A Nip Down Memory Lane

<Slight Backpost.
This takes place just after Jade’s post. I’m imagining Jade’s post takes place in the middle of Cass’s post.
Like it goes:
When the trio seemed undecided what they were doing, Alex left them to it and went back over to Jade, and said "wakey wakey sleepyhead" etc.
[Then this post occurred.]
Then the end of Cass’s post, where the Roman soldiers came in.
Then Jaxx’s, and so on.>

Alex Solvay considered himself to have had a warm and stable childhood. Sure, he’d struggled at school with his literacy issues, but he saw that as a minor problem which as an adult he muddled his way through with the use of technology.
When he was a little older his dad was away on the rigs sometimes, and Alex had to take care of Jacob - but again, that was of little concern. While at times caring for his moody little brother had been a pain in the arse, he’d enjoyed it, and for the most part young Alex Solvay had been a happy lad with a kind and caring home.
There was only one thing he would have changed, and that was the fact that his mum had upped and left, when Al was just five years old and Jacob was only two.
As mentioned in previous records, Alex found this so traumatic that, for a few years, he stopped speaking entirely. When his speech returned, it was stumbling and stalling, until finally he did fully recover his voice but wasn’t known to use it much if he could help it - apart from on certain occasions while on stimulant drugs as an adult, during which bizarre times he was unshutupable.
Alex would have likely been that way, the withdrawn type, even if it weren’t for his mother leaving. The event just didn’t help.

In the temply place in Jerusalem, while Jade was chatting to Dave about suncream, and a nearby Herbie was having a lively conversation with Artemis, Alex leaned back against the wall and took in the atmosphere.
Again he was reminded of infrequent visits to a place of worship in his own time and country. That, and all the biblical stuff that was going on, put him in mind of Christmas and the similar winter festivals.
His mind slipped back, or forward, through the years until he remembered being seven years old, opening presents with his dad an’ Jakey.
Then having dinner, unlike other later years not eating much, just picking at it. Fussy.

--
Seven.

His dad peered at the almost-full plate. Alex felt a bit bad, the cheerfully jumpered man had spent ages cooking it.
“Not hungry son?”
A shake of the floppy head.
His father, all strength and kindness, wasn't angry and told him he’d save it.

A little later, they’d sat down in front of the television and watched a film where a kid got left alone while his family disappeared somewhere. At the end, the family, and the kid’s mom, came home. Alex found it both very happy, and very sad.

He didn’t want his dad and little brother to see him crying, so he went out into the garden, sitting cross legged on a big tree-trunk bench, and quietly looking up at the clear winter night sky.
He silently asked the stars where his mum was, and why she didn’t love him, and what he’d done that was so terrible it had made her go away.

He must have been such a bad boy.

His dad had come and found him. Astute and observational he’d realised what must have been on the little boy's mind and wrapped a blanket around him, took him inside, and distracted him with hot chocolate and uber-transformers.

---
Thirty Five Ish.

Age thirty-five-ish, Alex found himself watching the same film with his own teeny kids. Despite the fact he was an adult, it still prodded him, right in the heart.
He excused himself and, leaving the littl’uns in his dad and Jessica’s care, grabbed his fags and a couple of festive mini bottles of whisky and went outside for a smoke.

He sat in the cool air, silently drinking, smoking, and mentally probing the stars.

After a while he started slightly, as a blanket was wrapped around his shoulders, and a mug of hot chocolate pushed into his hand.
“Come on, Boy…”

His dad guided him firmly but gently back inside. “… You’ve got more presents to open.”

---
Temple.

“… Transformers.”
Jade looked at Solvay. “Uh… What?”
Alex scratched his forehead and muzzily came back to the present. “I was just... The incense is strong, isn't it?”
Dr Black raised an eyebrow. “… Yeah.”

<snip>
She was about to say something else, but she was interrupted by the arrival of a squad of legionaries
"There they are!" the soldier at the head of a unit yelled as he entered the synagogue "Sieze them!"
</snip>
--
--
<Backpost complete. Now it’s back to carrying on from Luke’s post.
Is Herbie’s visitor Pilate?
If not, who is it?
Either way, what do we do?>