Chapter 4. Family Conference

“Come on Mum.” called John, he was impatient to get to the Park so the boys’ plan to show their parents what they’d found could be put into action.

“Almost done.” said Mum as she put the last pack of sandwiches, home-made Anzac biscuits, flask of coffee, and a six-pack of cans of diet lemonade into the picnic hamper.  “It really was a lovely idea of you boys to get us altogether at the Park, we haven’t done that in quite a while”.

John grabbed his soccer ball, and then he and Mum took a handle each of the picnic hamper and walked down the street toward the Park.  As they neared the track to the ‘Dump’ John pointed out the fallen tree which had flattened the gates and cleared some of the undergrowth.  “Gosh,” said Mum, “I wouldn’t have noticed that if you hadn’t pointed it out to me”.

Once at the park the boys quickly gathered and began kicking the soccer ball to each other. John’s Mum, Moana’s parents and Flynn’s parents spread out the picnic blankets and began unpacking the food and chatting. Moana's Mum had her camera and paused to take photos every now and then.
“So when shall we tell them?” asked John.
“Dunno,” said Moana with a frown, “We need a way to bring it up at lunch or something.”
“Yeah,” said Flynn “Maybe we should eat lunch, relax for a second and then tell them.”
The boys agreed, at least they’d have had a nice lunch and everyone would be enjoying themselves.

After kicking the ball around for a few more minutes their parents called out to come and help themselves.  All the food was spread out and there was a great selection of sandwiches, fruit, muesli bars, cakes, biscuits and drinks.  The boys’ parents smiled as the boys tucked in with haste, and it wasn’t long before most of the food had been eaten.  Full, and almost asleep after such a feast, Moana tapped John and Flynn and nodded towards their parents.  John sat up and cleared his throat, “Ummm, we have something we’d like to show you” he said, Moana and Flynn murmuring their agreement.  The boys parents looked at them quizzically, then looked at each other a little uneasily.  
“We found something down that track near here” said Moana.
“And we need your help” said Flynn.

“What sort of help?” said Moana’s Dad in a gentle but concerned voice.
“Yes,” chimed in Flynn’s Mum, looking worried “Are you boys in some kind of trouble?”

John’s Mum paused in the middle of packing the coffee flask and biscuit containers back in the picnic hamper. “Does this have anything to do with the abandoned placed you asked me about?” she asked John.
“Umm, yes” said John, feeling a little guilty.
“I think perhaps you boys better tell us the whole story.” said Moana’s Mum firmly, and all the parents nodded in agreement.

Taking a deep breath John and his friends explained how they'd found the 'Dump' with all its interesting piles of stuff, and wondered if they could make something from it.

“Make something like what?” said Moana’s Dad
“GO CARTS!” said the boys in unison
“Go carts?” said Flynn’s Mum “Don’t you need motors, and roll cages and a track?”
“Yes,” said Flynn “I think we’ve got most of what we need, but we need some help to put it all together.”
“Yeah, for the tricky bits” agreed Moana.

The boys’ parents looked at each other again, mixtures of concern, worry, and pride on their faces.

“But, you really need to see it” said John giving his friends a knowing look, “Let’s pack up our picnic stuff and walk there now.”

The boys scrambled to help their parents fold the picnic blankets, pack away the remaining food wrappers and containers, and put the rubbish into the bins dotted around the park.  Once done, they led their parents a few metres down the road to the track leading to the dump.  Everyone carefully stepped over the fallen tree and walked down the twisting track through the trees and stopped at the shed.  The boys’ parents took in the scene for a moment, all wearing looks of amazement on their faces.

“This is what we’ve found for the Go Carts.” said John, pointing to the pile of wheels, rods, seats and pipes.

Moana’s Dad and Flynn’s Dad walked over to look at what the boys had done so far, trying to hide their own excitement at the thought of building Go Carts.

“Wait a minute,” called John’s Mum, “Don’t you think we should try and find out if we’re allowed to be here before we start trying to build things?”

“Well, that’s the other thing about this place Mum,” said John “I think you all should come and have a look at the other stuff we found.” John looked at Moana and Flynn, and all three boys walked over to the letterbox that they’d carefully concealed under the straggly weeds.
They waited until their parents had put down all the picnic things, and crowded around them.  Then John put his hand in the slot, and popped the latch for the top of the letterbox.  He nodded to Moana who started winding with the winding handle, until he got a little tired, and then let Flynn take over.
The boys’ parents all stood in astonishment, watching the boys wind the handle, and seeing the trapdoor in the ground begin to open.

Once the lid was open enough John grabbed the envelope and handed it to his Mum.
“Mum, I think you better tell everyone what these are.”

John’s Mum undid the ties of the envelope and carefully pulled out the documents inside. “Oh gosh,” she exclaimed “The Property Deeds, and Frederick Chalmers’ Will.”
John’s Mum quickly exlained to the other parents what she'd found out about the 'Dump'.  “We will need to take these documents, and you boys with them, into the Lawyers office and have them verified,” she said, “But if it’s all true and correct, it looks like you boys are the new owners of this ‘Dump’" she said with a half proud, half worried look.

The parents gathered together and discussed what they should do next, and the boys shuffled about, not really knowing what to do.  After a few minutes it was agreed that on Monday morning the boys and their parents would go into town to the Lawyers office so that they could get someone to check the papers.  Mum would call ahead and see if she could organize an early appointment. Moana's Mum suggested she take photos of the place to show how it was when they found it.

“There’s just one thing I’d like to know” Moana’s Mum said, “How on earth did you boys find out about this letterbox and the trapdoor?”

The boys looked at each other and grinned. “In the shed,” said Moana, “Come and have a look.”

The boys led their parents around to the front of the shed.  Moana and Flynn’s Dad pushed and pulled the old heavy doors to make the gap a little wider, and everyone filed in.

“Wooo what a mess.” said Flynn’s Mum.
“Yes, this is almost as bad as outside.” said Moana’s Mum, wrinkling her nose at the dust covering everything.

After a minute setting the model back up, Moana called “Look at this”, and everyone went to table where the miniature model of the ‘Dump’ with the wire track was sitting.  “We worked out that you needed to put a ball-bearing here.” he said pointing to the start of the wire track.
“Let’s show them” chimed in Flynn.
“Yeah” agreed John.

So the boys set the ball-bearing rolling along the track, through and around the miniature piles, knocking over the tiny “Keep watching” sign, and finally coming to a rest at the letterbox.  The parents all gasped when they saw the ball-bearing fall into the letterbox, setting off the latch to open the little trapdoor, revealing the tiny envelope.

“That’s absolutely amazing,” said John’s Mum, “Good on you boys for working it out.”

The other parents were looking around the shed, seeing more piles of junk and tools lying around. “There’s an awful lot of stuff here” noted Flynn’s Mum.
“Yeah, we were hoping we could use some of the tools to make the Go-Carts” said Flynn smiling.  Flynn’s Dad ruffled his hair and said “We just might be able to do that, once we’ve been to the Lawyers.”
Moana's Mum took some photos, making adjustments to the camera's settings for the dim light.

With that the boys and their parents all went outside for another quick look around outside.   Moana and Flynn’s Dad pulled the shed door back closed, then they both went to have another look at the pile of things the boys had started to build the Go-Carts with.  It was pretty clear that they were both pretty keen to help.

The boys Mums were talking, and John could see that they were a little more uncertain about things, so he went over and said “Mum come and have a look at some of these piles, there’s loads of stuff out here”.  In fact all the Mums wandered over and had a look at the piles, laughing at some of the items, frowning in confusion at others.  “Well I certainly haven’t seen anything that looks dangerous,” said Flynn’s Mum “It really just needs a bit of a tidy-up”.  Looking at each other, the Mums had a feeling they knew how they were going to help.  Moana's Mum had plenty to take photos of there!

“Alrighty team,” Moana’s Mum called, “I think perhaps we’ve had enough excitement for the day, its already 4:30pm, lets all head for home.”
“Yes,” agreed John’s Mum, “and a word of caution;  it would be a good idea not to come back here until we have these legal documents checked and verified.”
Everyone reluctantly agreed, and they gathered their things and walked back down the track, said their goodbyes and headed home.

John was quiet walking back home, he felt pleased about telling the parents about what they’d found, but frustrated that he couldn’t go back until after Monday.  “Don’t worry Love,” said Mum, as if reading his thoughts, “I think these legal documents are all OK, we just need them checked.  To be honest I’m a little bit jealous of you boys, fancy owning a great big property like that at your age.” she smiled at John and his excitement about the ‘Dump’ returned.