Mort made a friend. Han Hansen, a powerful, hirsute youth who happened to be sitting beside him on the grass when the entire school was taken out of their last period of the day to watch the First XI cricket team play a rival school's eleven. Their legs brushed as if by accident and neither pulled away. Entranced to have his leg lightly caressed by his neighbour's hairy calf, Mort achieved an instant erection, which he managed to discreetly display by leaning back on his elbows with one knee raised to shield the sight from other students. This clever manoeuvre caused Han's leg to move discreetly up and down until there were two erections concealed from all except their instigators.

Like ninety percent of the general population they were bored witless by cricket, so the minute the bell rang announcing the end of school, ninety percent of the students leaped to their feet and disappeared, leaving a few teachers and a handful of students to discover who won.

The front door of the somewhat run down brick and tile bungalow five streets from the school, was barely closed before they were on Han's bed, clothes on the floor, grunting and writhing like a pair of rutting stags. Mort was slightly disappointed to see that Han's tan ended abruptly under his shorts. The muscular but optically white flesh looked less appetising than his fantasies had predicted, however, Han made up for such a minor deficiency by applying his fingers, tongue and lips to reducing Mort to a quivering jelly of electrified sensation.

An intermission was called after the first explosive orgasms, in which they helped themselves to milk and chocolate biscuits, before exploring each other further and resuming the fulfilling of their desires in a more relaxed, but equally satisfying manner until, without warning, Han leaped from the bed shouting he was late for work.

Mort threw on his school uniform, Han a pair of jeans and T-shirt, and they raced off on Han's bike, Mort on the crossbar with Han breathing sweetly down his neck as he pumped the pedals along quiet back streets to an ornamental plant nursery on the Toowong side of the river where he worked after school. It was run by Lydia and Stefan, a childless couple in their fifties.

Surrounded by wide verandahs, their house sat at the front of a long block. A dozen houses shared the boundary on one side and the grounds of a primary school the other. The rear boundary was a narrow service lane. The entire allotment was very private, being surrounded by a two-metre-high stone wall, a relic of convict labour from two centuries earlier when the site had been a prison. Mort wandered around, gave Han a lift with a few heavy pots, made friends with the owners, and secured permission to also help out occasionally as he had little to occupy himself after school. Lydia and Stefan couldn't afford to pay him, but he didn't mind as it was better than doing nothing, especially as it reminded him of his grandfather's market garden.

Han was easy, uncomplicated company, knew dozens of jokes, and had the rare gift of being able to make listeners laugh at the right time. Mort could never remember any funny stories and was in awe of Han's apparently inexhaustible font of amusing yarns, risqué anecdotes and ad-lib potty humour. Best of all were the puns and clever wordplay, not to mention regular sex whenever they had the opportunity.

In the absence of Cross Country Running, Mort chose woodwork as a hobby and discovered he was pretty good at working with his hands. In all the regular classes none of the teachers seemed interested in him — or anything else for that matter apart from staying on side with the class bullies. As in his previous school, Mort kept his head down and stayed out of trouble, which wasn't difficult as he had some catching up to do because the curriculum was slightly different from his previous school. A wide general knowledge gained through reading and listening was no substitute for memorising textbook facts and teachers' opinions to be regurgitated in examinations.

On one of Mort's first forays into the city and suburbs in the early evening when Perdita had a client, he discovered a gymnasium made of three large shipping containers squeezed in behind an empty office block. The openings were facing away from the road, but the sound of a barbell dropping was unmistakable, so Mort investigated. Three lean dark men in torn shorts were using rudimentary equipment they'd obviously made themselves. They looked fit and friendly and laughingly offered the use of their gear. Mort tried a few lifts to see what it was like, but decided against bulking up, as the guys called it. A notice glued to the door advertised self-defence classes on Wednesday nights. He asked if he'd be allowed to go.

'Sure... but it isn't all flash and professional like whiteys have. The guys just wear shorts and learn how to get out of scrapes mainly. You know, if someone comes at you, what do you do?'

'Kill him,' Mort said only half joking. 'It sounds just what I want. I've had some lessons, but need to keep fit and in practice and learn new tricks.'

'Then come along, Bro. The guy in charge is Brawl. If I'm not there tell him Scrappy sent ya.'

The following Wednesday Mort went, was welcomed without prejudice, and in the first lesson learned a variety of tricks from Brawl, a sixty-seven year old with a mop of wiry grey curls and skin the colour of strong tea. In a practice fight, this soft-spoken gentleman who seemed to be constructed of steel and leather, was so fast and reflexive no one could surprise him. At all other times he was gentle and kind, never tiring of repeating, demonstrating, suggesting, putting his students at ease with themselves and each other. He didn't bother with the historical context of the sport, just concentrated on practical, useful self defence that, as with Hugh's lessons, included non-threatening body language and running away.

By the time he arrived home on Wednesday nights, Mort was a physically and mentally healthy young man able to deal with all that life might throw at him. By Thursday lunchtime he was an irritable, frustrated teenager again, ready to teach those teachers how to treat their pupils.

The school term dragged on, more or less problem free apart from Social Studies, taught by Mr. Preggy who didn't conceal his belief that Anglo-European culture and civilization was superior to all others. Unwilling to argue with the man and thus create problems for himself, Mort kept his mouth shut despite sometimes feeling as if his blood was about to boil in his ears. Crude jokes about refugees fleeing from wars, who were dying in Australian prison camps on remote islands, sorely tested his restraint. Even the misery of the increasing number of homeless people and the continuing disadvantaged position of most indigenous people failed to elicit the teacher's sympathy. When the overweight fount of knowledge sneered they should get over it and pull their socks up, Mort, who was sitting as usual in the front row, decided enough was enough and raised his hand.

Politely, so as to avoid seeming confrontational, Mort asked, 'Sir, if your father's house and land had been taken from him, and when he finally found work half his wages — already less than white workers — was taken by the government; and your mother, his wife was raped and beaten when walking home; and he was not allowed to live in the town so had to camp and forage in rubbish dumps on the outskirts, and had been given blankets laced with diseases, flour containing poison, and his only source of water had been drained, and you were treated like a mongrel dog by all the whites in town… Would you appreciate being told to 'get over it and pull your socks up?'

'My god, another bleeding-heart idiot with a black armband view of history. That's in the past, mate. It isn't like that today, they get millions spent on them.' The teacher's face had turned a shade of pink.

'Statistics indicate that the majority of all government money allocated to indigenous welfare ends up in the pockets of Europeans.' Mort's continuing calm rational tone was beginning to seriously irritate the teacher.

'And it isn't all in the past. Many indigenous people your age were taken from their parents, or their parents were, and it is still happening today faster than ever! How can you expect them to forget that? Could you?'

'With respect, sir, how were those poor people who were sent to the rubbish dumps, poisoned, starved, prevented from working, or if they did had their wages stolen to fund infrastructure for whites, supposed to look after their children?'

'I apologise for disagreeing with you, sir, but it does. And it is people like you who are spreading the poisonous notion that it is all their fault.'

Mr. Preggy advanced on Mort, who quickly stood, placed his mobile phone in his top pocket, and came round to the front of his desk wearing a faint smile.

The teacher stopped with his face only centimetres from his pupil's. 'Take that back, you creepy little girly boy. What the fuck would a long-haired wimpish mongrel know about it?'

Mutters of 'sit down faggot.' 'Shut ya face wanker.' 'Fuckin' nigger-lover' issued from the rear of the class.

'Get your hair cut! You're a disgrace to real men — unless you're a girl,' sneered the teacher.

Mort eyed the teacher calmly up and down. 'I'd suggest you get rid of that fat gut, sir — or do you want people to think you're a pregnant hermaphrodite?'

In a sudden access of rage the teacher swung his hand in a backhanded swipe. Mort ducked, grabbed hold of the wrist as it passed and thrust it along in the same direction increasing its speed which caused his attacker to twist and lose his balance, enabling Mort to drag the arm behind and up his attacker's back, forcing him to his knees.

Mort heaved the arm up forcing Mr. Preggy's face onto the floor. The teacher grunted in agony and finally muttered something.

'I can't understand you, sir. Say you are sorry for calling me a mongrel girly boy.'

Mort let go, the teacher stood, massaged his arm, then sprang at Mort, who skipped lightly aside, slammed his fist into the teacher's back and sent him sprawling onto the desk behind.

Screams from the girl. 'Ah! You shit, Mortaumal! Now I've got blood all over my book. Sir! Get off! You're dribbling blood everywhere.' She eased herself out from behind the desk and stood to one side.

Mr. Preggy groaned, heaved himself upright, and without looking at anyone, shambled out the door.

The condemnation sounded universal, but in reality came from only half a dozen loudmouths. The rest were silent, waiting to see who was going to win; who to follow. According to the kids who spoke, Mort had no right to disagree with such a great teacher who everyone liked. He was an evil little refugee who should have been left to drown.

Mort gathered his books, concentrating on quelling the shakes. He scarcely dared move, let alone speak in case his voice trembled. Eventually he got himself under control and turned to face the now silent class.

'If that man is such a great fellow and you admire him so much, why did no one come to his aid? It would have been twenty-five against one little girly boy, yet you sat there like scared rabbits. If I'm a girly boy, what does that make you lot?'

Silence while he shook his head in despair. 'In your hearts you know I'm right. There are some fine people in this country, but too many are viciously bigoted and thoroughly nasty when it comes to race and difference.'

At that moment the Principal arrived supported by her deputy. She gazed around at the quiet classroom and told the girl to sit.

Mort gave a succinct, slightly downplayed account of what happened, making it seem like a simple disagreement between boys in the playground that ended with a bit of a scuffle — nothing serious. Then, as if he'd just remembered, pulled his phone from his pocket. 'The video of my phone happened to be turned on, so you can view the incident if you like... it'll be a bit seasick making, but…'

The Principal bought the lie, said she'd keep it in mind, then asked if anyone disagreed with Mortaumal's analysis or would like to add anything. No one did, so she nodded and asked her deputy if he had any questions. He shook his head, and they left the room just as the bell rang for change of period.

The incident was never mentioned again. Mr. Preggy returned to class two days later and took up where he left off, apart from keeping his more extreme views to himself and avoiding all communication with Mort, who had made no friends through his spirited support for the disadvantaged, probably because the school serviced an aspiring middle class neighbourhood not keen on having wogs, nigs, homeless, dole bludgers, spiks, speks, religious nutters and coloured illegals living too close. His fellow students considered him dangerous. A trouble maker. A rabid lefty conspiracy theorist. Even Han wasn't impressed when Mort told him about it that afternoon.

'You'll only make trouble for yourself if you stick your neck out. That's not the way this country operates. If you're not careful the cops'll get a file on you, if they haven't already. And then you're stuffed. They watch your every move, read your emails, bug your phone, use facial recognition to follow every move on CCTV. They'll know when you shit, sleep, who you hang out with, what you're interested in. So... although I like you, I don't think we ought to be seen together any more — it won't do my image any good. I want to get on the student council and if they think I'm like you I won't have a hope. Sorry mate, but that's life.'

Mort shrugged as if it didn't matter. 'That's fine, Han. It's your life. I guess I shouldn't come to the nursery then?'

'Oh yeah. I was going to tell you but this made me forget it. I don't have time to work there any more, so Stefan asked me to ask you if you'd like to take over from me?'

Lydia and Stefan were delighted that Mort was to work for them. They had found him much more sympathetic than Han, whose work was efficient and prompt, but who never allowed anyone to actually know him. Mort, although even more cautious than Han about who he allowed close to him, always responded to people he found genuine, who cared for their work, who were honest and simple — for want of a better word. Life, he had decided, was basically simple, but civilization made it unnecessarily complicated. Little by little his employers learned of his past, and opened their hearts and house to him as a refuge, if ever he needed it.

One rainy Saturday afternoon when Perdita was noisily engaged in assuaging someone's physical tensions and there was no work for him at the Nursery, Mort decided to explore the flats instead of wandering the streets or watching TV.

Every floor was identical. The stairs wound around the central lift, and there was a small landing at each level with doors containing spy-holes for each of the four apartments. All was clean, if not polished, the walls were bare, and a vaguely disappointed Mort descended the stairs to the basement in the hope of discovering something interesting.

The space around the lift mechanism was cool and neatly swept, and four doors without spy holes were labelled Services, Janitor, Storage, and Private.

The 'Private' door was wide open, giving Mort a clear view along a dim corridor to a light filled room at the end. The source of the light wasn't visible. Mort reasoned that if the door was open it couldn't be that private, so he wandered in and discovered a large space with a kitchen at one end, a comfortable sitting area in the middle, and an open space containing an easel at the end where large floor to ceiling windows poured light over everything. Outside was a small garden where mixed flowers, shrubs and vegetables huddled in the drizzle.

'Who the fuck are you!' The voice was husky and the delivery lazy, giving the impression the speaker didn't really give a fuck who the intruder was and didn't care if he stayed or left.

Mort hurriedly and with some embarrassment apologised for entering without permission, and introduced himself.

The owner of the flat was short, stocky, bald, suntanned, not yet middle-aged, but no longer young, wearing blue overalls and a quizzical smile. 'I've seen you around. You live with your mother, the whore on the top floor.'

'On the outside she's young and pretty enough, but inside she's a gnawed off bone, as my grandmother used to say. Not mother material I'd have thought.'

'That's for sure. Are you an artist? Can I see your pictures? This is a great room, I wish I had a place like this.'

'Two questions, a statement and a wish… let me see... I paint in my spare time, but it's for others to decide if my daubs are art or crap. Yes, you can see my paintings, and you're welcome to visit this place….' He paused and gazed at Mort quizzically. 'On condition that…'

'On condition you tell no one, come alone, and you sit for me. I like your face and want to paint it. But I can't pay you! I'm a poor janitor paid a pittance, struggling to make ends meet and keep the wolf from the door.'

They shook hands seriously, then Steward took his visitor into a room empty of furniture. On the walls were fifteen framed paintings — small works no more than thirty centimetres by twenty — hung at eye level. The rest of the walls both above and below the paintings were home to scores of mainly charcoal drawings that had been pinned apparently at random.

The subjects were men, painted in what Steward called a super realistic style — more realistic than a photograph, because he left out everything that didn't suit the sort of character he wanted. No one had double chins, warts, sores, crossed eyes, pot bellies. But that didn't mean they looked like heroic gods. They remained true to type, but were the best examples of that type. In other words, they looked like the image the sitters had of themselves, not what people actually saw. In this way both viewer and model were happy. In every painting two or more people — male or androgynous, were fighting, caressing, having sex, threatening, dancing, collaborating…

'None. Women are uninteresting and don't like sitting for a man without being paid. They're all whores at heart, and as they think all men are rapists, get disappointed when they discover I'm not.'

'You'd be surprised how many men feel honoured if someone thinks they're interesting enough to want to draw and paint them. When I see a bloke at the pub who interests me, or on the street or in the park, I start a conversation. Tradesmen sometimes sit for me if I give them lunch when they come to repair something. Once men trust me they're usually easy, willing to do anything I suggest. If there were women around, the same men would clam up and become irritable and difficult, because they know that whatever they're doing will be broadcast throughout the community within minutes. The whole world will be told they were sitting for their portrait so they must be a vain queer and so on. With other men they know their secrets are safe and no one is going to gossip and criticise.'

'Yeah, that's also my impression from the few women I know.' Mort shook his head in apparent confusion. 'And yet we're told they're the kind, thoughtful, loving ones, and we're the rough, thoughtless, selfish ones. I've been brought up by three wonderful people, but they were all men. The women in my life have never improved it.'

'Exactly. There are a couple of blokes who regularly come and spend a night in my spare bedroom when they can't stand their wives any more, or feel they're in danger from them. Sort of a safe house. It's always females in the News demanding protection from their husbands, but in my experience it's just as often the other way round.'

'Yeah, I believe it. But isn't it hard to find two people to pose at the same time?'

Mort stood again in front of the drawings and paintings, brow furrowed, concentrating. Suddenly a loud whoop. 'Ha! It's always the same person. That's smart. Why?'

'Because everyone has at least two sides to their character, public and private. We're all a mishmash of conflicting ideas, desires, hopes and fears and I try to show this.'

'That's why most paintings show some sort of conflict or opposition. Brilliant!'

Mort tossed his shorts and tank top into a corner and stood calmly for several minutes while Steward walked around him, muttering about light, angles, environment, mood, texture…

'So we make a not happy painting. Will you be difficult about poses? Will you refuse to bend over in case I see your ring?'

Mort laughed. 'As long as you don't ask me to hurt myself, I'll do anything you like'

'It will take me a while to decide what I want to paint, apart from your face. I tend to see best when drawing, so that's all I'll do for a while.'

After an hour, Steward put down his charcoal. 'Okay. Enough for today. You're an excellent model, barely even twitched. You'd be amazed at how fidgety most people are.'

'Every time you feel like sitting. Don't wait to be asked, because I won't. It's up to you to pop down here and if I'm home I'll draw, okay?'

'I'd rather you didn't use that door again. There are often people out there wanting to see me and if they're women and they notice you visiting, tongues will wag and I'll get a reputation as a paedophile. Go into the garden, turn left, keeping close to the building so if anyone in the flats above is looking down they don't see you, then through the gate into the rubbish bin enclosure. Check how to open the gate from the other side so you can come and go as you please, then wander round to the front door as if you've just been putting rubbish in the bins.' He nodded dismissively. 'See you when I see you.' He went inside and closed the door before Mort could thank him.

'Strange man, but I like him,' he muttered, following the directions and arriving upstairs just as the client was leaving.

Mort's relations with Perdita had become increasingly hostile and her insults so alarmingly spiteful that he began to question her sanity. Worried about her violent temper, he installed a lock on his bedroom door in case she took it into her head to attack him while sleeping. Every time they encountered each other she demanded he hand over the inheritance. She stopped making breakfast for him, and then the evening meal, which she often ate out while he prepared his own. And she no longer gave him any spending money in an effort to starve his inheritance out of him. He hadn't told her he was working at the nursery.

In phone calls to Marshall, Mort continued to give the impression he was coping well, because he'd decided it was time to take responsibility for himself. If Marshall or anyone else came to 'save' him, he'd have failed. His job provided enough money for his simple needs, and Lydia and Stefan sometimes invited him for a meal. He mustn't be a wimp. Being smart-mouthed, sharp and brave didn't count if you could go home to someone older who'd protect you from your mistakes. Bravery was doing what you thought right, or even just what you wanted, with no one to pick up the pieces if things went wrong. Mort desperately wanted to be brave.

School plodded along and Mort became increasingly introverted. The only thing he enjoyed was woodwork where he was making an elaborate small table with turned legs and complicated inlay. His reputation with staff members had taken a dive and he was treated with wary suspicion in case he also made fools of them by exposing their inadequacies. He was learning that the life of a truth teller is a lonely one.

One evening after eating boiled rice and beans with raw greens and fried eggs — his self-defence instructor Brawl's all-purpose diet for health, fitness and enhancement of the senses required for self defence, Mort lay on his bed, head empty of thoughts, empty of hope, empty of ideas, empty of desires. A state of mind understandable perhaps in someone at the end of an active and purposeful life, but not recommended for teenagers in full health and fitness.

Random thoughts and images flickered across what he thought of as his internal viewing screen. A vision of Han, with his powerful hairy legs and calm self-assurance left a painful erection in its wake. Mort began to play with himself but couldn't be bothered. The erection remained, however, triggering other sexual memories. Perhaps Steward was ready to draw him again? His grandfather reckoned most fit and healthy men get a kick out of showing their bodies. It isn't a gay thing, he reckoned, simply a desire for peer approval. Steward wasn't his peer, but he did approve of Mort and it'd be more fun to wank with an approving audience than alone, so…

Five minutes later he arrived at the basement flat to find half a dozen men milling around in the small garden, drinking and chatting. Hoping he hadn't been noticed he had just turned to retreat when Steward called, 'Don't go, Mortaumal. We need you.'

The men were all in or around late middle age, all vaguely respectable, all dressed rather dully. They were amateur artists who met once a week at each other's houses to share the twenty-five dollars an hour it cost for a model. A lean Latin type with a manicured goatee and moustache that made him look sort of sexy, was the only one who wasn't overweight. Two had full beards that made them look alike. They had been waiting for tonight's model when Mort appeared. Steward drew him aside and asked if he'd come to pose for his painting. Mort said he had, and apologised for coming without ringing first.

'No, no!' Steward exclaimed. 'I told you to do that. And now you're here you can earn a few dollars.' He explained about the other artists and the model who'd be arriving any minute. 'He's a handsome bloke, a couple of years older than you, will you pose with him?'

A jaunty cap on short curly hair, classic features, muscled bronzed arms and chest in tight T-shirt, slim waist, respectable bulge in lycra shorts, well formed thighs and calves. White trainers without socks completed the picture.

'I know you!' Mort said in shock. 'You're the cop who's been giving road safety lectures at school and is so handsome all the girls have the hots for you.'

'I won't! And don't you tell anyone I do this, I'd never hear the end of it.' Raul offered his hand. 'We tell no one, okay?'

The artists moved inside and arranged their drawing boards on tables, portable easels, wherever they felt comfortable with a good view of the square of carpet in the middle of the room.

Mort had a sudden rush of panic. He was already getting a hard on. What would Raul think? What would the artists think! He beckoned Steward. 'I can't do it, I'm getting a hard on and…'

'Steward grinned. 'Everyone in this room, including Raul is gay or queer or homo or same-sex-oriented...whatever you want to call us. And we will all be delighted at your tumescence, so just enjoy yourself, okay?'

'A happy man? Surely you're not so innocent as to imagine any self respecting heterosexual would invite a young man in, ask him to strip, draw him stark naked, and then invite him back whenever he likes?'

'An education system mired in medieval religiosity like Queensland's, could never produce such broadminded paragons.'

Embarrassed at his ignorance, Mort still only half believed, but bravely stripped and joined Raul on the carpet, where they adopted a three minute pose face to face, bodies almost touching, arms draped over the other's shoulders. Raul appeared not to notice Mort's erection poking into his belly.

'Thanks, so have you. And a perky penis. Where'd you get those pecs and shoulders?'

'Self defence classes and I work in a plant nursery. Some of the girls said you were so sexy they love to be fucked by you.'

'Yeah, females are like that. Stupid cows. Imagine all they have to do is spread their legs and every guy on the planet will come running. As if any self-respecting bloke would shove his tool into their filthy holes. Did you know there are more disease bacteria and fungi in a woman's cunt than in an arse? In fact, arseholes are comparatively sterile. So there's no way I'll be screwing them. Think of how jealous those cunts at school would be if you told them you cuddled the cop they had the hots for. Shame we're sworn to silence.'

The whispered, friendly conversation continued intermittently through the following hour during a dozen short poses in which the models adopted a variety of what they hoped were wrestling poses, neither having learned the sport. Their complex intertwining made it increasingly difficult but increasingly interesting for the artists to work out whose legs and arms belonged to whom — but no one complained, it was too fascinating. After a ten minute coffee break they adopted two twenty-minute poses to give the artists time to work up their drawings a little.

After one of the most relaxed and happy evenings Mort could remember, he was almost embarrassed to accept the fifty dollars. Being paid for having pleasure seemed too good to be true!

They were invited to pose for the next three sessions. Steward would make sure Mort knew where to go.

Back in his room listening to Perdita's faked moans of lust and another overweight loser grunting, He began to worry he'd made himself as cheap as Perdita by allowing Raul to touch him so intimately, and letting all those strangers see his erections. At least he hadn't ejaculated, although there'd been copious quantities of lubrication — or pre-cum as Raul called it, that had to be wiped up. The artists seemed nice enough, and they'd told him several times what a refreshingly pleasant and normal young man he was.

But he'd seen them grinning and making comments about him that he couldn't hear. He didn't want to get a reputation as a slut. He hadn't felt bad doing it — quite the opposite! It was afterwards. He tried to imagine what he'd think if he saw someone like him doing what he'd been doing. Would he think he was a common hustler? Raul was twenty-two — not old, but seven years older than him, so it was different for him. Guys that age were supposed to be sexually active and promiscuous. It was all so difficult. And did it even matter what people thought? He'd wait till morning to decide.

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Mortaumal

by Rigby Taylor

Chapter 14