Sanctuary from Harm - 10. Sanc Chapter 10

After checking the last area that the homeless tend to gather during the late afternoon and early evening, we were about to head back to the Project, when a lonely figure caught my attention, crouching over something laying on the ground.

“Stop, over there, head to your left, I see something on the street corner!” Scott called out from the passenger seat of my vehicle, before grabbing the two-way radio mike, “Prado to Tarago, over” Scott said into the mic, “This is Charles, over,” came the response, “We are changing direction to check something out, we will see you back at the project, over,” Scott said, “Roger that, let us know if you need us, Prado out,” Charles replied.

When we were a lot closer, we saw that it is a boy crouched down over another person, but we could not tell anymore because the rain was so heavy, and we quickly stopped beside them and jumped out. “Please help, I can’t get him to move, please help him, he is all that I have,” the boy's voice said anxiously, and only just loud enough for us to hear him speak.

Taking a quick look, the boy looked very young and he was very skinny and pale, and shaking badly, so I took off my jacket and placed it over him before scooping him up in my arms, as Scott opened the back of my car, and I stepped into the car with the boy in my arms. Once inside, Scott guided the other boy the other rear passenger door, and he slid into the seat beside me before Scott got into the driver seat.

“A & E as fast as you can Scott, this boy is dangerously sick,”’ I instructed and we were soon on our way to the nearest major hospital, which is a good fifteen-minutes’ drive away. On the way to the hospital, I called a number that I had only just entered into my phone directory earlier today.

“Detective Julian Brand speaking?” came the answer when the call connected, “Julian, this is Hunter Langston from the Discovery Project, I know it isn’t your jurisdiction, but I need friendly police assistance on an urgent matter, can you meet us at A & E at the Gemstone Hospital please,” I said.

“Yes, sure thing, I have just finished work for the day, and I was contemplating if I should drive in this terrible weather or not, but I guess I have no choice now, see you soon,” Julian said before ending the call. “Well he is coming, and hopefully he can assist us if we come across any hurdles when we get to the hospital,” I commented.

When we arrived at the hospital, Julian had already arrived and was standing undercover area of the front entry to the A & E department, and seeing two youngsters and myself in the back seat, he opened the back door, but the boy didn’t move.

“It is ok, he is a friend, he is here to help us,” I reassured the boy and reluctantly he stepped out, and dashed for undercover shelter from the heavy rain, while Scott had come around to the other side, with an umbrella, to assist me out, with me still carrying the frail boy.

Once inside, the nurses took over care of the boy that I was holding, and the other boy as well, wrapping them in blankets, to try and get them warm again, before rushing them through to the examination area. “Right, would you mind telling me what the hell is going on?” Julian asked me.

“As you know, we were supposed to be starting work this evening, but as we were heading out, this terrible storm hit, and we decided to go out and check that there are no street kids stuck outdoors in this storm, and we checked all of the usual areas that they gather, especially when it comes to dinner time with the soup kitchen van.

The staff from the van informed me that only a small number of homeless braved the weather to get a feed, and they were not exactly sure where they camp out when there is rough weather. We were about to head back to the project when Scott spotted these two in the rain, one laying on the ground, the other crouched over him. Both of them look like they haven’t eaten in some time, and the one laying down looked quite ill, so we rushed them here, calling you on the way” I explained.

“Did you ask them any questions, like who they are and what they were doing alone out in the rain?” Julian asked, “I tried, but the one who was crouching over the other was more concerned about his friend than saying anything, he just held his hand and repeated saying he is sorry for not taking care of him properly,” I responded.

“Ok, I guess we need to see how they are before we can get any answers, will you be able to take care of them, once they are released from the hospital?” Julian said, “Yes, sure not a problem, we can but I am not sure how old they are,” I replied.

“Are you the people who brought the two boys in here?” a voice asked, bringing me out of a light sleep, and it took me a moment to realise that she was talking to us, and I jumped out of my seat, unaware that Scott and Julian were leaning on each of my shoulders, and their heads collided when they fell sideways from my sudden move.

The sound of their heads colliding made me realise what had just happened, and although it was funny in a way, Julian and Scott were not amused, as they rubbed their very sore heads. The medical person who asked the question and a nurse nearby who saw it happen, dashed to their sides to check on both of them and began a series of checks to make sure they are ok.

While the nurse went to get some pain killers for both of them, the Doctor turned to me, “Nice three stooges move there sir, now back to my original question, are you the people who brought the two boys here about two hours ago?” the doctor asked me, and I smiled at the first comment she made.

“Yes, we are, and I am terribly sorry for doing that, I was half asleep and I didn’t realise that I was being used as a pillow for two,” I replied. “The Nurse will have them fixed shortly, now can you tell me a bit about these two boys?” the doctor asked me.

“Well, we don’t know anything really, we are a team of welfare workers, working for a new project to look after homeless young people, and we were checking the streets to make sure no one was caught in this nasty storm, when we came across the two boys, and we brought hem straight here,” I explained.

“I see, well we haven’t managed to get much out of their either, except that they are brothers, Giles who is 14 and Carter is 13. Which one of you is Hunter?” the doctor said. “That would be me, Hunter Langston is my full name, I am a qualified Psychologist, and I have degrees in Education and Medical Science also,” I responded. “Nice to meet you, Hunter, my name is Dr Janene Princeton, Senior specialist in Child and Adolescent Emergency Medicine, Giles has been asking for you ever since they have been settled into a room together,” Dr Princeton stated.

“Excuse me Dr, my name is Detective Julian Brand, I am the partner of a colleague of Hunter and Scott here, and I can confirm their qualifications and expertise,” Julian said as he retrieved his police badge and showed it to the doctor. “I see, well thankyou detective. Mr Langston, will you please follow me,” the doctor replied.

“Do we know anything else about these boys, as a surname?” I asked, as we passed through the doors into the emergency room, and a few moments later we stepped into an elevator, and Dr Princeton pressed the button to the third floor. “Both boys are very lucky to be alive, especially young, Carter, as he has a bad case of Pneumonia, and it looks like they are both very malnourished, as their boy weights are way below normal levels for their age.

Carter will be with us for at least a week or more until he beats the infection and gets some weight back into his body. For Giles, I think we will keep him in for a few days, to make sure he is eating healthy before we can release him. We need to know their name, so we can contact their parents,” Dr Princeton said to me.

I will do my best to find out, and I am sure that Detective Brand will be able to track down their parents, once we know their surname,” I replied, as the lift came to a stop and the doors opened. Less than a minute later, we had entered the paediatric ward of the hospital, and the doctor stopped at the nurse’s station, forcing me to step to one side to avoid colliding into the back of her.

“This is Mr Hunter Langston, a qualified psychologist, he has my authorisation to visit the two boys that were brought in to A & E two hours ago,” the doctor said to the nurse at the desk, “Yes doctor, I have just checked on them, Carter is sleeping, while Giles is laying in bed keeping a vigil on his brother,” the nurse replied.

A few moments later, we entered room close by, where the lights were very dim, and it took me a moment for my eyes to get used to the difference. The older boy Giles sat up suddenly when he saw me enter, and held out his arms towards me, so I went to his bedside and bent down to allow him to give me a hug, but when I tried to straighten up, he would not let go.

“Giles, you need to let go so I can sit down,” I said softly, and reluctantly he let go of his grip around my neck, and I retrieved a nearby chair and sat down. I glanced over to the other bed, where Carter was sleeping, even though he was connected to a heart monitor and a few other tubes to his arm.

Giles also has one tube in his arm, no doubt it is to provide fluids to his skinny body. “Now my little friend, I don’t want you to worry, the people here at this hospital will take great care of you and your brother, you need to rest so that you can get better too,” I stated to Giles, who nodded his head in understanding.

“Why were you and your brother out in the storm instead of being at home where it is safe and warm?” I asked Giles, and I noticed, Giles drop his head and a tear soon ran down his cheek. “It is ok mate, you can trust me, you are not in any trouble, we just want to know what has happened and to take care of you,” I explained.

“On the last day of school term, we came home to an empty house, and eventually we found a note from our parents, saying that they both had to leave suddenly for an overseas business trip and that Mrs Overton, our elderly childminder would come over and stay to look after us for the two weeks, that they are away, and that they had deposited money into her bank account to cover all expenses for looking after us. Mrs Overton never came, and we tried calling her many times, but she never answered, and we do not know where she lives.

We ate all the food that we found in the house, but we had no money to buy more food after a week, so we have been going around dumpster bins outside restaurants, looking for food, and Carter has had this really bad cough for five days now, and he just collapsed on the footpath, as we were heading home, when we were caught in the storm,” Giles explained.

“I see, so what is your last name, and what do your parents do for work?” I asked Giles, “Our surname is Frankston, we live in Barkly Lane in Morley, and they are both sales reps, but Mum is more senior than Dad, so they are always off travelling around the country, I’m not sure what exactly what they sell, but it keeps them very busy, Giles replied.

“Ok, now I want you to get some sleep like your brother is doing, and I will be back here in the morning to check up on you both, ok?” I said to Giles, “Can’t you stay, I don’t want to be alone any more, it scares me,” Giles said, “You are not alone anymore, you have nurses that will be checking on you regularly throughout the night, and I will be back first thing in the morning,” I said to the boy, and Giles nodded his head before snuggling deeper into the bed.

Once his eyes were closed and his breathing was steady, I quietly left the room, and headed to the nurse’s station, before sending a quick text message to Julian, asking him to come up to the third floor. “Detective Brand will be arriving soon, he will assist me with finding his parents, if you can let him in please, and the boy’s surname is Frankston,” I said to the nurse.

After briefing Julian on the conversation that I had with Giles, we headed out of the ward and back downstairs, where Scott was still waiting, and he quickly jumped up when he saw us approaching. While I updated Scott on what I had learnt, Julian was on his phone, and we listened to the one side of the conversation.

“I see, ok thank you for that, we have a psychologist on hand to assist the two boys, let me know when you get information of their parent’s whereabouts, bye,” we heard Julian say as he ended the call and turned to us. “It appears the reason why Mrs Overton didn’t arrive, is that she died of a heart attack in the early hours of the same day that Mr and Mrs Frankston left town, so they no doubt are aware of her death when they left.

We are still trying to find out where they went to, but now we have an address, a police unit is heading over there to try and get some clues,” Julian explained. “You know, this reminds me of a movie I once saw, that had a similar situation, but at the moment I can’t for the life of me remember the name of the movie,” Scott said to us.

Julian suggested that we head home to get some rest and that he will update us on any news, that he gets about the boy’s parents, as soon as possible, so we said goodnight and headed for our vehicle, which Scott had moved to the main carpark area. Back at the project, we briefed Charles and Nathan on what had happened, while we prepared and at a late-night snack before we all retired to our separate rooms.

I was awake by 6 am the next morning, and since we had no clients, I headed to the main kitchen on the ground floor, since we have a mountain of food in there, and no clients to eat it. The others arrived about 45 minutes later, and helped themselves to coffee and tea, before sitting down at the main table, where I placed cooked bacon, scrambles and fried eggs, sausages, tomatoes, toast and orange juice.

“Thanks for giving me a day off from cooking mate,” Nathan said to me with a big grin, between mouthfuls of toast, and I chuckled at this, “this is a one time thing, so don’t get used to it,” I responded, and Nathan put on a sad facial expression, which made the others laugh, “that face does not work for me Mr, so stop even trying to get away from cooking in the future,” is said. “Oh well, it was worth the try,” Nathan said grinning again, and we all laughed, which was interrupted by the sound of my phone ringing.

“Good morning, Discovery Project, head shrink speaking,” I said answering the call, “Don’t you mean head wacko?” came the response, and I realised that it was Julian that was calling me. “Yeah, very funny detective, any news on the parents of the two boys?” I asked. “Yes, and it is not good, on top of losing the childminder, we have discovered that the father was killed and the mother seriously injured in a car accident, in Paris, France, about eight days ago.

The mother is in a coma, and they are not sure if she will survive, so it looks like that you may be the boy’s guardians until we know if she pulls out of it or not. I have already been onto Child Welfare services, and they know that you are an ideal and suitable person to look after the two boys once they are released from the hospital, and they have expedited the paperwork, so it will be all official as of noon today,” Julian said to me.

“Ok, thanks for that update, I appreciate all of your help on this matter, bye for now,” I said before ending the call and updating the others on what is happening. “I think since the boys are in a delicate way, it would not be a good idea to let them mix with the other street kids at first, so I am going to suggest we make the games lounge in my apartment, into an extra bedroom, that Giles and Carter can share.

I am hoping that maybe Jonah can have a supportive influence in assisting them to recover from their ordeal, any comments on this idea?” I said to the others gathered. “Yes, I think that would be a good move, will we get bunk singles or just two single beds?” Nathan replied.

“I think two singles would be best, as I think Giles will be a lot more comfortable being able to see his brother, instead of having to lean over the side edge of the top bunk bed,” I replied.

Over the next three days, I visited the boys in hospital for a few hours every mid-morning and late afternoon, Giles was now well enough to be discharged and Carter was well on the way to getting better, with his pneumonia less severe after three days of strong antibiotics, to kill the infection in his chest. I informed both boys that they would be coming to stay with me and my son, for a while, until the police work out what is happening.

Yesterday, with the help of Julian, we went to the boys home and collected all of the boy’s clothes and some of their belongings, which wasn’t very much, as they appeared to own very little, and we learnt that they lived in a rented house with rent behind in payments. Julian discovered that the boys had no other relatives, as both parents were orphans that were brought up in foster care, so with the assistance from the trustees, everything in the house was packed up and put into storage.

While all this was happening, Scott, Nathan and Charles were spending every evening, hanging out at the locations where the homeless gather for their regular evening meal. They located the four boys who had been listed as the first to come to the project, and on the second evening with them, Nathan brought up the idea to the boys of them trying out staying at this new place, that has designed and built to assist homeless young people.

Nathan and the other two mentioned that the new place was huge, with sports and recreation facilities, as well as education and activity facilities, that are safe and secure. “You would need to have a large high school to provide that sort of things, I reckon you are stretching the truth a bit,” one of the boy’s said to Nathan.

“That may be true in most cases, but we have a facility that is located inside two warehouses with multiple levels, so there is room for everything, plus a former house which is our administration centre. Hunter has selected you four boys as the first candidates to try out our facilities, as we feel that you are the most at risk of harm, from various things, with the weather being one of them.

The other day, we were able to rescue two boys who are brothers, that were caught in that storm the other day, and are now recovering in hospital. When they are released, they too will be joining you guys at the Discovery Project, which is what we are called,” Nathan explained to the four lads, who looked at each other to determine what they all thought.