Chapter 9

After Alex had rung off I received another call, this time from the editor of the local rag.

"Mr Taylor, I was watching the news on television, is it correct that you have donated the log cabin to the Church?"

"No Editor, Father Ryan took it upon himself to claim it was a donation. Nothing could be further from the truth, the cabin is being built for the exclusive use of the orphanage; it is on my land and remains my property. There is a covenant on the land title that gives the orphanage full access at all times."

"So Father Ryan's claim that it was a donation is a lie?"

"To put it bluntly, yes."

"Can I go to print with that?"

"Everything I told you, yes, the comment you made about him making a lie, no. All I want is to clarify the purpose of the cabin and the ownership of it. As far as Ryan's statement goes, no comment."

"I see, thank you for clearing the matter up Mr Taylor."

The Television studio manager, true to his word went on air and issued a retraction on the previous airing regarding the 'donation' to the Church. Within the hour I received a phone call from a very irate Father Ryan.

"Taylor, you have made me look a damned fool over this cabin business."

"Father, the only one who made you look a fool was yourself. It was never even considered a donation to the orphanage, it is being built for their exclusive use but is still my property and will always remain that way. You decided it was a donation to the Church, you didn't even consult me before going on television and claiming it as such."

"You can forget about the orphanage, I have banned them from having anything to do with it." Bang, he slammed down the phone.

Damn, now what?

Annie saw I was stressing out. "Jim slow down, you're getting all het up again, sit down and I'll make you a cup of tea while you get your thoughts in order."

"Thanks Annie, that bastard Ryan has banned the kids from using the cabin."

"Oh, what a terrible person this Father Ryan is, those kids don't have much and he is taking away something that will give them a little pleasure."

"He definitely didn't sound happy, that's for sure."

"Perhaps you should ring Bruno, he might have an idea of how to get around his ban."

When I called Bruno he was ropeable. "That conniving little prick, just the mean sort of trick that bastard would pull. Well I've got one up my sleeve Jim, Mama's brother is Monsignor Rossi, he'll be very displeased when he hears about the ban."

"Thanks Bruno, I knew I could count on you, Jesus, that mongrel has really upset me, if it wasn't for Annie I think I would be in hospital having a heart attack."

"Calm down Jim, everything will work out OK, just you wait and see."

The local rag came out with the headline 'Father mean to kids' emblazoned across the front page. He went on to castigate Father Ryan saying he was a mean spirited person for banning the kid's access to the cabin. I found out later that he had quite a few run ins with the 'good' Father.

Bruno spoke to his brother in law and as he said "He was very displeased." To cut a long story short, the ban was swiftly removed and Ryan was transferred to a different parish.

Sister Teresa rang the following morning and thanked me for getting the ban lifted.

"Jim, it would be very uncharitable of me to speak ill of Father Ryan, but with his departure things at the orphanage will run a lot smoother. Thank you, I don't think you will ever know just how much you have helped us."

"Sister Teresa, the important thing is the kids will get their cabin. Incidentally, Alex is sending the roof trusses over tomorrow, so we will be starting to put the roof on this week."

"Oh Jim, I can't wait to see the finished cabin, Sister Mary and I are in raptures when we talk about it and the kids can't talk of anything else. It will be a great joy to all of us."

The following day the truck arrived with the roof trusses, accompanied by Alex.

"I hear you sorted Ryan out Jim, serves the bastard right, Gawd, what a bloody cheek!"

"Yeah, well it's water under the bridge now Alex, let's get on with the future."

"Right, you call the local lads and we can start sticking these up, it shouldn't take too much effort if we all work together."

Annie rounded up the locals, something she was getting good at these days. Soon we were all gathered at the cabin site discussing Alex's plan for the erection.

"As with the logs, each truss has it's own number, when we slide them over the walls keep that number on top. Once we have the truss in place we can raise it up and put the temporary props under it. When we get a few in place we can start to tie them together with stringers. OK? then lets at it men."

Everything went like clockwork and soon we were nailing the roof battens and diagonal braces on, made easy with Alex's nail guns.

Every thing in place, we sat back with a few beers and admired our work.

"It gets more like a cabin every day," remarked Fred.

"Yeah, it will look even better when we put the iron on the roof," said Herman.

"Unfortunately we have to get a licensed plumber to put the iron and guttering on. We have a fellow who does most of our work, I'll give him a call if you like Jim."

"OK Alex, just hope he doesn't charge like a wounded bull."

"Nah, I'll tell him this is for the kids, I think he will give you a good price."

"Ron Chilcott the plumber gave me a call the next evening and we discussed the cabin.

"Alex told me that you folk are doing this for the orphans Jim, if you guys can work as my assistants I'll cut my price by half, how does that sound?"

"That sounds great Ron, when can we start? Alex said he would send the materials over on Thursday."