Their next appearance was well after six in the evening, when they met in the lounge to plan the night's activities, their loud voices audible everywhere on the ground floor. I went up to empty their waste bins and hastily tidied their rooms. Darren came looking for me to say that he would not be joining Tom and me in the Beckford Arms that night.
'You're not going out with them are you?'
'They're going for a meal first, but I'm meeting them afterwards to go to this club with them.'
'Be careful. They'll have your trousers down.'
He pulled his tongue out at me. 'No they won't. They like Chinese boys.'
Knowing that their taste was not as specific as he thought I tackled the redhead in the hall before they left: 'Darren tells me you're taking him to a club. He's very young. Are you sure he's going to be all right?'
'This is a more of a social type of club, not the sort of place where they're ripping each other's clothes off. You can't expect to keep a boy like that tied to your apron strings, pet. Don't you fret now, the lads know your boy's not on the menu. No man, it's the continental lads in the club that need to worry; some of them can expect to be making close acquaintance with Newcastle private parts tonight.'
I cooked a prawn, mushroom, and vegetable stir-fry for dinner for Tom and myself. He had worked all day installing new bathroom fittings in a nearby flat; I had not been out once. We were both too tired for the Beckford Arms and spent the evening watching television. My last chore was to take out the food needed for Sunday dinner from the freezer to defrost overnight.
***
In the morning as soon Tom began to move I got out of bed and dressed. We went upstairs together and found three of the Newcastle group in the dining room, sprawling on their chairs reading Sunday papers. 'Are the others still out partying?'
'No, they've gone up to bed. They don't have our stamina. Two of them are Mackem boys anyhow. You don't expect Mackems to keep up with Geordies.'
'Two of them are what?'
'Mackem boys, it's a Geordie expression for someone from Sunderland. Have you never been outside London, man? Even people from Durham know that.'
'No orientals this morning?'
'Oh there were continentals last night all right. I met this beautiful Chinese boy from Hong Kong, he was a real golden boy in every sense of the word. I wish I could take him back up north with me. A couple of nights in the London clubs leaves you a bit tired, mind; I don't know how people living down here cope with it, all the activity night after night.'