"I badly have to pee", says Carl, throwing off the bedcovers and standing up. His body is indeed splendid,, the dark blue jockey shorts clinging innocently to his loins. But somehow the thrill is gone. it is morning, not night. It is no longer dark and the early sun floods the window, and Carl is now simply ordinary. An ordinary man-boy who is everyone's friend. Witty and embarrassingly blunt in his very lightly accented English. A child of wealth and privilege yes, but one who has seen so much and has been already greatly humbled, yet somehow never crushed. This is a slightly smaller room. The walls are a pale sunny yellow. It is brighter than my room. But I still like my room, which really belongs to Carl. It is now seven. We are going to be late for breakfast, not that it's going to matter. But when they see Carl and me enter the breakfast room together, who only knows what they might assume. I do not have special claims on this man, who really I have only known less than three days, but is like a lovely affectionate brother.
He is back from the bathroom, slips into his jeans, his dark red T shirt, then pulls on his socks and shoes.
"Ready?" he says standing up. He leads me out of the bedroom into the hall then down the stairs. I am suddenly ravenously hungry. "Of course, Mel is not going to be pleased that I left her to make breakfast unassisted. Prepare for a silent scene."
Melissa is seated at table with the guests, they are all drinking coffee, but there is no food.
"We are not going to assume what you two young men got up to last night", his sister pronounces unsmiling. "But there are eggs to be broken Get cracking." And obediently, the guest master and I both file into the kitchen, ready to fulfil our penance...
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