Barefoot and Lost (51 page)

     The train is following a main road, there is not much to see, now and then we get a glimpse of the sea. Gertie has nodded off, her head back on the head rest which is making her hat tip up at the front. As she breathes the brim of the hat rises and falls, making it look like the hat is talking. Not being allowed to speak the journey has become boring; I have closed my eyes and can feel myself drifting into sleep.

     The train stopping, and doors banging,
wake
s
me. As we move along the platform I read Port Pirie. The man across from Gertie ha
s gone; I look around me, ‘Gertie
how much further do we have to go?’

     ‘We have only been going just over an hour; we have at least three hours to go yet.’

     ‘Are all the places in
Australia
so far from each other?’

     ‘I don’t know, I’ve never been past
Adelaide
but the next state is
Victoria
and I know it is more populated, so I suppose the answer is no.’
Billy
stirs, looks about him,

     ‘Are we nearly there yet?’

     ‘No, we have about three more hours.

     ‘Hell, as long as that, I don’t think I want to get on a train again, ever, in my whole life.’

     ‘In an hour we’ll have a bite to eat.’

     ‘Gertie, what is going to happen when we get to
Adelaide
?’

     ‘John, my son, was going to meet me but, when he was told about you he wanted nothing to do with it, you see, on his de-mob from the army he has joined the police, so he can’t afford to be involved. I’m wishing now I wasn’t doing this but I promised
Tom
, he is a good man, a bit misguided maybe, but a good man.’

     ‘I’m sorry, we didn’t mean to cause a problem, if it would help we could get off at the next station and you would never see us again.’

     ‘I can’t do that, as I said I promised
Tom
.’

     ‘So what is going to happen then?’

     ‘When we arrive at the station I’m handing you over to the Salvationists, I don’t want to get
John
into trouble.’

      ‘Will they be waiting for us?’

      ‘Yes, I telephoned them yesterday.’

      ‘Does
Tom
know?’

      ‘No, I didn’t have the heart to tell him.’

      ‘You weren’t going to tell us, you were just going to let them take us away, maybe even send us back to where we came from, you don’t care as long as you’re okay.’

      ‘It’s not like that, I just think you will be better in an institution rather than running on the streets. It is what
Tom
intended, I was to take you to the Salvo’s tomorrow, I’m just doing what he wanted a day earlier.’

      ‘I suppose so what do you think
Billy
?’

      ‘I think Gertie is rig
ht, what difference
will
it make, today or tomorrow, either way we will get looked after. I don’t care as long as I don’t end up back there with them bleeding Fenian’s’ Gertie gets up, straightens her hat,

     ‘I’m just going to the toilet, when I get back we’ll have a bite to eat.’

     ‘
Billy
, when we arrive, if I don’t like the look of things I’m running, will you come with me?’

     ‘I don’t know
Phil
, it depends at the time, if you want to run then do it, don’t wait for me, if I want to run I’ll be right behind you.’

     The train pulls slowly into
Adelaide
, I lift Gert
ie’s case, and our shopping bag
off the rack, Billy picks up the case and we follow her to the barrier. Between the heads of the crowd waiting to hand in their tickets, I can see a tall Salvation Army man and a small woman, both in uniform, surveying the crowd with
them is a policeman. My stomach
sinks
, why a
copper
, if they were taking u
s to a home why do they need a c
opper.

      ‘Billy
, I’m running there is a c
opper with them are you coming?’

      ‘I don’t think so, good luck
Phil
see you in church.’ I stop Gertie hasn’t noticed. Our train is now empty so I get back on, open a door on the other side, and jump down onto the track. Waiting at the opposite platform is a small train; with difficulty I manage to scramble on board just as it pulls out, there is only one other passenger in the carriage, an old lady, she looks at me as I sit down, I can hear her brain working, where did he come from? 

     After fifteen minutes the train stops at a small station, a sign says it is Glenelg. I’m not sure what to do, but at the last minute I get off, nobody follows, there is no one at the exit, walking out into a small car park I find myself on a main road. Which way do I go and where am I going anyway? Across the road is a small park with a bandstand, I need to think what I am going to do, and the park looks like a good place to do that. 

     Sitting on the steps a man passes by walking a dog, the dog looks at me the man doesn’t.

I’m still holding the shopping bag; inside is one, half eaten sandwich left by Gertie and, wrapped in a handkerchief between the folds of Billy’s shirt, is ten shillings. I shout out aloud ‘Thank you
Billy
, I knew having no pockets would come in handy,
Billy
you’re a star.’ The man and dog both look around but continue their walk. Now the heat of the moment has gone, sitting here on these steps I feel rather foolish and lost.

    
W
hat am I going to do
,
am I to keep on running and
,
if so w
here? P
erhaps I could go to
Melbourne
and tr
y to
find Rachel but she may not be there
,
she might be
,
like Billy
and
I
stuck in a home ne
ar
Perth
. T
he stories about families adopting us could have been just to make us feel good and there are no families at all
. B
ut then
,
maybe there is and it was just a mistake that we ended up in the wrong group
. Mr. and Mrs. Barton may
at this moment
, be
waiting
in
Melbourne
for me to arrive.
Chalky and Christine were supposed to take us to Melbourne, I wonder what the row was about; was it about us not going with them
? I
f so it was
n’t a mistake that we went to Ble
ndoon. All the people I know and like are going to
Melbourne
,
Rachel
, Chalky,
Christine
, even the
Barton
’s are going
,
well at least that i
s where they are supposed to go.
I’ve made up my mind tomorrow I’m going to
Melbourne
,
I wonder how far it is and in which direction
, where will I stay tonight.

    
Three boys come running to the park, the younger one with his arms spread out making out he is an aeroplane, the other two a bit younger than me, are arguing all three stop in their tracks when they see me.

      ‘
G’day
, are you on holiday, are you staying at the camping ground?’

      ‘Cause he’s not, look at his boots, he’s from the bush.’

      ‘What you doing here then if you’re not on holiday?’

      ‘Hello, I don’t know real------’ Aeroplane interrupts me,

      ‘He’s a Pom; my dad said there’s Pommy bastards everywhere, stealing all the good jobs.’

     ‘What does your dad know about jobs, he hasn’t worked for years?’

     ‘Well he can’t with his bad back, can he?’

     ‘I
s that right, are you a Pom,
are you from
England
?’

     ‘Yes, I’m from
London
.’ Aeroplane puts his fist up under my chin,

     ‘Prove it, say something in English.’

     ‘I am I’m speaking English.’

     ‘No yer not you’re trying to speak Australian, and not making a very good job of it.’ 

     ‘Don’t listen to him he’s stupid; what are you doing here?’

     ‘I’m trying to go to
Melbourne
to meet up with my adopted parents.’

     ‘How come they are there and you’re here?’

     ‘It’s a long story, but I was on my way to them when, by mistake, I was put in a children’s home, I didn’t like it so I escaped, and here I am.’

     ‘Bloody hell, are the cops after you?’

     ‘No, nothing like that, they wanted me to stay until I was fifteen, I didn’t want to wait that long’

     ‘When’s that then?’

     ‘Just after Christmas,’
Please forgive me Gran for telling lies
.

   
‘Fair dinkum; you don’t look it.’

     ‘Believe me its true; I think it is because
we
don’t get much sunshine
in
England
so we look younger.’ The older one who as yet has not spoken breaks his silence

     ‘Yeah
right, I’d go along with that, look at some of them filum stars, they look real young
.
What’s your name? Mine’s Andy he’s Bede
and he
,’ pointing to Aeroplane ‘is Chris.’

      ‘
Phillip
Barton
; pleased to meet you.’

      ‘How’d you plan to get to
Melbourne
it’s over four hundred miles, do you have any money?’

      ‘Ten bob that’s all.’

      ‘Geeze, that won’t get you far.’

      ‘I know, I don’t know what I’m going to do.’ 

    
Andy
speaks again ‘My dad drives a big semi and is going to
Mount
Gambia
tonight, do you want me to ask him if he will take you, it’s on the way to
Melbourne
.’

      ‘Do you think he would; how far is it to
Mount
Gabriel
?’

      ‘
Gambia
, its
Mount
Gambia
it’s about two hundred and fifty miles.’

      ‘That would be great if he would I couldn’t pay him though.’

      ‘I know that he won’t want paying just the company. I sometimes go with him but I can’t because I have to go to the dentist tomorrow, come on, let’s go, and ask my old man.’

    
Not only has Andy’s dad agreed to take me, but h
is mum has fed me with cold meat and salad
, and packed me some tucker (as she calls it) for the journey.
Andy
, his dad and me travel to a depot in what they call a Ute. I don’t know why they call it a Ute; I always thought they were called pickup trucks. When Andy sa
id his dad drove a semi I didn’
t want to appear ignorant so
I
haven’t asked. I suspected that a semi was a lorry, but a Ute I have no idea. I’m beginning to think that Aeroplane Chris is right; I have a lot of Australian to learn.

     We pull into the depot and stop beside a huge lorry with a covered load.

     ‘So
Phil
, what do you think of my truck?’

     ‘It’s beautiful
Mr.
Brown
; it is the biggest truck I have ever seen.’

     ‘Glad you like it Phil, call me Sid we don’t stand on ceremony here, everyone uses first names; yer you’re right, she is beautiful; Andy, now get straight on home, no bloody joyriding, yer Mum needs the Ute tomorrow so be careful.’ I can’t believe my eyes, after saying goodbye to me
Andy
gets behind the wheel of the Ute and drives off.

     ‘Is he allowed to do that?’

     ‘Do what?’

     ‘Drive a car how old must you be to drive?’

     ‘To get a license you have to be eighteen, but most kids drive before they leave school, what about you when did you start?’

     ‘I’ve never started; it was only just over a year ago when I rode in a car for the first time in my life.’

     ‘How the hell do you Poms get about then?’

     ‘In the towns by bus mostly, or walk, except in
London
where everybody uses the underground.’

     ‘Yeah
, I’ve heard about that, didn’t they live down there when the bombing was on?’

     ‘Some did, we didn’t, we had a shelter at home, but my mum wasn’t in it when our house got bombed and she was killed.’

     ‘Oh I’m so sorry
Phil
, come on, let us get this rig on the road.’

     I have climbed the three steps up into the cab and must be sitting at least ten feet from the ground.
Sid
has gone to the depot office to get his paper work. There are only two seats but across the back, behind the seats is a bed.
Sid
climbs in the cab, flicks a few switches and the engine roars in to life.  

     ‘Right Phil, ready to go?’

     ‘Yes please,
Sid
what sort of a truck is this?’

     ‘It’s a White,
built in America, shipped to Oz for the war but never was used, sat in a field
for two years, when I bought her she
only had hundred and thirteen miles on the clock.’

     ‘How many does it have now?’
Sid
looks at the dash,

     ‘Eight thousand seven hundred and ----thirty four’

     ‘Wow as many as that’

     ‘Yes and I have only had her for, just under six months’

     ‘You must be in it nearly all the time’

     ‘Pretty well, but it is not hard work she is easy to drive, she has a fantastic gearb
ox with
a high and low ratio giving me twelve gears in all, no hill whatever the load stops this beauty; I bet Phil you have no idea what I’m talking about I’m probably talking Chinese or double Dutch for all you know, not being a driver.’ 

     ‘No, not really, but I’m willing to learn.’
Sid
then goes on to tell me his load is thirty two tons, the trailer is forty two feet long, and with the prime mover, the overall length is sixty one feet. He has been rambling on for what seems like
hours, about trucks that he has
driven and trucks he would like to drive. I can feel myself drifting off no matter how hard I try to concentrate his voice just drifts over me and disappears in the sound of the trucks engine.

     ‘
G’day
, I see yer back with us then?’

     ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep, have I been asleep for long?”

     ‘No not for long mate only about an hour.’

     ‘As long as that, I’m sorry I’ve not been very good company have I?’

     ‘Never mind, in about half an hour we’ll stop for a bite at Salt Creek there’s a truck stop there, and while we have some tucker, you can tell me all about Pommy land.’

     Sid has bought me my meal of ham and eggs, I offered to buy my own but he wouldn’t hear of it, that’s great because, at this rate my ten bob could last me until I’m really
fifteen. Sid pushes back his chair; ‘Do we have to go now’

     ‘No, can’t move the truck for another half hour, the law says I must have a regulation break
of forty five minutes, so tell me all about yourself w
hile I smoke
a couple of makins
’

     ‘Sid do you always roll your own cigarettes’

     ‘Yer can’t be doing with them tailor mades, if I did I’d smoke too many, yer see I can’t roll em and drive at the same time, so I don’t
smoke unless I’m stopped, gotta be good for me lungs’

    ‘It would be better if you didn’t smoke at all’

    ‘Now don’t you start, its bad enough with the missus going on at me without you starting’

    ‘Sorry Sid I didn’t mean anything’

    ‘I know, no offence taken, are you going to tell me about Pommy land, then’

     ‘Where shall I start?’

     ‘Where you want, what about from when your mum was killed, that is if you feel you want to talk about it’

     ‘Okay, well at the end of September nineteen forty four our house was blown up by a flying bomb, my Gran and I were in the shelter my Mum had gone back to the house to get a flask of tea
that
she had forgotten
. Mum was killed, Gran got a cut head but I wasn’t hurt at all, only a bit of shock; we were both in hospital for a couple days’

     ‘That must have been terrible’

     ‘It was, I cried for days, sometimes even now when I think about it
,
and I still have a nightmare about
it
every so often
’

     ‘You don’t have to go on if it upsets you’

     ‘No it is best to talk,
Gran and
I
then went to live in
Hastings
, it’s a seaside town on the south coast of
England
’

     ‘Is that the place where they had that
battle and King Harold got
an
arrow
in the eye?’

     ‘That’s the place
, Sid you know more English history than I know about Australian’

     ‘That’s because we aint got much to know’

     ‘No I suppose not, anyway we went to live in a guest house owned by Reg and June Milligan,
they gave
Gran
a job
, she
cook
ed
  for all the guests most were soldiers, sailors, and airmen, but some worked for the ministry of defence, it was great it was a happy house. School was terrible and I was bullied a lot, so I learnt to box and ended up beating the bully in a boxing match’

     ‘Better watch myself then Phil, and not get on your wrong side’

     ‘
I think you are safe from me, you’re twice my size’

     ‘Yeah
, must admit you are a bit on the skinny side for fifteen’

     ‘Anyway it was great I met Michael he was Jewish and we became best friends, then
on VE day
he got
ill, I had given him chocolate but he was allergic, I didn’t know I thought it was me that made him ill, but it wasn’t it was
polio
. After a long time in hospital he
got pneumonia and died
. I became a good friend of his foster dad;
I call him
Pop
, he
is
a
lovely
man,
he taught me to swim
,
he
must have done a
good job because I went onto become the under twelve fifty metre breast stroke champion’

     ‘When was that then?’

     ‘Last err, can’t remember exactly, I think a couple of years ago’

     ‘I see’ Sid is looking at me with a puzzled expression, should I tell
him the truth, no better not.

     Well anyway my Gran died and I was sent to a children’s home, but it was closed down because some of the house mothers and fathers were molesting the kids’

     ‘Bloody hell Phil did they have a go at you?’

     ‘Yes but I wrote to Pop and he told the police, that’s when they closed it, then Reg and June tried to foster me, but it all went wrong, I got sent to another home
, from there I was sent to Australia and here I am’

     ‘Jesus Phil that is some story, wish I
had more time to hear
some more, but better be on our way’

     ‘There i
s not much more really, Sid what will happen when we get to your depot?’

     ‘ We won’t be there until about three, first thing I will do after I unhook the trailer is try to get you a lift to Melbourne, shouldn’t be too difficult
, then I will park up and go to bed.
A
fter a kip, I will hook up to another trailer and drive it back to
Adelaide
;
I should get home around three in the afternoon. Then  I’ll
say
G’day to the wife and kids, slip down to the pub for a couple of beers, maybe
take Andy fishing, get a good n
ights kip in a
proper bed and do this all over again the next day.

     ‘How often do you do that?’

     ‘For the past two months and for the foreseeable future three times a week’

     ‘Don’t you get fed up, going up and down the same bit of road all the time?’

     ‘Not at all, it keeps food on the table, my baby is a dream to drive, what more could I want, anyway I’d sooner be doing this than what you are doing Phil’

     ‘Yeah
I think I would as well’

     ‘That tucker my missus gave you save it
until you leave me because there is nothing to buy there at the depot, come on lets get this show on the road.’

     The engine roars into life and we glide out of the truck park. I don’t want to have to tell anymore lies, so I have bundled my shopping bag into a pillow and with my head resting against the side of the cab, I pretend to sleep to stop Sid asking anymore questions. I must have dropped off because I am woken by Sid talking to the gateman at the depot.
After un-hooking the trailer Sid
walks
to the office to hand in his paperwork.

    
As he climbs back into the cab, ‘Right Mate yer see that big Mack over there,’ I follow the direction of his finger, there is a large brown truck, with a flat front, parked against a fence.
‘
He’s going to Port Melbourne; he said he will give you a lift so, when you see him start up his truck to go and collect his trailer, get over there, quick as a flash. He’s a bonzer bloke, name of
Tex
;
I’ve told him all I know about you and that is frig
’
all, and he won’t ask questions so you’re safe with him.’ Now I’m going to get some shut eye in my bunk, you can wait in here; don’t make a noise when you leave.’

     ‘How long do you think it will be before
Tex
goes?’

     ‘Shouldn’t be longer than an hour, but keep your eyes peeled in case he gets a flyer. Now I’m getting my head down, hooroo
Phil
, nice to meet you and good luck in whatever you’re trying do.’

     ‘Good night
Sid
, thank you for everything.’ 

     The Mac
k; looks bigger than Sid’s, Tex is not
in his truck,
so I do what everybody seems to do, well men anyway, I pee over the fence. Back at the White I can
hear Sid snoring, I haven’t
the heart to disturb him so I reach in to collect my shopping bag, closing the door gently behind me,
finding a log  where I can see the Mack, I
sit
to
eat my tucker
and watch for Tex coming back
.