Pinochle

Pinochle By E Walk (Copyrighted by the author) Edited by Will B.

Chapter 27 - The O'Rourke Brothers

This is Ben.

As we were riding from the airport to Uncle Rod's and Uncle Hank's townhouse, Brian and Grant were having their first experience of having a ride on the wrong side of the road.

Brian, who was sitting on the left side of the backseat behind the passenger side ducked several times as we approached oncoming vehicles. He looked at Uncle Hank who was driving, "Who taught you bloody Brits to drive?"

Uncle Hank wasn't bothered by the comment and countered, "Now you know how it feels when we come to the colonies and you all drive on the wrong side of the road."

Uncle Rod stopped anymore banter, "Gentlemen, we have a dinner engagement tonight that we have to attend, on government business. We apologize but perhaps Vicky could show you around. Grant and Ben, perhaps you could call Maria and Inga and ask them to join you. We would feel better if the six of you stuck together at least at first."

Brian was laughing, "Uncle Rod, are you saying that you want us to be like leeches and stick to each other's bodies?"

Uncle Hank said, "Guys, we want to make sure that you have a good time, but London has some weird characters, as does every big city. If you go anywhere without us, make sure you stick together. When we get home, we will run what we have in mind for this week by you for your approval. It sounds as if we may have to consider the pleasures of the three young ladies also."

We pulled up in front of an old Victorian townhouse Brian looked at the building and exclaimed, "This looks like something out of David Copperfield, or perhaps Ebenezer Scrooge lived here. We aren't going to be visited by any ghosts are we?"

Uncle Rod was laughing, "Brian, we haven't seen any ghosts lately, but some very large rats having been living in the room where you will be sleeping. They are fond of nibbling on things, so you might want to sleep with your shoes on. I'm not sure what you can do about your other appendages. I guess you could wear leather gloves and I guess maybe we could find you a set of armor to protect you most precious possession."

"Uncle Rod, you almost had me believing you about the rats until you got to the armor. You'd better be careful. I'll get even when you least expect it." Brian challenged, as we got out of the car.

When we got to the front door, we were greeted by a very handsome young man, "Good morning gentlemen, if you will leave your luggage, I will make sure that it is delivered to your room. Mrs. Proust has a snack awaiting in the kitchen. My name is James; if you should need anything, please feel free to ask for assistance at anytime. Mr. Peters, you have had several calls and I placed your messages on your desk. Mr. Cox, Mr. Mason would like for you to call him."

I looked at James, "Sir, I'm Ben, the gentleman standing next to me is Grant and the young man standing next to you is Brian. Now what do your friends call you?"

James looked a little concerned. I noticed that Uncle Rod nodded his head as if to say, 'go ahead'. James started, "My friends call me Jaime. I am from Ireland and yes, my name is Jaime O'Rourke but when I am on duty here my name is James Rocker. I'm 24 and I'm gay and no I don't have a partner. Is there anything else you would like to know?"

Brian looked at Jaime, "I have a question, but I am too embarrassed to ask." Before Brian could say anything, Jamie started, "I'm uncut and have a very average size penis with rather large testicles."

Brian was giggling, "Thanks for sharing, but that was not what I was going to ask about. I was going ask if I could go to the bathroom."

Everyone started to laugh, including Jaime. Jaime resumed the role of James. "If you gentlemen will follow me, I will show you to your rooms while Mr. Peters and Mr. Cox take care of the things they need to do. I'll make sure that your luggage is delivered to your rooms."

Grant looked funny, "James or Jaime or whatever, we can certainly take our own luggage to our rooms."

James shook his head, "Please sir, please permit us do it. I have to earn my pay and keep somehow."

The three of us could feel that it was what we should do so we relented and James led us up the stairs. He stopped at the top of the stairs, "Mr. Cox and Mr. Peter's suite is to the left. Mr. Brian, you will be occupying the King Henry Suite." James stopped and opened the door to a large room.

Brian entered and all we heard was "Holy Smackers, this is just for me? I'll probably get lost in here."

Grant and I followed Brian into the room and he was correct; it sure was enormous. Brian was shaking his head, "I can hardly wait to see what you guys' room must look like, if I have a room this size just for me."

Before anyone could say anything, there was a knock on the door. James turned around to see who was there, "Come on in Shamus, and I'll introduce you. The young man seated on the bed is Brian Benson. The fair lad standing next to me is his brother, Benjamin Benson, and the handsome young man with dark hair and dark eyes is Grant Garrison. Gentlemen, this is the housekeeper, Shamus. He will provide any assistance you will require if I am not available."

Brian was shaking his head, "It's as if I am seeing double. You look like identical twins except that you are dressed in different outfits."

Jaime said, "Mr. Brian, you are quite perceptive. We are not twins, but Shamus is my brother, but he is two years younger than I am?"

Grant was laughing, "So Shamus, are your dimensions and orientations about the same as your brother's?"

Shamus wasn't sure what Grant was asking, "Mr. Garrison, I am not sure what you are asking, but I think you asked me if I was gay? Put it this way, I have experiences with both sexes and prefer to be with another male. As far as my equipment. I am cut and a little larger than Jaime in the penis department, but his testicles have mine beat by miles."

Brian fell back on the bed laughing, "Oh, so you have been checking each other out then. Do you mess around with each other?"

James resurfaced, "Master Brian, when you share the same suite which just happens to be located on the third floor just above your room. It doesn't allow for much privacy. So we have no secrets, but we agreed a number of years ago that we should keep our relationship strictly to being a family. You'd better be careful, Master Brian; we'll unplug our peepholes so we can observe your every move."

"Now Master Ben and Master Grant, if you will follow me, I will show you to your suite while Shamus deliverers the luggage. We will make sure that everything is put away while you are meeting with Mr. Cox and Mr. Peters. I will inform Mr. Cox and Mr. Peters that you will be down in 20 minutes. This way, Gentlemen."

James took us to the suite at the back of the building, opened the door and waited for us to enter. Grant and I stepped inside and rather froze. It was more like an apartment. James announced, "Gentlemen, this is the Stuart suite. I hope you both will enjoy it. I'll go inform the masters that you will be joining them shortly."

This is Grant.

I thought the apartment that Ben and I would be sharing in Ithaca was great, but it seemed miniature compared to what we would be staying in while we were in London. We even had a balcony that overlooked a beautiful park. Ben and I took care of our physical needs, and there were even new tooth brushes and hairbrushes on the counter in the bathroom.

We were just about ready to go down the stairs when Shamus arrived with our luggage. He was very businesslike, "Mr. Grant and Mr. Ben, I will put your things away while you are meeting with Mr. Cox and Mr. Peters in the dining room. I believe that Master Brian has already gone to meet them. I hope everything is satisfactory."

I was concerned, "Shamus, have we done something to upset you and Jaime. It is as if you are two very different people."

Shamus looked at us and he had tears in his eyes, "Grant and Ben, please believe me when I say this. Jaime and I would dearly love to become friends with you, but Mr. Cox and Mr. Peters are more like fathers to us than our real father ever was. They sat us down and explained that the two of you are very special and that we needed to make sure we didn't become too attached to you."

"They also informed us that Brian was straight, but very understanding. You have to understand that they have practically raised us since we were 15 and 17. Please try to understand, we owe everything to Dad Rod and Dad Hank and we don't want to lose their trust."

Ben spoke for the two of us, "Shamus, we are not looking for anything other than your and Jaime's friendship. We are committed to each other and Brian would never do anything to hurt you, unless you did something to cause him grief."

Shamus was totally shocked when Ben hugged him and he almost started to cry, "Ben, thank you but please don't ever do that when others are around."

I could tell that Ben was upset. He didn't say anything as we left to go join Uncle Rod and Uncle Hank. James took us to the dining room where Uncle Rod and Uncle Hank were conversing with Brian.

Uncle Hank looked up, "Please sit down. Mrs. Proust is about to bring some meat pies and fresh melons she has raised in the garden."

James and an older lady came in carrying several platters of food. After they had placed the food on the table, Uncle Hank introduced us. "Mrs. Proust, I would like to introduce our guests. He introduced the three of us and Mrs. Proust curtsied, "Pleased to meet you three handsome young men. If you need or want anything, please let me know."

Brian couldn't handle all of this formality. "Mrs. Proust, I am sure that you have some children or at least some nephews and nieces and I can't imagine them calling you Mrs. Proust. Now if I were a nephew, what would I call you?"

Mrs. Proust was stunned by Brian's brashness, but answered, "You would probably be calling me Aunt Bea."

"Okay Aunt Bea, what's in these meat pies, as you call them. Are they safe to eat? I didn't come to England to die of ptomaine poisoning."

Poor Mrs. Proust was taken aback, but Uncle Rod answered for her, "They have a little catnip and the main ingredient is kangaroo tail."

Everyone thought that Brian would respond, but instead he started to eat the pie. He wasn't finished, "This tastes more like wombat meat than kangaroo tail. I`d better take another bit. On second thought it tastes more like ground penguin. Whatever it is, Aunt Bea, it is delicious"

Everyone was eating and Ben finally started to speak. He had something on his mind. "Uncle Hank and Uncle Rod, why is everyone here involved in this charade. Grant and I already know that you saved Jaime and Shamus from some horrible situation. They have not shared what that situation was, and I have the same feeling that Aunt Bea is thanking her lucky stars that you came into her life."

"While we are here, could we please just cut the charade stuff unless there is an outsider here? Can we please just be ourselves? The three of us know that you are wizards and have used your powers to do wonderful things. So please sirs, can everyone just act like the people they are?"

Uncle Hank looked at Ben, "Ben, thank you for being so astute. That is precisely why you and Grant are here. We would ask that the two of you please keep Thursday night free, because we have something that we would like for you to do. Brian, I am sorry but you won't be able to attend because you are not eighteen yet. I'm sure that you will be able to find something to do."

Uncle Rod took over, "Guys, we thought we would go to Stonehenge tomorrow after church. We'll go to the early service and then change and go from there. It is forecast to be a bright warm day. The rest of the week, we will be at your disposal, so we'll be glad to show you around, but I'm thinking there might be three young ladies who will be demanding equal attention."

The discussion was interrupted by James, "Master Brian, there is a phone call for you."

Brian went to answer the phone. When he returned he announced, "That was Vicky, she wanted to know if we would like to go see the sights of London at night, since her parents had to go to some dumb dinner party. She said that you were to call Maria and Inga and find out if they would like to go with us."

Brian handed the phone to Ben and he called the number that Maria had given him. He got the Spanish embassy and asked to speak to the Senorita Maria Montoya.

"Hi Maria, what are your plans for tonight? ... Oh, so your parents have to go so to some shindig. Great, why don't you plan to come to Uncle Rod and Uncle Hank's house and the six of us can go from here to see the sights of London at night. ... Oh okay, we'll meet at six and are you sure that your parents won't mind if Rafael drives us around? ... Okay, see you then."

Uncle Hank was adamant, "Guys, please be careful. We are going to insist that Shamus goes with you. We don't know this Rafael person. He is probably harmless, but please don't do anything to get anyone hurt."

Uncle Rod interrupted, "Guys, we thought we would take you to see the major sites during the daytime. Since it is Saturday, the tourist areas in London are going to be crowded, so we thought we would take you to some of the outlying areas. We have included Cambridge in the itinerary and then we thought we would have tea at a quaint little pub as you would say."

Hey, we have been in London all of five hours and it's as if we have been living in a cyclone.

Author's Note: If you want to read more of this story and other interesting stories, you might like to visit www.tickiestories.us.

Editor's Notes:

Huh! I always thought the British were very reserved. Was I wrong! I am beginning to like Brian more and more. He is sensitive, thoughtful and insightful. I'll bet he gets a lot of that from his father, Beau.