New Beginings - 24. NB Chapter 24

“Entonces, ¿qué piensas de la nave?” I asked José, who smiled, “It is a magnificent ship, you are so lucky to have a great ship, Sebastian” Jose replied in English. “Well it is a family company ship, so it is owned by Huon, my twin brothers and myself” Sebastian replied. “Wow really, you didn’t say anything last time you were here, Huon” Jose responded, “Well, I was still getting use, to having some family, after losing my second parent, let alone being a minor shareholder of the company” I replied.

“Well let’s have some afternoon tea, then we can chat some more” Sebastian said, “I have already had some thanks, I will leave you guys to spend some time together” I said as I stood up and headed out of the room, and down the crew stairs to B Deck, where I headed to the ships hospital, as I had a bad headache, but getting dizzy as I exited the stairs, I collapsed in the hallway, and everything went black.

When I woke up, I was in a hospital bed, but it was not on the ship. “Good morning, Mr Devonport, you are in King Edward Memorial in Stanley, you collapsed on the ship, and it was a while before you were found, then rushed you here at about 10pm, last night” a voice said to me. “What happened?” I asked, “Let me get the doctor, he will explain it all to you” I was informed. A few minutes later a doctor arrived, “Hello Mr Devonport, welcome back to the Falklands.

Now I have been informed by your cousin, that you have spent some time in hospital in Perth, Western Australia, we have done a X Ray, and it appears that your hairline fracture had not fully healed, so we are going to keep you in here for at least a week, to watch you closely, then we will review you condition” the doctor informed me.

“What time is it?” I asked, “it is 3am, so still very early, just relax and let us look after you, and I will see you later” the doctor informed me before leaving the room, and I drifted off to sleep again. When I woke up next time, I saw that it was daylight, and a lady entered my room, with a food tray. “Good morning Mr Devonport, here is some breakfast for you” the lady said, as she placed the tray in front of me.

Once I had breakfast, and my meal tray had been removed, a different doctor and a nurse arrived, “Good morning, I am Mr Longmore, a specialist visiting Neurosurgeon from the UK, I have looked at your results last night and this morning, we will be keeping you in hospital for about a week, to monitor your condition, do you have any questions?” the doctor said to me.

“Yes, I work on a farm in Douglas, north west of here, will I be able to return to work and ride my horse again?” I asked, “Let’s get you better first, then we will review things then” the doctor replied, and he soon left, and I drifted off to sleep again. I woke up some time later when a nurse arrived, “Good, you are awake, you have some very concerned visitors” the nurse said to me, just as Seb and the twins came in.

“Careful boys” Seb as the twins raced towards me, and they climbed onto my bed, and each gave me a hug, and cuddled up to me. “Hey cousin, you got us all very worried, when we couldn’t find you, we did a full ship search, before the doctor found you” Sebastian said to me. “I was on my way to see the doctor, as I had a headache, but I didn’t get to the hospital” I replied.

“He was on the bridge at the time that I ordered the ship search, so he wasn’t in the hospital at the time. The doctor has spoken to me, as your next of kin, so we know what is happening” Sebastian explained, “Looks like I am stuck in hospital yet again” I said. “Not to worry, Jose telephoned Tom and Margaret soon after we found you, and they are coming into town to see you, while Jose has headed back to the Farm, to keep things running there” Sebastian informed me.

After a bit more chat, Sebastian and the twin left, to allow me to rest, but this was interrupted by the arrival of Tom and Margaret. “Hello young man, what have you done to yourself?” Margaret said to me with a frown, “Sorry, I can’t seem to get fully recovered from previous injuries, so I can’t help on the farm for a while” I answered, “Not to worry, my boy, the important thing is that you get better” Tom replied with a smile.

“We have met your cousins, and they are very nice, the twins are absolutely cute as buttons” Margaret said to me, which made me chuckle. “We told Sebastian of your plan, and he was surprised that you hadn’t said anything to him about it, but he agrees with the idea of them staying on the Falklands, especially with the twins needing an education, with learning English” Tom said to me.

“Sebastian had accepted to offer for him and the twins to live in the guest cottage, for the remainder of the summer, and he has offered a sizeable amount for rental of the guest cottage, plus the cottage before mine as a Falklands administration base for his company” Margaret said to me.

“Well that was roughly what I was hoping for, I just hadn’t had a chance to speak to Sebastian about it, I am pleased of this” I replied. Once Tom and Margaret left, and headed back to the farm, I went back to sleep, and I spent the next few days sleeping, and receiving visits from Sebastian, the twins, Mary and Eric. After nine long days in hospital, I was surprised when Jose walked into the room.

“Hola como te sientes hoy” Jose said with a smile, “I am feeling better thank you” I replied in English. “That is good, I have come to ask you an important question” Jose responded, “Ok, and what would that be?” I asked, “I would like your blessing for Sebastian and I to be together” Jose said, and my mouth dropped open, not sure if I heard right or not, “Can you repeat that please?” I asked.

Hearing chuckling, coming from the door way, I looked over to see Sebastian standing there, "Come il mio adulto prossimo, lui ti sta chiedendo, per il tuo permesso per noi essere partner" he said to me, “Well I never thought that as your cousin, I would be ever asked that question, and yes I will happily give my blessing for you guys being partners” I replied happily.

“Good, because I would not have gone ahead with it, if you did not agree” Sebastian stated, “Are you not forgetting who first introduced you two, I am very happy for you both, congratulations” I said with a big smile. “Ok, thanks cousin, now one more thing, boys can you come in” Sebastian said, and the twins appeared, and sat at the end of my bed. “While you have been here, the rest of the shareholders held a meeting, and it was a unanimous decision.

Jose has signed a document which stops him from inheriting any portion of the Wagner International Investments fortune, and in response, we have adjusted the shares of the company, so the twins, have 2 % less each, your shares have increased by 2 %, and Jose has 2% shares” Sebastian stated.

“Ok, that is fine, as long as you guys are happy with that arrangement” I responded, as Jose and Sebastian stepped forward from either side of the bed, and both planted a kiss on my cheeks, which made the twins laugh. “Ok that is enough affection for one-day thanks guys” I said, and all four of them were laughing at my embarrassment. “All we have to do now, is get you well and back to the farm” Jose said.

“That is another thing, I have agreed to help with the farm work, not that I will be much help, but Jose is prepared to show me, but I am a little uncertain about horse riding thou” Sebastian said, which made me chuckle, “What about the Southern Explorer?” I asked. “They are fully capable of continuing with their work, without us being on board. Before they leave the day after tomorrow, they will call into Teal Inlet, and using the ships helicopter, we will transfer our belongings to the farm.

We will have some furniture delivered by the Southern Explorer next time it comes around, and for now we will just do with what furniture there is at the cottage, and we will take all of our administration records and office equipment with us to Douglas as well” Sebastian announced. “Wow, that is awesome. So how are we going to do this between here and home” I replied.

“Well the ship will be back on March 5th, so I was thinking that we either take the 40 day journey back on the ship, via Cape Town, in early March, or we can fly back home to Perth in early May, and fly back to Stanley in Early October, that way we can spend 7 months here and 5 months at home” Sebastian said to me. “Yes I think that will work well, we need to chat with Tom and Margaret about this thou, as it effects them too, and we need to work out what to do about Mrs Cooper too” I replied.

“Well, it is almost October now, so if all goes to plan, we will be here for the next seven months” Sebastian said, and the boys cheered at that news, before Jose ushered them out of the room, “The doctors have told me that you will be out of here in four days time.

If all test results come back as good, then we as a family, can start our new beginnings in life here in the Falklands, for two months of Spring, all of Summer and two months of Autumn, and all of colder winter months at Toodyay” Sebastian said with a smile. “I look forward to that cousin” I replied, and feeling tired, I closed my eyes and fell asleep feeling happy, that my life for the future looked good.