Shadows Dancing in the Sun - 5. Shad Chapter 5

“Thank you, Mrs Appleton. May I introduce my Uncle Mitchell Garrison, and his husband Mr Xavier Pernetti,” I said making the introductions, and Mrs Appleton didn’t hesitate to shake their hands and smile. “You have a wonderful nephew, I am glad that he is finally in a happy place,” Mrs Appleton said.

“Thank you, Mrs Appleton, we are very happy to have him living at our home, and we are glad that you accepted the invitation for lunch with us today,” Uncle Mitch replied. “My given name is Margaret, and we are pleased to be coming to enjoy your housekeeper’s Italian food, we are both looking forward to it. It is a shame that my husband, Bryce is away overseas and will miss this special occasion,” Mrs Appleton replied.

Less than ten minutes later, we pulled into the driveway, and parked under the main carport, and while Uncle Mitchell and Xavier headed inside, I waited for our guests to park in the driveway and for Kyle to grab his overnight bag, before I lead them inside. “This is a beautiful house that your uncle has here, the formal gardens are delightful,” Mrs Appleton commented.

“That is thanks to Giorgio, who does all that hard work, while his wife Maria is our housekeeper and part time cook,” I responded, as I lead them inside. “Wow, what an entrance,” Kyle said as we entered, “That I do agree with son,” Mrs Appleton added, “This way please,” I said as we walked down the wide hall and I stopped outside the guest bedroom next to mine.

“That is your room Kyle, mine is right next door,” I said to my boyfriend as I opened the door, and stepped back to let Kyle walk in. “Holy smokes, it is huge,” Kyle stated, as his mum followed him in. “That it is,” Mrs Appleton said. “This was the former home of the Sir John Forrest when he retired from politics,” I stated, before continuing towards the kitchen.

“Hey Maria, that sounds delicious,” I said as we entered the kitchen dining area, and Maria held out her hands towards me, and reluctantly I walked into her arms, and received a huge hug from her. “It is nice to finally meet you, master Tobias,” she whispered to me, before stepping back and giving both of my cheeks a pinch.

“Maria, this is my good friend and hockey team mate, Kyle Appleton and his mother Mrs Margaret Appleton,” I said making the introductions, and much to his horror, Kyle receive a tight hug and pinch of the cheeks as I did, while Mrs Appleton smiled, before shaking Maria’s hand.

“It’s wonderful to meet you, we look forward to your delicious meal,” Mrs Appleton said as she watched Kyle rubbing his sore cheeks. Just then Giorgio entered the room from the side kitchen door, and came straight to me, and shook my hand, “Master Tobias, good to meet you at last, and this must be your friend Kyle,” Giorgio said, as he shook his hand then turned to Kyle’s mum.

“Hello, I am Kyle’s mum, Margaret Appleton,” she said as she shook hands with him, “Good to meet you, excuse me while I washup for dinner,” Giorgio said with a strong Italian accent, before disappearing out of the room. “Giorgio came to Australia as a boy, while I was born here, as was my parents, so my accent is not as strong,” Maria explained.

After a delicious lunch, Giorgio and Maria cleaned up before leaving the house to go home, while Uncle Mitchell and Xavier gave Mrs Appleton a tour of all the gardens, including the block next door, and after saying farewell to Kyle, she too headed home. “Now boys, what are you going to do for the afternoon?” Uncle Mitchell asked.

“Maybe a swim a little later, we are fairly worn out from the hockey match today,” I responded and Kyle nodded his head in agreement. “Ok, Xavier is heading to work, and I will be in my study if you need me,” Uncle Mitchell said to us, as we headed to the living room to watch some television.

About half an hour later the house phone rang, which was quickly answered, and soon after we heard, “You what!” coming from the direction of the study, and we waited for a while to see if there would be any more shouting. Uncle Mitch eventually came out of the study mumbling an shaking his head. “Anything wrong uncle?” I asked.

“What? Oh, no nothing that may interest you, just my crazy husband just invested in a large block of land that I have no idea what he wants to do with it,” Uncle Mitchell replied, as he headed to the kitchen and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and began munching on it loudly, which made me worry that this was something big.

When Xavier arrived home, we were in the pool, and it was when we heard shouting that I began to worry, as I had never heard them shout like that before. The sound of glass crashing made me get out of the pool to investigate, grabbing my towel as I headed indoors. “Dry off and get dressed, Xavier had cut his hand breaking some glass, and we need to get to the hospital,” Uncle Mitch said to me, when he saw me approaching.

When I entered the dining area after drying off, I spotted Xavier lying flat on the ground with his cut arm up in the air, wrapped with a bloodied tea towel, and Uncle Mitch was on his mobile. “That’s right 19 Market street, Guildford, on the south side of the railway line coming off Helena street,” I heard my uncle say before he hung up. “Watch your feet as there is glass everywhere, go and get changed boys, as we will be following the ambo to the hospital,” Uncle Mitch said to us.

I suggested that we stay home and clean up the mess, and just rest, as we were not in the mood to be hanging around a hospital all afternoon and evening, and thankfully Uncle Mitchell agreed. An hour later, Uncle Mitch called me asking me to heat up some dinner for just us, as he would be remaining at the hospital for a bit longer.

It was well after midnight when I heard the vehicle pull up in the carport, Kyle and I had fallen asleep in the lounge watching television, and I shook Kyle’s shoulder to wake him up before switching off the television. “Are you both still up?’ Uncle Mitch asked when he stepped into the house. “” We both fell asleep watching television, how is Xavier, and what happened to cause him to end up in hospital?” I asked.

“He had just come out of surgery and will be in hospital for a few days, and we had a bit of an argument about some investments, which resulted in Xavier punching the glass door, and thank you for cleaning up all of the mess,” Uncle Mitchell responded, “Ok, well we will head off to bed, goodnight,” I replied, and Kyle and I headed to our separate bedrooms.

“When I woke in the morning, I found Kyle fast asleep next to me, and this made me smile. After a trip to the bathroom, I headed out to the kitchen to start making some breakfast, as I was quite hungry, and I found that the house was very quiet. I checked the carport and Uncle Mitchell’s car was still there, so I guessed that he was still asleep.

By the time I was halfway through cooking bacon, eggs, sausages and tomatoes, Uncle Mitch appeared, “Mm, that smells good, thanks for doing this,” Uncle Mitch said to me. “Not a problem. I hope that things like that won’t be happening often, as I used to get enough at that at my last home,” I asked nervously and Uncle Mitch walked up to me and wrapped me in a hug.

I am terribly sorry if we scared you with all of that, I will make sure that it does not ever happen again, I think by the time I have spoken to Xavier in greater detail about it, we will have resolved everything,” Uncle Mitch said to me. “What was it that got you both angry?” I asked cautiously.

“As you know he is a real-estate agent and a property developer, anyway, be recently bought a nice old property and the neighbouring empty block that is nearby on Swan street West, so as to restore the house, and he bought another house and neighbouring block with a historical cottage on it, on Swan street, but to top it off he has gone an bought 36 acres of former farmland, that has 900 metres of swan river frontage, from West Swan road, along to the bend in the river just north of Swan street and Swan street West,” Uncle Mitch explained.

“Wow, that is quite a lot of land for a suburban area,” I exclaimed, “Yes, it is, and I have no idea what my not so brilliant husband plans to do with it, as it cannot be split up for residential housing,” Uncle Mitch said. “After breakfast, can we go and have a look at these investments and the land?” I asked, and Uncle Mitch looked at my wondering what I was up too. “Ok, I guess we can do that, we already have the keys for the houses he bought,” Uncle Mitch said, just as Kyle stumbled in and yawned.

“Good morning sleepyhead?” I said to my boyfriend, as he sat down at the table and yawned again. “When did you end up in Tobias’s room?” Uncle Mitch asked Kyle, which caught both of us by surprise, “I couldn’t get to sleep, so I thought I would snuggle up to my boyfriend, and it worked as I fell asleep right away,” Kyle replied, which made me laugh and Uncle Mitch just smiled.

“Xavier and I usually go to St Mathew’s Guildford for Sunday service, but since he is laid up in hospital, I thought that maybe we could go to school chapel together, I’m not sure if you know this, but I am an old boy of the school,” Uncle Mitch said to us, as I finished up serving breakfast. “That is fine by me Mr Garrison, Mum and I usually go to St Barnabas in Kalamunda,” Kyle responded.

“Fine with me uncle, and no I didn’t know that you went to the same school,” I replied. “I have my old school tie somewhere, I may wear it today if I can find it in time,” Uncle Mitchell said smiling. About an hour later, we climbed into Uncle Mitch’s car and we drove the short distance to the school, and parked in the senior school general carpark.

As we approached the grand gothic school chapel, that stands near a major access road, I saw Uncle look up at the tall chapel which was built in the early 1910’s, and he smiled. “Any reason for that smile?” I asked. “Not really, just it has been some time since I was last in the chapel, and I have fond memories of it, as I was the chapel prefect for three years,” Uncle Mitch replied.

“Three years, wow, that is very unusual,” I replied, “That it is, only one other student has equalled that, and he was also the state’s second recipient and school’s first of the Rhodes Scholarship,” Uncle Mitch said, as we approached the front doors of the chapel, where the current headmaster and the school chaplain were standing to greet everyone.

“Sir, Reverend, this is my Uncle Mitchell, who only just informed me this morning that he was a past student of this school and a chapel prefect,” I said to the headmaster and chaplain. “Garrison and Appleton, it is good to see two-day boys visiting chapel on a Sunday. Mr Garrison, it is good to meet you, I was made aware that you are now Mitchell’s guardian,” the headmaster replied.

“Yes, Headmaster, only just recently, so he is still settling into his new environment,” Uncle Mitchell replied, before we stepped inside. “Did you know our current choir master is also a former student here?” I whispered to my uncle after we had taken a seat towards the centre of the chapel and on the back row.