Chapter 2

Eventually the train arrived at the very basic structure that was the station for the new village. The passengers alighting at the station got off, including the Montford sisters and their tourist guide. Then the flatcar and its cargo was shunted into the single siding and uncoupled, so the train could continue to its final destination.

Amelia operated the controls to swing the ramp round to land on the hard compacted earth, then returned to the caravan to back it off, down the ramp on to the levelled ground. This was a delicate and slow process, so she got the Montford sisters to guide her, so that the wheels would not slip off the side of the ramp. The ramp was designed with built-up edges to prevent this kind of error, but accidents could happen.

Once the caravan was safely on the level ground, the sisters returned on board, and Amelia consulted her phone for the digital map of the village. It showed her what roads were available to drive on – they were all little more than hard-packed dirt so far. She had her destination, the school, marked on it.

Not much more than five minutes later, she was drawing up alongside the school, between it and the schoolhouse. Some children were outside, conducting an experiment of some kind in the school yard, so one of the children ran in to inform their teacher of the arrival of a caravan.

Within moments an adult male appeared at the door of the school, and he peered at the newcomers. He took in the spectacle of four females of varying ages inside the vehicle, and tried to assess them, without any luck. The dusty windows did not help him. They began to exit from the caravan, one by one. His eyes widened as he thought he recognised the face of one of the girls as a former pupil, back on Earth. Now she was dressed as a full-fledged adult, and less easy to envision as an ex-pupil. She was wearing dressy summer clothes instead of school uniform, her hair was beautifully coiffured, and she wore some make-up, including dark lipstick. And her clothes accentuated her voluptuous figure. He was stunned.

His mouth fell open as his mind clicked into gear. “Montford? Is that you?” and Annabel’s face broke into a wide smile at this recognition of her.

“It is indeed, Mr Defreitas. We are here on vacation: myself and my sisters, Tracy and Dinah. Our guide escorting us is Amelia Cross,” she concluded, her arm sweeping past her sisters to encompass Amelia, who was climbing out of the driver’s seat after shutting down the engine and putting it in park. Amelia was stepping down backwards, and Trevor gladly admired the view. Then she turned round.

Amelia and Trevor’s eyes met, and she felt a frisson of interest run through her. Trevor was staring at her, mesmerised by this vision before him. Annabel realised something had happened, but was unsure what. She went on, “Sir? We thought we should call on you during our vacation on Rehome. Is that all right with you?”

Trevor jerked his attention away from Amelia, and back to this vision who had been his student. “Oh, of course it is fine. I am delighted that you thought of me in the course of an exciting vacation. Have I met your lovely sisters before?”

“They were both at the same school, but neither was in your Social Studies class, Mr Defreitas. This is Tracy, she is sixteen; and this is Dinah, just 15.” Dinah showed her annoyance: “Not JUST fifteen, Mr Defreitas. I am a gorgeous fifteen-year-old!” She turned and stuck her tongue out at Annabel before putting her hands on her hips and sticking out her chest.

Despite the tongue episode, she was indeed a gorgeous girl with burgeoning breasts. Trevor found himself exclaiming, “I agree with that assessment, Dinah. You are indeed gorgeous.”

The four arrayed themselves before him.

Trevor was overwhelmed by this fourfold group of young beauties. He recovered enough to remember his manners. “I must show you around my humble abode, but first of all come and see my school, and I shall introduce you to my little band of pupils.” He returned to the door of the school and called over to those working outside: “Time to come in, now, children. I am about to close school early, today.” Their faces lit up as they replied, “Yes, sir.”

He entered, followed by his visitors, and then the children happily trooped in behind them and scurried to their desks. They sat down among other children of various ages, while Trevor explained.

“Children, I have received an unexpected visit by ladies from Earth, one of whom is a former pupil of mine; she is a grown-up pupil who is now an educated adult such as I intend you to be. Miss Montford is this lovely lady.” He gestured with his arm, and the children goggled at the vision before them. “With them is this lovely lady, their tour guide, Miss... ?” Amelia filled in for him, “Cross, Miss Amelia Cross, from Metropolis.”

“Thank you, Miss Cross.” He gestured at his pupils, and spoke to his guests. “Ladies, you see before you the dregs of our village,” faces fell; “but who are slowly turning into bright students,” the faces shone with smiles again; “as they study hard and learn to become good citizens of Rehome.” The children adopted a pose of seriousness.

He paused, then went on, “In honour of our guests, I am going to give them a quick tour of our school and the schoolhouse, then I have to be a good host to them; so ... so I am now declaring school closed for the day, and you may all go home.” Cheers rose from the children, and they hurriedly packed up their school books and went to collect their coats from the wall hooks, as Trevor called to them, “Quietly!”

He called out again to the children as they started to leave, “Reassure your parents that nothing is wrong: I just have visitors to look after.”

As the last of the children departed, he relaxed a little, and turned to his visitors. “Allow me to give you the grand tour: This room is the one teaching room in the school, so I teach all ages of primary level. To the back, there, is my office-cum common room and staff toilet. The other room at the back is the children’s toilets and cloakroom; and we have a storeroom for school equipment, stationery, and cleaning materials. The younger ones start later in the day, and we allow them to play quiet educational games in this corner while the older children are learning their subjects. Then they all go home at the same time. Some of the older pupils are detailed to escort the younger ones home, as part of learning their civic duties.”

He looked at his phone to catch the time. “They have only got away half an hour early, despite their enthusiastic departure!

He ushered the ladies back to the front door. “Allow me to close up, and we can move to the schoolhouse and get the kettle on for some refreshments.”

By now he had finally remembered the first name of his former student turned lovely woman. “Annabel, what are you going to do, now that you have left school?” As he spoke, he was escorting them towards his house, and he unconsciously put his arm round the attractive Amelia as he shepherded them. She said nothing, but was happy with this sign of familiarity.

Annabel responded, “I intend to go to university, but I have not yet decided which course to take. Daddy wants me to take a scientific degree, while Mom thinks I would be better with a maths degree. Myself, I fancy astronomy. It covers both maths and science, so that should keep them both satisfied, as well as me.” Trevor mouthed a short sign of approval: “Good idea”.

They arrived at the schoolhouse door, and Trevor opened it wide, gesturing for them to enter. “My own little fiefdom, this. I hope you don’t mind the mess I left it in, but I was not expecting visitors, certainly not a bevy of lovely beauties!”

This disarmed his guests, so much that they immediately offered to help tidy his rooms for him. “Just show us what goes where, and we will do the rest,” said Amelia. He did so, and as he went to the kitchen to put the kettle on, the girls set to and had the place tidy very quickly. Books – works he consulted before teaching, to ensure he had his facts right, and at the right level for children - went in the bookcase wherever there was a space, clean clothes were folded and laid neatly on top of dressers and cupboards for Trevor to put away later, and items deemed for washing were placed in the tall washbasket they found in the bathroom.

Shortly they were sitting down around his multifunction table, sipping hot tea and sampling a plate of biscuits that he produced from somewhere: “These are made by one of the mothers. The biscuits are delicious, and she doesn’t charge much for them; just cost, I assume. I keep saying to her she should sell them professionally, at a much higher price, but she hasn’t decided yet. I expect the local market for biscuits is limited, and she has no way of distributing them more widely.”

They all chatted for a while, then Trevor enquired generally, “You haven’t said how long you are staying. Is this a one-hour visit, or can you stay longer? I am happy with “longer”,” he said with an enthusiastic smile. “I seldom get visitors such as yourselves.”

Amelia answered, as the official guide for the party. “The girls expressed a desire to visit you as someone they knew from back home, so the Colony elected to offer this trip for them alone. The caravan and the rail trip here is courtesy of the Colony. They don’t need to be back until some time tomorrow. The caravan allows us all to spend the night here without imposing on locals for accommodation.”

Trevor was relieved he didn’t have to offer beds for all, as he had only one double bed for himself, and a single bed in the spare bedroom; plus a folding sofabed for emergencies. He felt this was such an emergency, but it was more than he thought he could handle, so the caravan was a relief.

“That is excellent. I am sure I have enough comestibles to be able to throw something together for an evening meal. I have a collection of tinned stuff that you would not believe. I stocked up in Metropolis with months of food supplies before I came out here – I had to get it sent by rail as I couldn’t carry it - but the local parents keep bringing me food, so I seldom have to raid my larder.

Amelia remarked, “Well, if that is the case, I can exhibit my cooking skills by making dinner for us all. Just show me your larder, and I’ll concoct something tasty from it.”

“I will be quite happy to let you have the run of my kitchen, Amelia. My own cooking skills are not what you might call “up to the mark”. I usually just empty a tin into a pot, and heat it up. However, we have a couple of hours for me to get to know you all before we have to think of dinner.”

These two hours fled swiftly as he proved himself to be a good conversationalist. He had the girls laughing at some of the stupid errors he had made while integrating onto the local community. He did, however, praise the colony, saying, “I was completely satisfied with my move to Rehome. Did you know, it was first of all called “Home”, and when they offered one of the empty cities to the Towatans, they decided to change the planet’s name to Rehome. This was primarily because the Towatans’ name for their devastated planet translated into English as “Home”, and the human colonists did not want the Towatans to be upset by such memories. I was amazed at such sensitivity within the Colony.”

Eventually Amelia excused herself, to embark on preparing the evening meal. Trevor showed her where all the utensils and cutlery were parked when not in use, plus the location of the store cupboard; then left her to her own devices. She hummed to herself as she raked among the tins. She selected a couple of tins of steak chunks, a further two tins of mixed vegetables, then had a hunt through his range of dried herbs for suitable flavourings. Still looking around, in the bottom of his store cupboard she found two bags. One was full of a recently picked herb that she did not recognise, so she left it. The other bag was also fresh picked and almost full, but this time it was what she recognised as truffles of some kind. The bag was marked “Property of Rehome”, so she assumed that Trevor had collected them. She was unclear as to whether the words meant the bag, or whatever it contained. One truffle more or less would not be missed, she considered. She reckoned that a mild flavouring of truffle would supplement the other flavours, so she helped herself to a single truffle, sliced it thinly, and fried the slices before adding them to her stew. Satisfied, she next found a tin of custard and another of rhubarb. She thought that would make a nice dessert.

When she was nearly finished her cooking, she called for Annabel. “Annabel, dear, could you lay the table for the meal? This drawer has the cutlery, and the salt and pepper are in the high cupboard here.”

Once Amelia had dished out the stew, she started the custard heating. Getting the temperature right, making sure it did not boil, was important for custard. The rhubarb was already heated, and just needed simmering to make it even more tender. The others had already started on their stew by the time she got through to join them, and they congratulated her on her culinary talents. Trevor was particularly forthcoming with high praise, in comparison to his own dire efforts. She accepted these compliments, and settled to try her own portion. She agreed that it tasted excellent. The tinned steak had turned out well.

Dinah was first to finish her plateful, and asked if there was any more. “I think there is, Dinah. The pot is on the cooker. Go help yourself.”

Trevor was licking his lips as he cleared his own plate. He looked across at Amelia, and came to the conclusion that she had delicious lips. He fancied checking them out sometime soon. He got up and carried his plate through for a refill. On his way back to the table, he leaned over Amelia, said softly, “Amelia,” and as she turned to look up, he kissed her tenderly. She looked startled, but merely said, “Oh, Trevor!”

Annabel had watched this episode, and commented, “Mr Defreitas, that is unfair.” He looked across at her, and said, “You are quite right, Annabel. He placed his plate down on the table and came round to her and proceeded to kiss her as well. She accepted the kiss with a pleased smile.

Tracy looked thunderous, and remarked, “I am old enough to be kissed, you know!” Trevor declared, “Tracy, you are correct. I was remiss.” He threw up his hands as if in surrender, marched round, and heartily kissed her as well. She accepted the kiss and responded with energy. Trevor released himself from her mouth, and looked around the table.

Seeing Dinah still with her head down, scoffing her second plateful, he declared, “Dinah! You must not left out.” He went round to stand behind her, and she bent her head back to peer at him. He leaned forward, put his arms round her torso, and as he kissed her, placed his hands on her young breasts, squeezing them gently. She sighed with pleasure. “Trevor - you can do that to me, any time you like.”

Surprised at his own behaviour, Trevor shook his head, went back, picked up his plate and sat down to eat it. None of the girls seemed particularly bother by his antics, and he eventually thought nothing of it, himself. It was just something he felt like doing, he concluded, and he liked it.

Amelia finished her plateful, and decided she had better fetch the dessert. Passing Trevor on the way, she reached out and ran her had down the side of his face, then took the notion to give him a kiss in return. After all, he was a gorgeous hunk of a man.

He seemed to just accept this kiss, and indeed responded to it with passion. She rubbed her breasts against his head as he sat there, then went on her way to the kitchen, wondering why she was behaving as she was. She dished out the rhubarb and custard onto plates, and called through, “Dessert ready to collect.”

They all traipsed through and collected their plates. They then settled down at the table and consumed their desserts. Everyone seemed absorbed in their thoughts.

Annabel at last voiced her thoughts. “I feel funny,” she announced. “I have never felt quite this way before, but I like it.”