Power Games

Heading back home, I feel weird asking Mitch for the favour especially now he knows what my last indiscretion was and why I ended up coming to Yellow Peak. The positive though is that Mitch seems like a guy who won’t because I get this feeling that he would rather be anywhere but Yellow Peak these days.

I wander back to the main street, the troubles have seemed to disappear for the most part with the people around Yellow Peak as I’ve kept my head down and just worked although there are still a few little issues with people but nothing major. As I’m walking down the street I run into Adam “Hey man, you look like you had some sort of day” I say as he wanders down the street, exhausted and covered in paint as he smiles.

“It was the Regional Art Day and of course I was there from 7 am and just got back into town needing wine and Pizza,” he says as we wander towards the Pizza shop “How about we just share a Pizza tonight? I’ll order Pizza and you can get the wine that you want?” I say as he agrees “Just try not to get anything with too much greenery on it because you don’t put Salad on a Pizza”.

Laughing in agreement, I go in and order a Large BBQ Chicken Pizza with extra Bacon and Barbeque Sauce with Garlic Bread on the side and wait for Adam outside the Pizza shop until he comes back with the wine that he wanted. I lift the box lid and he’s impressed by the choice I made and he takes the wine with him to his place and I take the Pizza back.

We get to our places at the same time as I wander over to Adam’s following him inside his place as he goes and takes a quick shower before changing into a fresh set of clothes although there is still paint in his hair. He sits down next to me as I grab a bit of his hair “You still got paint and glitter in your hair” I say as I sweep his hair across his face and get the glitter out.

“Of course I do, I’m going to be getting glitter out of my hair for weeks now,” Adam says laughing as I pick bits of glitter out of his hair. I pick up a piece of Pizza and start eating it as Adam teasingly leans up against me as he enjoys his wine and Pizza and I just enjoy the Pizza.

I sit there not really talking as Adam sits up “Sorry, stayed leaning on you too long” he says thinking I was offended by him leaning on me when I wasn’t. “Nah it was fine, actually nice even but just been thinking about things and the news that I got today,” I say as Adam takes another drink of wine and right now the wine looks good but I promised myself that I wouldn’t touch alcohol for the next few months.

Adam looks at me “What news?” he says with a confused face as I go to explain “Would’ve thought Danny told you first”. Adam nods “That was probably what he was ringing me about and I forgot to call him back… so what is the news?”.

“My father is making a visit to town,” I say bluntly and clearly unimpressed about that fact as Adam faces me “Is he coming to visit you personally or what?” I shake my head as he asks me. “Of course, he’s not coming to visit me personally it’s a Campaign visit to announce some big expansion of the mine and then an upgrade of the Highway,” I say rolling my eyes.

“So, when’s he visiting?” Adam asks me as we both go for the same piece of Pizza, “Tuesday but there’s a preparatory visit on Monday afternoon by an assistant to my father and I can guarantee that it would be Brendan coming to visit because I can feel all this to be a set-up” I say letting Adam take the Pizza.

“Why would it be a setup?” he says not convinced that it’s going to be as bad as I’m making out that it will be. “The fact is that my family doesn’t want me back in pure and simple because I’m a disruptor and I don’t want anything to do with that life,” I say leaning back on the couch stretching my legs out a bit, my shirt riding up.

“They wouldn’t do that because you’re welcome back in once you have proven yourself here and I know how much you’ve been wanting to get back to Grantham and if you can actually show that you’re a changed person you are,” Adam says to me before looking confused “You do want to return to Grantham right?”.

Shrugging my shoulders, listening to Adam’s words makes me wonder if I really do want to go back to Grantham because this is the first opportunity where I’ve actually felt like I’ve belonged to a group of friends and had a family that cares about me. “Honestly, I don’t know anymore between the friendship that I’ve got with you, Danny, Mitch, Sam are better than any friendships that I had back home and here although it would be nice to be closer to the city, I enjoy the more peaceful life here”.

Adam nods “Well you’re welcome here for as long as you want to be here Isaac,” he says as he changes the topic back towards the TV and what we are watching for a little bit. I say good night to Adam at about 7:45 and let him get an early night and walk back towards my place taking in the fresh night air and just having a think about things.

Sitting on my front step, I watch as a lone car drives along the road heading out towards the mines, it’s a really big difference from where my apartment sat in Grantham on the main road with the traffic going every hour of the day. I get my phone out of my pocket and start deleting all the texts that I’ve been getting from my mates wanting to know why they haven’t heard me or why I’ve ditched them.

After spending some time just sitting outside, I head back inside and change my clothes and just stream some Netflix for a while and end up falling asleep. The next morning, I head to the gym running into Danny there “Hey bro” he says to me “Sorry I didn’t call you, I was up early not sleeping so came for a workout” he says sweating profusely as the sweat puts a shine on his arms.

“It’s cool man, I was just going to go for a run this morning but decided to just get some lifting in instead” Danny smiles “Well then let’s go, bro”. In the time that I’ve been lifting with Danny, I’ve already noticed a massive difference in the size of my pecs and biceps which I’m enjoying. The lifting does my mind so much good, clearing all the haze of thinking about wanting to go home.

“How are things with Tash?” I ask not sure whether I should be asking because things are pretty iffy between them. “Yeah, alright I think, we haven’t really talked about things and she seems ok of late, she put off another visit to her parents for a while,” he says as I wonder if her visits are more frequent of late.

“Where does she visit if you don’t mind me asking?” I ask curiously about where Tash goes and her situation. “No problems with you asking at all, her parents live in Grantham and her grandparents lived out here which is why she took the job whilst she was doing her nurse training and then stayed to be with me and well we had the boys and we’ve just been together since,” he says as I try and place the face but I can’t do it.

Danny and I grab some breakfast from the Gym café and sit and talk for a bit longer about general things about life and just workout techniques for me to lift without Danny being there. “I told Adam about the visits next week,” I say not sure whether Danny wanted me to let out the secrets or not.

“What did he say about them?” Danny asks me. “Not a lot really, I told him that I feel like it’s a set-up to get me to be doing something wrong or cause trouble and he doubted that is why they are coming into town,” I say still feeling like that’s the case of things.

“You know what, I don’t disagree with you that much in all honesty” Danny surprises me when he says that, “I think that everything you’ve said is probably true and don’t take this the wrong way but the Keppel’s only surround themselves with yes people and I get the sense that you’re never going to be that so any sort of trouble that gets created it gives them an excuse”.

I sit there nodding in agreeance with Danny as we finish breakfast off and end up going our own ways, I drive out to Sapphire Ridge to the big supa centre out there with various retailers because I want to make my shell of a house a proper place to live and make it a full home. I wander around and realise that the large number of people that are out there is something that I haven’t missed around Yellow Peak but put up with it as I manage to get good deals on some extra furniture and finally getting a TV.

Bringing most of it home with me, I drive back to Grantham with the music pumping singing along feeling good even though I’m still driving the shit box. Driving back towards Yellow Peak, I get an overwhelming sense of dread and doom like somebody is following me but every time I look back there is nothing there.

Going off the highway using the backroad, I take a detour along the roads in the back of Yellow Peak just to make sure that nobody has been following me until I get back onto the main road and drive back towards my place. I drive past the shops making a note of every car that is in the street and trying to notice if there is any car that is suspicious but honestly, I don’t know the majority of cars in town so there could be someone hiding in plain sight and I would have absolutely no idea if somebody was hiding in plain sight.

Parking my car in the driveway, I get out as Adam is in the front yard “Hey bro, Mitch came by looking for you wouldn’t tell me what it was about but said you’d know?” I nod “Thanks man, do you have his number so I can give him a call”.

Adam rattles off Mitch’s number as I put it in my phone “Everything alright? You’re not in any trouble are you?” Adam asks me wanting to know what is going on. “Nah everything’s good, Mitch was just doing me a favour and looking into something for me… you don’t need to give me that look, Adam, it’s nothing bad at all I promise,” I say unlocking my front door so I can carry in some of the stuff that I bought this morning.

Sitting down on the couch I ring Mitch but get his voicemail so I leave him a message and get back to bringing in the furniture that I bought and building it for a little while until Mitch rings me back at about 3. “Hey bro, sorry phone was dead so didn’t realise you rang, I’ve got some info for you already” Mitch says down the phone as I smile. “That was quick, well what is it?” I ask wanting to get the information as quickly as possible “I’d rather show you in person, you able to come by my place say at about 4?”.

“Yeah, for sure, you mean the office or?” I ask not knowing where his place actually is “Nah, my place opposite where the gym is, the newish looking apartment block, 7D” he says as we hang up the phone. I sit there a bit bemused on why he couldn’t tell me the information but still curious I get ready to head to Mitch’s apartment to get the information that I want.