Captain Mack (7 page)

“Snell, sir,” Shaun said without hesitation, and Grant nodded in agreement.

“Snell?” Mr Whaley turned and contemplated how far he'd just walked. “Doubtful,” he said, turning back. “That's almost forty metres. I doubt Mr Snell could have covered that distance with a drop punt. I mean, that's a rather impressive kick, isn't it, Shaun?”

“Yes, sir,” Shaun said, dropping his eyes. “I suppose it was a good kick — felt like it came off the boot well. But it was an accident. I'm sorry, sir.”

“Yes, I'm sure it was. Well, you can collect this at the end of the day.” Mr Whaley tossed the ball in the air and managed to just hang on to the catch. “More care required, gentlemen,” he added as he sauntered away.

“Yes, sir,” the boys said together.

“I'd better get that ball back,” Shaun hissed at Danny. “If he keeps it —”

“Great kick, Shaun — almost forty metres,” Caleb said with a smirk. “That one's going to be talked about for a while. Mainly by you, I'd say.”

“Come on,” Shaun said to Grant. “Let's leave these losers to their picnic.”

Danny couldn't resist one more comment as they sulked away. “Gee, that came off the boot well.”

To his surprise, Shaun didn't look back.

“So when are we doing it?” Captain Mack asked. “Have ye made plans?”

Danny sat on the edge of the bed and chose his words carefully. “I've been thinking,” he said.

“Well? Out with it, lad.”

“I don't think the escape's such a great idea.”

“Ye don't? But why, Snell? I thought ye were in it with me.”

“I was, sir, but I don't think it'll work. I mean, you keep saying you want to go back to Glasgow, and —”

“Eventually, lad, eventually. Don't skip out on me now, Snell.”

“I just don't know if we can do it. Not without getting into trouble.” Despite wanting to, he couldn't look Captain Mack in the eye as he spoke. “I'm sorry,” he added pathetically.

Captain Mack turned his head and gazed out the window. He didn't say anything for a long time. Then finally he spoke. “Have ye ever had malaria, lad?”

“No.”

“How about fevers so bad ye can't even get off the bed?”

“No.”

“No. And have ye ever been so hungry ye wanted to throw up every minute of the day, felt like ye stomach was digesting itself?”

“No.”

Now he looked Danny square in the face, his voice building in intensity. “Have ye ever been so thirsty that ye couldn't swallow and yer head felt like it was going to split apart? Have ye, Snell?”

“No.”

“No what?” Captain Mack shouted, startling Danny and making him jump.

“No, sir,” he said in a feeble voice.

“Then what right do ye think ye might have to sit there and tell me that ye're afraid of getting caught? Tell me that! Are ye gutless?”

“I don't know, sir.”

“Ye don't know. I thought as much.” Captain Mack went back to watching the brick wall beyond the bars. “Go on, go back to wherever ye call home, lad. And I hope ye're comfortable.”

Danny stood uncertainly. “I'm … I'm sorry, sir. I just don't think I can do it.”

Captain Mack didn't reply, didn't even turn around.

TEN

“Well?” said Dad, opening Danny's door. “Are you getting out or not?”

Danny undid his seatbelt but stayed in the car.

“Come on, Dan, the appointment's at two. What's up, mate?”

Danny looked up at Dad. “What if he says it's going to be heaps longer?”

“Then that's what he says. But he might not.”

Danny took a deep breath and nodded.

“We'll never know unless we ask,” Dad added.

“What if it's no better at all?”

“Then we'll deal with it. I know you're frightened, mate, but —”

“I'm not frightened,” Danny said as he got out and closed the door.

“Whatever you say, Dan,” Dad said as he put one arm around Danny's shoulders.

Dr Granville gave Danny and Dad a flickering smile as he finished drying his hands and dropped the screwed-up paper towel into the bin. “Well, Daniel, it looks like there's been some improvement. Those muscles we talked about last time seem a little stronger.”

“Does that mean we can do the operation?” Danny asked hopefully.

Dr Granville sat behind his desk and massaged the tip of his nose with one finger. He seemed to be thinking carefully about his answer. “Not yet,” he said at last.

“Then when?”

“This visit was a little earlier than planned, so I think we should probably see you again when we originally arranged. I understand your anxiety —”

“Will we be able to do the operation after that next visit?” Danny asked.

“Daniel, when I said that I'd noticed some improvement, I should add that it wasn't of dramatic proportions. I have to be honest — it is taking longer than I'd hoped. I still think that perhaps by the end of the year we'll be ready to think about surgery, but I don't want to make any promises at this stage. We do need to be patient.”

“I see,” said Dad, glancing at Danny and forcing a smile. “OK, well that gives us something to aim at, doesn't it, Dan?”

Danny didn't answer.

Dr Granville leaned forward, his elbows on his desk and his hands clasped together. “I know this is of little consolation to you, Daniel, but yours is one of the more unusual cases I've seen,” he said. “We always knew that it would take time, right from the very beginning.”

“It's just that there have been …
issues
at school,” Dad explained.

“I understand,” Dr Granville replied. “Well, let's just see how things are next time.”

“Why don't you say it the way it is?” Danny said crossly as they walked to the car.

“What do you mean?” Dad asked.

“Why did you say that there had been ‘issues at school' when you could have just said “Danny gets picked on every day because his eyes are crooked and you can't fix them yet'?”

“It's not Dr Granville's fault.”

“It's not my fault either, Dad. But I still go to school and get teased and have fights picked with me and get hit in the head with cricket balls and put on detention, and none of that's my fault, is it?”

“No, son, it's not.”

“Well, that's it, Dad. I've made my mind up. I don't want to go there anymore. I want to go to a different school.”

Dad stopped walking and looked at Danny, a puzzled expression on his face. “Leave St Lawrence's? Sorry, mate, but that's not going to happen.”

“Why not?”

“Because that's what kids are like, Dan. It wouldn't matter where you went, people would still make fun of your glasses and your eye.”

“That's meant to make me feel better?”

Dad took a deep breath. “Look, let's give it until the end of the year.”

“The end of the year's too far away.”

“You're right, but you'll just have to be strong.”

“I
am
strong, Dad.”

“Stronger.”

“Here we go again,” Danny said as he and Caleb approached the school gates. Just like every other morning the noise drifted out, the sounds of shouting, playing, teasing pouring like a flood over the brick wall and through the tall steel gates. “I'm really starting to hate this place.”

“It's not that bad, is it?” Caleb said.

“The place is fine, I guess — it's the people I hate. I just don't want to be here. I don't want to have to face Shaun and Grant again. I'm tired of being nice, trying to act like I don't care when really I do. I thought Dad would understand, especially after what the doctor told us. I asked Dad if I could go somewhere else, but he said no.”

“You wouldn't leave me here, would you?”

Danny shrugged. “I guess not. I'd love to just run away from it all, but that's crazy, isn't it?”

“Totally.”

“I thought you might say that.”

It was evening. Danny was going to visit Captain Mack for the first time since their argument, and he was planning to apologise. He'd given it a lot of thought, and decided that he'd made the right decision — the escape was far too risky. He knew that Captain Mack would still disagree, but if they could avoid discussing it, perhaps it wouldn't matter. Whatever happened, Danny wanted to keep visiting, and hoped that an apology might smooth things out a bit.

He was heading down the corridor towards Room 5 when he was almost knocked over by a couple of nurses scurrying around the corner.

“Stupid old codger,” he heard one of them say. “What does he expect if he won't co-operate?”

When Danny got to Captain Mack's room he found the old man sitting on the edge of his bed with tears pouring down his face. His mouth was strange and floppy, like it had caved in.

“Are you OK?” Danny asked. Then he felt stupid. Of course he wasn't OK

Captain Mack turned away so Danny wouldn't see his face. “What do ye want, lad? Ye can't see me like this.”

Danny stood there uncertainly, one hand resting on the bedside locker. “Um … can you tell me what's the matter?” he asked.

“The guards.”

“Why? What did they do?”

“The animals lost my teeth,” Captain Mack said.

“Lost them?”

“My dentures, lad. They're gone.”

“Well, they must be around somewhere. Why don't we look for them?”

Captain Mack shook his head. “Don't make out like I'm daft. I looked everywhere, Snell. I can't find them. And while I looking they served dinner.”

“And you couldn't eat it without your teeth?” Danny said.

Captain Mack frowned impatiently. “No, darn ye, while I was looking for my teeth they served dinner,” he explained. “And now they've cleaned up and I'll not be getting fed tonight. And I still can't find my teeth.” He was close to tears again.

A fat man in one of the beds nearest the door was laughing. “Lost yer chompers there, Scottie?” he called out. “Can't chew yer haggis without yer teeth in, can ya, Scottie?”

Another man was creeping slowly through the door with his walking frame, and he joined in the laughter with his wheezy cackle.

“Shut up, ya noisy mongrels,” said the man in the bed nearest the window, and he rolled onto his side and held his radio close to his ear.

“Go back to yer gee-gees, ya pathetic geezer,” snarled the fat man.

Danny started going through the clutter on top of Captain Mack's locker, searching for the dentures. They weren't there, so he got down on his hands and knees and looked under the bed. “They've got to be here,” he said. “They can't —”

“Stop it, darn ye!” shouted Captain Mack, and Danny stopped suddenly. He'd never heard the old man really let fly before, and it was enough to make anyone take notice. “Stop looking! I told ye, the guards took them! They lost the darn things!”

“The nurses, you mean?”

“Nurses, guards, what's the confounded difference, lad? They lost my dam teeth and won't be held to it!” He was crying again. He grabbed Danny's arm with one of his knobbly hands and pulled him close. Now his voice was low. “I can't take this place, lad. I keep telling ye, I don't care whether it's the other place where I was before or Glasgow or wherever, but ye've got to help me run away from this hell-hole. It's not humane, do ye hear?”

Danny pulled his arm free and stood up. “I'll try and find your teeth if you'll stop shouting,” he said, and went out into the corridor.

“Can't chew his haggis until you do, boyo,” he heard the fat man call after him, and the noisy laughter started all over again.

One of the nurses he'd seen earlier was hurrying by with a crumpled pile of sheets in her arms. “Excuse me,” he said, “Captain Mack's lost his teeth.”

She stopped and stared at him. She was very thin. Some of the hair from her ponytail was falling across her face, and she pushed it behind her ear. “Who's lost his teeth?” she asked impatiently.

“Captain Mack.”

“Oh, that. Well, we looked for them, but he's obviously left them somewhere. There's nothing we can do.” She began to turn away.

“But they're not in his room,” Danny said. “I just looked for them, and they're not there. Anyway, where could he have left them?”

“Look,” the nurse snapped, “there are three of us on this ward for thirty-six patients, and the pills aren't even done yet, okay? Someone might have washed his teeth and left them in the pan room. Check in there if you like.” She pointed with her head towards a grey doorway with a sign reading
Utility Room 1
—
Staff Only.

Danny pushed the door open and looked into the room. There was a steel sink, a couple of shiny metal machines like giant dishwashers, and some cupboards. On top of the bench was a grey plastic bowl with a pair of false teeth in it. He picked up the bowl and took it back to Captain Mack's room.

“Are these yours?” he asked.

Captain Mack peered into the bowl. “Could be, lad.” He fished the dentures out, slipped them into his mouth and wriggled his lips about. “I think so,” he said at last. “I can't be sure, but I think that's them.”

“Time for yer haggis!” crowed the irritating man near the door, and Danny recognised the pained look which flickered across Captain Mack's face. He remembered how it felt to make that look. And at that moment he decided that one way or another an escape was going to take place. He was going to make sure of it.

ELEVEN

Except for one night when he'd tried to climb out his bedroom window to meet Caleb, Danny had never planned an escape before. Dad caught them that time and made Caleb ring his parents to come and pick him up, so Danny didn't hold a lot of confidence in his escape-planning abilities. He knew that it would take a while. He was going to have to work out a few details — what time would be best to do it, how they would get to wherever it was they were going, that sort of thing. And that was the main problem — where
were
they going? They couldn't return to Lady Smythe, and they certainly couldn't go to Glasgow. Danny had never been to Scotland, but one look in his atlas told him that it was too far to even consider.

He rang Caleb and asked his opinion. Caleb said he thought the whole plan was pretty dumb.

“But didn't you say it was a good idea? I thought you said you'd help me.”

“Yeah, but I didn't think you were serious.”

“Well, I am serious. Real serious.”

“You know what I reckon? I reckon you should forget about it, mate,” Caleb said. “Just forget it.”

“Why?” Danny asked.

“Because he's an old man in a nursing home. That's where old people live.”

“But that's a stupid thing to say. Why can't he live somewhere good, like we do? Why does he have to be stuck in a place he hates?”

There was a pause. “Because he's an old man. That's all.”

“What changed ye mind, lad?” Captain Mack asked.

“Just … just stuff that happened, that's all. So,” Danny said, moving on, “when we escape, where are we going? I know you want to go to Glasgow, but I don't think we can do that straightaway.”

Captain Mack pursed his lips and thought. “In the meantime I'll just have to settle for whatever lodgings ye can come up with, Snell. I'm relying on ye, lad. Needless to say, things have not improved. Just find me a warm bed and three square meals a day and I'll be happy.”

“Well, I'll think of something.”

“Whatever ye do, ye'd best do it soon. I can't take much more of this, ye understand.”

Danny tried to sound more patient than he felt. “I know, sir, but we can't rush this. We want to do it properly.”

“I know, lad. I've got faith in ye.”

Danny began to spend even more time at Redgrange, mostly on Mondays and Wednesdays while Dad was at squash. He was conducting reconnaissance, watching the patterns and routines in the ward, learning when the nurses were busy in other parts of the ward. He soon learned that after dinner, which was served at half past five, all the residents either went into the lounge to watch TV or back to their rooms. Sometimes they got visitors, but that didn't happen very often.

One of those Wednesday evenings a tall balding man came into Room 5. He tossed something in a white shopping bag onto the end of Captain Mack's bed. “There's the scarf you asked for. I tried to get a tartan one but they were all out. This one cheaper at any rate, so that was something. What do you need a scarf for, anyway?”

“Snell, this is my son William,” Captain Mack said.

Danny held out his hand like his father had taught him to do, and William shook it unenthusiastically. “How do you do,” he said flatly.

“Hi,” said Danny, quickly returning his hand to his pocket.

William flopped into the chair beside the window. “So how's things?” he asked Captain Mack.

“Awful, what did ye reckon? They're animals, like I keep telling ye.”

“They're not animals, Dad,” William said in a calm voice. “They're doing their best, I'm sure.”

“Doing their best to lose my teeth, ye mean.”

“Look, I made a complaint about that already, and they said it was just an honest mistake. I don't know what you want them to do.”

Captain Mack shook his head. “Ye're soft, son. It was no mistake. I want to go back to the other place.”

William took a deep breath and bit gently on his top lip. “So you've said, Dad, and I keep telling you, you can't go back there. It's too —”

“Ye don't care, do ye, son?”

“Of course I do, Dad,” William protested weakly. “Of course I care. But as I've repeatedly explained —”

“Snell here cares, my boy, that's for certain.” Captain Mack lowered his voice. “We're hatching a plan, he and I.”

“What sort of plan?” William asked.

“An escape plan.”

William looked over at Danny, who gave a half-shrug. He wasn't about to admit to anything.

“Sorry, who are you again?” William asked Danny.

“I'm Danny Snell. I'm a friend of Captain Mack's.”

“Captain Mack.” William snorted and stood up. “Well, Danny, let me give you a word of advice.”

Danny swallowed hard and waited to be told off. “What's that?” he asked.

William dropped his voice, speaking low and secretively. “When you're planning this great escape, avoid the east guard-tower. They're a bit trigger-happy over that side.” He turned to leave. “I've got to go, Dad. Take it easy, all right?”

“He didn't believe us, did he, lad?” Captain Mack said when he'd gone.

Danny shook his head. “He will.”

“It's an even stupider idea now,” Caleb said after Danny had outlined the finer details of his great plan. “Especially now that his son knows who you are.”

“He didn't believe us anyway.”

“So what? Once it's done, he'll know it was you.” He put on a deep, dramatic movie-voice. “Then he's going to hunt you down.”

Danny slurped his chocolate milk loudly. “But at least they might realise how much he hates living there and find him somewhere nice to live.”

“So where are you going to take him, once you've slipped away into the night? Have you thought about that?”

“Back to Ellie's house. If I can get him to her place, then she can talk to the people at Lady Smythe and get him back in.”

“You think?”

“Yeah, probably.”

Caleb screwed up his lunch bag and tossed it at the mouth of the rubbish bin. It was a perfect shot. “Well, maybe you're right. I reckon you're a nutcase, though. Isn't this kidnapping?”

“No, I'm just helping him. It was all his idea from the beginning.”

“Yeah, but what does he know? He's crazy.”

Danny said nothing.

“Here's the plan,” Danny said to Captain Mack, who sat forward and listened intently. “Next Monday my Dad's at squash till late. I'm going to come here straight after dinner.”

“Right,” said Captain Mack, nodding slowly. “Remember to keep yer voice down, lad,” he reminded Danny.

“OK Now, it's going to be really important that the nurses notice you at dinner-time. You'll have to make some kind of scene.”

“Ye can create a diversion, Snell,” Captain Mack suggested excitedly. “Set fire to the latrine block, perhaps.”

Danny tried not to smile. “I was thinking that you could just drop your pills or something. Nothing too big. Nothing that gets you locked in your room or anything.”

Captain Mack looked disappointed. “Well, ye're in charge this time, lad, like we agreed, so ye call the shots. But I think burning something down would work better.”

“No, just the pills, I think. Then, after dinner, when I come and visit, we're going to talk for a while in the lounge and maybe go for a bit of a walk. Then I'm going to say good-bye to the girl at the desk. She finishes at six — I checked.”

Captain Mack nodded seriously. “Six. Right, I've got that.”

“When she's gone home I want you to take a short walk outside. The nurses are usually down the other end of the ward around then anyway, so we'll be OK.”

“Where are we walking, lad? In the garden?”

“No, on the verandah. I'll be in the bushes at the far end.”

“I'll wear my best suit.”

“I didn't know you had a suit,” Danny said.

Captain Mack screwed up his face as he thought. “Hmm. Ye know, ye're right lad, I don't. I just recalled. I'll wear something nice, then.”

Danny shook his head. “No, don't get dressed up. You've got to look like you're going straight to bed. You'll need to wear your pyjamas and dressing gown. You can wear regular clothes underneath if you like.”

“I'll wear my best dressing gown, then. And the scarf — we'll not forget that.”

“Good.”

“How about my belongings, lad? I've not got a lot, but there are some items I'd like to bring along.”

“I'll have my school bag with me. While I'm visiting we'll pack some stuff.”

Captain Mack's eye was bright with excitement. “Then when ye leave ye'll not attract attention from the guards! Brilliant! Ye're a genius, Snell. Ye'll be decorated for this.”

Danny tried not to smile at the old man's enthusiasm. “That's all you need to know for now. We'll find somewhere to change you out of your pyjamas before we get on the train.”

Captain Mack's mood changed instantly. Suddenly he looked very bothered. “Train, ye say?” He stood slowly and walked to the window.

“Yes, we need to catch the train. Then we'll have to walk a little bit to get to Ellie's place. It's not all that far.”

Captain Mack shook his head. “I'll not catch the train. Sorry, lad, but ye'll need to find another way.”

“Why? I don't —”

“Don't ask, lad. Just think of something else.”

“But why?”

“No!” Captain Mack snapped. “No. Ye don't understand. I helped build it, lad. My friends died there. I'll not catch the train. Find another way, Snell. Yer plans are grand, but not that part. Sorry, lad.”

“Where are you planning to take him on the train?” Dad asked. “Day trip to the zoo or something?”

Danny had thought long and hard about his answer to this precise question. He always tried not to lie, but this was a tough one.

“Well, I'm not going to be taking him anywhere on the train, since he won't even get onto one,” he replied, quite truthfully. Captain Mack had been adamant about it. No trains. And Danny was wondering why.

“So tell me again what he said,” Dad asked.

“He said that he helped build the train or something. And that friends died on it. Something like that.”

“I think it's pretty straightforward,” said Dad. “He told you he was in Burma, so he almost certainly worked on the Burma Railroad.”

“What was the Burma Railroad?” Danny asked, but the phone rang at that moment, and Dad got up to answer it. Danny knew from the way he pulled the hall chair over to the phone that it was going to be a long conversation, so he went upstairs to bed.

The next day Danny went to the history room at recess. Mr Cullen was unpacking a box of textbooks at the back of the room.

“Can I ask you something?” Danny asked.

“Sure, so long as you work while you're asking. Here, grab these.” Mr Cullen held out a couple of the books and nodded at the growing pile on top of the low bookcase. “What's on your mind?”

“What was the Burma Railroad?”

“That's not a question I can answer in a lot of detail.”

“Why not?”

“Because your bell's about to go.”

“That's OK, I've got a free period next,” said Danny.

“Ah, but I haven't, you see.” Mr Cullen winked. “The rabble will be pouring in here any minute, so will the short version do for now?”

“I guess.”

“OK then. The Burma Railroad was a supply line built through the Burmese jungle by the Japanese army. Or to be more accurate, it was built
for
the Japanese by Allied prisoners-of-war.”

“What was it like?”

Mr Cullen looked out the window at the oval and tugged at his ear. “I think it's safe to say that it was truly horrible, Daniel. I wasn't there, but I've spoken to men who were and I've read about it, and it wasn't pretty.”

“Captain Mack won't talk about it.”

“That doesn't really surprise me. What those men went through was incredible.”

“Like what?”

“Well, for a start, imagine the hottest day you've ever known, like a real scorcher, so hot that you'd rather endure a double of maths than spend five minutes out of the shade. Now imagine hacking through the jungle and digging and moving rocks with your bare hands under that blazing sun for twelve hours or more without a shirt on your back and with hardly any water to drink. Your lunch is a single ball of rice, and if you fall over you get kicked or beaten. Your friends die from exhaustion right beside you and you have to just keep working. Like I said, it was grim.”

For a long time Danny examined the cover of the book in his hands, but without really seeing it. He remembered getting badly sunburnt at Manly beach the previous summer, and also recalled helping Dad build the rock-pool and fountain in front of their house. He tried to put the two together. It wasn't easy, especially knowing that whatever picture he could come up with wouldn't even be close to what Mr Cullen was describing.

Finally Mr Cullen said, “Your friend was very brave, Daniel.”

“I guess he was,” Danny replied as the bell rang and Mr Cullen's next class began to assemble at the classroom door.

Mr Cullen took the book from him. “Think about it next time you see him,” he said. “But don't ever expect to really understand.”

Danny visited Captain Mack once more before the escape attempt, just to go over the details one last time. The old man seemed anxious.

“Ye haven't got me booked on that blasted train, have ye, lad? I told ye —”

“It's all right, sir. There'll be no train. I've arranged something else.”

Captain Mack frowned at him suspiciously. “What is it, Snell? Ye'd best tell me.”

Danny dropped his voice to a whisper. “I can't risk the guards hearing, sir.”