Uncertain Future - 5. UF Chapter 5

Now that I had been formally introduced to all of the residents, I began to settle into a routine, with work at the hardware store till 2pm, 4 days a week. I made sure that I had at least one day off from doing anything, that being Sundays, for the rest of the time I was doing cleaning and maintenance work in the building in the afternoons after work, gradually making the apartment building a lot tidier and refreshed, with the front entry totally repainted, and some more decorating improvements to the lobby, to make it more inviting.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I was able to sleep in and spent the mornings doing my own house work, and maintenance and cleaning if needed in the afternoons, I left my apartment door open when I am in the office, to let the residents know that I am home, and they often would call in to chat, make a maintenance request or to present me with fresh scones, a plate of biscuits, I found that I was getting overly spoilt by some of the more senior widows, who loved a good chatter over a good cup of tea and snacks.

From the store room, I found a comfortable two seater lounge with two matching single seat chairs, a nice old coffee table and a beautiful complete bone china tea set, including a tea pot, so on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I would have the office spotlessly clean, and with the additional items of furniture, once I had relocated the maintenance workshop to the spare room at the back, to provide a comfortable office & lounge setting for the residents to visit. At first it was two or three of the residents that would come on those days, not always the same people, but after a few weeks the number grew to 7 regular visitors, and I had to retrieve more lounge chairs from the store room, to be able to seat everyone, for what had started at just afternoon tea and chats.

Soon, this included games of scrabble, and on finer days, I would suggest we move upstairs to the terrace, where there is a lot more space for everyone. Within 8 months, with a lot of help from Edward, I had the whole apartment building looking so much better inside and out, we hired a cherry picker, to be able to wash down all the external walls, removing years of built up grime, as well as repainting all the door and window frames on each balcony on all levels. The place looked almost brand new. We also convinced the residents to help fund the extension to the gazebo, to double its size to provide more shelter from bad weather. It had taken a lot of hard work but it had been completed, and I was very pleased with myself with what I had achieved.

When one of the owners of one of the rental apartments decided to have a valuation done, to see what his investment was worth, he was pleased to be informed that with the recent renovations to the outside of the building, including new landscaping, the value of his apartment had risen by a staggering $45,000. It didn't take long for the rest of the residents to find out this exciting news, even though no one was interested in leaving their homes in the near future, except for the owner of the two rentals who decided to take advantage of the excellent valuation and the favourable property sales market at the moment, and he placed his two apartments on to the real estate market.

When I heard about this I decided to ask Edward thoughts on what he thought about me getting a loan to buy the two apartments, as an investment, and I mentioned to him that I already own a vacant shop with a two bedroom apartment included, plus over $22,000 in personal savings, and $12,000 in business savings that can go towards getting a loan. When Edward heard this, he thought about it for a moment, then suggested that I keep the other property and the business savings out of it, and that he would put in $22,000 for an equal share in the two apartments.

That afternoon we closed the hardware store early and went to the bank to apply for a loan to buy the two apartments, and it was while filling out the application forms that I suddenly remembered about needing my real name on the application form, when Edward saw the troubled look on my face, and he asked the bank manager for a moment to talk to his investment partner for a moment. Once the manager had left the room, I gave out a long sigh, as I tried to think what to say to Edward, but before I could say anything, he spoke first, “If you are worried about your real name it's ok; I guessed who you were less than a week after I had first met you in the store.

I saw an article in the paper about your mother looking for her oldest son, who left home suddenly after a disagreement, and partly due to the recent loss of a dear old man who was like a grandfather to him.” I had tears in my eyes by now and all I could think to do was say thank you and give him a hug. “Now let’s get this over and done with shall we Wesley, then we can go and get something to eat.” Less than an hour later we had our loan approved for the amount required to purchase both two bedroom apartments, which are located on the 1^st floor of the building. We managed to get to the real estate agent, before they closed, and start the process to purchase the apartments, before they were even listed as for sale.

We decided to keep our ownership of the two apartments secret from the other residents for now, and left it to the real estate agent to inform the rental tenants that their rental agreement would remain in place after the change of ownership had taken place. I invited Edward over to my place for dinner, and he grabbed a bottle of wine on the way back, along with a couple of pizzas, which makes it easier on cleaning up afterwards.

During dinner, I learnt that Edward had inherited the business from his parents who were killed in a car accident, that he had a life partner – Jerome Paterson, aged 28 who was an engineer working on a major construction project in the Middle East, and he has two younger brothers, who live with his grandparents, who have legal custody of them. I learned that Edward doesn't get to see his brothers often because grandparents are not very accepting of his gay relationship, and they won’t let the two younger boys be influenced by his lifestyle.

Matthew who is 14 and Damien who is 12, have set up a Skype account at their school, and once a month during lunch break, they would go the library and use a school computer to talk to their older brother, who they hadn't seen face to face since their parent’s funeral over a year ago. I also learned that both boys enjoyed playing field hockey and tennis, which were my two favourite sports, and I suggested that maybe I could join the tennis club they were members of, and get to know them better, which Edward was very pleased about.

A few days later, as the end of the week approached, Edward was in his office chatting on Skype when I entered, and from an angle where I was not on camera, but still able to see the computer screen, I got to see what Edward's two brothers looked and sounded like. After the Skype chat, I told Edward that I had made an initial enquiry about social tennis at the tennis club that Matthew and Damien are members of, and that I would be going on Saturday afternoon to try it out. After I finished work, I went shopping to get some new sets of sports clothing, shoes and a couple tennis racquets, making sure that I purchased the higher quality items of each.

On Saturday afternoon, I arrived at the tennis club just as the members were setting up the nets. I introduced myself, and I assisted with the setting up of the nets, before going indoors to fill in the membership form and paying the annual membership fee in full. I enjoyed social tennis a lot more than competition tennis like it was at in school, and it didn't take long for me to get back into my good form again, winning all of the games I played, even if sometimes I had a poor playing partner.

After the first few games, some of the members saw that I was a very good player, and they organised the next match to be with some of the more middle-aged gents, who were some of the better players in the club. This game was a more challenging game, but we won the set 7 games to 5, finishing just as the afternoon tea break was beginning, and as I walked into the clubroom to have a rest and a good cup of tea, I spotted two young teenagers walk in with an elderly couple, I recognised them straight away from Skype the other day.

Cautiously I watched as the elderly couple waved goodbye to the boys, saying they would be back at 5pm to pick them up. The boys were quite tall for their age, a bit like their older brother, and they went to get a soft drink and some biscuits before sitting on their own, away from the rest of the group, and it appeared that I was probably the closest age to the boys in the club.

Within half an hour a few more teenagers appeared, and the boys were happy chatting to them when the call the next games was made, with a mix of senior players and junior players, and when I heard my name been called, I looked up as I hadn't heard who I was partnered with, until saw Damien approach me, and shyly he stuck out his hand and said hello. Standing up I shook his hand and told him I was Wesley Devonport, and it was a pleasure to meet him, as we grabbed our racquets and headed out to our assigned grass court. After a brief warm up, the toss and call was made, and I motioned Damien to serve first, as we began to play.

I decided to assist Damien as best as I could but also encourage him, and it didn't take long for us to gel together to form a great team, and we won our match 6 games to 4, with both of us out of the next round, I made my way over to a spare hard court with a dozen tennis balls and began to practice my serves, as I still was finding I was doing too many errors. About ten minutes later both Matthew and Damien came over and watched for a moment, before they went to the other side and started returning the serves, I watched them as they hit the ball back and stopped to suggest that they alter their stance slightly to help improve their return volleys. I wasn't aware of it but sometime later I had half a dozen senior club members watching on the side lines, watching me giving instructions to the boys on improving their tennis game.

I stopped as soon as I became aware of the crowd and one of the men who is the club president approached. “We don't have any professional or skilled coaches, but from what I have seen today, you would become a great asset to our club if you accept the position as honorary club coach for our juniors,” he said to me with a big smile. I returned the smile and stepped off the court to allow the boys to practice what I had shown them.

“Let me think about it and I will get back to you next Saturday, what are the days and times that I would be required,” I replied to the club president, as I continued to watch the boys practising. When I had finished the chat with the club president, I walked over to the boys and asked them to keep practising when they get the time, and in the mean time I suggested they return to the club room, to play some more games, and we wandered back to the club house, where I noticed the club president busy speaking to a number of other club members.

The boys introduced me to the other teenagers in the clubroom, all of them aged from 13 to 15 years old, so Damien was the youngest one there, and Matt was the oldest amongst them. As we chatted they asked how old I am, where do I live and what do I do for a job, so I gave them all the info, except I didn't mention that I worked in a hardware store, just a retail store instead, and that I was a caretaker for a small apartment building, which is where I live. I learned that all but two of the teenagers all attended the same private school, which is not that far away from the tennis club. Matthew & Damien mentioned that their parents had been killed over a year ago, and that they live with their grandparents, and that they have an older brother, who is 12 years older than Matt.

When I returned home after an enjoyable day of tennis, I had only been home for ten minutes before there was a knock on my door, and it was Edward, who was dying to know how it went, and did I get to meet his brothers. With a bit of a giggle I ushered Edward inside and closed the door, and once Edward was seated I told him about the afternoon at the tennis club, including the offer to be the club coach for juniors, and the social chat I had with the teenagers including Edward's younger brothers.

For the start of the week, I was kept busy with doing some minor maintenance around the building, as well as working at the hardware store. When I received a call from the club president in the late Thursday afternoon, asking me to attend the committee meeting at 6pm that evening; looking at my watch I said that I would be able to make it. Finishing off with the gardening duties that I was doing this afternoon in the back yard, I went inside to shower and change into some smart casual clothes, and I rode my bike down to the Tennis club, arriving ten minutes early. During the next 45 minutes, I was asked about my life, where I was from, what family I have and where I went to school.

I wasn't too keen giving to much of the real information, so I just said that I left home at the age of 16 due to a unhappy family environment and that I had been getting part time jobs for the past two years, that I went to a high school in a country town where I averaged B+ in most subjects, with tennis being the only sports that I enjoyed participating in. The committee seemed happy with my response to these questions, and they gave me a rundown of what they wanted in regards to coaching, although they were impressed with how I was instructing the boys last Saturday.

After a few more questions, I was told that coaching would be on Thursday afternoons from 4 to 6 pm, and Saturday mornings from 8 to12 noon, with private coaching on Sunday’s 2 – 4 pm, if I was available. I was thanked for attending the meeting and that the club looked forward to seeing the juniors in the club growing in strength with their new coaching, beginning the next Saturday.

Returning home to the apartment, I spent the rest of the afternoon, doing some house work, before having an early dinner, once I had cleaned up the kitchen, I went upstairs to the Roof Balcony to relax in the warm evening air, and I just laid on the decking for over an hour as I stared at the night sky and listened to the traffic and other noises of the night before I returned to my apartment and headed to bed early as I had work in the morning. When I arrived at the hardware store, I let Edward know about the new job as tennis coach at the tennis club, and he said he was very happy for me, and he agreed to let me off doing work on Saturdays, so I could coach and play social tennis at the club.

When I arrived home after work, I decided that I needed to set out a timetable so as to keep track of all my activities, as most days would now be quite busy, when I had finished making up the time table and looked at it more carefully, I could see that I was indeed a very busy person most days of the week, with a second social tennis session on Tuesdays from 2pm to 6pm; and busy also on the weekends.

Mondays, I had Hardware store from 8am to 1pm and Apartment duties from 2pm to 6pm. Tuesdays I had Apartment Duties from 8am to 6pm. Wednesdays I had Hardware store from 8am to 1pm and Apartment duties from 2pm to 6pm Thursdays I had Apartment Duties from 8am to 1pm, and Coaching Tennis from 4pm to 6pm. Fridays I had Hardware store from 8am to 1pm and Apartment duties from 3pm to 6pm. Saturdays I had Coaching Tennis from 8am to 12 noon, and Social Tennis from 2pm to 6pm. Sundays I had Coaching Tennis from 2pm to 4pm.

This gave me very little time on my own during the day, with Sundays the only day that I could sleep in. In some way, I was glad that I would now keeping a very busy life, as I would rarely be thinking of home, even thou I did miss Toby very much. I was pleased when I arrived home after work and found very little to do for the building in the afternoon, giving me a bit of time to tidy up my own apartment and do some laundry washing.

I found and envelope in my mail box which contained a note and a set of keys, “Wesley, here is a set of clubroom keys for you, so you can open up for coaching on Saturday.” I was able to get everything completed by 3pm, so I was able to relax for the remainder of the afternoon, as I had a busy day ahead of me the next day. The next morning, I woke up early and after having a healthy breakfast, I made my way down to the tennis club, arriving at 7am, and I was surprised to see the club president arriving at the same time, and he greeted me with a big smile and a wave.

Together we set up 4 courts, making sure they were all swept clean, the nets were put up and adjusted to the correct height, before we went into the club room for a cup of tea. As I sat down, the club president pulled out a Manila folder, containing a large number of application forms, which he handed to me, and after a quick scan of a number of the forms, I saw they were application and permission forms for coaching. “You have a busy day ahead of you I'm afraid, the word has got out that the club has a new young coach and a lot of the parents want their children to learn as much as they can,” the club president – Mike Davies said. I nodded my head as I started to go through the cover list at the start of the pile of applications, which stated the 3 time sessions of 8 to 9.30 am for learning players, 9.45 to 11.15 am for intermediate players and 1130 to 1pm for advanced players, plus a list of names and age of each student in each of the session.

I was pleased to see that both Matthew and Damien were both included, and both were in the intermediate players session, starting at 9:45 am, and there is a set maximum of 12 students for each of the sessions, with 12 in the beginners, 9 in the intermediate just 6 in the advanced group. With a full class for the first session, it was a bit chaotic at first, as I struggled to remember the names of the all the students, and they were all full of energy and enthusiasm to learn lots.

Once the first session was over, I grabbed a quick cup of tea before the start of the next session, I began the same way, by finding out each student’s name and their age, before seeing what skill level each of them were at. From there I was able to set practice exercises, to be able to get them to learn to place their feet in the correct place and adjusting their body weight correctly to be able to hit the ball to racquet accurately and to where they want the ball to go.

I found that both of the Letscome brothers were close to the upper end of their level, and I would consider them being moved to the higher level in a few weeks, if they improved greatly. As I was finishing with the final session, I noticed that both Matthew and Damien were still at the clubroom, and I noticed at one point that Mike went up to them to see why they hadn't been collected yet. When I had finally finished the last of the coaching sessions, I was very exhausted, and was glad there was a bit of a break between the coaching and the social tennis.

The club had excellent facilities, which included separate private bathrooms and lockers for male and female coaching staff, and once I had showered and changed into casual clothes, I came out to the club room where Mike was once again chatting to the Letscome boys, and on seeing me return from the locker room, he approached me for a chat, where he informed me that the Letscome boys would be at the tennis club for the remainder of the day, because their grandparents had to go out for the day, to deal with some personal business, and that they would be collected at 6pm.

Mike said he had asked the boys if they would like their coach to take them somewhere for some lunch until it’s time for social tennis and they said they would like to go to Subways for lunch. Mike gave me a $50 note and said that the club would be pay for their lunches this one time, since the boys grandparents had neglected to provide food or money to buy a meal, smiling I accepted the money and walked over to the boys, who were now looking a lot happier than they looked a short time before.

I mentioned to the boys that I didn't have a license or car yet, so we would have to walk the 5 blocks to the Subway store, which by coincidence is was just beyond the block of apartments. The boys thanked me for taking them to Subway for lunch as well as the coaching this morning, as they said they had learned a lot in just the one session, and hoped to put it to practice during the social tennis.

As we arrived at the Subway store, I mentioned that we had passed my apartment, on the way there, and that if they wished, they could stop by on the way back, and they said they were happy to do so. While the boys were ordering their meals, I quickly sent a message to Edward Letscome, as I had a plan. “Edward, can you please meet me at my place in half an hour, I need to speak to you about something urgently, Wes”, and I soon received a reply, “Yes no problems buddy, I will close for lunch, see you then” and I smiled when I read this.

Once we had selected and paid for our meals, we made our way back towards the club, until we reached the apartment building and I directed the boys to follow. Once in the apartment, I offered them a drink and we sat down in the lounge to eat our meals, in the comfort of the indoor air-conditioning, I explained to the boys that I work three days a week in the afternoon and two days a week in the mornings, as caretaker of the apartment building, and three days a week at a retail store not too far away.

At that point the doorbell rang, and I said to the boys that it might be my boss, coming to see me, as I went to answer the door, I ushered Edward to come in and closed the door behind him and followed Edward into the lounge room, where he received his big unexpected surprise, as did the two younger brothers. The three of them were in a group hug very quickly, and tears were also flowing, and quietly I retreated to the front office, to allow them to have some personal time with each other.