Page 96 of Hold On

Ren showed his phone at the desk and was handed tickets and 3D glasses. He led Dominic to the concessions. “I know we’ve only just eaten but I can always force down Maltesers. I like to gently nibble the chocolate off the outside, then suck the malt ball that’s left. Yum. It means they last ages. What would you like?”

Dominic stared at the sweets and chocolates on display and felt the familiar anxiety of being unable to choose.

“I don’t need anything,” he said quietly.

“I’ll pick for you. Don’t look and it’ll be a surprise.”

Once Ren had handed over the paper bag, Dominic looked inside. He’d chosen a variety of retro sweets, and Dominic recognised some he’d used to buy for Col. “These look great. Thank you.”

“You have to share.”

When they walked into the screening room, Dominic looked around with his eyes wide. “Wow! It’s huge.”

Not only was the screen enormous, the tiers of seats rose sharply too, reaching much higher than the cinema he’d been in as a kid.

“We have to sit in the middle to get the best experience,” Ren said. “And you have to eat a Malteser every time you jump or flinch.”

Dominic hadn’t understood what Ren meant until the nature film started and a bird flew straight at him. He lifted his hand to swat it away, and Ren chuckled and popped a chocolate in Dominic’s mouth. He tried to eat it in the way Ren had described but it broke and melted. He knew he’d been right to avoid chocolate in prison. He’d not have been able to resist gorging on it.

He barely blinked as he watched the film, though he did plenty of gasping and flinching. At one time he had three Maltesers in his mouth. He realised Ren was watching him more than the film. Dominic could have sworn he felt the brush of grass as the camera took them through the everglades, and felt the snap of the alligator’s jaws as it leapt from the water. His senses were overloaded.

When the sign came to take off the glasses, images of Mount Everest appeared and Dominic’s sense of awe and wonder blocked his throat. Everything was so bright and clear and colourful, and when the ground fell away, his stomach fell with it. It was as if he was in the film.

When the first film finished, he turned to Ren. “That was fantastic. Thank you so much.”

“It’s the only acceptable way to see Everest. Mountaineering is not something I find enticing, particularly not when they call a region the death zone.”

“Over 8,000 metres. All fourteen of the world’s highest mountains have a death zone.”

“Some mountaineers want to climb all of them. And if that wasn’t enough of a challenge, they compete to climb all of them one after the other.” He took Dominic’s hand and squeezed his fingers. “If it wasn’t that I’d said we’d be in here until 4.30, I’d take you back and find a way to keep that look of wonder on your face. Slack jawed and dribbling. You know how to turn me on.”

Dominic chuckled.

Once the sci-fi film started, Ren was as riveted as he was. Ren kept feeding him Maltesers and then they worked their way through sherbet fountains, colas, fizzers, candy sticks, jelly crocodiles, pink shrimps and a whole lot more. When the film ended and people around them began to leave, Ren pulled Dominic close and kissed him.

“That was fun,” Ren said. “I felt like I was a teenager again.”

“I used to take Col to the cinema sometimes if I had the money, but I’ve never been anywhere like this. You keep finding perfect things to do.”

“I’ve not been to the cinema for years,” Ren said. “At least ten, I think. Maybe I was waiting for someone who’d eat rubbish sweets like me.”

“Not rubbish,” Dominic said as they emerged into the daylight.

“I hope it didn’t bring back bad memories.”

“No.” Even though the money Dominic had used to treat Col had been given to him by his father after he’dbehaved.Nothing was going to spoil the memories he was making now because they had to last him a long time.

The BMW followed them back and peeled away as they went through the gates at Asquith. Presumably someone else was taking over. Ren and Dominic were back at the stable block by five thirty. Thirty minutes of happiness left.An Amazon parcel lay next to the door.

“That’s for your father.” Dominic opened it as they walked up the stairs and showed him the book.

“He’ll like that,” Ren said. “He used to read us Winnie the Pooh. In bloody Latin, though.Manu fortem esse difficile est dixit porcellus singultim, de animalium pusillorum grege porco.”

“It’s hard to be brave when you’re only a very small animal. More or less.”

Ren laughed. “I forgot you’re a language nerd. My favourite is this.Mane, simul atque expergefactus es…quid est primum, quod tecum dicis?

Quid mihi in ientaculum paratur?

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