Chapter 24: Preparation

Travis wanted to know the local gossip first.

So, we filled him in on recent events to a point. He knew we had magical items just as we knew he had one. I didn’t tell him where I had stumbled across mine or where their items had come from.

I was getting a bit embarrassed when everyone was saying Tris did this and then he did that. I was starting to wonder if my family did think I was some sort of super-person the way they were describing me. It didn’t seem to fit in with my image of myself.

I was almost glad Beth told the story of the light bulb in the pool if only to show I wasn’t that clever. We all cracked up when Mum admonished me for stirring up the old man in the pool. She said that the poor guy was probably, still having wet dreams about me.

Travis had worked out that Beth and Mitch were my partners and cracked me up when asked if he could borrow then on occasion, as they were just his sort. I laughed and said if he could keep up with them, good luck to him. He chuckled with me.

Mum and dad had taken the kids for baths and bed, and Ryan and his family had gone home. Beth and Mitch volunteered for kitchen duty and told me to keep Travis company. So, my uncle and settled down on the patio with a beer to talk.

“So, I get the impression you and yours are not the same as the rest of us,” Travis said. I looked at him and shook my head. “How far up the totem pole are you three?”

“Mages with four gems,” I informed him while wondering just he did know about magic and mages.

He whistled. “On second thoughts, I think you may be right about your partners being a bit too much for me. I noticed the kids didn’t have rings. Diadems or medallions?”

“Medallions,” I answered. I knew his magic item was a medallion.

He chuckled, “If I come back in a dozen years, those two little honeys will be just the right age for me.”

I shook my head at him and said, “Mum might have something to say about that.”

“How long has she had the ring?” he asked.

“About three months and a bit.”

“Is she pregnant yet?”

I looked at him in surprise. He grinned. “She stopped taking the pill years ago when her periods settled down. And then you fixed her and Trevor up. Did you warn them?”

“Oh, shit!” burst from my mouth.

“What’s wrong, Tris?” Mum said when she came back out us with fresh beers. She put them down and went to rustle my hair, and I put my arm around her, and then I placed my other with the ring on her tummy. I couldn’t make up my mind how I felt.

“What?” she said.

“Hmm, Mum, I forgot to warn you about something,” I started.

Travis barked out a laugh, saluted Mum with his beer and then asked, “Is it a boy or a girl?”

I looked up at Mum. She put her hand on her tummy and closed her eyes. We both watched as the most serene expression I had ever seen took over her face. She bent down and kissed my cheek. “You’re such a good boy,” she told me and went to find dad.

Travis shook his head. “Fuck, there will probably be a couple more little Watsons running around here in the next couple of years. Trevor won’t keep his hands off her if he knows she can spit them out for him. He has always been mad about having lots of kids.”

“Ryan’s just as bad, Tanya is already pregnant again,” I told him. I took a swig of my beer and then brought up a topic that was bothering me. “Umm, Uncle Travis I hope you don’t mind, but I borrowed your ID.”

“Why did you need it?” he asked me and gave me a calculated look.

I told him about my jewellery, Jacque and the trust fund. He listened carefully to me. He grinned at me, “So how rich am I?”

I enjoyed the look of shock on his face. I told him after I found a boat, I was going to transfer the rest to the fund.

“Why do you need a boat?” was his next question.

“I’ve made a fourth magical box. The problem is that the spirits said that we have to go through the transportation ring to find the person it belongs to in two weeks’ time. They can’t guarantee that we come back any time soon if at all.”

“I’m still racking my brain how to make it look like an accident and not hurt anyone else as we can’t sail that far. I was thinking of just using magic to make it look like we know what we are doing.”

He nodded. “Well, I have a boat as you put it. Who’s your storm bringer?”

“What?” I said, sitting up.

“Well the best way is to sail out to sea, and you whip up a storm. You get to the island as I assume that’s where you want to go, and I’d just disappear again. I only dropped in to visit; I’m not staying. The only tricky thing is you getting off the boat in the storm. I can protect myself,” he said.

“Actually, that is the easiest bit. Hamilton Island isn’t far, and I can drop you there. What if I leave half the money in the account for you and you buy a new boat from it?” I said eagerly.

He chuckled and told me, “I don’t need the money, leave it to Trevor and Ryan as they sure are going to need it. Just leave the account going in case you do come back. Can you do glamours?”

I nodded that I could. “Good, remember my face. You’re welcome to use it if you get back. I’ll tell you something your daddy doesn’t know. I’m not his brother.”

If there was one thing, he could say that stunned me it was that. He smiled gently. “It can be a bitch, not ageing very fast. His brother, my son, died the day he got hit by the cricket ball. I took his place. It was easier acting like an addled randy teenager than I thought.”

“It was a lot better than acting like a grumpy granddad. I know it was a tough day for your dad and Mum with my faked heart attack and all, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“I think I was still a bit addled from losing Cheryl and then my boy. I loved them dearly. I think if you go and you find somewhere where people like you are better accepted then stay there. This world is not kind to those of us who are different.”

“Why don’t you come with us?” I said on impulse.

He looked at me with speculation, “Do you think they can handle losing us both?” he asked.

“Well, I was planning on leaving a letter with a friend. I realised initially they would have to act like we might not be coming back, but I didn’t want them to worry too much about us like dad has worried about you.”

He cringed. I didn’t mean to make him feel bad, but over the years, he has caused my dad a bit of stress worrying about him.

“I might need to have a talk with him before I go. I felt I’d left something undone when I last disappeared. I stupidly thought he’d be used to me coming and going and wouldn’t worry about me.”

“You don’t seem to know my dad really well,” I commented.

“No, I don’t do I? He was always Cheryl’s boy. Cheryl had a hard time with Travis, and she never seemed to bond with him the same. So, I spent more time with him. Don’t get me wrong, I love your dad.”

“Watching him with you boys made me proud to have had such a fine son. He is a way better dad than I ever was. I thought if I wasn’t around, he could get on with raising you boys without me being a rock around his neck. I was as crappy as a brother, as I was a father.”

“No, you were a good father and a fine brother,” my dad said. Travis looked up in shock. I watched them hug and then I got up and went to find my loves.

I think they needed to have a good heart to heart.

Mum got Tanya to come and collect the kids after breakfast.

She then had the rest of us assembled around the table and told me to spill the beans. I explained about the fourth box and Travis’ idea how we might do it.

“My goodness, you’re as bad as your uncle. Pack up your stuff and put it in a storage shed or truck it down here and we will store it. There is plenty of room in the old shed. Quit your jobs and tell everyone you’re going on a cruise with your rich uncle instead.”

“Beth, make sure I have your mums address and stuff. I can ring her from time to time. If you come back, you come back, if you don’t, you don’t. People die and disappear all the time. The difference for us is we will simply assume you’re living in a better place.”

Dad then said, “Thank you for sticking up for me, son. There is one thing I didn’t tell you about your uncle. I got to him first that day. I knew he was dead. I also knew that something weird had happened as far as your grandfather, and he was concerned.”

“I didn’t know how he did it. But I did know who he was and that my Mum dying had upset him badly. Since you gave us the rings, I worked it out. That was when I stopped worrying about him.”

“I still missed him, as we had become closer as brothers than as father and son. He is the reason we have always treated you, boys, equally. He made it easier for me to accept the death of my brother. Because of him, I still had both.”

“I would like it if he could go with you, then I’d know you can keep him in line and out of the trouble. He seems to have a knack for finding it,” Dad said.

“Tris, you must be the luckiest man alive,” Mitch said. We all looked at him. He looked at my parents, “I know that when I leave, my little girl is going to be just as lucky. I can’t thank you two enough.”

Mum got up and came around to Mitch. She hugged him and said, “You just look after my boy. I think he has a lot of his grandfather’s wanderlust and desire for adventure in him.”

We all chuckled when Travis said with indignation, “I’m not that bad!”

So, it was arranged.

We spent our last two official weeks on the island. Beth and I had been grooming our replacements whether they knew it or not. We told them that we had recommended them to management and felt they could do the jobs.

Mitch wasn’t required to give as much notification as we were, and he finished the week earlier than we did. He got the job of packing up the house and sorting out his own stuff. Paul had also handed in his notification.

Shorn had his British passport and they had both decided they wanted to travel around Australia a bit more before they left for London. They were going to help Mitch pack before they took off.

On the Monday before we came back, I visited a couple of banks in Brisbane and exchanged cash for traveller’s cheques. I got some English pounds because I knew Paul would have no trouble cashing them here or back home.

I also booked the boys flights to Brisbane so they could pick up Murv the ute. I thought that having a bit of cash and a ute to drive they’d have a lot more fun. I was even cheeky and linked the protection spells to two of the rings.

They both had a central opal with a small diamond and a very tiny piece of crystal to maintain the health spells. I’d shaped Paul’s to look like a black platypus with a yellow gold bill and feet on white gold, and Shorn’s was a white opal Koala on rose gold.

The rings didn’t have a lot of spells on them, and they weren’t possessed, as I had made them from scratch. I did think that I did a good job. Mitch and Beth liked them and felt the boys would too.

Beth and I turned up back on the mainland on Friday. We had lunch with her parents and told them about taking off on a cruise and that we’d contact them when we could. Beth was tearful when we left, and Mitch and I both hugged her tight that night.

We made sweet love in the morning and then had to get up because the removal truck had turned up. We got it packed. Brian had turned up to give us a hand and play taxi. The boys said to drop them on the highway, but I shook my head. “I’d like you to do one more favour for me,” I said.

I handed Shorn the car keys to Murv. I gave Paul the envelope with the cheques in it. “I need you to go to Brisbane for me.”

They looked at each other perplexed. “I’ll give, why?” asked Paul.

“The keys are to a ute called Murv you’ll know which one he is, as he is pale purple,” I said and handed Shorn a card with an address and the pin codes on it and Murv’s car rego number.

“I want you to go get Murv and put him to good use. The money in the envelope is to cover your costs and get you back to England, and it had two tickets for the five o’clock flight to Brisbane.”