Lola's Lurching Life Ch. 02

"Gotcha. Where does that term you used 'Way Leg-o."

"My paternal grandfather learned it when mustering in the high country in the South Island when he was young. He told me it's probably a distortion of the command, 'Away We Go', meaning away from me the handler, and can be heard miles away in rough sub-alpine terrain by dogs working far from the shepherd."

"Okay, that's plausible and you're saying I should calm down and send clear signals to Bingo and he'll work better for me and please me more?"

"Absolutely."

"Excellent."

As the last of the sheep passed through the gateway, Bingo trotted over to Lola, as if expecting a pat, and received a bit of a cuddle. He then received a pat from the real boss and lay down just behind Dougal.

"Well look at him," Lola. "He's obviously thinking he's a real dog. I'm off to find this Nick Orsini bloke."

"Take condoms."

"Arsehole," Lola said, poking her tongue out at the smirking smart-arse.

"Oh, Lindy?"

"Yes, but don't all me that within hearing of any of your family as that may think that perhaps you're having it off with me."

"I wish. I wanted to say thanks for working Bingo so well and for giving me those worthwhile tips as his handler. I lack the farming background that you've had."

"Thanks for expressing appreciation, Dougal. Now don't forget to give that imaginative present to your wife. She might ask how to use it."

"Oh, perhaps I should have a trial run with you."

"On your bike, Bozo."

His cackling continued as she jogged up the slope back to the house situated about half a mile away.

Chapter 9

Lola sat in the large café at the grandly-named Angelo Orsini Wine Estate. waiting for her long black coffee and peach cupcake topped with passionfruit white icing, looking at the sea view to some of the other island in the Hauraki Gulf.

There were only three other people in the restaurant and the plump older woman who'd taken the coffee order and made the machined brew, brought the coffee and cake over to Lola instead of calling to the waitress cleaning the casual food cabinet. Lola some prying was about to occur.

"Oh hi, are you a day tripper or are you new to the island?"

"Hi, I'm Lola and it's my guess that you are Mrs Orsini."

"Yes, Lola and may I ask what brings you to the island; are you an investor?"

"Well who really knows Mrs Orsini and I guess many of us has a penny to two to spend here or there," Lola said coyly. "I became attracted to this island after helping one of your residents here who collapsed briefly in Queen St after receiving an influenza shot and I helped her get home to the island."

"Omigod, everyone has been talking about you and calling you the Young Angel."

Lola laughed and said that Mrs Orsini should not be deceived as she was no angel.

"You only met Helena Wallace for the first time when pulling her back on to her feet and you sent her home at your expense in a helicopter."

"Yes, they are the facts but it was only doing what many people would do," Lola said slyly. "And I am presently staying with Helena and family for a few days."

Mrs Orsini said, "Pardon me for speaking frankly, but I can't say I know anyone who would send any resident lightly shaken by a fall over in the mainland back home in a helicopter. The unfortunately reality is that many people on the street looking at the prone Helena, someone they didn't know, wouldn't even help her to her feet."

"Oh, come on, um?"

"Maria."

"Come on Maria, at least a couple or so of the people at the scene would have eventually moved in to help her to her feet. It's just that I got to her first."

"My goodness, Lola. I never allow young people to address me other than Mrs Orsini until I get to know them and look at you, almost figuratively charming the pants off me within minutes of meeting me. You have quite a way with you."

"You read me well, Maria. I have two things you could help me with."

"Only two things?"

"Yes, only two for now," Lola said, pushing the chair beside her out with her knee and politely indicated with her hand to the winery and café co-owner to sit on the chair.

"The first thing is how are you for staffing in this restaurant in the rather chaotic economic situation that the country is facing at present?"

"I'm okay, as my regular waitresses are staying put but my manager leaves on Friday week and I haven't yet found a suitable replacement. Are you a job placement consultant?"

"Not and I'm not looking for work at present but a young woman I know could be interested in being considered for that position. At present she's manager of the Drop-in Café and would like something more challenging, but doesn't want to work at nights."

"That's Moira Jennings' café and, like me, she's careful who she employs."

"Do you know Dougal Wallace."

"Christ yes, I went through primary and high school with him and a year ago he rear-ended me in the main shopping street of Oneroa Village and..."

"What, are you saying the Dougal had sex with you indecently..."

"Oh god no," Maria grimaced. "He ran his pick-up into the rear end of my almost new Alfa Romeo, causing almost eight thousand dollars damage to my vehicle and he only had some red paint off my car on his vehicle that he rubbed off at the scene. His rusty old pickup was fitted with frontal bull bars."

Lola couldn't stop giggling and that set Maria off.

"Omigod," Maria said, lifting her sun glasses to wipe the tears of laughing from her eyes. "I admit to having sex with Dougal during the summer after we completed high school but we never had anal sex. He was rather shy in those days, being a late-developer, and probably would have vomited at doing such a thing had I suggested a trial."

"You are a real character," Maria. "May I invite you to lunch at the Drop-in Café tomorrow and you could check out the competence, if any, of Iona Wallace?"

"I have a business lunch date at Goldwater Estate tomorrow. Could we make it Wednesday at 1.15?"

"Yes, and I won't say anything to Iona so she'll be unaware of being under your scrutiny."

"Thank you. May I ask what do you think of Iona."

"I've only known her for a few days but can say she's reliable, steady as an individual and certainly has focus and is very happily recently married. She has her own car, and I understand she's fiercely independent. That's all I can say about her."

"Well that confirms I must assess her. Now what is the second thing you want from me."

"Today I've begun a two-week contract working for Dougal to organise some work to increase the productivity of the Wallace's vineyard."

"The simple answer to that it's a vineyard in the wrong location."

"What if I told you is sits in an ancient caldera and there's a scoria bed, probably not particularly thick that prevents the naturally deep-rooting vines from getting to the possibly nutrient-rich soil that was formerly volcanic ash deposits? When I first sighted the vineyard and had been told of the low yields from the vines, I suspected the bowl they were in was a former caldera. I took photos and included details and emailed them to a geologist who I was friends with at university. She replied within a couple of hours and believed my suspicions were well-founded although emphasising she had not visited the site nor seen details of soil tests."

"Omigod, as I said earlier, just who are you, Lola?"

"I'm just an alert and well-educated person with a knack of dealing with problems and finding solutions and I've had a short and very successful business career working as a business adviser to Cooper Roper."

"What, a the multi-millionaire who lives in Takapuna who survived a horrific car crash that killed his parents and only recently has recovered well from his serious injuries?"

"That's the one, and I helped in his ultimate recovery after the experts had done all they could with him."

"Ah, um..."

"Yes, being of similar age and being with him so much that my body and his inevitably coupled a little, me thinking that would help restoring his confidence to achieve the small goals that we set. I also suggested he sell off the small business empire created by his deceased parents to give him new challengers by reinvesting to build his own business empire as well as to sell his mansion and live elsewhere."

"Together we wrote a business plan that included the sale of all but one of the existing companies and the steps needed to create a new integrated enterprise comprising of the purchase of various companies of interest to him. Then, as he began employing managers to run the various new companies, my contract ended and I declined to be fitted in somewhere in the new enterprise."

"A few days later, I was walking down Queen Street and this woman collapsed right in front of me, a lo, here I am."

Maria sat speechless for a minute as if still taking in the enormity of what she'd just been told.

"Omigod," she finally managed.

Maria said, "What you've just said left me almost speechless momentarily. I mean, were y-you qualified to achieve all of that?"

"Yes and no, Maria. As a child, I was regarded as being bright for my age and possessing almost endless energy and strong determination and I became aware of the power of focus to achieve my goals and desires. My parents and others close to me considered that it was simply skilled at being stubborn."

"I continue to read widely and often and in the process of gaining a business management degree and landed a diploma in graphic design as I polished my inherent skills of learning."

Lola heard Maria mutter, "Omigod, you learnt so much about yourself from an early age, more than I ever did and I was considered as being bright."

That made the younger woman smile, thinking that Maria also possessed developed focus and probably knew almost everyone on the island who mattered to her personal, family and business life.

"Being raised on a farm made me become independent from an early age, being left alone on many occasions when my mother was called to assist in the many emergencies that arise in farming and the closely integrated local community. I could ride a horse competently at an earlier age than either of my two older brothers who were not dummies and also could drive the farm truck and operate our tractors in their various modes at an earlier age than my brothers and school friends. I revelled at learning."

Maria looked that her watch and said reluctantly, "I should be assisting my girls with the closing down work as their manager is not here today."

"Or perhaps they could be left to act responsibly when seeing you appear to be otherwise engaged, leaving you to attend to any loose ends after you were finished with me."

Maria pulled her glasses up into her hair coloured to conceal the increasing whitening of the fibres while staring at Lola, shaking her head. She sat back into her chair, relaxing.

Lola continued her story, having being twice asked in almost disbelief by Maria, 'Just who are you, Lola?"

"In my senior years at high school, I used to help out my mother's friend Mrs Harris, the accountant of her family motor-vehicle dealership, initially sorting out her paperwork and running errands for her, even doing her supermarket and other shopping. Rather intrigued by my eagerness and I guess by my quick ability to handle the work she fed me, Mrs Harris groomed me as an office assistant and on the eve of the school's 6-week summer break receive my parents' consent to employ me full time over summer."

"To quote an enduring quotation, that made me as happy as Larry. I was seventeen and more eager to learn office skills than hanging out in near boredom with my schoolfriends."

"After returning home from obtaining my degree at university, Mr and Mrs Harris offered me a fulltime job as their sales manager and four years later when they decided to partly retire and travel, I was appointed CEO of the firm with a qualified accounts person hired to replace Mrs Harris who'd done that work."

"Omigod, you headed their firm at the age of um twenty-six?"

"Actually, I was twenty-five, having finished my four-year degree in three years."

"Omigod, Lola. And then what?"

Lola said she ultimately became bored with working at a small country town business, moved to Pukekohe near Auckland after winning selection as a farm supply and servicing company's general manager. Two years later she was head-hunted to become general manager of a failing large family importing and distribution company with the brief to bring the enterprise back into profitability.

"But the mission was doomed from the outset because fundamentally the business it was in was no longer relevant. Many of its former business customers were now following the trend into direct importing. We were simply among the remnants of a dying wholesaling sector of the business world that I had failed to spot that when accepting the top management job."

"I had a horrible time, because too many of the extended family had replaced outside expert directors on the board and there was infighting. When the company was on the verge of collapsing, I was very pissed off with the board executive director, who was grossly interfering with day to day management, making my attempts of staving off the inevitable collapse of the company impossible. I attempted to resign but instead I was fired with, thankfully, a huge payment to keep my mouth shut as the executive-director was negotiating with two prospective buyers of the business from Asia."

A little later my marriage collapse after the guy I'd loved turn into a jerk and our divorce followed.

"Exhausted, dismayed and feeling unloved, I moved into Auckland and found the gatekeeper's cottage to the large Roper estate on the edge of Lake Pupuke in Takapuna was available for a hefty rental. I took it, feeling wounded, and became a recluse. And then the sole heir of the estate, Cooper Roper came home physically healed but mentally in a mess. We met, I realised his need was greater than mine, and instinctively went to work on healing him by slowly revitalising his interests in things."

"Including sex," Maria smiled.

"Indeed," Lola said. "I flirted a little with Cooper Roper, impressed him little by little with my common-sense, compassion and emphasising that like him I, too, was in recovery mode. Over time we both slowly unravelled and I guess unravelling is ongoing for both of us. Towards the end we did have sex, that I had reserved as my secret weapon and soon my poor ex-darling was away, roaring like a stag in the hunting season."

"So, you allowed him to marry someone else?"

"They're not married yet but I knew he and I were not suited for matrimony. He's too much of a loose cannon for me. I'm basically a quiet country lass and it's taken me most of my 33 years to acknowledge that."

"Which is why you have come to Waiheke, a great place for recluses?"

"Which is why I've come to Waiheke, but never again to be a recluse and the unravelling from my somewhat difficult recent past has all but completed. A lot of that has occurred since I helped Helena to her feet in Queen Street on that fateful day, leading me to discover a great deal about myself with absolute clarity."

"Darling, please stay for dinner. You are such an interesting person and my family will adore you."

"Um, the second reason I'm here is to interest Nick in performing a two-stage drilling contact for the Wallace family that Dougal has appointed me to arrange. Will Nick be home for dinner?"

Maria pulled out her phone to check and Nick confirmed he'd be home for dinner.

"Thanks, and um, did you have to describe me as a possible new sexy client."

"Yes, to increase his interest in you but darling, I must warn you..."

"That your son's mission in life is to fuck all of the island's nubile females?"

Maria had to hold on to the table to stop falling off her chair through laughing so heavily.

"Omigod," she spluttered. "So, you've heard my son has that foul reputation."

"Foul? Sex is only sex, Maria."

Maria was off again, close to having hysterics.

"Omigod, Lola, you are so interesting and probably the most unpredictable female that I've ever met."

"And you too are an appealing female, Maria. And don't you ever forget that and you'll never be unhappy for long."

"That's so sweet of you to say that, Lola. I'll get you another coffee before I close the coffee making machine down and check that the girls have left everything in order."

The family gathered for pre-dinner drinks, with Lola, being the only guest. She had been graciously introduced by Maria.

She noticed that Nick kept glancing at her and twice ran his eyes over her body as if he was checking out a heifer he might purchase, the oversexed yahoo.

Nick had barely spoken to her, but she expected that lack of interest was faked. When she'd phoned Helena to say she would be staying at Orsini wines for dinner, Helena has said she'd expected as much and warned Lola to be careful around Nick and his mother as well.

"What, are you saying Maria is predatory?"

"Oh. my goodness, you are calling that snobbish woman Maria already?"

"Yes, but please answer my questions."

"She is known to favour certain types of women for who knows what? All I can say is be careful as you probably fall into several of her favoured categories."

Paulo, head of the family following the death of his father Angelo nine years earlier, began passing around glasses of wine and handed the last glass to the guest.

"Do you know much about wine, Lola?"

"Probably enough theoretically to manage a vineyard without too much consulting and I've read many books on wine and winemaking and attended a couple of highly recommended seminars, several wine tastings events and it's my favourite drink after water."

"Can you identify the wine you are about to drink?"

"Probably, if it's from this country."

"It is."

Conversations stopped as Lola went through the recommended pre-tasting and tasting routine.

After she'd consumed the larger mouthful, Paulo said, "Yes?"

"A lovely wine."

He said slightly impatiently, "Say if you are unable to identify it, but coming close will be good enough."

"Felton Road Bannockburn Riesling from Central Otago with some age, but I'm not experienced enough to go for the vintage."

"That's impressive, and that supports what Maria told me that you are the most unpredictable female that she's ever met. Try to guess the vintage."

"Most of the older vintages are no longer available and 2015 is nearing that status if I remember correctly, so my guess is 2019."

No, but nevertheless impressive reasoning of this Riesling," Paulo said, raising laughter when he bowed and said, "It's actually the 2015 vintage. I'm told your early background is sheep and cattle farm living and you have been employed in business. So how is it you were able to identify this wine?"

"I grew up in the Hawkes Bay..."

"Ah, and your father is a wine enthusiast?"

"Yes, I grew up as a child on his knee learning about wine and I recall startling some of the people we visited when being asked what soft-drink would I like and I would reply confidently white wine please. I can ready recall wine comparisons from tastings, and from knowing what I was drinking on most occasions, being blessed with a good memory. The other thing is I have long adored the wines of Central Otago that is my favourite place to visit for a number of reasons in all of New Zealand."

"And is Waiheke your next favourite place."

"I've only just arrived for the first time on the island and am staying with Helena Wallace and her family and identified their wine in a blind tasting."

"Yes, Maria told me about your saintly act of kindness for Helena when she collapsed in front of you over in Auckland."