grandmother. Let’s just say we found them in a rather compromising position. Langston was furious. He told me that if I breathed a word of what I had seen, he would tell our parents what he called the ‘truth’ about me. He also threatened to go to the school authorities and tell them about Thomas.
“I didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize Thomas’s livelihood, so I did the only thing I could think of. I shagged off to London. With the help of an American soldier, a marine whose life I had saved, I managed to emigrate to the U.S., where I found employment with Anna Lee Ashcroft.” He paused and shrugged. “The rest you know.”
Ali did know the rest, not all of it, but a good deal. She was aware of Leland’s failed romance with a judge from Prescott. It had been a long-term relationship begun while the judge’s wife faded into the lost world of Alzheimer’s. Leland’s hopes of establishing something more permanent had been dashed when, after the wife’s death, the judge’s children had nixed any kind of involvement between their father and Leland Brooks. As for the heartache with Thomas that predated the judge? Although Ali hadn’t known the details, she had guessed most of it.
They were much closer to Bournemouth now. The snow had lightened to mere flurries, the road was reasonably clear, and traffic had sped up.
“You never saw your parents again?” Ali ventured at last.
“No,” Leland replied. “After I got to the States, I contacted Langston to let him know where I was and to inquire after our parents’ health. He told me that our father had died after a fall and that our mother had returned to Cheltenham. He said that when Father discovered the reason for my abrupt departure, he had disowned me for bringing such dishonor on our family and had written me out of his will. Somehow I had expected better of my father, but there you are. Langston also said that our mother was so ashamed by my behavior that she never wantedto hear from me again. I simply abided by her wishes. It wasn’t until I began corresponding with Jeffrey that I learned she had died of a stroke sometime in the late sixties.
“And now here I am, the grand old man of the family, where it evidently no longer matters if I’m gay, but where Charles can be cast aside by his parents for following his dream of wanting to be a chef and own restaurants. It makes no sense.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Ali agreed. “Whatever became of Thomas?”
“I have no idea,” Leland replied. “I never made any effort to contact him again. As I said, back in those days, any hint of that kind of scandal could well have cost him his position. For all I know, he may have died in the AIDS epidemic in the eighties. I lost a lot of friends back then. I did go online and Google the Kembry Park Academy. Turns out it closed years ago. Now there’s an industrial park where the school used to be.”
The snow had stopped completely by the time they passed Southampton. As the GPS began issuing clipped orders for exiting the freeway and entering Bournemouth, a few bits of pale blue sky appeared in the gloom. Ali noticed that Leland was sitting forward in his seat, searching for familiar landmarks, and she caught the fleeting smile on his lips when he first glimpsed the sea. Yes, this long-delayed homecoming was difficult for him, but there was no disguising the pleasure in his sightseeing commentary as Ali negotiated the three roundabouts that put them on the B3066, also known as Bath Road, toward West Cliff Road. When they reached the hotel, she was more than happy to turn the keys to the Land Rover over to the valet and let someone else put it in the car park.
Ali had booked a suite with two bedrooms on either side of a connecting sitting room, to give them privacy from each other and also from the hotel’s public areas, in case things with the expected onslaught of relatives became dicey. The first of those, Leland’s cousins—the ones Jeffrey and
“I didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize Thomas’s livelihood, so I did the only thing I could think of. I shagged off to London. With the help of an American soldier, a marine whose life I had saved, I managed to emigrate to the U.S., where I found employment with Anna Lee Ashcroft.” He paused and shrugged. “The rest you know.”
Ali did know the rest, not all of it, but a good deal. She was aware of Leland’s failed romance with a judge from Prescott. It had been a long-term relationship begun while the judge’s wife faded into the lost world of Alzheimer’s. Leland’s hopes of establishing something more permanent had been dashed when, after the wife’s death, the judge’s children had nixed any kind of involvement between their father and Leland Brooks. As for the heartache with Thomas that predated the judge? Although Ali hadn’t known the details, she had guessed most of it.
They were much closer to Bournemouth now. The snow had lightened to mere flurries, the road was reasonably clear, and traffic had sped up.
“You never saw your parents again?” Ali ventured at last.
“No,” Leland replied. “After I got to the States, I contacted Langston to let him know where I was and to inquire after our parents’ health. He told me that our father had died after a fall and that our mother had returned to Cheltenham. He said that when Father discovered the reason for my abrupt departure, he had disowned me for bringing such dishonor on our family and had written me out of his will. Somehow I had expected better of my father, but there you are. Langston also said that our mother was so ashamed by my behavior that she never wantedto hear from me again. I simply abided by her wishes. It wasn’t until I began corresponding with Jeffrey that I learned she had died of a stroke sometime in the late sixties.
“And now here I am, the grand old man of the family, where it evidently no longer matters if I’m gay, but where Charles can be cast aside by his parents for following his dream of wanting to be a chef and own restaurants. It makes no sense.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Ali agreed. “Whatever became of Thomas?”
“I have no idea,” Leland replied. “I never made any effort to contact him again. As I said, back in those days, any hint of that kind of scandal could well have cost him his position. For all I know, he may have died in the AIDS epidemic in the eighties. I lost a lot of friends back then. I did go online and Google the Kembry Park Academy. Turns out it closed years ago. Now there’s an industrial park where the school used to be.”
The snow had stopped completely by the time they passed Southampton. As the GPS began issuing clipped orders for exiting the freeway and entering Bournemouth, a few bits of pale blue sky appeared in the gloom. Ali noticed that Leland was sitting forward in his seat, searching for familiar landmarks, and she caught the fleeting smile on his lips when he first glimpsed the sea. Yes, this long-delayed homecoming was difficult for him, but there was no disguising the pleasure in his sightseeing commentary as Ali negotiated the three roundabouts that put them on the B3066, also known as Bath Road, toward West Cliff Road. When they reached the hotel, she was more than happy to turn the keys to the Land Rover over to the valet and let someone else put it in the car park.
Ali had booked a suite with two bedrooms on either side of a connecting sitting room, to give them privacy from each other and also from the hotel’s public areas, in case things with the expected onslaught of relatives became dicey. The first of those, Leland’s cousins—the ones Jeffrey and
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