Chapter 10

“Come on, you haven’t been for ages. Just for a few days. It will be fun.”

“Okay, Mother, for goodness’ sake.”

“You can drive if you want.”

“Okay, alright already.”

“What about Louise? Do you want to bring her? We have the Shepherd’s Hut that you could use if you wanted.”

“Nah, I don’t want to take her there, to the cottage.”

“Oh, okay, just thought that you would; no worries.”

That had been yesterday. Louise had stayed the night with Mik, and she went off home this morning. Mik packed what he wanted to take. And I sorted out some clothes and then some food for us; I packed it all into the car, and we set off. Hopefully a good couple of nights in the remoteness of the cottage would be good. I have one Zoom business call to do tomorrow, and that was it.

A few temporary sets of traffic lights for roadworks, none of which had a single worker visible, slowed us down, and then we were clear and soon at the entrance of our track. I drove slowly past the shepherd’s hut and then backed up to the cottage. It was a bit darker up here, the clouds a little heavier. No rain, and none forecast, so hopefully dry. We took all the bits and pieces in.

“Why don’t you take a can of pop and go and say hello to Fay and Elvina?” I said to him.

“Nah, not now, Mum. They can wait.”

“My God, a teenager missing the opportunity for some intimacy with two beauties? Are you ill?” I said with a laugh in my voice.

He stuck his tongue out and sat at the kitchen table and watched me put the food into the cupboards.”

“Fancy a walk, Mum?” He asked after I had finished.

“Okay, yes, anywhere in particular, baby?”

“No, Mum, just, you know, a walk.”

“Okay, let’s go then.”

We headed out and along the track sort of towards the commune. I wasn’t sure how far we would go or why.

“I love the views out here. I am pretty sure I saw a weasel last week just around that small copse, and of course the buzzards are continually wheeling and calling in the sky. It is so beautiful up here.”

“Is that why you come here so often? I wondered if it was to get away from me.”

“Oh Mik, shit, no, baby, I would bring you here every time if you would come. No, it is just that I love the peace and quiet. I can daydream, I can talk to faeries, I can do some work up here. No, I do like being here, and at the same time, I hate being away from you.”

“Oh, okay. Do you have sex with the faeries when you are here?”

Okay, let’s get into the details, shall we?

“Sometimes, baby, and sometimes not. It is not why I come here.”

“Does that mean that you are a lesbian mum because they are girls?”

Oh my, we were really getting into the nitty-gritty.

“No baby, there are actually some boy faeries too, but they are a bit troublesome. And no, I do see men, you know, and I prefer my time with actual real men, men that have a dick. The time with the faeries is just, oh, I don’t know, not exactly magical; it is not and does not feel, real.”

“Oh. I need to ask you something real personal.”

“Okay, baby, you know that you can always ask me something, and I will always try to answer honestly.”

“Is there something wrong with my dick?”

Well, that floored me; I didn’t expect that at all.

“Goodness, whatever makes you think that there might be? Is Louise unhappy?”

“No, and yes. When I was here, you and I did it, but you haven’t tried to ever since. Was I not very good? And Louise? Well, she will only let me do it the one way; she won’t let me, you know, try behind, nor will she go down on me and use her mouth.”

“Oh goodness. Well, no, there is nothing wrong with you. Perhaps it is all a bit new to Louise, and perhaps she just wants to do what her parents taught her was normal; I don’t know. Not every girl likes anal; it can be painful at the beginning, and we don’t have much feeling inside our bottom, so the only sensation we get is a tightness around the entrance.”

“I understand that, but she won’t even try. And what about you, Mum? Why have you not gone with me since?”

“Goodness, Mik, let me tell you I have dreamt about us in bed on, oh, so many occasions, but they say it is wrong; it is against the law. I could go to jail for having sex with my son. I have desired you, just not had the courage to make the move, baby.”

“Oh.”

And that was kind of the end of that; we walked on in silence until we could see the boundary wall with the commune beyond. I didn’t really want to encounter Joshua today; he and his commune were all wrong in my eyes, and the way he manipulated his followers out of their money and bodies I found reprehensible. I stopped and turned to Mik.

“This is the end of our land, baby; beyond it is the commune, and I really don’t like the man that leads it. I found him false and manipulative. I vowed to have nothing more to do with him. Once a week he came to the cottage to use the internet, but I managed to end that by telling him he could use the internet in the library in the village; he didn’t need mine.”

“Okay, Mum, I doubt that you are wrong in your judgement of him. When we talk at home about my old girlfriends, your judgements are usually spot on. Somewhere to avoid, then?”

“Yes, and don’t be thinking that you can save the people from him. You can’t; they are adults, and they are there of their own volition. My decision is to not get involved.”

“Okay, Mum, agreed.”

“No matter how pretty they are or how big their boobs are.” I added laughing.

“Dash it, Mum, okay,” he said, laughing back. At least his mood seemed to have improved.

We wandered back to the cottage under the angry-looking sky, clouds grey and black in places and moving quite quickly across the heavens. Thankfully the forecasters were right; there was no rain. Back at the cottage I dug a tinned steak pie out of the cupboard and put it into the oven. I quickly peeled and cut some potatoes and put them on to boil. The potatoes’ water would be nicely starchy and would make good gravy. Mash, pie and gravy for tea.