Tsunami - 10. Tsu Chapter 10

For the next four years, life continued, and every Christmas I would think of Mei Ling and the two boys, who I continue to miss very much, and I would lay flowers at the memorial site for them each year on Boxing Day at 9am, the time when the tsunami hit Malaysia.

The business was doing extremely well now, with Kyle now living in New Zealand where he is the companies Area Manager for the 4 branch shops over there, with 2 other shops located at Dunedin and Wellington, plus the 4 other new shops in the north east of the country in Brisbane, Cairns, Townsville and Newcastle, plus the existing store in Sydney.

Meanwhile I managed the 2 Northern Territory shops, located in Darwin, Alice Springs, plus the 6 shops in Western Australia, located in Perth, Bunbury, Albany, Geraldton, Port Hedland and Broome.

Jared was now living in Geelong, where he acts as the Area Manager for the company for the existing Melbourne store, plus the new stores in Geelong, Hobart, Launceston, Adelaide and Port Augusta, which makes a total of 23 shops, plus three warehouses and the administration headquarters in East Perth, which I have had to expand, and I now employ five full time staff there.

In the city of Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia

At the St Michael’ Primary School, 11-year Bashar, and 9-year old Ghani, were sitting under the Banyan tree eating their morning break snack, an apple and two biscuits and a fruit juice each.

For the past six years the boys have stayed close together, they knew by instinct that they were brothers, and every now and then a small piece of their memory would return, but today an event would change that forever.

When the bell went to return to class, Ghani said he wanted to go to the bathroom first, and his bigger brother said he would wait for him outside till he is done. But when Bashar saw the two school bullies follow his brother towards the bathrooms, he panicked and shouted a warning to his brother.

“Grady, watch out, you are being followed”, he said and suddenly, his memory came flooding back. Ghani stopped suddenly and turned to face his brother, on hearing his name in clear English, and he too started to remember who he was, and he ran past the two bullies who had also stopped, and into his older brother’s arms, and they both began to cry.

The teacher who had been supervising the play area during the morning break, heard what Bashar had called out, and knowing that they boys had memory problems since the tsunami, she guessed that their memories had just been restored, as she walked towards them. A few minutes later in the Principals office, the two boys stood in front of the lady who ran the school.

“Sister Agnes, my real name is Boyden, and this is my brother Grady, our last name is Ashburton, and we have twin younger brothers, Keegan and Rhain, our father is Lukin, who was doing business in Penang at the time... at the time of the big wave.

Our mother who has family in Malaysia, was looking after us on the day, and was on the beach at the time of the big wave, we had just got into the car to get changed when it hit, we were tossed around the car when it flipped over and spun around a lot of times, when it was calm again, we stayed in the car for nearly two days till the water dropped, before we climbed out of the car and started looking for food and water.

Our home is in Perth Western Australia, Sister Agnes, Grady and I would like to go home now please” Boyden said in clear English, since it is their first language.

Sister Agnes was pleased that finally the boys had regained their memory, and she smiled as she asked the boys to take a seat while she made a phone call, to the Australian Embassy in Singapore, were she hoped they would be able to contact the boy’s father, to let him know that the boys are alive and well.

Within a few minutes, she was able to speak to the Embassy officer who was dealing with missing persons from the tsunami. She explained to the lady at the Embassy the whole story of the boys and how they ended up at St Michael’s, and that she would like to contact the boy’s father to give him the good news, and she was given the mobile number for Mr Kyle Ashburton, the boy’s uncle.

In Wellington, New Zealand it was 11pm when Kyle’s mobile phone rang, and without looking at the screen, he answered it, “Kyle Ashburton speaking, this better be good as its 11pm here in New Zealand”, he said still half asleep.

“My apologies for waking you Mr Ashburton, my name is Sister Agnes from the St Michael’s Institution and Primary School in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia”, when Kyle heard where the lady was calling from he was wide awake instantly. “My apologies for being rude Sister, how may I help you” Kyle said politely.

“It is alright, I was not expecting to be calling someone in New Zealand, I have two boys who we have been looking after for the past six years, and finally today their memories were restored.

They were able to tell me exactly who they are and where they come from, plus some information on how they managed to survive the big wave as they call it. I think they are aware that their mother did not survive, and they are asking to go back home to Australia,” the sister said.

“I thank you for the wonderful news, and I will relay it to my brother – Lukin as soon as possible, may I speak to the boys please” Kyle asked, and a moment later a young voice came onto the phone, sobbing slightly, “Hello, is this Uncle Kyle? This is Grady speaking” the boy said softly.

“Hello nephew, it is wonderful to hear your voice, can Boyden get close, so he can hear me too” Kyle asked, and a moment later, “This is Boyden speaking, hello Uncle Kyle,” came the second voice, and Kyle could feel tears streaming down his cheeks.

“Boys it is so wonderful that we have finally found you, we have been searching for you for many years now, and we were losing hope, your father and younger brothers will be so glad to hear that you are both alive and well, so will your other uncles.

It will take a few days to organise getting you home, but we will do it as fast as possible ok, let me speak to Sister Agnes again please, and I will see you both soon”, Kyle said and he spent a few minutes speaking to Sister Agnes, to find out a little bit about where the boys have been living and attending school, before ending the call.

Kyle looked at his watch and worked out that five hours behind, which meant that the time in Perth is just after 6pm, and he started to dial the house phone number.

“This is Keegan and Rhain speaking, who is speaking please” came the voices of the twins as the phone was answered, “Boys this is Uncle Kyle speaking, can you switch the phone to loud speaker and call everyone so they can hear me” Kyle said to the twins, a few moment later Kyle could hear everyone gathering in the kitchen.

“Ok Kyle, what news do you have in New Zealand that has us all gathered” came the voice of Lukin, “Oh you will really like this little bro, I had a phone call just recently from a Sister Agnes, and after a chat with her I was able to speak too two very happy young fellows.

Boyden and Grady have had lost memory until just today, and one of the first things they asked for, was to go back home” Kyle said happily. In Perth, there was stunned silence in the room, when they heard what Kyle said, then sobbing of happiness could be heard coming from Lukin, and Kyle could hear the twins comforting their father.

Boyden and Grady were coming home...

The End