Four Fires (34 page)

Tel Aviv, Israel 15 May 1948

Dear Professor Zukfizzleski,

I hope this finds you. The refugee records say you have survived. Zachariah and I are in Israel (only yesterday it was Palestine) and we are well. He is now the handsome twin but I am the talented one. I have been accepted at Rubin Academy to study composition at the advanced level. Also I am 2nd Violin, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under the great Bronislav Huherman.

I have great hope that your faith in me will be justified. I owe you my life, but my face could be
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better!

My deepest respect & shalom,

Emmanuel Moses (alias Isaac Farfel)

We all laugh. Emmanuel Moses has not lost his sense of humour. There is silence as Professor Block puts the postcard back and quietly closes the folder. Then he turns to Sarah. 'I will try, Miss Maloney, you have my word. But I must ask you not to expect too much, the University Professorial Board is usually very conservative and there are those among them who may not approve of women medical practitioners or pregnant first-year students. I must warn you, they are even less likely to think of your present condition as helpful to the cause of your gender. My hands are tied, the rules specify that I cannot permit you to attend lectures until the board has met and decided your case.'

'I will teach her until then,' Morrie says, 'She will not be behind when she is comink in.'

The professor nods and looks at Morrie, she is granted permission, I must stress this, Miss Maloney.' He looks up at Morrie, 'You may consider your own interview is concluded and you may take Miss Maloney home, I'm sure it has been a long day for her. My congratulations, Mr Suckfizzle, you are accepted in the Faculty of Medicine, I only wish I could do the same for Miss Maloney, but alas, despite your plea, I must abide by the rules.'

Morrie looks at Sarah, who is fighting hard to hold back her tears. She knows she mustn't cry because that will prove something about women not being suitable to practise Medicine and, besides, she's half-expected this decision all along. A place like Melbourne University isn't going to bend the rules for any student, let alone a country girl who shows up seven months pregnant.

Morrie puts his arm around her and leads her to the door, which is being held open by Mr Tompkins, who hasn't said a word all along.

Morrie turns at the door. 'When we will know this, Professor?' he asks.

Professor Block shrugs and half rises, it is plain to see that he is acutely embarrassed and has his hands folded as if in apology. 'I don't know, Mr Suckfizzle, but Miss Maloney cannot miss more than two weeks of lectures or she will not be included in this year's intake.' He unclasps his hands and shrugs.

'And za board, they will meet before this?'

'I can't rightly say, it's up to them, though I expect they'll appoint a subcommittee composed mostly of the Medical Faculty. Those are the rules I'm afraid.'

Morrie doesn't know the expression, but Sarah knows she has been caught between a rock and a hard place. But like her, what Morrie does know is that Professor Block is inferring the Professorial Board or any subcommittee it appoints isn't likely to convene within two weeks.

'This is anuzzer rule that you cannot break, eh, Professor? Two weeks then everything for Sarah is kaput? He allows Sarah to go ahead of him to the door of room 18. He stops and turns, 'It is a matter for your conscience, Professor, but it is not a matter of life or death for you. Sometimes za hardest decisions are the ones that will not harm your position but only your character.'

'I think that was uncalled for, Mr Suckfizzle,' Marcus Block, still half standing, calls out, 'You are an undergraduate and are expected to show a modicum of respect!'

As they leave, Mr Tompkins, his lips drawn thin, says to Sarah, 'I have your address, Miss Maloney, you will be notified by letter in due course.'

Sarah has the good grace to say, 'Thank you, sir.' Then she turns and smiles sweetly, 'And, of course, that will be well within the two weeks, Mr Tompkins?' She tells me later that inside she just wants to crawl away and bawl her heart out.

Tompkins ignores this remark and closes the door without calling the name of the next student.

'Well, that has truly set the cat among the pigeons!' Mrs Barrington-Stone exclaims when Sarah calls her from the telephone on the corner outside their Carlton terrace. 'I can't say it comes as a surprise, my dear, we've known all along that we could have a fight on our hands. A proper brouhaha. I have made out a list and will begin calling people tonight. I shall visit you in three
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days, by which time we should have a plan of action.'

Sarah, despite her disappointment, laughs, 'Taking the spoon out of the sink. The beginning of the Grand Plan?'

'Spoon out of the sink?'What on earth are you talking about, my dear?'

'It's an expression we use in our family, actually it's "taking the spoon out of the sink before you turn on the tap", that's the total expression. It's a Maloney thing,' Sarah goes on to explain. 'You have to be sure you've taken all the precautions, done everything you can to ensure a successful outcome to a project, if you are to prevent an unsuccessful outcome caused by your own lack of forethought.'

'Why that's splendid, girl! I shall have to remember that. Yes, that's precisely what I'll be doing, taking the spoon out of the sink before we turn on the tap. After all, this review committee is bound to be composed of a bunch of self-important, pompous old men. The good ones never have the time to sit on committees. But they're only men, my dear, and they do have wives. It is my experience that men, even the most exalted ones, are seldom heroes to their wives, who I feel sure can be made to see the woman's point of view in all of this. Although, I must admit, I often despair at the way women simply give in to their rather stupid husbands. We'll need the review committee names though. Do you think your professor may be one of them?'

'I doubt it,' Sarah replies. 'He didn't sound as if he was, but said he'd try to help.'

'Well, that's something at least. Anyway, leave it to me for the time being, one way or another we'll ferret them all out. Nothing is achieved without persistence, eh?'

'I'm about to run out of money on the phone,' Sarah says, alarmed. The warning beep has just gone!'

'Quick, give me your number, the number of the telephone box, and I'll call you back.'

Sarah does as she's told and picks up the receiver when it rings a few moments later. 'By the way, we have a new recruit to the cause,' are Mrs Barrington-Stone's opening words. 'Though it's hard to see how he can help us, but such a nice man.'

'Who is he?' Sarah asks, wondering what the difference is between this particular man and the ones Mrs Barrington-Stone has so recently blitzed.

'The sergeant at the police station in Yankalillee, very fond of your family Nothing but praise for you all.'

'I'm sure not all!' Sarah laughs.

'Well, yes, I must admit, he did exclude your father from his eulogy. Very attached to Bozo, says he'd be proud too call him his own son. I met him when he came to see me about my aeroplane.

I can't imagine why I haven't met him before now. It seems I flew rather too low on the day of your departure. Against the aviation rules. I told him I knew that and that I was very sorry and it was most careless of me. I asked him if he was going to fine me.'

Well, things didn't turn out quite as easily as Mrs Barrington-Stone seemed to think they might.

For a start, even though she seemed to know almost everyone of importance in Melbourne, finding out the exact composition of the subcommittee was proving to be a very difficult task.

We had assumed that the committee would be made up of prominent business and professional people, which turned out to be quite wrong. Its members were always academics and in this case the Medical Faculty. A search through the members of the Melbourne Club showed several professors listed with only one belonging to the Medical Faculty. A few discreet enquiries revealed that the Professor of Medicine was, to say the least, a notorious reactionary and would never have entertained the idea of allowing Sarah to enrol None of the other academics felt they could help, covering your own arse being the first rule of academia.

As she promised, Mrs Barrington-Stone had flown down to have a meeting with Sarah and Morrie and had brought Big Jack Donovan along for the ride. He took the opportunity to visit his mate at Russell Street police station, Kevin Flanagan, the sergeant tin charge of the new
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Olympic boxing training venue. Sergeant Donovan had started his career as a traffic cop working out of Russell Street which is where all the traffic for Melbourne and the State of Victoria was coordinated.

Mrs Barrington-Stone managed to get to the University Chancellor, Sir Arthur Dean, who is a judge. His advice to her has been that it was not a matter for the vice-chancellor, George Paton, to deal with, that even if he were to be persuaded to admit Sarah, which, in his opinion was highly problematic, the politics involved were much too delicate. 'Medical chappies, very prickly, don't like interference

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were his exact words. If the vice-chancellor interfered personally, the academics on the review committee were likely to see themselves compromised. 'Besides, madam, I'm not at all sure I approve of Miss Maloney's behaviour myself,'he'd concluded.

'I think Sir Arthur may have been the wrong man to ask,' Mrs Barrington-Stone announces at their meeting in the Carlton terrace. 'I'd quite forgotten that he is a Presbyterian and superintendent of the Malvern Sunday School as well as the chairman of the council of Presbyterian Ladies College. Not quite the background that's likely to elicit sympathy for our cause, even though he does have two daughters of his own.

'I'm also told we'll find the BMA in there somewhere among the medical academics, a reactionary organisation if ever there was one and plenty of money and clout to see off anyone threatening their nice cosy little public-school-boys' club. No, we simply have to get the names of the academics within the Faculty of Medicine and try to approach them individually. We must avoid, if possible, male doctors looking after male doctors, the closed-shop policy of the BMA I simply can't imagine what happens to nice young men when they put on a white coat, they behave like little tin gods and when they eventually become specialists and decide to do a little teaching, they are quite impossibly pompous and vainglorious. It really is time to bring more women into the profession.' She turns to Sarah, This Professor Block, is he on our side? You said he was, if I remember correctly?'

'I think so,' Sarah says tentatively and then gives Morrie a questioning look.

Morrie shrugs, 'All the words, za soft words, they are comink out of him. He will try, but it is not in his power to influence.' Morrie stops then continues, 'I know these politics, I am myself a professor once.' He spreads his hands, 'I think he wants to help, but maybe also he is covering his arse!'

They all laugh, even Mrs Barrington-Stone. Morrie could only have learned an expression like that from Nancy Maloney or maybe when he worked up top in the loony bin.

'Well, no harm giving him a call, is there? He may be able to give us the names on the review committee, I shouldn't think that would be

such an enormous compromise.' Mrs Barrington-Stone laughs, 'Can't see how that would affect his precious little bum.'

She calls Professor Block the next morning and, after several attempts to get through to him, is finally connected to Mr Tompkins who connects her to Professor Block. He was, she later reports, 'Very polite but inferred my phone call was unnecessary interference. No, he didn't know who would be elected to review Sarah's case but yes, they would all be from the Faculty of Medicine. Then he added, "Mrs Barrington-Stone, these things require due procedure and take time, faculty members are busy men, I doubt whether the committee will even sit within a month." So, that wasn't quite what we'd hoped for, was it?' She looks at Sarah, 'I'm not at all sure he's on our side, my dear.'

So there it was again, Sarah has been played out of the game before she even gets to run onto the paddock or has handled the ball.

'The names are the key, we can't do anything until we have the names!' Mrs Barrington-Stone says, showing her frustration and stating the obvious for the umpteenth time. She turns to Sarah
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again, 'We're far from defeated, my dear, all the members of the Medical Faculty must be listed, I'll get the list somehow and simply call everyone on it if I have to, so that if they are chosen to sit on the committee they'll know of our concern and the opposition they may have to face.'

'Not always the best idea,' Big Jack Donovan says quietly, 'Gives them time to close ranks, take a firm position and influence those among them who are eventually chosen to sit on the board. In my experience, group decisions are almost always to keep things as they are.'

'I can't agree with you, Sergeant, it's basic politics, what is called "lobbying" in Canberra. It happens all the time amongst politicians, you scratch my back and, when the time comes, I'll scratch yours.'

'Ah yes, fair enough,' Big Jack counters, 'but we haven't got anything to bargain with, nothing to encourage them to make up their minds in our favour, no way to scratch their backs in return.

Which means they've got nothing to lose if they maintain the status quo.' Unlike the rest of us, he doesn't seem to be a bit in awe of Mrs Barrington-Stone.

'Hmm, I see what you mean, Sergeant,' she replies, 'I don't suppose a clear conscience might be a suitable reward? No, you're right, that would be much too much to expect.'

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Then Sarah pipes up, 'If we can get the list of names, what about their wives?' She turns to Mrs Barrington-Stone, 'Like you said on the phone about the Melbourne bigwigs, they're not heroes to their wives.'

Mrs Barrington-Stone claps her hands, 'Oh, well done, Sarah! You've taken the spoon out of the sink!'