Kit - 8. Kit Chapter 8

Once I had the boys settled into their beds, I relaxed on the lounge and watched a bit of the news, which included an item about the neighbouring property going up in flames, with no one living there at present, as it was about to be renovated before been made available for long term lease, and this had me thinking, that maybe Uncle Mathias would be interested in hearing about this unfortunate event.

The sound of my mobile ringing made me jump, as I considered this, and glancing at the caller ID on the screen, I smiled. “You must be reading my mind Uncle, I was just thinking about giving you a call,” I said when I answered, and Uncle Mathias laughed.

I have just seen a news report that Number 2, next door has burnt down, where you home when it happened?” my uncle asked me. “No, thankfully I was away at Keyway, picking up the boys, and Marcus had left when he learnt that I would be staying in Perth… I miss him already Uncle, I don’t know what to do about that?” I stated, as I started to get a bit upset thinking about it.

“Lets deal with one thing at a time first shall we. As it happens, our family knows who owns the property next door, so once things have settled down there, I will make an offer to purchase the property, and that way you will have more space for the boys,” Uncle Mathias announced.

“Wow, but it would be worth millions, won’t it?” I asked, “Before the fire yes, about $3.5 is my guess, but now with the house destroyed, I would say it would be a lot less now. Have you seen what the damage is like and what about your place?” Uncle Mathias said.

“I don’t know, the Fire Department, say there may be a fair amount of smoke, and they suggest that I stay away for a few days, and let the house air out a bit, we only got back an hour ago, and I have just got the boys settled into their temporary beds at a hotel apartment, opposite Kings Park, in West Perth,” I responded.

“I see, well keep me posted on what is happening, so I can deal with any clean up needed, have you heard from Mrs Grantly?” Uncle Mathias asked me, “No I haven’t, I forgot all about her, she did tell me the yesterday that she lives very close by, so I am guessing she already knows about the fire next door,” I replied.

After a bit more of discussions, we said good night, and after having a shower, I headed to bed, only to be woken up about an hour later, when I felt a young body crawl into bed and snuggle up to me, thank goodness, I had decided to sleep in pyjama’s tonight.

When I woke in the morning, I had all three boys sleeping in my king size bed, and after I climbed out of bed and went to the bathroom, I sat down in the lounge and turned on the television to watch the news. Once all the boys were awake, and had showered and changed we headed to nearby Subiaco, to find some breakfast, and while eating, I made a quick call.

“Hello, Mrs Grantly, I am just checking in to see if you are, ok?” I said when my housekeeper answered the call, “That is kind of you dear. I did get a bit of smoke inhalation, and I am still in hospital until the doctor says I am clear to go home,” Mrs Grantly replied, “What? Why are you hurt?” I asked sounding shocked.

“I am good, really, I just inhaled a bit too much smoke, while I was hosing down the boundary fence of your property, until the fire brigade arrived. They had an ambulance take me to QE2 hospital soon after they arrived,” Mrs Grantly explained.

“That was a little silly of you doing that, your health is more important than a boundary fence and a house. You make sure you get better soon, and don’t worry about us, we are currently staying in a hotel apartment in West Perth, until all the smoke has left the area,” I said to Mrs Grantly.

Over the next few days, I kept the boys busy by going to the Perth Zoo, Kings Park, going on a number of ferry rides, which the younger two really enjoyed, and we even did a full day trip over to Rottnest Island. At first, I struggled to cope with the demands of been responsible for three young boys, but slowly I started to get into a routine.

I spoke to Uncle Mathias a few times on the phone, and he informed me that he had made an offer to purchase the neighbouring property, with the express desire to keep the property as a large lawned and garden area for our current home next door. Uncle Mathias has sent me some photos of the property next door, which he has received from the neighbours, that showed the house pretty much totally destroyed, with just the swimming pool still in place.

Uncle Mathias also informed me that he was coming back to the Southern Hemisphere, having applied for and been granted a transfer to the New Zealand office in Auckland, which I was pleased to hear, as it meant that I wouldn’t have to deal with such a large time difference, when wanting to get it contact with him, especially now, since I had made some enquiries about having Lucas and Trent enrolled into the Anglican Grammar School in the city, which Uncle thought was a great idea.

With the boys enrolled into the Anglican Grammar School in the city, and after a four-day hotel stay, we settled into my home, with the boys having a bedroom each, and sharing the main bathroom, while I enjoyed my new master bedroom suite.

Over the next few weeks, while the boys were attending the school during the day, I was sitting at home watching the careful removal of the ruins of the burn house next door, with the property quickly sold to Uncle Mathias, who kept it in his name.

Once all that remained of, he old house was the main pad and the swimming pool, which had been emptied, thoroughly cleaned and refilled, work began on some changes to the front of the property, firstly the low steel gates at each end. were removed and replaced with a stone wall to fill in the space of the gates, and goes up to 2.25 metres, which is to the top of the pillars, and the fold up door of the front garage, was replaced with two very large steel doors, with internal top and bottom bolt locks.

Other changes included replacing the cast iron fencing on top of the wall, with more stone wall, once the dirt had been dug out from behind it, to make the wall double its original thickness, and goes to the top of each of the pillars, making the wall over two metres above the height of the footpath and main road.

With the repositioning of two trees that were a little two close to the front wall, the three rolling split levels of the ground between the front boundary wall and the wall in front of the swimming pool had some mage earth work done, to make it into two split levels, with angled retaining walls, with the upper level made big enough to accommodate a tennis court, that will include a basketball area too.

The lower level of the front of the property, will have new shrubs and small trees planted, to create a noise and visual screening from the main road, and from what I saw from the plans that were made with the landscaping, it was all going to look great when completed.

In regards to the large concrete pad, that use to be where the house stood, I was informed by Uncle Mathias that he was thinking of a few different options for the space. Since I had a few months to spare before I could enrol into university here in Western Australia, I was able to enrol into TAFE College, to do a Diploma in Applied Business, which would be a good start for Accounting, and following on from the Diploma, for an additional twelve months, I could graduate with a degree in Applied Business.

By the time the third term holidays arrived in late September, my brothers and I had settled in well in our new home and schools, and I was able to have a one week break that matched with my brothers school break, so that we could have a small holiday, with Uncle Mathias suggesting that we all travel to Auckland to spend the week with him in New Zealand.

When I told my brothers where we were going, they were all looking forward to the trip, even young Ryan, who at just four years old was spending four days a week attending a play group and three days at home with me and Mrs Grantly now working for me 5 ½ days per week, and when I told here that she too would be coming with us to New Zealand, she was a little shocked, and when I informed here that this was only a request that she joins us, and that she could have a holiday elsewhere, she decided to take up my offer.

When we arrived in Auckland, Uncle Mathias was there to pick us up and take us to our motel, which is very close to where he lives, with Mrs Grantly having her own room, next door to mine, which has an adjoining door to the boys two-bedroom family suite.

When we sat down for dinner at a hotel near by a few hour later, we were interrupted with a telephone call to my mobile. “Hello… Yes, this is he, who is… oh ok, well that is very good news, I will pass it on to my other brothers… Unfortunately, we are currently in New Zealand for a short holiday, and we will be back in a week,” I said into the phone, with everyone at the table looking at me.

“Yes, thanks again for letting me know, goodbye for now,” I said before ending the call, and sighing, before announcing to everyone that our dad was out of his coma, and it looked like that he would be making a good recovery, but how good would take some time.

After a wonderful weeks holiday on the North Island of New Zealand, we travelled back to Western Australia, and with a few days left of the school holidays, the two older boys just relaxed at home, while I kept an eye on Ryan as he played with his toys most of the time.

The road to recovery for Dad was very long and slow, and in the meantime, Mum had appeared in court and sentenced to twelve years of Jail for her attempted murder charge, and I had officially become my brothers full time guardians, which at first, I had found very difficult to deal with but now a few weeks down the track, I had settled into a routine, and I was not comfortable with my new responsibilities.

Uncle Mathias spoke to me via email and telephone on a regular basis, and I even started to get updated emails from Marcus from Zurich, where he had settled into life as a university student there. Even though I missed having my good mate around for company and to talk too, I knew that my first responsibilities are to my younger brothers, and thankfully with me owning my own home, and having a trust, I was able to handle the work load of a full-time college student and guardian parent, with the assistance of my housekeeper Mrs Grantly.