Country Retreat - 42. Reunion

“Make that three friends, as we have picked up a new friend at Yulara and he has travelled with us since. He is an apprentice Chef, and he cooks excellent meals. His name is Jamison,” I informed Marcus. “I know a guy by the name of Jamison, who is slightly younger and went to the local Grammar school,” Marcus said to me and although surprised at this news I chuckled, “Is his last name Edgar and he lives in Caversham?” I asked, “Wow, it’s the same guy. I went to primary school with him, he is a nice kid, he has an older brother – Lincoln, who is the same age as us,” Marcus said in response.

“Very interesting, so you think he will be ok to be part of our group?” I asked. “Yes, I think he would be useful, especially if he is a good cook,” Marcus replied. “Well, that worked out well, now we know a bit more about him thanks to our mate Marcus,” Giles said after the call ended, we chatted about this until the others returned, and we went to have showers, after telling Jamison not to cook tonight as we would be eating at the local pub tonight.

When we sat down in the pub and ordered our meals and soft drinks, I turned to Jamison. “I believe you have an older brother – Lincoln and that we have a mutual acquaintance,” I said which caught Jamison by surprise. “Yes, how do you know about Lincoln?” he responded, “From our good friend Marcus Gresham, I believe you know him from early schooling times,” I replied.

“Oh, wow. I haven’t spoken to Marcus since… well before he graduated from high school at least,” Jamison said, “Well you will get to see him late tomorrow, as we are catching up with him at a coastal property that he manages for my family,” I announced. “Wow, awesome, it will be good to catch up,” Jamison responded. After a wonderful pub meal, we walked back to the tourist park located just over one block away, where we decided to head to bed early, as we were all very tired.

The following day we continued west on the Great Eastern Highway until we reached the Wheatbelt town of Northam, where we turned North towards the town of Toodyay and from there across to Granville, and to the Indian Ocean Drive, where it was just a short 25-kilometre drive north to the property.

“Where exactly are we going?” Jamison asked as I was about to slow down ready to turn onto the access road to the property. “You will see, very shortly,” Rebecca replied smiling. When we arrived at the gate, I was very surprised to see a large machinery shed located in the same spot as the original shed as Rebecca pressed the remote to open the gate.

“Well, this is all new, I wonder what this is all about?” I stated to no one in particular, as we drove up to it and around to the southern side, which is where the large sliding doors are located, and where one of the doors was slightly open. Stopping, I stepped out to have a closer look, and inside, I saw the truck, front-end loader, and one of the farm Utes.

“If they are here, I wonder what has happened to the space where these were originally housed,” I said and both Giles and Rebecca shrugged their shoulders, not knowing the answer to that question. We continued down the main driveway, and Jamison groaned, “More bloody gravel roads,” he commented which made us laugh, as we drove around to the side of the complex and entered the opened gate.

“What the heck is this?” Jamison said in shock as we entered the tunnel and shortly after we entered the workshop and garage complex, where I parked in front of the pedestrian tunnel. “Welcome to my country retreat. Now before we go any further, you need to understand that this place is highly top secret, so much so that the local council doesn’t even know that it exists. You are now part of a special group who are the only ones that know about this place, which is known as Manakoora. I need you to promise to never reveal this to any person other than those here. Is that fully understood?” I said to Jamison.

“I promise on my honour never to reveal this top-secret bunker or thingy bob, whatever it is,” Jamison said holding his hand up to swear his honour. “Good, now let’s unload this vehicle and get settled, we have a lot to show you Jamison, and we will be here for a few days,” I responded smiling. Marcus appeared from the other tunnel on a quadbike with a trailer already attached, and he parked close to the vehicle.

“Hello boss, do you like the changes that Gramps made?” Marcus said as he pulled up, “I saw the shed and the heavy vehicles inside, what else has changed?” I replied, and Marcus pointed behind me, so I turned around and was shocked to see an extra two pods of accommodation had replaced the large vehicle garages, as well as a flourishing and much larger hydroponic garden along with more fruit trees that all seemed to be thriving in the semi-indoor environment.

“Well, you have done very well for the complex, Thank you for a wonderful job,” I said to Marcus. “Hello Jamison, it has been a while, how are you and Lincoln? I hear you are a very talented chef and have been keeping our friends very well fed,” Marcus said to our newest arrival. “I am good thanks mate, and as far as I know Lincoln is good too,” Jamison replied, stepping forward to shake his hand, and Marcus pulled him into a hug.

“Just to let you know, never do this with Oscar without his permission beforehand. In time he will tell you why but for now avoid very close contact, ok?” Marcus whispered to Jamison, before stepping back and releasing his hand, I watched the interaction from nearby, not quite close enough to hear the conversation, Marcus turned and smiled as he noticed me frowning before he nodded to me, and that is when I realised that he must have given a small bit of information about me about close contact, and I nodded back to my friend and gave a small smile.

“What does your brother do for work or studies?” I asked Jamison, “My older brother is a qualified paramedic and first aid trainer,” he responded. “Wow, I am a qualified paramedic too, but I went on to study nursing, and I do a few shifts every quarter to keep my qualifications in order. Do you have other siblings?” Rebecca responded. “Yes, I have younger twin brothers - Prentis and Zane, they will be 15 years old soon and are a real pain in the butt,” Jamison replied., which made me chuckle.

“I have two younger siblings, Deacon who will be 12 and Amara who will be 10 this year,” I informed Jamison, “Do your family live in the metro area?” he asked, “No, Dad is a farmer and diesel mechanic, and the family farm is two hours north of Midland, and Mum is House bitch,” I replied, and Jamison nodded in understanding, looking slightly shocked at how I described my mother.

Giles and Jamison settled into one of the senior staff pods, while Rebeccas settled into the other one, once they were settled, I suggested that we take Jamison for a tour of the property, which I informed him is a small cattle farm located right near the coast. A few minutes later Rebecca and Giles returned ready for the beach, after quickly disappearing, and the shocked look on Jamison’s face made me laugh.

“Go and get changed, as I said before we are very close to the coast where we are,” I said as I headed to my pod to get changed too. Meanwhile, Giles and Marcus had the trailers loaded up with kayaks, that were hitched to the two quad bikes and were ready to go. As soon as I had changed, I went to have a closer look at the extended hydroponic garden, which was very impressive, as Marcus appeared beside me.

“Do you get an over-supply for fruit and veggies sometimes?” I asked, “Yes, I seem to be doing too good a job with producing plenty of fresh food. If you look up, you will see we have cages of sorts on the roof, and against the wall on both sides are spiral stairs leading up to them. What they are is enclosed Chicken runs, as we now have a total of twelve chooks in each run, so I am getting a plentiful supply of eggs as well, and they have plenty of space to run around at their leisure,” Marcus informed me.

“Won’t they get hot from all the summer heat?” I asked, “No, not at all, there are areas that are covered for full protection and some of it is just shaded, so they still get plenty of sunlight, plus there is an automatic micro spray system that keeps them cool as well,” Marcus replied. After an ocean swim and a paddle on the kayaks, plus a short tour of parts of the property, we returned to the complex, and after I had showered and changed, I headed over to have a closer look at the two chicken runs.

I found them to be very roomy and with plenty of hay for the chooks to scratch around in. An airlock area stops the chooks from escaping into the complex, and within this area, there are two storage sheds to store tools, supplies, and feed for them, plus there are an additional eighteen solar panels on each side of the runs to assist with disguising it. In all, it was well planned out and very impressive. After checking the chooks, I went to inspect the new single pods, which were the same as the others, as expected, just a little newer, and they had not been used yet like all the other guest pods.

“What do you think? Everything ok?” Marcus asked me as I came out of one of the pods and jumped in fright. “Oops, sorry about that boss,” Marcus added when he saw my reaction. “No probs, just stop sneaking around, you are too damn quiet all the time. I am impressed with the chooks setup and the additional solar panels to partly hide them, and the gardens are spectacular, you are a born green thumb mate,” I replied smiling, and Marcus chuckled at this as he held out his thumbs to look at it.

“Nope, no green thumbs here,” he replied, and we both laughed. “By the way, did you get something in the mail from our old school?” Marcus asked me as we walked back to the main complex, “I haven’t been home yet. Why is that?” I answered, “Oh, it might be something to do with our class year’s fifth-anniversary reunion,” Marcus said.