Prodigal Son (Jensen Family #1) (3 page)

Paula didn’t quite believe
her daughter when she told her of Michael’s attitude towards the beautiful dark
haired baby. Michael so far had been a wonderful father; it wasn’t until she
saw it for herself that she, along with Monica decided that this little boy
would need all their love and attention as he clearly wasn’t going to get it
from Michael.

When the twins were a little
over two months old, Paula returned home. Michael would leave early for work so
that he would be home in the early evening to help his wife with the children.
The routine was always the same, Michael would come home, put his briefcase in
the hall and his keys on the hook by the front door,
he
would then stroll through to the kitchen where he would inevitably find his
wife and offspring. After kissing Monica, he would turn to his daughter and
kiss her fondly on the cheek then reach for Matthew and lift him out of the
pram he shared with Paul who generally got ignored. Paul didn’t help his own
cause by bursting into gusty wails every time Michael got near him.

The years seemed to fly by,
before Monica knew it, she was preparing Tessa for Primary School and the boys
for nursery. Tessa had developed a sunny personality and was eager to please
her parents and teachers; she had a few close friends who, unbeknown to her
parents, would remain close her entire life.

Matthew and Paul were a
handful, always getting into mischief. They had both developed into robust two
year olds with a terrible sweet tooth which Monica had to admit she did indulge
them with sweets and tempting desserts causing both boys to be slightly rotund.
Starting out as the smaller twin didn’t seem to have affected Paul’s
development in any way; he was already taller than his brother and far more
active.

Matthew, although having
developed the blond hair and blue eyes of a typical Jensen, he had the Paloma
body shape being fairly short and squat with broad shoulders and a barrel
chest, he had also inherited his nose and chin shape from Monica’s family. Paul
was the opposite of his sibling possessing the Paloma dark hair, olive skin and
deep brown eyes that caused his father to reject him, he had many of the Jensen
traits which showed themselves in Paul’s long body and limbs. The straight nose
and almond shaped eyes came straight from Michael’s gene pool as did his
temper.

Dropping Tessa off to her
second day at Primary school, Monica then took her boys around the side of the
school to the nursery unit. She had been preparing them for this day and was
absolutely dreading it even though the boys were familiar with the nursery
building as they had been regular visitors during Tessa’s time there.

Matthew dashed into the
nursery playground, always the more outgoing of the two boys, he wasn’t shy and
made friends easily,
he
had been so overwhelmed with
the sight of outdoor oversized building blocks that he hadn’t given his mother
or brother a second glance before running into the playground and immersing
himself in the blocks.

Paul watched his brother from
behind Monica’s skirt, he desperately wanted to go and play but was so afraid
that his mother would leave he was pinned to the spot with fear.

“Mrs Jensen, we’ve so been
looking forward to the boys joining our little group.” Katherine Bates, the
senior teacher greeted Monica.

“I’m afraid someone isn’t too
keen.” Monica greeted the teacher while stroking her son’s dark hair.

“I’m sure we can persuade
him.” she knelt down in front of Paul “Hi Paul, I’m Kat, I have some lovely
things for you to do, why don’t you come with me and see what you would like to
do.” she smiled into the huge dark brown eyes and wasn’t discouraged when the
child simply shook his head and buried himself further into his mothers’ skirt.
“Ok, I’ll just have a chat with your Mummy then.” she came to her feet “Has he
always been this shy?”

“He’s fine around people he
knows, he doesn’t like change or new situations,
he
lacks confidence.” Monica explained “He will come
around,
it’s just going to take some time, perhaps I should take him home and try again
tomorrow.”

“I really think that would be
the worst thing you could do.” Kat replied, she continued to talk to Monica,
encouraging her to come into the playground so that the child was surrounded by
happy children having oodles of fun in the hope of encouraging him.

From Paul’s point of view,
for now, he was quite happy where he was, safely close to his mother but this
new lady smelled nice, like Monica did when she had been baking, a smell he would
later recognise as Cinnamon. He watched the lady with growing interest as she
talked to his mother noticing that she would glance down at him and smile every
now and then. He became distracted when a helicopter cruised low overhead and
stepped away from Monica’s protection to get a better look. Kat picked up on
the boy’s interest immediately and once more came down to his level.

“You like helicopters?” she
asked.

Caught unaware and at least
three feet away from Monica, Paul initially froze when the teacher spoke to
him, his attention was drawn once more to the helicopter as it circled and
began another slow pass.

“That’s an Apache helicopter,
I have a book on helicopters in the class room if you would like to see it, I
bet Mummy would love you to draw
her a
picture of it.”

Paul looked at Monica who
nodded encouragement at her son. He turned back to the teacher, looking at her
outstretched hand; he took a hesitant step towards her and placed his small
hand in hers.

Kat smiled “I’m so glad you
have come to our school, I really need someone to help me with the milk and
fruit for the other children, do you think you could be my helper?” she kept up
the constant stream of chatter all the way into the classroom while behind her
back she was waving goodbye to Monica.

Much to Monica’s surprise,
Paul was all smiles when she returned to the nursery at midday to collect her
sons,

“Both boys have been an
absolute pleasure.” Kat smiled warmly as the Jensen twins ran to their mother,
“I think Paul will be just fine and Matthew is such a sociable little thing
that I can’t see him ever having any problems.”

“I can’t thank you enough for
persuading Paul into school, he’s such a Mummy’s boy that it worries me
sometimes.”

“Perhaps he could spend some
more time with Mr Jensen?”

“Michael and Paul tend to
avoid each other, Michael never did take to him and I probably over compensate
for the attention Paul doesn’t get from his father.”

“Is there another male role
model Paul could spend time with, a Grandparent perhaps?”

“Yes, he has two doting
Grandfathers’; I will have to talk to them about it.”
“I really do think it would do him the world of good. I’ll see you tomorrow Mrs
Jensen.”

Monica and the boys stopped
to get ice cream on the way home much to the boys delight. Once they arrived
home, Matthew pulled out his building bricks while Paul watched cartoons,
within half an hour both boys were sound asleep leaving Monica free to have a
chat and a coffee with her neighbour who stayed with the boys while Monica went
to collect Tessa later that afternoon.

The following weekend the
entire family descended on Michael’s parents. Charles and Penelope Jensen were
besotted with their three grand children and both had witnessed their son’s
rejection of the youngest twin, it troubled them greatly.

“Look at the boy Michael,
he’s pure Jensen, he has our nose and eyes and I’ve seen his little temper in
full force, I don’t understand why you won’t have anything to do with him.”
Charles frowned at his son while bouncing Paul on his lap.

“I don’t understand how you
say he’s pure Jensen, look at him, he’s nothing like us.” Michael protested
“Plus the little runt hates me, he either screams at me or just stares, he
doesn’t interact with me at all.”

“That’s more to do with the
negative attitude you project towards him than his attitude towards you, he’s
two years old and he hasn’t done anything to deserve this attitude from you.”
Charles warned.

“The only thing he has
inherited from our family is his temper; everything else is from Monica’s
side.”

“He is still the fruit of
your loin’s son.”

“You can talk at me about it
all you want, I don’t want to know.” Michael insisted.

“The boy needs a male role
model Michael and so far you aren’t doing a very good job.”

“Then you take over that
role, between you and Jackson he should have all the male role models he
needs.” Michael spat then left to join his other two children.

Michael hadn’t been aware
that Monica had been listening in on the conversation with Charles; she went to
sit by her father in law when Michael left.

“What am I going to do?” she
asked Charles.

“You are going to carry on as
normal, between myself and your father; we will make sure this little boy has
his father figure. I can only apologise for my sons’ bigoted attitude Monica,
he certainly wasn’t raised that way” Charles turned the dark haired boy towards
him “You are destined for great things young man, I can feel it in my bones.”
he smiled at the child who reached out and pulled at his Grand Fathers’ nose.

As the years progressed, the
Jensen children each developed their individual personalities. Tessa was a
happy sunny girl who loved to help anyone or anything that needed her; she
remained charmingly pretty with large, clear blue eyes and long blond hair.
Matthew was a bouncy, loud individual, he loved to play football and tennis and
when he wasn’t with his brother was more often than not surrounded by friends,
his golden halo of hair, steel blue eyes and easy going nature afforded him
many female admirers in his teenage years. Paul liked to be at home, he spent a
lot of time playing video games and loud, loud music, and he had two very close
friends who would follow him through to adulthood. He was a watchful child and
would often stand at the side lines summing up the situation while his brother
dived straight in. Quietly confident with a sharp wit and intelligence, he
became easily bored at school and started to misbehave half way through primary
school, he would also lash out if anyone tried to pick on either of his
siblings not caring about the consequences at school or home.

By the time Tessa was
seventeen and the boys almost fourteen, Paul had been suspended from school
three times, his expulsion coming shortly before the summer holidays and the
family’s annual pilgrimage to Spain.

Monica and Michael had been
called to the school where it was explained to them that Paul was being
expelled as he had viciously attacked another boy and broken his nose, when
asked why he had done this Paul had remained stoically silent until he saw that
Monica had arrived with Michael in tow.  Paul had been standing in the
corner of the head teachers’ office while the explanation of his expulsion had
been explained to his parents.

Monica turned to her son
“What do you have to say for yourself?”

Paul took a step towards his
mother, he hated upsetting her and could see that she was cross with him “I
only hit him once Mum” he shrugged.

“Why did you hit him?”

“He was teasing one of the
girls in my class, I told him to leave her alone but he wouldn’t, he was
calling her names because she has to wear braces, when I took her hand and
tried to pull her away, he grabbed her hair and pulled a big chunk of it out of
her head, she started to cry and I just hit him.” he explained.

Monica turned to the Head
Teacher, “I trust the other boy will be receiving a similar punishment?”

“He has been dealt with.”

“My son was after all,
defending a class
mate,
it would appear he didn’t
start the attack.” Monica persisted.

“The boy in question has received
a suspension.”

“Only a
suspension?
Why isn’t he being
expelled?” Monica demanded.

“It’s the first time this
particular boy has been in trouble whereas we have been here before with Paul,
he’s a regular visitor to my office as you are well aware Mrs Jensen, I would
say it’s a jolly good job that you intend sending both boys to boarding school
next term, I feel the added discipline will be advantageous to both of them
although in my experience, some schools are more interested in receiving their
fees than the behaviour of their students.”

Leaving the school with their
disgraced son, Michael was fuming;

“Who does he think he is to
lecture me on Boarding Schools?” he growled

“He’s just jealous because he
doesn’t earn as much as you.” Paul commented.

“I don’t want to hear another
word from you boy.” Michael rounded on his son, “Get in the car and keep your
mouth shut, I will deal with you when we get home.”

Climbing out of the car once
they reached home, Monica stroked her son’s dark hair as he passed her “Go to
your room son, I’ll be up in a bit.” she told him, she put her bag on the
kitchen table and turned to switch on the kettle,