Chapter 5: A Little Boy With a Big Problem

Saturday morning Danny arrived at Johns at his usual time of ten o’clock. Letting himself in, he called out hi as he went through to the kitchen. As he was putting the kettle on, John appeared. They had a hug and a kiss. Danny carried on making two coffees then they sat at the kitchen table.

As they sat down both their phones pinged together. As they both opened up their message, they found it was from Lucy. ‘Just to let you know she said, I’m a week overdue.’

Danny sent a text back, ‘That’s great news, but try not to build your hopes up too much just yet.’ They looked at each other, ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful if she was pregnant,’ John said. ‘Don’t you get too excited either,’ Danny said with a grin, ‘Women are late for dozens of reasons apart from pregnancy.’

But despite what he said, Danny couldn’t help hoping to himself.

They finished their coffees and Danny went out into the garden to start work. An hour later John came out to call him to the phone. I’ve just had a call from Gregg’s Gran he told him. She had sent her grandson Gregg along to see Danny a few weeks back. ‘I still don’t know anything about it,’ she told John, ‘But whatever Danny did, he must have sorted it because Gregg came home a completely different young man.’

‘The reason I’m ringing today,’ she told John, ‘Is that a friend of mine just dropped in for a cuppa. She tells me she is worried sick about her nephew who is just fifteen. From what she says I think he needs an urgent visit to see Danny.’

‘Hang on a minute,’ John had told her, ‘He’s in the garden, I’ll go and get him then you can tell him the details direct.’ ‘Even better, I’ll put my friend on the phone to him,’ Gregg’s gran said.

When Danny took the phone and said hello, A ladies voice said, ‘Hello Danny, I’m Madge. I’m ringing about my nephew Frank. He’s just turned fifteen and he’s lived with me and my husband since his parents died a few years ago.’

‘He seemed to get over their deaths and settle down well with us,’ she said. ‘We all got on well and he seemed happy with us. He’s a nice lad and never given us any problem. But lately he’s been really down. He’s morose, grumpy and on occasions I’ve heard him crying in his room at night.’

‘When I’ve asked him what’s the matter, he just says nothing and won’t say anything more. I’ve been worrying about him for a few weeks,’ she said, ‘But yesterday I was doing my weekly house clean and hoovered his room as I often do. Under his bed I found a magazine that he had dropped.’

‘I must admit that I assumed I’d found a hidden sex magazine at first but when I looked at it, I found it was a just a sort of general magazine with news items, cartoons, sport, competitions and stories in it. Then as I put it down it fell open at a page which had a big pencil ring around it. I was horrified when I read it. It was an article about someone who had committed suicide.’

‘As soon as I told my friend here, she said right away Danny will sort him out for you and rang John.’ ‘Well with regards to the magazine there are many reasons why that page might have been ringed,’ Danny told her. ‘For instance, he might have got the magazine off someone else and not have read that article himself.’

‘I never thought of that,’ she said, ‘Do you think I’m overreacting?’ ‘I don’t know without seeing him,’ Danny said, ‘But from your description he certainly seems to need help with something. If you want to send him round, I’ll see what I can do.’

‘Thank you so much,’ she said, ‘I’ll go back home right away and send him over.’

When Danny hung up, John said, ‘Is it shopping time?’ with a grin. ‘It looks like it,’ Danny told him, ‘But wait and see if he comes first.’ ‘Have a coffee whilst you have a chance anyway,’ John said as he went and put the kettle on.

Halfway through their coffee the phone rang. Hearing who it was John passed his phone to Danny. ‘He won’t come,’ Franks aunt said sounding very upset. ‘He says there’s nothing wrong with him.’ ‘Ok don’t distress yourself.’ Danny told her, ‘Give me his phone number.’ He wrote it down then told her he would have a try. ‘If he goes out, just let him go, don’t question him,’ Danny told her.

Ringing the number, it was answered after a couple of rings. ‘Hello,’ said an unhappy sounding teenage male voice. ‘Hi Frank, if you want to get your aunt off your back, please don’t hang up, just listen to me for a minute, ok?’

‘Ok,’ came a short sharp reply. ‘Your aunt thinks you have a problem,’ Danny told him, ‘She wants to help because she cares about you. Now I can help you but only if you will let me. That decision is entirely up to you. But if you do nothing, your aunt will keep on about it because she is worried about you. So, here’s my solution. If you come round and meet me, if you don’t like me, you can turn around and leave. But at least you can tell your aunt that you have been, seen me and had a chat. You don’t need to tell her how brief it was. Then she’ll be happy and if you cheer up a bit when you get back home, she’ll drop it.’

That seemed to make sense to him because he said, ‘Ok I’ll come round now, but I won’t be stopping.’ ‘Just let me tell you what I do and how it works then it’s up to you,’ Danny told him. ‘I’ll see you shortly.’

Hanging up, Danny said, ‘He’s on his way round.’ ‘Right,’ John said, ‘There’s no need for him to meet me, I’ll get off now. Usual arrangement, text me when it’s all clear.’

Five minutes after John had gone, there was a ring on the front doorbell. Danny opened the door to find a young lad standing on the step. He was extremely small and thin. He looked about twelve. As Danny look at him, he said, ‘I’m Frank.’ ‘Hi Frank,’ Danny said offering him his hand. ‘Sorry I was expecting... ‘ ‘Someone older,’ Frank interrupted. ‘I was fifteen last week.’

‘Well, you’re very welcome anyway,’ Danny told him. ‘Come on in and we’ll have a coffee whilst I tell you all about me.’ That threw Frank who had been expecting a grilling about him.

Danny made them both a coffee then as they sat at the table Danny said, ‘I know you don’t want to be here, but please hear me out before you go. I am seventeen,’ he said, ‘I have a knack of sorting out other people’s problems.’

‘If you were to let me help you, then nothing you say or do today will ever be known to another living soul unless you choose to tell them yourself. I’m not here to judge, just to help, so even if it’s something you think is terribly embarrassing it won’t bother me in the least.’

‘If you decided to try it and see, the last thing I will do is ask you about your problem. I will ask you about yourself and your life so I can get to know you and you can get to feel at ease with me.’

‘If you decided to stay and see what it’s like, you can get up and walk out at any time you want without any need to tell me why you are going.’

‘Before you decide, let me tell you that problems never go away on their own. Unless you do something about it, you’re stuck with it forever. Also, most people feel that their own problem is so embarrassing that they couldn’t possibly tell anyone about it. Everyone who has come to see me has felt like that, but everyone so far has found me so easy to talk to that I’ve been able to solve it for them.’

‘You should also know that the majority of problems involve sex of some sort or another, so there’s no need to feel embarrassed about it if yours does too.’

‘Now, your aunt wants you to stay, and I want you to stay, but no one is going to make you. Incidentally although your aunt gave me your phone number, she will never know you have been here this morning unless you choose to tell her.’

‘If you have any questions, I’ll do my best to answer them.’ ‘If I did stay,’ Frank asked, ‘What would I have to do?’ ‘Relax and talk to me,’ Danny answered. ‘We would go into the lounge, and you would lie on the settee. I would ask you questions about your life as I did my best to get you to feel relaxed with me.’

‘Until we both agreed you were relaxed enough to discuss it, we would avoid talking about any problem you might have. Because I don’t yet know what that problem is, I might inadvertently ask a question that you didn’t feel able to answer just then. If I do, all you need to do is say pass and I’ll move on.’