By EgmontGrigor2020
Chapter 1
At the age of eighteen, Geoffrey Putt of Mullbrook in England, was almost a lost cause, misplaced in his own family and inherently confused as a result of his restricted upbringing.
Fortunately, he caught the passionate attention of kind-hearted Mrs McPhee. In just a couple of days, Claire reprogrammed the lad from becoming a possible wastrel to realigning him to develop into a fairly normalised modern man.
Geoff's mother, Brigit Mason, had been ripe for child-birth when she married Philip Putt, being two months pregnant to him.
Two years after the birth of their child Lisa and Cleo arrived and four years after that, Brigit delivered Geoffrey, father allegedly being Philip. But the couple agreed that their new-born looked more like their neighbour Sam Lusk than Philip.
Sam, failing to conceal a leer, thought so when Philip had showed him the new baby and remarked on the likeness. He added vaguely, "One never knows."
Philip told his wife of Sam's reaction and she just sighed, shrugged and said that Sam was such an unreliable arsehole.
That left her husband simmering, loaded with doubt and not knowing what to do.
The next weekend, while Brigit and the three children were staying for two nights with her parents, Philip loaded his most valued possessions and left, never to be in contact with his family again.
Bi-sexual Brigit, when finding his curt 'Goodbye you slut' note, thought good riddance weakling but was not keen to live without a sexual and social partner. She went for the softest and on-hand choice, inviting her favourite occasional lover from the coven of her intimate girlfriends to live with her permanently.
Tillie Thomas, who lived precariously in rental accommodation within a housing demolition-ordered zone, accepted in delight the invitation to move in with the voluptuous Brigit and become the perceived man of the house.
Disturbingly, by the time of Geoff turned five, the sole male in the home, he was being roped into an increasing load of duties, performing regular household work as well as being on-call to carry out tasks for Brigit, Tillie, Lisa and Cleo.
Within two years, in full acceptance of doing was expected of him, young Geoff was been coached into performing most of the household's machine and hand-washing, vacuuming the house, attending to carpet spills, dusting furniture, turning sheets when making beds and standing on a stool to clear mirrors as well as attending to the vegetable garden.
He was being treated rather like the storybook Cinderella and there was no promise that he'd experience happy ending, with Geoff being rescued and carried off by a handsome and doting male, or female.
Geoff's favourite task was to each night comb his youngest sister's hair because Cleo's hair was golden and exceptionally fine and during that grooming time, she spoke so sweetly to him.
At his mother's insistence, Geoff was never physically mistreated, even if he fell asleep during his compulsory work.
Geoff's only toy was a rubber ball that he played with by himself and later was given an old football that he absolutely adored playing with. He drew a goal with white chalk on the brick wall on the property boundary alongside the garage. He'd cleverly paced out one of the soccer goals on the senior boy's playing field at school to get the width of the goalmouth and arm-spanned the height to get the measurements more or less correct.
Sometimes his two older sisters, singularly or both together, acted as the goalie to make it more difficult for him to shoot goals.
As Geoff progressed through his teens, his mother and Tillie, who the children came to believe was actually their mother's very close sister, agreed that Geoff was superior at house-keeping than either of them. But Geoff was never told that. He was led to believe that he was a stupid person and the high marks he was getting for schoolwork were faked because the teachers were sorry for him.
A significant turning point in Geoff's life occurred when a neighbour across the street called and expressed interested in him.
Tillie answered Doug Adams' door knock and she said curtly, "Yes."
"I'm Doug Adams from across the street."
"So, you say. Goodbye."
That left Doug nonplussed but fortunately Brigit arrived calling, "Who is it, Tillie?"
"A nobody."
"Oh hi," Brigit smiled. "You shifted in recently across the street."
"Um yes, four months ago. I'm Doug Adams."
"I'm please to meet you at last, Mr Adams. I'm Brigit and this is Tillie."
"Greetings, ladies, please call me Doug. I've called to ask about the boy."
"He didn't do it," Tillie said sharply.
Naturally polite, even to males, Brigit said, "Please come in for a cuppa and explain the problem. I'm Geoff's mother."
"Make tea please, Tillie. Come through to the day room, Doug. The children have gone shopping at the supermarket. What has Geoff done to upset you?"
"Nothing. I've watched him playing with his soccer ball. He has amazing ball control skills for one so young. I'm the senior soccer coach at Bayfield High School and although I'm aware Geoff is a student at Bayfield, he's never presented himself for a trial assessment."
"That's probably because we need him home straight after school to do his jobs. He has no time to play sport outside classroom hours."
"But he runs."
"No, he doesn't."
"Pardon me, Brigit. He sets off running each morning early and always returns just before 7.00 when I set off on my run."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely."
"Well, I never knew that. He has to wake Tillie and me and my two girls at 7.00 and begin getting breakfast. Well, as long as he's back in time, why should I care if he runs?"
"You ought to praise him for performing fitness exercise, Brigit."
Tillie stood at the doorway with poured tea in cups on a tray and blurted, "Stop telling us how to handle our children."
"Your children, you say. I understood they were Brigit's children?"
