Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 14:48:18 +1200 From: Arthur Subject: the vision part 9 THE VISION Part Nine By Arthur After a shower and coffee the movers arrived and began to pack up the small contents I was taking with me and then, when they had left, it was off to see about Benny's suit and the supermarket to fill the empty cupboards of our new home. Jim had outdone himself with Benny's suit, it was a dark charcoal grey with a fine pin stripe through it, the fit was perfect, the trousers a nice snug fit ( mmm the boy had the perfect butt for tailored pants) the jacket sat nicely on his shoulders giving him a very svelte look and the color brought out the life in his eyes. When we arrived at the new home the movers were about to leave and I informed them they would be needed at the storage facility on the following wednesday for another load to which they agreed and then left us alone. When we had brought all of Benny's clothes in from the car, where we had left them for the night to save the double handling, it was time to sort out the bedrooms and start to unpack and get the home set up for our comfort. "Ok Master Chapman,which bedroom would you like?" "Wich one are you having John?" "I'm going to be greedy and take the one on the north east corner so i get all the sun in the moring, so wich of the others do you want?" "Oh that only leaves the one beside you (giggle) I don't want to be to far away just in case." "In case of what?" "Well you know just in case." Ha ha the vagaries of the adolecent mind, I wonder what he'll come up with next. "right then lets get them settled and then it's time for a snack and we are out of here for a couple of hours." When the dust settled behind him I could hear the drawers and cupboards opening and closing, paper being rustled and folded as he set to and put his room in order. The existing furnature was well kept and reasonabley modern (early nineties) so there remained little to add from my stored chattels but personal items and a few kitchen utensils as I had over the years taught myself to cook and was, so Im told very good at it. As we sat eating our snack of cheese and crackers and milk for Benny, coffee for me I could see the wheels turning in his head as he tried to form a question, now and again glancing up at me from under his eye lashes, and then after five or so minutes he hesitantly asked me. "Ahm, John?" "Yes son?" "I have to go back to school on tuesday." "Mmmm, we can see about that on tuesday, ok?" A thoughtful look came over his face then. "I can't take all those clothes back with me to the home." "Why not?" "Well they would ask where and how I got them." "So?" "They might think I did bad things to get them." "What do you mean by 'bad things'?" "Well you know, 'bad things'" "Mmm,ok so what do you want to do then?" "Could I leave them here, then one day you might let me come back and wear them?" "Yes, that seems ok, anything else?" He lifted his eyes to mine and a small tear appeared in the corner of his left eye, the struggle in his mind written on his face. "C..could I have a hug?" "Sure, come on." I turned in my chair and held out my arms for him, and as he snuggled into them wrapping his around my neck, the front of my shirt became damp from the tears as he said, "I don't want to go back there." "I know son, but it's not time for that yet so let's wait and see what happens." "I know it's only been a couple of days with you but I feel like i'm home." "That's just how I feel as well, and it's a nice feeling." "Yes it is, I like being here with you John." "I like having you here son." "Come on now buck up, let's go for a sight seeing tour in the city." "Ok, I'll just go clean up a bit." He was off and running before I could move,the sound of the water from his bathroom was the next thing I heard as he got ready to go touring. This of course was not an aimless tour as I had something definate in mind that I didn't want to tell him as his response to surprises did my heart good to see. As we drove toward the city looking at the people walking dogs and kids I looked over at this little vision that had come into my life such a short time ago and knew that nothing was going to take him away from me or put a barrier in front of his future. "You ever been fishing,son?" "Not really John, when I was smaller I went with a family to the beach and the man had a fishing rod, but he wouldn't let me use it cause I was to small." "Oh so you never been fishing, would you like to go one day?" "Oh yes, but sitting on the rocks all day would be boring wouldn't it?" "Yes, it could, but there's other ways to fish too." "Really, how?" "Well we could go out on a boat." "On a boat, I've never been on a boat, I might get sea sick." "I don't know, what if we went on a pretty big boat, that might be better don't you think?' "Yes that might be better, but how do we get a big boat?" "Well we could charter one, or if you like I have a friend who owns one." "Really would he let us go out with him?" "Well I suppose if I asked nicely he would take us out, would you like that?" "Yes, oh yes, I'd love to go." "Alright then we're near the mariner, do you think we should go see if he's there?" "Can we, pleeeease?" "Ok, lets go look." I pulled the car into the enterance of the viaduct mariner and parked outside the storage office, got out of the car and waved Benny to follow me, the phone call had been made to them the previous day so they could go over the boat and check all was right to take it out when I wanted to. The man behind the desk looked up as we entered and was about to speak when I lifted my finger to my mouth in a gesture of silence that Benny could not see and winked, he gave a small nod in acknowledgement and smiled at me. "Good afternoon sir?" "Good afternoon, I was wondering if I may have a look at the "Riser"?" "By all means sir, would you like to go onboard, I have a key here?" "That would be nice, thank you." "Here we are then, just let me know if you need anything, I'll be here all day." "Thank you I will." As we walked out the door Beny turned to me and said. "He's nice." "Yes he is." This was not the time to tell him I had known Brian for about ten years, we had done a lot of fishing together over that time and had a friendly rivalry going on between us. "Which one's your friends?" "See down there at the end of the pontoon, the one with the blue covers?" "The 'Riser'?" "Yes that's the one." "It's huge." "No it's not huge,it's only 35 feet, but it's a good sea boat and great for fishing, I've been out on it a lot's of times." "How old is it,it looks kinda new?" "No it's not new,it's about ten years old but my friend looks after it well." We stood on the pontoon looking up at the boat and I took great care to look over it and saw that it had been well maintained while it had been here, so all it needed to be ready for sea was fuel and the galley stocked up for us to have a couple of days out on what I call my sanity sanctuary. The 'Riser' was a Warwick 35 with twin 150 hp turbo yanmars,a nicely flaired bow for heavy going and lowered transom to make fish landing easier with duel game chairs set into the self draining deck, the anchor winch was power controlled from the bridge. "You want to go have a look inside?" "Oh yeah, it's so cool." I began to undo the covers as Benny stood back and watched what I was doing, appearing to remember everything for later use, little did he know what I had in mind for the next few days. Once I had the weather covers removed I jumped aboard motioning Benny to follow and unlocked the cabin area, as we entered I could smell the slight musty smell of being locked up to long but this did not worry me as it would not take long to air it out.I did a quick check that everything was in order then made my way up to the flying bridge with him close on my heels, eyes wide looking at all the toys and fittings on the bridge. This had been my 'baby' for the last five years and I had had a refit to my own specifications so that I could when I wanted operate the boat alone. All of my electronics were either Faruno or Hummingbird and I had also added both a VHF radio as well as CB and SSB, I like to be prepared for all emergencies. The deapth sounder/fish finder and the GPS were Hummingbird and the radar was Faruno, as they were the best that could be bought here and had served me well while I had the boat. "Well what do you think son?" "This's so great, when do you think he'd let us go out?" "Why don't you ask him?" Benny looked around for my friend thinking that he must have come on board while we were looking around. "Where is he?" His face was scrunched up tryimng to work out how to ask someone who was not there. "Standing in front of you." "It's your's, it's your's, you did it again, you tricked me again." I was laughing so hard at the look of glee and inocents on his face I collapsed onto the pilot chair with my sides hurting.At last I was able to catch my breath as he dug his fingers in my ribs half wrestling as he tried to push me off the chair. "Ok, ok, you win, when do you want to go out on her?" "John please can we go now?" "Well not right away, I've got to get fuel and a few other things so, how about tomorrow, would that be soon enough,the weather forecast is good and we could go for a couple of days out to the Barrier and the Mercury's, sound good?" "Oh, wow, yeah, but I don't think i'm going to sleep tonight, this is so awesome." "Ok son, lets go see Brian and get him to sort it all out for tomorrow then." "Yeah, yeah,John I can't wait." Looking down at him I watched as he was bouncing around, hugging himself, running his hands over the control console, checking out all my electronic 'toys', holding the wheel and trying to turn it from side to side as though steering among some monster waves while rocking back and forth. I left the covers off and we made our way back to the office so I could talk to Brian about getting her ready for the next day, I knew it was a bit short notice as usually they liked two days to prepare but knowing what Brian was like with his own kids I felt he would try his best to see my boy was not disappointed. As I lay in bed that night I thought of the joy on the face of "My son" and smiled at the thought of the next two days out with "My baby and My boy", there was so much I wanted to pass onto him and hoped that he would get to love the sea as I did and learn to enjoy it's many moods and challenges. I was just drifting off to sleep when I heard a small noise beside the bed and looking up saw Benny standing beside the bed looking down at me, dressed in his briefs with no vest. "John? you awake.?" "Yes son.what's the matter?" "It feels lonely in there by myself." "What do you want to do?" "Can,umm, can I, um, you know?" "You want to stay here?" "Yeah, can I stay here with you tonight, just tonight till I get used to the house?" "Ok buster, come on, in you get." He dived across me and burrowed down under the duvet on the other side of the bed, curling up into a ball with his knees and head resting on my back. "Night John?" "Night son, see you in the morning." A slight humming sound came from him as he settled down almost plastering himself against my back. The first flood of sunlight sent it's shaft through the windows as I opened my eyes to a new day taking a moment to orient myslef to the new feeling of the house and felt something stabbing me in the back that brought a smile to my face,' oh well he was only 14 and it happens all the time at that age'. I turned around in the bed and gave Benny a nudge on the shoulder. "Hey, Mister, I think it's time for you to go to the bathroom, don't you?" He lifted his head up looking at me trying to work out wjat I was talking about, then the look on his face told me he realised what was going on and the red traffic lights began to blink on his face. "It's ok son, happens to all of us, but you better go take care of it." Diving out of the bed with his hands clasped over his morning hard on he ran for the bath room as I smiled at his disapearing back, the sound in the bathroom after a few seconds confirmed my guesse. I glanced at the bedside clock as I rolled out of bed and saw that it was only 6.00 o'clock and went into my own bathroom for the same reason as Benny and when I had washed up went to the kitchen for my morning eye opener and to get breakfast ready for the two of us, it was not long before he came ijn dressed as he had been the day before but with a different set. "Did you sleep well son?" "Yes, it was the best sleep Iv'e had for ages." "After breakfast we have to pack a few extra clothes for the trip, it will be cold out there at night but it's the best time to fish while the sun is going down and for a couple of hours after dark and I don't want you to get cold, so you better get a few warm things ready, ok?" "Yes ok, how long are we going for?" "We'll come back monday afternoon, so we'll have two days and I promise you a lot of fun." "Awesome,what time are we going?" "Oh there's no hurry, just whenever we are ready." "When will that be?" "Soon as you like." "Now, can we go now?" "Ha ha, ok half an hour to get everything we need then we're out of here ok?" "Yeah, I can't wait, im going to get my warm gear now then we can go,yes?" "Ok yes go get ready, I'll just clean up here and we're gone." He scampered off to his room as I cleaned up from breakfast and went to get some warm clothes for myself to take, I had never looked so forward to going out in the boat as I did at this moment, it made me feel like a real family man, my boy getting ready for his first fishoing trip and the deep seated paternal feeling smiled from some where inside me giving me a nice glow. To Be Continued: