Arthur was an only child. He had been brought up by his Mother and had never experienced a normal family life as his Father had deserted them when Arthur was only a baby. Therefore his Mother was his whole world which made it all the more tragic when she died.
Unbeknown to anyone she had an underlying heart condition and one day she literally dropped down dead. Arthur was almost seventeen when it happened, needless to say he was devastated.
It was only then that he found out that he had an Aunty. It was a total surprise, his Mother had never mentioned her and he had been led to believe he had no other family.
When he met his Auntie Kelly for the first time he could see the resemblance to his own Mother, at least in looks, her manner was very unlike his Mums. She had a stern and serious demeanour as opposed to his Mothers kind and loving nature.
Of course Arthur was totally lost in the world at this time so it was fortunate to find his aunty who took care of all that needed to be done. And although she seemed rather reluctant, took Arthur under her wing.
So that was how Arthur ended up living with his Aunt Kelly. She took care of all his needs as far as it went. She cooked his meals and washed his clothes but there was very little love or guidance from the woman. In fact there was very little conversation between them full stop.
Arthur was very much a loner. He had stayed on at school to study for his A-levels and spent most of his time alone. Even at school he didn't really have friends as such, not that he was disliked but he proffered to keep to himself.
It would be fair to say he lacked confidence. His social skills were lacking somewhat, perhaps due to being an only child, but whatever the reason the upshot was that he had no experience with girls and wasn't likely to as he would shy away from any contact, verbal or physical.
As the weeks and months went by Arthur adapted to his new life with his auntie. It soon became obvious that he wasn't going to have a relationship with her anything like he had had with his mother. She was strict and came across as uncaring and left Arthur in no doubt that he should stay out of her way as much as possible.
Luckily Arthur was quite comfortable in his own bedroom and being how he was, a loner, it was no great hardship to spend most of his time there. The only prolonged contact with his aunt was dinner time where they would sit together at the dining room table. It was something she insisted on. Apart from that he saw very little of her.
He soon learned that his auntie had many visitors in the evenings. They hardly ever staying for very long and although Arthur was curious to know more he was told that he must stay out of sight when 'Auntie was entertaining'.
His bedroom was at the back of the house above the lounge and he would often hear voices when his auntie had a visitor but could never make out what was being said. Sometimes there was long silences where he heard very little, although he knew her visitor was still there, he just assumed they were watching TV.
Arthur's eighteenth birthday came and went without any acknowledgement from his auntie. He wasn't really surprised. After living with her for more than a year now he had learnt not to expect any sign of affection from her. She really was a hard woman. He missed his Mother.
In all that time he had only actually seen one of his auntie's many visitors. It was one evening when he was coming out of the bathroom he encountered a woman on the landing. She looked to be a similar age to his aunt Arthur surmised which would put her in her mid-forties.
"You must be Arthur," she said in a condescending tone.
"Yes, hello," Arthur replied.
The woman didn't reply and simply walked past him to the bathroom. He could imagine his aunt getting on very well with her visitor, they certainly shared the same abrupt rude manner.
One evening around eight o'clock a few weeks after his birthday Arthur was in his bedroom, as usual, when he was startled by a shout.
"ARTHUR, COME DOWN HERE!" Kelly shouted from downstairs.
He'd never been summoned to the lounge in the evening and wondered what was wrong. Wearing just his blue pyjamas he rushed downstairs...
"Come and rub my feet," Kelly demanded when she saw her nephew enter the room.
Arthur was relieved to find that his aunt was alright, in the few seconds it had taken him to get downstairs he had begun to worry. Despite how she treated him he did care for the woman. If she hadn't taken him in after losing his mother, he hated to think where he would have been now.
Kelly was sitting on the right end of the three seater black leather sofa wearing a white towelling bathroom and apart from a quick glance at her nephew when he entered the room, was engrossed in something on TV.
"Come On, kneel down and rub my feet," Kelly said in her usual abrupt manner.
Arthur was apprehensive to say the least, he had never had any kind of physical contact with his aunt whatsoever but he obeyed her command. He kneeled down on the floor in front of her and Kelly raised her right foot and rested it on his legs.
