Deception - 20. Dec Chapter 20

“This is the first crate we need, it has the support posts and struts and ground floor flooring for half of the house” Jack said and his boys jumped up and began pulling out the first sections of the house, and slowly we were able to unload the crate and transfer its contents onto the quad bike trailers, and by lunch time we had one crate empty and its contents down in the cavern, and another crate half empty, with its contents near the central hole ready to be lowered down. I could see that it was going to keep us busy all weekend just getting the house down into the cavern.

We stopped for only half an hour for lunch, before we continued the work, and once the second crate was empty and in the cavern a bit over an hour later, Jack called a stop, explaining that the cavern would not hold all the pieces of the house as they are now, and that we needed to start to put the house together, so we can put the furniture and cabinetry in the house to make more room in the cavern.

Once all the support posts and struts were in place, we had to wait for the concrete to fully set, so on the mean-time, we started gathering all the cabinetry and furniture and stacking it closer together in one area of the cavern, so as to create more room. Once that was done, we began to unload the third crate from the barge, and transport it to the central hole, ready to be lowered into the cavern, which was external and internal walls for the ground floor.

The house had been built in a way that it was like a jigsaw that just needed to be put together in the right order, with steel bolts securing each section of the floor together and half of it was completed by the end of the day, giving us the start of an idea how it will look. From what I could see so far, I was very happy, it is a very large house, and I was hoping that it all comes together, without too much problems.

The following morning, we started early, with the strut posts now set hard into place, we continued on with finishing the whole ground floor of the house, with it being half a metre up off the ground, to avoid any flooding, and allow some breathing space between the floor of the cavern and the house. By the late afternoon, we had 75% of the ground floor external walls up, and already it had changed the whole cavern atmosphere, sadly Tom and I had to return home to Port Lincoln, and Jack took us back to our vehicle at Louth Bay, before he returned to the island for a bit more work before dinner.

When Tom and I arrived home just after dark, I was total exhausted, and Tom collapsed onto the lounge and promptly fell asleep, I left him there while I prepared some dinner, and woke Tom when it was time to eat. After dinner, Tom went and had a shower and went straight to bed, and once I had cleaned up, I did the same. The next morning when I woke up Tom, he said he wasn’t feeling very well, so I let him go back to sleep, and I called the school, to let them know that Tom would be absent from school today.

I just relaxed for the morning, doing some reading, and also the laundry from the weekend on the island, an hour before lunch time, Tom made an appearance complaining that he was hungry, so I made some brunch for the both of us, and while I cleaned up, Tom went into the lounge and turned on the television, and found an old movie was on. I soon joined him and nearly 1 ½ hours later the movie came to an end, and I suggested to Tom that he find something else to do besides television.

Tom went out into the rather bare back yard and just wandered around till he stopped at the only tree in the yard, and he sat down leaning his back against it, and he soon fell asleep. As I watched him sleeping, I called Jack to see how things were progressing on the island, and Jack said that he and the boys had completed all of the external and internal walls on the ground floor, and they had moved all the cabinetry and furniture into the house. Jack said that he was planning to get all the other crates unloaded and down into the cavern, and then dismantle the crates, as they could be recycled in some way, he just wasn’t sure how yet.

After Tom had been asleep for nearly an hour, I went out and woke him up, and suggested that he come inside before he got sunburnt. I gave Tom a drink of juice before pouring some for myself, and sat down at the table near Tom. “I was thinking, do you think your friend Jake might like a camping trip with us next weekend, let him in on the secret?” I asked Tom who looked shocked and surprised by my suggestion. “I think that would be awesome, thanks uncle Gres, I think he will be surprised” Tom eventually replied.

“How about we ask him and his parents about the camping trip to near Louth Bay first, and we keep the exact location of the camp site until we arrive at the boat ramp at Louth Bay” I suggested and Tom smiled and nodded his head, ‘That sounds great” he replied and we talked about it a bit more, before we got the scrabble game out, to have some fun for a while. By the end of the day, even with all the sleep, Tom was still fairly tired, so I gave him and early dinner and he went to bed soon after.

The next morning Tom was up on time, and he was back to his normal cheeky self, as he came into the kitchen, dressed in his school uniform ready for some breakfast. When I took him to school, Jake’s mother was there dropping off her son, and I took the opportunity to say hello to her. We had spoken briefly a number of times, and that was all, Amanda is mostly a stay at home mum, working part time at the local library, while her husband - Shamus is a self-employed landscape gardener and plant nursery owner.

After the pleasantries were over, I asked Jakes mum, how she felt if Jake joined Tom and me on a camping trip to near Louth Bay next weekend, I explained to her that Tom and I regularly go camping, usually every second weekend, and that we spent most of the time hiking and exploring new areas. Jake’s mum said that she would talk with her husband and let us know in the next few days. We said goodbye and were about to go our separate ways, when the headmaster came dashing out of the main building, calling to both of us.

“I am so glad to catch you both, can you please spare twenty minutes to attend a special assembly” he said trying to catch his breath, we both agreed, and while walking towards the gymnasium with the headmaster, I made quick call to work, to let them know I would be late coming in because of a school request. When we entered the gymnasium, all the students from years 7 to 12, were seated on the floor, in their class groups, with their teachers seated in chairs nearby.

On the stage, there were a small group of people seated, two of them were police officers, and the headmaster directed us to sit in vacant chairs beside our boy’s teacher, while he walked up to the stage, and the hall fell silent as he approached the microphone. “Students, Teachers and special guests, we are gathered here today to honour two very brave students, as you are all aware, the year 8 students recently went on a school camp to Coober Pedy, and on the return journey, they were unfortunate enough to get caught up in a major jewellery theft.

Thanks to these two boys, all the thieves got away with was a sports bag full of clothes and books, while the estimated $50,000 worth of opal was returned to their rightful owners. I wish to now introduce the Superintendent of Police for the Northern District – Mr Glendenning, and the owner of the Jewellery store in Coober Pedy – Mrs. Angelino” the headmaster announced to the school. “Thank you, Mr Headmaster, I just wanted to thank the two boys concerned with the recovery of my opal, and as a reward, I am presenting to the school a cheque for $5,000, to go towards it’s sports programmes, and to Jake and Thomas, a $100 note each, that I hope they will put into a savings account for the future” the lady said.

“Jake and Thomas, can you come forward please” the Headmaster asked. I was quite surprised by this, as was Jake’s mother who was sitting next to me, as the boys walked up to the stage, where they shook hands with the two guests, before being presented the money, and the headmaster received the cheque. After a few more announcements from the headmaster, the assembly was called to a close, and the students began to file out of the gymnasium. Jake and Tom came up to us, to show us the fresh $100 notes they had just received, and I suggested that we look after the money till after school, and Jakes mum agreed with my suggestion.

After work, I collected Tom from school, and Jake and his mum were waiting to see us. “I spoke to my husband, he is happy for Jake to spend the weekend camping, Jake is to keep his mobile phone with him at all times, will you be in an area with mobile coverage?” Jake’s mum asked me, “Yes, there is good coverage where we are going, as we have been there before, he will need a swag and don’t forget swimming gear, as we will be swimming also” I replied, and we said goodbye and went our separate ways.

At home, Tom put his $100 note in his favorite book – “The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling” to keep it flat and protected and returned the book to its place in the bookshelf, before making himself some afternoon tea. The next two days at work, I was out in the field, with Paul and Margie, collecting research data, on a number of the outer islands in Spencer Gulf, I had arranged for Tom to go to Jake’s place after school, as I would be late home both days, and when I collected Tom on Thursday evening, we were invited to stay for dinner, which I accepted.

During dinner, Tom told the story of how he met me on the Indian Pacific train, and that when his mother fell ill, I became Tom’s temporary guardian and he came hiking for ten days with me and a family friend – Ethan. When asked where we had gone hiking, I answered the question – Kokoda. Which left Jake’s parents speechless, Jake had vaguely heard of the place, but nothing more, “Where is Kokoda Mr Langton?” Jake asked me.

‘Well it is a place in the Owen Stanley Ranges in Papua New Guinea, the Kokoda Trail is famous because it was the place of a battle between the Japanese and Australian forces during World War Two” I said. “The trail is a very tough trek through thick forests, high mountains and wild rivers, it was the toughest, but most exciting and rewarding experience of a lifetime” Tom added with a big smile.

“We will have to show you the photos some time, it was truly an amazing journey, Ethan and I had spent months preparing for the journey, getting physically fit, and getting use to long walks, Tom here only had a week to get prepared, Ethan and I got him into a fitness training schedule as soon as the decision was made that he would be joining us, and like a trouper he did the basic fitness training, and completed the whole trek with us, although there were a couple days when I seriously thought about us pulling out” I said looking at Tom.

“Yes, it was brutal, those mountains we spent nearly every day going up and down, up and down. I remember crawling into our tent and falling asleep straight away, Gres had to keep waking me up each night when dinner was ready, then I would go straight back to bed” Tom said. “Unfortunately, a few weeks after we got back, Tom’s mum passed away, a barrister who was also travelling on the Indian Pacific had assisted Tom’s mum – Angela to make a will, making me Tom’s permanent Guardian, which I only found out later” I explained to our hosts.

While eating desserts, I explained that we often go camping along the coast near Louth Bay, where a friend has a property, where we have a camp fire and sleep under the stars, go swimming, explore the area, watch the seals and sea lions sunbaking on the rocks and beach, and just relax. The following day, after dropping off Tom at school, and collecting Jakes camping gear and luggage for the weekend, I went to the shops to get all the food and drinks that I would need for the weekend, and loaded up the car.

At lunch time, I called Jack, to see how things were progressing on the island, and I was informed that all of the pieces for the house are now in the cavern, and the three domes are over the holes, he also said that they had made a camouflage net over the two glass Perspex domes, so as to hide it, as it would reflect off the sun and be visible from the air, which I hadn’t thought of before. He said they had resumed work on the boardwalk, and have now completed 1.6 kilometres so far, so they are over half way from completing the job.

I let Jack know, that Tom’s school best friend would be joining us on the island this weekend, so we would have an extra pair of hands to help, even though he is not aware of that yet, which made Jack laugh. I told Jack we would be at Louth Bay by 4pm, and asked him to pick us up at that time, which Jack agreed to do, and he ended the call.