Hello readers, well this is the third in the series Ben MacDuff - Homecoming
If you have missed the first two, here they are :
Chapter 1 Ben MacDuff - Homecoming
Chapter 2 Nanay Ate and Uncle Po - Say What!
Please do leave any feedback whether it be good or not so good.
Chapter 3
Ten minutes later, Uncle Po appeared carrying a huge Silver Tray, with a large silver teapot, three bone China blue Spode teacups and a plate of assorted Border biscuits. Uncle Po and Nanay Ate sat down on the large blue cloth covered sofa.
“Shall I be mother” said Nanay Ate and proceeded to pour out three cups of hot steaming tea.
“Well, I do call you Mother after all Nanay Ate, so please pour!” laughed Archie.
“Hmm dark chocolate ginger, I have not had one of these for ages” murmured Archie as he munched on the biscuit.
“Don’t talk with your mouthful Archie, whatever would your mother think!” scolded Nanay Po.
“Yes Motherrr” joked Archie.
“We get your money every month Archie, but I think Po and I have now managed to get the estate on a self-sufficient basis, and we are even making a good profit na” beamed a smiling Nanay Ate.
“Oh really, that is awesome, tell me what you have been doing to be able to make a profit then?” inquired Archie.
“Well last year, we made enough profit along with a few loans from your friendly bankers, to get the roof completely repaired! Our biggest money spinner is something you might know called AirBnB?”
“AirBnb?” exclaimed Archie, sounding slightly bemused.
“Do tell me all the chika!” he remarked, knowing full well what it was and indeed knowing full well everything that Nanay Ate and Uncle Po had been doing in his absence.
“Tingnan natin, let me begin” exclaims Nanay Ate, rather excitedly. However, just as she opens her mouth, the beep of an electronic notification can be heard, so Nanay Ate reaches into her apron pocket and pulls out a brand-new light blue iPhone 12 Pro.
The picture of a little old lady nimbly pushing buttons on the latest hi-tech smartphone tickled Archie, and he burst into laughter.
“Nanay Ate, you are just so gigil so darn cute and my lodi” roars Archie.
Turning to Uncle Po, Nanay Ate remarks “Petmalu Po, that is the party of 33 confirming their reservation from the 11th of next month.”
Pretending to be baffled, Archie questions Nanay Ate “Whatever do you mean Nanay Ate?”
“Oh Archie, we rent rooms out to tourists you know man! This company called AirBnb, well you register with them, and then people book rooms through them, and they send us money, and people write reviews on how good the stay is and then more people book, and it is amazing isn’t it Po, and then we rinse and repeat all year long and …”
“Slow down Nanay Ate, you will give yourself a heart attack with the speed that you are rabbiting on at!” exclaimed Archie.
“Okay Archie, but it is amazing, really it is amazing, and it is so so simple. They I mean AirBnB take a commission, but the best bit is, they charge the people who book the room with us a cleaning fee, which helps cover the cost of hiring people to do the cleaning for us, so it costs us nothing!” continued Nanay Ate.
“That sounds good, but who does all this cleaning and how did you set this all up? Tell me more Nanay Ate please” begged Archie.
“Tara let’s begin. Well after your dear mother passed away, Mr Hamish your fathers’ solicitor explained that as you were away missing somewhere, the wishes of your mothers will had to be executed, and that we were to run the estate as best we could in your absence. Well, we found that strange, just sitting here with nothing happening. Anyways we had a visit from our grandson Wilson. You know he is now a professor at the University in Cebu teaching computer studies. Well, he told us about this AirBnB thing, and then he set it all up for us. He then made us our own website!!! And he got us both these smart phones they are called smartphones because well they are so smart aren’t they Po, and he showed us what to do and it is just so brilliant Archie. He got us in touch with a wedding planner, so now we even do weddings too. People love being in a Scottish Castle you know Archie! The people to help we just get from Billy in the village. He arranges for everyone, students and backpackers wanting extra money, they come here, and we give them room and money for them working. It is so easy Archie, really it is. All I have to do is push buttons on this baby of mine!”. Gushed an excited Nanay Ate holding up her brand-new iPhone.
Archie of course knew all this; he also knew they had had the rooms redecorated. He also knew who had performed the redecorating, but he kept quiet, letting Nanay Ate carry on in her excitement to tell him all the news.
There was a knock on the door, and in walked a tall dark-haired young lady with Slavic features. “Ah Maja, come in, come in and meet the boss Archie!” exclaimed Nanay Ate.
Archie rose up from his chair, hand outstretched and went towards the motionless Maja.
“Ehm but I thought you two were the bosses” said a baffled Maja.
“No no, this is the real boss! Sir Archibald Edward Cameron, XI Baronet of Cameron of Bunit, you may call him Archie though, and Archie this is Maja, who is head of housekeeping, and she comes from Serbia”.
To this Maja, went to shake Archie’s hand, but instead tried to courtesy and almost fell over in the process. Archie immediately reached for her arm and pulled her to her feet. At five ten she was a tall lady, and as he pulled her up, their eyes transfixed on each other.
“What a delightful pleasure to meet you and welcome you to my humble abode. Nanay Ate has been telling me all about the fantastic job you have been doing for her, and for that you have my thanks a thousand-fold.”
A blushing Maja replied “I am so happy to meet you, a real Sirrr oh my goodness I don’t know what to say, but I just come to tell that room numbers one to twenty-five are all finished and ready for business, and we will do the rest of the rooms now. But the people in room thirteen oh shots I don’t know how you say, I think, ehm I think the little girl she ehm she pooped the bed, she had a Jobbie! But I tell Olga to put the sheets in the trash and we spray the mattress real good. Is that OK what we did Nanay Ate?”
“Yes, yes you did good my child. I will come up and see the rooms later, thank you very much Maja”
“Thank you and so nice to meet you Sirrr Archie”
“The pleasure is all mine, and please, less of the Sir if you don’t mind Maja, just plain old Archie will do just fine!” admonished Archie.
Turning to look at Archie, and with a look of bewilderment upon her face Maja asked Archie “ehm Sirrr have you ever worn a beard?”
Archie looked at her in the eyes and replied “Why yes Maja, as a matter of fact I was wearing a full beard the last time I was in Novi Sad in Serbia”
Hearing what Archie said, Maja shrieked hysterically and ran out of the room.
“What a charming young lady” Archie remarked to nobody in particular.
Archie knew exactly who Maja Mari was. A brilliant mathematician, Archie and Maja had shared many a Woo Woo cocktail amongst other things in a small bar in Novi Sad when she was undertaking a PhD in applied Mathematics. The Woo Woo happens to be one of the most simple and fruity cocktails of all time and is a true classic, it blends vodka and peach schnapps topped up with cranberry juice and had been extremely effective in loosening Maja’s tongue. Unbeknownst to Maja, Archie was working for the Serbian State Security Service at the time, sounding out her potential defection possibilities. He will deal with that monster later.
“So, my wonderful Nanay Ate, what else do I need to know?” asked Archie.
“There is so much more to tell you, but maybe we do tomorrow when I am not so gigil at seeing you again, it has been tiring and I still need to make us dinner Archie” commented an excitable but tired sounding Nanay Ate.
“Of course, let me get unpacked and I can come help you Nanay Ate”. Said Archie and with that all three left the drawing room. The elderly duo departed for the kitchen with Uncle Po carrying the silver tray while Archie started up the huge curved ornate marble staircase with his bags.
He arrived at the first-floor landing, took a left and went to find his old room. Turning the handle, he half expected it to have been renovated and his belongings disposed of or donated to a charity shop or ukay ukay as Nanay Ate called them. However, as he entered, he saw it was just as he remembered. A typical male students’ room from twenty years ago. He smiled as he saw his old record player and selecting a Ska ‘Best of Ska Volume II’ he slipped the record onto the turntable and in no time was belting out in tune to
‘Father wears his Sunday best
Mother's tired, she needs a rest
The kids are playing up downstairs
Sister's sighing in her sleep (ah)
Brother's got a date to keep, he can't hang around
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our …’
Hell yea, nothing like a bit of Madness for his homecoming Archie thought and collapsed onto his old double bed and started to plan out his next move.
To be continued ....
Thank you for reading.
I just want to thank everybody who is reading and commenting on this wee story of mine. I am taking onboard all comments. Big thank you to my amazing sponsors @Bloghound @JonicaBradley @CoquiCoin and @Eylz2021 please do check them out and read their fantastic articles.
Copyright @TengoLoTodo 2021 and yes All Rights Reserved. All images and words are from the author unless source mentioned. Lead Image from Pixabay.
If you have missed the first two here they are :
Chapter 1 Ben MacDuff - Homecoming
Chapter 2 Nanay Ate and Uncle Po - Say What!
Please do leave any feedback whether it be good or not so good.
Haste ye back.
I missed the previous chapters. I will read it first in chapter 1