Holiday Drama - 4. HD Chapter 4

Although they are 17-years old and in their final year of schooling, which has been paid in full until the end of the school year, their home is only a rental and is only paid for until early October; in such time, all of their belongings will need to be vacated. As the nearest relative to the twins, we need instructions on what you would like to do regarding the future of the twins as well as their family’s belongings…”

“Damnations, now what the hell am I supposed to do about that?” I said to myself, forgetting that Grant was standing nearby, “Do about what, Dad?” my son asked. “Well, it appears that my former father, who was recently killed in a light aircraft accident, along with his wife and daughter, has left behind younger twin sons, who are one year older than you, are my half-brothers and are now orphans with me as their closest relative,” I explained. “Oh, wow!” Grant said to me, as I checked on my phone, the time difference between Jasper, BC and Johannesburg, South Africa.

“Ok, nine hours’ time difference, that would make it…midnight over there now, I will have to wait until 11 pm here until I can give them a call at 8 am their time. Son, if it is needed, and there is a good chance this will happen, will you be ok with the twins staying in our home?” I asked Grant. “I guess so, do you know what they are like?” Grant replied. “No idea. Until I opened this envelope, I had no Idea that they even existed, so this is new territory for both of us, especially when they are technically my half-brothers and your half-uncles,” I responded, which made Grant groan. We continued with our exploration of Jasper, as part of the tour in the afternoon, and after dinner, we settled into our hotel suite, where Grant was busy reading all about South Africa online.

Meanwhile, I was looking at options for travelling to Johannesburg, South Africa, to sort out this situation with my twin brothers. We were at the end of day two of our current trip, and I was wondering if it was possible to cut it short and fly directly to South Africa for the remainder of our holiday. After some online searching, our best option was to fly to Calgary in the early afternoon, and from there, departing at 7.15 in the evening, it is a 9 ½ hour flight to Munich, Germany, arriving at 12.50 pm local time, and a 7 ½ hour layover, followed by a 10 ½ hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa, arriving there at 6.40 am local time.

It is a heck of a lot of travelling, and I was not sure if Grant was going to manage it at all, even though he did well with the flight from home to Vancouver. Before Grant went to bed, I asked him if it was ok if we cut short the tour and travel to South Africa to see the twins, and try and help with their situation, and I was surprised when he said he was fine with it, and that going to South Africa was a bonus to the whole trip. With that decided, as Grant headed to bed, I began planning for us to fly to Johannesburg.

Firstly, I had to sort out visas, which was easy as I could get an electronic visa online, and once that was confirmed, I began organising flights, firstly the 1 ½ hour flight to Calgary, then the flight to Munich, and finally the long flight to Johannesburg. By 3 am, I had secured all the flights, as well as a short-stay hotel suite for our layover in Munich, where we would be able to catch up on some sleep. Before retiring to bed, I made a phone call to the law firm in Johannesburg. I spent half an hour speaking to the lawyer who was dealing with the family matter, and although he is based in Johannesburg, the boys are located in Cape Town, further south.

He was pleased to hear that I had planned to come down to South Africa, arriving in two days, and that he would make sure to contact the headmaster of Somerset College to let them know that he had been in contact with me to start the future plans for the twins. After just five hours of sleep, I woke up at 10 am and found Grant quietly reading. “Good morning, did you have a very late night?” my son asked when I entered the lounge area of our hotel suite. “I did indeed. I went to bed at about 4 am, but I had achieved a lot during the night, including speaking to the lawyer in South Africa.

He is based in Johannesburg, but the twins are in Cape Town, which means one more flight after the meeting with the lawyer. I hope you are packed as we are leaving very soon. I just need a bite to eat first. Have you eaten?” I replied. “Yes, Dad, I ordered room service for a basic breakfast,” Grant replied. “Good, as our first flight to Calgary leaves at 2.25 pm today, and at 7.15 tonight we board a flight to Munich,” I replied, as I picked up the phone and ordered some food, then began to pack up all my belongings.

Arriving at the airport with plenty of time to spare, we wandered around for a while to kill some time before heading to the boarding gate for our first flight. “This will be quite an adventure for both of us, first to Germany, then down to South Africa,” I commented as we settled into our business-class seats, which I had booked for all of our flights to make sure we were comfortable for the whole journey.

I quickly looked at flight options from Johannesburg to Cape Town, as we waited for the plane to depart, and managed to secure seats for the 1 pm flight for the 2 ¼ hour flight for two days, as well as booking accommodation at an apartment complex close to the sea at Mosterd’s Bay, and just 12 kms from the college. When we finally arrived in Munich, after 11 hours of flights and a five-hour layover in Calgary, we checked into our hotel for six hours, where we went straight to bed to get some sleep, before heading back to the nearby airport for our next flight.

Having very little time to look around Munich while we were there, we just saw it from the taxi, travelling to and from the airport 20 kilometres away. For the next stage of our long flight, we would be travelling more in a southerly direction, so we would not have any problems with crossing time zones, and we would hopefully get some sleep for a good amount of the flight. As we hoped, this was the case, and we were well looked after by the airline crew with our meals, and Grant spent some time walking the aisles to stretch his legs, as he was quite a tall lad for his age.

After we left the airport, we travelled by taxi to the hotel that we would stay in for one night, so as to see the lawyer in Johannesburg before our final flight to Cape Town. As expected, the meeting with the lawyer was full of information about the boys and their late family. My father had been working for a mining company for the past decade, as a Mine site supervisor, so they lived in an apartment in Cape Town that was provided by the company, which needed to be vacated as soon as possible.

I was given a set of keys for the apartment, and directions on where to find it, plus the contact details for the mining company to make the arrangements for vacating the apartment in Steenburg. That evening, just after we had finished dinner, my mobile rang, with an arranged phone call with my half-brothers. “Hello, this is Myles Fleming speaking, I said as I answered the phone and motioned for Grant to come closer to listen to the conversation, since this was going to affect him too in a way.

There was a long silence on the phone before we heard a distant background comment of encouragement to speak up, “Err, this is Ashton and Jonah here… who is this?” we heard in response, “Lads, this is your older brother Myles speaking, we… that is my son Grant and I were in Canada on holidays when we received the news about your parents and sister, we are sorry for your loss. We live in South Australia, but we flew over from Calgary as soon as we could to come and see you boys,” I said carefully.

“Oh wow, you have travelled a long way,” one of the boys said. “Yes, we have, and we are currently in Johannesburg, having seen your family lawyer today. We will be arriving in Cape Town tomorrow afternoon, where we will be staying for as long as needed to help you boys, where needed,” I replied. “Will… will we be coming with you to Australia? Or what is going to happen to us?” I was asked as I noticed their voices sounded very scared. “We will discuss that when we get there. Just be aware that we will not be leaving you alone. I am here to help you in any way possible,” I said to my twin brothers.

“Mr Fleming, this is Mr George Carter, the Deputy Headmaster of the School, and Senior House Master for the boys' boarding house. I have set aside some time tomorrow from 2 pm to go through things that have to do with the school and the boys’ education, then I have set time for you to be with the boys for the rest of the afternoon,” a new voice said over the phone. “That is agreeable, sir. We will be landing in Cape Town at 1.15 pm tomorrow, so that would be perfect timing,” I answered. After a few minutes more of chatting, we ended the call, and I sat there silently for a few minutes, thinking about the conversation with my brothers.

“You do realise, Dad, that when we leave here and fly home, we will have completed a full circumnavigation of the world?” Grant said to me, and it took me a moment to realise what he was saying… “Wow, you are correct with that. Any idea how many kilometres we have travelled so far?” I responded, and Grant nodded his head, smiling, “Yes, approximately 30,450 kilometres,” Grant replied. “Wow, that is amazing, and explains why I now hate long-distance air travel,” I replied, smirking, and my son just laughed at this. “I estimate that we will cover about 42,500 kilometres after this next flight to Cape Town, then onto Perth and Adelaide,” Grant added.

“I think I will be happy to spend some nautical miles instead of air kilometres once we get back home,” I commented to Grant. “Yes, I am definitely up for that,” he responded cheerfully. “I guess the twins can have the downstairs bedrooms and bathrooms, when we get home, just as well you are fully settled into your room on the upper floor. Remind me to contact our housekeeper to warn her of the additional boys arriving at the house,” I added, and Grant nodded his head in agreement. After Grant reappeared after having a shower, he smiled… “Dad, don’t forget to ring Mrs Greenwell about the twins,” and for a split second I was wondering why he said that until I saw the huge grin on his face.