Alex & Lang - 3. A & L Chapter 3

We ended up spending over a day extra in Athens, due to bad weather, which the guests did not mind at all, as they were having such a wonderful time. When we arrived in Alexandria, the guests were sad to be leaving and thanked the crew for a totally wonderful holiday, and the Captain decided to have all the restocking done at Alexandria, before going anywhere near the canal.

With the assistance of Wyatt, we were able to learn that the Atkins family had indeed travelled overseas to New Zealand just 24 months ago, when Lang had graduated from Grammar School, and we had been in contact with Lang’s parents, who already knew about his slow return to Australia onboard a luxury motor yacht.

Although his parents had no time for holidays, due to work commitments, they were happy to accept an offer of a free holiday for their twin sons, to join their older brother on the yacht, and they made the arrangements for the boys to fly to Singapore from Perth, where they will spend 8 days sailing to Darwin and a further six days sailing down to Fremantle, which I was discussing with Wyatt and Lang, when a mobile rang.

“I’m sorry Mr Davenport, I just turned it on to check for messages, while we have phone coverage,” Lang said as he retrieved his phone. “Hello Dad, what is up?” we heard him say as he answered his call, and a few moments later he turned to face me directly.

“… oh, I don’t know about that, I would have to speak to the boss, and I am not far from him as we speak,” Lang said, “put it on loud speaker,” I instructed Lang, which he did. “Hello Dr Atkins, this is Alexander Devonport speaking, your son’s boss and I am the owner of the yacht he is on,” I said loud enough to be heard.

“Hello Mr Devonport, I just want to thankyou for allowing my eldest son to experience working on a yacht. I hope he is working hard and behaving himself,” Lang’s Dad said, “Come off it Dad, I am all grown up, enough of all that sh… err stuff please,” Lang said as he blushed for nearly swearing.

“He is, and I am pleased to say that while we had paying guests onboard from Italy to Alexandria, he was very hard working and the guests liked him. I look forward to meeting his younger brothers when they arrive onboard, when we get to Singapore,” I replied.

“Yes, about that, I have a special request from Lang’s two 1^st cousins, who are twins and a year older than him. Ever since Darius and Fraser learnt about Lang coming home onboard a luxury yacht, and working while onboard, they have hounded both their parents and me their Uncle, to try and arrange for them to join the other twins onboard, so I was wondering if there is any chance of the older twins doing a two-week work experience onboard the yacht,” Dr Atkins asked me.

“That would be so awesome, I don’t get to see them much now they have moved to Launceston, but of course it is up to Mr Devonport to decide,” Lang said interrupting, before looking at me and blushing a little bit. I waved Wyatt away to go and do something else, and waited to he had closed the door to the upper deck lounge.

“I will consider it, and get back to you in a day or two, before we passed through the Suez Canal, get your nephews to email me their Resume’s and I will look at them, Lang will text you the email address shortly,” I responded, “Thankyou Mr Devonport, I must go now, I have just been paged, thankyou, and goodbye,” Lang’s father said before the line went dead.

“Lang shrugged his shoulders, that’s my dad, always off in a rush to save another life,” he commented, “you look so cute when you blush like you did, if I may say so,” I said and this made Lang blush even more, which made me chuckle. “Thanks, I think Alex… I mean sir,” Lang responded shyly. I handed him a business card, which had the yacht’s email address on it, and Lang sent a text right away with that information to his father.

There was a beep shortly after, “Got it, I will pass it onto your cousins, Dad,” Lang read out loud, and I nodded. So, what can you tell me about your cousins?” I asked, as I indicated for Lang to take a seat. Over the next twenty minutes, Lang filled me in on all the background information of his twin cousins, about the three of them growing up together, and often called the three musketeers, as they were always together.

Lang informed me that both Darius and Fraser had gone to college, and Darius completed a Certificate IV in Hospitality, as a Pastry Chef, while Fraser completed and Associate Diploma in Paramedical Medicine, and both had been doing very well, until the Global Financial Crisis hit, and they both had their hours dropped with their jobs, and in the meantime, they have been getting additional small part time jobs in anything that they can, including entertainment.

“What exactly do they do in the area of entertainment?” I asked with interest. “Well, they are both very good singers, and they both play the piano, and they have been involved in amateur theatre since they were twelve,” Lang replied.

“Interesting, that could be just what we need for our trip home, some live entertainment, but don’t tell them anything, until I have seen their resume’s and had an online chat with them,” I commented, “Will do sir,” Lance replied, “It is just Alex when we are alone ok, I get enough of the Sir and Mr Devonport from all of the crew, and occasionally from Wyatt,” I commented.

“I heard that… Sir,” Wyatt’s voice said from down the passageway, probably from his cabin, and I rolled my eyes at that, and Lang chuckled. “You and Mr Wyatt get along very well together,” Lang commented.

“Yes, he has known our family since he was a teenager, when he first started working for Sebastian, and he has been my faithful and loyal and over protective assistant for many years now, and I love him as a brother for that,” I commented.

“That is very nice of you to say that sir,” Wyatt said from the doorway, which made us both jump in fright a little, “He also has the habit of sneaking up on me,” I commented, and Wyatt chuckled. “Anything, that I can get you, or Mr Atkins, sir?” Wyatt asked.

“Yes, a pillow so I can throw it at you… and can you let the Chief Stew know that Mr Atkins will be spending the rest of the afternoon keeping me entertained,” I responded, “Sorry we are all out of throw pillows, and yes, I will inform Mr Toby right away,” Wyatt said before disappearing, and Lang laughed.

“You two are really close, to be able to be comfortable enough to throw pillows at each other,” Lang commented, and there was a laugh from down the hallway, from Wyatt, as we heard him going down the stairs to the next level.

“He has a twin brother Xavier, who still works for Sebastian and Lewis, and they live on a remote coastal property just south of Denham in WA,” I commented. “Oh wow, and Mr Sebastian has twin brothers, if I recall?” Lang asked.

“Yes, that is correct. Louis and Joachim, they spend most of their time just enjoying life, which at the moment is in the Mediterranean, but they often come back to Western Australia, as they like the lifestyle there, as well as it been where Sebastian, Lewis and I live,” I replied.

“Does your family have anything to do with that monstrosity of a tower on the foreshore in East Perth?” Lang asked, “Careful what you say next, that is Mr Devonport’s own special project the Perth Eiffel Tower,” Wyatt said from the doorway as he entered carrying a tray of drinks, which he placed on the table and left.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. Mind you it has brought a heck of a lot of tourists to Perth from over east, to just come and see it,” Lang said, “You didn’t offend me, and if you had, you would have known about it quick smart, because when I get mad, which is very rare, I usually swear in German or Italian or a mix of both, which would bring Wyatt here in a heartbeat,” I replied.

“Mental note, don’t piss off the boss,” Lang said, and I burst out laughing, as I saw Wyatt lurking at the doorway, “Yes, or I will have you walk the plank, and that is not the first time that threat has been made,” Wyatt said directly to Lang. “Another mental note, don’t piss off the bosses personal assistant,” Lang said, and Wyatt smiled as he turned and left the room, with me laughing even more.

After I had calmed down a bit, “So who was the first to make that threat of walking the plank?” Lang asked me, and I dropped my head, with my chin to my chest and sighed. “…My father, onboard the Southern Explorer,” I said softly, and there was silence in the room for a long time.

Wyatt entered carrying a single whiskey class, and he handed it to me, and not thinking what it was I took a big gulp, and coughed loudly, “that… that wasn’t whiskey, are you trying to poison me with Russian crap,” I said in Italian to Wyatt, who grabbed the glass from me and dashed out the door, as I continued to cough from the large dose of Vodka that I had just drunk.

Toby entered the room in a rush and came straight to me and knelt down. “I am terribly sorry boss, some idiot has put the wrong labels on the decanters, when they were refilled, and Wyatt had no knowledge of this, he is now quite upset,” Toby explained to me. “Oh shit,” Lang said which caught our attention.

“That idiot may have been me, I was given the task of refilling the decanters, after they had been washed and dried, but I didn’t put the labels back on, as I was called away, to here actually,” Lang said.

“Given the task by whom?’ Toby asked, and Lang looked at Toby, then me and back to Toby, and swallowed. “It was Kent who gave me that task Chief,” Lang replied nervously. “Yes, that would be right, he doesn’t drink alcohol, and has no clue on what is what in the way of spirits,” Toby commented, looking very annoyed.

After recovering from my coughing fit, I took a few deep breaths, “Don’t be too harsh on him, just remind him to do his job and not to do anyone else’s job, unless he has been asked to do so,” I said to Toby. “Yes, sir,” Toby said before leaving the room.

“Now going back to your question, I presume you did hear my faint answer,” I said to Lang, who nodded in the affirmative, “This was way before I came along in search of my father, his cousin Sebastian had bought this huge Expedition ship, that was contracted to provide supplies to all of the remote islands in the Southern Ocean, South Atlantic and the South Pacific Oceans.

Once that was done, the ship spent time at the Falkland Islands, where my father worked on a farm a few months of the year. Anyway; the ship was just a day away from setting sail for South Africa for a resupply and start the next Circumnavigation supply run, when some youths decided to throw cans of paint against the hull of the ship, which was moored at the main jetty.

A comment from one of the crew members, suggested that they get Captain Blue Beard to make the teenagers clean of the mess, and then be made to walk the plank. These teenagers were quickly apprehended, and ended up being a group of young tourists from South Africa.

When it came for them to appear before the Magistrate, Captain Blue Beard, aka the ship’s Captain, with a newly dyed blue beard entered the courtroom and scared the crap out of the teenagers. Once everything was explained to the Magistrate, and the teenagers had calmed down, the Captain suggested that the accused boys serve their sentence onboard the ship working to clean up the mess they made.

He also suggested that they work during their voyage back home onboard the ship, so as not to be a financial burden to the Falklands Community, for their deportation costs, since the ship was heading that way first thing in the morning.

Surprisingly the Magistrate agreed to the recommendation, and that is what happened. The lads spent the next week working on the ship, given a comfortable bunk to sleep in and three good meals, and told not to return to the Falklands ever again, when they arrived in Cape Town,” I explained.

“Wow, well I know now never to piss off any of your family,” Lang said to me, and I just smiled, as I saw Wyatt enter the room, not looking quite upset.

“It is ok my friend, it was not your fault, or Lang’s for that matter, just a mix up of labels that will give me heartburn for the rest of the day, that is all,” I said to Wyatt to reassure him that everything was ok, and he gave me a small smile, as I indicated for him to take a seat.

For the next hour, the three of us discussed the pending arrival of four of Lang’s relatives, twin brothers and twin 1^st cousins. At the age of 14 and 19, they were old enough to be given work, although without paying guests, the work would be mostly menial cleaning, and we discussed the idea of possibly adjusting our route, so as to enjoy some rest time for us all, crew and staff.

Wyatt suggested that instead of going to Mumbai and Singapore; that we go to the Maldives Islands instead, and from there over to Cocos Keeling Islands and Christmas Island, then down the west coast of Australia. “I will check with the Captain, we may have to go to Mumbai for supplies for the last stage of the trip, but from there we can head due south to the Maldives, as you suggest, as long as we stay clear of the East coast of Africa,” I answered.

With these changes, we needed to adjust the plans for when Lang’s family would be joining the yacht, with the only option now being Mumbai, so Lang sent and email to his Dad to explain the change of plans and suggest diverting them to travel to Mumbai, India, unless they can get on a flight to Alexandria, Egypt, within the next two days. Later that evening, as I was preparing for bed, there was a knock on my door, and I called out enter, knowing that it is probably Wyatt.

“Sorry to bother you boss. Lang has just informed me that his brothers and cousins will be on tomorrow nights flight from Perth to Alexandria, via Dubai, leaving Perth at 1020 pm, arriving in Dubai at 0520 am the next day, leaving at 0715 am and arriving in Alexandria at 0915 am local time the day after tomorrow,” Wyatt informed me.