Warrigal's Way Read Free

flat.”
    Nancy came in from the kitchen and introduced us. “This is the boy from the train I was telling you about,” she said.
    Sue was a small girl, just a bit taller than me, and had a sort of round narrow face, if you know what I mean, blond corn-coloured hair framing her face and highlighting her china-blue eyes. You couldn’t help but notice them. They were the feature that highlighted her face, that and her suntanned honey-coloured complexion. And she was nice, one of those people who seemed to be more alive than it was possible. The world seemed to be a different place in her company. We got on famously, and when she smiled my whole world lit up.
    â€œAre you Nancy’s boyfriend?” Sue teased me.
    â€œNo! I’m Ed. I’m not the lying pig.”
    Nancy had just come back into the room from the kitchen. She looked at Sue and they both broke up laughing.
    Sue sat down and gave me a hug. “You and I might be mates then. What do you reckon?”
    â€œToo right, I’d like that,” I told Sue.
    â€œWe might go to the pictures after lunch, if it stops raining. Would you like to go?” Sue asked.
    I said, “Gee, yeah, thank you,” just as Nancy called us for lunch. A big bowl of beef soup with crusty bread. It was just the ticket on a cold day.
    â€œFancy getting a rotten day like this in January. What was Melbourne’s weather like, Nan? Did you get that dry hot spell, or was Melbourne turning on its usual charming weather for you.” Sue laughed.
    â€œNo, Melbourne was great,” Nancy said. “No sign of thissort of thing until I got home. Look at it. You can’t even see down to Elizabeth Bay.”
    Sue agreed. “It’s that murky, you can’t even see the end of Nield Avenue.”
    After lunch the girls quizzed me about why I hadn’t been met at the station. I told them about the big kid and how I got away, then got lost, that I didn’t know Fred’s address, but had tried to ring and got no answer.
    â€œHave you got your Uncle Fred’s number?” Nancy asked. I searched through my pockets and found it for her.
    â€œThis is a Victorian number. Are you sure your mum said Sydney?” asked Nancy as she picked up the phone and dialled information. “Thankyou, that’s all I need,” she said, putting down the phone. “It’s a Swan Hill number but the operator said it’s been disconnected for at least six months,” said Nancy.
    â€œWhat are you going to do?” asked Sue, looking concerned. “Can you ring or write your mum?”
    I knew then I would have to tell the girls about the Department. They were horrified. Like most white Australians outside the government and the churches, they didn’t have a clue what was going on.
    â€œI thought they stopped that years ago,” said Nancy.
    â€œWhat will you do?” Sue wanted to know.
    â€œI don’t really know. If I go home, Mum said they will put me in some welfare home and lock me up, so I think I’ll go up to the sunshine state. They reckon the sun always shines up there, and I’m sick of the rain and the cold. Anyway, if I stay here too long you girls could get into trouble.”
    â€œStuff them. You can have a holiday anyway. Stay with us for a while,” Sue said.
    I stayed with the girls a week, arid we did all sorts of things. Lunar park—it was fairyland, wonderland, everything I could ever imagine. I walked around with my mouth hanging open for the first half hour. I wasn’t too keen on some of the rides. The Ferris wheel had me worried—I had never been that high in my life, and I hung on for dear life. Sue and I rode around in an aeroplane ride. It went that fast I got sick, and I put my head over the side and let her rip, and people moved back real quick, I felt dizzy and the world was still spinning around when we got off.
    â€œAre you still crook?” asked Nancy. “It