Power Games

(Apologies for the delay in chapters; Just spent some time taking a break and enjoying the Olympics on TV)

I get back to work on the furniture pulling it apart before looking at the wood trying to turn it into something quite solid that I can help furnish the house. I start using the frame of an old Bed and start transforming it around to a bookshelf. I spend a few hours working on it and just needing to finish it off I realise that it needs a varnish and seal which I don’t have any of and I look up the directions to the nearest hardware store that would be open.

There’s a major one about half an hour away and I go out there and get what I need plus several flatpack pieces of furniture that were on sale just to fill the house. I get in the car and reflect on the fact that I would have preferred to just have my apartment in Grantham but thinking back it makes me happy that I am actually able to achieve something for myself because I was never celebrated for what I did because my brothers and sisters had probably achieved it themselves and probably better than what I did. I drive back to my place and take the things around the back where there is a big guy around just walking around.

“Umm, can I help you there?” I say a bit suspicious about this guy taking walking around my backyard and looking at the work that I have been doing on the furniture. “Who’d you get to build this? It’s absolutely brilliant man” he says looking at me. “I made it why are you asking who did it?” the guy stands there and laughs “You can cut this act you know that right, Adam is trusting but everybody will know what you’re really like and how you got somebody to do this?”.

“I don’t know what you are talking about, I got the wood from Linda who let me take it because it was being thrown away and I turned that part into the bookshelf that you see there and now I just need to varnish it,” I say getting defensive as the person nods and starts to believe me as I get to a state of almost pleading to be believed.

I watch the person feel the work “This is really good work and honestly I guess that I’ve missed judged you, Keppel, on this occasion” I smile as he says that but I have no idea who he is at the moment. “Who are you exactly?” I ask getting a bit nervous about who this guy is wandering around my backyard.

“I’m Danny, Adam’s friend who asked me to mow your lawn?” he says to me as he gets his lawnmower “Oh yeah he said you would be a bit hostile at first if we met”. Danny shrugs his shoulders “Yeah well look I don’t trust you and I don’t particularly like you alright, but Adam seems to trust you so I’m open to helping him not you so if you can let me get onto it and then I can get it done and leave you back alone” Danny says to me.

I look at him “Yeah, well why can’t you give me a chance because I’m here now and whether you like it or not I’m not going anyway”. Danny scoffs and rolls his eyes “Yeah right, not going anywhere we both know that once Daddy steals the election and from the people who actually care about the real person, the everyday people like us in Yellow Peak not your kind of stuck-up self-centred pretty boys” he says with a real sense of anger at me.

“I’m not my father, I’m not my brother,” I say getting really frustrated and upset “Yeah I’m not from around here but again you don’t fucking know anything about me personally do you? You came round here and just asked who I got to build that furniture or who I was getting to do it for me not just complimenting the work” I say as my voice raises “You don’t know what I think or what I want in life because you automatically see the name Keppel and think you know everything about me but you fucking don’t. If you don’t want to like me then I don’t give a shit but don’t judge me like you know me because you fucking don’t.” I say getting angry and upset as Danny replies.

“I know your fucking type because my family owned our farm for 4 generations until my grandfather couldn’t afford his farming taxes anymore because your family wanted to get rid of poor people and then guess what? Once my grandfather can’t afford it anymore he has to leave the farm we’ve always had and it was bought by Sunway Limited… aka the company owned by Charles Keppel your fucking uncle who then sold it for 15 times what it was worth” Danny says getting angry “Your family ruined my grandfather's life and it’s what killed him so don’t think that I am ever going to come around to you because you’ll always have that stench” Danny says as Adam comes around after hearing all the yelling.

“What the hell is going on here?” Adam says coming rushing around looking pretty annoyed that we are having an argument “Nothing that concerns you, Adam, just dealing with the garbage that seems to have come into town and trying to get it to go back where it comes from” he says walking off angry as Adam grabs his shoulder. “Come on Danny be a fucking adult about this, whatever it is Isaac can talk through it with you because clearly, he’s not his father”.

I pipe in “Exactly, I never knew anything about that because I didn't even know that my uncle owned a company that way or did anything like that and if it’s true then it’s absolutely heartless to do something like that and I’m sorry that it happened but I had no control over it at all so just give me a chance” Danny sighs “Alright you got nothing to do with that but it’s a pattern with your family and that I can’t shake because they’ve done plenty of it”. Adam looks at him pleading “Look, Isaac clearly isn’t his father or his uncle, he might have the Keppel name but do you really think he would be here living in a place like this and building his own furniture if he didn’t want to distance himself from his family?”.

I nod “I’m not perfect and I don’t care if people don’t trust me or like me but I want them to make that judgement for themselves after meeting me and seeing what I am doing for myself” I stand there thinking for a moment of what to say but get interrupted by Danny “Alright, I’m sorry for what I said ok, it was a pretty low thing to do and of course it wasn’t your fault personally but it just makes me so upset to see what happened to my grandfather”.

I stand there nodding and understanding where he is coming from “I can understand that my grandad was the person I was closest to in the world because him and my Nan were the only people that didn’t care about our family name, they were just letting me be a kid” I say as I sit on the backstep “I learnt to cook and bake of my nan and my Grandad taught me everything I knew about woodwork which is why I was so good at building that shelf” I say crying “They meant the world to me because to them I was just Isaac not Keppel and I could be the kid I wanted”.

My emotions get the better of me “All I’ve ever wanted to be is Isaac or for someone to just call me Sac because I’ve never been my own person” Adam puts his hand on my shoulder and Danny looks at me before he sits next to me “Alright Sac, but don’t think that this is a clean slate ok? I still have my doubts about you but I think that you need to prove yourself a lot more because I just don’t know how I can fully trust you that’s all”.

I nod in agreement “I don’t expect open arm friendship from anyone in town but just want to be able to prove myself because at the end of the day, I genuinely do want to make a better life because I hate my family and what they stand for” I let out a deep breath “It’s probably hollow words because of my situation and probably looking petulant but at the end of the day as much as the money and the designer things are nice, I just don’t want that scrutiny”.

Danny scowls his face up as I talk about the money which makes me nervous for a second but he lets out a smile at what I say “Adam’s probably invited you already but would you want to come around to our thing tonight, just a few mates?” he says still with some hesitancy in his voice and I nod “I would love to come around tonight and Danny I’m sorry for yelling at you”.

Danny nods but doesn’t say anything and just goes to get the lawnmowers to start the lawns as Adam and I walk around to the front of the house. I turn to Adam “He talked about his grandfather’s farm being taken by my family is that true?” I say getting worried as Adam doesn’t look at me as I ask him. “Adam I need to know the truth, did my family take away Danny’s family's farm?”.

He stands there and just nods “It’s the way it looks to everyone, there was a farm tax put in for areas that were seen as development opportunities for new country hubs to essentially take them off the land, Danny’s grandfather ran the biggest farm in the Region but was struggling and the land was prime for these Country Hubs,” he says as we go inside his house and he makes coffee “Noel couldn’t make the tax payments because there was no income from the farm so they foreclosed on it and your uncle bought it at a price only a quarter of what it should have been,” he says as he puts the Coffee in front of me. “If you didn’t work at the mine you worked at the Farms and when the farms got closed down, half of Yellow Peak didn’t have a job and that’s why everyone left,” he says getting upset.

“So that’s why I’ve been not welcomed because my family took away the livelihoods and things of this town,” I ask “Yep, they heard the rumours and thought that you were a plant to try either win them over for your father at the Election or be his spotter to tell him what he needs to do to buy the town,” Adam says with a loud sigh “That’s why I was a bit hesitant with you as well because it hurt everyone in the town,” he says as I sit there thinking about the fact that I got the information about Yellow Peak and the house left for me by my brother.

I sit there with an obviously confused and suspicious look on my face “Something bothering you Isaac?” Adam says to me as I snap out of my confusion “Just thinking about something that’s all sorry” we go back to have a normal conversation but my mind can’t stop thinking about the fact everyone thought I was a plant to spy on Yellow Peak for one reason or another but now maybe it’s true and it really bothers me that maybe I’m just a pawn in a game played by my family on this town yet again.