Sanctuary from Harm - 4. Sanc Chapter 4

“Ok, but I insist that for their first visit, they be blindfolded, before being driven here, and to remain that way until they are inside the warehouse,” I said to Nathan, who happily agreed, and said he would see us bright and early in the morning.

I explained to Jonah, that for the whole weekend that we would be having two other friends, as well as Charles, Scott and Uncle Nathan, and that for part of the time, Jonah would have to stay somewhere out of the way, while all of the heavy work is being done.

After dinner, after I had just finished cleaning up, my mobile buzzed with a message. Picking up the phone to read it, I saw that it was from Scott, and the message read “Knock, knock, Charles and I are at the back door, let us in please”, and I walked toward downstairs and towards the loading bay door, and opened it, where Charles drove in his car, with Scott as his passenger. “Hi mate, we thought we would come for an overnight camp out, we have already eaten our dinner, and brought our swags for the night out,” Scott said to me as he climbed out of Charles’s car.

“Oh, ok, I guess you can either camp out in the lounge room, of the staff quarters, or in one of the empty bedrooms on the first floor,” I replied, a little surprised. “We decided already, that we will camp on the first floor, Nathan will join us when he has finished work in a few hours’ time,” Charles said. “Ok, well go and get settled, there is no furniture over there except the bathrooms, and storerooms are empty, I will just get you guys some toilet paper and soap for the bathroom” I replied, as I headed back to staff quarters.

“Who was that, Dad?” Jonah asked me from the lounge room as I entered, “Just Scott and Charles, they are camping overnight in the other area of the building, and Uncle Nathan will too when he is finished work, now off you go, shower and bedtime for you” I replied, and Jonah did as he was told.

I headed to bed once, I had checked on the others and woke up to the sound of the back door opening, and Nathan’s car entering and the door closing again before I fell asleep again. When I woke up in the morning, it was to the sound of chatter in the kitchen, and the smell of food cooking, so I dressed and made my way out to the living area, to see Nathan cooking breakfast, and Scott, Charles, Brent and Kurt, all sitting around the table drinking tea.

I glanced over to Nathan, who gave a little smile and a shrug of his shoulders before continuing with breakfast, while Charles stood up and retrieved a cup of tea for me, just as Jonah entered the room, dressed and looking at all the people in the room, “Good morning son, did you sleep well?” I asked Jonah as he walked in.

“I did, till I woke up to all this noise” Jonah replied with a grin, which made me laugh, and I introduced the newcomers to my son, explaining that Kurt and Brent were life partners, which made Jonah smile, as he shook their hands, and we all sat to eat breakfast, when Nathan delivered it to the table.

“Ok boss, so what're the plans for this weekend?” Nathan asked between mouthfuls, to me so everyone knew what was happening, and I spent the next ten minutes giving a rundown on what would be happening, with the first deliveries due to arrive at 8 am, along with the crane. Once we had finished breakfast and quickly cleaned up, I lead the way downstairs tot eh loading bay.

“Wow this is awesome, no wonder you call it a sanctuary, this is so cool,” Brent said in amazement, and Jonah dashed over to check on the chickens, and to collect the eggs. “Six eggs today Dad” he shouted from the second floor, as he held up the eggs in his hands over the safety barrier of the atrium. “Wow, what else do you have hidden away in here,” Kurt asked.

“Well we have 6 Bantam chickens, a variety of vegetables plus some fruit trees as well, by the end of the day, we will have a more landscaped atrium, and the first and second floors on both sides will have more planter boxes, there are also two large workshops and the ground level of the atrium, will have a variety of trees and shrubs, an artificial turf floor, and a water feature” I explained.

By 11 am, all the deliveries had arrived, and the small truck crane had lifted all of the pallets up and into the warehouse, where the team got to work to carry the items on the correct level.

By lunchtime, the team had placed the reticulation down, laid the artificial turf, and positioned all of the tree boxes, where I wanted them, with the larger trees spaced out approximately 10 metres apart around the parameter of the atrium, apart from no tree in the centre of the north wall, to make way for the water feature.

The lower shrubs would be placed equally apart between each of the large trees but located slightly under the mezzanine level above. The medium size trees were placed 5 metres diagonally towards the centre from each of the large trees. Before heading to the apartment for some lunch, we all headed up to the first floor to look down over the atrium, so see the layout of the tree boxes, and it looked magnificent.

Once we had eaten a lunch of cold meat and salad sandwiches, and fruit juice, we split into teams, so as to work in different areas of the project, Jonah helped Nathan to put together the extra additions to the chook yard on the second floor, while Charles and Brent got to work building the water feature, with the 500-mm shallow pond already in place, and they built a rock wall behind it and around it edge, to hide the black heavy-duty plastic, that left Scott, Kurt and I do work on planting.

Starting from the top and working down, we started with the creepers, to be planted along the edges of the 1^st and second-floor mezzanine levels on both side of the atrium, followed by more vegetables in the raised garden planters on the 2^nd floor opposite the others already in place.

Charles and Brent had come up with an extra feature for the water feature, while still having the two-metre-high stone wall along the north wall, they would also install an extra very small pond, attached to the underside of the first-floor walkway between the north and south wings of the warehouse, to create a 3.5 - metre-high waterfall, that appears from under the walkway, about a metre out from the wall, with water falling directly into the middle of the pond.

The main waterfall, coming out from the top of the high wall, would cascade over the number of rocks that stick out from the wall, to make the water cascade instead of just a waterfall. Nathan retrieved the large bags of wood shavings, to spread over the floor, so as not to make the floor so messy.

By afternoon tea time, most of the work had been completed, except Charles and Brent, who were still busy with the water feature. Once we had stopped for a short break, Nathan, Jonah and I went to get a few extra supplies, including a second pump and some extra bits, for the big waterfall, leaving the other four to work on finishing the waterfall and finish planting the smaller shrubs into the boxes.

When we returned nearly two hours later, we had all the supplies that Charles asked for, plus we had another twelve bantam chooks, to add to the existing 6, to ensure that we get a plentiful supply of eggs, as Nathan had used up all of the fresh eggs with omelettes and scrambled eggs for breakfast. The extra pond supplies included a variety of aquatic plants, a water purification system, an aeration system, and two dozen freshwater barramundi fingerlings.

I called it a day when we returned, as we had all been working fairly hard all day, and Nathan volunteered to go and get some supplies for dinner, and Kurt being a chef too, volunteered to go with him.

The water feature was not quite finished yet, as the stone wall cement filling had not yet dried, and the larger waterfall had yet to be installed before the pond could be filled. In the meantime, the fish were placed into a large plastic tub and given some food to tie them over till they get settled into their new home, and the aquatic plants were placed in another tub with some water, to keep hydrated.

Instead of returning with takeaway food, or food from the restaurant that Nathan worked at, Kurt and Nathan had returned with armfuls of shopping bags, with plenty of food to last them for days, and they got to work with preparing dinner for everyone. I noticed that Jonah was very quiet during dinner, and I started to worry, as he gave one-word replies when he was asked a question, and Nathan looked at me with a frown too.

Once dinner was over, Nathan asked Jonah to show him his bedroom, so he could read a story to him. I hovered outside Jonah’s room, which Nathan had left the door slightly ajar, and I listened to the story that Nathan ready him, as well as when Nathan asked Jonah a few questions about why he was feeling sad at the moment.

Jonah was sobbing when he finally started to open up to why he was sad, and I just wanted to rush in and comfort him, but being a parent, I felt it was important for someone just as qualified as he to try and get to the source of the problem, and with Nathan also having a degree in psychology, and being an adopted uncle to Jonah, I felt he was the best person for the job.

I listened carefully as I heard Jonah explain that when he left home, because he was gay, and that his mother didn’t want him in the house any more, that he spent many hours just wandering around the streets, hungry and tired, until he eventually found a sheltered spot, in an alley and fell asleep.

A girl, a few years older than him, whose name was Joyce, had helped him find some food scraps from a dumper bin behind a restaurant, and they became good friends, and for nearly a week, they shared their warmth, cuddling up together, at night, and sharing food that they each found during the days of wandering. They took it in turns to take a tap bath in a park, one keeping a watch out while the other washed.

Jonah said that he had met a few other kids around his age and a little older, who helped to keep the nasty adults away from causing any harm. I had tears in my eyes when I heard this, and by now I had slowly crept into the room, and sat on the bed beside my son, as he continued with the story. Jonah said that there are lots of homeless kids around the place, most of them had nowhere to sleep, as the emergency accommodation always filled up so fast.

Jonah mentioned that he would sometimes get a hot meal from the street van, only if he knew that he could get it without being stopped and forced to answer a lot of questions, or being forced to listen to a whole lot of bible stuff. I looked at Nathan, and then at my son, as it came to my mind what I could do with all the warehouse space.

Once Jonah had settled down and eventually fallen asleep, Nathan and I returned to the lounge room, where the others were having a cup of tea. “Guys lets go over to the office area, I have a few ideas I want to run by you,” I said to my friends. A few minutes later, after everyone had a fresh cuppa in hand, we had gathered in the office area, where there was a desk and some stationary, and once I had what I needed we sat down in the open lounge area.

“Ok, Nathan and I have just heard a more detailed account of what Jonah went through, while he was missing, and it made me realise how lucky I was to have him back. It also made me realise that there are a lot of homeless kids out there who are at risk of predators of all kinds. Guys, we have a very large complex here, and I think with a little bit of extra work, we could put it to very good use for homeless kids.

Amongst us, we have two with medical science degrees, two with psychology degrees, and a counselling degree, as well as two chefs, a plumber, and electrician and engineer. Amongst the five of us, we have all the qualifications to help these young people, to get through this part of their life, and go onto better things, and I would like you guys to be part of it” I said to my five friends, and they all looked at each other in wonder then one by one they smiled and nodded yes.

“Right, well I guess once we have completed the water feature tomorrow, we will need to start work on planning Operation Sanctuary, so lets all get a good night’s sleep, as I feel tomorrow is going to be the beginning of a great project ahead of us” I said with a big smile, and I walked back to the staff quarters, to finish tidying up then I had a shower and went to bed.

Once again, I woke up to the sound of happy chatter, and the smell of cooking, so I dressed and headed out to the living area, Jonah had beaten my up this time, and he was looking a lot happier this morning.

Kurt was in the kitchen this time, and he had almost completed breakfast preparations. Once we all sat down and started to eat, I soon noticed two pair of eyes looking at me, and I stopped eating.

“Um, Kurt and I had a long chat last night, and you know that we only rent a large apartment, we decided that we would give up our apartment and move into here, as we have more than enough furniture to easily fill it up, and more, as we have some stuff in storage too” Brent announced.

“I was thinking about that situation too, and I decided that we should leave the ground floor free for work purposes and make the 2^nd floor available for staff accommodation, and since you are not aware of the full layout, how about we finish breakfast and go around the complex to see how we can sort this situation out” I suggested.

With a total of six bedrooms in the staff quarters, with Jonah and I occupying the two bigger rooms on either side of the storerooms, and another three reserved for Nathan, Scott and Charles, that leaves just the one room remaining for Kurt and his partner Brent. But another idea came to mind, and I smiled as I thought about it some more.

“Ok, what bright idea have you come up with now?” Nathan asked me when he saw my smile, and I laughed, “You know me too well my friend, yes, I have an idea, and it shouldn’t take too long to do. The storeroom at the end of the staff quarters, closest to Jonah and my rooms, I would like to turn into a private lounge for just Jonah and me, and the small areas between them, I want to be included in it” I stated.

“Well it is your place, so I say we just go ahead and do it” Nathan responded, without hesitation, as he jumped up and headed off to check out space we just mentioned, and we all followed him.

“I would also like to suggest that we make the area on this level above the loading bay, into a 4-bedroom guest wing, but it is to be used only for special occasions,” I said when we had all gathered in the empty storeroom, which echoed a lot.

“This is fairly narrow and long, are you sure that you want to make this a private lounge?” Nathan asked me, well either that, or we make that area at the back above the loading bay into my private apartment” I responded. “I think that would be a better option, especially if Jonah is going to be living there all the time,” Kurt said, and the others nodded their head in agreement.

“Well ok then, let’s get the planning done for what we have to build to make it happen,” I said fully agreeing with their decision, and pleased that Jonah and I will have our own special retreat in the complex.

Scott, Charles and Brent decided to head over to the warehouse to continue work on the water feature, Jonah announced that he was going over to check for eggs and to feed the chooks, and this left Nathan, Kurt and I to remain, and we began chatting about what to do with the layout of the apartment.

Kurt suggested that I have a central lounge from the front to the back, with a bedroom and bathroom in each back corner. Nathan suggested that maybe have a kitchen diner on the right of the lounge, with a study opposite from the entry hall, and a games room next to Jonah’s bedroom.

I liked each idea, so we began putting the ideas down on paper for a more definite design. “So, what will happen to the rooms downstairs then?” Jonah asked no one in particular, “Well they will become office space or even better classrooms, so the homeless kids can catch up on their studies” I suggested. “Will you be teaching me, daddy?” Jonah asked me.