Barefoot and Lost (10 page)

     This is the easiest gardening I have ever done, a lot easier than helping
June
. We talk a lot, pull an occasional
weed,
and then
throw it over the fence, making sure one of us
is looking towards the house.
At the slightest hint of an adult we busy ourselves with the hoe and rake.

     Lion is very impressed with my treatment of
Flynn
. We have decided that, because our dorm’ is close to both bathrooms, on the nights Flynn is on duty, if he attempts to go into a bathroom when one of the kids is in there
, one
or all of us will shout ‘Is the PT in the bathroom tonight Mr. Flynn can we join in’
On the nights he is on dorm’ duty, because
we can see about half of his door from our dorm’ we will watch, if any boy attempts to go into his room we will shout, ‘Is there PT in your room tonight Mr.
Flynn
, can we join in?’ Lion reckons that if the Reverend doesn’t know about it he will become curious and investigate, if he doesn’t then we can assume they are all involved, then we will have to think of another way to bring it out in the open. Whatever happens I am going to write to Pop, I know he will believe me and do something about it.

    
Brian
’s idea is to ask all the boys, between nine and twelve if
Flynn
or anybody else has tried to touch them or do unnatural things. Lion thinks it will be a waste of time because they will be too scared to talk about it but
Brian
said he is going to ask anyway. We all think that maybe we will get into serious trouble but have made a pact; we all put our hands on top of
each others and swear
to stick toget
her no matter what. I think it’
s exciting, as Lion said what can they do send us somewhere else? If they did it couldn’t be any worse than here.        

     We have hidden our gardening tools,
ready for tomorrow morning,
down by the boundary fence
to prevent anyone else getting them. The afternoons are always free times during holidays. We have decided to play cricket; that is except Lion, he says he will just watch his hands are still too sore to hold a bat. After two hours of standing around and only touching the ball twice I may as well have sat and watched with him.

      It’
s raining today s
o all outside work is cancelled. W
e have been selected to clean every chair in the dining hall, they don’t really need doing but they are not going to let us sit around and do nothing. We have to tip each chair upside down then, with a damp cloth wipe all the legs and the rungs it
is very boring. After lunch it’
s still raining, the five of us have come up to the games room but so has everyone else. I have left the others playing cards, a game they call
Newmarket
. I can’t understand the game at all, Lion tried to teach me without success, so
I have come into the library. It is a lot quieter here
,
a couple of older girls are reading and another one is knitting.

     Not sure why they call it a library there are hardly any books, I think that Pop has more in his house than there are here. I have found one that I am going to try to read called, ‘The Talisman’ by
Sir
Walter
Scott
; I think I will like it because it is about the crusades. I want to start writing my letter to Pop but there is no paper and, even worse there are no envelopes. I have no idea how I am going to get one of those. The book is difficult to
read, the print is very small.
At the start of each chapter the first letter is like a picture, it is difficult to know what it is, not that I have got that far yet, I’m still on chapter one. There is a large notice on the wall that
says
books are not to be removed from the library; I was hoping to take this one with me to read in bed. Looking around I have found a piece of wool, about four inches long from the girl’s knitting, and this will be my marker. I have not put the book where I found it. On the bottom shelf there are six encyclopaedias about the same size and colour, I have tucked it beside them, unless you are looking for it you wouldn’t know it was there, now I have somewhere to hide my letter while I write and get the chance to post it.

     Mam has just come out of our dorm and sees us coming up the back stairs from chapel and calls out, ‘Lionel; I have left a new boy in your dormitory, look after him, his name is Peter, show him the ropes.’

     ‘Yes Mam I will.’ On entering the dorm I can see a small boy sitting on the edge of the bed with his back to us, his shoulders are hunched as though he might be crying.

     Lion calls, ‘Hi
yer
Peter where did you come from?’ He turns around, we all get a bit of a shock the right side of his face, from above his ear to his jaw,  is scarred a bright shining red. Above the ear there is a patch where no hair has grown. We all look and try not to stare. 

     ‘Pretty Horrible isn’t it’ Looking straight me, ‘I know you you’re
Phillip
’

     ‘Are you sure, where from, I don’t remember you?’

     ‘Yes you do, from the hospital; you were in the bed next to me when your mum got killed.’

     ‘Yeah I remember now,
Peter’ Turning to the others, ‘He had bandages all over his head and arms then.’

      ‘Yeah
, I
wasn’
t so scary when I
looked like an Egyptian mummy.
’ Toby holds out his hand to shake Peter’s
,
I can see the scars on his arms.

      ‘I’m Toby, this is
Jack
, he is
Brian
and that is Lion, and you already know
Phil
; what happened to you?’

      ‘Same as
Phil
, our house was bombed by a doodle bug. My mum my sister and I were in our Morrison shelter
and
the house caught fire. They think my mum got me out into the garden, I don’t remember anything. All I can remember is going to bed in the shelter and then waking up in hospital, anyway they think she must have gone back in to get my sister but another blast, probably from the gas main killed both of them.’

     ‘That is terrible, what about your
dad;
I expect he is dead as well otherwise you wouldn’t be here?’

     ‘Yeah
; what is your name?’

     ‘Lion, short for
Lionel
.’

     ‘Yeah
, Lion he was killed in
North Africa
in nineteen forty two.’

     ‘
Peter
, where have you been since we were in hospital, that was a year ago?’

     ‘Three months in hospital then I was fostered with Mavis Cunningham and her twelve year old daughter
Jill
in
Tunbridge
Wells
. That was until the other day, when she said she wouldn’t be able look after me anymore.’

     ‘That is bloody terrible, why do they do that, as though we are a pair of old shoes that can just be thrown away?’

      ‘No,
it’s
not really like that, Toby, her husband was a glider pilot in the D Day landings, when it crashed he lost both of his legs and also
had
a lot of other injuries. They didn’t think he would live but he did and is coming home next week. He is in a wheelchair, she is not sure if she can cope with two kids and him. There was no one else to foster me so I‘m here until something can be sorted. If things get too much for her she can send
Jill
to her sister, but wouldn’t be able to send me because her sister is not cleared to foster.’

     ‘Might you go back there if things are ok?’

     ‘I hope so, she said she wanted to keep me she was crying when we said good bye.’

     ‘We’
ll k
eep our fingers crossed for you. N
ow we will show you how to put your things away, by then it will be time for bed.’

     ‘What! So early, it is only quarter to eight?’

     ‘I know, we have to be in bed by half eight, nobody says you have to be asleep, we usually talk until about half nine. It’s not that bad seeing as we have to get up before six.’

     ‘SIX! That’s the middle of the night.’

     ‘
Seems like it in winter but you get used to it;
Phil
, will you show
Peter
what to do?’

     ‘Yes Lion your wish is my command’

     Peter has
lot
s
of clothes and quite a f
ew personal things that he will not be allowed
put
to
in his locker. I explain that they will have to stay in his suitcase which will be stored in the luggage room until he leaves St S’s. Amongst his things is a penknife with three blades a bicycle lamp, two pounds seven shillings and four pence, an exercise book and best of
all a letter in an envelope wi
t
h
a stamp
on it
that looks unused. Lion asks, ‘Did Mam see any of this?’

     ‘Who; see any of what?’

     ‘Mam;
Mrs.
Miller
did she look in your suitcase?’

     ‘No, she said you would help me.’

     ‘You’re very lucky because, if she had, she would have taken it away for safe keeping, and you would never have seen it again, you’re not allowed to have money for a start.’

     ‘How will I buy things in a shop without money?’

     ‘Easy, you are never allowed to go to a shop.’

     ‘What, never ever?’

     ‘Not while you’re at St S’s you aren’t.’

     ‘That’s terrible I hate it here already.’

     ‘We all do, we make the most of it and have a good laugh, you’ll get used to it, anyway you may not be here for long you have someone that wants you, we have nobody, only each other.’ 

    
Peter
, this letter who is it from?”

     ‘Evelyn, you remember her,
from the hospital the lady who
used to joke with us and was very kind.’

     ‘Yes, she took me to see my Gran, why did she write to you?’

     ‘When I went to Auntie Mavis, she wrote to me to ask how I was getting on, it is the first letter I have ever got so I have kept it, would you like to read it?’

‘Can I?’ Opening it very carefully I can see the envelope has not been ripped open and the post mark has missed the stamp. Inside there is just one small sheet of paper saying how she misses him, she hopes he is enjoying things in Kent, also she thought he would like to know that Jane is with a relative in Scotland and she has passed his address onto her so they can be pen pals. ‘
Peter
can I keep the stamp and can I just borrow the envelope for a while?’

     ‘I think so, but why?’

     ‘It’s a l
ong story, we’
ll tell you about it when we are in bed.’

    
Mr.
Simmons
, one of the other House Fathers, puts his head around the door, ‘The Jap’s have surrendered, it’s all over, the war is finished thank God; good night lads.’ We gather on
Peter
’s, bed it being the one furthest from the door; we are too excited to sleep.

     ‘Lion, what differences will it make for us?’
Brian
asks.

     ‘Probably nothing at all, we will still be stuck in this dump, it didn’t change anything when we had V.E day, why should it be any different this time?’

‘We
had a big party in the
Hastings
cricket ground
, Olive
, my favourite lady sailor and Awful her
American
boyfriend, were there, my Gran she danced with a black soldier, and Joan, she is a captain in the Army taught me to jitter bug ---
’

     ‘
For crying out loud Phil,
shut up,
have y
ou
swallowed a gramophone needle
or something; going on about this one and that one and your bloody party, we are not interested
;
all
we had
was
a dish of jelly and a piece of cake.’