Frontier - 38. FR Chapter 38

When I woke to the sound of a knock on my cabin door, I could hear steady rain falling, as I climbed out of bed.

“Thanks, I will be out shortly,” I said.

Once dressed, I made my way to the galley and crew mess, where Simon gave me a cup of tea, some toast and a cooked breakfast.

“Thanks, Mate. This looks great,” I said to Simon with a smile.

“The boys are in the formal lounge reading at the moment, since it is wet outside,” Simon informed me, and I nodded my head in understanding as I continued to eat.

“After I have eaten, can we open up the swimming platform, and get the dinghy out. I think we will stay anchored, so we don’t have any security issues. I would like to take the boys ashore at Portobello, and see if we can check out the town, and visit the farm, and the boys old home,” I said to Simon.

“Already done, Boss. The boys helped me open the platform, and get the dinghy out and tied off, and the outboard is fuelled up and ready to go,” Simon informed me.

“Thanks for that. Do you want to come with us?” I replied.

“I will as far as town. I will stay in sight of the yacht, while you guys are out and about,” Simon said to me.

When I had finished eating, I thanked Simon for a nice breakfast, and with the sound of rain now gone, I headed upstairs, and asked the boys to grab their jackets, as we were going ashore. A few minutes later we tied the dinghy at the jetty, and we walked the 600 metres to the centre of town where there is a motel, a general store, café and a few other shops. We decided to go into the café, to have a snack, even though I had just eaten breakfast. We sat down at a table near the window, and waited to be served.

“Well I never, Neale and Jedd Wallis! I did not expect to see you ever again,” a middle-aged lady said as she approached the table. The boys smiled on recognising the lady.

“Hello, Mrs King. It’s nice to see you too. This is our older half-brother Anton, and his friend Simon,” Neale replied.

“Hello, Mrs King. Can we have two cups of white tea, two orange juices and 4 slices of cake or any slice that you may have please?” I asked.

“Certainly. I will be back in a moment,” Mrs King said with a smile.

When our order arrived, Mrs King grabbed a nearby chair and sat down near us.

“So, Boys, what have you been doing since you and your mum left so suddenly,” Mrs King asked, and I could see that the boys were upset about the mention of our mum.

“Our mum was killed in a car accident about a month ago in Western Australia, where our mum originally comes from.”

When the boys’ dad was killed, our grandfather organised for Mum and the boys to come over to Western Australia,” I explained, and Mrs King nodded her understanding. “Do you know anything about their old home and the farm?” I asked Mrs King feeling a little uneasy with the necessary conversation.

“As I understand it the farm is still being leased by Mr Jenson, and the house burnt down under suspicious circumstances about three months ago,” Mrs King announced. I thanked her for the information as she stood and made her way back to the counter.

“Do you know where your father’s grave is?” I asked my brothers, and I saw both boys nod their heads.

“The cemetery is next door to the school, just up this road,” Neale said to me.

“Ok, let’s go and visit your dad’s grave, then have a look at the farm,” I suggested.

Just as we were at the counter paying the bill, the bell of the door rang, and turning around I saw a police officer arrive.

“Mr Wallis?” he said looking at me.

“It’s Hamilton actually. My brothers and I have different fathers, but same mother,” I said to the officer, who indicated for us to take a seat at a table.

“Mr Hamilton, my name is Senior Constable Kyle Davies. I was the first police officer to attend the house fire at the end of Hanson street, which I now know to be the Wallis family home. When I did a search, we found that the house had been cleared of belongings and furniture, and that the fire was suspiciously lit. On further enquiries, I learnt that the furniture and belongings are currently in a storage unit, and that the farmer who has the lease of the land is still happy to keep the lease for as long as possible.

“May I ask, when did you arrive in New Zealand?” the officer said to me, and I gave a big smile.

“We arrived four days ago, arriving in Dunedin last night, to be able to get here easily,” I replied honestly.

“Well, let me know if we can be of any other assistance,” the officer stated.

“How do we go about finding the storage unit, that our late mother organised,” I asked, and the officer pulled out a note of paper from his pocket and handed it to me. On it was the name, address and phone number of a real estate agency, and I thanked the officer, before he left the café.

“Ok, let’s go and see this agency, then we will visit your dad’s grave,” I said to the boys. The real estate agency was just around the corner, and we arrived a few moments later.

“Good morning. My name is Anton Hamilton. I am half-brother to Neale and Jedd Wallis here. Our mother was Suzanne Wallis, who was killed in a car accident in Western Australia a month ago. We have come to enquire about the storage unit that my mother had rented,” I said to the receptionist. A gentleman appeared as I had finished speaking.

“Mr Hamilton, I can assist you with your enquiry. Do you have any proof of identity and connection to Suzanne Wallis,” the gentleman said to me.

I smiled as I pulled out an envelope from my inside jacket pocket, and pulled out three documents: that of mine and the boys’ birth certificates, all of them stating Suzanne as our mother. After viewing the documents, the gentleman returned them to me with a smile.

“Your mother hired a 6 by 6 metre unit, paying six months in advance, so it is two weeks behind in rent,” the gentleman said.

“I am happy to pay any outstanding rental fees. We wish to view the storage unit, so as to decide what to do with everything inside,” I announced. When I had made the payment I was given the key for the storage unit and its number.

A few minutes later I opened up the roller door of the storage unit, and saw that it was jammed packed. I decided that we needed help, so I called Simon, and asked him to join us, so we could sort out everything. When Simon arrived, we started pulling out some of the boxes.

“Boys, can you go and see that nice lady at the café, and ask if she knows of a charity shop nearby, that would like to accept second hand furniture and goods,” I asked Neale and Jedd. They said they could and dashed off to do as I asked.

When the boys returned, they informed me that someone would be arriving within half an hour, and so we continued to sort through everything that was in the unit. Apart from all of the furniture, there were lots of full packing boxes, and we began to look inside each of the boxes, which were all labelled. The ones marked kitchen goods, we took a quick look, before putting them aside, and the same with bathroom and laundry.

When it came to the box marked Wallis transport, I was not sure what to do with it, as it contained files, and documents to do with the boys’ father’s trucking business, so I chose to deal with it later. When the charity shop truck arrived, I said to them that they could take all of the household furniture and whitegoods, plus the boxes marked kitchen, laundry and bathroom. By the time they had gone, the storage unit was left with just storage boxes which still filled at least a quarter of the unit.

“Ok, now we have removed all of the furniture, and a couple of boxes, let’s put all the boxes to one side of the unit, and go through each one. Firstly, that one with Wallis Transport we will put at the back of the unit. That is the “too hard” section. Boxes that have stuff to be given away are to be put on the left-hand side of the unit. Boxes of stuff to keep, to be taken to the yacht, put to the right-hand side but near the door,” I said to everyone present.

After another hour of sorting, we had gone through eleven boxes thoroughly. The boys went through the four boxes of toys, and selected what they wanted to keep, which ended up being just one box between them, so the other three boxes were repacked, and added to the pile of giveaways.

All the suitcases of clothes were added to the giveaways, as the boys had grown out of all of their old clothes, and there was no need to keep any of the boys’ parent’s clothes. We stopped for a lunch break and headed over to the café to eat. We had managed to get through half of the boxes, and I hoped that we could get through the remainder of the boxes before the end of the day.

After lunch, the boys showed me where the cemetery was, while Simon returned to the storage unit. We arrived back at the unit about half an hour later, after a short visit to the boys’ father’s grave. The remainder of the boxes contained family collectables, books and a few photo albums of the boys growing up. With my encouragement, I had the boys select what they wanted to keep, reminding them of the limited space that we had on the yacht.

I went through the boxes containing linen, and apart from good quality towels, sheets, pillow cases, face washes and hand towels, I found some very nice fine linen, table cloths, and other beautiful fine lace, and carefully putting them back into their container, I sealed it up and put it next to the boxes to go onto the yacht.

When we had finally finished going through all twenty-eight boxes, and four suitcases, we now had one small pile near the door, a very small pile at the back, and the rest was against the left side of the unit. Simon called a taxi van, to come and take him and the boys back to the jetty, along with the five boxes, while I called the charity shop back, to let them know that I had lots of boxes of clothes and some other goods ready to be collected, and they informed me that they would over there shortly.

I helped Simon to load the boxes into the taxi van, and once they had gone, I waited for the charity truck to arrive, and helped them to load up all of the remaining boxes. There was now just one box left behind, that had Wallis Transport labelled on it. I was still not sure what to do with it, so I decided to take it with me for now. Once the charity shop truck had left, I locked up the unit and handed over the key to the real estate agency, informing them that the unit was now vacant. I walked down to the jetty, calling Simon as I walked, to let him know that I was on my way back to the jetty.

The five boxes were sitting in the lounge area of the bridge, and I suggested that we deal with them the next day, and I added the extra box to the pile. Although it was very cloudy, there had been no rain all afternoon, so I let the boys go up to the Jacuzzi for a swim in the warm bubbly water, and I grabbed a book to read and sat in the lounge and watched them splash around.

Simon soon appeared with cool drinks for the boys and a cup of tea for me. He sat down near me and watched the boys for a few moments.

“I’m not sure if you want to know or not, but we have gathered quite a group of onlookers,” Simon said to me. Looking up to Simon, I saw him smile and point towards the jetty, where there was quite a large group of people looking at the yacht.

I was a little surprised to see so many people looking at us, and I tried to ignore them and continued to read my book. Simon stayed for a while watching the boys and looking across the harbour, before heading downstairs to start cooking dinner. When the boys had finished, I followed them downstairs, and as they went to shower and change, I walked along the deck to the front of the yacht, to do a quick check of everything, before returning indoors and locking the saloon doors.

When I arrived downstairs, where Simon was busy, I sat down in the crew mess area and sighed loudly.

“I think I will move the yacht so it is out of sight of the jetty just behind the island, once it gets dark,” I said to Simon, who smiled and continued working. I could hear the boys in the crew lounge playing a video game of some kind, and I smiled pleased to hear that they were happy. “I will be up on the main bridge lounge. I want to look at some of the stuff in the boxes,” I said to Simon, as I got up and headed upstairs.

Just before Simon served dinner, I called him up to the fly bridge, and asked him to pull up the two anchors, so we could relocate to behind the island, so we were hidden from the jetty, even though we were still visible from further around the coast, past Edwards Bay. Once the anchors had been reset, I turned off the engines, and returned indoors, locking the saloon doors behind us, and I joined my brothers and Simon in the crew mess for dinner.

“So, Boss, what are our plans for tomorrow?” Simon asked in between mouthfuls of dinner. I stopped eating and thought about it for a while.

“If I didn’t mention it to everyone, we are now the only crew, as the lads – Kirk and Leon - have accepted jobs at a wilderness lodge in Canada, and Jasper is staying at Jurien Bay with Anita and Nathan, plus he is keeping busy with charters with the catamaran. So, at the moment we have no set commitments, apart from organising some schooling for you two boys, and with Gramps still recovering from the accident, it just us for now,” I announced to everyone.

“What about we spring a surprise visit to your old former school tomorrow, to see some of your old-school friends,” Simon suggested, and the boys smiled broadly and looked at me hopefully to say yes. I couldn’t help but give in, so I agreed.

“Is tomorrow Friday? If so there is assembly first thing in the morning, so that might be the best time to go,” Jedd suggested and Neale smiled and nodded his head.

“Ok, it looks like we are going to school assembly tomorrow,” I said to Simon and the boys. Once we had cleaned up, and the boys had a quick shower and changed into pyjamas, we all headed up to the formal lounge to watch a movie on the giant screen, then turned in for the night.

The following morning, we were all up early, and I made sure that the boys were dressed in good clothes. We took the dinghy to the jetty, and walked up to the school, arriving at 8.30am just as a bell sounded. The boys lead us to the administration office.

“Well I never! It’s young Neale and Jedd Wallis! What are you two boys doing here? I thought you were in Western Australia,” a lady said behind the counter.

“I may be able to answer that ma’am. My name is Anton Hamilton. I am the boys’ older half-brother, and temporary guardian. We have come over to visit this beautiful country, and to deal with the boys’ parents belongings,” I responded.

“I see, and where is their mother and grandfather?” the lady responded cautiously.

“Our mother was killed in a car accident less than a month ago, and our grandfather or Gramps as we call him, is recovering in hospital, from the same accident. We have sorted all the business regarding the property, and visited the boys’ father’s grave yesterday, and the boys expressed an interest in visiting their former school,” I replied to the lady, whose neme I still didn’t know.

“I see. I am very sorry for your loss. My name is Mrs Nichols. I’m the school’s principal. We are about to have assembly. Would you care to watch from the back of the hall?” the lady said.

“Yes please, Ma’am, if that is ok with you,” I replied politely, and we followed her out the door, and down a passageway. Soon we arrived at the back of a large semi open hall, that had no side walls, a front half wall and stage. We passed by two rooms at the end of the hall. We stopped at the back, while Mrs Nichols continued to the front, as all the students and teachers stood up as she approached the stage.

“Good morning, School. You may be seated,” Mrs Nichols said clearly. We found a row of empty seats along the back wall, which we sat in. For the next twenty-minutes we listened to some announcements, a small musical performance by some senior students, followed by a few more announcements.

“Before we head off to our classes for the day, we have some unexpected guests with us today. Two of them you will know from earlier this year, so please welcome Mr Hamilton, and his two half-brothers, Neale and Jedd Wallis,” Mrs Nichols announced. Everyone in the hall clapped and looked around till they saw us approaching the stage through the middle aisle.

“Thank you for your welcome, Mrs Nichols, Students and Teachers of Portobello School. As most of you will know my half-brothers lost their father earlier this year, and so with their mum, who is also my mother, they travelled to Western Australia to be with our grandfather and me. To cut a long story short, our grandfather and I own a trimaran yacht, the very one that a lot of people in this community gathered on the jetty yesterday to have a look at.

She is 160 feet or 48 metres long, with three decks. She can accommodate 9 crew and 10 guests. We sailed her from Hobart, Tasmania to Invercargill in just under four days, with just four crew, of which two of them are Neale and Jedd.

We do charters up and down the west coast of Australia, including out to the Indian Ocean Territories with an average speed of 14 knots or 26 kilometres per hour, and we have twice had British actress Mimi Fenton and her family as guests on board our yacht.