Responses to the first three chapters have been good and helpful but I am a comments whore and always on the lookout for more! Anything you want to say whether you love it or hate it, please don't hesitate
More Australianisms
Mobile = cell phone.
Cricket Test = an international match played over five days.
Wharfie = longshoreman or docker.
Harry started his ute and set off for his Aunt Diane's house. Although it was a short run he stopped for a minute or so at a convenient lay by. His intention was to check the messages on his mobile phone and make arrangements for any jobs that needed to be scheduled for the next day. He did this from the ute because experience had taught him that if his schedule was not already organised, his aunt, in truth his great aunt would soon come up with plenty of tasks for him as support staff for her myriad of community interests. Most people's first impression of Harry's Aunt Diane was of a genteel tea drinking widow, who gave the impression to the unwary of being just a sweet old lady muddling through the twilight of her life. Her good friend and chief assistant, the retired Colonel Menzies knew her better, "mind like a steel trap Harry m'boy, more organising ability than the general staff, pointless arguing with her, I just get on with it."
The first couple of messages were just small routine jobs that would only take an hour or so each, but the third was from Maria Bunce who asked him to phone her as she had 'quite a big job for him.' Harry searched in the glove box and found the phone number she had given him.
Her phone rang
"Hello, Maria Bunce," she announced
"Hi, it's Harry,"
"Oh hello Harry, how are you."
"Good, what can I do for you?"
"I have a job for you, do you know my place at all?" then without waiting for a response she continued, "I have an old brick built shed at the back of the block, I want to get it demolished. There are also extensive tumbledown walls which need to be removed."
"It sounds like a fairly big job" said Harry dubiously, "I might not have the right equipment."
"I think you will find that it is more straight forward than it sounds. It's quite low and most of the work could be done from the ground, why don't you come and have a look at it and see what you think?"
"Ok, how would tomorrow at about five to five thirty suit you?"
"That will be fine, I'll see you then."
"Ok, bye," she rang off.
There was only one other message, a text from Carol, 'Tomorrow 6.30, don't be late.'
Harry grinned and reflected for the first time on the evening's events. Reflection wasn't something he was given too much. Harry was unusual for his age in his remarkable intellectual ability but emotionally he was a typical almost twenty years old. He was focused about himself and his ambitions but outside of that he tended to take life as it was served up. His brief interlude with Alice had been great and although he didn't rationalise it he wouldn't have felt right if he had re-started his relationship with Carol before Alice had left.
But she had left and he had responded to Carol's insistence. Lois had been a hugely unexpected bonus. He smiled to himself, Lois really intrigued him, and he had completely misread her character based on the opinions of others. They had claimed she was blunt to the point of rudeness and was cold in her attitude. Harry had certainly found that she was very matter of fact but had decided that the reports had been pretty unfair, though he did concede to himself; he had seen a very different side of her. He decided that he liked her, and as an added thought confided quietly to himself, 'Harry, you are a seriously lucky guy.'
As it happened, his aunt was not there when he got back; she had left a note to say that she was out and would see him in the morning. Harry made himself a snack and settled down to watch the last hours play of the Cricket Test which, because it was in Perth didn't finish until past nine o'clock eastern time. Australia weren't doing too well but the next thing Harry realised was that a repeat of a cop drama was showing 'so' he thought, 'must have dozed off, perhaps Carol and Lois were a bit more exhausting than I thought.' Reminding himself that there would be a repeat performance in less than twenty four hours he decided, 'better have an early night'. Within ten minutes he was fast asleep, untroubled by either dreams or conscience.
The following morning, his Aunt Diane having demolished an enormous breakfast that might have intimidated a wharfie settled down to read the newspaper. After a few minutes she put it down.
"Harry, I'm told that you are going to do a job for Maria Bunce."
"Now who told you that" replied Harry, not the least surprised his aunt knew as much as he did.
"Maria herself, to be precise she told me she was going to ask you, although she seemed to pretty much take it for granted that you would do it for her."
Harry was vaguely irritated, he remembered when he first met Maria that she had been rather assertive, unnecessarily so, he had thought. "She's a bit ahead of herself, I haven't even seen it yet, nor have I given her a quote. I'm not even sure that I want to or whether I will be able to do the job."
"I understand" said his aunt, ignoring his peevishness, "but I know quite a lot about that building, we used to play in the paddock behind the house when I was a child and I remember the stables being built, or half built would be more accurate."
"Tell me about it," suggested Harry, knowing that was her intention.
"The stables were built a few years after the war a little before I went to Uni. Mr Lalor the owner thought he could make money having a livery close to town. Like all his schemes it never came to anything, partly because he thought he could do the building himself. After the war there was a major shortage of building materials, in particular, cement was almost unobtainable. Not to be deterred, Mr Lalor got hold of some recycled bricks and decided to use old fashioned lime mortar. I don't know why but it turned out the mortar was no good and as soon as we had some heavy rain the walls started to collapse. He gave up soon after that so I expect a lot of what you will find will just be a pile of old bricks and slates."
"It will be a terrible muddle after all these years then" suggested Harry.
"Possibly" she continued, "but that isn't the interesting bit; right next to the stables, in fact joining them is a much older building about twenty metres square. That was the original house on the site and it dates back to the 1850's or so. It still looks quite sound. Mr Lalor used it as a shed to store all sorts of odds and ends until one day he got a notion in his head that someone was stealing his things. The silly man decided he would stop the imaginary burglars so he welded steel shutters over all the windows. The two small doors were bricked up and he bolted shut the big steel door at the front. That one had been enlarged previously to get equipment in and out. Then he died, Mr Lalor I mean, and Maria tells me that the place is still completely locked up, it's never been opened in sixty years, and so whatever was locked in all those years ago should still be there."
"Huh," snorted Harry "it'll probably be a load of old rubbish."
"I don't know, wait and see, Mr Lalor was reputed to be quite a hoarder."
"I think you're curious to find out what's there."
"Well I must admit I am. It isn't often that you get the chance to see a fragment of your childhood again, so yes I am rather intrigued."
Harry got up to clear the table. "By the way" his aunt added looking over her newspaper, "show Billy Thomson a sample of the slates and bricks, he might be interested in them."
"Ok" grinned Harry, "do you think that between you and Maria Bunce I'll be well enough organised."
"Get used to it," his aunt sniffed indelicately, "men do things, and women tell them how, how much, when and where."
"But not why" grinned Harry.
"Why not indeed," concluded his aunt smiling sweetly .She got up to leave but turned back as she went through the door, "and you won't forget that you are helping out in the church hall this evening, seven thirty I think we said."
For the rest of the morning Harry spent two hours catching up with Emails. There was a long one from Alice. Essentially it detailed her journey and every waking minute since her arrival in Chicago. She was clearly getting on well with her cousins and Harry could almost sense her enjoyment. 'Was it only a week ago that she was here?'
He finished his Emails and rang Billy Thomson. "G'day Harry, how are you, your aunty said you might ring; what can I do for you?"
Harry explained, "I have been asked to do a small demolition job and there may be some old slates and bricks you might like to recycle. They're the remains of an old shed on Maria Bunce's property but I haven't seen it yet so I don't know what sort of condition they're in or how many there are."
"Ah yes" replied Billy, "I know exactly where you mean, the shed and walls in Mrs Bunce's lower paddock, it was built with hand made bricks which were made by the convict labour 150 years ago. They were recycled from the old water mill when that was demolished in about 1950. "If they're any good I'll be glad to buy 'em. I'm doing an extension job on the Town Hall and they're keen for me to use original and identical materials. I've got some old bricks and slates but not enough to do the whole job. When are you going up there to sort the job out?"
"I have arranged to see Maria Bunce at five this afternoon to have a look at what's needed"
"Ok" pondered Billy, "mmm, I might drop by to have a look meself, Will that be ok? Mrs Bunce won't mind me just turning up?"
"No of course she won't mind," Harry reassured him, suspecting, and mischievously half hoping that she might just think it was a bit of an imposition.
Harry arrived at Maria's home pretty much on time, just after five. He had had a light day with only a couple of lawn mowing jobs in the afternoon which had given him time to grab a shower before setting out for his appointment.
"Hi," Maria greeted him, "I have just got home myself, how are you?"
"Good" responded Harry with a grin. Now where is this job?"
"Hang on a second while I change my shoes"
Harry spent a few moments surveying Maria's property. The house was positioned at the top of a hill thirty metres back from the road and at the rear sloped down about five hundred metres to the small river which eventually flowed through the centre of Hawksworth. He guessed the land was about eight hectares or so. Not far from the river just up the slope he could see part of the roof of a building; that was probably the one she had spoken of. Not much else was visible through the gum trees which were quite thick on the upper slopes.
