Sanctuary from Harm - 2. Sanc Chapter 2

We kept the outside hatch closed since we hadn’t built the chicken run yet, which was out next project. Using some timber posts, we already have, we put into place a row of posts, that are 5 metres apart, from the floor to 3.5-metres high, for a fence, to keep the chooks in, and out of the vegetable garden.

Once completed, we spread out some more hay, we opened the outside hatch of the chook hutch, and the bantams came out to explore their new surroundings, which is quite roomy.

We watched them for a while before we began on the next project, of planting all of the seedlings in the veggie patch and watering them in as we went. Looking back at what we had achieved, I smiled at what was once just an empty warehouse, and is now a place of activity, with the garden and chickens.

Once all of this work had been done, we set off in three vehicles in search of my son, and with two-way-radios, we kept in touch, as we searched sperate areas, but to no avail, after two hours of searching.

This time I accepted an invitation to dinner at Nathan’s place, and after saying goodbye to the others, and thanking them for all of their hard work, Nathan and I headed over to his place in separate vehicles. Nathan had his own small flat located at the back of his parent’s home, and each Saturday, he would have dinner with his family, just to keep his mother happy.

I had often enjoyed a Saturday night roast dinner at Nathan’s parent’s place, and when I arrived there, Mr and Mrs Porter were very happy to see me and were pleased when Nathan announced that I was staying for dinner. During the meal, Mr Porter asked his son, if he knew what he was doing at work this week, and he said he did, and that he would be spending two days working at my workplace, assisting with a small project, and help to look for my missing son.

I knew that we were having some extra help for a few days this week, but I had no idea that Nathan was one of them, which caught me by surprise, and Nathan gave a small cheeky grin when I looked over in his direction, which made me chuckle.

I explained to everyone at the table, that once every quarter, we have a number of staff from other community organisations who come to help out with special projects that the company runs, helping disadvantaged people, and troubled youth, who seem to be getting in strife with the law on a regular basis.

After dinner and a continuing discussion on the project, I eventually said goodnight and headed back to my rented apartment, to prepare for another week of work in the morning.

The next morning, arriving to work half an hour earlier than usual, I was looking at the project timetable, when my supervisor entered my office, as I had left the door open when I arrived. “I was not expecting you to be coming in today, considering what I have read and seen on the news over the weekend, are you sure you don’t want to take some time off?” my boss asked me.

“No thanks sir, I would prefer to keep busy at work if you don’t mind” I replied, “Ok how about you take a half-day off at lunchtime tomorrow and Thursday, that way you can deal with anything that you need to in those afternoons” my boss suggested, “that would be good thank you sir, I will accept that offer” I said, and the boss left my office to do something else. A team meeting had been arranged with all participants of the project, which I would be leading, and so I went over my notes again, while I waited for everyone to arrive.

When it was five minutes before the meeting, I made my way to the conference room, where a few of the team members had already arrived, including Nathan, who was being introduced to the others. “Do you know our Project manager Nathan? This is Mr Hunter Langston” my project 2IC – Jocelyn asked Nathan.

“Yes, we have met, we are very good friends actually” Nathan replied, as he shook my hand, “Good morning Mr Langston” Nathan added with a cheeky grin. I smiled and headed to the front of the room and sat down at the table, and quickly looked at my notes, as people started to file into the conference room.

“Good morning, I am Hunter Langston, to my left is Ms Jocelyn Monkton, my 2IC for this project, now as most of you already know, I have a personal matter that I am having to deal with, and my boss has kindly given me two afternoons off, so tomorrow and Thursday afternoons, Jocelyn will be running the show, welcome to the four members from other community organisations, if you can introduce yourselves, and state what organisation you are from…”

The morning went very well, and during morning tea and lunch breaks, Jocelyn and I got to talk, on a one to one basis with the other community members, that we didn’t know. At the start of the afternoon session, I let Jocelyn take the lead, as we headed out into the community, to start the hands-on work of this project, and near the end of the day, I retreated to my office to catch up on some work, while Jocelyn finished up.

“Hey mate, I wondered where you went too, everyone has gone home, including Jocelyn,” Nathan said as he entered my office and sat down in front of me. “Hey, I just needed to spend some time alone, you are the exception thou. I have had another call from the police, still no news on the whereabouts of my missing son, I miss him so much, and I am worried about his welfare” I replied sadly.

After a short chat, Nathan encouraged me to finish up work for the day, and that we go back to the sanctuary to check on the chooks, I chuckled at his suggestion and followed him out of the building, and twenty minutes later we arrived at the loading bay of the building, where we parked inside, closed and locked the door, and we headed further inside to check on things, and the chooks seem to have settled in very well.

A few minutes later in the lounge room of the lounge of the staff quarters, we sat down with a pad and pen each. “Have you thought some more about giving up the apartment and moving here permanently?” Nathan asked me, “yes, I sent an email to the real estate agents this morning, during the morning tea break.

Now let’s do some brainstorming, for some more ideas for this place” I replied, and we spent the next few hours, coming up with ideas, and discussing the pros and cons for each one, stopping only to heat up some dinner and eat, as we looked at our lists.

Once Nathan had gone home, I looked over the list as I lay in bed, and thought about all the extra work all of these items will create, before putting the list down and turning off the light. I was woken a few hours later when my telephone rang, the line was very scratchy, then I heard the voice that I have longed to hear.

“Daddy!”, “Oh my dear boy, I love you no matter what, your mother and her boyfriend are in big trouble with the police, for what they did, now tell me where you are and I will come and collect you,” said, so happy to hear him. “I don’t know where I am, a lady gave me a lift a few days ago, and when she wanted me to steal stuff for her, and I refused, she got angry with me. I managed to escape, but I have no idea where I am” my son said to me.

“Ok son, can you describe where you are, what do you see around you, that can help me find you?” I asked, “I don’t know, I am at a phone booth in the middle of nowhere, on a small narrow sealed road, I am cold and hungry and…” Jonah said as he began to sob, and by now I was out of bed and getting dressed.

“Ok Jonah, what else is there, can you hear any traffic noise or dogs, cows or anything like that?” I said as I dashed to the loading bay, unlocked and opened the door, before jumping into my car, “No it is fairly dark, apart from the bright moon, I think we passed a service station before I managed to escape, I was half asleep, when we turned a corner and passed the service station, I think it was one of those with a white star, with green and red around it” Jonah said to me.

“Caltex, it was a Caltex Service Station?” I asked, “Yes I think so Dad” Jonah replied, I could hear him trembling now, as I placed my phone on the hand’s free cradle on my car, after closing the door of the building and locking it, and all I could think of was driving to Nathan’s place, which was only fifteen minutes away.

I decided to forget about speed limits, and I travelled as fast as I could, stopping only at red traffic lights and intersections, and I came to a stop outside Nathan’s place in just under nine minutes. During the journey, I had asked Jonah if he was wearing any warm clothing, and he said he had some track pants over some shorts, a tee-shirt and a windbreaker jacket, but he was still cold, and I assured him that I was on my way to find him, with uncle Nathan helping.

Grabbing the phone again, I ran down the driveway to Nathan’s home, passing the house to the small flat at the back, I banged on the door, a number of times and impatiently waited for a response, after a second round of banging, Nathan opened the door, dressed in just underpants and a singlet, “Come on Nat, get a move on, I have Johan on the phone, but he doesn’t know exactly where he is, just somewhere near a remote Caltex service station” I said to my friend urgently.

Nathan immediately dashed off and a minute later he was back with shorts and tee shirt on, with wallet, keys and phone in his hand, as he followed me to the front of the property, and into my car. Nathan was already on the phone to the police, giving the information that I had given him plus my phone number, and his number to call back on. “Jonah, can u give your dad and me anything else to give us a clue where you are,” Nathan said after hanging up his phone call with the police.

“The sun was setting behind us when we stopped for fuel” Jonah said when he remembered this, “That is great son, you are heading East, that is a big help” I replied, as Nathan redialled the number to the police, to pass on the extra information. “Get onto Highway 63, go to the town of Jendelee, there is a Caltex on a corner on the edge of town, and there is a roadside phone box, 14 kilometres North West of the town” Nathan said passing on the information to me.

“Did you hear that son, we have a good idea where you are, and Nathan is working out how long it will take us to get there” I said into the phone, “About 40 minutes at the most Jonah, hang in there, buddy, we will be with you soon” Nathan added, “Thank you Uncle Nathan” Jonah replied, which surprised Nathan a little.

We slowed as we entered the very small town, and saw the Caltex service station ahead of us, which was still open, just as we reached the corner, outside the Caltex, a car behind us braked hard, then swerved around us, turned sharply around us, and raced off out of town, in the same direction that we were heading.

The car had no siren on but did have blue lights flashing, as we remained stopped at the intersection, which had a stop sign in front of us. Nathan tapped my shoulder and indicated towards the service station, where I spotted a security camera, then saw the big smile on Nathan’s face.

Once we had set off, following the police car, I assured Jonah that we were nearly there and that the police had just passed us, and would be there first.

Suddenly the phone line went dead, and I wasn’t sure what to make of that, as we continued out on the small bitumen road out of town, and finally, we arrived at a phone box with the police car parked across the road, blocking it completely. after Nathan had taken a photo of the police car, we climbed out of the car.

“The missing boy, Jonah is my son, where is my boy?” I said to the nearest police officer, “please stand back sir, we are searching for a missing person” the officer replied, “Yes, I know that I was the one who gave your office the information on my best friend’s son’s possible location, moron” Nathan answered back.

“I suggest that you get back into your car and get out of here before you say something that you will regret” the officer growled back, and I encouraged Nathan to do as the officer said.

Once we were in the car and turned around, and heading back into town. Ten minutes later, I heard a low voice behind my seat, “Daddy, can we get something to eat please?” I hit the brakes, coming to a fast stop before I jumped out and the car and opened the back door, where Jonah jumped into my arms.

“Oh Jonah, I have missed you so much, I am sorry that I left you with your mother, I had no idea that you were not being looked after properly,” I said to my son as I wrapped him tight, in my arms. Nathan walked around the car and sat in the driver’s seat, while Jonah and I climbed into the back seats, and we continued on back to the city.

“Nathan, if it is still open, can you stop at the Caltex please,” I asked my friend, and we not long after we stopped at the service station and, with Jonah now fast asleep, I went inside, while Nathan stayed with Jonah in the car. A few minutes later, I re-entered the car, with a handful of hot food and some drinks for all of us, and Jonah woke up as I closed the door.

“Hey mate, I have a hot sausage roll and a sandwich for you, plus a fruit drink,” I said to my son, as I handed him the items, then gave Nathan some food and drinks too, and we continued the journey back to the city, with Jonah falling asleep once again.

“Where do you want to go?” Nathan asked me quietly, as we reached the outskirts of the city. “Take us to your place, then I will drive back to the Sanctuary, I will spend some time with my son, till we have all of the situations sorted, oh and by the way, I got a DVD copy of the security camera at Caltex” I replied with a big grin, which made Nathan laugh.

We ended up going back to the Porter family home, where Mrs Porter insisted that we stay, and she set up the spare bedroom for Jonah and me, before she cooked up a big meal for Jonah to eat, and I watched him as he ate every single bite of it, while listening to Nathan having an argument with the police over the phone.

“Yes, he is safe and in the care of his father, no you will not come over tonight to question the boy, he is 12 years old, cold hungry and exhausted from everything that has happened. We will come to the station in the morning… who am I? I am a qualified Psychologist, and a good friend of the boy’s father, goodnight” Nathan said before he ended the call.

“Man, those guys really need to get an attitude adjustment, all blood so high and almighty arseholes” Nathan grumbles softly, but not softly enough. Nathan Porter, for and wash your mouth out with soap, I do not want to hear such bad language in this house, especially when there is a child present” Mrs Porter said angrily to Nathan, who went deep red with embarrassment.

“Sorry Ma, I will try my best to hold my tongue in future” Nathan replied, as he sat down in the lounge next to me. “Looks like we have an appointment with the boys in blue in the morning,” Nathan said to me, and I nodded my head in understanding.

The following morning, Nathan had called my work and explained what had happened overnight, and that I was having a few days off, to spend the time with Jonah. After breakfast, we headed to the police station, where we came face to face with the obnoxious police officer we came across at the telephone box last night.

“You? What do you want?” he demanded as we approached the desk. “My name is Hunter Langston, I was asked to come to the police station along with my son, to answer some questions” I replied, “You are, are you, so why didn’t you say so last night?”’ the officer snapped back at me, “We did, and if you recall, you told us, that you were busy looking for a missing person, and told us to leave. At the time we were unaware that my son had climbed into the back of my car and after a while, he spoke up and we stopped to hug, before going to get him fed” I replied calmly.

The police officer did not look too pleased, as he stormed off, deeper into the police station, and a few minutes later a woman arrived and escorted us into a small room, that had a few lounge chairs and a coffee table in it, and over the next twenty minutes, Jonah went through as much of what happened as he could remember, before he started showing signs of getting tired.

I announced that I was taking Jonah home now, as he is too tired to tell us any more, and when the officer tried to object, the look on Nathan’s face, made her change her mind.