Deception - 2. Dec Chapter 2

I met Bryce on my second day of working at the clinic, soon after starting my college course, and we became good friends since then, he soon offered me work on the farm once or twice a week, depending on what time of the year it is. Today was one of those rare days that Jacob and I were working on the same day, and even rarer that Ethan was also home, once I had finished mucking out the stables, Bryce and Jacob appeared, and they suggested that we all go out for a ride on the horses.

I happily accepted the offer, as it was not often that I was given the chance to ride, I had known the basics when I started working on the farm, and now I was a comfortable average rider, and “Sparkles” was my preferred horse, she is gentle 4-year-old, black with lots of white specks, and she never took off in a gallop if she was spooked, she just usually stopped and stepped back a few paces.

Ethan loved “Boss”, he was a tall nutmeg colored 6-year-old, and he loved to gallop at any chance he could, Bryce’s horse is “Muscles” also tall, a 5-year-old pure black in color, and he was a sight to see when in a full gallop, while Jacob’s horse – “Matilda” is a quiet grey, also 5 years old, and she was the smallest of all the horses.

I knew that Bryce had several bridle paths on the property, and I had been mostly on the short one, that covers just the front area of the farm, and is about 1.75 kilometers long, the medium length path I had been on once, and it covered part of the first path and goes through the middle section of the farm, and it is just over 3.25 kilometers long.

Today we were taking the third path, which heads directly towards the western boundary, before heading to the back of the farm, I had been told that it is approximately 6.5 kilometers long. all the paths are usually done at horse walking pace, for everyone’s safety, meaning the short bridle path takes about half an hour, the medium path takes about an hour and the longest path takes two hours.

I was amazed at how different the longer path was from the others, this one being a little more challenging, with small hills a small creek to cross over and it was a lot more staggered, making it harder to go faster than walking pace. After nearly an hour, we stopped at another creek, dismounting, we let the horses take a drink and graze on the surrounding grasses, while we took a short walk around the area.

“This is beautiful country out the back here, and it hasn’t been touched for clearing, just all-naturalwoodland” I commented, and Bryce smiled. “My grandfather wanted this section kept as it is because of its natural beauty, and I agree with him, I don’t even let cattle into this paddock, to keep it natural. We did build a cabin out here, but I haven’t been to it in some time” Bryce replied, and he pointed in the distance, where we could just see the outline of the cabin in the distance.

When we remounted our horses, I was a bit disappointed that we were not going near the cabin, I did spot an overgrown trail that headed in that direction, but we remained on the main path, and just as the sun was getting close to the horizon, we finally arrived back at the stables. Ethan volunteered to help me to wash down and feed the horses, Jacob’s mum had already arrived to take him home, and Bryce had some office work to do.

Once we had washed and brushed the horses, Ethan and I began to prepare the feeds for each of the 4 horses that we rode today, plus the two Clydesdale horses that they owned, named Mickie and Minnie, which I thought was amusing.

Ethan informed me that the cabin out the back of the property was a getaway cabin for Great Grandfather, when Bryce was a boy, to have some peace and quiet from his wife, and it was used for camping trips by Bryce and his father when he was a teenager. By the time we had bedded down the horses, is was dark, “Ethan and Gres, come and get some dinner” Bryce shouted from the front door of the main house.

I wasn’t expected to have dinner with Bryce and Ethan, but I didn’t want to refuse the offer, so I followed Ethan into the house, which I hadn’t been inside before. Half way through dinner, Bryce stopped eating, and looking at it son first he turned to me, “Gres, I am glad you are here, as I have wanted to talk to you for a while” Bryce started, and he looked at Ethan again.

“Ethan has told me he considers you a big brother, which is good as I want to ask you a big favor” Bryce he said to me. I was a bit surprised at what he had said to me so far and had no idea what he was wanting me to do. “In case anything happens to me, I would like you to be Ethan’s guardian, and executor of the estate, until he reaches the age of 21” Bryce said to me and I noticed that Ethan was just as surprised as I was.

“Yes Bryce, I would be honored to do this for you, but I’m sure it will never come to that” I said to him, and we finished our dinner in reasonable silence. After thanking them for their hospitality, I headed back to town and my small apartment, where I had a shower and went to bed early. The following day, I went to work at the vet clinic, and I was kept busy for my usual hours of 9am to 2pm, when I arrived at home, I turned on the television, and there was a documentary programmed on the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea.

I sat and watched the show with interest, as it gave a detailed description of the trail over the very tough Owen Stanley Ranges, and by the end of the programmed, I had decided that I wanted to take the challenge, and I changed into some shorts and t shirt, put on my sneakers and headed out for a short run.

When I returned home, I felt a little tired and sore, but pleased that I was able to achieve a short run, and after a long hot shower, I set my alarm for and early start, so I could go for a walk in the morning, before going to work, before going online to do some research on doing the trek. After a few hours, I had found the best trek company, worked out the cost of the trek, plus the costs of getting to Papua New Guinea.

With the money my mum had left me in savings, plus the small amount that I had saved, then I would have enough for the whole trip, with some to spare. I had managed to save $150 per month for the past two years, so I was happy to have the funds to do the trek whenever I am ready to go. The following day, during my short lunch break, I dashed down to the Post Office to pick up an application form for a passport.

For the rest of the week, I went for a walk in the morning before work, and a run in the afternoon after work, with my work days at the vet clinic being Monday, Thursday and Friday, and my work days at the farm being Tuesday and Wednesday when needed, I kept up my fitness routine for the weekends as well but made it just a walk twice a day.

I decided to keep my plans for a Kokoda trek to myself for now, to concentrate on getting my fitness up to a good level, I had worked out that the best time to attempt the trek is mid-year, so with it now being mid-July, I now had nearly a full year to get prepared, and I am able to save up some more funds for the trip.

Three weeks after my mum’s funeral, I asked Marie to come over to my place to help me sort through my mum’s belongings, on the Saturday afternoon, Marie and Amanda arrived, with a chocolate cake and a bottle of red wine. I had bought several large plastic storage containers for this event, on the lid of one I wrote – “Donation”, the second container I wrote “Keep”, I third container marked “Sell” and on the final container I wrote “Throw Out”.

Over the next few hours, with lots of tears on my part, hugs and plenty of glasses of wine, we managed to get through the task of clearing all my late mum’s clothes and belongings, I didn’t keep too much, just the photos, all the large paintings, a few pieces of jewelry, there was not much to be thrown out, with the other two containers both overflowing.

Next, we sat down in the lounge, and I asked the two ladies to select any items in the Donation container that they would like, as a gift for helping me get through today, and twenty minutes later they had selected several dresses, pieces of jewelry and hand bags.

I went for an extra-long run after the ladies had left, and when I had arrived back home I felt drained out of energy and emotion, I made myself a light dinner, had a hot shower and went to bed early. The next morning, I ignored the early morning wake up call for a morning walk, and eventually got out of bed at about 10am.

After making some breakfast, I spent the rest of the morning reading a book that I had purchased a few days earlier, titled – “Field Guide to the Kokoda Track”, I found the book to be very fascinating and informative, going into detail about the history of the infamous track, which was the battle zone in the 2nd world war between the AIF - Australian Infantry Forces and the Japanese Imperial Forces.

I was so involved in reading the book, that when my stomach growled, and I looked at the time, I was shocked to see that it was after 3pm in the afternoon. I made myself a couple of sandwiches and a glass of juice, before sitting down and continuing reading, when my alarm went off at 5pm, I put the book down, and went for a long run, to try and keep some routine with my exercise.

The following morning as I entered the clinic, Marie called out to me, “Gres, can you come here please” and I took a deep breath and walked down the corridor to her office, where she motioned me to take a seat. “Ok, would you mind telling me what is going on?” she asked, and I wasn’t sure what she meant. “For the past week I have spotted you either jogging in the late afternoon, or walking in the early morning, and I have noticed that you are looking a lot more-trim than what you were” she added.

“Nothing, I just decided to start getting into a regular exercise routine to stay fit, that’s all” I said innocently as possible, she looked at me suspiciously for a few moments, “I don’t believe you, you are up to something, I can feel it, what I am not sure yet” she said with a smile and she motioned for me to leave. The following day at the farm, I received similar scrutiny from Bryce, saying that I looked a lot fitter than usual, and a lot more energetic, I just informed him that I was doing a lot more exercise to keep fit.

As I finished up work for the day on the farm, I asked Bryce if I could do extra days on the farm as a volunteer, and Bryce said he would think about it and let me know. When I arrived at home, I set off on my late afternoon run, I was now able to run a lot further than when I first started, as my fitness level improved. Just as I arrived back home my house phone was ringing, and I took a few deep breaths before answering it.

“Bryce here, just thought I would let you know that I have decided to let you work one full day on Tuesdays, and volunteer half days on Wednesdays and Saturday mornings, how does that sound?” he said as soon as I picked up the phone, “That sounds great thanks boss, will see you in the morning” I replied with a smile.

The next morning with a backpack of spare clothes, a towel and a couple bottles of water, I set off at 6am, for a 15 km run to work, I planned to take it slowly for the first day, walking for fifteen minutes followed by running for 15 minutes, and by doing this I arrived at the farm shortly after 7.30. Using the staff bathroom attached to the stables, I took a quick shower and changed into my work clothes, before starting work about ten minutes early.

I fed the horses, and put rugs on them, before letting them out into the day yards, before I began to muck out the stables, as I finished dumping the last barrow of horse manure, just after 9am I saw Bryce coming out of the main house. “When did you get here, I didn’t hear your car arrive?” Bryce asked me as he approached still looking around to see if he could spot my car, “I started about ten minutes to eight, got here a bit earlier than usual” I replied with a grin.

“I see, so where is your car?” Bryce asked me, as he spotted that all the work had been completed, “I jogged and walked to work today, took me 1 hour 40 minutes” I replied proudly, Bryce grunted and walked into the stables to see if I had done everything, and he walked back out scratching his head. “Well I guess I will have to think of something else for you to do, go and saddle up Muscles and Sparkles, and we will go for a ride” Bryce said as he walked away.