| "Andy's Quest" |
| Copyright Francis Blow, 1996. |
| CHAPTER 12 |
| "How do you feel, Andy." Rod asked. |
| "Great, Dad." Andy looked up at his father; Rod was driving Andy home. To stay. |
| Andy's clothes and other possessions were in cardboard boxes in the back of the station wagon. |
| "You did it, Son. I didn't know you had such powerful friends. How on earth did you get to know the Prime Minister?" |
| "Simple. I let my fingers do the walking." |
| "The phone book? You're kidding!" |
| Andy laughed. "It wasn't that easy, really. I spoke to a lot of people before they let me talk to him. He's just an ordinary man, though, because he's got kids, and he goes to work in an office, like you do." |
| "Did you figure that out for yourself?" |
| "No. He told me. He said that he's going to arrange for me to visit his home and his family, so I asked if I could bring my new family." |
| "You didn't!" Rod was horrified. |
| "He said he'd like to meet you, too. You know what?" |
| "What else did you do?" |
| "I asked him if he believed in God. Can you guess what he said?" |
| "He said yes?" |
| "No." Andy frowned, remembering the great man's words. "All he said was that it didn't matter if he believed in God or not, because God believes in him." |
| "Ah... He's right. Christian, Moslem, Buddhist, Jew. It doesn't matter, because one day we'll all know. In the meantime, well, I guess God lets us go our own way." |
| "He lets us go our own way? What about the Ten Commandments and all that stuff?" |
| "If you understand them, all they are are simple rules for getting on with each other. After all, what could God need or want from us?" |
| Andy was startled. How could such a religious person as his Dad say something like that? Andy took the question seriously. What could God want from anyone? If he was God, then he already had everything. It was one of the hardest puzzles Andy ever faced. |
| Andy thought that Carol and the girls would squeeze him to death, with all the hugs and kisses he received when he got to his new full-time home. Everyone cried, and told Andy how worried they had been, and how much they loved him. |
| There was no chance of Gail smuggling Andy off for their chess game, because Chrissy and May refused to let him go. Carol just smiled and laughed and smiled, sometimes with tears in her eyes. All she said to him when she hugged him tightly against her, was "I'm so glad you're home, my son." |
| Rod waited in the lounge room, knowing that, sooner or later, his girls would leave his son alone. |
| Until dinner time, though, they followed Andy everywhere, and he even had to chase May out of the bathroom when he wanted to go to the toilet. Andy quickly got tired of having his sisters touching him all the time, so he went and sat on the arm of Rod's chair, for protection. |
| "Ladies." Rod cautioned the three girls. "Leave Andy alone for a while. How about you help Mum in the kitchen?" |
| "Aw, Daddy. Do we have to?" Chrissy asked. |
| "Yes, you do. Tell your mother that she needs you." |
| Andy grinned at his pouting sisters from his perch next to his father. "Thanks, Dad." |
| "Any time, Andy. You know what's the best thing to do now?" |
| "What, Dad?" |
| "Start unpacking. Settle in properly. Do you want a hand with the boxes?" |
| "I think I'd rather do it myself. I can't explain, but it would make it more real if I did it. Can you understand, Dad?" |
| "Son, it's about what I expected from you. You've got to find your own feet, like you always have." |
| Andy carted the boxes, one at a time, from the station wagon to his bedroom. As he carried the last box in, he found Gail carefully folding his clothes into the chest of drawers. He smiled at her, as she reached into a box for a pair of shorts. |
| "Are you trying to be my second mother?" Andy asked. |
| "Oh!" Gail blushed. "Andy, you startled me. I'm just helping." |
| "Thanks, Gail... Sis." |
| "Sis?.. Good grief!" Gail shook her head. |
| "Hey, I like it. Sis." |
| "What's the world coming to? So I'm Sis now. I guess I can live with it." |
| "I could call you Gailey-Poo instead, if you like?" |
| "Get out of here! Sis is fine." Gail went back to folding clothes. "This is your undies drawer. Don't you have singlets?" |
| "Nope. Shirts are enough." |
| "What will you do when it gets really cold? I can't survive in winter without something extra to keep me warm." |
| "I'll use a thick jumper... Did you make your last move?" Andy asked, indicating the chess board on the card table. |
| "Yep. I'll leave you to ponder the trap I'm setting for you. In the meantime, I'm going to think of a suitable nickname for you... How does Shnookums sound? Or, maybe, Andikins?" |
| "I think I'm going to be sick. Let's stick to our real names." |
| Once more, Carol asked that the family say Grace before dinner, and each of them added a little prayer, except for Andy, who was still unsure about all that God business; after the "Amens", though, he could not help but remember what the Prime Minister himself had told him: "It doesn't matter if I don't believe in God, because God still believes in me." |
| Rod had a surprise for the whole family, and he made an announcement after his three daughters served the ice-cream. |
| "Before you get stuck into your sweets, I have something to tell you kids." Rod waited till all eyes were focused on him . "I had a search made through the council and state records for the owners of that old property where you found the money." |
| Andy felt himself go weak. So, he would lose the chess set before he expected. Well, it had to happen sometime. |
| "What I found is that council resumed the land for unpaid rates, and there is no one to claim the property. What you found is unclaimed." |
| "Yahoo!" May yelled. |
| "There's more. I got that news on Wednesday afternoon, but yesterday, I had the money valued by a collector. Some of it's not worth much more than face value, when converted to today's currency. However, two of the notes and five of the coins are worth, together, fifteen thousand dollars. Mother?" Rod nodded to Carol, who smiled at him, before she spoke up. |
| "I had all the jewlry valued, and I was right about that fake diamond. The only thing was, I didn't check the rest of the jewelry. Several of the pieces are real, and worth thousands more. That makes the four of you very lucky. How about a family council?" |
| An hour later, the three girls and Andy had decided on how they would use their good fortune. What could be sold, would be divided four ways, and the money placed in bank accounts. The twins would keep all the imitation jewelry and Andy would have the chess set. Gail said she was happy with the arrangement, since she only became involved after the discovery, though she said she trusted her brother, Andy, to let her use the chess set, too. |
| "That sounds very fair." Rod congratulated them. |
| "Dad." Andy spoke up. "How much will I need from that money to pay for my education?" |
| "School? And university, too, I guess. I'm not sure. Perhaps, ten to twenty thousand dollars. It depends a lot on what you plan to do with your life. Why?" |
| "I want to use some of it to help the other boys in the home. Most of them won't ever find foster families. I'm sure I can get part time work to pay for university" |
| "That's really a very fine thought, son. If that's what you want, then I'll try and work it out with you. By the way, did you do that exercise I suggested, about guiding your career? Or were you too busy?" |
| "I did it, Dad, but I don't need it. I know who I'm going to be." |
| "I'm all ears, son." |
| "I'm going to study everything I can to make me the best Prime Minister that Australia's ever had." |
| Everybody at the table stared at Andy. Chrissy was the first one to break the silence. "Why would you want to do that, Andy?" |
| "When I spoke to the Prime Minister, he said he couldn't change laws, but because of the fact that most people in the country took what he said seriously, he could change the way people think, more than anyone else." |
| May poked him in the arm. "Who cares what other people think?" |
| "If people think right, instead of selfishly, then we probably wouldn't need boys homes and orphanages." Andy replied. "Oh, and, Dad, I worked out the answer to that question you asked me in the car." |
| "Which question was that?" |
| "If God is real, what could he need or want from people? I know the answer now." |
| "Ahh. I'm glad. Who else knows?" Rod looked at his daughters. |
| Gail smiled and held up her hand. "I know." |
| "May? Chrissy? Would you like to take a guess?" Rod asked. |
| Both girls became embarrassed, and shook their heads. |
| "What's the answer, Son?" |
| "It's what you all have given me from the first moment I met each of you. It's what I want to give to all of you." Andy said quietly. "Dad, Mum, Gail, Chrissy, May. I love you." |
| "And that," nodded Carol, "is all that's really important." |
� 
� 
� 