Outback - 16. OB Chapter 16

Instantly I grabbed my phone, then rushed to the lounge, picking up Kes, “Just a moment I’m getting changed” I said to delay the person on the other side of the door.

I suspected was Jacob Lenswood, indicating to Kes to keep quiet, we dashed into the bathroom, closing and locking the door. Whispering, “Shh, Kes, get into the bathtub and stay low”. I threw some clean, dry towels to him so it wasn’t so cold.

I called the police, “My name is Bryce Silverton and I suspect that Jacob Lenswood is trying to get his nephew back. He’s outside our motel room. Please hurry!” I pleaded.

“I just heard the front kicked in”. Grabbing the chair, I jammed it under the door handle. Joining Kes in the bath tub, and holding him close, I beseeched into the phone “Please! We need help, I fear for our lives.”

The police officer was trying to calm me down and informed me that officers were on their way, when two-gun shots fired through the door leaving two large holes, grabbing Kes I jumped out of the tub. Opening up the high window, I pushed Kyle through it, and started to climb up myself when the gun fired again, this time hitting me in the leg. I fell back down onto the bathroom floor. I heard Kes scream out for me from outside, before I was knocked unconscious from the butt of the gun.

When I woke up with a severe headache, and a bandage around my head, I realised I was in hospital. I sat up suddenly when I thought about Kes, and quickly laid back down as my head started to spin badly,

“It’s alright Mr Silverton; young Kes is in the children’s ward under sedation, getting some rest. You have a bad concussion, plus about a dozen shotgun pellets were taken out of your leg, but you will survive” the nurse said from a chair nearby.

I groaning from the headache, the nurse gave me some tablets to take, and I soon fell back to sleep. The next time I awoke it was early morning, and thankfully, my head wasn’t hurting so much, just a dull ache and my legs where a bit sore. I turning my head, I saw my sweet boy smiling at me. Some of the best medicine ever!.

“Hi, daddy. You better, today?” It was so good to see Kes standing there, “Good morning son, I am feeling better thank you. A lot better than yesterday”.

“Actually, it was the day before yesterday” came the unexpected voice of Uncle Matthew, who was at the door smiling, “Hey Matthew, how did you get here so fast” I said with a big grin.

“Actually, Christopher and I arrived just before the incident happened. We are staying at the same motel, and I was about to ring reception to find out what room you were staying in when we heard the gun shots. When I got there, you were unconscious and Lenswood about to clobber you again. So, I picked up the vase, hit him over the head, then pushed him forward. I was able to hold him down till the police arrived about twenty seconds later” Matt said filling in the gaps of what happened when I was unconscious,

“Uncle Chris got a McDonald’s Bacon and Egg Muffin for me. For breakfast” Kes said happily, I smiled at him then looked up at Matthew, who looked down at his feet.

I laughed, “It’s ok just this once, but no more junk food from you.”

“Woo hoo” came a shout from behind Matt,

“Christopher Silverton get your butt in here” I said sternly.

Chris slowly looked around from behind his father with a cheeky grin on his face, “Hey Cuz, how ya doing” he chortled, then ducked back behind Matthew. All I could do was laugh, then Matthew and Kes joined in, finally Chris did as well.

Once the laughter had stopped, the doctor arrived and he announced, “If you’re laughing, and it’s not hurting your head, then it’s safe for you to be released. Kes was officially released an hour ago, but has stayed by your bed since that time.”

Matthew and Chris took Kes down to the lounge so I could change out of the hospital gown.I went to the lounge to find Kes and Chris watching cartoons, while Matthew was talking to one of the nurses, till he saw me approaching. Dragging the boys away from the television, we all walked back to the motel.

“Oh by the way, I paid for the damage that Lenswood did to your motel room, and arranged for you and Kes to move into the room next to ours. The Motel was so grateful that they offered us all a free meal and stay” Matt said, just as my stomach growled.

“That’s good, because I haven’t eaten in two days” I quipped as it growled again, and they all laughed at my loud stomach.

Going directly to the motel room, both Kes and I changed our clothes. Then we all went to the steakhouse restaurant for an early, good-sized lunch.

“What are your plans now, Bryce?” Matthew inquired

“Well once we have a good feed, plus a bit of a look around town, I suggest we have an early dinner and retire early, so we can catch the early morning flight to Kalgoorlie. I will book the tickets straight after lunch for the four of us. The following day, we should be able to catch the next run of the Indian Pacific” I said to the family members present.

Kes sat next to Christopher on the flight south the next morning. They laughed and played games during the 3½ hour flight, and I was pleased that they were getting on beautifully with each other. Once in Kalgoorlie, we checked into the hotel that I had booked the day before, as well as picking up train tickets for the trip home to the railway siding closest to home.

When the train made its stop to drop us off in the middle of the Nullabour, two vehicles with the drivers, Daniel and Natalia were waiting. I sure that I sat at the front beside Daniel for the return journey. All the luggage loaded into the back of mine and Daniel’s vehicle, while Matthew, Chris and Kes climbed into the other vehicle with Natalia.

During the journey, I spent some time thinking about what had happened before. For the remainder of the journey, Daniel and I had a very difficult discussion regarding his feelings. I was able to get him to understand that, although I had never considered a relationship with another man, I now have a son I to consider, and Kes was now my number one priority. But thoughts swirled in the back of my mind, that I couldn’t voice right now.

“Bryce, first I want to apologise for my behaviour back then. I still like you as a friend, but I respect you more. I understand and promise, it won’t repeated” Daniel confessed.

“Would you like to remain at NCoST or would you like to return to Pandora?” I queried.

“If you don’t mind, I’ll remain at NcoST. I’m really in enjoying the work at the college.” he told me.

Once we arrived back at the Station, I took Kes on a tour of his new home. Starting at our base of the cottage near the admin centre, we walked over to the homestead, so Kes could have a look around. While there, we had some afternoon tea while. Next, I took Kes to look around the rest of the homestead compound, showing him the recreation area, the sheds. Finally, we went for a drive around some other areas close to the homestead, including the airfield and the RFDS Village.

Kes fell asleep as we drove back home from the airfield. Carrying him to his bed, I tucked him in for a late afternoon nap. I sat in my lounge, doing some reading, so I could be close by when he woke up. Surprisingly I too, fell asleep. Natalia came into the cottage to find Kes curled up beside me, with both of us sound asleep. She gave me a little tap on the shoulder to wake me up to announce that dinner was ready.

When I saw Kes laying beside me I just smiled, and gently woke him up.

“Hello Daddy” he giggled as he looked into my eyes.

Tears formed in my eyes when he said that. Giving him a hug and kiss on the forehead, “Hello son, time for some dinner. Are you hungry?” I replied.

Kes giving a big nod of his head, jumping up off the couch and grabbing my hand started to pull me up off the couch as best as he could for a six year old. After dinner, I had a quick chat to Natalia in the kitchen, away from Kes’ hearing.

Returning from the kitchen, “Kes, I have a surprise for you, but we need to go to the cottage to get ready for the surprise.” I informed him.

Back at the cottage, “Kes you need to shower and put some warm clothes on” I explained. A few minutes later, a totally naked Kes ran into the lounge, demanding “Daddy, how do you turn on the shower?”

I led Kes back into the bathroom, showing him how it was done, and how to adjust the temperature. “There you go, now finish up” I told him.

While Kes was having a shower, I gathered the two swags, and some blankets. While I was loading that, Natalia walked over with a box full of tucker bags. Together we packed everything into the back of the Ute. Natalia returned to the homestead and I went back inside to wait for Kes to finish.

Once Kes was ready, we jumped into the Ute and headed down to my favourite spot, the artesian spring located near the dry riverbed. Where I showed Kes the wonderful spring pool, the raised covered balcony along one side of the pool, with half walls around three sides and a railing and a gate on the pool side.

I also showed him the fire pit with large rocks around it, and the three raised seats around the pit, off in the distance is a small corrugated shed, which is a deep drop toilet, with a water tank on a raised rock bed stand, to provide water for the toilet and the wash sink and the outdoor shower, plus the raised walkway from the patio to the toilet/washroom, and the privacy screen for the outdoor shower.

I rolled out the swags on the balcony, and got the camp fire going in the fire pit, where we would be toasting some marshmallows. Over the next few hours we sat by the fire, Kes telling me what he had been doing as a young fellow at his grandparents cattle station up north, while I entertained him with tales of how I attended the rodeo every year in Kalgoorlie. Followed by going to the city once a year to do shopping before Christmas, and that is when I met his mother.

Kes fell asleep as I was telling the story of how we met. I tucked him into his swag, then spreading out the wood in the fire pit to let it burn down, and finally, I settled down for the night. I fell asleep thinking, the first night camping out and sharing this experience with my son, was the greatest feeling ever.

In the morning, I woke up just as dawn was appearing in the distance, so I got the fire restarted and got the billy on before starting to prepare the damper for breakfast.

After a loud yawn Kes sat up, blinked a number of times, “Morning Daddy, I sleeped really good in this swag, can I sleep in it again? its really, really nice to sleep in” Kes said as he climbed out of his bed and giving me a big hug.

“Good morning son, go and use the bathroom while I finish breakfast, then we can go and do some fishing” I told Kes. He dashed off and was back a few moments later.

After a full day and another night at the camp site, we returned to the homestead, having swum in the river, soaked in the pool, caught some fish and walking around the bush. I enjoyed showing Kes how to look for animal tracks and how to identify the animal. While Kes was settling back into his room, I went to the office to find Natalia staring at the phone, when she looked up to see me standing at the doorway, I smiled and walked to her and gave her a hug.

“I have just got off the phone with the lawyers of Kes’s grandparents, it appears that because his great aunt and uncle have ended up in prison, and are no longer of good character, they are no longer entitled to the 20 % shares each of Edgerton Pastoral Co, so instead of having just 60 % shares of the company, Kes now has the full 100 % ownership. Since you are Kes’s full time parent, you are now the Managing Director and Trust manager of Edgerton Pastoral Co” Natalia relayed to me.

I sat down, thinking about what had just been disclosed to me. Oh wow, I now had to manage another 4 stations a total of 5.5 million acres. Changing seats with Natalia, I called the law firm back to have a more detailed discussion with them. As I was chatting to the lawyers, I just scribbled some sums, to work out what Kes had in shares for Edgerton, plus Kes’s shares with his two companies, and it added to a whopping $30 Million dollars.

By the end of the conversation I had a better idea of what the lawyers wanted me to do. It was my recommendation that Edgerton Pastoral Co, be sold and the money be invested in a trust for Kes, till he reaches the age of 21 years. The lawyer’s agreed with my recommendation, and they would get onto organising the sale of the four stations. Over the next two weeks I spent as much time with Kes as I could. While he was settling into a new home environment, he would often shadow me as I went out on trips out to other parts of the stations.

About a month later, when the media decided to do a feature on the story of the Edgerton Pastoral Co, they managed to find out some interesting information, which resulted in me not being very happy at all when the story came out, “What has happened to the Edgerton Pastoral Empire?” was the title of the feature story, and as soon as I saw this I groaned as I knew it wouldn’t be good.