Springbank - 15. Spring Ch 15

Looking at the photo that Leah had sent me, I had seen him before, but I couldn’t quite remember where from, and I had the screen of the photo on the phone when I sat down at the table for dinner that evening. “Hey, why do you have a photo of Kristian on your phone?” my brother Finn asked me, who always sits next to me at the dining table, “You know this person?” I asked sounding surprised, “I sure do, he is my best mate – Aden’s older brother, he is about a year or two younger than you,” Finn said to me.

I am sorry Mum, but we need to break the dinner rule, I need Finn to call Aden right now, it is very urgent,” I said to our mother, “Very well, just this one time,” Mum replied, and Finn retrieved his phone and dialled a number, before putting it on loudspeaker. “Hey Finn, you have just got me into big trouble for calling me at this time,” came a voice when the call was answered.

“Hello Aden, this is Finn’s older brother Cooper speaking, I asked Finn to call you as it was urgent. You have an older brother I believe?” I said before Finn could respond, “Hey Cooper, yeah I do, his name is Kristian and he is nineteen, but he doesn’t live at home any more. Why do you ask?” Aden said. “Because I have had a guest staying at my little retreat on the family estate near Toodyay for about a month, and my staff have just recently managed to capture a photo of him, and Finn saw the photo on my phone a few minutes ago, and asked why I had a photo of his best friends older brother,” I replied.

I heard gasps in the background and some faint sobbing, which had me a little confused, then some muffled talking “Hello, is this Cooper? This is Charles Battersby speaking,” I heard a new voice say, “Hello sir, I understand that it is your oldest son who has been camping on my property near Toodyay?” I asked, “Yes it is if your brother Finn says it is Kristian’s photo that you have there. He left home suddenly after we learnt some news from him, and we have not been able to locate him. We have been very concerned about his safety since he disappeared,” Mr Battersby said to me.

“Well sir, I can tell you that I have made sure that he has a safe place to stay, and I have staff on the property who have been making sure that he is well-fed,” I replied. “Where is this farm of yours, we need to go and see him?” Mr Battersby asked me, “Well, the property is near Toodyay, but there is a large electronic security gate at the front, so you won't be able to get in, and where he is staying is a fair distance from the front gate. I suggest that I speak to Kristian first and get him to call you when he is ready to do so,” I suggested.

“No, I would like to location of this property now, so we can go and see him, and I will break down the gate if need be to see my son,” Mr Battersby demanded, covering the mouth-piece I looked at my brother, “Have you ever told Aden what our Dad does for work?” I asked him quietly and Finn smiled and nodded his head yes as I heard more demands via the telephone. “When you have quite finished shouting into my ear sir, may I suggest you ask your other son what my father does in the form of work, he will know the answer,” I said to Mr Battersby.

I listened as I heard him ask Aden what Finn’s Dad does for work, and Aden’s reply, “Oh! Well, I guess I should not do that and maybe watch what I say in future,” I heard Mr Battersby say to me, “That would be advisable sir. I will go and speak to Kristian as soon as I am able, which will be a day or two, as our family has been away down South this past weekend, and I have University lectures to attend. I will get Finn to let Aden know what happens when I speak to Kristin later in the week, good evening sir,” I said before ending the call.

Finn burst out laughing, and Mum just smiled. “Very clever way to defuse the situation there, son,” Mum said to me, while I just smiled back and shrugged and we continued to eat dinner. After dinner, once I had finished helping with the cleaning up, I mentioned to Mum that I had no lectures until the afternoon tomorrow, so I could drive up to the Estate for just the morning, to see if I could speak to Kristian, and with that, I headed to my room to get an early nights rest.

The following morning after a quick shower, I headed off in my vehicle for Toodyay, stopping for a quick breakfast on the way, where I arrived on the Estate shortly before 7 am and I sent a quick test to Davies. “On the Estate, just a quick visit to speak to my mystery guest, who is not a mystery anymore, speak to you later about it.” A response soon after said Ok. I decided to approach the Watch Tower quietly, so I parked under a tree a few hundred metres away before walking the rest of the way and quietly entered the locked Watch Tower, where I put the kettle on to make two cups of tea and sat down at the kitchen bench and waited. “Who is there? Reveal yourself, I am armed,” I heard a shakey voice from upstairs.

“I do hope you are not armed Kristian Battersby, or I will not be too pleased,” I replied, “Cooper? Is that you? How do you know my name?” came a response, “Get dressed and come down and we will talk about it over a cuppa,” I replied, and a few moments later I heard him coming down the spiral stairs. “I wasn’t armed with anything, I was just scared someone had broken in,” Kristian said when he appeared. “Good morning,” I said to him as I poured a cup of tea for Kristian and passed it to him.

He took a sip and watched me cautiously, before he put the cup down, “How do you know who I am?” he asked me, “My staff across the river have a telescope and with a mobile phone they were able to take a photo of you standing on the front upper balcony and they sent the pic to me. I had seen your face before, but I couldn’t remember where, until my brother Finn saw the photo during dinner last night, and asked me why I had a photo of his best friend’s older brother Kristian,” I said to replied.

“You are Finn’s older brother? Wow, what a coincidence that is to end up here of all places,” Kristian said, “Yeah well, I inherited the property from my mother’s side of the family, and I come up here most weekends to relax after a hard week of university studies. I had to go away with the family down to near Esperance this past weekend at short notice, that’s why I wasn’t here. I also own the small block of land across the river, which is where the new campgrounds are located,” I explained.

“Ok, well after a family disagreement, I left home and I was doing ok for a while, living on the streets and working part-time to keep myself fed, but then I was assaulted, I lost most of my belongings, and I lost my job, so what I had in my savings account was all I had left to survive on, and that only lasted just over a month. When I saw the newspaper article about the Avon Descent new campground, I thought that may be an ideal location to stay for a while, where I nicked very small amounts of food from the campers, so they wouldn’t notice.

When I saw this building across the river and crawling along the zipline, I managed to get across without getting wet, when I found a window upstairs that wasn’t locked properly, I entered and made myself comfortable in the spare room and I made myself scarce when anyone came to the building, which thankfully wasn’t very often, and I usually camped under the front verandah to stay out of the bad weather when you came to stay,” Kristian said to me.

“How long since you left home?” I asked, “Since the start of September, during the holidays, I have been attending college as well as working part-time, but that all went belly-up when I left home and got mugged,” Kristian replied, “What is it that you were studying at college?” I asked, “I was in my second year and third semester of an apprenticeship to become a Chef,” Kristian replied. “Well, that explains the delicious dinner that you cooked last week, it was magnificent,” I responded, which made Christian smile.

“Your parents are anxious to know that you are safe and well. I spoke to them yesterday, and I assured them that you were currently living in a safe place and being well looked after,” I said to Kristian cautiously, and there was a long period of silence on saying this. “So they are not angry with me? About who I am? Being Gay I mean?” Kristian asked me after a long sigh. “I am not sure, you will have to talk to your folks about that. Your father wanted to know where you are, all he knows is that you are on a farm near Toodyay, and when he said he wanted to drive up here to see you and bust through the gates if need to, I asked your brother to let him know what my Dad does for a living, and that rapidly changed his mind,” I said.

“What is it that he does for a job?” Kristian asked, “He works for the Australian Federal Police with the rank of Inspector,” I replied, and Kristian chuckled at this news, “That would have gone down well,” he said to me, which had me smiling, “Even if he did try to break through the front gate, he wouldn’t be very successful, as it is solid steel, with some very impressive steel artwork,” I informed Kristian, who I could see was thinking about everything I had told him. “I will leave you to think about all of this news, I am heading back to the city, so I will see you on Friday evening,” I said to Kristian.

I was glad that the meeting with my mystery guest had gone well, and I thought about what to do next about his situation, eventually, I decided I needed to concentrate on my studies for the rest of the week, as I entered the outer Eastern Suburbs of Perth and continued West towards home to get my books that I needed for today's afternoon lecture. By the time I arrived home, which was a few hours after the lecture, as I needed to spend some time at the library and also attend a study group, I was fairly tired, and all I wanted to do was sleep.

“I am home, and boy do I need a holi…” I stopped mid-sentence when I saw my folks in the loungeroom with Mr Battersby and I groaned in annoyance, as I kept walking towards my room, where I promptly closed and locked the door, before laying down on my bed. A few minutes later there was a light knock on my bedroom door.

“Not now Mum, I am tired and I have an awful headache, whatever Mr Battersby wants it will have to wait,” I said loud enough for Mum to hear me. “Very well dear, I will pass on the message,” I heard Mum respond, and not long after I heard some loud arguing going on in the direction of the lounge room. I groaned as I retrieved my mobile where I typed out a message and pressed send, “Although he has been staying on my property for a few weeks now, I only met him face to face for the first time today. I told him that his father wanted to speak to him and that I would wait for his response. Since I will not be back on the Estate until Friday night, Mr Battersby will have to wait until after then before he can get a response from his son, That is all I can do.”

I heard more arguing, and then eventually I heard the front door slam shut, and a car roar off in the distance. Dinner was a very quiet event that night, and I was pleased that the subject of my sudden trip to Toodyay was not brought up, I could see from my Dad’s facial expressions that he wanted to talk about it, but the dagger frowns at him from Mum told him to not even try and bring up the subject. After dinner, I did some online searching to see if I could find a suitable home for me to live in that is halfway between the University and the Estate, so I wouldn’t be under the constant supervision of my parents, as I continued this search for the next few days.

I was pleased when I received a call from the real estate agency early on Thursday morning, shortly after I arrived at University Campus, informing me that they may have found the ideal location for me, with the property located on the banks of the Swan River in Brigadoon. I made arrangements to meet so I could inspect the property at lunchtime today, and possibly make an offer right away.

By the end of the day, I had nearly completed another week of studies, and I had just made an offer on a beautiful three-bedroom, one-bathroom settlers cottage on the banks of the river, which is just 29 kilometres from home, 39 kilometres from Uni and just 62 kilometres from the Estate front gate, so it was an ideal location for me, with the offer accepted a few hours later.

Although the cottage was old, it had been updated fairly recently, but the property itself was a little run down and some work would be needed to be done on the boundary fence, which I planned to do some work on it in my spare time over the first few weeks once settlement is completed. The following day, I was not in a good mood, as I had a migraine headache for most of the day, so I decided not to go up to the estate in the afternoon, and I sent a text message to the lads.

“Kurt and Joe, can you please leave a note for Kristian, (my mystery guest) no longer a mystery, to let him know that I will not be up this weekend as I need a few days of total rest… Can you make sure that Leah has topped up the food supplies at the Watch Tower for me, please? Regards Cooper (Boss)”. A few moments later, I received a thumbs-up reply from the lads, and I smiled at this, as I prepared to leave campus and head home to South Perth.

When Mum came and woke me up from my nap to let me know that it was dinner time, she took one look at me and dashed out again, returning a few minutes later with her mobile phone and she was talking to someone, as she entered and shoved a thermometer in my mouth and a cloth covered icepack on my forehead. Mum asked me a few questions, which she relayed to the person on the phone, and when she ended the call, she dialled another much shorter phone number, which had me very worried, when she dialled the same number three times.

Ten minutes later, I was in the back of an ambulance and being rushed to the hospital, with possible Meningitis, which I was not sure how the hell I caught that. After I was poked and prodded and had goodness knows how many tests, it was official, that was what I had, and I was quarantined in a private room to rest and hopefully recover from this disease. I must have slept for most of the days following, as I lost track of the days that I was stuck in the Hospital room on my own.

When I finally received a visit from my mother, she brought with her my backpack with heaps of university assignments for me to complete, along with all the books that I needed, plus my laptop computer, iPad and mobile phone. I was feeling a little better than I did when I was first admitted, and Mum updated me on all the news from home, and from the Estate, ensuring me that Leah was taking good care of Kristian, who still hasn’t spoken to his father yet.

When I asked how long I had been in the hospital, I was shocked to learn that I had been here for nearly two weeks, and depending on the weekly tests that I was getting, would determine when I would be released, but for now I had to just remain where I am. Mum came to visit me every few days, to collect any university work that I had completed and pass it on, as well as letting me know what was happening outside of the hospital where I am currently confined.