NB New Direction - 5. NB ND Chapter 5

“Yes, I had actually, thanks for the reminder. The men who delivered the furniture, were able to unpack the truck and put everything into place, very quickly, and our guests arrived right in the middle of the unpacking. Once the delivery truck had left, we all headed back to the main house, and relaxed for a while, with the ladies heading to the kitchen to chat and prepare lunch.

During lunch, it was decided that Mrs Cooper and Annette would go and do the house shopping for next door, while Kyle and I went to the airport to collect Sebastian and the twins, with Kyle driving his mum’s car, because I was still limping a bit, and I still don’t have full use of my left hand, I decided that it was safer not to drive, and let a Kyle do it for me. We were 45 minutes early, so we spent a bit of time wandering around the international airport, before heading to the arrivals hall.

When the flight finally landed, coming direct from Auckland, New Zealand, we had to wait a further twenty-five minutes before they appeared, after they had cleared customs. As soon as the twins saw me, they raced towards me, and gave me a big hug, which nearly knocked me off my feet. After greeting Sebastian, also with a hug, before we went to Kyle’s car.

“So, back to Claremont then?” Kyle asked me, as he climbed into the driver’s seat, “Isn’t that where the investments are?” Sebastian asked me. “Yep it is, thought I would show you the investments that we had purchased last month, I am sure you will like it” I said with a huge grin on my face. Thirty-five minutes later, we arrived at the house next to my home, and Mrs Cooper and Annette came out of the house, to welcome the guests, with Sebastian looking at me in a questioned manner.

“Ok, I will tell you what is going on, this house and the house next door, are part of the properties that we bought, the house next door is now my town house, and will be my main base from now on, and Mrs Cooper is very happy to be living here. This house was originally going to be demolished, but by recommendation of the architect, we are keeping it, and using it as a guest house for now, with you and the twins the first guests.

I am not sure that you noticed, there is a burnt out building next door, which is the apartments that were burnt recently, and are part of the investment, I will show you the rest over the next few days, once you have recovered from your trip” I said to Sebastian, who just smiled and nodded his head.

“We have set out the house with the basics, you will be eating with us next door, so I will let you guys, settle in and I will see you next door, when you are ready” I said as I exited the house, and went to my home next door, where I found Annette and Mrs Cooper busy in the kitchen preparing dinner.

“I have spoken to Annette, and let her know that I am not available to do the housekeeping for two weeks, while your guests are here, she said she was fine with that” Mrs Cooper said to me, and Annette smiled and nodded in agreement to this, “Ok, that’s fine, I will be in the office if you need me” I said, as I turned around and headed back to the front of the house.

An hour later, shortly after Annette and Kyle had left, I heard the front door open and two sets of feet ran down the hall, I smiled as I soon heard Mrs Cooper scolding the twins, for running in the house, just as Sebastian entered my office. “Hey mate, what are you doing?” Seb said to me. “Hey, just looking at the preliminary plans for the start of the investment project for here at Claremont” I replied, as I moved over to the lounge chair, and I placed the plans on the coffee table.

“Wow this looks great, so when do you get to start building this project?” Sebastian asked me after looking at the plans briefly, then looked at the Google maps printout of the area, where I had marked the four groups of land that the company had bought.

“I am waiting for demolition permission from the local council, with the fire damaged property next to your house, being first on the list, with the property across the road being second, which is two vacant houses” I replied. ‘That is good to hear, now we need to get the other places to be vacant so you can continue with the project, have you decided what to do?” Sebastian asked me.

“Yes, I have drafted a letter of termination of lease, once I have finalised it, I will forward it to the real estate agency, so they can forward it to the residents at 20 Queenslea Drive, as well at 81, 83 and 85 Bay View Terrace. The two houses on Bay View Terrace are already vacant, but they are between the apartment blocks, so it isn’t worth the trouble to start demolishing them, till the apartment blocks are vacant and ready for demolition” I replied.

“Sounds like you have it all worked out” Sebastian said, “It is, but I wish I was back on the farm at Douglas, riding my horse, and enjoying working outdoors, sadly it looks like I will not be able to do any of that anymore” I said softly, with a few tears filling my eyes. “Sophie is doing well, I am sure she misses you, I made sure that I take her for a ride each day, and if not me then Jose does instead” Sebastian said to me, trying to cheer me up.

“I had checked with the real estate agent the other day, and there are at least two vacant apartments in each of the blocks that we bought, so I thought that tomorrow, we might go and check out the apartments, which will also give us a chance to look around the property” I said to my cousin, just as the twins came running down the hallway, and announced that dinner was ready.

“Now, what did Mrs Cooper say about running in the house?” I said to the twins sternly, “Sorry Huon” the twins chorused, “Don’t say sorry to me, say it to Mrs Cooper, she makes the rules around here” I replied, and the boys walked back down the hall to the dining room, with Seb and I following, and we heard the twins apologise to Mrs Cooper for running in the house, as we arrived.

After a delicious dinner, and helping to clean up, Sebastian took the twins over to the other house so they could have a shower and get ready for bed, and I sat in the formal lounge and chatted with Mrs Cooper for a little while, until she decided that it was time for her to retire for the night. I decided to head to my room, where I had a shower and read a book for a little while, before going to bed.

I woke up thinking I was having a nightmare of being in the middle of an earthquake, but I soon realised that it was me that was shaking, and I couldn’t stop it. After a few attempts, I was able to reach for my phone, and I pressed the speed dial number for Sebastian. When I heard him answer the call, I tried to speak but I was having difficulties saying anything, I tried to say help, but it sounded something very garbled, and lest than two minutes later I heard loud banging on the front door.

“What on earth is all this noise for” I heard Mrs Cooper say as she opened the door, “It’s Huon, he is in trouble” I heard Seb say as they came rushing into my room and switching on the light, which blinded me for a while. “Oh, my god, I will call for an ambulance” Mrs Cooper said on seeing me, and Seb sat on the edge of my bed and looked over me for a bit, before dashing out of the room.

The next time I woke up, was when I heard the regular sound of beeping, coming from a machine nearby, and I knew I was back in hospital once again. I closed my eyes again, and soon fell asleep once again. When I woke up next time, it was day time, and it was silent in the room, I turned my head to look around, and I could tell from the walls and curtains, that I was not at Bethesda, but probably at the QE2 Hospital, which is not that far away.

“Hello young man, we have been very worried about you” I heard a voice say and I recognised it to be Annette’s voice, “Hello Rev” I croaked, and Annette allowed me to take a small sip of water to moisten my throat, and a nurse entered, then dashed off again, when she saw me awake. “How long… where am I?” I asked. “You have been in an out of consciousness for twenty-eight days, and you are at the QE2 Hospital” Annette replied, just as the nurse arrived, followed by a doctor.

“Hello Mr Devonport, I am your treating neurologist, Mr Tim Jarvis. You are a very lucky man, another few hours later, and it could have been a lot worse for you. It is not known how, but you have contracted Viral Encephalitis, we think that you will make a full recovery, but it will mean a lot of bed rest and eventually plenty of therapy” the doctor informed me.

I knew that encephalitis was a swelling of the brain, and that it can be deadly, so I was a little shocked, at the news I had just received. “Now you have a little bit of paralysis, and with a lot of therapy, you should over come most of that, for now just get plenty of rest and we will have you out of your bed in about week, so start your therapy, it will be about a month or so before you can be discharged” the doctor added, before leaving the room, with the nurse following.

“Wow, it was serious what put me in hospital this time, just as well I woke up and called Seb, that much I do remember, but I don’t remember anything after that” I said to Annette, “The important thing is that it was caught in time, and you will recover from it, I will leave you now, so you can get some rest, I will let Sebastian know that you are awake and talking” Annette said to me smiling as he picked up her book and hand bag and left.

As I lay back in my bed wondering about how I contracted this disease, a lady came in with a meal tray of sandwiches and fruit juice, “This should get you by till lunch time, since you missed breakfast” she said to me before leaving.

Once I had eaten my light meal, I lay back down and closed my eyes, and fell asleep. When I woke up again, the curtains in the room were closed, then I realised that I was in a different place, as the décor was different, and I guessed that I was back at Bethesda hospital.

Once I found the call button, I pressed it and waited, and a long fifteen minutes later a nurse finally arrived, “I am terribly sorry about the delay Mr Devonport, we are very short-staffed tonight, and we have had a few dramas” the nurse said as she stepped into the room.

“I presume I am back at Bethesda?” I asked, “Yes you are, now would you like some dinner. Was there anything else you want?” the nurse replied, “Just some food please, and I would like to speak to a doctor as soon as possible please” I replied, and the nurse smiled, nodded her head and left the room.

A few minutes later, Sebastian walked into the room, “Hey buddy, I am glad that you are awake at last” Seb said to me, and he sat on the edge of my bed. “Do you have any more information, apart from what the doctor said earlier at the other hospital” I asked my cousin, “Well he told me that you were a very lucky young man, with the virus caught early, and that it was just a matter of lots of rest and therapy to get you active again” Seb replied.

“I am really beginning to hate being in hospital” I stated, and Seb chuckled, “I don’t blame you mate, you have had more than your share of it lately” Seb replied. “Ah Mr Devonport, I am glad you are still awake, I am your neurologist Mr Craig Masters, when your cousin here organised for you to be returned here earlier today, Mr Jarvis referred you to me, as we are old colleagues from university days” the Doctor said as he walked in.

After a lot of questions, and all of the replied by the doctor, I was glad to have all the information that I wanted, even it was all a bit over whelming for me. The doctor said he would be in to check on me, late tomorrow morning, and he left the room, just as a dinner tray was delivered to me, and Sebastian chatted to me about the twins, and about the house next door, which now is fully furnished, and will be their second home.

Seb also announced that the twins were now attending the nearby public primary school, and that he had been asked to be on the school board to fill the recent vacancy, but he was still considering the offer. “So, what is happening with my project, since I have ben out of action?” I asked, curious to know if Seb had been doing anything to help out.

“Well, the applications for demolition have been approved, and the fire damaged apartments are now demolished, and cleared away, as well as the two houses across the road. The application for building, with the plans submitted by the architect that you employed, had been approved, and work has begun on both properties to build the two business buildings, on Freshwater Parade, but the planned walkway has been denied over any main road” Seb announced.

“So how are the twins going with attending a regular school?” I asked my cousin, “Well they found it really hard for the first two weeks, because of the language issues, but they have been able to pick up English quite quickly, and they are fine now. Luckily the school has French, has a second language, and the boys have thrived in that, and actually I’ve been summoned to the school on two occasions, because the twins have told the French language teacher is wrong with some words.

I have suggested to the headmaster, that I sit in on the next French class to see if my brothers are right or wrong with what the French teacher is teaching” Seb said which made me chuckle. “So, what did the Headmaster say to that suggestion” I asked, “He was very reluctant at first, but I reminded him that the school board had invited me to be on the school board, and as a parent, I suggested he accept the offer” Seb replied.

“So, has this happened yet?” I asked, “Tomorrow at 10am, actually and it will be interesting to see what happens? Sebastian replied with a huge grin. After a bit more chatting, Sebastian said goodnight and headed back home, just half a block away, and after watching a little of television I went to sleep.

The next morning, I woke up feeling quite ill, and soon vomited all over the bed, just as lady with a breakfast tray entered, and she dashed out again to get help, and after some questions, and some tests, I was put on a liquid drip, which included sedatives, which put me to sleep very quickly.

When I woke again, I heard the familiar sound of beeping, and I was in a different room again, and it looked very bland, so I guessed that I was back at the main hospital in Subiaco. I groaned with annoyance, knowing that I was back at the QE2 Hospital, and I found a breakfast tray in front of me, so I began to eat it, only to find the toast cold, so I drank the orange juice, and lay back in bed and fell asleep again.