CHAPTER 34 – GOING HOME…GOING TO SAN FRAN...AND BEING ‘HONEST’

ZEE

                “Hunter!”  Ben cries out and between him and Steve they manage to get him on the sofa.

It takes a good ten minutes for Hunter to come round, we didn’t bother with an ambulance as we thought he had just been overwhelmed, but I can see the panic on Ben’s face, so I head out to make a call, when I come back he’s fully awake

                “Drink this slowly Hunter.”  Jenny was standing by with a glass of water.

He smiles weakly.

                “Thanks J, sorry about that everyone just had a…”

                “Yeah being told that will do that to a guy.  You okay babe?  Lie back down for a bit.”  Matt orders

We had been so busy concentrating on Hunter that it took a while for us to realise the doorbell was being leant on.  Tucker came back saying a food delivery was here, Faal went to take care of it.

                “Honest I’m fine, what time is it we need to pack…whoa.” 

Hunter quickly discovers that standing up is a bad idea.

                “It’s just gone four, you’re going to lie down and stay lying down.  I can do our packing.  J you are on looking after duty, if he so much as attempts to move from that sofa, you know what to do!” 

Matt tells her, she nods and grabs a blanket and rearranges the cushion under his head.  Leda and Gus come in from the garage laughing and joking but on seeing Hunter stretched out Gus was immediately by his best friend’s side demanding to know what happened.

                “Stop crowding the boy people, let him just rest!  Those who have food still, let’s get it boxed up and taken on the plane right Zee?  And we should all go pack, do you think the plane can get here for five instead of six?”  Debs asks.

                “Yes, not a problem, I’ll make the call.”  Faal heads out.

                “Thanks honey.  What are you all waiting for go and pack!”  She orders.  “Ben, I’ll help Steve with Taylor, Carl and I had already packed this morning.”

He nods gratefully and settles down on the sofa next to Hunter who has already started to doze off.

                “In about half an hour make sure he wakes up and eats something though.  Understand?”

                “Yes grandma we understand.”  Jenny settles down next to Ben

I head to the kitchen to sort out the food for the flight home.

MEL & LINDZ ROOM

LINDZ

                “Jeez such drama all he did was faint.”

Mel stops packing and looks at me hard.

                “Last time he fainted his T-cell count was down and he ended up in hospital, where you did a fine impression of Florence Nightingale I recall.”

                “That was completely different.”

                “And you know that this isn’t because of your extensive medical knowledge?”

                “Stop being bitchy Mel.”

                “Stop being bitchy and unfeeling Lindz.”

I glower at her and she holds my gaze unwaveringly.

                “So what party?” 

                “Pardon?”

                “Hunter said you were busy planning a party and that’s why he ended up calling Justin.  So what party…please don’t tell me you’re trying to push yourself into their event?” 

                “I’m not pushing myself anywhere, I was merely making some helpful notes so that they know who’s who in the party.”

She snorts and does the final check of the room and heads to the door.

                “Well your ‘helpfulness’ has cost you part of the finder’s fee, which Hunter, I’m sure would’ve split with you.  I’m going to pack Jenny’s room up, see you downstairs.”

MICHAEL’S ROOM

Twenty seven fucking thousand dollars!  For just finding those paintings!  What was he doing snooping round the place anyway?  And I can’t believe they are going to get married here, here of all places.    

Seriously $27,000 it’s just not fucking fair!

LOUNGE

BEN

                “Jenny, can you wake him in 10 minutes, I need to make a call?”

                “Sure papa.”

I head out to the hallway and call Lydia.

                “Hey Lydia, it’s Ben, Happy Valentine’s and Kirkidan Day to you too.  I don’t want to be an over protective dad but Hunter fainted with all the excitement and I know he’s due to go…oh that’s great thanks, thanks Lydia.  Now all I’ve got to do is make an appointment at the doctors just to be sure he’s okay.”

I hang up and sigh with relief.

                “So he’s not going to San Fran then?”

I’m startled to hear Zee’s voice, she’s leaning against the kitchen door, looking as relieved as I am.

                “No, I explained to Lydia and she said Marek and Martine can go on their own, San Fran will still be there.  Now I’ve just got to make an appointment with his doctors just to get him checked over…”

                “1100 tomorrow morning.  We’re parents this is what we do.”  She smiles at me

                “Zee, I don’t know, how can I ever…”

                “Simple, you tell him.”

She chuckles and heads back into the kitchen and I head back to the lounge, where Hunter is sitting up drinking water, with, oddly, Jenny’s holding a handful of his hair. 

                “Uh Jenny what are you doing?”  I frown at her

                “He likes his hair.  Specifically, he likes his hair on his head.  He’s like Samson.”

                “Okay.  Moving on, now Hunter don’t be mad but I’ve spoken to Lydia and she’s agreed with me that you should rest more than you should go to San Fran and I’ve made an appointment with the doctors for you to just get checked out and I know you’re going to be mad and think I’m being over protect…”

                “Thanks dad.  Now if you could persuade my annoying sister to let go of my hair and get me something to eat that would be great!”

                “Be right back!”  She hollers.

And true to her word she’s back with a plate of cheese and crackers and more water.

                “I’ll just put this away and then go help mom.”

                “So what time is my appointment?  I-I have overdone it I think, will you come with me and Matt?”

                “1100 and as if you had to ask.”

FAAL

KITCHEN LARDER

                “Sssh, my lig, ssssh.  It will be fine, he’s just overtired I think and if it’s not we will find the best doctors in the world to deal with it, okay?”

She nods into my chest.

                “Uncle Faal?”  Jenny’s small voice calls through the door.

                “Come here, what am I going to do with you two?  This is Balenciaga you’re sniffling on.  Now the plane will be here soon, I’ll go out first and then you two go wash your faces yes.”

I get tearful nodding and leave them to compose themselves and take a deep breath.

                “Neem god laat hem in orde zijn.”  I mutter.

                “Amen to that.”  Mel smiles tiredly at me.

Twenty minutes later, Brian and Justin are waving us off.

PLANE

                “You do realise they are going to fuck in the kitchen?”  I tell her.

                “Yeah, but at least we got to do it first.”

                “What!  When?”  Leda demands.

                “When you guys went into town and on the rug not the table, that’s a one off and Aunt Dee would kill us!  Though with Brian and Justin I think they’ll hit the gallery room.”  Zee grins

                “Well for once Lindz you were correct.”  Leda calls out to her as she makes her way to her seat.

                “In which respect this time?”  She calls back

                “About Zee and Faal, they christened the kitchen rug.”

She smiles tightly then goes back to her magazine, we can hear her sharply turning the pages.

GLASS QUBE

GALLERY ROOM

JUSTIN

I’m on my stomach with cushions under my hips, with my fiancé between my legs, his face buried between my cheeks and I’m being giving yet another rimming of my life but under the Kirkidan Series. 

                “Brian, so good, please, oh God, please I can’t last an-any more, please stop need you to oh, gonna, I’m gonna…uh-hah-ah-ah-ah!”

He chuckles and kisses the back of my neck whilst I shudder out my release, I’m still quivering with aftershocks when he enters me.

                “Oh!  Oh!”

His cock bottoms out and he begins to thrust in earnest.  Chanting out my name and brushing over my prostate, I’m promising him anything he wants as long as he doesn’t stop.

                “Justin baby Justin!”  He shouts and I can feel him pumping hotly into me.

                “God oh God oh God!”  I spasm tightly round him as I come a second time in as many minutes.

We lay tangled in a sated heap catching our breath, five minutes later he begins to soften and slip out I hate that part.   Slowly we roll onto our backs and look at the ceiling then each other.

                “Which room’s next?”  He grins.

TREEHOUSE

MONDAY LATE MORNING

BACK KITCHEN

FAAL

I’m trying not to check my phone every two minutes, no news is good new right, it rings, it’s Ben, I put him on speaker.

                “What did the doctors say?”

                “He’s fine, T-cell is a little low but he’s absolutely fine, just needs rest, so he’s going to take tomorrow off as well, he just overdid it like he thought.”

I let out the breath I’ve been holding and mouth okay to Zee who’s in the office, she does her happy dance.

                “Okay I’ll let the rest of the family know, you go look after our boy, are they staying with you?”

                “Yes.”

                “Okay whose weekend is it?”

                “Not sure but I think PB&Q are going claim it.”

GLASS QUBE

GALLERY ROOM

LYDIA

Justin is by the stream painting and Brian is making calls from Lucian’s office.  I brought Henry with me, he’s one of the best authenticators Bloom has, after about two hours, he lifts his head up and grins at me.

                “It’s them.” 

                “Well of course it’s them you think I’d buy fakes?” 

Lucian beams at me from the doorway.

                “Lydia how are you?  Zee filled me in last night.  Dee’s making some coffee, you know where the boys are?”

                “Justin’s painting the stream and Brian is using your office if that’s okay?  And I could murder a coffee, Henry do you want one?”

Henry is too busy staring at Lucian.

                “Mr Stark, Mr Stark it’s an absolute honour to meet you sir!  These are perfect, I can’t believe I’m this close to them.”

                “Nice to meet you too, Henry was it?  Yeah they are beauties aren’t they, shame his work took so long to be acknowledged.  Now the Wrights of Derby they are beautiful, there’s just something about the candlelit series that appeals to me.  Want to see them?  So tell me Lydia how’s Uptown?”

                “Oh fine, just fine, but I’m in the Bloom Gallery now I bought a share in it.”

He nods his head approvingly and leads us through to another room where it is wall to wall paintings, if I had pearls I would be clutching them to my neck.

                “Holy mother of God!”  I gasp slipping my gloves on quickly.

                “Well enjoy yourselves, oh I heard from Zee, Hunter’s going to be fine but his T-cell count had dropped a bit.”

                “Oh thank goodness for that.  I know he’s off today, I’ll call Ben later and tell him to make sure he takes the week off.”

                “Mr Stark…”

                “Lucian, Henry call me Lucian.”

                “Lucian, oh my goodness, is there any chance we could persuade you to let us show some of these at Bloom?” 

                “Ah, I’m afraid I don’t own them anymore.”

                “What?  Who did you sell them to?”  I gasp

                “Lydia, let me call Zee and get her to tell Ben, I need to talk to her anyways.  As for these, I didn’t sell, I left them to Zee.  I’m sure she’ll be fine with that, love the girl to death but despite my best efforts has no idea or interest in art whatsoever.  Took her to the Louvre once, she was bored within 2 minutes but put a schematic of a security system in front of her and she’s in raptures.  Heathen!”

He walks out chuckling.

PITTSBURGH AIRPORT – SAME TIME

LINDZ

Mel and I didn’t have the most pleasant of mornings, she griped when I woke her early getting ready to go as she had today off.

She maintains that I’m being unfeeling towards Hunter I say everyone is just being over dramatic.  I’m looking forward to San Francisco even more so now that Lydia is not going to be breathing down my neck in person.  I can take my time to gently coax people unlike her bulldozer approach.  And speak of the devil.

                “Lydia, how are you?  Did you reach Portland safely?  They are that’s great news.  No I wasn’t planning on taking Friday off?  Oh wow that’s great news okay see you Friday.”

Fuck!  So those paintings are the real deal, he gets the finder’s fee and they are being delivered on Friday.

I bet anything that Zee told him where they were, she’s had it in for me since the day we met. 

I can hear my flight being called time to make my way to the gate.

TREEHOUSE

ZEE

“Uh Faal, why is there a guy outside with boxes from Petagogy?” 

He ushers them in. 

                “Drew and I went shopping.” 

He answers as if this makes perfect sense, someone has been spending just a tiny bit too much time with Jenny.  I do the universal hand circling thing for ‘and explain further’.

                “He recommended a day bed and they recommended other things.” 

                “Did they recommend buying the whole store, where are we going to put whatever’s in there?”

                “So you bought those sheepskin rugs for us then?”

                “That is completely different.”  I argue trying not to smile

                “Uh huh and how so do you explain that to me?  Because they are awfully small, unless you want me to use them as shin pads.”

                “Shush!”  I try to squirm out of his arms but he holds tight

                “So you going to help us unpack?  And judging by the way they’re reacting I think the catnip toys are in that box.”

GLASS QUBE

LUCIAN’S OFFICE

LUCIAN

What a beautiful ragtag of a family my little one has now, well most of them.  Leda left a note to say which part to order for the car.  Dee is so happy that they are getting married here, I think she might even horn in on the catering well for the wedding breakfast at least.

I’ve kept digging on Lindsay and that house, it’s a burr to me, seems she got it just before her son’s 14th birthday, but can’t find a record of her actually buying it…oh Lucian you fucking idiot, deed transfers!

STORM ROOM

BRIAN

                “Mmm!  Unh!  There!  Mmm!  That feels so good!”  I groan.

                “What position were you in that you managed to do this to your back?” 

Dee asks pressing down on my spine, I had no idea she knew how to massage, I’m so happy she does.  Justin is blushing furiously having bucked a little too high and caused me to slip in the shower and jar my back.  She presses a hot towel to my spine and I could just kiss her.

                “Okay, you rest, you come downstairs so he can rest and we can discuss the wedding.  I’ll call Zee and get the plane sent back, at least that way you can stretch out in the room.”

BROWNSTONE – LATE AFTERNOON

LOUNGE

FAAL

They look so cute!  We’ve only had the one accident and that was when they first got here, turns out my darling wife has done a “Brian with Lilah” on me and had Alice set up their facilities whilst we were gone and Uncle Luc and Aunt Dee have had the same litter tray and bowls.

Currently they are purring on their day bed…despite having one each they’re sharing…although I will have a to work a bit on getting them allowed into the bedroom.

Mel, the kids and Leda are coming for dinner tonight.  It will be takeaway as Zee was fretting so much this morning that she couldn’t cook and then when we had to sort out the furballs it took longer than it should’ve because someone had to make sure they weren’t in a draught in each room…they are your cats you are responsible my ass!

Aha there’s the door.

                “Hey guys come on in, Gus if you want to go the garage you can help Leda with my Spyder, which is still leaking.”

                “Great!  Not great that it’s leaking I mean…”

                “Just go Gus.”  Mel chuckles.

                “Wine?”

                “Why thank you kind sir.”  She grins

                “Hey Mel, Jenny, you guys okay isn’t it a relief about Hunter.  Oh I’ve sent the plane back to get to Portland to bring them back, Brian jarred his back so Aunt Dee has ordered him to rest, and luckily Carrie and Josh are coming back with them now instead of Tuesday.  Charles has to do a case out of state so David’s gone with him.”

Mel nods then jerks her head in Jenny’s direction who has been very quiet and sad looking since she came.

                “So have you spoken to Hunter today?”  I ask.

                “Yeah, so glad he’s okay.”  She says quietly.

                “Been in touch with Hank?”  Mel tries

                “A couple of times, he’s with his mom this week.” 

                “Jenny what’s wrong?”  Zee brushes her hair out of her eyes

                “Why do people who should divorce stay together and those who shouldn’t get divorced!  I love Aunt Dee and Uncle Luc, can-can’t you persuade them to stay together, they looked so happy what happened that they want to split up?!”  She cries

                “Unc...what…no!  No sweetheart, not them!  Her brother and his wife are getting divorced, oh you doofus is that what’s had you upset all day?”  Mel demands pulling her into a hug

She nods tearfully and I rub her back as Mel hugs her and nod at Zee, who picks up her phone.

                “Jenny, there’s someone who wants to talk to you.”

                “H-hello.  Oh hi Aunt Dee.  No I’m fine, it’s just when she said divorced I thought.  Okay, I will.  Thanks, bye.”

                “What did she say?”  I ask knowing full well one of the things she would say

                “Next time you want to know something ask, don’t sit…”

                “There holding your water.”  I finish for her.

She nods but looks confused.

                “It’s a toilet analogy, she has a host of them.  Basically, holding your water means that you’re stopping yourself from doing the one thing you need to do desperately, and only causing yourself pain in the process.”

She beams a proper Jenny smile.

                “Okay let’s order, can we have Kaya again.  This time I want to have at least one of the wings!”

ST REGIS – EARLY EVENING

LINDZ

The flight wasn’t too bad and although the hotel isn’t the Hotel des Arts at least I’m walking distance from the galleries.  Right time to order a cab and get some rest, there’s a great reception tonight and then there’s the auction tomorrow and dinner in the evening and then it’s estate viewings, oh the life of a busy gallery manager with an expense account!

SAN FRANCISCO MoMA – LATER THAT EVENING

LINDZ

The crème de la crème of the art world is here.  Some of the pieces are just gorgeous, I could look at them all day.

                “Lindsay, how lovely to see you here!”  James Fienman comes up to me.

JAMES

                “James, what are you doing here I thought the whole point of being retired is that you gave up all of this?”  She smiles at me.

                “Oh I couldn’t give up my art, it’s in my blood, but now this is a treat than a chore.  So are you going to the dinner at the Fine Arts tomorrow night?”

                “Absolutely wouldn’t miss it for the world.  Well if you excuse me I have to circulate.  Show my face around as you do.  Bye James.”

As she swans off my first thought is which of your two faces is that.

                “Mr Fienman?”

                “I know you, wait you’re Miranda, Lydia’s niece aren’t you?  How are you my dear girl?”

                “I’m fine thanks you?  Um, I’m kinda here by myself, Marek is talking to that guy and…”

I take a look, ah Campbell Lutz.

                “Stick with us my dear.  Now Carlton this is Miranda, Lydia’s niece, she’s with us tonight.  Now excuse me I just need to take care of a little problem.”

I head to Melody and have a quick word and within minutes I watch Campbell be escorted discreetly but firmly out of the room, and feel every woman and some men breathe a sigh of relief!

I make my way back to Carlton and hand over a glass of champagne to him and a wine spritzer to Miranda. 

                “So how’d you like it so far?”  I ask Miranda.

                “It’s great very interesting.”

                “So it’s just you and Marek from Uptown no Hunter?  I’d have thought this would’ve been right up his street.  Ah Marek how are you?”

                “Relieved, oh that man is creepy.”

I look room to see who’s in the immediate vicinity.

                “A tip for you when dealing with him, always go for the patron, he’s not as popular as he thinks.”

                “Does he swing both ways?”  Miranda whispers.

                “Sadly yes.  So why no Hunter?”  Carlton asks.

                “He took ill over the weekend, seems he overdid it with the party, then going to Portland and the Kirkidan find.  But he’s fine but Lydia has ordered him to rest.”  Marek explains

                “Ill!  Oh I must call Ben in the morning to see how…wait what did you say?  Did you say Kirkidan?  Hunter found a Kirkidan?”  I gasp.

This gets the attention of a few guests.

                “No he found the series.”  Marek grins proudly.  “That boy’s ability to sniff out a rarity.”

                “And where will they be shown?”  Melody is at my elbow

                “Oh they will be shown at the Bloom.” 

Lindsay replies.

MIRANDA

What the fuck is that lazy ass bitch doing here!

                “Really when?  I would love to attend the showing?  How did he find them and where?  Wait, I know you…”

                “Yes I’m Linds…”

                “Miranda Glendale, you hosted the party for Sydney, with Hunter, where is he?”

                “He was taken ill at the weekend, but as for the showing, I can’t give details out yet.”  Lindsay fluffs her hair and smiles toothsomely.  “I’m Lindsay Petersen one of the gallery managers at Bloom.”

                “Ill, oh dear, I hope it’s not serious.”  Melody looks between us.

                “Oh just his T-cell count dropped, but with some rest he’ll be fine.”  Lindsay replies airily.

                “Lindsay!”  Marek rasps.

                “Well, if you could let me know when the showing is that would be great, here’s my card.  James, Carlton and Miranda I will see you at the dinner tomorrow no doubt.”

Lyndsay takes the card like it’s a life preserver and smiles at Melody’s retreating back.

                “I can’t believe you just said that!”  Miranda whispers harshly at her.

                “What, I didn’t lie, she asked I answered.  Now excuse me I must circulate some more.”

                “That bitch!”  Miranda spits.  “How could she just say that she had no right?!”