Close Observation Ch. 19

Chapter 19

I couldn't close things off as quickly as I thought I'd be able to, so there's actually two more chapters after this one. I hope everyone's staying safe with all the pandemic stuff going on.

Ron was tired and hungover in the morning. He was careful as he drove to the West End. He would be minding a man called Ramesh for a few days, until the chaps came over. Ramesh knew Toby because he'd been in the Indian Army, and their paths had crossed on an exercise somewhere. Toby described Ramesh as a character. He was in London catching up with friends; he'd been to Harrow school and Sandhurst, so he knew a lot of people. He was staying at the Ritz; Ron would meet him in the lobby.

Ramesh smiled, broadly and brilliantly, when Ron introduced himself. He was stocky but fit looking. He looked to Ron to be mid-forties. Ron liked his suit, he thought it was particularly well-cut. Ramesh wore a pocket square that he seemed to have shoved into the breast pocket of his jacket haphazardly, which Ron found curious. Ron's first task was to escort Ramesh all of three hundred yards, along Piccadilly, to the Cavalry and Guards Club. On the way, Ramesh asked him about his experience in the army, and teased him by saying that, of course, Indian army regiments were smarter and more professional than British ones. Ramesh said he had been a major in the Indian 9 Horse Regiment, the Deccan Horse. Ron had suspected that almost every single member of a cavalry regiment he had ever encountered, in any army, and particularly officers, seemed to have had a noticeable cognitive impairment.

In the club, Ramesh met two men who Ron assumed were ex-army officers. They looked familiar but he couldn't place them. They greeted Ramesh warmly. The three men seemed to be the only customers in the club. Ron sat away from them at a discreet distance. On the walls were mounted paintings of battle scenes and of famous former members of the club. Ron was most amused, despite his hangover, to find himself sitting by a portrait of an officer who had almost been responsible for the loss of the Grenadier Guards' colours, at a battle during the Crimean War.

Ramesh left the Cavalry and Guards Club at lunchtime. They went from there, back along Piccadilly and down St James' Street to Boodles Club, where Ramesh was greeted by a trio of men. Ramesh started drinking expensive scotch whiskey. The paintings on the walls in Boodles all seemed to be either of men from the eighteenth-century wearing wigs, or of hunting scenes. Some of the club members present seemed very old.

In the late afternoon, they went from Boodles around the corner onto Pall Mall. Ramesh was clearly starting to feel the effects of the Scotch. Ron thought he hadn't stopped smiling all day, and he'd seemed adept at amusing his companions. Hungover as he was, he was getting the impression that Ramesh was a decent bloke. He certainly seemed popular. They went into the Athenaeum Club on Waterloo Place, where Ramesh met yet more old friends. Ron noticed that as people came up the stairs and into the club's library, Ramesh would often recognise them and say hello. Ron thought a lot of people in the Athenaeum seemed like army officers.

Ron was hungry; he hadn't eaten anything since the night before. Ramesh told him to order anything he wanted from the menu. Just before he went to the dining room, a couple of gentlemen came up to Ramesh and greeted him warmly. Ramesh seemed suddenly serious. He and the men left the large room they were in, wanting to talk in private.

All day, and all of the night before, Ron's mind wanted to jump to Marie; to how she'd kissed him and to how she'd then behaved with William, the client. He wouldn't let himself think about it. He seemed to spend the whole time batting the thoughts away. He ate sea bass in the club; he wasn't expecting much but when it came, he thought it was amazing. Ramesh was off for about an hour with the two gentlemen. When he returned, he said he'd been talking to "English spies." He tapped the end of his nose with his finger to signify that it was a secret.

From the Athenaeum they went back around the corner to the Reform Club. Ron was impressed by the lobby of the club; there were large pillars, and sculptures of busts of former members. He could remember, when he was a kid, watching a cartoon about Phineas Fogg going around the world in 80 days, but the characters were all animals, like dogs and cats and mice. He could still remember the theme tune. He remembered that the story had started in this club.

Ramesh asked Ron what was wrong, he said he thought Ron was unhappy. Ron told him it was women trouble.

***

Katie was at the flat when he got home. The girls were all there, Vicky and Caroline were draped all over each other on an armchair, Annabelle and Vicky were on a settee. He noticed that Annabelle and Katie's thighs were touching as they sat next to each other. Katie looked to have lost more weight. Ron thought she looked better than ever.

'Hello you!' said Katie.

'Hello Mr Ron!' said Vicky.

There was a bottle of red wine on the coffee table, and everyone had a glass. Ron wondered if it was their second, or maybe even their third bottle.

'How was your day Mr Ron?' asked Vicky.

'It was alright,' said Ron. He was tired. It hadn't been a good day; he just wanted to get to his room and be on his own.

'Have some wine with us,' said Annabelle.

'I'm knackered, honestly. I might just get to bed,' said Ron.

'You look tired, Mr Ron,' said Vicky.

'I am. Long day,' said Ron.

***

There was a knock at his bedroom door about a minute after he went in.

'Yeah,' said Ron. He just wanted to read his book and get his head down. He knew that eventually Vicky and Caroline would go to bed, and from the look of things possibly Katie would spend the night with Annabelle. There would be noise, so he wanted to get to sleep as quickly as possible.

It was Katie.

'Hi Ron. I was hoping to have a chat,' she said.

'Ok. What's up?' asked Ron.

'Marie...' said Katie.

'What about Marie,' said Ron.

'Are you ok?' asked Katie.

'I am, I'm fine, I'm worn out. How can I help with Marie?' asked Ron.

'She's had to cancel a couple of bookings. She says she's out of commission. Did that guy go up her arse?' asked Katie.

'Yeah. Hard,' said Ron.

'Did you have to get involved?' asked Katie.

'No. I told her the safe word because I thought he'd try it. I said I'd come in if he did. She didn't say the safe word, she just let him do it. She was telling him she liked it; she let him do it three times,' said Ron.

'What is going on with that girl?' said Katie.

'I don't know, no idea,' said Ron.

'I know she's had a bad time just lately, she was stressed out with work, and that thing with you obviously hurt her ten times worse than it hurt you, and she had a thing with this doctor in work...' said Katie.

It occurred to Ron that if their 'conversation' had hurt Marie ten times worse than it had hurt him, then she was in some fucking trouble.

'She slept with the doctor?' asked Ron.

'Think so, yeah. I suspect that hasn't turned out how she might have wanted it to,' said Katie.

'That would have hurt her,' said Ron.

'Maybe. The Arabs liked her. They want her again when they come over. She says she thinks she'll be alright for then,' said Katie.

'I can't be there if that guy books one of the girls again. I don't like him. I'll just kick his fucking head in if I see him again,' said Ron.

'I won't let him book again. I told him Marie didn't do anal,' said Katie.

'...Are you back on the booze?' asked Ron.

'I'm having some wine. Nothing else though,' said Katie.

'Since you've been off that stuff, you've looked better. You look beautiful,' said Ron.

'Thank you. Look, I think Annabelle's expecting me to stop in with her tonight. Maybe you could join us. I can't imagine her objecting too much, for some reason,' said Katie, smiling.

'Nah, thanks anyway. Annabelle's a lucky lady. I'm knackered, and the thing last night's given me the hump if I'm honest, I'm not in the mood,' said Ron.

'You're definitely ok? Asked Katie.

'Yeah. I'll be fine. Thanks for asking,' said Ron.

***

Ron spent three days with Ramesh going from one club to another. The furthest they went from the Ritz was Buck's Club in Mayfair, which was still walking distance. Ramesh did have some trouble walking back from Buck's after they visited, because he was spectacularly drunk; Ron basically had to carry him back to the hotel.

Apart from going to Buck's they were almost always either on Piccadilly, St James' Street or on Pall Mall. He saw Le Brodeur in the Cavalry and Guards. Ron didn't mind the guy but couldn't imagine being mates with him. He saw some familiar faces from the Guards in the clubs; he enjoyed catching up with some officers he knew. He was sad to see a young subaltern from the Scots Guards, who he had taught at Sandhurst, walk into Pratt's Club with a prosthetic leg. He remembered hearing about the young man's injury at the time it had occurred.

In the evenings, he took Emma to a group booking where two men took it in turns to sodomise and urinate on her. He took Vicky to a booking in Islington, with an old man who kept asking her to call him "daddy." He watched whilst Layla entertained a couple of distinctly tipsy businessmen; they booked and paid for two hours but weren't able to achieve erections after they'd both sodomised her within the first fifteen minutes. He took Caroline and Emma to a client's flat in Belgravia. It was a three-hour booking; it was the first time they'd worked together. Emma told him afterwards that she thought Caroline was absolutely gorgeous.

On Ramesh's last night he got blind drunk again. Ron carried him to his room again. The doorman and the staff they encountered all seemed very adept at turning a blind eye to the state of their guest. Ron had liked Ramesh and had enjoyed minding him.

***

Ron had another appointment with Marie. He thought about not going. After what she'd said to him, he wasn't sure how he could sit and tell her about Afghanistan. After the other night, when she'd kissed him like that and then, straight afterwards, drooled all over the client and let him bend her over, he didn't know whether he wanted to be in a room with her. He decided to go. He loved her. She'd done his head in, but he couldn't pretend he'd suddenly stopped feeling anything.

***

She came and got him from the waiting room. She looked smart, she wore trousers and a blouse. She smiled at him when she saw him, and he thought there was something in her eyes, something he hadn't seen before, like she was trying to read him, read how he felt.

When they were alone in the room, he told her about Afghanistan. He thought that talking about it was good for him, despite how she would probably judge him.

He said that, for the first few months he was out there, he hadn't thought about the politics. Once British soldiers started exploding, he did though. They had Afghan guys on their side; they were called the Afghan National Army, the ANA. They'd seemed alright at first; they obviously didn't have any idea what they were doing, but they'd seemed nice enough. There'd been British NCOs embedded with them, and they'd started teaching the Afghans useful stuff, like which end of a rifle the round actually fucking came out of. They'd thought that the young boys that were always around the Afghan's compound were their sons. A Royal Artillery bod who'd been there for a while told them otherwise.

Ron had come to believe that the only Afghans who had some bottle were the other side. He thought that when the western countries pulled out, and he knew they would do, the bad guys would take over again. When they took over, thanks to what the Americans and the British and the Danes and the others had done, and sacrificed, the bad guys would have aqueducts and hydro-electric plants. He'd had to keep asking blokes to go out on patrol with him, into Indian country, knowing they might suddenly turn into pink mist, and Ron thought they were doing it all for precisely fuck all. He remembered the way his blokes would look at him, when he'd got them moving out of the compound, out into the countryside. A few of them were barely old enough to shave, it had seemed like. They'd looked at him like they trusted him and respected him, whilst all the time he was thinking, this is pointless, this is utterly pointless, I don't want to die, I don't want to lose my arms or my legs, I want to go home.

Marie looked attentive, she took notes, she looked at him like he was a dog with three legs. In her letter she'd written that she didn't mean what she'd said. He'd told her he believed her, but he didn't. He'd always thought that she looked at him like that because she felt sorry for him, and he thought she felt sorry for him because Afghan had messed him up to the point where he was pissing himself and crying. After she said those things to him, he had a different perspective. He thought she felt sorry for him because she thought he was weak. He thought she looked at him like that because he'd been too weak to hack it in Afghan, because he wasn't a man. She could say sorry, she could cry, and he could say they were ok, that it wasn't a big deal and that he understood, but he'd be lying. People didn't say things they didn't mean when they snapped like that, it was the only time when they said what they actually thought. It was a big deal. He could still hear what she said to him. Boo hoo I was in Afghanistan, boo hoo I have to watch Marie getting fucked. Big brave Ron.

He suspected that their therapeutic relationship had been compromised.

He wanted to ask why she'd let the client do that to her, the other night. He wanted to ask about the doctor at work. He wanted to get some idea of what was going on in her head. He couldn't ask any of those questions, it wasn't the time or the place. He still loved her. He still wanted her as much as he had before, maybe more than before.

***

His afternoon was free. Katie had two bookings she wanted him to do. The first one was with Annabelle. He took her to a hotel close to Russell Square. Annabelle made the man come so hard that he paid for another hour. Ron could hear him gasping for breath when he climaxed. The man said he couldn't believe how Annabelle had made him feel.

Later it was Emma at the obs flat. The client didn't turn up. Emma said that it happened now and again. People would either get cold feet, or their conscience would get to them. Sometimes people rang and made appointments just to wind them up and waste their time. She said it was all part of the fun.

Ron asked her if she wanted to do something. It was a beautiful day. They went to Hyde Park. There was a statue in one part of the park, an army memorial. There were benches by the bushes behind the statue. It was always quiet there, for some reason. They fed the squirrels. It was fun, Emma loved it. She did get flustered when one of them climbed up her jeans, and Ron had to rescue her.

In the evening, Ron took Vicky to the barrister's place. While they did what they wanted to her, he watched a film about a woman in America whose daughter had been murdered, and who paid for billboards by the side of the road which put pressure on the police to solve the crime. He liked the film. The barristers were urinating in Vicky's mouth at the end of the booking.

***

Ron went to pick up his suit the next morning. They'd sent him a couple of text messages to say it was ready, but he'd been busy. He thought it would be good to have it to wear when the chaps were over. He felt good in the shop, wearing the suit in front of the mirror. The sleeves felt slightly tight, he reasoned that he'd been hitting the dumbbells pretty hard since he'd moved in with Annie and Vick, so he'd probably put on some mass on his arms. It didn't look too tight anywhere in the mirror. This was the first tailor-made suit Ron had ever owned; he thought he looked like James Bond.

In the afternoon, Annabelle was booked at the obs flat with two men. Ron was pretty sure they'd been on Viagra. They sodomised Annabelle for the whole two hours. She'd been attracted to one of them, it had been obvious, and she'd enjoyed having sex with him. He'd held onto her hair when he'd sodomised her, the way William had done with Marie.

Katie rang him just after he'd brought Annabelle home. She said the chaps would be out a couple of days later than planned. Something had apparently come up in Saudi.

In the evening, Ron took Caroline to a hotel in Mayfair, close to Berkeley Square. The hotel looked high end. It was an overnight booking. She and the client would have a dinner date at the hotel, then he would have her until eight in the morning. She told Ron how much she was being paid for the booking.

Emma was doing an overnight with Le Brodeur. She'd told him the MILF might be involved. Ron would have liked to have seen Emma that night. When he got home, Layla was there, with Annabelle. Annabelle was sat on Layla's lap.

***

Ron rang his sister in the morning. He hadn't spoken to her or seen her for a while. He had a couple of days to himself, with the chaps delaying their arrival. His sister sounded glad to hear from him, but she also sounded wary. Last time he'd seen her he hadn't been at his best. He said he'd like to come and see them, and she said he could. Ron wanted to get something for his niece. He asked his sister what his niece was into, she said his niece was obsessed with Pokémon. Ron asked her what the fuck Pokémon was.

***

On the advice of his sister, Ron bought his niece a Pokémon computer game that she could play on her Nintendo Switch. Ron didn't really understand what Pokémon was, and he didn't know what a Nintendo Switch was. He drove to his sister's house. He felt nervous when he rang the doorbell. He saw her coming to the door through the frosted glass. She opened the door and smiled at him. She looked surprised.

'Alright Laura,' said Ron.

'Hello you!' said Laura. She hugged him tight. Ron realised he suddenly felt fantastic; he could see the pleasure in her eyes as she saw the difference in him now compared to how he had been.

'Oh my God, you look amazing! And you smell nice! Oh my God!' said Laura.

Laura was seven years younger than Ron. He still thought she looked young for her age. Laura let go of him, then hugged him again, even tighter than before. Her eyes were watering. Ron realised that his were too.

Oh my God! I was so worried, I thought you were going to turn up in a state still! You look amazing!' said Laura. 'You look like you again!'

Laura actually started crying. They went inside. She explained that she'd sent Hayley, Ron's niece, over to a friend's house. If Ron was still struggling, she didn't want Hayley to see him. She texted Hayley; she asked her to come home. When Hayley got there, she saw Ron and went nuts over him.

Ron was there for a good while. The three of them went to a pub for dinner. Ron felt amazing. It was a good day.