Westpoint Tales

by Kiwi

Westpoint Tales - Danny Boy

"Oh, Danny Boy the pipes, the pipes are calling,
From glen to glen, and down the mountainside.
The summer's gone and all the leaves are falling.
'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.
Oh come ye back when summer's on the meadow,
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow.
For I'll be here, in sunshine or in shadow,
Qh Danny Boy, Oh Danny Boy, I love you so."

Lever Brothers' Hit Parade 1945. (Sorry T.R.)

Kim sat in his favorite place in the world, his secret place in the willows on the riverbank. His sore, bare feet were trailing in the water. He looked out across the river and he hated it. He sat in the sunshine and the shadows and he cried. He cried his aching, breaking heart out.

"Oh Danny Boy, Oh Danny Boy, I love you so."

Stupid, he knew. Boys aren't supposed to cry, but boys aren't supposed to love other boys either, and he did. He loved him so much. Loved him and lost him. How was he going to live now?

An endless stream of wasted days and lonely nights stretched out before him. He really didn't know how he was going to live without Danny. Without his beautiful, smiling, laughing Danny, his brother, his hero, his best friend and the best and worst thing in his life, ever. He wished he'd never met him. He wished he'd never known him, and he was going to miss him SO much.

They were born in the same week, in the same room, in the little old hospital in their small town. First was Danny - Daniel Richard Thomas, large, dark. lusty and full of life, then four days later, Kimberley Richard Peters, small, delicate and very fair.

For a while, it was feared that Kim wasn't going to make it, but, somehow he did. His tiny frail body clung to life and slowly each day he grew stronger and he survived.

Danny was born right on time, on the due date. Kim was born almost two months too early. Years later, their mothers, who were close friends and neighbours, would joke that Kim was born early because Danny was demanding that he come out to play.

They grew up together in their identical houses, side by side, in the quiet back street of their town. Their fathers never went to the war; they worked together in the coal mines, which was a protected industry.

Danny and Kim were both only children, no brothers or sisters at all, but they never felt the need of them, they had each other. Danny was the big brother, bossy and protective at the same time. Kim was the little brother, small, timid, and totally reliant on Danny. For all the years of their childhood, they were a team. Danny was the leader and Kim his dedicated follower. Whatever battles they faced, they faced them together and they both knew that they always would. Forever.

For many years they slept together as often as not. Night after night, their mothers would put them to sleep in their own beds and, in the morning, find them cuddled up together in one or the other's bed. No-one worried about it, it was just the way it was. They grew up with two sets of parents and one, beloved, brother.

They had never fought, not once, ever, until today. Now they were making up for lost time and they were fighting big-time. Kim hated Danny. He hated him because he loved him and Danny didn't love him back. He wished that he was dead. He wished that either one or both of them were dead; it would be better that way. Easier anyway.

Danny was moving away, to live thousands of miles away, forever. He had no choice, they both knew that. His father had inherited the family farm back in England. They were moving and Danny had to go with them. Of course he did, he was only fourteen years old. Kim knew that he had to go, but why did he have to be so bloody happy about it?

Their house had been sold. Their possessions were packed and the truck had arrived. They were moving today, they'd be gone by now, they had a train to catch.

Danny had come to say goodbye, but Kim couldn't do that. He couldn't say goodbye to the greatest love of his life, so they had fought, again. They had fought and then he had run away to hide, here, in his secret place.

He'd wait until he was sure that they had gone, and then he'd go home to his empty life. He hated Danny. He hoped their boat was torpedoed. Bastard.

"Bastard! Shit, damn and bugger it."

Kim swung around at the swearing, the crashing and the splashing, and, despite himself, smiled at the sight of Roger Bradley rising up out of the mud.

Roger was his other neighbour, his only neighbour now. He lived in the other identical house on the opposite side to where Danny used to live. He was one year older than Kim and Danny.

Kim sat quietly and watched while Roger struggled up out of the thick, black mud underneath the willow trees. He came across, washed himself in the river, and then sat down beside him to dry in the sunshine.

After a couple of wordless minutes, Roger finally spoke. "Danny's gone."

"Yeah, I know. That's kind of why I'm sitting here. How did you find me here, Rog?"

"Danny told me where you'd be."

"He did?"

"Yeah, he came to say goodbye, then he told me to come and find you here."

"Danny should mind his own bloody business."

"He is minding his own business. He said that he wanted to leave me a parting gift."

"Really? He didn't give me any presents. What did he give you?"

"His most treasured possession."

"What? His Swiss Army Knife? He loves that knife."

"No. Not the knife. Something he loves more than that."

"There is nothing he loves more than that. What did he leave you?"

"You, Kim."

"Me? Danny can't give me away. He doesn't own me."

"Doesn't he? It seemed like he did you know."

"Well he didn't. Danny can't just give me away like I'm an old book or something."

"It's not like that. He's worried about you. He loves you, Kim."

"Yeah, I guess. Not like I loved him though. I really, really loved Danny, like I wanted to be his girlfriend or something."

"I know."

"Oh my God! Did I say that out loud? Rog, please forget I said that. I don't know what I'm talking about."

"I know what you're talking about, Kim. I've always known that you love Danny like that."

"You did? How did you know?"

"It was pretty obvious. Danny knew it too, though he was never interested in you like that. He told me that he knew it."

"He told you?" Kim leapt to his feet, aghast. "How did he know? How could he tell you that?"

Roger rose up to stand facing him. "He knew because he knows you, and he could tell me because he knows me too."

"He knows you? What does he know?"

"He knows that I love you, Kim. I guess that I am his parting gift to you."

"What??" Kim stood and stared at this boy. He'd known him all his life, but now it seemed that he didn't know him at all.

"I've always been jealous of him, always wished that it was me with you. I'm not Danny, I can't be him, but I can love you like he never could. Danny's gone, but I'm still here. I've always been here and I always will be. My Dad's got no farm coming to him."

"And. . . You love me? How do you love me, Rog?"

"I love you like this." He kissed him.