Sanctuary from Harm - 16. Sanc Chapter 16

“How many people do you have here?” Mrs Carlmichael asked, “Oh about 35 I think at last count, so we are not far off from full capacity, which is 20 male and 20 female clients,” Nathan said as he approached. “This is my good friend and project deputy, Nathan Porter, and the main man who feeds us all,” I said to the magistrate.

“I get a lot of support from the house staff, so it isn’t just me,” Nathan responded. “Hunter, you mentioned that your senior staff and family live in the second building, what do you mean by that?” Mrs Carlmichael asked me. “Well this project all started after my son went missing and my ex-wife neglected to inform me until a week later, when she started to get worried. Luckily my son managed to find a phone and call me, and he has been with me ever since.

I am also a foster father of two boys, brothers who were caught in a bad storm a few months back, with the younger boy suffering from pneumonia, from being on the streets, and I have been caring for them ever since,” I explained. “You see aunty, as you know my Dad is on the Board of Trustees that oversees and finances this facility, even thou the land and buildings are owned by Hunter.

Apart from my parents, there is also Hunter, Scott and Nathan’s parents on that Board of Trustees, so we are watched closely, and after Jonah was returned to his father, Hunter’s parents were very happy that their son was now looking after their only grandson, and are now able to see a lot more of Jonah, since he has been here. Jonah attends the school classes alongside the clients, and he is also responsible for looking after the chooks, that give us a plentiful supply of eggs each day,” Charles explained.

After dinner, Ezekias and Toby arrived at our senior staff table. “Mrs Carlmichael, these two lads are our success stories. They are the oldest clients, and are past school age, so they take on a youth leadership role here, assisting with sports and recreation activities, and generally supervising the younger clients.

They are also part of a team that prepares incoming young people before they arrive here, spending up to 4 to 6 nights on the streets, socialising with the street kids, and locating the ones who are most at risk, and putting them on the list of new clients to enter the project,” I explained.

“I see, that must be quite a challenge for you both?” Mrs Carlmichael said to the lads, “It is and rewarding also, but we also have Scott or Nathan with us, and if female clients are on the list, then we have one of the female staff with us too, and they take action when they see we cannot deal with a tricky situation,” Ezekias responded.

After Mrs Carlmichael had been given a full tour of the facilities, she thanked us for been allowed to see what we do here, as we guided her to the entrance, back at the house. What happens when the board wants to come over for an inspection, do they just arrive?” Mrs Carlmichael asked.

“No ma’am, only the four senior staff have the access keys and codes to enter and exit this facility, so they need to contact us ahead of arriving so they can be escorted in and out again, like you have been this evening,” I replied, as we entered the kitchen, and headed for the small lounge to exit the building.

Restoration work started right away, once all the fire rubble had been removed from the third warehouse, where it was decided to put in an underground passageway to link it up with the main warehouse. The roof structure was strengthened before the Perspex sheeting went on, and at the same time the artificial turf was pulled up from the main warehouse and moved over to the third warehouse, using a lot of manpower to get it through to the atrium, and opening up the room to allow for a crane to lift the rolls of turf from one building to the other.

Once the turf was out, the staff were also busy with relocating the administration over to where the tennis court used to be, and eventually the open lounge would become bigger. While this was happening, all of that side of the warehouse on the ground floor was restricted to staff only, to keep everyone safe from all the building works happening.

After nearly a month of work had been done, the staff had to put it on hold, as the first of the clients are being prepared for departure from the facility. With the two oldest remaining as youth leaders, this meant that only two from the first intake would be leaving.

Both boys had been found suitable foster parents, with plans to adopt them, and they would be enrolled into good schools to keep up with their education. It was very sad in a way to watch them leave us, Ezekias and Nathan took them down to the front building, shortly after dinner time, and drove them to their new homes.

Both boys had expressed to the senior staff a number of times when they learnt that their time at the project was coming to an end, that they wanted to stay, but they finally accepted that they would be leaving, having spent time with their new foster parents, at their home, and at a park over the past fortnight, as part of the process of preparing to leave.

A fortnight later we had just about completed all of the building work in the main building, with the relocation of the administration and expansion of the open lounge, in the main building, and the installation of the new tennis courts and basketball court on the lower level of the third warehouse, plus the planting of 52 trees and shrubs into large planter boxes, and laying down nine sections of artificial turf, in different sizes as part of the large parkland on the ground floor of the third warehouse, when it was time for the next group of clients to leave.

It had been harder work to get these boys new homes, while some elected to go to Tafe college to do an apprenticeship, others wanted to finish their high school education. Like the other two boys who left two weeks earlier, they were given the business card, to get in contact with us if they were ever in trouble or needed help in any way, and with this group especially, I was expecting a call or two within the first week of them leaving.

Ezekias reported in on the Friday evening that he had spotted two of the boys back on the streets, as they gathered for an evening meal at the soup kitchen van, which I was a little disappointed about, and I would be contacting the two foster parents on the Monday to find out what happened.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, my telephone rang, with an unlisted number, which I reluctantly answered. “Hello Hunter, this is Mrs Carlmichael speaking, sorry to call you at this ungodly hour, I am the magistrate on call the watch house, and one of your clients has just come before me, for burglary.

The police stated that all they found on him was a business card which had the Words Discovery Project and a phone number, I asked the officer for the card and suspended the hearing until I had called you,” the familiar voice said to me. “That is fine ma’am, I was half expecting to get a call sometime soon, as another 8 boys left us just a few days ago. Which one is it that you have there?” I replied.

“It is young Liam, he says he is innocent, but his foster parents don’t believe him,” Mrs Carlmichael replied, “Oh, now that was one, I was not expecting to hear from, he is one of our first boys to enter the facility and the youngest at the time, and left us over a fortnight ago. Can I come over and see him please, and maybe you and I can come up with a solution once we have all the facts on what has happened,” I asked.

“Yes that will be fine, I am always looking for alternate ways to keep the lads out of detention, especially now that I know about your project, I will let the front office of the watch house know you are on your way in, see you soon, bye,” Mrs Carlmichael said. “Who was that on the phone dad?” Jonah asked when I stepped out of my room and into the lounge of the apartment, which made me jump in fright.

“You should be in bed and asleep Mr, but now that you are up, go and get your dressing gown on, and go and wake up Uncle Nat, and ask him to come over, then back to bed for you, as you still have school in the morning,” I replied, after my heart had slowed down a little.

While Jonah went to get Nathan, I went and dressed ready to go out, and I re-entered the lounge when Nathan arrived. “What’s up, Jonah said you have just received a phone call,” Nathan said to me, who hadn’t bothered to dress, just put a coat over the top of his pyjamas.

“Jonah, off to bed now please,” I said to my son, and I waited for his bedroom door to close before answering Nathan’s question. “Can you crash on the lounge for a few hours, I have to go out. I had a call from our friendly neighbourhood magistrate, who is on call duty at the watch house. One of our original boys is there, so I have to go and see what is wrong,” I replied, as Nathan chuckled.

“I will tell her what you called her, when I see her next, and sure not a problem. Is it Liam?” Nathan asked. “Yes, good guess, I shouldn’t be too long. See you in the morning,” I answered before heading out of the apartment and down the stairs. Less than half an hour later I arrived at the watch house, which is manned 24 hours, and I informed the officer at the front counter my name and that Magistrate Carlmichael is expecting me.

I was led to an interview room and told to wait there, and about twenty minutes later, Mrs Carlmichael finally arrived. “Sorry to keep you waiting, it has been a busy night. I have Liam placed in an isolation cell, away from the other detainees, and I have just checked on him and he is asleep at the moment, as he has been crying a fair amount of the time he has been here, so we haven’t been able to get much out of him, apart from what I told you earlier,” Mrs Carlmichael said to me.

A few minutes later, we arrived at the cell where Liam is being held, and the sound of the door opening woke him up, and he rubbed his eyes to wake up properly. When he saw me at the doorway he jumped up and rushed towards me, and gave me a big hug, before bursting into tears again, as I lead him back to the bed to sit down.

Mrs Carlmichael and the police officer remained at the doorway while we sat down. “Can you please try and calm down a little and tell me what this is all about?” I asked calmly, and once he had stopped crying and wiped away some tears, he looked at me then down at the ground.

“I was at home, at my foster parent’s place, my foster father was away at work and my foster mother is a heavy sleeper, so when the doorbells rang at a bit after 9 pm, I went to answer it. As I unlocked the door, it was pushed open, forcing me to the ground, and I soon had two older teenagers or young men, I am not sure which holding me down, while a few others started ransacking the lounge room, and picking up some items and placing them in a large bag.

When my foster mother finally awoke from all the noise, the intruders scattered. I was punched and kicked a few times and told that if I say anything, that I will receive a lot worse, and they sprinted out. I tried to chase after them, but they disappeared into the darkness, and so I stopped by the front yard gate, before coming back to the house,” Liam explained.

“Can you show me where they punched and kicked you please Liam?” I asked gently, and reluctantly he lifted up his shirt, to reveal some developing bruises that covered a lot of his left side and some minor bruising on his stomach. “Did you bother to check if he had any injuries?” Mrs Carlmichael demanded of the police officer.

“No ma’am, we thought he was just being difficult?” came the response, “Stay with Liam please Hunter, the senior constable and I have to go and visit his superior on duty,” Mrs Carlmichael said to me, and they left without locking the cell door. “Lay down and rest for a while, I want the magistrate to hear what else you have to say,” I said to Liam, who nodded his head and lay down, and was soon fast asleep, so I stood up and waited by the door for Mrs Carlmichael to return.

“I am dismissing all charges, and I have arranged for Liam to be taken to the children’s hospital to have those injuries looked at,” Mrs Carlmichael announced when she arrived back about twenty minutes later. “That is good news, can I travel with Liam to the hospital?” I replied, as Liam woke up again, “Yes and I have made you his temporary Guardian until things can be sorted with him,” Mrs Carlmichael replied.

“Am I going back home with you?” Liam asked softly, “Yes mate, as soon as your injuries have been checked out at the children’s hospital,” I replied, just as a police officer ad two ambulance officers arrived. “Mr Langston, I am Senior Sergeant Isaac Newbury, I wish to apologise for the way that Liam was treated here tonight, and I will be taking steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” the officer said to me.

“Thankyou Officer, I appreciate your response to this unfortunate incident,” I replied politely, as I watched the ambulance officers, assist Liam out of the cell and onto a waiting stretcher in the hallway. “Your honour, allow me to escort you and Mr Langston to the front door,” the police officer said and I nodded my head in understanding.

I followed the ambulance to the hospital, and after parking the car, I headed inside to be with Liam, as I sent a quick text message to Nathan. “Liam has been assaulted before being taken into custody, we are now at the hospital to have the bruises looked at, Mrs Carlmichael has dropped the charges, after seeing his injuries, and hearing Liam’s side of what happened, he will be returning to the project with me.”

It was just before dawn before we finally arrived back at the project, both feeling very tired and worn out as we entered the atrium where Nathan was waiting for us. “Hi, the new security sensors are working well, as it triggered an alert on my phone when you entered the first secure door from the cellar,” Nathan said to me.

“I am glad that we installed that, as it makes me feel a little more secure, especially for such a large place,” I replied. “I have prepared Liam’s old room, so he is close to Ezekias, who I have woken up and told him that Liam was returning” Nathan said to me, as we headed up the stairs, supporting Liam, as he was falling asleep on his legs.

“Morning boss, I can take over from here, looks like you could do with some sleep,” Ezekias said to me when we arrived in the boy’s accommodation area. “Yes, I could, thanks for your help here Seek, it is appreciated,” I replied, as I turned and headed out, and towards the stairs, with Nathan following.

Once we were in the passageway to the second building, I slowed down a little. “Nat with Liam’s situation tonight, I have been thinking, and I have come up with an idea that will be beneficial to boys like Liam and the Frankston brothers,” I began to explain, “Hmm, interesting, continue,” Nathan responded.

“The space that we have not decided on what to do with yet, behind the kitchen and dining area, if we made that into two lots of two-bedroom apartments, that will be slightly smaller than my apartment, but bigger than the staff bedrooms, and ask if any of the staff who are couples, if they would take on fostering the boys.

The Frankston boys are already living in a separate area from Jonah and myself, in the staff apartment, with you, Charles and Scott, so I thought maybe if we build the two apartments, they could be part of a family, and still be part of the project.” I suggested.

“I think it would be very beneficial for all that take it on, and I say yes let’s do it, but who are we going to convince to take on fostering the boys?” Nathan asked me, “Let’s just include it in our next senior staff meeting, first and then to the general staff meeting, and see how it goes from there, but first I need to get some sleep, goodnight,” I suggested, as I opened the apartment door and stepped in.

A few day’s later at the full staff meeting, Nathan and I presented the idea to the staff, and immediately Brent and Kurt said they would be interested in being foster parents to the Frankston brother’s, which was great to hear. “We have been talking about foster parenting for some time now, and with this opportunity opening up, we would like to take the leap,” Kurt said, “and he wants to have a bigger place to live,” Brent added, which has us laughing.

“Well it will be a two-bedroom, two-bathroom family apartment, not quite as big as my apartment, but it will be bigger than what you share at the moment, and it will have a small kitchenette for basic cooking, if you don’t feel like joining the rest of the mob in the main dining room,” I commented.

With no other couples wanting to take on the challenge, I closed the staff meeting, and everyone began to leave, “You know, I am pleased that Kurt and Brent have agreed, but I am a little disappointed that none of the other three couples didn’t want to give it a go,” I commented to Nathan.

“Well not exactly, we just didn’t want to announce it in front of everyone,” Kirsty said from the doorway, with Sam looking over her shoulders and nodding in agreement. “That is wonderful news, so you will take on looking after Liam then?” Nathan replied happily, “Yes, we will take on the challenge, and we look forward to having more living space for just ourselves,” Sam replied, with Kirsty being the one to nod in agreement this time.

With all the building work completed over at the third building, including installing a 40 metre underground passageway, which was an all night event, having to close off the street, cut the bitumen road, dig it and all the gravel and dirt underneath and placing large concrete culverts that are designed for water runoff, but are now being used as a 2.5 metre high and diameter passageway, under the road.

Once in place, with the joins made water tight, and a rubber and tar layer placed around them to provide a water barrier, the large trench was filled in, leaving just a small area at each end open, located just two metres from the walls of the two buildings, ready to be connected a little later on.

All completed in just one night, a road repair team arrived at 7 am, to compact the gravel around the filled in excavation, and place a bitumen and blue metal layer on top, and rolling it, till it was level with the rest of the road, which was reopened shortly after 10 am.

The Board of Trustees had made all the arrangements for the roadworks, and paid all the costs for the work, so we didn’t have to worry about that, and now work began on building the two apartments, in the round level of the main building. The Frankston brothers and Liam had been informed of the pending changes and all three were looking forward to having a more family environment to live, but still within the project.

When the underground passageway had been completed linking the entry foyer on the lower level of the main building, with the lower level of the third warehouse, work began with sealing up the main entry door and the loading bay entry of the third warehouse, so there is not other way in except via the main warehouse building.

All the trees and shrubs that had been planted were doing very well in their new environment, and the two water features have been completed and are full of water and fish, and there is an interlinking stream between the ponds, with a footbridge over the stream, and there are plenty of oxygenating plants, reeds and lily’s in the ponds to keep the water healthy for the fish.

We also built and set up twenty nesting boxes of various sizes, and feeding trays for the soon to be introduced birds to the indoor park. A two-way door system had been installed to stop any birds from escaping the park, and after much research, Nathan and Brent, selected a total of sixteen to twenty birds to be introduced to the park.

With Brent being responsible for the upkeep of the park, he was the one who made the final choices, which is to have two pairs of Cockatiels, Finches, Parakeets, African Lovebirds and Budgerigars, and while the park is still restricted to just staff only, the birds were released into their new home, and spent a fair amount of time just flying around, before getting settled into some tree branches.

Apart from the 4 small, 4 medium and one big artificial lawn areas around the park, Brent had also laid a maze of footpaths around the park, to get easy access to most areas. He also installed a water mist system in the ceiling, so as to imitate a subtropical environment, with the misters on a timer to provide for 5 minutes - eight times during daylight hours.

He has also arranged to have a circulation fan installed to push warm air into the building, which in turn brought the humidity up to a suitable level, that is best for the trees, shrubs and the birds. Almost a week after the birds had been introduced to the indoor park, and a few days after Liam had returned to the project, I entered the dining room while lunch was happening on the Sunday afternoon.

“If I may have your attention… residents, I guess that you have been wondering to the two tennis courts, and that the open lounge has been made bigger in its replacement on one side and a staff restricted area on the other side. Today I am happy to announce the official opening of our third building, which on the lower level has the two tennis courts, plus an additional basketball court.

On the ground level there is a very large and open indoor parkland, with artificial lawn, plenty of trees and shrubs, ponds and a stream with fish in them, a maze of footpaths to explore the park, timed water mist and five varieties of twenty birds, that have free access to the whole park.

Once you have completed your lunch and assisted with cleaning up, we will all meet up in the reception area of the education centre, and go as a group to explore this new area,” I announced, which brought a lot of chatter amongst everyone, as they quickly finished their meals.

“Excuse me sir, what sort of birds are there in this park?” one of the older girls asked me after putting up her hand to get my attention, “Good question Leila, it was our horticulturalist who made the selection, we have Finches, African Lovebirds, Parakeets, Cockatiels, and Budgerigars, and they have been in their new home for about a week now,” I replied.

“When we go in, I ask that everyone walks slowly and calmly around the park, there is to be no running on the footpaths, and keep your voices to normal talk level with no shouting,” Nathan added.

The tour of the park went really well, with the clients thrilled to have such a large open area to wonder around and relax, and enjoy the sounds of the birds and the trick of water in the stream, and I expected that a lot of them will spend their leisure time there.

When the building work was completed on the ground level of the main building, the staff and boys moved into their new home, leaving three of the staff rooms on the second floor now vacant, as is the former staff rooms, which I was considering demolishing the rooms, and tuning it into more training workshops and when I mentioned it to Nathan, he totally agreed with the idea, and that is what was the next job to do, with the ever growing Discovery Project.

The End.