper.
I was up and about when Duncan delivered the paper on Sunday morning. I went down and picked it up from the doormat and a folded note dropped out. It was from Tom and just read, 'Help! Need urgent assistance with more maths. Dunc said he would deliver this. Tom.' Pa was sitting at the table in the breakfast room when I took the paper through and he wanted to know what the piece of paper was. I gave it to him and he laughed.
"Och aye," he said with that awful attempt again at a Scottish accent, "Puir auld Tom, the braw wee laddie has more brawn than brain, och aye the noo!" He looked quizzically at me, "Do you think you can help him?"
"I did last week."
"I know. Mike told me on Tuesday what your Mr Pugh had said to you. 'An economy of expression', eh? Why didn't you tell me that? Mike was rather impressed."
I must have blushed, I didn't know Mike discussed me with Pa and I had clean forgot to tell Pa about it. "I really didn't think it was important though Mike did look at my maths book and said I got things right with less working out than he would have done."
Pa smiled. "Have you got your maths book here? If you have, let me have a look 'cause you haven't asked me to help you at all this year so far."
I went upstairs and fetched it and handed it to him.
"Oh, dear God," he murmured after riffling through a few pages, "Are they still torturing young minds with such problems?" He spent a few more moments looking more carefully at the later pages. "Well, you certainly know what you are doing.
You don't seem to make a wrong step. Do you do them first on scrap paper and then copy them in?"
I shook my head, "No, I read the question, then I think about it and then write it all straight down."
He laughed, "Well, Jacko, you're a better mathematician than I was at your age, I can tell you that. My books were always being given back with comments about untidy workings out and so on."
"But Mike said you were ever so good at maths."
"I think I blossomed more in the Sixth form and then I always liked the applied maths. But I'll tell you this, it's all quite different when you get to the Sixth form. I'll show you, let's see if you can do this."
What followed was fascinating. In about half an hour Pa showed me the beginnings of calculus and I followed every step. It was only half an hour because Ma came downstairs and disturbed us but that half hour really made me want to do maths as well as languages. Over breakfast Pa talked about the ways he had to use maths in his work and that was fascinating too. Even Ma listened without interrupting until in a pause she said she often wondered what he did in his room at work with the door shut and a cloud of pipe smoke seeping out and now she knew he was just working out sums. Pa reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his pipe and waved it at her.
"I've solved many three pipe problems with this, and I bet you don't know where that quotation comes from, either!"
Ma was quick, "Got you, yes I do! It's your marvellous Sherlock Holmes, isn't it!"
My turn, "And who was Mary, dad?"
Pa stopped waving his pipe. "Sherlock Holmes,... Mary?" he said slowly, "I know!" He poked the pipe at me. "That book you've just read," he looked from me to Ma with a grin on his face, "That book was given to me by a girl friend when I first went to university. She thought a dull engineer should do some light reading." He looked at Ma with a roguish glint, "That was one before you, my dear!"
"One before me, from what your brothers told me there were at least a dozen before me!"
"Pure exaggeration, you know what Dick and Edward are like, they always like to embroider everything!"
"I know exactly what your brothers are like!" she laughed, "Just like you. And I expect your son will be the same tease when he gets older too with your example." She reached out and picked up Tom's note. "What's this?" she asked.
Pa grinned at me, "A plea from the heart it sounds like. Your son is in demand as a helpmeet to a bear of little brain! The puir wee laddie needs help!"
"Oh, it's Tom is it. Mary was saying she'd had a letter from the Headmaster with some queries about the subjects Tom had chosen for School Certificate. Apparently he thinks Tom shouldn't chose to do so many and I expect Tom's worried about his progress. She said she had heard there was to be a clear out at the end of the second year again." She turned to me, "You won't repeat what I've said, will you?"
I shook my head thinking it wasn't only Tom who was worried. I knew about Nobbo's panic about Latin and I wondered about Jim Masters because he was scared earlier in the term. Pa had finished his breakfast and was just getting up to take the paper for a read but he stopped and looked thoughtful.
"Look, Jacko, you'd better go and see if you can help Tom and after lunch we can go up to Alvescott again. See if Tom wants to come and if Duncan wants a trip out he can join us too. Would that be a good idea?"
"Oh, yes please, I'd like to go up there again." I also thought if Dunc comes it would make Matt a bit jealous! "I'll go and see what Tom wants. I expect Huggy, I mean Mr Pugh, has given them extra work or something."
Pa wandered off and I went and practised for about half an hour before I sauntered round to Tom's house just after nine. Again the place looked deserted, only Tom's bike in the open garage. I knocked on the back door but no reply so I went in and called out at the bottom of the stairs. Tom appeared, still in his pyjamas, looking a bit worn and worried.
"Thank God you've come, Jacko, this maths is driving me up the wall."
He disappeared back into his room as I climbed the stairs and was seated in front of an array of papers, rough notes and books when I poked my head round the door.
"What's the matter, Tom?" I asked.
"What's the bloody matter, you ask? I can't do any of these and Duncan won't help. Just because he won a scholarship and I didn't."
Poor Tom, he was in a state. In fact, I was pretty certain he'd been crying. I pulled up a chair and sat by him.
"Let's have a look. Which ones do you have to do?"
He didn't say anything but pointed. I could see his difficulties. Huggy had set some trig problems and they were not the easiest. We'd had a go at them a couple of weeks ago and it was that lesson where Huggy had bounced me around a bit.
"It's no good, Jacko, I can't do them. I'm no good and Dunc says I'm no good as well."
A tear slowly trickled down his cheek. Oh dear, our rugger captain in tears! I put an arm round his broad shoulder.
"Cheer up, Tom, I'll help you as much as I can." I sensed there was a lot more to it than just not being able to do the maths. "You can do them, even Matt did this lot and I just had to help him a bit. What's really the matter?"
"Oh, Jacko, I'm so worried. Mum had this latter saying it might be a good idea if I took fewer subjects for School Cert. Dunc said it was because I was thick and he said you know what they do to thickos, chuck them out. It's not fair, Dunc's much cleverer than I am and he's so good at his work and he's Head Boy and Rugger Captain. He's bigger and stronger and better at all sorts of things than me and I want to be as good as he is and Mum would be ever so upset if I got chucked out and what would dad say?" he wailed, a second tear joined the first.
I squeezed his shoulder at the end of this litany of woes, "I think Dunc's exaggerating. If they were going to chuck you out they would have done it a long time ago.
Anyway, if you don't do so many subjects you can spend more time on the others, but you have to do maths."
This did have the effect of brightening him up somewhat. He brushed the tears away and sniffed. "Gosh, Jacko, I've been so worried. He's been perfectly beastly to me the last few days. He knows I'm not so good as he is and he keeps rubbing it in."
"I expect he's worried about his exams even if he is good. He's got to do them this year before he's called up, hasn't he?" I gave his shoulder another squeeze.
He sniffed again and nodded.
"Yeah, he works very hard and he gets good marks."
I remembered what Huggy had said to him, "But he can't do maths very well, can he? Huggy said that didn't he?"
"Yeah, but I want to do as well as he has."
"Well, you are as good in some things, so far. You're our team captain and Van wouldn't have chosen you if he didn't think you weren't any good. And we all like you being captain." He had the good grace to blush a bit. "Come on then, let's have a look at this dreadful maths and perhaps you might be even more cheered up."
He nodded and tugged up the front of his pyjama jacket and wiped his eyes. "Please, it's this first one," he said rather plaintively, but before I had a chance to look where his finger was pointing he turned his head and looked straight at me. "Please, Jacko, don't tell the others about this, will you?"
"Of course not, you can't help being worried and Duncan hasn't been very kind, has he?" He nodded and put his arm over mine and round my shoulder.
"You're a pal, Jacko, I shan't forget this." He smiled and sniffed and pointed again at the offending page in the text book, "It's this sod here, what does it mean?"
I remembered what Huggy had told us and I explained it all again to Tom and made him do each little bit until he had completed the first problem. We did the same to all six Huggy had set for homework but then continued until we had done all ten in that section.
It took about an hour all told and by the end Tom was much more confident and was suggesting what to do next and was getting them right. He was so pleased when he wrote down the final line of the last one he turned round and put his arm over my shoulder.
"Gosh, you're great, Jacko, I feel so much better. I'm sorry I got so worked up but I've really been worried this last week" His face crinkled into a wide smile and he whispered, "I'll tell you a secret, eh, Jacko?"
To be continued....
If you have kept up with the story, let me know: joad130@hotmail.com
Previous stories of mine have been published on Nifty.
Spying on My Brothers: (45k: Incest Section: Apr 15 2000)
Easter Rugger Tours (Dir: HS Section: Jun 10 2000)
Jordan's Story (84k: HS Section: Jul 23 2000)
Flip's Tale (Dir: HS Section: Apr 17 2002)
Taming the 'Phobes (Dir: HS; Military: August 04 2002)
Read and Enjoy.