Chapter 10

More Changes

Two months later Ernie and Gayatri are in Rivers shopping when Ernie goes into the store called Lambert Jewellery. By now Gayatri is used to Ernie doing almost anything because he does so much that seems not to be connected, yet it later turns out to be linked. At the counter he asks the young woman, “May I speak to ‘Enri Lamber,’ please?”

She glances at him, turns, goes to the curtain to the back of the store, and pulls it aside while saying, with a French accent, “Papa, counter,” before going on to serve the next customer. When a man walks out and looks at her she points at Ernie, “That gentleman, Papa!”

He walks up to Ernie and asks, with a much stronger French accent, “How may I help you, Sir?”

Ernie replies, “A friend of mine in Sydney recently purchased some jewellery from your brother Jacques which he said was made by you.” He hands over a picture of a ring. Henri looks at the photo and nods yes. Ernie glances at Gayatri and sees she’s looking at some gold chains a bit further along the counter, then he asks, “Do you have the same style in a bracelet?” Another nod, and Henri turns to go get something so Ernie is quick to say, “Before you get them to look at I also have some other work.” He places a ring box on the counter, “I’d like these three rings re-sized and also engraved with two intertwining vines.”

Henri opens the box, looks at them, and says, “Re-sizing is no issue. I wish to study these before I can comment on the engraving.” Ernie nods his approval and Henri takes them into the back room to look at them.

A few minutes later he comes out with the ring box and a tray with six bracelets on it done in the Navaratna jewellery style of India. Henri places the tray on the counter as he says, “These rings are high quality and very old work. I very strongly recommend you do not engrave them. I can make a pair of matching intertwining rings to go with them. Here is my selection of Navaratna bracelets.”

Ernie thinks on what Henri said while he studies the bracelets. He’s soon aware Gayatri is beside him looking at the bracelets then glancing at him as well. He selects one that’s about three fingers wide and holds it up to look at. After a moment he nods yes and says, “Gayatri, do you think you’d have a problem wearing this bracelet?”

She’s stunned by his question and she turns to look at him for a moment before she takes it from him to try it on. After a moment more she says, “This is a bit too heavy for me to wear each day.” She puts it down and selects one just a little thinner to try on. A moment later, “If this is for me, I prefer this one.” She places it back on the tray and only then does she notice they have no price tags on them.

A smiling Ernie nods, turns to Henri, and says, “I’ll have this bracelet and the rings re-sized. I think that’ll be enough jewellery.” He gets out his debit card while Henry gets a device to measure their ring sizes.

Gayatri’s eyes go wide when Henri takes her left hand to measure the size of her wedding ring finger, then he does the same for Ernie. She turns to look at Ernie while Henri takes the card to his register and does the sale. After a quick smile to Gayatri Ernie follows to enter his PIN for the card to pay for the bracelet and work. He hands over his card with his contact details while saying, “Send me an email when the rings are ready, please.” Henri smiles as he nods yes, mainly because the expensive bracelet purchase goes through without any issues.

They move back to Gayatri and Henri hands her the bracelet to put on while Ernie answers his phone. It’s his bank wishing to confirm he just made a very expensive purchase of jewellery, which he confirms.

They leave the store and do their grocery shopping.

While driving down to Mistri Meals for their dinner Ernie says, “Gayatri, please try to keep the bracelet hidden from view when we first walk in. I want to surprise your family after I speak to your father.” She has a huge grin while she nods her agreement.

They arrive at the restaurant and go through the usual greetings. Ernie sees Mr Mistri looking out from the kitchen. He waves him out to speak with him. He walks out and Ernie hands him an envelope while saying, “You’ll be happy to know the Barramundi are now ready for commercial sale as well. So you can now plan on putting some on your menu. I’ll email you with some recipes I’ve found and Gayatri says you should offer to the clients. She’s tried them at home and they’re good.”

Mr Mistri nods while he opens the envelope. There’s a cheque in it, and nothing else. He frowns while looking at it. He asks, “What’s this?”

Mrs Mistri is looking the other way while talking to another client, an old friend. They’re gossiping while processing the payment for the meal her friend’s family just finished. Both almost break their necks when their heads spin around at Ernie’s reply of, “That’s Gayatri’s bride price you said you wanted.”

Gayatri’s youngest sister is nearby when Ernie speaks, and she squeals while racing over to give Gayatri a hug. In seconds Gayatri is in the middle of a large scrum of females she knows while a smiling father stands nearby watching the women all talk at once. Ernie stands beside him slowly shaking his head while asking, “Do you think any of them are hearing what the others are saying?”

Mr Mistri laughs and replies, “Sure, I am, they all hear each other.” Ernie almost laughs because Mr Mistri has lapsed into his native tongue way of speaking, it uses a different syntax and it sounds odd in English.

“I think it’s time you called Dilip to tell him to send you a cheque.”

While laughing Mr Mistri says, “That is in the bank, long ago. My second daughter made him pay to ensure he doesn’t change his mind.”

“Then you may wish to save money and organise a double wedding for both of us. You can hold it out at Mount Manor, if you want to!”

“I save much more and will have one big wedding for all four of my daughters. The other three are all spoken for and paid, just waiting for Gayatri to find a man. This is good, because I need only remember one day since I’ll arrange to have them marry in three months on the same day as I was married. It’s a Sunday this year.”

Ernie’s loud laugh results in all the ladies looking his way. A moment later the scrum starts to break up as people return to their work and meals etc. When asked why he laughed so hard he tells them, and all four girls laugh when Mrs Mistri rounds on Mr Mistri, “Only three months, that is not enough time. Suitable venues are booked six months in advance, or more. No, it can’t be done in three months!”

He responds, “Three months. You can do it, you will do it! Ernie has offered Mount Manor as the place to have the wedding. Lots of room in the great hall there. Anyway, you’ve been planning this for many years, so it should be easy to do. Our anniversary is Sunday this year and we’re already set to be closed that day. So there’s no extra loss of business.”

Gayatri reaches her left hand out to her touch her mother’s arm while she says, “We all know what we want to do so we can get this done in that time.” Gayatri’s new bracelet is visible for the first time since they entered as it had been hidden in her sleeve until now. Her sisters and mother see it, and that results in another scrum while they look at it. The other ladies in the restaurant soon come over to see what the new issue is. Ernie enjoys the big smile on Gayatri’s face due to her being the centre of so much good attention.

Mr Mistri has a laugh in his voice when saying, “You’ve no idea how much work you just caused me!” Ernie turns to him, “Now I have to train three nieces to replace the daughters who will stop working here. This is more work for me, but good for the rest of my family because we will now have more working and earning money for their families.”

Ernie grins as he nods. Yes, this is all about family: and that’s good!

Several minutes later they’re sitting down and ordering their meal when Ernie’s phone rings. He answers it to hear Dilip say, “Couldn’t you decide earlier. Now I only have three months to get my house in order.” He’s laughing and it’s obvious he’s really happy.

Ernie replies, “Tell your mother you need her help and everything will be ready within three days, and it’s only that long because she’ll need a day to travel to Sydney.” The phone cuts off and he laughs as he knows every time Dilip’s mother visits she rearranges his house for him while giving it a thorough cleaning as well as delivering a long speech about his living habits and how he should get a wife to look after him.

The phone does cause Ernie to stop and think for a moment. He turns to Gayatri to say, “I’m happy to pay for your grandparents’ airfares to be here for the wedding! I can afford it.” She smiles and gives him a hug before going to talk with her mother about it.

The rest of the evening goes very well.

The next morning Ernie is just sitting down to his computer to send a few emails when his phone rings. He answers it and John says, “I hear you’ve got some work for me! Like a new will!”

“How did you find out so fast?”

“Dinner last night, about half an hour after you left. Gayatri’s family was telling everyone they knew about her good fortune. I figure only half of the city residents know at this time. But by Sunday that’ll be up to just about everyone in the district at the rate the gossip circuit goes.”

“Well, you know how to write up a basic will for a newly married man and his wife. Do so for us both. The only special provision is half my cash in bank goes to the Mount Station Trust, everything else goes to Gayatri or her family, unless I have surviving children. I’ll let you do your thing with the actual wording, but make it such I don’t have to do it again when we start a family.”

“Yeah. That’s simple stuff. Congratulations!”

“On another issue. I’m sending you the latest book. It’s done now! So just get with the other people and organise a contract.”

“Will do. They’ve been asking about when it’ll be ready. I’ll go with the same terms as before.”

“Actually, I want a minor change. I want approval to organise a few signings at stores at my discretion. Gayatri’s uncle owns one of the local book stores. Being a local author now I figure it’ll help to do one there. If I do that the publishers will want others. I don’t want a huge list and a lot of travelling, but I don’t mind a few at times and places of my choice where they can promote them to their advantage.”

“Oh, man! Do you know how much extra work that will be for me, but it will get you more money because they want some of that stuff.”

The rest of his morning is spent answering phone calls from past workmates in the Fire Service. It seems Dilip is passing along the word about their mutual wedding plans. Jason and Belinda drop by during the day to congratulate them as well as they’d eaten and left before Ernie and Gayatri got there the night before, so they only just heard about it.

On a Wednesday of the following month Ernie is in the shade on the old dock. He’s on a chair reading a book while he has a cool drink and fruit by him with a fishing rod clipped to the rail in front of him and a line is out in the river at an angle. Will walks up and sees how comfortable Ernie is. While shaking his head Will says, “No wonder you don’t answer the phone in the house!”

Ernie turns and says, “You know you could’ve asked Gayatri to bring me the phone instead of driving out!”

“I rang to tell you I was coming out, so I decided to just come out when she told me you were out here fishing. Why fishing?”

Understanding the real question due to the fish-farm only a short walk away, Ernie says, “Pull the line in and we’ll go talk in the office.”

Will takes up the fishing rod and reels in the line. He’s surprised to see there’s no hook or lure on the end. There’s a float, a weight, and an odd device with small cupped wings on the end. He gives Ernie an odd look while he finishes reeling in the line.

Ernie laughs, “Every now and then I like to get out of the house and sitting down here having a quiet read is a good option. If I sit here reading just about everyone feels they have to come up and talk to me, so I can’t get a quiet read out here. However, if they think I’m fishing they keep away so they won’t disturb the fish I’m trying to catch. The thing on the end I made to keep the end low in the water and move around a bit like a fish is nibbling on the bait. The fact I never reel in anything while here, or put on any bait, isn’t noticed or remarked on. I’m not sure if they realise I do it to be left alone or not, but they leave me alone when I have the rod set up and the line is in the water.” Will laughs as well.

A few minutes later they’re sitting in Ernie’s office. Will opens the briefcase he has and he gets out a few papers. He says, “It’s been a bit over a year since you took over control of Mount Station. I didn’t give you a preliminary annual report last year because you were still getting settled in. I’ve got all the figures and things here for you to look at.”

“I don’t understand most of that stuff. Just hit the highlights for me.”

“OK. We ended last year with a great reduction in the liquid assets due to all of the land buying. We then emptied the rest of the bank account to pay for all of the expansion and improvement works. We also went into debt to Wells Trust for the purchase of Wells Farm Number Two during the year. We recently had the farm appraised for insurance purposes because of all of the work done on the farm, both what we paid for and what you gave us for free. The farm physical assets are one hundred and seventy percent of what they were assessed at when you bought them in the first place. Which is very good.”

“I don’t understand that! Why?”

“The improvements to the gully, the fences, and the houses, as well as the fish-farm. The residences have more than tripled in value, but the rent is the same as before because I see no need to increase the rents. The fields are more useful and in a much better condition, as well as with a lot more usable land due to the changes with the fences and roads.”

“OK! I get it now. Continue with the summary, please.”

“The improvements to the fields increased the yield per hectare, and that’s more income. The fish-farm income is higher than we expected. In fact, instead of the original ten year payback predicted by the experts we look like having full cost recovery in less than five years. Part of that is the way the fish are breeding and growing faster than predicted. The university has two students with grants to study our operation to see if they can work out what we’re doing to get such good results. They’ll start out here next month, and they’re renting the empty residence in your building to be close to the work. Rental income from the staff is as per last year’s budget, but the extra housing in the manor and the last farm we incorporated is good and it boosted revenue beyond the budget. Heck, those places are so good we’ve got a waiting list, and the current tenants don’t want to leave. One refused a promotion because the extra money didn’t cover the increased living costs of the city they want to move him to. They ended up doubling the offer before he agreed to go.” Ernie laughs, he expected people would like the housing but this is much better. “Non-salary expenses dropped twenty percent due to having our own diesel fuel and electricity. We’ve used some of the savings there to pay for a lot of farm vehicle upgrades and getting electric cars for most of the running around on the farm, with diesel vehicles for the rest. The big boost to revenue is the payments from the power company. They’re paying us a heck of a lot for the output of the wind farm. A side event there is the way the other farmers out here like us for putting an end to the weekly brown-outs and power shortages.”

“Yeah! I know about that. A few weeks back someone took out the lines just outside of Bowen’s Creek. No one out here knew about it until afterwards when the repair guys came out to shut down the wind farm input so they could hook up the replacement line. Everyone on this side of the break was kept going by the wind farm.”

“Well, a lot of people who used to have issues with Mount Station and the trust now see us as good neighbours because of that plus the better phone and Internet service due to the unplanned NBN tower put in for the Argent Estate, they equate that with the changes here. I never did get John to tell me how he got them to do that! Do you know?”

“They put it on the end of their schedule and weren’t going to do it until then because they didn’t have the staff to build it. I told him to ask if they’d give us the hardware and we’d put it in. Serge built the system and had some qualified techs set it all up for them. They only needed to send a tech out to hook into the trunk line and activate the system. They like the idea of the income for very little cost, and our people like the quicker service it provides at a lower rate than what we had before.”