Lola's Lurching Life Ch. 02

Lola sighed, with nostalgia swimming in her mind.

That friendly rural neighbours stuff reminded her of the country environment of her childhood, where common friendliness and mutual helpfulness was pretty much endemic within districts and probably still existed. Today, in large towns and cities, the opposite seemed largely rife, the common attitude being more like every man (person) for himself, and of course there were exceptions to that belief.

"Come on," Ned said. "Your mind appears to be drifting, probably as a result of me being heaping too much detail on you."

"No, I've been intrigued by the magnitude of your project in hand, with you attacking it practically singlehanded."

"Are you volunteering to help, arriving occasionally in boots and other protective gear to assistant, even if it only means sandpapering surfaces."

"I hadn't thought about that."

"Then don't, can you imagine working in safety spectacles, gloves and with sweat running off you face and down you neck and also forming to run down your back. I don't think so."

"I've been working for neigh on ten weeks voluntarily for the Wallace's in response for them offering me free lodgings and all-found for as long as they wished. I also worked like a labourer on the family farm from a child until I left home."

"At all times recently, I've worked with gloves on to protect the delicate skin in my hands, pruning grape vines, shearing the bums of sheep to remove dags before the real shearers arrive to remove entire fleeces, doing some fencing, helping to move sheep and cattle and in more ladylike attire, investigating the rather disappointing yield from their entire vineyard."

"But they have more than 7000 wines, I've seen them. How could you expect to increase the lack-lustre yield from 7000 plus vines? By kissing one in 10 and hoping for the best!"

"You mock me sir. I took a global approach, starting with soil testing and leading them into considering the possibility of an ancient lava flow might be preventing the roots of their vines from going deeper in the search for natural nutrients to dine upon."

"Omigod, you are serious. I apologise, truly."

"Thanks, Ned. I'm not all tit and pussy."

"What?" he said, sounding shocked

"It doesn't matter. That comment was me being stupid, attempting to re-focus you. Like you, I also have drive and a brain, Ned."

He said gallantly, "I've never doubted that. I say, lets grab the portable barbecue and some frozen steaks and other provisions including wine, and go to Ruruwhango Bay for a leisurely lunch under the autumn sun."

"Great idea, now you've got your motor going, Ned."

"Meaning?"

"Now you've got your motor going."

"Oh."

Ned and Lola returned from the beach 3½ hours later after an enjoyable lunch and chatting like old friends.

Lola had stroked his arm at one stage to indicate her mood, but his only reaction was to say, 'Ooh, that's nice' and continue to rest passively.

Eventually, with the gentle breeze cooling and the steaks and extras long consumed, they packed up and returned to Ned's hideaway where they rolled the quad bike up two thick planks on to the trailer attached to the elderly and battered Land Rover. They headed for the bottom end of the island to deliver the quad to the hire centre, complete the paperwork including the insurance claim, and headed for Lola's temporary home.

Helena Wallace came running out and said, speaking intensely to Lola, "Are you okay dear?"

"Yes, and why not, I've had a lovely time."

"Hi, Helena. You'll remember me, I'm Ned Adams, Lola's rescuer."

"Oh, my apologies Ned. Hi and many thanks for getting Lola to shelter for the night. It's just that..."

"Helena, Ned didn't touch me apart from assisting me from the overturned vehicle, okay?"

"Yes, I just became over-anxious, that's all."

"Well ladies, I'm off. Tell Dougal I said hi. Come and visit me again, Lola. Even stay and assist with the refit of Wave Tosser."

"Lola will be busy here," Helena said abruptly.

"I'll think about your offer, Ned," Lola said.

She grabbed him and kissed him deeply, leaving Ned gulping and his eyes almost popping out.

"Good heavens," he said shakily.

"Yes, good heavens, Helena said.

Nick boarded his vehicle and Lola called, "Thanks for everything, Ned. I'll see you."

He waved and drove off with the empty trailer sedately.

"He's really a nice guy."

Lola, standing tight-lipped made no attempt to reply.

"Where will I find Dougal?"

"In the woolshed, but first we need to talk."

"I indicated we didn't have sex, Helena."

"You may not have noticed, being in shock after your misadventure."

"Lola, if you intend to worry about your worst fears, take me to your doctor and he or she can inspect my vagina for any signs of sexual activity."

"What? Oh no way, Lola. You told me nothing happened and I must take you at your word. Any way, it's none of my business."

"Indeed, it isn't Lola, but I do respect you for taking a parental-like concern over my welfare. Thank you."

Appearing almost ready to blub, Helena said, "Go and chat to Dougal. He'll be interest to hear details about your mishap, what your think of Ned and to learn at what stage he's in in the extensive refit of his schooner. I'll come over soon with coffee and a chocolate cake."

A week after returning Lola to the Wallace's farm and vineyard, Ned Adams called Lola.

"Hi, just wondering how you are getting on?"

"I'm fine Ned. Oh, I've paid the insurance excess and all is well with the hire depot. I bet they claimed the cost of a thorough servicing of the vehicle as well as testing the soundness of its driveability."

"Yeah, probably. I'm wondering whether I'll ever see you again."

"Yes, perhaps soon providing you'll soon decide to press me into having sex with you."

There was a quiet pause in the conversation and Ned said he would agree to that condition.

"Good, come for me now."

"What? This would be too sudden for Helena to handle. It could incite her into going after me with a carving knife."

"Don't you mean broom?"

"Not with Helena on fire."

"Be brave, Ned. If you want me pussy, come for me now."

"Will that mean we have to have sex tonight?"

"Not necessarily, the condition was soon. In other words, whenever you decide to feel me up and kiss me with increasing passion."

"What if I can't..."

"No worries. If you can't get it up, I'll do that for you."

"I was about to say what if I can't fire up passionately."

"Think of yourself as a robot. Begin to feel me up when the time appears right for you and lo, it will happen."

"I'm leaving now."

"Fine, I'll throw some things into a bag for say a 3-day stay."

"Don't forget to include your work clothes and gloves."

"Okay, you charmer."

Lola was packing when Helena entered the room and said, "Are you off to stay with Ned?"

"Yes, for a few days."

"I'm so happy for you.

Lola gave a little cry and "flung herself at Helena and they hugged and kissed.

"Do you have condoms?"

"A 3-pack."

"Well that could take care of the first hour," Helena giggled. "I'll give you a 24-pack although he's practically a hermit and may think just the one session will be more than enough for him for two or three months."

"The hermit faces being seduced by something of an expert, Helena. At least she thinks so. However, a pack of twenty-four to cover the three days, with no starting point having being discussed, should be more than sufficient. And thank you. He's on his way now."

Ned the recluse, who was dedicated to the upgrading of Wave Tosser and on the cusp of losing the isolation of living alone, albeit only temporarily, arrived. He kissed Helena warmly - well she had flung open her arms and he approached her - and he turned to Lola almost shyly and dabbed a kiss at her cheek that bounced off its target.

Lola remained unperturbed. She of most people, being a near recluse herself for almost two years, knew of his panic within and was aware he required calmness to retain what was left of his ebbing stability.

"Oh hi, I'm ready to leave with you."

His eyed the backpack she was holding and the small make-up kit in the other hand warily and then his hazel eyes appeared to flash with relief when he almost dropped the backpack, being heavier that perhaps he'd expected and noted Helena picking up from beside her feet a pair of work boots, dungarees and denim cap with googles attached to one of the bib straps.

"Ah, you come really prepared to work alongside me?"

"That I do," she said, smiling as they watched Helena place the items she was carrying into the tray (open top cargo box) of the battered 2-door Land Rover.

On the drive to Ned's remotely located cottage, he said to his guest, "I've been worried, turning over the possibilities of why you accepted my invitation to come and visit me and to stay for a while.'

"That's great that you have initiated this conversation."

They travelled several hundred metres before Ned said, "Eh?"

"You need to kick-start your brain a little faster than that," Lola chuckled. "But on we go, to eliminate your worry."

"I'm between real jobs, Ned, and jumped at your offer because it's breaks my looming period of boredom. Initially, I worked doing odd jobs for Helena and Dougal in return for my extending period of all-supplied living with them, and then that changed into Dougal paying me on contract to investigate and commission work on their vineyard to improve its grape production. That is now ended."

Ned said in surprise, "What do you know about grape-growing."

"A great deal now, mainly it's researchable. And I ask, "What do I know about wine-tasting."

Ned, sounding lighter in tone and more relaxed as if emerging from his shell, said she'd got him there.

"That's all there is too it, Ned. I don't feel obliged to work alongside you but I will, because it's what I love doing, which is either crafting or desirable work or both. Whether we have sex is not a problem for me. If it happens, it happens."

"Now, take this very as a kind question from a friend. Are you short of money?"

There was silence.

Ned!"

"I have enough for general living and funding for work on the boat comes from my savings and investment income."

"And you are not short in any way?"

"I can't progress with the installation of radar and adding new instruments to the wheelhouse console including attached modern video screens."

"May I ask how much is required for that?

"Just short of $58,000 in NZ currency. But that will be covered several times over when I get my six-monthly pay-out on my investment in my parent's legal firm in just over four months' time."

"Well, place your order as soon as you confirm my interest-free bridging finance loan is in your bank account. Pull over while we have cell phone contact and I'll place the $58,000 in your account."

"No, no you can't. You don't really know me."

"And you don't know me either, but I believe I know you well enough to take the risk. Please pull over."

He pulled the Land Rover on to the hard beside the road muttering that this was madness when Lola asked quietly, "Your bank account number please, Ned."

"Sorry, I don't have it on me."

"Hand me your bank card."

He dug it out, holding it and preparing to negotiate when Lolo grabbed it, saying thanks, and entered the numbers.

She said back triumphantly and said, "All done."

"Check your bank account on your phone. The $58,000 will be shown as waiting to be cleared."

"I don't have my phone handy."

"Ned!"

Reluctantly, he turned and pulled his backpack from between the seats and pulled out his phone.

He opened his online bank account and say he had an additional $58,000 waiting for clearance in his account.

"Christ," Ned muttered, making Lola smile.

He thanked her profusely and she smiled and said, "Let's get going mate, we have much work awaiting us."

Four days later they went to the wharf at Kennedy Point and picked up cartons of the ordered equipment for installation in the schooner.

As they drove off with the freight, Lola suggested they stop off and have early dinner.

"Yeah eating out would be a change. I enjoy hamburgers."

Ned began to slow to turn off to a roadside fast-food restaurant.

"No, drive on please Ned. I have somewhere else in mind."

After another five minutes she said, "Turn here to the right, please."

He turned the vehicle objecting, saying that was the road into a vineyard where the high and mighty dined. Anyway, it would be at least an hour before opening for dinner and they were not suitably dressed."

"I'm making the call, and so no worries, Ned."

"Hi may I speak to Mr Nevada please. Tell him Lola is calling."

The vehicle swerved and corrected with Ned stating unbelievable, "You know Rudi Nevada."

"Hi Rudi, yes it's Lola Hunt."

"Yes, I'm still hunting for the right business investment on the island. Meanwhile, I trying my hand at boat restoration."

"No, not reviving a neglected launch. I'm working on a 45-foot schooner."

"Oh yes, the only one you know that is undergoing a major refit is owned by the recluse near you. And in fact, I'm sitting beside Ned Adams in one of the most identifiable elderly Land Rovers on the island and he doesn't appear to be a proper behaving recluse to me. He knows Helena and Dougal well, and Ned and we are just returning from picking up a heap of modern electronic stuff for the schooner and are coming up your long drive for a drink with you and the prospect of getting some half-descent food, although we know it's well short of opening time."

"Thanks Rudi, man of great knowledge. We are just entering your Classic Hills Vineyards now. Bye."

Ned said, "Rudi Nevada is almost a recluse himself, rarely seen away from his vineyard."

"Well, I believe he's inherently standoffish but look at him straight in the eye and speak to him firmly and sensibly and he knows he's meeting someone worth conversing one. He was one of my three advisers I had assessing the vineyard I was thinking of investing in, but the panel warned me to back away as it was way over-priced in the face of a difficult economic market post-COVID 19."

"You...you seem to know everyone we come across."

"Please, Ned. That's not true. For example, no one recognised me at Kennedy Point ferry terminal, and the quad bike hire people only know me now because I pranged my rented quad bike. Hopefully, that puts your notion that I am well-known on the island to rest."

"Yet something doesn't appear to add up about you," Ned said. "Are you sure you are not a runaway princess?"

"Watch those two tethered goats up ahead."

"What, are you the driver now?" he grumbled.

A teenager came up to Ned and Lola as they entered the restaurant and greeted them and said the kitchen wouldn't begin serving meals for another eighty minutes, but the bar was open."

She took a closer look at Lola, shot at hand at the base of her neck and gasped, "Omigod, come this way Miss Hunt and you sir", and led them to the bar."

A woman in her early thirties and wearing a black female business suit including a bow tie and below-knee length skirt, came out with a chef and she appeared surprised and the chef half-bowed at the couple.

The female introduced herself as Caroline Burgess, the maître d' and her companion as the head chef Antonio.

She said to the early guests, "I'll tell Mr Nevada that his two VIP early guests have arrived and Antonio will take your dinner orders and serve them soon and Mr Nevada will table-top dine with you. He suggests that you try our Tuesday night sea-food special, sea Bass from off Great Barrier Island ringed on the plate with fresh scallops, green mussels and imported Australian prawns with garden vegetables as side dishes."

The guests both ordered in almost unison the fish special.

After drinks with Rudi, the three diners attacked the special of the night seafood dish and Rudi said, "I'm pleased to be dining with you Ned, along with my friend Lola. You impress me and that is scarcely surprising as you are with Lola and I know without question that she would not befriend fools."

"Aye, and I agree. She's on very impressive lady. What puzzles me is virtually everyone I meet seems to know her as did your staff when we entered, and yet she says she's only been in the island a matter of weeks and knows only a handful of people including you."

Rudi beckoned over Caroline and she went to the office from where her boss had emerged from earlier. She was holding the framed cover of an edition of the 'Gulf News' newspaper and handed it to Rudi who handed it on to Ned.

He read the bold headline over the large front-page illustration. 'Hail to Lola, a True Samaritan'

He began reading out about Waiheke prominent resident Helena Wallace was saved from ridicule and grave embarrassment by an Aucklander Lola Hunt, who pulled Helena to her feet after she fell in the footpath of New Zealand's busiest shopping and commercial street and whisked her away. Lola then personally paid for a helicopter to speed the distraught Helena to her home at the Wallace farm and vineyard at the south-west end of the island."

Ned tilted the framed front page of 'Gulf News' for Lola to view the picture of herself and read the caption, 'Good Samaritan attractive Lola Hunt in a formal gown probably attending a special event for dignitaries."

Lola cried. 'That's bullshit. It's me in the mid-calf length cocktail dress that I wore to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce annual dinner last year."

However, she agreed the text of the article was factual and Rudi received calls of 'hear, hear' when he said, "We all know that the media falsify pictures and film strips to suit their purposes. Most likely in this case the newspaper was unable to procure a recent photograph of you, Lola."

"It's a wonder the illustrations department didn't alter the image to have my nipples clearly protruding above my neckline."

Ned look disapprovingly in the wake of that comment while Rudi and Caroline were rolling in laughter.

Wiping his eyes, Rudi gasped, "Little wonder everyone appears to know you after that story and every attractive photo with all that cleavage showing."

"Can women be recognised by their cleavage?" Ned asked.

"Caroline said, "In Miss Hunt's case, her cleavage could be instantly recognisable to connoisseurs."

Lola scowled, looking at them all laughing.

Later, when the early guests were leaving, Rudi said, "You know Lola, you could do worse than buying 10 acres or so of that farmland that slopes upwards from the clifftops at the eastern boundary with the Burrow's family retreat property that I understand Ned now resides and owns."

"If the soil tests are favourable and Ernie and Glenys Hill sell you that strip from their farm, you could plant a shelter belt along the coastline of the property at the same time you begin planting vines."

"Yeah, that's something to think about if you are interested, Lola," Ned said. "When I was spraying thistles growing on the four paddocks Ernie uses on rotation for growing hay, he grumbled to me that he needed a windfall if he was to replace their car the way farm prices were going at present."

"Yeah, I agree. It's something to think about," Rudi said casually, as if not wanting to ignite Lola's casual interest to lead her into something she might not be able to manage. However, that was contrary to his following comment.

"We could easily take 100 tons of grapes, even more from you at our winery," Rudi said. "But first you need your wines producing fruit and in commercial quantities. Keep me posted, Lola."

"Thanks, and I will, Rudi."

As they drove home, Ned said, "Are you really interested in acquiring that land to grow grapes, subject to soil testing results?"