Life on the Swan - 4. Swan Chapter 4

After the phone call, I dumped my bag and followed Emelia to the garage, where her little Toyota Yaris is parked. “With all the money the twins pay you, why don’t you get a bigger car?” I asked as I squeezed into the small car. “I like this thankyou Mr Xander, it is all I need” Emelia replied, and we headed off to Claremont, stopping at the estate agents to collect the keys, before travelling to Bay road.

When we arrived, I immediately had a bad feeling about this place, as it was just two buildings away from the main highway, which can get quite noisy. I only bothered to have a quick look around the apartment, which was nice, but as soon as I opened the balcony doors, my decision was made, definitely too noisy.

“Seb, I don’t know what you where thinking when you suggested that apartment on Bay road, but it is way too noisy, and I won’t be able to relax in a place like that” I said as soon as my cousin answered his phone, as Emelia and I climbed into the car, and with my tall stature, I was really struggling to get in, and decided to forget to even try, and staggered out again.

“I am not going in this bloody tiny car, I can’t fit in it, I am walking” I shouted at Emelia and slammed the door, before walking off. “Xander, I am still here, what did you just do?” Sebastian’s voice said into my ear, as I had forgotten about the phone call.

“Eh, oh… Sebastian, right what was I saying?” I said. “Firstly, tell me what the hell you just did to Emelia?” Sebastian demanded. “I can’t fit into her tiny car, so I told her I would walk” I replied, “No you didn’t, you shouted at her and slammed the car door” Sebastian responded.

“Shit, I got to… oh shit, she is gone… Damn” I said cursing after realising what I had done, and watching the little car disappear around the corner. “Alexander Huon Devonport, so help me, if you have upset the twin’s housekeeper, I am going to…” Sebastian said before the phone went silent.

“Shit, shit, shit,” I said, knowing that I am now in really big trouble with my guardian. Walking to the highway, I started walking back towards the school, knowing that it was best for me to return there, and stay out of the way for a while.

During the twenty minutes that it took me to walk back to the school, I thought about what I had done, and I was feeling like real crap, by the time that I reached the boarding house.

“Devonport, get in here” came the voice I knew belonged to the housemaster, “Yes sir” I responded and walked into the small office near the front entrance. “Would you like to explain to me, why a lady that I have not met before, comes here, and drops off your belongings, and tells me that I am no longer welcome to stay on weekends no more” the housemaster demanded, as he pointed to my duffle bag in the corner and my bike just outside the window.

“Well sir, my guardian has a house in Mosman Park, where he allows me to stay on weekends, under the supervision of the housekeeper, Mrs Emilia, who is the lady that dropped this stuff off. I kind off was angry with her and slammed her car door. Unfortunately for me, I was on the phone with my guardian at the time, so he heard the whole thing, so after he slammed the phone down on me, I walked back to the school” I explained.

“I see, and your guardian is a Mr Sebastian Wagner?” the housemaster asked me, and I nodded my head, “Well, I have just got off the phone with him, he has withdrawn your allowance and all weekend privileges, so you are to remain at the school at all times, you will only be allowed home to… Denham, at end of term holidays for the remainder of the year, understood?” the housemaster announced.

“Yes sir, understood” I replied, “You better hand me the keys to that apartment, as you won’t be needing those either, I will have them passed on to Mrs Emelia, as per instructions from Mr Wagner” the housemaster added. I felt in my pockets, and could not feel the keys, “Sir, you may have to ask Mrs Emelia if they are in her car, as they have fallen out of my pocket” I replied.

Collecting my duffle bag and my bike, I walked around to the bike rack and locked up my bike, before heading inside to my tiny room, which I share with one other boarder, who luckily is away with family this weekend. Dumping my bag on the floor, I closed the door and lay on my bed and cried, until I eventually fell asleep.

I woke to the sound of someone knocking on the door and shouting to come and have dinner, but I ignored them and went back to sleep again, waking up much later when I needed to take a pee. Glancing at my clock as I lay on the bed when I returned, I saw that it was after 11 pm, so I retrieved my water bottle and drank some water, before stripping down to my boxers and getting into bed.

For the rest of the weekend, I lay in bed, either sleeping or reading a book, ignoring any knocks on the door, until my roommate – Gavin walked in just after dark on Sunday. “Oh man it stinks in here, what the hell have you been doing?” he said as he backed out, and waved a hand in front of his face.

“Dude, go and take a shower, this place is rank” Gavin added and reluctantly I did as he asked, grabbing my towel, toiletry bag, and the jeans that I wore on Friday.

When I returned, the room was smelling a lot better, with the window wide open and the fan going at medium speed, and Gavin had sprayed some deodorant around the room. “Sorry, I had a really tough weekend” I tried to explain, and Gavin looked at me from head to toe, and shook his head.

“When did you last eat anything?” he asked me, and I had to seriously think about it before I could answer. Lunchtime on Friday I guess, and right on cue, my stomach began to rumble, which made Gavin laugh, and I just blushed a little.

“Grab a shirt and put on some shoes, we are heading to the dining room for some dinner, no arguments,” Gavin said to me, and I did as he asked, and we soon entered the dining hall, where my stomach rumbled even louder this time.

After eating two helpings of dinner, my stomach was happily full, and we headed back to the boarding house. “Care to tell me what happened on the weekend?” Gavin asked me. “No, not really, I just stuffed up in a major way, and now I have to deal with it” I replied.

Feeling really sick the next morning, I asked for a day off school, which was refused, and at breakfast, I just had some fruit juice and an apple. After Gavin had left to go to school, I quickly grabbed my backpack, retrieved my laptop, I-Pad, and three sets of clothes, my wallet, with a few hundred dollars, and some change cash in it, a spare set of casual shoes, and I decided to leave my phone on my desk.

Quickly changing out of my uniform and into some casual clothes, I rushed out the back door of the boarding house and around the corner to where the bike rack is, and I was soon off the school property, with no set destination in mind, and I headed down Victoria Avenue, along the river, until I came to a park near the university.

I secured my bike to a low fence near the playground, which has shade cloth over it, and I lay down on the rubber safety mat and stared out to the river. It was peaceful here, with it being early morning still the park was empty, as I contemplated on what to do next, and I decided that I first needed to check to see if Sebastian has frozen my bank account or not.

So, unlocking my bike, I continued down the road, till I reached the highway and turned right, heading for the city, which was only about 8 kilometres away, if I follow the cycleway along the river foreshore. In the middle of the city, I found the main branch on St Georges Terrace, and I made a $500 withdrawal and asked for a balance of my account.

I had no problems withdrawing that amount, and I discovered that I had a very high balance, which stunned the teller, as she checked and double-checked it, making me smile. “Yes, I know I am a very rich bastard, but hey some of us have to be” I joked.

After leaving the bank, I rode my bike to the train station, where I secured my bike once more, this time to a bike rack, not far from the front entrance. Having done that, I checked the pockets of my backpack, which I had not bothered to check before leaving the school, and I was surprised to see that my passport was still in there, and I smiled.

Going to an ATM machine, I withdrew another $500, which would be my limit for the rest of the week, before catching a taxi, I asked to go to the international airport, and as we travelled there, I thought about where I should go. Arriving at the airport, with nothing decided yet, I walked into the terminal and headed upstairs to the Duty-Free shops, to do some shopping.

Firstly, a small suitcase, that I could take on board with me, some basic toiletries, some books to read, and a warm jacket, I packed them into the small suitcase along with my backpack and headed back down to the front counters on the ground floor.

I looked up at the departures board, to see what is leaving fairly soon, and saw a few options, most of them to the eastern states, but the one that stood out the most was to Auckland, New Zealand. Then it occurred to me, that I had a better destination, which would mean a heck of a lot of travel, but it would be worth it, so retrieving my I-Pad, I did a bit of searching, and I was able to book for a seat in economy to Auckland, New Zealand, that was departing in just 45 minutes time.

Once this was done, I approached the counter with my passport and showed the lady at the counter the booking number, and I paid cash for the ticket, before I was checked in for my flight, and told to hurry, or I would miss outgoing. Luckily, I went through customs fairly quickly and I arrived in the boarding lounge, just as they were announcing boarding of my flight to Melbourne, where I would have a quick layover of fewer than two hours, before flying on to Auckland.

I arrived in Auckland at 12.35 am local time, tired from all of the travelling, I decided before I check into a hotel I needed to research the next available flight to Santiago, Chile, which is on Thursday at 6.20 pm NZ time, so I had a little over one day to catch up on some sleep, do some more shopping, and get my next flights organised.

While I was online, a news item came up on the screen, which really caught my attention, and I clicked on it to read more about it. “Lloyd Family Corporation’s giant submarine visits New Zealand” was the headlines. I had heard all about this amazing Submarine, and I had been following the story when they hit the news.

With me and this submarine now in the same country, I decided that I would not miss an opportunity to check it out up close, so I read on. “Lloyd Family Corporation’s two giant submarines, the Aquaria and Oceania, had spent a day docked at the Naval Yards in Auckland, for a full day, before both set off again before sunset.

Although the destination of the vessel Oceania is unknown, the Aquaria arrived in Whangarei, where some work is being done on the giant submarine for twelve weeks. Any attempts to get to speak to any crew member of the submarine has failed, and we have not been able to learn any more”.

I raced to the ticket counter and immediately asked for a ticket on the next flight to Whangarei, and I was able to get a seat on the 4.20 pm flight the next day. With the ticket in hand, I went to the hotel for the night, and once I had checked in, I cancelled the flight to Santiago, Chile, and decided that I would spend some time in New Zealand, exploring the beautiful country.

While watching the late news, after a hot shower and a good meal, a news item came on that sparked my attention. “In Whangarei tomorrow, from 12 noon till 5 pm, the general public will have the opportunity to have a once-only limited tour of the research submarine Aquaria, after it recently having completed some alterations to the lower deck, of the 9 level submarine, visitors are advised that parking will be limited, and although it is free to do the tour, there are restrictions that apply.

All camera recording devices and mobile phones will be banned from being carried onboard during the tour, and searches will be conducted before boarding. All devices that are discovered will be confiscated and handed over to the local police, where they can be collected the following day, there will be no drinks or food to be consumed, and smoking is prohibited, during the tour, which will take approximately 30 minutes,” the news announcer said.

Annoyed that I would not be arriving earlier in the day, the plane would land shortly after 2 pm so I have a little bit of time to get to see it, then I considered booking a charter flight, which would be a lot easier, and after some more thought, that is exactly what I did, with the flight to leave Auckland at 10 am, which will give me time to check into a hotel and have a quick look around, have an early lunch, and before heading to the location of the submarine.

After walking around the huge line of people waiting to take the tour, I approached a young man who was standing guard at the security gate, about 50 metres from the giant submarine, which looks a lot bigger than on television, and I handed him my business card, and asked for it to be delivered as soon as possible to the skipper, before walking away, and waiting for a response.

A coffee and snack van had set up business near a large shed about 150 metres away from the security gate, so I bought a cup of tea and a muffin, and stood at the end of the large shed, in the shade, while I waited for a response, not sure when that would be.

Many cups of tea and a few snacks later, as it was getting very late in the afternoon, I spotted a man running in a fast sprint from the submarine to the security gate, and once past the gate, he slowed to a brisk walk in my direction.

I recognised the approaching young man from the research I had done on the submarine and the company that owns it and smiled as he approached and introduced himself.

After an introduction and apology for the delay in getting to him, I was invited to stay on board the submarine for a few days, which was a lot more than I expected, but he knew who my guardian is, and was very keen for me to spend some time onboard, so I accepted the invitation, and arrangements were quickly made to collect my belongings from the hotel.

On entering the suite that I had been assigned, I was amazed that it was quite spacious and similar to the hotel room that I had booked into. After freshening up, I was guided by one of Trenton’s personal staff, to the top level of the submarine, where I would be dining with the senior officers and some family members.

During a delightful evening of dinner, I learnt that the captain of the submarine, who was a lot younger than I expected, is the husband of the lady dining with us, and stepfather of the five-year-old boy, Joshua, what really surprised me is that Joshua’s real father is actually Trenton Blackthorn.

I learnt during dinner, that the vessel would be setting sail in the morning, with a destination of Napier, with a group of Naval cadets and Naval personnel, before making the return journey, with one stop in each direction.

Over the next few days, with my own personal access card, I was able to explore many parts of the submarine at my own leisure and even got to spend a few hours on Mayor Island off the coast of Tauranga.

I was enjoying the journey so much, that when we arrived in Napier, I asked Trenton, if it was possible that I could remain on the submarine for a bit longer, and I was thrilled that he said yes, and I asked if there was some workspace that I could use for the remainder of my stay on board, and this was also granted.

When we arrived back at Whangarei, I learnt that the crew were being given a few days of shore leave, and so I headed to the office that I had been given use of, which is very close to the executive offices, where Trenton works, and just down the hall from my suite.

During the past half week, I have been sent school work, so that I can keep up with my schooling, after, contacting Sebastian, and letting him know exactly where I am.

Although he was not very happy about me disappearing, he did allow me to continue my time in New Zealand, as long as I contact the school and organise for school work to be sent to me, to complete and email back.

What I had not told my guardian, was that I was enjoying the time onboard the famous research submarine Aquaria, owned by the private corporation – Lloyd Family Corp, but that would be revealed if my idea that I was to suggest to my hosts, goes ahead.

After a meeting with Trenton, with him having similar ideas as I had, I accepted his suggestion of allowing me to remain onboard the Aquaria, while she sails West to Fremantle, to deliver me home. This would give me another two more days in Whangarei and 7 days onboard the Aquaria, as we sail to Fremantle.

I put in a request, to see if the Aquaria can sail upriver to my new property in East Fremantle, which is the former Naval Jetty, and I had to wait until this is looked at by the skipper, to see if it is at all possible.

During dinner that evening, I was informed that the submarine would not be able to sail upriver even as far as Stirling bridge, as the submarine is just too big, so the alternative place of docking had to be arranged.