Holiday Drama - 5. HD Chapter 5

“Cheeky brat. I meant for you to remind me tomorrow when the timing is correct for both of us, not fifteen minutes after I asked you to remind me,” I replied, and Grant just laughed, waved goodnight and headed to bed. When we arrived in Cape Town early the following afternoon, I was starting to get an unsettled stomach, and for a while I was wondering if it was anything that I had eaten, then realised that it was just nervousness about meeting my half-brothers for the first time.

We had enough time to quickly check into our coastal accommodation in Strand and freshen up a little before heading off to the twins' school in the nearby suburb of Raithby, just 12 kilometres from the hotel, and before leaving, Grant announced that he was feeling too tired and wanted to catch up on some sleep, while I was seeing the twins, which I agreed to. The taxi ride to the school only took ten minutes, and I went straight to the administration building. Before I could say anything, a loud voice bellowed, “Mr Fleming, welcome, please follow me to the conference room,” which made me jump in fright a little, before I breathed and smiled as I turned to head in the direction indicated.

After a twenty-minute discussion with the Deputy Headmaster, I had a good understanding of how the twins were coping with the sudden loss of their family, and I was told that they were thrilled to know that they have an older brother to help look after them until they can become independent. When I heard a bell sound, I presumed that it was for the end of class, and a few minutes later, there was a knock on the door, before it opened, and two quite tall teenagers walked in, dropping their backpacks on the ground and rushing towards me, wrapping me in a tight hug before they quietly began to sob.

I returned the hug as I saw the Deputy Headmaster quietly leave the room, and the lads clung onto me for a long time, before finally letting go and stepping back, and wiped away their tears. “Hello, lads, it is good to finally meet you both,” I said to them as I noticed that I was going to have a heck of a time trying to identify them individually, as I looked between them both, until I noticed one of them had a very light sprinkle of freckles on the bridge of his nose, which made me smile a little. “So, guys, which one of you is Jonah and which is Ashton?” I asked, “He is Ashton,” they both said at the same time, pointing to the other, which made me groan in annoyance.

“Actually, he is Jonah, and I am Ashton,” the boy with the freckles said after a short pause, “No, I am Ashton, and he is Jonah,” the other said. “Lads, if you keep that up, I will be leaving you both here, and I will return to Australia, without you,” I threatened… “No, please don’t, we are sorry!” they said at the same time. Taking a guess, I looked directly at the lad with the freckles, “Ashton, would you like to tell me what sports activities you guys do after school and on weekends?” I asked. “H… How did you know that I am Ashton?” he asked, sounding a little shocked, and I chuckled, “I didn’t. all I knew was that I had a 50% chance of getting it right, and you just confirmed it,” I responded, and Jonah gave his twin a soft shove for being tricked.

“Ok, so you have clocked us… We are sorry, it is just something we have done since we were kids. We both like playing soccer and small yacht sailing in the winter and tennis and swimming in the summer,” Jonah replied. “That is good to know that you are both sports motivated. What about sailing? Have you ever tried that? I asked, and both boys nodded their heads yes. “We have. One of our boarding school friend’s, their family owns a 25-metre sailing yacht, and they go sailing on weekends once a month. We have been invited several times for the past few years.

More recently, we have been shown what is involved with sailing a yacht, often assisting with the operations of the sail,” Jonah replied, and Ashton nodded his head in agreement. “Can I ask the purpose of that question?” Ashton asked out of curiosity, and I smiled. As it happens, I too have an interest in sailing, so I hope that as a family we can continue to go sailing,” I responded, without giving any details. “Can we please come back to Australia with you… " We have no one here, except our school friends”, Jonah asked. “That is what I was planning to do; we just have to deal with all the paperwork first,” I replied.

“Are you married? Do you have any kids?” Ashton asked me, which made me smile. My wife, Joanna Margaret, passed away last year from cancer, and I have one son – Grant, who is a year younger than you boys, and he is here in Cape Town with me, just resting at the hotel,” I replied. “Wow, awesome. We have another relative. Where do you live, and what do you do for work?” Jonah asked. “Until a short time after Joanna passed away, we lived in a coastal northern suburb of Adelaide, but we now reside in a regional coastal town called Wallaroo.

I am a consulting computer engineer, so I work from home, so I am available to bring up my son and attend to his needs,” I replied. The twins nodded their heads in understanding, and they asked me what this coastal town is like, and I told them that it is a small town with a population just over 4,00 and is 160 kilometres northwest of Adelaide.

After about half an hour of talking, as I learnt more about my half-brother's life, the boys agreed to join me for dinner at the hotel to meet my son and to talk more about the future. Once back at the hotel, where I found a note from Grant informing me that he was at the hotel's swimming pool, I sat down at the dining table and opened my laptop to work out how to get the twins to join me back in Australia. I discovered that, because I am an Australian citizen, the twins were eligible to move to Australia on a sibling visa, and all I had to do was arrange emergency passports and airline tickets for them.

A few days later, as the weekend arrived, I had arranged for a neighbouring twin suite for the lads to stay for the weekend, so we could get to know them better, and I arranged with the school for them to be transported to the hotel at the end of the school week on Friday afternoon. When the lads arrived at the hotel, I was in the reception area, and having already grabbed their hotel room key, I led them upstairs to the floor where we are staying. Once they had settled in, they knocked on our suite door, and Grant let them in. Over dinner, we told the lads what it was like living in Australia, living in a coastal town in South Australia, where it can get very wet and windy in winter and very dry in the summer.

The following day, after breakfast, after collecting the hire car, we travelled to the lad's home in Durbanville, which was located about fifty kilometres from the hotel. Once I had unlocked the door, the twins went straight inside and went straight to their separate bedrooms, while Grant and I remained in the living room, where I opened some windows to let some fresh air in. About twenty minutes later, “Myles, what should we be packing?” one of the twins asked. “Anything that you want to keep and take to Australia with you, maybe two groups, what to take with us as we travel to Australia, and what will be shipped to us a little later. Everything else is to be either sold or given away,” I replied, just as there was a knock on the door.

I opened the door to find a Christian minister and three other ladies. “Good morning, sir. My name is Reverend Alex Hartwood, and these ladies are from my parish at the local community church. We are here to assist the twins with packing and any needs that they may have during this transition in their lives,” the minister said. Just as the twins appeared. “Hello Reverend Alex, thank you for coming. This is our half-brother Myles from South Australia, and his son Grant… we will be moving to Australia with them, once school is over and we have all this sorted,” the lads said between them.

“It is good to know that you have relatives to support you during this tragic time in your lives, boys. We are thankful to God that he has sent them here to help you. Your late father, stepmother and family attended our church regularly, and we are here to assist in any way. We have packing boxes and helpers to assist where needed,” Reverend Alex said in response. “Thank you, Reverend, that is very kind of you. The twins had just moments ago asked what to pack, and I suggested anything that they want to keep, and put aside anything that can be sold or donated. Mind you, financially I can support the twins through college or university, or whatever they choose to do for their future, so I guess anything like furniture and white goods, etc., can be donated as well,” I replied.

“Let us start with your parents’ and sister’s rooms, so you boys don’t have to worry about anything that is there. Maybe you can select a few items that you want to keep of theirs as a memento,” one of the ladies suggested. Over the next few hours, the visitors kept busy with sorting and packing things up, as well as doing a load of washing, and at some point, extra people with a load of packing boxes arrived to assist.

By lunch time, the majority of the house was packed up, with all the personal belongings of the lads and sister, all boxed up, and loaded onto two trailers, along with most of the household furniture, all of which, it was decided, would be donated via the church. Grant, the twins and I followed the vehicles and trailers to the community church to assist with unloading, and we were surprised to see a large group of people gathered on the grounds with a feast prepared for all of us, which Reverend Alex announced was a special feast for the twins to wish them all the best for the future, and this went on for the rest of the afternoon, which included relocating everything off the trailers and into the storage areas of the church, and a service of fellowship.

By the time we had returned to the hotel on the coast, we were all exhausted from the long and emotional day, and the twins went to their suite and promptly fell asleep, not wanting to worry about dinner after the huge lunchtime feast that they had all eaten. The next morning, the lads arrived at our suite at 7.30 am, asking if we could all go to the community church for the Sunday church service, and after a quick breakfast and changing into our smartest good clothes, we headed north once again to Durbanville, where we were warmly welcomed by everyone that approached us on arrival. This is when we discovered that the twins were members of the church choir and that they had wonderful voices, which was a little bit of a surprise for Grant and me as we heard them sing a solo together.