One Hot Summer (boyxboy)

Chapter 19: Wise uncle

"The chat boy. You know... about girls."
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"Morning sweetie!" The unwelcome morning call was evermore so as Jasper felt very tired and very headachey. He dare not complain though, as he has seemingly gotten away with the previous night's antics. But he sure was paying the price. 

Around 20 or so minutes later, Jasper is sitting around the breakfast table, forcing down his porridge. Moments later his uncle enters the kitchen in an uncharacteristically chipper mood. Jasper watches him as he wraps his arms around Molly from behind, kissing the nape of her neck. "Morning beautiful." He utters in her ear before turning and noticing Jasper sat watching with a mouthfull of porridge, which he was struggling to swallow. 

"Oh morning lad." His uncle clears his throat a little as he sits opposite Jasper, as Molly places a mug of tea in front of him. Jasper half smiles, suddenly remembering why his uncle was so jovial this morning. "So there's been a change of plan today." His uncle starts to address Jasper.

"What do you mean?" Jasper says, putting his spoon back into his bowl. 

"No Thomas today. He called Molly half an hour ago. His face is giving him pain." His uncle says, slurping down some tea. "So you'll be working alongside me today."

Jasper thinks back to last night, knowing Thomas was probably feeling as rough as he was, but Jasper couldn't object as he'd be in trouble as well as Thomas. 

After breakfast, Jasper is told to wait in the four by four for his uncle. This morning, they are building new shelters for the pigs. The journey to the pig pens was a quiet affair, mainly due to Jasper's pounding head, but also partly due to the fact that he had been avoiding his uncle where possible and as a consequence, had nothing to talk about. 

Once parked alongside the pens, his uncle pulls down the back of the attached trailer and proceeds to pull corrugated metal sheets from the trailer to the grass. "Help me lad." Prompts Jim, which makes Jasper slightly spring to life to take the sheet to the ground. 

Jasper is now put in charge of holding the nails, which suits him fine, as it just involved him standing there reasonably inactive, plus he had become an expert nail holder over the past weeks.

As he watched his uncle, he thought about how he had been with Molly that morning. All loved up and not the usual hot head that Jasper would normally see. She was obviously a good influence on him and Jasper wondered how they met. 

"Uncle?" Jasper suddenly finds himself saying. 

His uncle stops his work to look at Jasper. "Yes lad?" He questions.

Jasper momentarily hesitates before continuing, but he had the man's attention at least. "How did you meet Molly?"

A smile slowly spreads over his uncle's face as he drops his mallet on the ground and sits down on a nearby tree stump. "I was waiting for this." He says to Jasper, before gesturing for him to sit opposite on a large protruding rock. 

"What do you mean?" Jasper wonders as he settles on the cool stone.

"The chat boy. You know... about girls!" His uncle smiles at Jasper and adds a wink. Jasper lets a weak smile spread across his face. His uncle couldn't have gotten it more wrong if he tried. 

"I'll give you the watered down version. I don't want to scare you." This would be interesting. Jasper was pretty sure he would be able to educate his uncle more that the other way around, but decides to keep it under wraps. 

Jim leans forward on his stump seat a little and laces his own hands together. "A couple of years ago, I decided to venture into fruit growing, just to make some additional income. That field over there!..." Jim points to a field now full of cows in the distance. "...it was full of strawberries. I wanted to get people in to pick their own fruit. Anyhow, I had to employ a few staff for the season and Molly was one of them." 

Jasper watches his uncle's face light up as he recalls their story. "She was beautiful from that first day, she was such a hard worker. We got to know each other more, over the summer and my heart was lost." 

His uncle's face suddenly drops. "She and Thomas lived with their grandfather in the village. A stubborn old man. He didn't approve of us." 

"Why?" Jasper asks.

His uncle sighs. "Lots of reasons. First off, he thought I wasn't good enough for her. I'm 12 years older you see and I think her grandfather also wanted her to meet a city worker. Plus since their grandmother had passed away, Molly had been like the mother to Thomas and did all the house stuff. I don't think her grandfather wanted to deal with that responsibility." 

Jasper's thoughts now turn to Thomas. He would have been Jasper's age at the time. "What happened to Tom?" 

"Thomas?...well he had to fill Molly's void, do the work. Though I don't think it is appreciated. I've met their grandfather a couple of times. He's a cold man. I offered for Thomas to stay at the house when Molly left, but he said he should care for his grandfather, at least until he went to university."

Jasper can't help feeling a little sad hearing Thomas' story. Maybe that cocky arrogance was a facade. Maybe the real Thomas was buried underneath somewhere. 

"So...that's our story. I got rid of the strawberry field eventually. The customers would eat them before paying and the insects were a nightmare." 

Jim turns a little to Jasper. "But what you really want to know is how to get a girl. Am I right?" A smug smile spread across his face.

Jasper thinks about how many girls he's had under him, had riding him, how many he had pushed up against the wall by the school gym. But this would be amusing to hear. "Yes uncle." Jasper smiles, playing along.

"Ok...so lets start with eye contact.."