Kit - 7. Kit Chapter 7

“I’m not sure if you are aware of this is not, but I do live very close by, and I am free to assist you in any way possible, even if it means working a few extra days, that is fine with me, as all of my children are all grown up now, and have their own lives to run,” Mrs Grantly stated.

“That would be great thanks, as I have no idea what to do regarding keeping Ryan busy during the day, while Trent and Lucas are at school, and I am wondering if my old school in South Perth is too far for them to travel each day,” I said to my house keeper.

After about twenty minutes of discussions, we ended the call, with a few plans to work on, when I return, from my road trip, and a short while later, I set off on my 2 ½ hour road trip north to my old home town, which I was feeling a little uneasy about going there.

As I slowly drove through my former home town, I could see that nothing had changed in the six years that I have been away, it was still the same sleepy little country town, as it always has been. I slowed down even more, as I spotted Mrs Patterson, holding hands with two children, a little girl and a boy of about the same age, who I recognised to be my youngest brother – Ryan.

I kept driving, deciding to go to the house first and see what needs doing there first, and meet up with my brothers, once all of them are out of school for the day. Finding the spare key in its usual hiding spot under a large pot, that sits under a shady tree a few metres behind the house, I opened the back door.

Entered the kitchen, half expecting it to be dusty and smelling stale, but I was surprised to see that the room smelt fresh, and there was a vase on the kitchen table that has a fresh bunch of rosemary sprigs in it. The kitchen was reasonably tidy, and mostly dust free, as I quietly walked down the central passageway. The first bedroom on the right after the family bathroom, is my old bedroom, and it was mostly empty, with just a desk, a dresser and wardrobe, no bed or pictures, and no curtains.

Totally empty of anything that reminds the family that it was once my room, while the bedroom opposite, was clearly a younger boys bedroom, with lots of colourful pictures on the wall, multi coloured curtains, and a number of toy boxes under the bed, which has a large teddy bear propped up against the pillow and plenty of books on the shelf.

The other two boys bedrooms are similar to Ryan’s bedroom, with lots of colour, toys, a desk each and book shelf, and seeing how nice the bedrooms looked compared to my old room, I started to get upset, and I turned around and dashed out of the house, slamming the door behind me.

I sat in my car for goodness knows how long, and it wasn’t until there was a light knock on the window, that I knew that I had company, and it was Mrs Patterson. “Hello there, Do you remember me Kye?” she asked, and I nodded my head yes. “Yes, Mrs Patterson, you have been kind enough to look after my younger brothers, until I arrived from over east,” I replied.

“My, how much you have changed since we last saw you… it must be six years now,” Mrs Patterson said, “It has, and I didn’t realise how hard it would be to come back here… I had a look inside, and what I found upset me quite a lot, and I had to get out of there,” I informed her.

“Yes, I have been coming by every few days, just to give the place a quick freshen up. Come now, lets go and have a cup of tea and a chat at my place, before the your three and my brew arrive home from school,” Mrs Patterson said to me as she placed a hand on my arm, to show that she understood and cared.

After a few cups of tea and a chat, I was feeling a lot more relaxed. I learnt that nearly all of my brothers clothing and small amount of toys and books were at the Patterson place, so there was no real need to go back to my former home. I thanked Mrs Patterson for taking in my brothers, even when she already has a family to care for, and I offered to pay back some of the expenses for feeding them.

I was told that the whole community had pitched in to assist with all costs with looking after the boys, which surprised me. “Not everyone in our community is against special people like yourself, you will be surprised to learn that your mother has been largely ignored for sending you away as she did.

Your father is a different story, it was soon discovered that he was not of the same point of view and beliefs as your mother, and he has been attending a men’s support group for some time now to help him get through his difficult marriage, Mrs Patterson said to me.

“I am very grateful for the assistance that my father has been given, and since talking to him, when Uncle Mathias brought him back after the wake, we have been in fairly regular contact, but I was not aware of what my mother was doing to him, until I saw the news report and received a call from Uncle M soon after,” I replied.

“Mum, we are home, and we have a problem,” a voice called out, followed by the sound of loud footsteps coming down the hall and the bang of a door swinging shut. “Children, this is Kye, the older brother of our three guests,” Mrs Patterson said, as two children appeared, and I saw the shadows of three more hidden behind them just out of vision.

“Now what is the problem?” Mrs Patterson added, just as my three brothers stepped forward, and Mrs Patterson gasped in shock to see my three bothers school uniforms in taters, and they all had a few cuts and bruises on them. “What on earth happened here?” I asked, and moments later I was wrapped in a group hug by my two brothers. “Hey boys, my you have grown a bit since I last saw you, at Grans funeral a few years ago,” I commented.

“Hello Kye, we are so glad that you have come to look after us,” ten-year old Lucas said to me, “Me too,” Trent said shyly. “Ok, now that you are back, I will need to go and collect the other two from play group, then you can tell me what happened with Lucas and Trent, but I am guessing that it was the Pastors son and his gang that caused this?” Mrs Patterson said.

“Yes Mum, as soon as we heard about it, we went and stopped it, but Gary and I copped a few punches too, but I’m ok,” the oldest Patterson boy stated, and I started to look at my brothers to see how seriously injured they are, “Boy, can I ask you to go to the bathroom, and let me see what damages you have, while Mrs Patterson goes and collects our youngest brother, and her youngest?” I asked.

“Yes Kye,” the boys said in unison and they headed back down the hallway, “I will leave you here to sort that out, I will only be five minutes at the most, and I suggest you take photos of the boys injuries, just in case there is the need for proof,” Mrs Patterson said.

I soon found my brothers standing in the bathroom, wearing just their underwear, and taking out my phone, I took a number of pictures of their cuts and bruises, before using a flannel and warm water with a little bit of soap to clean up the cuts a bit, before suggesting that they have a quick shower and get dressed, as we would be going out soon.

Leaving the boys to have their shower, I asked Mark, the oldest Patterson boy to show me where my brothers sleep, and I was surprised to see that they share a bedroom together, with each one having their own bed. “You must have a very crowded house at the moment?” I commented.

“It is, but we get by. I have to share my bedroom with Gary, and Sarah shares with Toby, but it has been good to have your brothers stay here, as Lucas and I have been good friends for along time now,” Mark commented, “That is good to hear, and I thankyou for doing your best to look after them,” I replied. “Its nothing, and that is what friends are for, right?” Mark responded, “Yes indeed,” I said smiling.

I found a set of clothes for Lucas and Trent, and lay them out on the bed, before heading back to the kitchen, where I found the other Patterson children chatting while eating a cookie and drinking a glass of juice each, and Mark helped himself to the same. Lucas and Trent appeared washed and dressed, just moments before Mrs Patterson returned, and when Ryan saw me, he stopped and hid behind Mrs Patterson.

“This is your oldest brother, come out from there and meet Kye,” Mrs Patterson said gently getting Ryan to come out and meet me, and he looked over to Lucas and Trent, who smiled and nodded their heads, before Ryan ran towards me and leapt into my arms. “Hey little man, it is nice to meet you at last,” I said as I gave him a hug, “I’m not little, I am four,” Ryan said to me, and I chuckled at this.

“So you are, now I would like to have a little chat with you three boys about what is going to happen now,” I said to my three brothers. “I will take my brood outside for some sunshine, while you talk,” Mrs Patterson said to me, as she started to guide her children out of the kitchen, and I nodded thanks to her.

“Now, as you know Mum is in very big trouble for doing bad things, and Dad is in hospital, so until Dad gets out of hospital, you three will be coming to the city to live with me. That means that you will be going to a new school and for you Ryan a new play group. I know this may be hard to leave your friends, but it is only until Dad gets better,” I tried to explain as easily as possible.

“When do we go, and is that your Jeep Wrangler out the front?” Lucas asked, “Well, since you have been having some problems at school and with the holidays only a week away, I thought we would go today.

I have a very nice housekeeper, her name is Mrs Grantly, and she will be helping to look after all of us, and yes that is my Jeep Wrangler,” I explained, “I am ok with that, especially after today, that Mathew Owens is a real piece of work, gets away with everything, just because he is the local pastors son,” Lucas said to me.

“Goodo, well lets head to your room and start getting packed up, then we will stop off somewhere on the way to Perth for an early dinner,” I responded, as we all headed back to the boys bedroom, where I found Mrs Patterson already in there starting the packing process.

“Mark, can you go out to the shed, and bring in two wooden packing crates, so we can use them for all of the books and toys,” Mrs Patterson called out, “Righto Mum,” Mark called back, and I smiled. “Thanks for doing all of this, it is much appreciated,” I said to her.

“I will miss having your boys around, they have been a fairly good influence on my children,” Mrs Patterson said to me, “Oh! That does surprise me a lot,” I responded, “Your father was always a good influence on them, which showed, when I was asked to look after your brothers overnight on the odd occasion,” Mrs Patterson replied, as we got to work to pack up all of my younger brothers belongings.

Nearly two hours later, after a bit of a teary farewell from my brothers to the Patterson family, we were on the road and heading for Perth, and when we arrived in Chittering, I stopped at the local hotel were I decided that a sit-down meal would be best, so we headed for the restaurant part of the hotel.

After eating and two lots of bathroom visits for the younger two, we were back on the road again, with the two youngest falling asleep in the back seats soon after, while Lucas in the front passenger seat chatted to me, with plenty of questions asked about the place that we would be living and what school would they be attending.

I explained everything as best as I could and as we arrived on the outskirts of Perth, Lucas stopped talking and just watched everything passing us as I drove. “Have you boys ever been to the city before?” I asked, realising that maybe this was going to be their first time here.

“When I was younger, I think I came down with Mum for shopping trips to Midland, but after number three and number four came along, indicating towards his younger two brothers, we just did all of our shopping locally, although Mum did go away for two days, a few times, leaving all three of us with the Patterson’s, and she always came back with new clothes for all of us,” Lucas replied.

“My home is located very close to Kings Park, which is a large bush and botanical garden park, and it has some views of the Swan River too. It is a lot smaller in area than what you are used to at home, although the whole property is about 1/3 of an acre in area, it is surrounded by tall apartment buildings on two sides, and a house and the start of Kings Park on the Eastern side.

I was originally thinking of sending you and Trent to my old private school in South Perth, but there is a fair amount of travelling to get there, so once you boys are settled in, we will go an have a look at other options a bit closer to home,” I said to Lucas.

It was getting close to 7 pm by the time I drover around the north and western end of the city, this time I drove all the way down to Mounts Bay Road, and past the University colleges, before turning onto Kings Park Avenue, where I was surprised to find a fire truck blocking my entry into the property, but with no red lights flashing, I was guessing that it was not an emergency.

That was until I opened the window and got a strong smell of smoke, and I was suddenly facing the possibility of no longer having a home to live in, as I saw a Fire Officer walk towards my vehicle. “Good evening, how may I assist you?” he asked me.

“That is my home that you are blocking access to, has it been fire damaged?” I responded, and the officer smiled and shook his head no. “So, you are Mr Kye Seabrook then. No sir, your home is fine, it is the house in front of yours that has been completely guttered by fire, Looks like to be an electrical fault.

Apart from some singed trees along the boundary, your place has not been affected by the fire, but you may have some smoke, so you may need to air out the house for a few days, and maybe spend a few days staying somewhere else,” the fire officer replied.

I thanked the officer for his information, and turning around I headed into the city, to find a family suite for us to stay in for a while, and after a fair amount of searching, both online and via telephone, I found an apartment hotel that has family rooms, with two bedrooms, and it is close to the north end of Kings Park in West Perth.