Long Road - 7. Lon Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The next morning, I was up just after dawn, and after giving Bonnie some feed, and giving her a brush, I saddled her up, and with just a small amount of water and the radio in my backpack, we headed off on a short ride, this time, just down the driveway and alongside the airstrip and back, were I knew it was flat and free of any rocks or holes.

When I arrived back at the north end of the airfield, one of the station vehicles was parked to one side, and Lance was leaning against it watching me galloping down the runway. “Unless she has wings, I doubt that she would be able to take off at that speed,” Lance commented as I came to a halt beside the vehicle.

“Ha, ha, very funny mate, I was just giving Bonnie a good work out, so what is on the agenda for this morning?” I responded as I patted Bonnie’s neck, “Well, once you have finished with her majesty there, and had some breakfast, I thought we would get started on the extensions to this runway.

“Danny has already located about a dozen old tyres, and he is going to start painting them, after breakfast, which he is cooking up for us as we speak,” Lance replied.

After a cooked breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, tomato, toast and a cup of tea, we walked over to the shed, where Danny had some old ute tyres all lined up, and Lance jumped up into the front end loader, which has a bucket attached on the front, and he backed it out of the shed and stopped.

Coming back inside, he asked me if I can drive a truck, and I looked over to the old truck parked close by, and I shrugged my shoulders, not sure if I could, so Lance spent the next ten minutes giving me a detailed crash course in driving the truck, which has a difficult gearbox in it, making it hard to change gears.

Once I felt comfortable with driving the truck, we set off down the driveway, and instead of turning right towards the airfield, we turned left, and a few minutes later we arrived at a gravel pit, that had a pile of gravel ready to be loaded up into the truck.

With a full load, we headed over to the airfield, where we stopped at the north end, so Lance could tell me what his plans are. “I am going to extend the airfield two hundred metres at this end as well, so sit back and watch, while I do the clearing at this end, and once I am done, I want you to empty out the load in an even way, moving forward as the gravel tips out, so it is easier to level off,” Lance announced.

A little over an hour later, the north end was cleared and I had dumped out the first load of gravel, just as Danny arrived in another station vehicle, and he took over driving the truck, which I was very pleased to let him do, as the truck was very temperamental, and I was sent back to the shed, to put a second coat of white paint onto the old tyres.

When I had completed this, I went over to the yards to check on Bonnie, who was having a sand bath, rolling around in the yard, and I watched her for a few moments, before heading over to the homestead, arriving, just when the phone rang. “Wydgee station, Harrison speaking,” I said answering the call.

“Hello dear, how are things going up there, are you enjoying it?” Mum said to me, and I smiled, happy to hear her voice, “Yes Mum, everything is fine up here, fairly hot and I have been kept busy, we are working on upgrading the airfield, at the moment, and I have just finished painting the boundary markers,” I replied.

“Good, so how long are you going to staying up to there, son?” Mum asked, “I have contacted the university and I have applied to do my studies online, which they are happy for me to do since I am so far away from the city, how is my little brother going, staying out of trouble I hope?” I replied.

“Yes, he is doing fine, although he is missing his big brother terribly, and he said last night that he wants you to come home,” Mum said.

“Well just tell him that I am working as well as studying, so as to keep the property down there in family hands, I will be sending you some money every month so that you can put towards paying off the bank loan that Dad took out a few years back,” I replied.

“I didn’t know you knew about that dear?” Mum said to me.

“Yes Mum, so that Logan can stay at the private school to get a good education, so don’t worry about it, I will be helping to keep the family afloat, as well as continuing my studies, now I must go, I have lots to do, say hello to Logan, and I will talk again soon, oh and the best time to call is in the evening, as we start fairly early in the morning here,” I replied.

After making up a thermos of hot water, and with a small bottle of milk, teabags, sugar, and three tin mugs, plus some apples and some biscuits that I found in the pantry, I headed back outside, and headed back to the airfield, taking my vehicle for the short 400 metres to where the work was being done.

I saw that the gravel had been levelled out for the 200-metre extension on the north end, and Lance had cleared away shrubs and bushes on the eastern side of the runway, using a different tractor, with the clearing blade on it, and there was no sign of the truck or the front end loader, as he was coming back on the western side, clearing away the shrubs as he came back, and I watched and waited till he had finished.

At about the same time as he arrived, I heard the truck coming from behind me, and it was loaded up with more gravel, as he came to a stop next to Lance in the tractor, and they spoke for a few moments, before Danny drove off in the truck, down to the other end of the runway.

“How did you go with tyres?” Lance asked me, after shutting down the tractor and climbing down. “Yes, all good, and while I was preparing morning tea, I had a call from my Mum, wondering how I am going, and how long I will be here for, and I told her that I would be staying and working on the station<” I replied.

“How did she take it?” Lance asked, “Ok I guess, she mentioned that Logan is missing me, and wants me to come home, but I told her that I am staying here to earn some money and help out my mate,” I replied.

After some morning tea, I travelled with Danny to the gravel pit, and after a driving lesson on the loader, I was soon busy loading up the truck, with a round trip taking about fifteen minutes, so between the trips, I continued to dig out some more gravel and pile it up in heaps ready for loading.

At 1 pm, Lance called it quits and said it was time for lunch, so we all piled into my vehicle and drove back to the homestead. Danny and I got to work to prepare lunch, while Lance headed to his office to make some phone calls, and when we sat down to eat, Danny reminded us that he supplies truck would be arriving at 2 pm today, as well as our neighbours, to collect their supplies.

“Yoo, hoo, anyone home?” a female voice called, just after Danny had said that. “Come in Cheryl, we are just having a late lunch,” Danny answered, and a few moments later, a stocky lady walked into the kitchen and both Lance and me, stood up, which made the lady frown and Danny chuckle.

“Cheryl is not used to men standing up when she enters a room,” Danny explained, and we both sat down again, while Danny stood up and headed to the stove to put on the kettle.

“Boss, this is our neighbour from Nalbarra Station, Cheryl Parks, and Sue Jameson from Kirkalocka, won’t be too far behind, Cheryl, this is my new boss, Lance Atkinson, and his good mate Harrison Alpike,” Danny said making the introductions, just as we heard the front door open.

‘Yes I know, you were quite impressive at the rodeo on the weekend” Cheryl said, which made me blush a little and both Lance and Danny laughed, just as the other lady arrived, and introductions were made again. The ladies chatted while we continued to eat, and we informed them of the work we were doing to extend and improve the quality of the rundown airfield.

When the supply truck arrived, everyone headed outside, and with Cheryl and Sue backing their vehicles to the back of the truck, all the supplies were transferred and soon after the truck disappeared down the drive, to continue the deliveries, while Cheryl and Sue stayed long enough to say goodbye, and they too headed back to their stations, while we began to put away all of the supplies that had arrived.

“I was able to add to the delivery order, just in time, to allow for the extra staff now staying here, so we will have plenty of supplies to last us for a month or longer if need be” Lance commented, as we put the last of the supplies away in the pantry and dry food store.

“So, who is going to be the lucky person to get up at 3 am to meet the bus?” I asked as we finished with the supplies, and Lance groaned at this question.

“I guess since I am the boss, it will have to be me” Lance replied, sounding not too pleased about getting up so early, and the telephone rang, which Lance went to answer.

“Yes he is right here, just a moment please” we heard Lance say, and he looked in my direction. “It is your Mum, and she doesn't sound too good,” Lance said to me before handing over the phone.

“Hello, Mum, what is up?” I said into the phone. “Hello, son, Logan went to stay a friends place for a couple of days, after we had a big fight about his behaviour at the rodeo, and when I rang his friend to check on him, it appears that he never went there, and now I am getting very worried” Mum said to me.

“Oh, have you tried calling all of his friends, and what about the friends in Moora?” I responded, shocked to hear that my little brother had run away from home.

“Yes, we have called everywhere, he doesn't have many friends here in Perth, and none of them has seen Logan since two days ago. He has taken his swag, duffle bag, his leather boots and some clothes” Mum said sounding very worried.

Suddenly, the thought came to me, that maybe my little brother is on his way up here, but I wouldn’t know until very early tomorrow morning. “Look, Mum, I will make some enquiries, and I will get back to you tomorrow morning, to let you know how I went with trying to find him,” I said to try and reassure Mum that her youngest son will be fine.

After the phone call, I sat down and was thinking when Lance cleared his throat, “Any problems?” he asked, “Yeah, I guess you could say there is, Logan has run away from home, after having a big fight with Mum, and I have a sneaky suspicion, that he may be on tomorrow morning’s bus,” I replied.

“Not a problem, we can always do with an extra pair of hands, but he will have work for his keep,” Lance said to me, “I would not have it any other way mate,” I replied.

Reluctantly, I said that I would meet the bus at 3 am tomorrow morning, to see if my brother has come up or not, and with that decided, we headed back outside to do some more work.

When my alarm clock sounded at 2.30 am the next morning, I nearly cancelled it and went back to sleep, when I remembered that the bus would be passing by in half an hour, so I sprung out of bed, has a shower and changed into some fresh clothes, before making a quick cup of tea to warm me up a little.

As quietly as possible, I drove down to the front gate, in my vehicle, which I had parked near the shed, so as not to disturb Bonnie, and I parked a little way back from the road, with my park lights on, so the bus can see where to stop.

A few minutes later, the bus arrived, and sure enough, Logan stepped off, looking tired, but what surprised me was that there was an extra person that stepped off apart from Linda and Andrew, as the driver opened the luggage locker, and unloaded the luggage.

I climbed out of the vehicle and walked straight up to Logan, “You have got our mother very worried, with you disappearing like that, I am very annoyed with you at the moment, as well as glad that you are safe,” I said sternly to my brother.

“Yeah, sorry Harrison, but I just couldn’t take it any more, I have been getting bullied at school, and I've had enough of it” Logan replied sadly and I pulled him into a tight hug, and he began to sob a little. “Shhh, it is ok bro, you are here and you are safe, that is the main thing, now go and grab your stuff,” I said to Logan, and realised that the bus was moving away and that three other sets of eyes were watching us.

“Hello, my name is Harrison Alpike, welcome to Wydgee Station, sorry about the family drama, my brother here should not be here, but that is sorted, now that I know he is safe,” I said to the others, “Hi, I am Linda,” the young lady said, as she stepped forward and shook my hand, “and I am Andrew Parsons, and this is my little brother James, who I have had to bring with me, also because of family problems” the young man said to me.