The Gang of FOUR

July 6th 2021.

Hello readers, how are we diddling today? Time is fair flying this month already!

Is anyone else Hodling or is it just me? Oh well it is a case of different horses for different courses, we all need to do what suits us.

Without further ado, I bring you the continuation of the saga that is Archie and Moira!

Chapter 5

Archie suddenly bolted upright in bed, looked at the clock radio on the bedside table and saw that the time was 3.05am. He had been dreaming and it was all starting to come flooding back. Easter Bonit was not much more than a village really. The main street comprising of a bakery, a pub, a hotel, village shop/ post office, a lawyer’s office and a new outdoor sports activities centre. The fact that the village had managed to retain its Post Office when all other rural Post Offices were being closed all around the country was solely down to Archie’s secret interventions. The outdoor sports centre was the brainchild of Archie, and he was the silent owner, albeit through a mazelike route of various offshore companies. Whilst he was not resident in Cameron House, Archie felt a moral duty to ensure that the livelihood of all Eastern Bonit inhabitants was maintained and where possible enhanced. Even if it had to be done in secret, he would continue to use all the resources he had at his disposal to make sure that this had been done and would continue to be done in the future, and even after his death.

Archie decided that he would take a walk down to the village tomorrow morning, only of course after Nanay Ate had given him her much awaited proud tour of the recent refurbishments of the house that had been completed last year.

There are no schools in Easter Bonit, and the closest primary school to Cameron House was about six miles north back up the road towards Inverness.  This was the school Archie had attended as a young boy. It was called Glenurquhart Primary School, and he remembered, it was where he first saw Moira. The local shop/post office was called Murdoch’s and it was run by Moiras’ parents.

In Scotland you generally start Primary School at the age of four or five in Primary 1.  Archie being a summer baby was young for his year and started Primary School at the grand age of four.. He progressed through school, leaving after Primary 7 when he was ten. Uncle Po took it in turns along with three children’s parents to ferry the group of four children to and from the school. Archie was the youngest and the other members of ‘The gang of four’ as they were called were Moira, Robert MacCourt (youngest son of the family lawyers) and Lorraine Hutchison (daughter of the village bakers Hutchison’s). Robert was now a human rights lawyer based in the Hague in The Netherlands, whilst Lorraine eloped with a Canadian Merchant Seamen, married him and is now a Canadian citizen living in St Johns, Newfoundland with their five children. They had all been friends throughout Primary School, apart from the usual falling out which young children are prone to do, until they went their separate ways and attended different secondary or high schools.

In those days and being a small school, there was only class for each age group, so ‘the gang of four’ stayed in the same class for all seven years of their stay at Primary School. Archie was the school cricket, rugby and shinty captain and Moira was the school badminton and chess captain.

All four were academically excellent and won various class awards throughout their stay at the school. Moira was eleven months older than Archie and initially was the taller of the two.

Archie and Moira cheered each other on at all activities, shared their first kiss and were their respective first crushes. They even ate lunch together. Oh, those were the long ago days of innocence, thought Archie. How times have really changed.

After they had finished Primary School, Archie was duly dispatched to boarding school at Gordonstoun about 58 miles north west of Easter Bunit on the Morayshire coast. Moira meanwhile attended Glenurquhart High School. They made a promise to each other that they would stay in touch, but during the first term of their respective new schools they managed to write to each other a grand total of two times.

So much for young love!

They occasionally saw each other during the school holidays, but for the next couple of years, they pretty much dropped out of touch. By the time Moira was fourteen she had begun to hang out with the wrong crowd and had even been cautioned by the police after attending a rave party which had been raided, and youngsters dealing drugs had been arrested. Archie meantime had survived the first couple of years of ragging which all new boys undertook at Gordonstoun. He was a regular in his age group rugby and cricket teams. His specialty positions were as a scrum half at rugby and an off spinner/opening batsman at cricket.

During term time every Saturday was taken up by visiting different schools across Scotland and the North of England playing rugby in the autumn and winter and then cricket in the spring and summer. Whilst Moira had been busy dropping tabs of ecstasy, Archie had developed a taste for vodka and beer, and learnt Scottish country dancing. He was paired with a petite redhead called Karen Dobson from the local girls’ school, and they attended the dances / ceilidhs arranged by their respective schools. Whilst Karen did have freckles and looked a typical Scottish redhead, she was just not the same as Moira with her dark brown hair. Archie used to think that ‘Stripping the Willow’ with Karen was just not as exciting as it would have been with Moira.

Archie and Moira kept on with their separate ways until one summer to celebrate Archie’s 16th birthday. His father had arranged a massive party/fete to which all the village had been invited. It was a very grand occasion, with marquees and free food and drink for everyone. There were stalls, tombolas, games and festivities galore. Minibuses were laid on to collect and drop off guests from the village and the surrounding areas. There was suckling pig or lechon as Uncle Po called it, a roasted boar, venison, lobster and loads of other delicious local food on offer.

At 8pm on the dot, Archie’s father took to the microphone and after suitably embarrassing Archie, led him to a small covered marquee. With everyone watching and to a tumultuous roar, Archie pulled back the covers to reveal a brand spanking new burgundy with cream upholstery Jaguar XJSC cabriolet sports car. Although the legal minimum age for driving a car in the UK is seventeen, Archie had been driving vehicles around the family estate for years, so he slipped into the driver’s seat like a true pro.

He looked up and out of the corner of his eye caught a smiling Moira looking at him. She looked radiant and was wearing the most gorgeous dark red dress, which looked sensational against the colour of her hair. He beckoned her over, and she hesitantly came forward to his door.

“Get in the passenger’s seat you dope” exclaimed Archie. Moira smiled and ran around to the other side of the car. Slipping off her shoes she hopped into the seat and gave Archie a huge kiss on his cheek, leaving a perfect red lipstick mark.

“Well birthday boy, aren’t you the jammy little git, Happy Birthday Archie!” she exclaimed to a smitten Archie.

The sight of her red toenails, gorgeous brunette hair and cute little freckles, not to mention the touch of her lips had set his heart racing. Having had more than one or two libations, Archie sensibly decided not to start the car, and so they both got out. Archie was now almost six foot and a good six inches taller than Moira. Moira slipped her hand inside Archie’s and steered them towards the drink’s marquee. They were inseparable for the rest of that night, and finally collapsed in a heap on top of a giant haystack in one of the outbuildings at the back of the estate.

Archie got the two best Birthday presents he had ever had that night.

By the time Archie returned to school at Gordonstoun, he and Moira were firmly labelled as boyfriend and girlfriend.

TO BE CONTINUED ....

If you have missed the first four, here they are :

Chapter 1 Ben MacDuff - Homecoming

Chapter 2 Nanay Ate and Uncle Po - Say What!

Chapter 3 Woo Woo ~ I know you!

Chapter 4 The badass naked chef

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Thank you for reading.

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