Sanctuary from Harm - 6. Sanc Chapter 6

“As I said earlier, we meet regularly to discuss projects that we can assist with financially, and we have come to a decision, that we would like to financially support you with operational costs, we are thinking somewhere along the $20,000 a quarter mark, but we as sponsors, would need to inspect the facilities that you have, and come up with some sort of agreement, with how the place is managed,” Mr Grantley stated.

“Like a Board of Trustees?” I asked, “Exactly like that Hunter, just so that everything remains legal, both financially and with how it is operating,” Mr Porter said, “Ok, so when do you want to come and inspect the place?” I asked, “How about now? We already know the address, and we have driven past it a few times over the past few weeks, not that it shows that anything is happening in the building,” Mr Grantley replied.

“No, I suggest after dark, and in just two cars, that don’t stand out like a sore thumb, as it defeats the purpose of keeping this place low key,” I replied, “Agreed, we will be at the back entry at 7 pm sharp, see you then, goodbye,” Mr Grantley replied before ending the call.

Nathan and I stared at my mobile for some time, before Jonah broke the silence. “Well? What does all of that mean?” Jonah asked, “It means, that we have a lot of work to do before we have some special guests arrive this evening, including your grandparents” I replied.

“Oh goody, I haven’t seen Nana and Pop for ages,” Jonah replied, and this statement caught me by surprise a little.

Knowing that Karen’s parents live on the East coast, and rarely come to visit, I was surprised that she had not allowed for regular contact with my parents, who loved spending time with their grandson, although they tend to spoil him rotten on a regular basis.

Switching to messages on my phone, I sent a text message to Charles and Scott. “Urgent, be at the Sanctuary straight after work, crisis meeting needs to be held, will explain everything, when you both get here.”

“Ok, will do, I finish at 4 pm today, see you then,” came a response from Scott, “Sorry, can’t make it after work, as I have a business meeting to attend, I will call in during lunchtime,” was the response from Charles, which I wasn’t very happy about, and I showed the message to Nathan, who grabbed my phone and he sent a text to another number, before handing it back to me, “He will come now,” Nathan replied grinning.

“Why, what did you do?” I asked, “Look at the message I sent,” Nathan replied, which I did. “Sir, your son, said he cannot attend an urgent meeting here at the sanctuary after work today, can you possibly convince him to change his mind? Nathan”. I burst out laughing, “Oh you mean man, that is just not right to get his father involved in getting him here,” I said.

A few minutes later, I received a message from Charles, “Change of plans, I will be there at 5 pm, Charles”. I couldn’t help but laugh, when I read the message, and showed it to Nathan, who joined in. “So, Dad are we going to keep cleaning, or what?” Jonah asked me, who had been watching everything happening.

“Oh yeah, I guess we better get all of the main parts of the sanctuary sorted, before our VIP guests arrive,” I replied, and we headed upstairs. While Jonah went to check on the chickens, Nathan and I tidied up the ground floor of the building, which is still a bit of a mess in areas.

The kitchen has not been finished with setting up everything, and the two dining areas, only have two tables and 8 chairs, with many more of them needed, for each dining room. The offices and staff room have not been furnished yet, but they are clean, the basketball backboards and nets need to been installed, as well as the tennis court nets.

On the first floor, it is fairly bare, with the empty bedrooms, and very empty open lounge and recreation areas on both sides, as is the games room, above the loading bay. The only area that was fully set up, is the 2^nd floor, with the garden, chook yard, workshops and the staff accommodation area, fully operational, with just the executive apartment to be completed.

By lunchtime, each area on all three levels was clean and tidy, and we discussed what else needed to be done as we sat down to eat in the staff quarters. When Nathan received a text, he jumped out of his chair and headed for the door, “ Charles and Scott are downstairs, wanting to be let in,” he said as he dashed out of the room, returning a few minutes later, with the other two friends, who had brought their lunch with them.

“Ok, so what is this urgent meeting that we have to attend?” Charles asked, looking a little annoyed, and I glanced at Nathan for a moment, because of Charles’s tone of voice, and I saw Nathan quickly send a text message, no doubt to Mr Grantley, and moments later he received a text message, and Nathan dialled a number on his phone.

“Well? We are all very busy people, and I only have less than 90 minutes before I have to return to work,” Charles asked me, “Ok, let me put this question to you all. In the past say last few months, have you been getting questions from your parents, quizzing you on what we do here at the Sanctuary?” I asked.

“Err, yes they have in fact,” Scott replied, “Now that you mention it, yes, they have been, and it is hard not to say no to my parents,” Charles replied, as Nathan pushed his phone against his outside leg, to muffle the sound of Mr Grantley chuckling, which neither Charles or Scott heard.

“It appears that we have some supporters for our project, in the way of four sets of parents, who are so supportive of our project, that they are willing to provide ongoing financial support, to cover operational costs,” I announced. “Parents, as in our parents?” Charles asked sounding very shocked at this news.

“That is correct son, and we will be coming to inspect the facilities at 7 pm tonight,” Mr Grantley said over the phone, which Nathan now had held out so everyone could hear. “Holy cow, no wonder the need for an urgent meeting,” Scott said, sounding just as surprised.

“If we are happy with what we see, and with agreement from you all, we will become the board of trustees for the Sanctuary, and provide funding for $20,000 a quarter to keep it running,” Mr Grantley stated. “We just volunteer to help here, I think it is up to Hunter, on whether he accepts the proposal or not, he is the legal owner of this property,” Charles said.

“That is true, but we propose to put the property into a trust, that will protect the ownership of the land and the project, but you will have more information on that this evening. We will see you then, goodbye,” Mr Grantley said before ending the call.

“I say again, holy cow,” Scott said after a few moments of silence in the room, and Nathan and I chuckled at this reaction from Scott. “I second that statement,” Charles said, and we all joined in with laughing. “Ok, so what now boss?” Charles asked me.

“Well, Nathan and I only found out about this development earlier this morning, and we have been busy tidying up ever since, and we are pretty much done with that, but we discovered something today, that we need to put you guys into the loop,” I replied.

“Ok, so what is this ground moving discovery? Let’s see it,” Charles said and Nathan burst out laughing, which brought frowns from Charles and Scott, while I just smiled. “Ground moving, excellent statement Charles. Son, if you would kindly lead the way, gentlemen, if would please follow Jonah,” I said, and we all stood up and followed Jonah out the door of the staff quarters and down the stairs to the ground floor and beyond.

“What the… where did this suddenly appear from?” Scott said when he saw Jonah descending below the ground floor, and he followed, as did Charles, Nathan and I. Once in the rear entry foyer, the shocked look of surprised, was obvious from Charles and Scott. “It appears that the previous owners, had similar ideas for this building, as you are about to discover,” I said, as I lead the way through the side door, into the other hallway.

I opened the door and lead everyone into the music room, to see the baby grand piano. “Holy cow!” Charles said, beating Scott to the statement, “Hey that is my saying, not yours,” Scott said, which had all of us laughing. This side of the lower level has two very large rooms, this music room, and three small rooms, while on the other side of the building, it is an identical layout, except there is a library, with bookshelves and books,” I announced.

“So we now have education facilities, that just needs some furniture, whiteboards and school books, and we are all set up down here,” Nathan said, “Yes, but we still need to get the extra bedrooms to build on the first floor, and have them furnished as twin rooms, plus get furniture for the living areas on that level, and get the executive apartment completed” I said.

“Quite a lot to do, but hopefully with this financial support, we can now get moving a lot faster” Charles commented, “Yes, we just have to wait and see what our parents have to say,” I replied.

“Should we include the other two into this new development?” Scott asked, referring to Brent and Kurt. “Let’s hold off on that for now, and maybe when they come to help next weekend, we will know a bit more on how the trustees want things to run,” I responded.

Once back on the ground floor, Charles and Scott agreed to be back at 6.30 pm, to be here when the trustees arrive at 7 pm, before they left, to return to work. Right, let’s keep cleaning up, downstairs, so it is reasonably tidy when our guests arrive tonight,” I suggested, and we headed back down to the lower ground floor.

By late afternoon, we had all of the rooms in a reasonable state of tidiness, with the exception of all the books needing to be removed and dusted and catalogued, before being returned to the shelves after they have been cleaned, which would be a large task to do.

While Jonah was checking on the chooks again, Nathan and I made sure that the trees and veggies are being watered by the automatic watering system, before retreating to the staff quarters for the rest of the afternoon, to watch a movie on the big screen television.

Nathan cooked us a wonderful gourmet early dinner, so we had finished eating by 6.30 when Scott and Charles are due to arrive. The meeting with the trustees, went very well, and I was agreeable to their suggestion of it being set up as a trust, and the conditions that they recommended were fairly reasonable.

When it came to the question of security of the property and the resident’s safety, Nathan and I chuckled at this, which caught the trustees a bit by surprise. “Is there something that you are not telling us, in regards to this serious matter of safety and security?” Charles’s father asked us in a serious tone.

“No sir, not at all, we actually have a plan to be able to secure that issue, but it is currently under very strict need to know basis. Before any homeless young people are permitted to enter the facility, we will have completed the last of our projects here, which will guarantee personal safety and security to all who are in here.

Because of that, we cannot tell you any more than that, so as to reduce the risk of a breach of the planned security measures that we will be putting into place,” I said to Mr Grantley.

“Hmm, well that sounds all good but surely some of us on the board should know what these security measures are?” Mr Grantley stated.

“I am sorry sir, but no, to ensure that we have a totally secure and safe place for these people to stay, we cannot reveal what exactly these security plans are,” I answered.

“Very well, as long as it is all legal, I guess we can let that slide for now, but if it becomes an issue with the police or any government department, then we will have to be notified of these security procedures that you will have in place,” Mr Grantley said.

After a tour of the three levels, of the warehouse, the trustees were impressed with what we had done so far. “EWhere do those satoiars going down go to?” I was asked by Charles’s father, when we gathered on the ground floor.

“That sir is a new discovery, until a few days ago, we had no idea that it existed, and it is nearly a full size level again, with a music room, library, four study rooms, and four large rooms, which we can use for education classes, btu we are still in the process of cleaning it all up down there,” I replied.

“I see, well when you have finished cleaning it up, we would like to have a look at it,” Mr Grantley replied, “Yes sir, that won’t be a problem,” I replied smiling. Once the trustees had left to return to their homes, and the external doros were locked again, Charles turned to Nathan and I.

“Ok guys, what the hell is this about a lower level, and why didn’t you tell us about it earlier?” Charles asked us. “For just the same reason we gave the trustees, we are still cleaning it up, although most of it has been completed, the library has not been completely cleaned yet,” Nathan replied.

What are theses special security measures that you have planned to keep this place secured?” Scott asked, “Well, that also has a little to do with the lower level, but we will need to show you instead of just telling you about it, but first, I want to show your something that we discovered in the hosue next door,” I replied.

Exiting the warehouse, we locked the door behind us, and walked down the street, and around to the street, that the house faces, and we walked up the driveway of the house which looks to be abandoned and empty. Using one of just two keys for the back door, as the front door now has two bolt locks on it, to prevent entry from the front, we entered the laundry, and walked through to the kitchen of the house.

“Ok, so what is it that you want to show us about this house, we have been here plenty of times, and nothing seems to be different, apart from it been clean and tidy, and very empty” Scott stated. “True that it is clean and empty, but thanks to my cleaver son here, we have discovered something special about this house.

You recall us mentioning special security measures for the warehouse complex, well this has a key role in that, if you will please follow Jonah into the pantry,” I responded, and Jonah walked into the pantry and unlocked the catch on the hidden door and walked in, with Scott and Charles looking stunned at where he had disappeared to, before following him in and down the stairs.

I was the last to enter, and I closed the shelving and the door behind me,, double checking that it was locked before descending down the stairs to the cellar.

“Ok, so you have a hidden cellar, so what is so great about that?” Charles asked me, once we were all in the cellar, and both Nathan and I chuckled, which Jonah just laughed out loud. “If you will do the honours please son,” I said to Jonah, who walked up to the hidden door, unlocked it and walked into the passageway, flicking on the lights as he did.

“Holy… get a look at this Charles,” Scott said when he looked inside, and then began to follow my son, down the passageway.