Desert Vets - 7. DV Ch 7 - Changes in the Air

After putting on my headset, I scanned all of the instruments to see what information that I needed to know, and realised that there was a heck of a lot more instruments that I am used to. “I know, there seems to be a lot of information in front of you, but just keep an eye on all of the key instruments, and that is all we need to worry about,” the first officer said to me smiling, and I gave a nod of understanding.

I seemed like that I had only just taken a seat, when we started to make our decent to arrive at Kununurra, but it was just over forty minutes now, since taking on the role of emergency second pilot, the Captain had made a brief appearance, before dashing back to the lavatory, with what we guessed was food poisoning of some kind.

“QF8651 to Kununurra Air Traffic Control, approaching from the west, requesting clearance for landing over,” I said into the radio mic, after the first officer suggested that I make the call for clearance to land. “QF851, you are cleared to land on Runway 12, winds are mild, gusting at 12 knots from the south west, over,” came a reply and I smiled as I recognised the voice of the traffic controller.

“Wait for it…” I said to the first officer, “QF8651, is that you Jexon, over?” the Air Traffic Controller asked, and I laughed, “That is correct over, just filling in while the Captain is feeling a little ill, nothing serious, over,” I replied into the mic, as I glanced over at the first officer, who was smiling.

“Sounds like they know you well up this way, Mr Kendrik,” he said to me. “Yes, you could say that, I own a Bi plane, which is used to fly a lot before I graduated from University with my two degrees, and I am also part owner of the WW2 airbase down near Marble Bar,” I replied, before we began landing procedures, which is so much more complicated that in the Beechcraft or the other two planes that I own.

Once on the ground and parked near the air terminal, an ambulance arrived to take the Captain to hospital, and I asked the steward to let my Mum know that I would meet her in the Terminal once all the passengers have disembarked, and everything is completed in the cockpit.

When I entered the terminal via the crew door, I was greeted by two official looking people. “Mr Kendrik, if you would please follow us to the Admin centre,” one of the men said to me, and I looked over to the First officer, who smiled and nodded his head for me to follow them.

“Mr Kendrik, please take a seat, I am Max Guildford, WA Regional Manager for the airline, and I happen to be in town and monitoring the situation on your flight. Firstly, I want to thankyou for taking over as second chair while the Captain was ill during the last hour of the flight, we are lucky to have an experience pilot like yourself there to be able to assist us.

We are aware that you have just been released from hospital, and I am presuming you are probably starting to feel the affects of been in the cockpit right about now, so we won’t keep you too long. We just want to ask you a few questions…” the regional manager said to me, as we took a seat in a conference room.

When I left the meeting, I was a little shocked, that the company had offered to pay for my training to become a commercial pilot in medium size jet aircraft, namely the plane that I had just flew with a job offer afterwards once training is completed.

I has informed the men in the meeting that I would seriously consider the offer, but I would need time to fully recover from my time in hospital, as I was now feeling very drained of energy from all of today’s events. Once I found a very worried looking Mum waiting for me in the main lobby of the airport, we headed over to the Vet hospital, along with our luggage.

“Boss! You’re here, we didn’t think you would be coming, after not seeing you soon after the plane landed, thought maybe you would be catching a later flight. Hello Mrs K, it is good to see you again,” Auggie said to me as we walked into the reception area of the practice.

“Hello Auggie, thanks its nice to see you and to get to see inside the famous veterinary hospital that I have been hearing all about,” Mum replied, “Speaking of famous, we have been asked to do a feature about our veterinary hospital to be called, Outback Veterinary Practice, which could turn into a TV series.

A bit like Dr Harry and Bondi Vet,” Marcus said after exiting the hallway from number three consult room, and he gave me a big kiss before hugging Mum, and whispering something to her. I saw Mum shake her head no, then Marcus looked at me and frowned, and I chuckled. “I was behaving myself. It wasn’t my fault that I had to be second chair for the last part of the trip,” I exclaimed, guessing that it was a question about me.

“Oh, now this sounds interesting, you were second chair on that big Airnorth jet aircraft?” Marcus asked and I nodded my head yes, “That is why I was late getting here, as I had a meeting with the Airnorth Regional Manager, asking me to consider an offer to do the full training to fly the bigger aircraft and a job offer,” I explained.

“Wow, now I didn’t expect anything like that. By the way, you are both booked into the resort for the night, get some rest dear and I will see you later,” Auggie said, before he turned and called for his next patient and headed down the hallway to his consult room. “Yes, well I had better get back to work or the big boss will tell me off for slacking,” Marcus said giving me a wink, before calling his next patient and heading for Consult room three.

Once I had settled into the suite at the resort, I relaxed and watched a little television, and I doze off to sleep, waking up when Marcus gave me a kiss. “Hello handsome husband of mine,” he said to me smiling. “Hello, what time is it?” I replied, as I realised that it was dark outside.

“It is a little after 7.30, get washed up, we are having dinner with your Mum and Rhodes, in the restaurant, in just over ten minutes,” Marcus said to me, “Oh ok, I will just jump into the shower quickly,” I said as is sat up,” You have already showered!” I stated when I realised that Marcus looked clean and smelled fresh.

“Yes, I had too, I was out at the Quarantine Station, and got covered in cow sh… well you know what, so I had a shower at the Q Station. Hurry up now or we will be late,” Marcus replied, as he helped me to stand and smacked me lightly on the bum as I headed to the bathroom.

“Hey that is spouse abuse,” I said as I entered, “I will give you plenty of spouse abuse later, don’t you worry. Now hurry up,” Marcus replied, and I burst out laughing. Twenty minutes later, we arrived at the restaurant, to find not only Mum and Rhodes at a large table, but also the rest of my siblings.

“Wow, they are all home, hey guys,” I said in shock, as everyone stood and took their turns to give me a hug, then Marcus stepped back and said, “Now,” and suddenly I was mobbed by a family group hug, with me squashed in the middle, and I heard Marcus laughing from somewhere outside of the hug pack.

I hadn’t seen Mary Julia and Wynn for some time now, because they were at boarding school, and all of them had grown quite a bit since then, with Rhodes twin, Mary looking very much like a young lady, as we all took a seat at the table. Over dinner, I learnt that the whole family was staying at the resort, and that tomorrow, we would be looking at a possible new town home for the family.

The next morning after a family breakfast, Marcus headed off to work, as he had a few flights to do today, including a visit to the Quarantine Station and to Timber Creek, while the family piled into two vehicles, with Rhodes driving my vehicle.

“Brother, we actually already have a new home, we just wanted you to come and see it,” Mary announced to me, after we headed towards town, “Turn West at the Highway, then after crossing the Diversion dam, turn left onto Packsaddle Road and follow that for eight kilometres then take another left onto Jabiru Road, follow that for 1.5 kilometres to the end, and the driveway is on the right,” Mary instructed our brother.

“You have any idea where that takes us?” Rhodes asked me, “I have a bit of an idea, but not sure exactly, I think it is on the western riverbank, opposite or close to opposite Elephant Rock by my guess?” I replied. “Very good, very clever brother of mine, you are correct, it overlooks the ranges that includes Elephant Rock, and it is the last farm on the western side of the Ord River, on that road.

Sixty-eight acres in total of mixed orchard and farmland, with cattle yards, sorting and packing shed, machinery shed, storage sheds, an administration building, a two-bedroom cottage, and a four-bedroom, two-bathroom main house, with the main house, cottage and admin, surrounded by a sturdy steel fence, to keep the crocs out, and stop us from getting eaten.

I have already spent a week here, getting some order into the house and cottage, as the families belongings are slowly moved over from the station. Uncle Owen has a housekeeper and enough station staff to help him run the station and look after his children, as Mum wanted all of the immediate family to be a lot closer, even if you and Marcus are living back at the Base, which I must tell you, Mum is not too happy about,” Mary announced.

“Yeah, well the Army has decided to make the base a semi-permanent training base after what has just happened, and Marcus and I have been taking about moving closer to Kununurra too, where too exactly, we haven’t decided just yet. But once I am back at work full time, and when we both get some free time, we will be looking into finding a new place,” I responded.

“That is very good news Jex, I think you spend way too much on fuel just travelling from the base to Kununurra each day,” Rhodes said happily, as we cross over the dam and turned left off the highway. “Well, I didn’t say that we would be living in town exactly, just a lot closer than living out at the base,” I said to my brother.

“Ok, what exactly are you trying to tell us big brother?” Mary asked me, “Well, Marcus and I have invested in a small cattle station actually, just 70 kilometres west north west of Kununurra, on the banks of the King River, and 15 kilometres south-west of Wyndham” I announced.

“What!” Mary screeched, so loudly that Rhodes hit the brakes, and tried to cover his ears, while trying to not run off the road, “What on earth is going on up there, over” Mum’s voice said over the radio, and I looked over my shoulder to the other vehicle, with Mum in the driver’s seat with the rest of the siblings.

“Do you mean Digger’s Rest?” Rhodes asked me, and I smiled and nodded my head yes, which made Rhodes laugh, You do know that Mum was looking at buying that place, but someone beat her too it,” my brother said been chuckles once he has calmed down a little.

“I repeat, what on earth is happening, over?” Mum’s voice said over the radio, and Rhodes picked up the mic, “Sorry Mum, we just discovered who the new owner of Digger’s rest is, over,” my brother said in response. “It took a few moments for Mum to register what her second son meant by that.

“Jexon dear, did you and Marcus by any chance beat me to purchasing that station, over?” Mum asked calmly, and now I was chuckling, before Rhodes handed me the mic to reply. “Yes, Mummy dearest, over” I said, and Rhodes continued driving, to the families new home.

Once there, we entered the main house, which has some familiar old family pieces of furniture in it, and that made me smile, and as we sat down, I explained to Mum and my siblings about the purchase of the station which has a small dirt runway located three kilometres north of the homestead, and that the station would be an ideal home base for Marcus and I.

We would cover the Wyndham practice, and from there and be just a short twenty-minute flight away from the practice base in Kununurra, as well covering Halls Creek and Warmun, as we have decided to relocate Jessica and staff from Warmun down to Marble Bar, where they can run that practice, and surrounding areas like Nullagine, and live at Limestone, since we still own that station.

After a very good look around the new family home, Rhodes drove me back to town, while the family stayed at the house, to do some more unpacking. I stayed in the office for the remainder of the day, just doing paperwork, as the staff made sure that I took it easy and didn’t over exert myself.

When Marcus appeared, he looked a little tired. “Busy day dear?” I asked when I heard him enter and looked up, “yes you could say that, I am looking forward to these new changes that we are taking, so we don’t have to travel so far each day,” Marcus replied.

“Just one more week, then we can start moving over to our new home, it was a bit of a shock when I told the family about our station purchase, Mary screeched, Rhodes hit the brakes, and Mum following was wondering what on earth was happening in my vehicle,” I said to my husband, who laughed loudly.

“Shame I missed all the excitement, did you tell them the other bit about our plans?” Marcus asked.

“No, I think one bit of news is enough for one day, I will wait a few days, before I drop that one on them. By the way, they have a new home out on Jabiru Road, just off Packsaddle Road, over sixty acres, and right on the riverbank too,” I informed Marcus.

“Oh! They are moving into town? Wow, that is a nice surprise, I bet they wanted to be a bit closer to civilisation, now that your siblings are quickly growing up, with two children working full time, and another about to enter university, I’m guessing your Mum wants to be able to keep the family close,” Marcus said.

“Yes, I think she misses Dad terribly, as we all do, and I think she feels that station life is not for her anymore,” I replied. “It will be fun watching the families faces when we tell them what our new home will be and where it will be located,” Marcus said to me, and I laughed, “Yes dear, that is one sight I do not want to miss,” I replied.