But first there was the weekend’s homework task to copy down ready for Monday. Joss likened Mr Bruton’s frizzy ginger hair to an explosion. The teacher began to write on the whiteboard in his irritatingly slow way: ‘To research the laws of genetic inheritance and apply it to your own family’.
Joss tutted with annoyance, scribbled down the work to be done, packed his rucksack, and quickly elbowed his way out of the classroom:
“You’re wasting your time, dickhead. She’s got the hots for Daniel Summerlee.” Joss turned around as he heard the voice of his best friend Benny Cashman behind him.
“Up yours, Cashman!” Joss swung his rucksack to make contact with Benny’s head.
“I’ll knock for you tomorrow, that is if you’re not too busy giving her one!” Benny laughed as he watched his friend disappear.
By the time he had made it to the front gates the most beautiful girl in his class and her mother were driving off in a cloud of exhaust fumes. He gazed at the back of Tara’s head, unsuccessfully willing her to turn around and look at him.
Bollocks! He kicked stones along the street as he walked home. One flew up and left a small dent in a Mini Cooper parked by the side of the road. Joss ran the few streets home as fast as his legs could carry him.
“You’re a bit later today, darling.” Beth, his mother, appeared in the hallway.
“I was talking to Benny.”
“You’re always talking to Benny.”
“He’s coming round tomorrow.”
“As long as you do your homework first.”
“It’s boring though. I’ve got to read about the laws of inheritance and then write about it.”
“Is that for sociology?”
Joss noticed that his mother suddenly had one of those inscrutable looks on her face:
“No, for science.”
“Well, it’s up to you of course, but Benny doesn’t come in until after you’ve done it.”
“Cheers, Mum.”
Flinging the hated rucksack onto his bed, Joss picked up his iPad, typed the password ‘taralambert’, and smiled at Benny’s message:
‘What did she say?’
The possibilities were endless. Finally he decided on the best one:
‘She says she’ll go out with me and that you’re a wanker.’
While he waited for the inevitable pithy response he decided to take his mother’s advice and please Bombhead Bruton at the same time. He typed ‘laws of inheritance’ into the Internet browser and sighed with boredom as he read about Gregor Mendel’s experiments with pea plants in the 1850’s:
‘Each inherited trait is defined by a gene pair. Parental genes are randomly separated to the sex cells so that sex cells contain only one gene of the pair. Offspring therefore inherit one genetic allele from each parent when sex cells unite in fertilization.’
He yawned and imagined his and Tara’s sex cells uniting in fertilisation. Fat chance!
‘An organism with alternate forms of a gene will express the form that is dominant. Mendel’s laws still apply today, for example in the form of dominant and recessive genes for a person’s eye colour and hair colour.’
His iPad pinged with an incoming message:
‘You’re a twat. See ya tomoz.’
Joss laughed and made another Internet search on dominant eye colour:
‘The iris of the eye has pigmentation that determines a person’s eye colour. A person with blue or light grey eyes does not have as much pigmentation as a person with brown or black eyes. The amount of pigmentation in the iris is determined genetically. The gene for brown eyes is dominant over the recessive gene for blue, grey, or hazel eyes. Thus it is likely that two blue eyed parents will produce a blue eyed child, but if one parent has brown eyes then it is likely the child will have brown eyes, as the gene for brown eyes is dominant.’
Something about the last sentence did not feel right. He’d never really thought about it before, but now a tiny doubt had begun to nag. He read it a second time, and then realised what was wrong:
His mother’s eyes were light grey. His father’s eyes were blue. His sister Amy had blue eyes. They were all fair-haired.
He stood up, walked over to the mirror on the wall and looked at himself. The eyes that stared back at him were dark brown, almost black; the same colour as his hair.
CHAPTER 46
“You’re quiet tonight Joss. Bad day at school?” Liam Darrah sprinkled some parmesan cheese onto his lasagne and poured himself a glass of wine.
“Amy will be home soon for the Easter break. I’m sure you two will have lots to catch up on.” Beth smiled at her son as he toyed unenthusiastically with his dinner.
“I’m having a bit of trouble with my homework.”
“You need some help, eh?” Liam’s fork stopped halfway to his mouth.
“I think so. I don’t understand how Mendel’s law of inheritance relates to our family.”
Joss was aware of a small, almost imperceptible glance passing between his parents.
“What’s your question, darling?” Beth put down her knife and fork.
“How have you and Dad produced someone like me? According to what I’ve read you both have the recessive gene for blue or grey eyes. Amy has straight fair hair and the same colour eyes as Dad, but look at me; I’ve got brown wavy hair and black eyes. It just doesn’t make sense.” Joss sighed and idly put some pasta onto his fork.
“Well, sometimes a baby inherits traits from his grandparents or great-grandparents.” Beth was relieved her son couldn’t tell how fast her heart was racing.
“None of my grandparents are as dark as I am.”
The rest of the meal passed in silence. Joss felt somehow on edge. He heard his parents start talking in a low voice to each other as soon as he went back upstairs to his room. As he went over his research to try and find something that perhaps he’d failed to understand, he heard a knock:
“Yo!”
He looked up to find his parents standing in the doorway:
“Joss, Dad and I have been talking, and there’s something we need to tell you.”
“What?” He was taken aback by his mother’s tone of voice.
“Well, it’s something we should have told you a long time ago, but now you’re growing up and asking questions, it’s not fair to keep you in the dark.”
Joss felt his stomach churning, and he suddenly felt queasy. He definitely did not want to hear what his mother had to say.
“You don’t have to tell me. It’s cool.” He felt sick.
“Dad loves you very much, as much as I do. He’s brought you up to be the fine boy that you are today. We’re both very proud of you.”
Something nasty was coming right at him:
“What’s wrong with Dad? Is he sick?”
His dad had cancer! He was going to die! Joss felt tears forming at the back of his eyes.
“No, he’s fine. It’s just that Dad is your father in every sense of the word, but he is not your biological father. As you say it’s very true that both of us could not produce a child as dark as yourself. You have your biological father’s colouring.”
The sudden relief that his father was not close to death gave Joss a feeling of wild euphoria. He lay back on the bed and closed his eyes. His dad was ok!
“So what happened then? Where’s my real dad now?” He sat back up, curious. Had his mother had an affair?
“I think things might best be left as they are.” Liam placed an arm protectively across Beth’s shoulders.
“No, he has a right to know. Joss, I’m just so sorry. As your mother I should have told you sooner.” Beth walked towards the bed, sat down, and put an arm around her son.
“Told me that you’ve had an affair? Is that it?” Joss flinched from her embrace.
“I never had an affair darling. I was engaged to be married to Dad and was newly pregnant with Amy, but was then abducted by your biological father and held prisoner for nearly ten years. Amy never mentioned i
t to you because she hates the sight of him and also we told her not to. We thought it best that you didn’t find out. Your father’s name is Edwin Evans, but you were registered with my surname. When Dad and I married we changed both you and Amy’s surnames to Darrah.”
Joss jumped up and began pacing about the room.
“How could you not tell me? I had a right to know!”
“We’re sorry. We wanted to forget the heartache and start anew.” Liam was stung by the hurt in the boy’s eyes. “We’ve brought you and Amy up the same. We love you both, but we didn’t want to be reminded of what had gone on before.”
“Where’s my father now then?” Joss stood tall and threatening in front of his mother.
“Your father is here in the room with us, darling.” Beth stood up to face her son. “But your biological father has been a resident of Holmleas Psychiatric Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Croydon, for the past 11 years.
The lasagne tasted vile at the back of his throat. Joss just managed to get to the bathroom in time. He dropped to his knees and emptied his stomach contents into the toilet bowl. He was aware of his father’s warm hand rubbing his back and of his soft Canadian accent in his ears.
“You’ll feel better now. Don’t worry. Mom and I are here for you. We’ll always be here for you.”
He rinsed his mouth at the sink and went back to lie on his bed:
“Leave me alone, please.” He put his face in his pillow and tried to shut out the world.
CHAPTER 47
“I’m not going to Bombhead’s class.”
“Bunking off again?” Benny looked at his friend and laughed.
“I haven’t done any homework. I’ll wait for you at the front gate. Tell him I went home sick.”
“Ok. See you later.”
Joss passed the entire science period sitting in his favourite cubicle in the boys’ toilets, still trying to get his head around his mother’s recent revelations. When he heard the bell ring for the end of the final lesson he joined the mass exodus of teenagers making their way to the front gate. To his surprise Tara Lambert was already waiting there for her mother.
“I saw you sneaking out of the toilets, Joss.”
“Yeah, well, I hadn’t done any homework.” He’d have to be more careful next time.
“Don’t worry, I won’t grass you up.”
“Cheers.” He felt a tingling in his groin at her nearness, and pulled his jacket over his growing erection.
“Fuck off, Darrah.” Daniel Summerlee, already with a man’s muscly body, loomed large as he stood himself in-between Joss and Tara.
Joss had had enough. The secret he now had to bear was beginning to weigh him down:
“Fuck off yourself!” He pushed Summerlee’s chest hard with both hands. The boy lost his balance and fell backwards onto the stony ground.
“You’re dead meat, Darrah!” Summerlee was back up on his feet, fists flailing in anger.
Joss could see he was no match for the youth, already lifting sizeable weights at the gym. Ducking a left hook he did the only thing he could think of to save himself; he kicked Summerlee hard in the groin, who went down like the proverbial sack of potatoes. Aware of Tara’s gaze of admiration, he walked away with his head held high.
“Wait for me!” Benny ran up behind him, laughing. “Summerlee’s still on the floor, the prick.”
“Does this face look bothered?”
“You’ll better watch yourself at school tomorrow.”
“I’m not going. I’ll give him a day to cool off. Bunk off with me if you like. Mum and Dad will be at the hospital. We’ll have the house to ourselves until at least three o’clock.”
“Yeah? I know how to access a good porn site.”
“Everybody does. It’s easy!” Joss threw Benny a punch.
“My brother’s got a black box that he attaches to his computer. He makes a phone call, puts in a code and hey presto, there’s more porn than you can shake your dick at. It’s great. The code runs out after a week and then he pays for another one. I know where he’s written it down. I’ll bring the machine round. He won’t miss it during the day.”
Joss laughed:
“I’ll hide out in the park until 9.30. Come round after that.”
“You’re on. See you in the morning!” Benny sloped off in the opposite direction.
His mother seemed agitated as soon as he returned home.
“Joss, have you been fighting? I’ve just had a phone call from the school. Mrs Summerlee has had to take Daniel to the Accident and Emergency Department. You’re lucky she’s not pressing any charges.”
“He must be putting it on. I didn’t hit him that hard!”
“His parents are not pleased. I think you owe Daniel an apology”
He felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“He started it. I wasn’t doing anything.”
“Well you’ve certainly done something. The boy’s injured.”
“Only his pride. I kicked him in the nuts.”
“You’re coming with us to his house to apologise and sort this out later on.”
“Jeez Mum! No! It was his fault!” Joss ran up to his room and slammed the door.
He laid on his bed simmering with anger, and thought about what his real father was like. What might he have done under the same circumstances? Would he have killed Summerlee? Would ten men have been needed to hold him off? Joss got up and looked at himself in the mirror again. He looked nothing like his mother or Amy; he was his father’s son.
Where was Croydon? He hadn’t the first clue. How far away was it from Norwich? He typed Croydon into his iPad. The search came back describing the largest borough on the outskirts of London; population about 370,000. One of those was his dad.
He struggled to remember the name of the institution. Eventually he searched for hospitals for the criminally insane in Croydon. One came back; Holmleas, Whitgift Road, Ardlington, Croydon, Surrey.
That was the one!
He had no idea how he was going to get there, but someday soon he knew he would be making the journey to Surrey.
CHAPTER 48
“Have you been smoking in here?” Beth shivered and closed her son’s bedroom window. She wondered whether Benjamin Cashman was having an undesirable influence on Joss.
“Where would I get any cigarettes from?” Joss smiled inwardly and mentally gave thanks to Benny’s resourceful brother Jimmy.
“How long have you been home?”
“Oh, only about half an hour.”
“Has Benny been round here?”
“No.”
Beth sighed at the sight of her son lying on his bed at three thirty in the afternoon, and found it hard to ignore yet more evidence of another day spent truanting from school with Benny; four dirty coffee cups, empty fish and chip wrappers, and two plates still with the remains of sandwiches made with the roast chicken she was keeping for tomorrow.
“I can see with my own eyes that you haven’t been to school again today. The room stinks of cigarette smoke despite the force 8 gale that you had blowing in through your window. You’re lucky the smoke alarms didn’t activate. Your exams are coming up in a few months, and here you are frittering your time away.”
“Leave it out, Mum. I’ll go to school tomorrow. Just give me a break.”
“Dad will hear about this when he comes in.”
“How can he hear about it if he’s banged up?” Joss regretted the outburst as soon as he saw his mother’s face blanch.
“How dare you even mention that man’s name! Do you want to know just what he did to me? Do you?” Beth was suddenly overcome with a white-hot fury coursing through her veins.
Joss turned over onto his front, put his head in the pillow, and tried to shut out the sound of his mother’s whining voice. His dad had probably done exactly what the Kitten Sisters had had done to them on Jimmy’s movie machine that afternoon. They seemed to enjoy the experience; in fact the blonde one definitely
did. He wondered how it would feel doing it to Tara Lambert.
The memory foam sank lower as his mother came to sit next to him on the bed. He felt her hand touch his hair.
“I know you’ve had a shock, Joss, and I know I should have told you sooner. I apologise for that. But it’s something I wanted to bury in the past. He was an evil man with a twisted mind. It’s not something that I wanted to be reminded of.”
Joss lifted his face from the pillow but did not turn around:
“Sorry Mum, but I can’t stop thinking about him. I just can’t pretend nothing’s happened and carry on like before. He’s my dad, and I want to know more about him. I want to see what he looks like; if I look like him or not. I want to hear his voice. I want to visit him in prison. I want to meet him.” There….it was out! He was glad he couldn’t see his mother’s face at that precise moment. He let his head sink down again as he listened to his pounding heart.
The silence in the room was deafening. He heard the ticking of one of the many old-fashioned clocks that were on nearly every wall in the house. At one point he thought he heard a sob. Eventually he felt his mother move from the bed. He listened intently for her reply, but she walked out of his bedroom without speaking another word.