Country Retreat - 28. Staff Troubles

“Was it Malcolm?” I asked, and Jarrad shook his head no, and I took in a short breath in surprise, that it was Brady that had caused the issues, and I was furious that this was happening to my good friend. I managed to convince Jarad to come out to the lounge room and we sat down and ate our dinners in silence. When he was about halfway through his dinner, Jarrad began sobbing again. “Do you want to go home, I am ok if we leave here, even if it is tonight,” I said to Jarrad, who said or did nothing for a while before he eventually nodded his head yes.

“Right, as soon as we have finished dinner, I will go and take the plates back to the kitchen, and see if I can speak to one of the bosses. Do you want to go tonight or early tomorrow? Either time is ok with me, although we will have to camp out somewhere tonight if we do go tonight,” I said. “Tomorrow will be fine,” Jarrad said, as he pushed away his plate to indicate he couldn’t eat any more.

When I entered the kitchen, all was empty and quiet, which was what I was hoping, as I binned the leftovers and placed the plates in the sink, before heading further into the house. “Hello, anyone home?” I called out. “In the front loungeroom,” Julia called out, where I found her watching a current affairs programme on television, which she immediately muted, as soon as she saw the look on my face.

“What’s the problem? Although I have a good idea what it is about” Julia asked. There was no sign of Travis around, which Julia noticed. “He is in the office catching up on paperwork,” she added as I sighed. “I found Jarrad in the shower with just cold water on and he was crying. I knew right away what it was as we are good close friends, and after a bit of prodding, I managed to get out of him what it was about.

I am here to let you know that both Jarrad and I will be leaving first thing in the morning and heading back to the city. What has happened to Jarrad today is not acceptable to me and seeing my good mate so upset, we decided that it is best that we leave here as soon as possible,” I announced to Julia. “That is a real shame, as we like both of you lads, and you have shown that you can both work long and hard days. I am not going to ask who it was that caused this, but I have a good idea who it is and I won’t stop you from leaving,” Julia said to me.

“Who is leaving?” I heard Travis say as he approached, “Jarrad and I are leaving first thing, tomorrow boss,” I responded when he appeared at the doorway. “Oh!” Travis responded, “You remember what we discussed before dear. Well unfortunately that issue has come and bit us good and proper. I knew we should have interviewed the existing staff before we moved here, so something like this wouldn’t happen,” Julia said to her husband in an annoyed tone,

“Yes dear, I hear you, and we will make sure this won't ever happen again. “Any chance that we can ask you lads to stay for another week? If we keep Brady away from you both?” Travis asked me after responding to his wife. “I am sorry, but I don’t think Jarrad feels safe here any more, and knowing what I have been through with panic attacks, I don’t want that to happen to him way out here,” I responded.

“Yes, I see your point. OK, I will make up your wages and put them into your bank accounts. Make sure you fuel up before leaving, and thank you for what you have done for us up to today. It will be sad to see you leave. Oh, one other thing, will just you be returning in the new year as planned?” Travis asked. “I will have to think about it and get back to you, but I suggest you get replacements just in case,” I replied.

Back at the cottage, I found Jarrad back in his bed, and he was lightly snoring, which I was pleased to see, as I switched off his light and partially closed his door, before I retired to bed, and set my alarm clock for 8 am, so to let Jarrad have a bit of a sleep in. After a late breakfast, having packed up everything before walking over to the homestead, we said goodbye to Linda who was upset that we were leaving early, and Julia, who wished us all the best, before climbing into the vehicle and setting off.

Jarrad was still dozing, as I think he didn’t get much sleep last night, so when we reached the main road, instead of turning left to head south, I turned right to head west-northwest for Carnarvon, which is a 3 ½ hour drive away, and Jarrad dint even notice that we were going the wrong way. Just over an hour later, I smiled when I saw bitumen ahead, which meant we were approaching the small town of Gascoyne Junction.

“Where are we, and why are we heading west?” Jarrad asked when he woke up and I just smiled as I turned off the road, and pulled into the service station. “We are at Gascoyne Junction, I thought that it would be nice to head towards the coast since we both enjoy it so much,” I replied. “That is so true. So we are heading towards Carnarvon?” Jarrad responded. “That we are my friend. Now that we are in a town with phone service, I will book us into some accommodation in Carnarvon, we should be there in just over two hours,” I replied.

After making the phone call, plus stretching my legs for a bit, and buying us both a soft drink, I continued to drive west, with Jarrad now remaining awake and watching the scenery around us, and it didn’t seem that long before we turned onto the North West Coastal Highway, and 12 kilometres later we pulled into the hotel located on the foreshore, where we checked in before heading out to find a restaurant for some lunch and a stroll along the foreshore.

“This is exactly what I needed, thanks for this Oscar,” Jarrad said to me as we walked in silence for some time, “You are welcome, and I think this is a small part of what I owe you for when I was going through tough times over the past couple of years,” I replied, and Jarrad just nodded his head in understanding.

After our walk, we went to check out the Space and Technology Museum and the OTC Station up the hill where the giant satellite dish is located. We were amazed at what we saw there, and well worth the visit. “Where do you want to go from here tomorrow?” I asked Jarrad, and I saw him think about this for a few moments. “Can we go to the moon?” Jarrad asked smiling, and I just laughed.

“It’s a tracking station and not a launching pad, so sorry, I can’t help you out with that one,” I replied, “Drats, oh well, how about we go along the coast southwards, and we can see what we find along the way,” Jarrad said to me, “Sounds good to me buddy since we are in no hurry,” I replied, as we climbed into my vehicle and headed back into town. “Hey, can we check out that camping store please,” Jarrad asked, and I quickly turned into the large car park area at the front of the store.

About 45 minutes later, we left the store with a heap of additional supplies, including snorkelling gear for both of us, two single kayaks, and locking straps, two PFD jackets, an emergency personal location beacon, two camping chairs, and a large ice chest, which we managed to fit into the back of the vehicle, as we headed back to the hotel, where we took turns to shower and change in preparation for dinner.

After a good night’s rest and a bit of a sleep-in, we had a late breakfast before checking out of our room, and we were soon on the main highway heading south. Just over an hour later, we arrived at Wooramel Roadhouse, where I wanted to take a short rest break and have a bit of a walk around. “Are we north or south of Shark Bay?” Jarrad asked me, “You want to go there? We are not that far north of it now actually,” I replied.

“Excellent, I have our next destination request please,” Jarrad said pleadingly, and I chuckled at this method of asking. Twenty minutes later, we turned west onto a gravel road and a few minutes later, Jarrad frowned and looked at me. “Where are we going, this isn’t the way to Shark Bay?” he asked me, “You didn’t say what part of Shark Bay you wanted to visit, so I am going to the closest viewing point which is Gladstone Pier,” I replied.

“What is Gladstone Pier and how far away is it?” Jarrad asked me. “The sign back there said 6.5 kilometres and it is a historical port from the early 1900s, and maybe we can test out our new kayaks,” I answered, and a few minutes later we arrived at our destination. “Wow, this is amazing, look at how clear the water is,” Jarrad said to me excitedly. “We are just here to have a look, we are going down and further around into Shark Bay once we have had a look around here,” I informed Jarrad.

Once back on the highway, we continued south until we reached the junction of Shark Bay Road, where we turned and headed further west and eventually northwest. For an hour, we travelled north with occasional glances of the eastern part of Shark Bay until we stopped at Whale Bone Point Lookout, as this gave us a view of the western part of Shark Bay, and with Jarrad’s stomach rumbling, we decided to stay a while and have some lunch.

Twenty minutes after we left there, we came up to our next point of interest, which was the 26^th Parallel, which we had crossed over on the highway earlier, just south of Gladstone Lookout. A kilometre north of there, we turned left and we soon arrived at the Ocean Park Aquarium, where we got to see stingrays and sharks up close, as well as many more ocean creatures.

Returning to Shark Bay Road, it was just a short ten-minute drive until we arrived in the township of Denham, where I had made a booking to stay two nights in a two-bedroom villa that was only twenty metres from the beach, once we had checked in, we settled into our villa, with my vehicle reverse parked in front, so that we have a full view of the kayaks on top, in case someone decides to try and liberate them from my vehicle.

With it still being the middle of the afternoon, we decided to go for a walk along the beach, so we changed into boardshorts and t-shirts, putting on some sunscreen and a hat, we were ready to go when Jarred let out a yelp as he backed away from the front glass door. “What is it? Are you ok?” I asked concerned.