Spirit Levels

Ben was restless. His flight was taking entirely too long. His seat was never comfortable whatever position it was tilted to. The elderly lady sitting next to him gave off the smell of moth balls and hairspray and the hostess had asked that all the windows remain in the ‘up’ position until the sun came up.

Ben was more than restless, he was agitated.

He was missing Aubrey and his new home and he had only been gone 15 hours from their side, hurtling along at 14,000 meters above the ground on his way back to his old house, his friends and some papers he was not looking forward to signing. Ben’s mother now resided at Dunmour Cottage and she chose to sell her house in Australia and live permanently there in Scotland with her son and impending grandson or grand-daughter.

Ben was happy she was happy and that she lived close by to Aubrey in case there was something urgent that needed only a mother’s attention. His trip was going to be a short one with just the legal paper work with selling his house to get done and then back to Aubrey’s side with only a few more weeks to go until the arrival of their first child.

Ben was so looking forward to this magical occurrence. So we’re all at Bannock Castle and probably most of Scotland and the United Kingdom as well. Ben’s mother now had a connection with the locals and as soon as she knew something that was different....so did Scotland and then Europe. She had a black belt in gossip that even as the aircraft flew on, amazed Ben every time he gave his mother some thought.

Ben’s house was put on the market by his mum after she settled into Dunmour Cottage. Buzzsaw and his wife went around and boxed up all the clothes and incidentals for collection and storage until Ben arrived to finalise all the moving back to Scotland. The furniture was given to Victor and his new fiancé who had only just found out that they were expecting their first child a few months down the track after Ben and Aubrey.

Seems Victor didn’t wait around after Ben’s wedding and he promptly asked his girlfriend to marry him then set about setting up his own little love nest, while missing his best friend many miles away in Scotland. Ben leaned his head against the inside window of the aircraft while the air jet above his head pushed cool air over his face. He looked into the blackness and night sky high above the Indian Ocean and he wondered what was below the aircraft, how far away the coastline to Australia was and if Victor would get the times right and pick him up in time at the airport.

It was Thursday when the aircraft’s wheels left the ground in Edinburgh and from all reports it was going to be Friday when he arrived in Australia. This was going to be a weird case of jet-lag and Victor was just the thing he would need to ease his confusion. It might even be good to throw a line in off the local main beach and see if he can hook a sea monster. All things a side it was going to be great to see all his friends again and spend a little time in the house he grew up in before it became someone else’s home and sanctuary.

Ben started to think of all the memories he had made in that house with his mother. That was the only home he had really known. Every step he had ever taken that he could remember was in or around that house. It had shouldered his formative growing years when it was just his mother standing there on the other side of the living room rug urging him on to take his first steps.

It was his mother who instinctively reached for the cupboard above the stove to retrieve the mercurochrome (a red liquid that isn’t used anymore, thank God, because it contained mercury) to dab on his skinned knees and apply a bandaid to help heal his skateboard injuries.

At one time his mother actually had to cut the shirt from his body because the gravel rash was so bad Ben could not raise his arms above his head. He slept on his stomach for about two weeks and hardly moved because every time he did move he opened the scab that was in the process of trying to heal. Ben was a little nervous after he healed to ever ride his skateboard down Lindrum Road again but as he got older the wheels got better on most boards.

Long gone were the white chalk wheels that slipped, cracked and never really gripped the road at all, now there were plastic wheels that had some sort of bounce and grip in them. Ben thought about how he broke his favourite skateboard into three different size pieces in their driveway attempting to jump and land on his board from a homemade ramp constructed out of two floor boards and two pressed red house bricks sitting on top of each other.

Yes......Ben got airborne okay but it was the landing where he came horribly unstuck. His board was made of fibreglass a new substance that was just starting to take off when he was a boy and it did not withstand the contact with the ground even after such a brief flight. Once again Ben’s mother reached for the cupboard over the stove and patched Ben up. The skateboard wheels were thrown into a box and put into the cavity in the roof, for such items that Ben’s mother really didn’t know what to do with. If they were thrown out, all hell would break loose, so up into the roof they went.

Ben’s breath was condensing on the aircraft window as he smiled into the darkness of the sky and hurtled ever closer to the country he was so very used to. Ben started to think about Aubrey and all the changes to her body she was going through. Their child was growing inside of her and this was a very special time in both of their lives to have this happen. There was something about the timing of the events that seem to fit and make Ben smile whenever he thought about all the incidents leading to the marriage and the move to Scotland. It was such a long way from Australia.

Ben knew he was homesick and so did Aubrey. Ben was at his best when he was busy and doing things but as the resort didn’t need anything done to it and he had cut enough fire wood for the next ice age, all the rooms, boats and gates had been re-painted, there was nothing to do. Yes...he could fish and relax by the fire but his body was telling him to get out and do some work and not sit and get fat along with Aubrey.

(Authors note: Please don’t tell Aubrey I said she was fat or she will have my guts for garters. Pregnant women need to be told they are beautiful....no let me rephrase that ...women, all women, need to be told they are beautiful daily, nightly, in letters, in songs, in poems AND DON’T YOU FORGET THAT!)

Ben was shifting about in his seat on the aircraft. He could have watched a movie but he wasn’t interested. He could have had several small bottles of rather potent alcohol and slept all the way but he wanted clarity instead. Ben just stared out the window while the gentlemen in the seat in front of him snored as loud as an elephant, then, he went quiet and it was like he had almost stopped breathing then........ SNOOOOOORKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!... back he would come as if from the dead. It got so Ben could time when these episodes would happen.

These sounds reminded him of Rosie Macleash. Anything that sounded like it was being sucked into a garden drain or toilet that reached a really high volume reminded him of Rosie. Bless her heart wherever she may be. Ben looked out the window and he could see small tiny lights all bunched together to make one rather big town look like it was the size of a lit match.

Land.

Australian Land!

Ben sat up in his seat and grinned. It would be dawn soon and he could rest later on that day. Everyone would know that he was jetlagged from such a long journey and above all else, he was just excited to be home. This lifted his spirits and made him switch on the in house entertainment unit to see if he could see some news about Australia and sure enough, there was Coffs Harbour, a town he had never been to but he had heard about the Big Banana....and it was Australia and Home!

Ben looked from the little television screen to the window several times watching the sky turn that grey pre-dawn colour and the little screen telling him the speed and direction the aircraft was travelling in.

It won’t be long now thought Ben before breakfast will be served and he could fill up his dwindling food stocks to keep his strength up for the days meet and greets. Victor is sure to have planned a ‘Remember Me Tour’ and the thought of visiting the Funston’s Funeral Home for tea and nice neat little triangle sandwiches was not all that appealing.

Once again Aubrey popped into his mind.

He was going to be a father.

He was going to watch his own small creature grow right before his own eyes and guide their every step along life’s strange and curious road...together.