Another Brother - 2. Bro Ch 2

“Are you ok?” I asked Toby softly in concern, “Yeah, I am fine, just had a sudden pain in the shin,” he replied, before giving George a evil stare, which almost made me laugh out loud. “So are you ok Austin, we have been worried about you, as you never miss school, unless you are seriously ill,” Margaret asked me.

“Yeah, I am fine thanks, I’ve had some family issues to deal with, I am ok now, as I saw Mrs Young enter the canteen and indicated to George to come to see her, and I groaned when I saw this, and all three girls looked at me, and I just smiled.

I watched as I saw George talking to Mrs Young, and he glance over in our direction a few times, as he nodded his head in understanding to what she was telling him, and soon George returned to the table and he sat silently for a few minutes, as the others around us chatted, and he glanced up at me a few times.

When I felt my mobile vibrate in my pocket, I pulled it out, but kept it out of sight from the others, as I glanced at the screen. The text message was from George. “Sorry to hear about your Gran. Are you ok? Do you want to talk later?” the message read, before I pocketed my mobile and looked at George, who now looked very concerned, and I gave him a quick smile and nodded my head to say I was fine.

Later that day, when the school day was finally over, and I was preparing to head home, George caught up to me, and we walked in silence until we reached the bike rack, where we unlocked the bikes and walked out of the school grounds.

Another few minutes of silence passed, as we began to ride away, with George living just a few blocks away from my Gran’s place. “Where are you going to be living now? Will you be, ok?” George asked me in a concerned tone.

This was when I remembered the envelope that the lawyer had given me, and that I had shoved into my coat pocket to look at later, and I stopped my bike and pulled out the envelope, staring at it for a few moments. When George was standing next to me, after realising that I wasn’t riding beside him anymore, I turned the envelope and opened it. The crisp paper inside, looked like it was hand made and I suddenly realised that the script writing, belonged to Gran, and I had a few emotions flash across my face.

“To my dearest grandson Austin, I have and will always be proud of you and love you very much. When it is time for me to go and join my ancestors, I will miss listening to your beautiful piano playing, I have so enjoyed listening to you each day.

The guest cottage that you have made into your music and study studio was your mothers, a gift to her, when she was attending university, so many years ago. It is on a separate property title than the house and the property, it is now yours.

Depending on how old you are when I have gone, you can move into the guest cottage, and I will have arranged for the piano to be relocated to the cottage for you to continue to play, while my prized belonging will be put into storage, and anything else will go to charity.

Your future has been all fully arranged for you, thanks to a family trust, so you will not need to worry about your finances. Take care, my dearest grandson. Remember I will always love you, now and forever. You’re Gran.”

I had tears running down and I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder, and I realised that it was George, “Please, let me help you, no matter what it is, I want to help you,” George said softly, as I put the letter back in the envelope, and put it back my pocket.

“I will be ok… I guess, and to answer your question, I have just discovered in that letter I just read, that I can stay in the guest cottage, at the back of the house, and that I will be looked after. Can you come over to the cottage for a little while please?” I replied.

“Yes mate, that is not a problem, I just have to send a text to my Mum to let her know where I am,” George replied, as he fished out his mobile and quickly typed out a message, and pressed the send button. On our bikes again, we headed to the access lane that runs along the back of the property.

The gate to the laneway was locked with a thick padlock, and I retrieved a key from its hidden spot and unlocked and opened the gate, closing and bolting it shut from the inside after we had stepped in. The 2,024 square metres or half an acre of land that contains the cottage, as a well as an established but overgrown garden, paths, ponds and streams on it.

Apart from the cottage, there was also a garden tool shed made of wood, not the cheap metal that most sheds are made of theses days, and it has a shingled roof on it, and it is in the very back corner of the property.

In the other back corner, is what remains of a large old tree, that had lost most of its main branches in a wild storm many years ago, and now with just it’s two-metre-high main trunk remaining, the tree house that my father had built many years ago, still sits on top, but is well hidden by the camouflaged of the trees few smaller branches.

It had been a few months since I was last up there, when I wanted to be alone, after attending the funeral of my parents, and been separated from my brother. “How about we have a weekend of doing this place up, the garden could do with a bit of attention, and I am sure that we could give the cottage and the tree house a coat of fresh paint,” George commented to me, as I unlocked the door to the cottage, where the baby grand piano now sits in the living area.

“Wow, I didn’t expect to see that down here in the cottage,” George commented, who had seen the piano sit in the main house for many years now. “Yeah, well Gran’s attorney was instructed to have it shifted to down here, before the house is leased out,” I commented.

“You said you Mum used to play the piano, but I never asked, do you play too?” George asked me cautiously, and I let out a long sigh. “You do? Oh wow, what else have you been keeping from your best friend?” George asked me.

“I’m sorry mate, it was just a personal thing, to help me relax and also to entertain Gran,” I replied. “Oh ok… so any chance that I could listen to you playing? … I will guarantee that I will keep this to myself, no one else will ever know,” George asked sounding hopeful.

After some thought, I agreed to let him hear me play, and for the next twenty minutes I played some classical, jazz and even some country music, since that was George’s favourite style of music. “Wow, why do you keep this talent hidden, you are a natural player,” George said to me when I had finished, and I just dropped my head and blushed.

After some discussions, I agreed to let our small group of friends come and help out with tidying up the cottage and the surrounding garden, but we would invite them under the pretext of spending a day just hanging out with me, and I would let them know about Gran’s passing sometime during that day.

Over the next two afternoons after school, George and I cleared some space behind the double gates to the alleyway, so we could have a dumper bin placed there to collect all of the garden waste that we would be gathering on the weekend.

On the Friday afternoon, when we arrived at the cottage, we found a dumper bin in place, courtesy of George’s father, who also donated a heap of outdoor house paint and verandah decking oil, plus all of the brushes, rollers and extra stuff to get the job done.

During lunchtime that day, George and I had invited our small group of friends to come over to my Gran’s cottage on Saturday morning to hang out for the whole day, and they all agreed to come along. George had arranged to sleep over at the cottage for two nights, and with Pizza and soft drinks, we talked and watched movies on the huge big screen television, that used to be in the main house.

When it came to 7.30 am on Saturday morning, George sent and text message to Margaret, Toby, Samantha and Julia, “Good morning, change of plans, meet us at Amber Lane, off Prentis Road, at 8 am, see you there, and wear old clothes as we will be getting dirty, and bring a change of clothes, George.”

We had just finished breakfast, when it was almost 8 am, and George and I walked to the single back gate and I unlocked it and opened it. We only had to wait a few minutes before we saw our friends enter the laneway walking towards us.

“So, what is this? A secret mission, of some kind?” Toby asked, before reaching the gate, and both George and I laughed at this comment, “you could say that my friend, a mission to help out our friend here, who has been having a tough life the last few months,” George answered, as he leaned against the gate post.

“Holy crap, we have entered the African Jungle,” Samantha said as they took their first view of the garden and the cottage. “You mission, should you choose to accept it…” George started to say, quoting a famous action movie, and I just laughed out loud.

Once I had calmed down, and seeing confused looks amongst my friends, I smiled. “Welcome to my home, it may look a mess right now, but in it’s hey days, when my Mum lived here as a young university student, it was a grand retreat,” I commented.

“Yeah, I bet it was, but wow man, this is a real jungle,” Toby commented, “Nothing that a bit of pruning, weeding, and a fresh coat of paint and decking oil can easily fix,” George commented. “Thanks for allowing to be tricked in coming guys, I really do appreciate you all coming,” I added.

“Follow me and we will see what tools there are in the garden shed,” George said, as he led the way over to the far corner, where near the door of the shed, was a large cardboard box, that I had not noticed before, and George opened it up and handed out gardening gloves, and a few tools as well as all the painting gear.

The three girls elected to do the painting of the balustrades, window frames, and veranda posts, plus oiling of the verandahs decks, and George volunteered himself and Toby to do the weeding and pruning, and I decided to help them out too.

Just on 10 am, there was a toot of a car horn from the alleyway, and when I opened the double gates, I saw Georges mum at the wheel of their family car, and I opened the gates fully to let her drive in and park. “Hello Mrs Castalia, what brings you here, this fine day,” I said cheerfully as I opened her door, and she stepped out.

“I’ve come to feed your little army of volunteers, the school notified us of your situation, and we guessed that this day of labour was all part of it,” George’s Mum replied. “What situation, what are you not telling us Austin?” Margaret asked me, with the group all now gathered around me, “I… I’ve just lost…” I started to say and couldn’t seem to finish, and George sighed and looked to his mother.

“What your dear friend to trying to say is that about a week ago, his dear Gran, who was also his Guardian, passed away after suffering a heart attack. George organised this garden busy bee to try and cheer Austin up a bit, as he seems to not want to trust his friends to help him out in his time of need,” George’s mum said to the others.

All of them were shocked at hearing the news, and once again I was close to crying again, and George wrapped his arms around me in a hug, and the others joined in. When I was finally released from the group hug, there was no sign of Mrs Castalia, until I saw movement in the windows of the cottage, and saw here setting up a few plates on the dining table.

“I think we better go inside; Mrs C has prepared a feast for us by the looks of it,” I commented, and I lead the way into the cottage. “Wow this is beautiful, and this is your cottage?” Julia asked me, “Yes, it was originally part of the main property, but when Mum began University, it was made a separate block, with its own rear entry, and apparently Mum and Gran planted all of the trees, shrubs, and creepers that you see outside,” I replied.

“Did your Mum play the piano? And more importantly, do you?” Margaret asked, and I glanced over to George who smiled and gave a short nod. “Well… I can play the Chopsticks,” I replied, as I sat down at the stool, and using just two fingers, I began playing the basic version of the famous tune, before going into the full version, with both hands, and glancing over to George, I could see him smiling broadly.

The others were more shocked than anything, as I continued to play the classical piece, for the whole 4.5 minutes, before switching to some jazz. When I had finished, there was total silence in the room, until George gave me a short applause, and the others looked at him in a confused manner.

“You knew about this?” Toby asked, “Well, only since last night, he’s pretty awesome eh!” George said in response, and I just blushed on hearing this. “This is usually reserved for myself and Gran, so that is why no one knows about it, well apart from Mrs Young, who caught me playing at school the other day, and I don’t want anyone else to know about it, understood?” I said to everyone.

“I would agree to this if I were you, as he is very touchy about this subject,” George commented, and the others including Mrs. C agreed not to say anything to anyone about my hidden talent. After morning tea, we returned to our work, and Mrs. C headed home, informing us she would be back with some lunch for us all.

When she did return, we had completed just over four hours of work on the cottage and surrounding gardens, and it all looked so much better, with what had been achieved so far. I suggested an extended lunch break so that we could all just relax for a while, and everyone was in agreement to this idea.

After lunch, we watched a movie on the big screen television, and we spent two more hours doing a little more to the cottage and the gardens. The two ponds and streams had been emptied and cleaned out, before being refilled with fresh water, with the main filter fully cleaned, it was able to work properly again, and was now providing a scenic small waterfall into the main pond.

Even the garden paths had been cleaned, with overgrown plants pruned away to provide a clear access through the gardens, and once again, it was all beginning to look a lot like the photo of the garden and cottage, as it was when Mum and Gran first planted it.