Barefoot and Lost (48 page)

     ‘Well I reckon anything’s got to be better than living with these evil buggers.’

     ‘I’ll think about it, lets see how long they keep us here.’

     ‘We could chop our way out with that axe.’

     ‘
Billy
shut up, let us
wait,
and see what happens.’ The morning drags on; the flies are a nuisance, especially for
Billy
as they keep settling on the dried blood on his face.

     ‘
Billy
have you got a hankie?’

     ‘No, if I had I’d have nowhere to keep it; there are no pockets in these bleeding shorts?’

     ‘Well spit on your shirt and I’ll try and wash the blood off your face.’

     ‘Ouch, that’s painful, mind my lip its sore.’ It is very hot in here, we have seen the kids go and come back from lunch and still no sign of us being let out.

     ‘
Billy
, I think you’re right, we should try to break out, if we don’t get a drink we could die in here.’ We set to, moving the wood stack from the rear wall; the wood is ready cut for a fire, and is all a foot long and about three to four inches wide. We make a gap eighteen inches wide; stacking the wood we have removed onto the top of the pile either side.
Billy
gives the side of the shed a whack with the back of the axe, nothing moves but the noise is horrendous. ‘
Billy
, we can’t do that they will hear us.’

     ‘There is no other way, lets take it in turns, one watches and the other chops.’ 

     After about an hour we have a hole we can walk through. Two feet from the back of the shed is a wire fence; in the field behind is a
horse water trough
. I slip out and have a long drink while
Billy
keeps watch, I then watch while he drinks. We have decided to wait until dark so we won’t be seen in the field, but, if someone comes before then, we will do a runner and hope we aren’t caught.
Billy
returns from another drink,

     ‘Look what I‘ve found,’ he holds up a beer bottle, ‘I’ve washed it and filled it so we can take water with us.’

     Darkness comes and still nobody has come to see how we are, we could be dead for all they cared. ‘Come on
Phil
, let’s do it.’

     ‘Okay, come on.’ Sprinting across the field at an angle away from the home we make our way to the highway. Here we pause, deciding to make for the lights that look like they could be a town. 

     Our town is a transport café with four very long
Lorries
parked outside. One with sacks stacked on, is facing towards
Perth
.
Both of us scramble onto the fuel tank then using the head board as a ladder we climb up on top of the load and lay face down on the sacks with our heads towards the head board.
Billy
whispers, ‘How long do you think we will have to wait?’

     ‘I don’t know, I hope it’s not long, the smell of that food is killing me.’

     The café door opens; the light from inside shining on us, a man stands in the doorway, he lights a cigarette, I try to burrow down into the sacks from fear of being seen. He then calls, ‘Hooroo mate, think of me in about two hours, cuddled up in bed with my missus,’ someone inside laughs,

     ‘Bloody hell mate that’d be a first, it’s usually someone else’s missus.’

     ‘Yer right, see yer, have a good one.’ The café door bangs shut, we are surrounded by darkness again, the cab door slams then it opens again, I can hear his footsteps as he walks around the lorry, does he know we are here? He stops just below me, I can smell the smoke from his cigarette as he puffs away, I watch as he throws the butt on the ground, then grinds it with his heel. As he climbs into the cab his face is no more than three feet from mine and he still hasn’t seen me. I’m scared to even breathe, the cab door slams again, the engine starts, we move off.

    
It is cold in the wind, I wish
I was wearing something warmer, the Khaki shirt and shorts are good for blending in with the sacks but there is not a lot of warmth in them.
Billy
has taken to sitting up, leaning against the headboard, I’m sure he can be seen, especially when cars come up behind us. ‘
Billy
I think you should lay down, the cars behind us may see you and tell the driver.’

     ‘I’ll be alright its more comfortable sitting.’

     ‘Supposing the police see us, they must know we have escaped by now?’
Billy
lies down beside me.

     We are crossing the river again, very soon we are passing a railway goods yard, and the lorry slows down, makes a left hand turn, and stops. I can hear a gate being opened, ‘G’day Ted are you going to unload that lot tonight?’

     ‘Not bloody likely Bill, I’ve been away for three days, I’m going home to shag the missus; I’ll just back it up to the dock, come in early tomorrow and do it then.’

     ‘Tell yer what I’ll do Ted, seeing as you’re a good sort, when things get a bit quieter I’ll unload it for you.’

     ‘Fair dinkum!! Geeze mate you’re a bloody star.’ We move forward, then swing around and start to reverse.
Bill
is standing on the dock directing
Ted
, how he cannot see us is a mystery, I daren’t breathe I hope
Billy
doesn’t panic and give us away.

     Ted jumps out of his c
ab, ‘I’ll go and get my car,
will you let me out?’

     ‘The gates open, I’m going to get a sack barrow while I’m up here, see you tomorrow, good night.’

     ‘Good night
Bill
, thanks.’

     ‘
Billy
, we have got to get out before he locks the gate.’ I am so stiff I can hardly walk and climbing down is a real effort.

      ‘I wonder where his car is.’

      ‘There are no cars here it must be around the back, come on, lets run for it before they come back.’ The gates are closed but not locked, we soon find ourselves in a very dark street, I hesitate looking up and down the street, deciding which way to go, and then I remember we turned left into the gates. ‘Come on
Billy
, the railway is this way; it’s our best chance to get away from here.’

     ‘
Phil
, I’m so hungry I feel sick.’

     ‘Me too, we
’ve
had nothing since breakfast, at seven, God knows what time it is now?’

     ‘Half past eleven, I saw a clock on the dock.’

     ‘Hell; that is sixteen hours, right, we try and find food first, and then we can catch a train.’

     The railway yard is well lit and surrounded by a twelve foot high fence with barbed wire on top. Following the fence, we then follow the smell of food coming from a caravan parked beside the main gate selling hot food.

     ‘Have you got any money?’

     ‘Yeah
right; without any pockets where am I going to keep money?’

     ‘We can’t buy food without money’

     ‘Leave it to me; all you have to do is hand the hat around.’

     ‘I haven’t got a hat.’

     ‘Then make do.’
Billy
walks up to four men and a woman standing beside the caravan, drinking from mugs.

     ‘If I sing to you will you buy me a sandwich?’

     ‘Sod off kid, what you doing out this late anyway?’

     ‘Me Muvver is drunk and there is no food in the ‘ouse, me and me six bruvvers is hungry and I thought, if I sang for me supper, some kind soul would buy me somefing.’ I can’t believe what I am hearing but they seem to be listening to him.

      The woman asks, ‘Can you sing?’

     ‘Like a bleeding nightingale,’ everyone laughs.

     ‘Go on then let me hear you, I’ve had a good night, if you’re any good I’ll b
uy you and
your brother a hotdog
each’

     ‘And a cup of tea
?’

     ‘Cheeky bugger,’
Billy
starts to sing the Irish Rover it is beautiful, when he claps his hands the others join in, soon a few more join the group. Billy keeps singing, this time the song is about a lass from
Belfast
City
. He stops, takes a bow, everyone claps, the man in the caravan calls out, ‘Save your money
Hazel
I’ll give them both a burger.’
Billy
gives me a nod,

     ‘Go on get collecting.’ I cup my hands very soon they are full, I start to drop some coins, Billy picks them up and holds out his shirt, I tip the coins into it.

     I have never had a hamburger but I think it is the most wonderful food in the whole world. ‘Where do you kids live?’

     ‘Over there behind that warehouse, we have to go to see how my bruvvers, are thank you everybody.’ I can hear a man saying. ‘Those bloody Poms come here without any money, and then send their kids out on the street to beg, it aint right.’
Billy
gives me a dig in the ribs,

      ‘Come on; let’s go before they start asking too many questions.’ Around the corner is a milkman delivering to some houses, Billy goes up to him and buys two pints of milk, we find a dark corner where we sit on the wall and drink our milk, life at this moment is wonderful.

     How much money did we get?’
Billy
jumps down from the wall and starts to lay out the coins

     ‘Twelve shillings, and nine pence, not bad eh.’

     ‘Fantastic, have you done that before?’

     ‘No never.’

     ‘Well no one would have known, you looked as though you had been doing it all your life.’

     ‘Yeah
and it felt good, now we know we won’t go hungry.’ 

     We sit in silence for a while then
Billy
looks at me. ‘
Phil
, where are we going to go, you said a train, where will that take us?’

     ‘I think that, if they are looking for us, they will assume we will try to catch a ship back to
England
, so I think we should go the opposite way and see where we end up.’

     ‘As much as I would like to go back to
England
I think you’re right, a train it is, but how are we going to manage that?’

     ‘I have no idea but we have been lucky so far, something will turn up.’

     ‘Yeah
, lets hope it’s not one of them Fenian’s.’

     ‘I’m so tired I think we should try and find somewhere to sleep for a couple of hours.’

      Following the wall, we come to a set of gates that are chained closed. On a notice board, written in bold print,
Bullakanka
Primary School
. Underneath the heading is typed. Please note, this school will be closed for half term from 22
nd
September until 1st October. 

     ‘That’s good; the schools are on half term holiday.’

     ‘Why good, are we going to break in or something?’

     ‘No of course not, it means we can walk around in daylight, there will be lots of kids doing it, and we won’t look out of place.’ Looking over the wall I can see what appears to be a toilet block set away from the main building. ‘Let’s go and see if that building is open, maybe we could sleep there.’ Our hopes are dashed, the door is securely locked.

     ‘Well that was a good idea while it lasted,
Phil
what now?’

     ‘Yeah
, perhaps it is just as well, supposing we were caught in there, we would be in more trouble than we are now, I think we should get that train and get as far from here as we can.’

    
‘Yeah
that makes sense, we can sleep on the train, come on lets do it.

     There is less activity in the railway yard now and only a few of the main lights are on, the man in the caravan is sleeping, he has no customers, the small gate beside the main double gates is open. A very long goods train is slowly making its way out of the yard,  

     ‘Run for it
Billy
,’ we both sprint, I’m surprised how fast he can run ‘Where do we get on?’

     ‘Anywhere, wherever we can.’ I manage to grab hold of a bar and swing myself up
Billy
is running alongside, I grab him, and now both of us are standing on a small ledge clinging to the side of the truck. Up ahead I can see a man with his back to us, standing beside the track, swinging a lantern.
Billy
has seen him too; we edge around the end of the truck out of sight, passing him without being seen. We can’t stay where we are but I can’t see where else to go.