Outback - 17. OB Chapter 17

“Soon after the death of Kyle & Elizabeth Edgerton and their daughter Miranda, a court case for the custody of Miranda’s son, also named Kyle, resulted in the boy’s great aunt - Ms Lenswood, ending in prison for Contempt of Court, his great uncle – Mr Lenswood ending up in prison for child kidnaping, firing a gun in public, criminal damage and armed assault, and full custody being awarded to the boy’s father. Because of the court convictions, both of the Lenswood’s also lost their shares of the Edgerton fortune, which was awarded to the boy. What had been the real surprise is who the boy’s father is… no other than Bryce Silverton from the Nullabour. Due to the previous events between Mr Silverton and the media, no attempt has been made to contact Mr Silverton for a comment.”

I went for a long walk to calm down, leaving the newspaper article open on the computer. It was a full two hours later before I returned to the homestead, having just wandered around in no particular direction. I just kept thinking what this story would do for Kes. I wanted to keep him out of the media as much as I could, but now thanks to this newspaper article, now it would be almost impossible. I went to the office and made a late afternoon call to my lawyers to discuss the matter.

It was decided that the newspaper would be sued for publishing a minor’s name without the permission of the parent,. Surprisingly, a week later, the newspaper didn’t fight the issue and paid the $1.2 Million compensation. I arranged for that money to be placed into Kes’s trust fund. Soon after this, I took Kes for a trip to NCoST, so I could check on how things were going; I had scheduled a meeting with the college director and the lecturers. I arranged for Daniel to look after Kes and show him around the college while I was in the meeting.

During the meeting it was suggested that the 14 week course was not long enough, and should be extended for a further 5 weeks, to allow the students to get the additional training that was required, this would mean there would be only two intakes per year, and this leaves, room for a 5 week holiday during the summer and a 4 week holiday mid-year for the NCoST staff. There would also be a 1 week break in the middle of each semester, so there are two 9 week sessions each semester.

The mid-year holiday also coincides with the midyear school holidays, which I thought would be a great opportunity to allow for other students to experience life in the outback, and the summer break would be ideal for tourists. Once the new timetable was agreed on, the director began work on making the required changes to the website regarding admission dates, semester dates, and changes to the timetable subjects to fit in with the new timetable dates.

Semester One would begin on or around January 21^st, the mid semester break would be on or around the 7^th of April and semester one would end on or around June 21^st. The second semester will begin on or around July 21^st, with the mid semester break being on or around October 1^st, and the second semester ends on or around December 15^th. After nearly a full day spent at NCoST, I drove back to the main homestead, arriving just in time for dinner, with an exhausted, sleepy son in the front passenger seat.

During dinner, I announced, “I will be making a trip to the Capital city, and Kes, sorry son, gut I need you to stay here with Granny to look after you”, smiling at him. There had been so much publicity recently and I didn’t want any more media to be hounding me with Kes being around.

“I will miss you lots Daddy” Kes’ voice quivering, and eyes starting tear.

“I will miss you too Kes, but I will telephone you every night before you go to bed, so I can tell you how much I love you and how much I miss you” I replied, realising I, too, was getting teary.

After I making sure Kes had showered and tucked into bed, I sat in the lounge of my cottage to look at the list that I had been thinking about and had printed out off the computer just before dinner. It was a list of private schools in Perth and Darwin, which I would be visiting to present a proposal that would introduce students to the life of living and working in outback Western Australia.

I had a list of 5 independent private schools in the N.T - Northern Territory, another 16 in Perth, and I had to do them all in just two short weeks, which worried me a little, so when I arrived in Kalgoorlie, I settled into the hotel, I took out the list. I began calling a third of the schools in Perth and all of the ones in the Northern Territory,

Trying to get an idea of what, if any schools that were interested in an Outback Station Experience during the summer or mid-year holidays. After completing ten phone calls, I had one school that was definitely interested and one considering the idea in the N.T, and 3 schools in Perth, were considering the idea, leaving 5 schools not interested at all.

With those responses in hand, I decided to take the 6-hour train trip to Perth instead of the 1.5 hour flight in the morning. Thus, giving me more time to make some more phone calls to try get some more responses before I actually arrive in Perth, which may shorten the time I am away from home and Kes.

By the time I arrived in Perth, I managed to contact all the schools on my list. Now, I had 8 schools in Perth interested, with the remaining 7 were not interested at all.

Booked into a 5 star hotel in Perth, so as to be able to have secured privacy away from the media, I arrived in the late afternoon with a limo picking me up from the train station, and taking me to the hotel. Even though I know Perth well and the distance was not much, I just didn’t want to have any run ins with the media. As I was checking in, a gentleman stepped up to the reception beside me and faced me.

“Mr Silverton, my name is Charles L Brackston, I am an entertainment promoter and business manager for some overseas entertainers, I would like to meet with you some time to ask if you would be interested in providing a retreat for some high profile entertainers, when they require a break from everything” the gentleman said, passing me a business card.

I accepted the card and read it briefly, “I will consider it and get back to you, but it won’t be on this trip sorry”. On being handed my suite swipe card I turned and headed for the elevator, not wanting to say any more to the business manager.

Resting for the remainder of the day, I ate in my suite and watched a movie before calling home to speak to Kes before he went off to bed. Kes was crying because he was missing me so much, and it had only been just two days. This was upsetting me a bit too, but I was glad that my trip would be a lot shorter than I had originally planned. I didn’t say anything to Kes just yet, until I had more of an idea just how long it would take me to complete the trip.

The next morning as I was waiting for the arrival of my breakfast, I received calls from the two schools in the N.T.. Both had decided to withdraw from the offer of being involved in the outback experience, so this meant I didn’t need to go Darwin. So I could now just concentrate on the schools in Perth. After breakfast I contacted the 8 interested schools and arrange appointments with the senior management staff over the next three days, with the first three appointments today, starting at 11am.

During the train trip from Kalgoorlie, I had put together a brief summary document on the proposal, and I went through it a final time before I went downstairs where the limo I ordered was waiting to take me to my first appointment. By the end of the third appointment, I was pretty well worn out. Retreating to my hotel suite, I ordered my dinner to be delivered to my suite. At 7pm I called home. Kes answered the telephone, absolutely thrilled that it was me calling. We chatted for a good half an hour about all of the adventures he had been doing during the day.

By the time all eight of the appointments had been completed after three days, I was very much ready to head back home, and flying to Kalgoorlie on the last afternoon flight, and settled into a hotel for the night so I was well rested for the long drive home. Once again, I called home at 7pm and once again Kes answered the phone.

This time I told him that I would be home tomorrow which thrilled young Kes, to see his daddy again. We chatted for about twenty minutes before it was time for Kes to go to bed. “Night, daddy” he whispered. “Good night, Son. I’ll see you in the late afternoon tomorrow” and hung up the phone.