Educating Harry Ch. 04

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Harry is with two women.Two more want him on the job.
6.2k words
4.56
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Part 4 of the 20 part series

Updated 10/26/2022
Created 03/13/2011
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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.

Maria reappeared. "Like your outfit" grinned Harry cheekily.

Maria pirouetted "Well it's different" she laughed. She was wearing the same cream linen skirt with matching blouse she had on when he arrived but had changed her black high heels for a pair of green rubber boots. "I thought we would walk down and while you're sizing up the job I want to check the bottom fence just back from the river. The ground can be a bit wet down there."

She stepped out and Harry had to be quick for a few paces to catch up with her. She took a shorter footpath through the woodland away from the track which ran alongside the fence. "Harry, I didn't think to ask whether you would have time to do this job; I know you are staying with your Aunt, but for how long?"

"Oh I'll be here until at least early February, three to four months. I have taken over Freddie Millers lawn mowing and handy man run for three months whilst he goes back to England to see his family. Freddie is sort of semi- retired so there isn't all that much to do, plenty of time for other things."

"And do you give a good service? do a good job? come on time? always give your clients what they want?"

Taken aback for a moment by her playfulness Harry replied. "I hope so, I haven't had any complaints"

They emerged through the trees into a clearer area. In front of them was a substantial brick building. This was the old house and although it had been locked up for many years it looked sound. On the left hand side extending for five metres or so was a low slate roofed shed which continued as two thick parallel walls for another twenty five metres. These walls had been exposed to the weather and the mortar had washed away in many places and that which was left was obviously soft.

"Where are the slates asked Harry?"

"They are still in the finished part of the shed; most of the roof was never built. They have been stored there for years."

"Ok" said Harry, effectively dismissing her, "if you want to go and check that fence I'll take a few minutes working out roughly how many bricks and slates there are here."

Maria was only gone for five minutes and she soon returned. Harry was sitting on a broken down part of the wall.

"D'you think you can do it?" she asked.

"Oh yes, it's much more straightforward than I thought it would be. The slates only need transporting so most of the work will be extracting, cleaning and stacking the bricks."

"Now who is this?" interrupted Maria; Billy's ancient Holden ute was coming very slowly down the track towards them.

"It's Billy, Billy Thompson the builder, I told him what you had here and asked him if he would be interested in taking the bricks and slates away."

"But I thought you would do that."

"My ute's not strong enough. Billy can send down one of his trucks and we can stack it all on pallets."

"But why do you need pallets?"

Harry didn't have time to answer as Billy's ute lurched to a halt. "G'day Harry" said Billy "ow are yer goin, G'day Mrs Bunce, don't think we've met. That's me" he announced, jabbing a bony finger at his name painted on the side of his ute"

"Hello Mr Thompson, Harry tells me he thought you might take the bricks and slates away."

"Yeah" confirmed Billy, "now Harry what have we got here?"

"At least 1800 slates and lord knows how many bricks and most of it especially the slates are in pretty good order"

"Excuse me Mr Thompson," interjected Maria, "but how much do you propose this will cost?"

Billy did not answer straight away; unhurriedly he flipped the lid from his tobacco tin and started to roll a cigarette. "Well" he said eventually "that depends, I reckon the same price as was used for the Town Hall contract would be fair." Billy then licked the paper carefully, put the roll up behind his ear and waited for her response.

"Mmmm" replied Maria cautiously, "and what was that price?"

Billy responded coolly, "$4.50 per slate and $1.80 per brick"

"You must be mad, I'm not paying anything like that sort of money... but hey, what are you two up to?" Maria had suddenly realised that both Billy and Harry had huge grins on their faces.

"Go on Harry, you tell Mrs Bunce" chortled Billy.

"Maria," explained Harry .These bricks and slates are not rubbish. The bricks were originally hand made by the convicts when the town was established a hundred and fifty years ago. They are non standard size, not quite regular in shape and are an exact match with the type Billy is using to extend the Town hall.

"Oh... so are you are saying you will pay for them?"

Billy nodded, still enjoying his joke.

"But why so much for the slates? if Harry's right about the numbers involved, that's over $8000."

"Yup" agreed Billy, "They're Welsh you see, best you can get"

Harry interjected, "You can tell they're Welsh slates by the colour. They were imported at the same time as the bricks were made. Roofing materials were short in the colonial days and they used slates as ballast on the return journey in the ships which had exported wool to England."

"So my pile of rubbish is actually worth something then... well I feel a bit of an idiot" said Maria laughing "but the pain's not so bad if I get paid for it, but hang on, how do I know you are offering me a fair price?"

Billy grinned again, "If it was down to me I wouldn't have done" he claimed mournfully, "but Harry's Aunty she said, "don't you go ripping that young lady off Billy Thompson or I'll sort you out. Fierce woman is Harry's Aunty," pondered Billy but in an affectionate tone which belied his words.

"Any slates which are damaged or need trimming I can't deal with" added Billy "but if Harry is careful getting them out this lot might be worth ten or twelve thousand all up."

As he spoke Billy picked up a couple of bricks from the ground then apparently satisfied tossed them back into the grass. A second later he swore, "well I'm buggered, look at him go."

'Him' was a big Eastern Brown snake, almost three metres long and thick as an arm. Disturbed by the brick thrown into the grass the snake shot between Billy and Harry heading for the long grass. Unfortunately its escape route was also straight between Maria's feet.

Harry noticed immediately the deathly pallor on Maria's face, but he was not quick enough to prevent her legs folding beneath her as she collapsed in a dead faint. He did however grab her and stop her hitting her head.

"Bloody hell" swore Billy again, "he didn't bite did he?"

"No" said Harry, "she's just fainted, now give me a hand," Harry was struggling to hold the dead weight of Maria.

The old builder stood behind her supporting her in a sitting position. "Now Harry shove her skirt up a bit and push her head down between her knees. That's right, hold on to her hair, that'll stop her flopping about"

"You reckon she'll be ok" enquired Harry after a few seconds. "Yeah" responded Billy laconically, "she'll soon come round, I've seen blokes on building sites go down like they was shot when they came close to a snake, some people just can't stand 'em."

"Can we take her back up to the house in your ute?" suggested Harry.

"No" grinned Billy who was beginning to enjoy the minor crisis "there's only a drivers seat in the front and the tray's full of tools."

"Ok" said Harry. "Look, if I hang onto her perhaps you could go up and get my ute and we could then take her up in that."

"Yeah" agreed Billy taking the keys, "that'll give her a minute or two to come round too. We might have trouble trying to get her on her feet straight away, she's a big lump of a girl; but first let's prop her up against that low bit of wall then you'll only have to stop her falling sideways." Harry and Billy achieved this by lifting her under her arms and unceremoniously dragging the unconscious Maria on her backside the short distance. Harry then sat down with her to hold her steady.

Billy set off and Harry checked his watch. It was almost five forty. After a minute or two he heard Billy's ute stop and a minute or so later the engine of his own fired up. At the same moment Maria started to stir. "What happened" she mumbled, she was shaking like a leaf.

"No don't try to get up yet" replied Harry as she struggled , "a snake went between your legs and you fainted, you'll be ok in a minute, Billy's gone to fetch my Ute, we'll take you up to the house when he gets back."

Maria was silent for a few moments her brain still fuzzy, "That snake, it was horrible, I can't stand them, can't stand them" she repeated." She shook some more, wrapped her arms around Harry's neck and hung on tightly. She then lapsed into silence again just as Billy reappeared on the track with the ute. Within a minute he had drawn to a halt next to them.

"Now" said Harry, "we are going to get you into the ute. Do you think you can stand up?"

"I think so" but as soon as she got to her feet, Maria's head spun. She grabbed Harry crushing him to her, his face almost disappearing between her breasts."

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