Barefoot and Lost (47 page)

     Wednesday, the seventeenth of September, the day we are scheduled to cross the line has arrived. It is estimated that the crossing will be at eleven, the hottest time of the day, so a canopy has been put up over the whole area, a portable swimming pool has been erected on the quarter deck and filled with s
ea water ready for the ceremony. M
embers of the crew have dressed up as King Neptune and his courtiers. Some of the courtiers are carrying buckets of flour and water paste to use as shaving cream. Others have a large paint brush that they use to slap all over the faces
of unsuspecting spectators who
have been pulled from the crowd; they are then shaved with a very large, wooden cut-throat razor and thrown into the pool. With sixteen hundred passengers it is impossible to carry out the complete ceremony with everyone. I am disappointed that I haven’t been chosen but it has been a great day and everybody has enjoyed it. Those that weren’t shaved can queue up to receive
a certificate, stating they have
become one of King Neptune's subjects, entitling us to visit Davy
Jones' locker whenever we wish
. When I get to my new parents I’m going to hang my certificate on the wall of my bedroom. I wonder if I will have my own room, or will I have to share with my new brother, I hope it is my own.

    
Monday, September
twenty second, it is early Billy, me and dozens of other passengers have been watching the lights of
Australia
get closer. An hour ago there were just one or two blinking, fifteen minutes later we could see the lights in the buildings, but they have now gone out as day light takes over. The pilot boat is alongside, I see a man, wearing naval uniform, leap from the boat onto the gangplank platform, where two of our crew grab him, he then makes his way up the steps as the boat speeds off back to shore.
Rachel
has joined us, ‘How long have you been up here?’

     ‘Since about half past four; what’s the time now?’

     ‘Eight-o-clock, second sitting breakfast has been called, you had better go and get some you never know when we will eat again.’

     “Will you always look after me like this?’

     ‘I will if I get the chance, will you look after me?’
Rachel
slips her hand into mine and gives it a squeeze.

     ‘I promise, if we get split up I promise I will come and find you.’
Rachel
squeezes my hand again, that flutter returns to my stomach.

     Come on
Phil
, if we are going to get breakfast you don’t have time to stand there goggle eyed.

     ‘Coming
Billy
;’ Looking around me everyone is too interested in the approaching
shore;
giving
Rachel
a quick kiss on the cheek I follow
Billy
below.

     All of us kids have been assembled in the aft dining room for the past hour; we have our suitcases with us and are ready to go ashore. I asked Chalky, did he know why we are waiting. He said he wasn’t sure
but it would appear that they a
re disembarking the paying passengers first. 

     Eventually our turn comes, we are being organized into groups, brothers, and sisters are being split up, a lot are crying. Some are screaming and refusing to move, but they are being physically dragged away and shouted at, it is bedlam. Chalky and
Christine
are having a terrible row with some people that I have not seen before; the result is that they are ordered out of the room. They are refusing to go.

     Now two men in uniform have arrived, one has his hand on Chalky’s shoulder, he shrugs it off and attempts to walk over to where we are standing, but he is held back. They are now speaking to
Christine
; she appears to be reasoning with Chalky. As they walk towards the door Chalky turns to us and shouts, ‘I’m sorry, I am so sorry, I have done my best,’ he looks like he is about to cry
Christine
is dabbing her eyes.

     ‘Chalky, what’s wrong, where are you going?’ I start to go after them, one of the
Christian
Brothers
steps in front of me preventing me from moving, with a soft firm Irish accent he says,

     ‘Sit down, this has nothing to do with you, do as you’re told.’

     ‘But Chalky is my friend.’ The brother pushes me back into a chair.

     ‘Sit down, do as you’re told.’

     ‘Leave him alone yer Fenian.’ In answer,
Billy
is clouted very hard around the head knocking him over; he sits there with a shocked look. I attempt to get up to help him but I am pushed back down, I look at the door, Chalky and
Christine
are gone.

    
Billy
and I now find ourselves in a group of twenty boys, none of them we know. I have seen them on board but have never spoken to any of them.
Billy
’s ear looks quite red and swollen. I desperately looked to see
Rachel
before we left the ship, without success, the last I saw of her was when I kissed her.
Australia
is supposed to be a new beginning, a bright future, why do I feel so sad and let down, why am I not with my friends, why am I not on my way to see my new parents? Perhaps I am; I have tried, to ask but was told,

     ‘Shut your mouth; speak when you are spoken to, not before.’

     . The bus is old; the seats are like a park bench with just wooden slats. We move off, nobody speaks, no one is smiling. Looking out of the window through the
blur of my tears I watch the streets of Freemantle slip by. I feel someone touch my hand I look down to see Billy’s hand resting on mine, his ear is still red and swollen, and like me, there are tears in his eyes. Nobody is talking; Hitting Brother is at the front, the other one, who never speaks is at the back. The traffic is quite heavy; there are more cars on the road than I have ever seen at one time in
England
. We are stopped at a set of traffic lights, just in front of us is a bus, on the back of it there are two babies prams hanging on hooks; how strange.

     Very soon we are in the suburbs of
Perth
; the houses are all bungalows with verandas all around them. No house is joined to the house next door, they all have big gardens, and some have palm trees. We cross a big river. A sign on the bridge says it is the
Swan
River
. After about an hour the bitumen road becomes gravel, the bus rattles along. When another vehicle comes the other way, or a vehicle overtakes us, everything
disappears in a cloud of dust.

     The bus comes to a halt at a clearing called Frying Pan Creek. Hitting brother calls out, ‘If you want to go to toilet now is your chance.’ Everyone scrambles off the bus but there are no toil
ets, the brother takes out his w
illy and starts to pee at the side of the road. Very soon he is joined by twenty boys making puddles in the dust. I have never done that before, perhaps they don’t have proper toilets in
Australia
. 

     Above the sign for Frying Pan Creek is a sign pointing in both directions ‘
Great Northern Highway
.’ Back on the bus we have continued for another hour, turning off down a rough track,
we come to a stop in front of a group of buildings.

     Two men are waiting a
tall red headed man gets on board, with a deep Irish accent he says, ‘Welcome to Blendoon, this will be your new home, you are expected to be well behaved at all times, anyone doing otherwise will be dealt with severely, you are expected to study and work, hard is that understood.’ One or two say yes, ‘Good, now we expect respect, therefore you will call me Father, and all other members of staff here will be referred to as Brother. Okay, get off in an orderly fashion, collect your suitcase, and follow
Brother
Luke
to your sleeping quarters.

      The two drab rooms have bare floorboards, each room has ten beds, five, aligned down each side, there are no cupboards or drawers for our clothes. On each bed there is a mattress, a pillow and one blanket, there are no sheets or pillow cases.
Billy
and I grab the first two beds on the right hand side.

     Another brother enters the room, his arms full of clothes; he then dumps them on the floor. ‘All of you get undressed, put the clothes you are wearing in your suitcases and select one pair of shorts and one shirt from the pile on the floor, there are various sizes so you will find one that fits you. They will be all the clothes you will need while you are here; get a move on, you will gather in the dining hall in half an hour.’

     The meal is t
errible, I’m not sure what it is, it has no taste. Billy said it i
s gruel; he used to get it when he was in a home in
Belfast
. This place makes Barnardos look like
Buckingham
Palace
and is far worse than
Saint S’s. Our meal over, such it is, we are taken to
church, well, not really a church but a hut with an altar. The man that said we must call him Father held the service but I didn’t understand any of it, the whole service was done in a foreign language, except for the sermon. All the other kids were able to join in, Billy and I just stood up and knelt down when everyone else did. At first Billy refused to do anything, but he saw Brother Luke looking at him
and thought better of it.

     ‘
Phil
, how have we ended up with a bunch of left footers, it can’t be right there must be a mistake?’

     ‘I have no idea but it does look like we are here to stay; I thought I was going somewhere to meet my new parents, I’m going to ask in the morning will you come with me?’

     ‘Who are you going ask?’

     ‘Father; he’s the boss, I’ll ask him’

     ‘Yeah
, reckon you’re right, I’ll come with you, when are we going to do it?’                  

     ‘First chance we get after breakfast.’

     I haven’t slept very well, I am hungry my stomach hasn’t stopped growling all night, I wish now I had finished my dinner. Some kid near the window was talking in his sleep and crying until somebody came in and carried him out, his bed is empty now, I wonder where he is? 

     We are woken at
six, it is just breaking day, having
to dr
ess quickly we are
then are marched to the church. This time
Brother
Luke
is taking the service, I hardly recognized him dressed in a white robe, and once again the service is foreign.

     The breakfast is the same tasteless gruel, this time I clear my plate
I would have eaten it too if
I
could
,
I am
so hungry. Water is the only thing to drink. At Barnardos we had a choice of milk or tea, nothing like that here. Father announced that the under elevens would attend school; the rest of us would be put to work clearing up around the place. 

     I can see Father walking towards a building that is slightly away from the rest, we run after him.

     ‘Father, excuse me.’ He turns to see who is calling, ‘Father, could I please ask you something?’

     ‘What is it my son?’

     ‘Well; we, that’s
Billy
and me, would like to know why we are here.’

     ‘Because you have been sent here, why else; what are your names?’

     ‘I’m
Phillip
Snell
and he is
Billy
Craig
, we are not Roman Catholics, we don’t belong here.’

     ‘I see, maybe it is God’s
Will
, he wants you here to worship him in the correct way.’

     ‘But Father, I was supposed to be going to
Melbourne
, to a Mr.
and Mrs
Barton, they have adopted me.’

     ‘As I said, it is God’s Will you are here and here you will stay.’

     ‘Not bloody likely, I’m not staying with a load of Taigs-----’ Billy is knocked to the ground by a back hander to his head, this time he doesn’t move, he lays sprawled in the dust, I attempt to throw a punch but my wrist is grabbed in mid air, with his other hand he slaps me around the face. Silent Brother has lifted Billy to his feet, I can see blood from his nose, he also has a split lip, Billy
shouts, ‘Let go of me yer fe
king Fenian.’ For that out burst he gets another slap around the head, the brother still doesn’t speak.

     ‘That’s enough;
Brother
Francis
put them both in the woodshed to cool down, I will deal with them later.’ Silent Brother grabs a handful of hair of both
Billy
and me and drags us to a wooden shed where he throws us inside, bolting the door behind us. Through a knothole in the wood I watch him walk over to a group of boys that have gathered to watch, he waves his arms at them and they scurry away.

     ‘Are you alright
Billy
?’

     ‘Yeah
, I’ll get over it; I told you they were evil, didn’t I?’

     ‘Yeah
, you have mentioned it once or twice.’

     ‘How long do you think they will keep us here?’

     ‘An hour maybe, then what; I wonder what he meant when he said he would deal with us later?’

     ‘Probably another good hiding
Phil
, I reckon we should escape.’

     ‘How are we going to do that, and, if we did where would we go, we don’t even know where we are?’