Deception - 16. Dec Chapter 16

As I suggested, they had brought the upper level forward by 2.5 metres, the depth of the building was a metre shorter at 6 metres, and the rooms were made slightly smaller than we had designed, but still a lot larger than standard rooms in a home. The house is divided into three sections on both levels, determined by the three tunnel entries, with the upstairs first section having 2 master suites, with walk in robes, separate bathrooms, and a small entry lounge each, there is also main lounge room.

The second section has 4 guest bedrooms, with two guest bathrooms and extra toilet, plus four store rooms, while the third section is an open two-level area, with a two-metre wide balcony along the full length of the back wall, which is covered with book shelves, and three reading tables are evenly spaced along the front of the balcony’s half wall, that overlooks the open living area below.

On the ground floor, the section below the master suites, has a large office, a conference room and a formal lounge, while the section below the guest bedrooms, has the laundry, kitchen, dining room and the power control room. Under the floor of this section, mostly buried will be a large waste water tank, and biodegradable sewage waste tank.

I like the design very much, as it offered a lot more than we had originally planned, and two spiral staircases at each end of the library balcony, provide access to all areas upstairs. The open living space on the ground floor, was very spacious, and can include recreation space as well. I liked the plans very much and I advised the house designers to go ahead with construction of the house, and I made arrangements to make a deposit. We returned to the hotel and packed our luggage, before making our we made our way to the airport, for the flight home to Port Lincoln.

We just relaxed when we arrived home, having a small dinner and watching a bit of television, but before going to bed, I wanted to speak to Tom about something that I had been thinking of all weekend. “Tom, I’ve been wanting to talk to you about something, but before I do, can you open this little present I have for you” I said as I handed over the plain wrapped item. Tom looked at me suspiciously, before unwrapping the paper to reveal a I Phone 5s mobile phone, identical to the one I have. “Wow, this is awesome, thanks Uncle Gres” Tom said as he learned over and gave me a big hug.

“There is a reason for giving this to you, I have had a serious discussion with Lucas and Samuel, and they have agreed to help me, I have given this to you because I have had some concerns about the increase of child abductions over the past few years, and I want to make sure that you stay safe, so I want you to do a few things for me, I want you to choose two passwords that you will remember easily, one to be reasonable easy and one reasonably hard” I said to Tom who frowned with thought for a moment before he smiled.

“That’s easy Uncle Gres, the first is “Kokoda” and the second one is “Isurava”, why two passwords?” Tom stated, “Well the first one is in case I am injured or unable to pick you up like if I’m in an accident, if someone comes to tell you that they have come to pick you up and take you to the hospital to see me, you will ask for the password.

If they don’t know it or try and tell you they forgot, or something like that, then you must run and get to a safe place, Kokoda will be the password that only four other people will know, that is me, Sam Yeoman, Lucas Patterson and the school headmaster, and they must give you the second password, which will be Myles, your middle name” I said to Tom, “I really hate that as a middle name” Tom commented with a frown and I gave a small laugh.

‘The second password that you chose is more of an emergency code, that only the same four people will know, which is to let me and them know that you are in need of help, I will programme it into your phone, so when you dial *000*, it will send a message to our four mobile phones with the code word Isurava, we will all have the tracking programme on our phones to locate your phone and you, to come and help” I said to Tom.

I spent the next twenty minutes programming the code word into the phone, and sending a text message to the headmaster, to Sam and to Lucas, all who I had spoken to earlier in the day about my plans, before giving the phone back to Tom. The next day we returned to the normal routine of me dropping Tom off at school before going to work, when I collected Tom from school at 3.15pm, the headmaster was waiting with him.

“Hello Mr. Langton, I just wanted to let you know, that your plans for Tom’s safety have come at a rather ideal time, as the school has arranged a school excursion for two-week’s time, Tom has the parent/guardian consent forms with him. I was hoping to ask you if the teachers who will be leading the excursion should be included in your plan?” the headmaster asked.

“Most definitely not, the less people involved the better, even if you are not at school because of illness of away on leave, I don’t want any other people at the school to know” I said sternly, to make sure the headmaster understood. “Very well Mr. Langton, as you wish, have a good afternoon” the headmaster said, and he returned to the main school building.

Once at home, I looked at the information sheet about the excursion, which is a 6-day trip to Coober Pedy, two of those days are spent travelling to and from the remote town, a 9 hour journey each way. I was a bit concerned about Tom going on such a long school journey, “Are you interested in going on this trip?” I asked him, “Yes, I want to see if I can find some opal” Tom said enthusiastically.

The following day, when I finished work at lunch time, I drove north to Louth Bay, where the flat packs of the gazebo, shed and toilet block had arrived, and they had already been loaded onto the barge. I had spoken to Jack earlier in the day, and he had agreed to rearrange his work, so as to come up to Louth Bay, and spend the afternoon helping to get the flat packs up to the top of the island, and near where the buildings will be built.

I had text Tom at lunch time, to let him know of the change of plans, and he said he would make his own way home after school. Jack and his boys were at the barge when I arrived, and we set off towards Louth Island. Once there, we got straight to work, using the bikes and trailers to haul the packs up to the top of the island, Jack and I walked alongside the bike to keep the load steady.

After nearly two hours, we finally had everything at the top, and the packs for the gazebo were opened with Jack and I beginning to put it together, while Amos and Lloyd were busy digging the holes and setting the support poles with concrete. By the end of the day, we had the floor of the gazebo in place and secured to the support poles, and the octagonal walls are now ready to be put together when we return on the weekend.

I arrived home just before dark, and I was surprised to smell food cooking. “Hello Tom, what is that you are cooking?” I asked as I walked into the kitchen, “Hello Uncle Gres, it’s just spaghetti Bolognese, it was all I could think of, with what I found in the freezer, fridge and pantry” Tom replied with a smile. When we sat down to eat soon after, I was pleased that Tom had cooked, as I was quite tired from the busy day, and the food tasted really good.

“I think I will have to get you to cook more often Tom, this is very nice” I said to him with a smile, and after dinner, I asked Tom to go and do his homework, while I cleaned up the kitchen, and afterwards we sat in the lounge to discuss plans for the coming weekend. Shortly after picking up Tom from school the following day, my mobile rang, and it was the home designers in Adelaide, wanting to recommend some changes to the design.

Without revealing that the house was going to be built underground, I said that the changes that they suggested would not be possible, due to the location, they tried to get me to give more information, but I just said that it had to be done the way it is deigned, because of where it will be located, and I left it at that, much to their disapproval. I was told that there would be a further three-week delay for the house to be built as it is originally planned, and although not happy about the delay, I didn’t complain and let them continue.

When Friday arrived, I took Tom to school, and returned home to start packing the vehicle ready for the trip to Louth Island, with all our swags and cooking gear already in the cavern, I went to the local whitegoods store and I was able to find a 150 litre 3-way power fridge, which I purchased and loaded into the back of the vehicle, I also bought some more lights, and a rope ladder, so it is easier to get in and out of the cavern.

I was at the school well before the end of school, and waited till Tom appeared, and we set off for Louth Bay, with Tom changing out of his uniform on the way. Once again Jack and his two sons were at the boat ramp, awaiting our arrival, and once loaded we set off to the island arriving twenty minutes later. With the vehicles offloaded, I noticed Jack starting to set up camp and I smiled, “No need to do that just now, Tom and I have something we would like to show you” said and I grabbed the rope ladder and we set off up the track towards the top.

Confused at what I had said, Jack and his sons followed us, and once at the top we headed south towards the cavern. I stopped as we came up to the main access hole for the central cavern, and secured the rope ladder to the steel pickets, before throwing the roll of ladder down the hole, and Tom led the way by climbing down, with Amos and Lloyd following him, I was next and Jack was the last to make his way down the ladder.

Once we were all down, standing in darkness, Tom lit the lantern to reveal the small hole, with a tunnel heading in one direction, and Tom led the way down the tunnel, with Jack and his boys looking surprised at what they saw, as they followed. Jack and his sons were even more shocked, when we arrived in the main cavern with trees growing in the centre of it.

“What the… wow this is… absolutely incredible” Amos and Lloyd said continuing each other’s interrupted words, and Tom and I just stood near the tunnel entrance, watching Jack and his sons exploring the main cavern, which will soon be their hidden home. Tom and I made our way over to our campsite and waited for them to finish exploring the cavern.

“My word, you have a great hideaway here Gres” Jack said to me, and his boys were nodding their heads in agreement, “Yes it is, and the reason why we are showing you, is that we are having a prefab house being built in Adelaide, and we will need your assistance to put it together, when it is ready” I stated, and Jack’s sons looked stunned at my announcement, and Tom just laughed at their expressions as he began to get the camp fire going.

“Well, I guess we could spare the time to build this house in a cave, do you have any plans we can see?” Jack stated to me, and I pulled out the A3 size copy of the plans from the home designers. Jack looked at the plans carefully and looked around the cave a bit before looking at the plans again.

“Gres, if you are saying this is being built like a flat pack, I don’t think there will be any problems, but we will have to wait and see when it arrives here” Jack said eventually, “That won’t be for about two months, as I had a call the other day, to say there will be a delay, but they don’t know that it is being built inside a cavern” I said to Jack with a smile.

Climbing back up to the top, with Tom staying behind to get set up for the weekend, while we went back down to the beach, to load everything onto the trailers and bikes, including the new fridge and the extra lighting that I had bought a few days earlier. Tom had the existing lights operational by the time we had returned, as we lowered our luggage and the extra supplies down into the cavern.

While we sat down to eat our dinner, we chatted about the two days of work ahead of us, and we worked out what to do, once we got stated in the morning. After cleaning up, we all settled around the fire and just talked socially, before Tom, Amos and Lloyd headed to bed. Jack and I chatted for a bit longer before we too retired for the night. Soon after dawn the next day, we were all up and eating a hearty cooked breakfast before heading up to the top and drove the bikes over to building site.