Chapter 3

Timothy and his mother dressed warmly and went to the park where other boys were playing soccer. Timothy was content just to look on for a while and then they walked. His mother commented on how she missed walking in the park and wondered if they could do this again another time.

She asked him about the other two boys, saying that she had never considered him to be a bit weedy until she saw how much alike the three of them were. She said that it had never occurred to her that there was such a difference between him and his brother and that she had just put it down to the age difference. He told her that John was sometimes called Jackie because of his looks and that Jason was called Janice by the bullies but didn’t seem to mind it. “What do they call you?” she asked. He told her that his usual nickname was ‘Info’ after his initials but he did have to explain that more fully to her. He then said “Sometimes Bruce would call me Tammy.”

As they walked he was asked about what he wanted to do when he grew up and he told his mother that he didn’t really know. He said that he had thought that he would like to look after animals but the family had never had a pet so, except for the chickens they had back in the village, he had not had that much to do with them. His mother got them onto a bus and they went to the local safari park where they wandered the pathways, laughing at the antics of the monkeys and being awed by the lions and tigers that they could see in the distant area where you could go if you were in a car.

They had lunch in the park cafe and sat, eating ice-creams, to watch the penguins swim around. Timothy found that he could tell which ones were related to each other as they had a particular way of interacting, just like a family. Then his eyes were led to an actual family on the other side of the pool. Their body language was unmistakeable – the father was all macho and was eating the peanuts they had bought to feed the animals; the mother looked browbeaten and the teenage daughter was clearly not in any place she wanted to be. He pointed them out to his mother and they watched the family with interest until they walked off. They agreed that the teenage girl was a female version of Brenton.

On the way home, his mother said “Thank you, Timothy. Today has shaken me out of my routine and I don’t think life is going to be the same as it has been. We, my lad, are in for a roller-coaster until you walk up the front steps of that grammar school, along with your interesting friends.” At home he helped her get the family dinner for his still moody father and his very sullen brother. Obviously their day had not been all sweetness and fun.

That evening he showered and got his things ready for school in the morning. He was not sure what it would be like but one thing he did know was that it was the first day of the rest of his life and that he just had to get it right. When he dozed off he had a dreamless night until the very early hours and then he was dreaming that he was playing with penguins and then they were all chased by a lion, escaping by climbing a tree. There he was, high in a tree with a bunch of penguins chattering around him and there, on another branch, stood the Unicorn. “Hello, Rosalie” he said “What are you doing here?” The Unicorn looked at him and said “More to the point, Timothy, what are you doing in a tree, surrounded by penguins and being stalked by a hungry lion?” He thought for a moment and said “You’re spot on; this is not the right dream. Thank you for that, Rosalie.”

The Unicorn faded and his dream changed when a big crowd of monkeys came along and chased the lion away with their antics. He was then back on the ground and all of the penguins waddled off chattering to each other. As they left they turned into a bunch of children and he suddenly felt protective. The dream faded and he woke up on Monday morning wondering what it all meant. The need to escape being trapped he could understand but the rest of it eluded him.

You could cut the tension with a knife that morning at breakfast. His father had rung his office and told them he was taking his son to school to talk to the headmaster and Brenton was not a happy chappie. Timothy left home after helping his mother tidy up and wondered just what the day would bring. What he did not expect was his two friends waiting for him at the gate to go into the building together. ‘His friends?’ he thought. Last week he didn’t have any real friends and today they were a team. A team of weedy misfit’s maybe, but still a team of three boys with a common purpose.

They kept an eye out for the bullies but there was no sign of Bruce or Tommy. Geoff was there but kept to himself all day, avoiding just about everybody. The day, then, became enjoyable for the three of them. All at once, Dines Green Academy had become somewhere the three of them wanted to be for the moment. When he thought about it some more he realised that it was much better than being locked down at home. His mother had home schooled the two of them for much of last year, doing her library work on the family computer. At least, now he was able to get out and about.

The first study session was going to be on Tuesday and Jason was excited at hosting the other two. He had been a bit of a loner since his father had left. His father had done his best to try and give Jason a rounded experience, taking him to just about every football code he could find and Jason was not unhappy when that constant standing in a bunch of shouting guys without knowing, or caring, what they were shouting for came to an end. He told John and Timothy that it was a great thing in his life that they would be there for him as he, like them, had not had a proper friend since kindergarten.

John walked part of the way with Timothy when they left school as he lived closer. When Timothy got home he found his father and brother having an argument, not an unusual happening lately, but more vitriolic than usual. Timothy discovered that Brenton had learned a lot of new words since he had been to the comprehensive and was now not afraid to use them. Of course his father, having driven trucks most of his life, knew them all as well, even, Timothy realised, some in French and German that he had not heard in class so far. The crux of the matter was that the headmaster would phone his father if Brenton did not show up or was seen to be missing. Brenton considered that to be stand-over tactics.

Of course, the invective quickly finished when his mother got home, Timothy having already started to prepare their evening meal. She changed into casual clothes and took over while he went up to his room to do his homework and think about all of the new words that he had heard today. The more he thought about it, the less surprised he was that his brother was becoming a lout. There was a good sized gang that operated from the comprehensive and Brenton must have joined them. Maybe the shop-lifting had been a ‘rite of passage’ with Bruce and Tommy being shown the way they can fit in once they were there as well. This all cemented his need to be somewhere else.

That evening, when he went off to sleep, he found himself as a referee in a slanging match. He danced about the ring as his father and brother shouted at each other. He then saw the Unicorn sitting on top of one of the corners so he went over and together they looked on as the two protagonists wore themselves down to a whisper. The Unicorn just said “That’s how you do it, Timothy. You just stay out of it and they will end up running out of argument. The worst thing would be for your brother to run away, he is far too young to look after himself on the streets.” When Timothy turned to speak to the Unicorn she had gone.

Tuesday morning his brother tried to get him on-side and he refused to be drawn into it. When his father said that he would be needed to keep his brother in line he just said that he was too young to have that responsibility, something his mother immediately agreed to. So, before even leaving for school, he had further attached himself to his mother, alienated both his father and brother in the short term but had remained aloof from their bickering. His mother told him that they would sort something out in the end as she gave him his lunch box.

At school it was much the same as Monday. They walked in together and sat together in the breaks. Geoff still kept his head down and was looking even sadder than the previous day. When Sharon picked them up in her car Timothy saw Geoff looking on as they were driven away. It was not very far to Sharons’ house and they were led into the study area by Jason, who was almost babbling as he pointed out the table with three chairs, the desk with a computer and a settee where they could rest. Sharon had been able to get three sets of old papers for them to look at. She said “These are from a couple of years ago, do the answers in these notebooks and we will have a look at them before I take you home. I think you will have some idea what you will be in for by the time I call you for tea.”

The three of them sat and looked at the papers she had given them. One was called the Verbal Exam, another was the Non-Verbal Exam and there was an English Exam as well as a Maths Exam. At first glance, Timothy thought that the Non-Verbal was a cartoon book but then saw that there were questions about the drawings and that you needed to use a very good power of observation. The three worked through what they could and were happy when Sharon knocked on the door to tell them to come down for a meal. She had put together a Tuna Mornay which was a first for Timothy and he thought it was great. Sharon then asked each of them what they thought of the papers. Jason said that he was good with the Verbal and Non-Verbal but was a bit put off by the other two. John was non-committal about all four but Timothy said that he thought he saw the meanings behind the Non-Verbal, was happy with the maths but had worries about the Verbal and English.

Sharon sat with them as they went through what answers they had come up with. She did not actually mark them but talked through their reasoning. By the time they needed to be taken home, they had sorted out their short-comings and knew what they had to do over the next few weeks. Sharon drove them home, only five minutes in her car, but it was very dark by now and starting to get cold. Winter was now very much here. Jason sat in front with her as first John was dropped off and then Timothy was let off a couple of streets away. Timothy smiled and waved at him as the car pulled away and then went into his home. His mother reminded him that he stall had his homework to do.

That night the dream was odd. He was on a beach with a whole bunch of penguins, rabbits and monkeys and could see, out at sea, a ship. In his dream he knew that on that ship was someone he needed to be with but also knew that it was far too far to swim. Before he woke he discovered the Unicorn sitting beside him. She said “It is a long way, Timothy, but the boat will arrive. Just be patient and work hard and all will be revealed.”

Marianne G 2021