After mass, the congregation gathered outside the church for morning tea, where there were sandwiches and scones. Marcus and Freddie ran around playing with a few other boys, and Lillie had to admit that everyone was very friendly and welcoming. Well, nearly everyone. As she and her mother were talking to Father Fogarty near the front door of the church, a woman came out after everyone else had moved outside.
‘Lovely to see you, Winifred,’ Father Fogarty said to her.
When the woman had moved out of earshot, Ma asked him, ‘Is that Winifred Black?’
‘Yes, that’s her.’
‘I wonder when she last saw Finn Malone. I believe she was to look in on him from time to time when his wife left.’
‘Ah, is that so? Winifred,’ he called out to the woman, who turned around. ‘This is Mrs O’Sullivan and her daughter, Lillie, just arrived from Ireland. Mrs O’Sullivan and her husband were friends of Finn Malone. Mr O’Sullivan was to go into partnership with him. She wondered if you had seen him recently before he died.’
Mrs Black shook her head. ‘I’m sorry. I really must rush. I’m expecting my sister to ring from Melbourne.’
And with that she hurried out of the churchyard.
‘Sorry about that,’ Father Fogarty said. ‘Apart from having to rush off, she didn’t look too well, did she?’
‘Dawn did say she wasn’t able to see her when she was up for the funeral because her husband said she had influenza. Maybe she’s still suffering.’
‘Could well be so,’ Father Fogarty said. ‘Anyway, maybe you can ask her another time. You’re bound to see her around.’
The next week Marcus and Freddie started at the one-teacher school set in a paddock next to the church. It only went up to sixth grade. As it was near the end of the school term, it was decided that if the family was still living in Gullumbindy, Ronan and Lillie would wait until the new term before starting school in Tamworth. From Ireland Ma had written to St Dominic’s for Lillie; for Ronan she had written to the Christian Brothers, who Uncle Finn had told her were a ‘grand lot’, unlike some of the other Christian Brothers’ schools, who were known for mistreating students. A couple of the Irish brothers had even got a Hurley team going in the district and Uncle Finn had played a few games with them. Both schools had agreed to take the O’Sullivans, but had also agreed it would be better for them to start in the New Year.
Lillie offered to go in with Marcus and Freddie on their first day, as Ma was needed in the hotel. The girl who normally cleaned the rooms had a doctor’s appointment and Ma had to take over as there were guests arriving later that morning. And Dad was tied up with a salesman selling spirits for the bar. But both her parents had taken the boys to the school last Friday to meet the teacher and look around. When she got there, Lillie was amazed at how tiny the school was. It was much smaller than her convent primary school in Sneem. There were fifteen students all clustered into one classroom, sitting at wooden desks with hinged tops. The names of the children who’d sat at them over the years were carved into them. The teacher, Mr Sloane, taught all six grades. A tall, gangly stick of a man, he was dressed in a dark blue, slightly grubby woollen jumper, a not altogether white shirt, a blue tie and a pair of grey flannel trousers that barely covered his bony ankles. On his feet he had a pair of clunky brown shoes that badly needed a polish. When he greeted Lillie and her brothers she noticed the blue eyes behind his thick tortoiseshell glasses looked tired. His hair stood on end and he carried a cane, which he waved threateningly at the students when he wasn’t using it to point to the blackboard. To Lillie it seemed as though he’d had one too many years teaching rowdy schoolchildren and certainly wouldn’t put up with any nonsense.
Freddie took one look at him and declared, ‘I don’t need to go to school in Australia. I know all I want to know.’
So in the end, Lillie sat down with him for the first morning and through the lunch hour, where they perched on a log of wood under a gum tree and ate the tomato sandwiches Ma had made them that morning, sharing the crusts with the magpies and a lone horse tied to the fence under a tree, which Lillie thought must belong to one of the students. When she left Freddie after lunch he had tears in his eyes. But when she went with Dad later to pick him up, he seemed much happier and Marcus said he himself had had a bonzer day.
‘I didn’t get caned,’ Freddie announced with relief. ‘One of the big boys did. He squealed like a pig.’
Lillie tweaked his nose. ‘What did he do to get caned?’
‘He pulled one of the girl’s pigtails and made her cry. It must’ve really hurt. She cried for ages.’
‘Couldn’t have hurt that much,’ Marcus scoffed. ‘Not as much as being caned.’
And once again Marcus and Freddie started to squabble until Dad put an end to it.
Lillie wondered what her own school would be like. Would the nuns cane the students like Mr Sloane did? Or would they be kind and gentle like Lillie’s favourite nun at the convent in Cork? Although she was keen to start and make new friends, she was nervous that the girls had all known each other forever and might make her feel like an outsider because she came from Ireland and spoke differently.
CHAPTER
15
Ronan was lying on his bed in the sleep-out listening to Bobby Darin singing ‘Multiplication’ on his transistor radio and reading a letter he’d got from Clara last week. No one knew he’d got her letter; Ma had asked him to go down and check if there was any mail at the post office and Clara’s letter was on the top. On the way home he’d stopped off at the small deserted playground and sat on the wooden swing to read it.
How incredible to think when you read this you’ll be in Australia. I still can’t believe your parents sold up like that and took you all over there. It must have been so sudden — when I was with you at Rathgarven no one mentioned you were thinking of doing that. When Mummy rang and Aunt Kathleen told her what was happening, Mummy said she couldn’t work out why your Dad would do such a thing. Oh, Ronan, I’ll really miss Rathgarven and I think of you and the last time I was there all the time. I hope you do as well. All I want is for you to kiss me again. For you to play the harp and me to sing. Every time I think of us I get a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. But how can we be together again when you’re way over there and I’m here in dreary England? Mummy hasn’t gone back to India and is giving me the heebie-jeebies by insisting I go to all these fancy house parties so I can meet the ‘right’ people. Mind you, I think it’s more her who wants to meet those boring, stuffy types, hoping it’ll give her a step up in the world. I know I shouldn’t be so mean, but she really is the pits sometimes. Not like darling Aunt Kathleen. You’re so lucky to have her as a mother.
Ronan was annoyed with Clara’s mother. He’d always thought she was pushy. This proved it. And he was jealous of those ‘right people’. Not only would they be rich, unlike the O’Sullivans, he was also worried Clara might fall for one of them. He touched his lips, where Clara’s lips had been. To think of her dancing with a lot of toffy fellas irritated him no end. And what if one of those fellas kissed her the way he had kissed her? And gave her a warm, fuzzy feeling just as he had? If she were here now it would be so much easier to cope with everything after Uncle Finn’s suicide.
When his parents had told him Uncle Finn had shot himself, Ronan was flabbergasted. But as he knew Finn had had a problem with drink he supposed it wasn’t beyond belief. Even so, he must have been desperate to do what he did and Ronan felt sorry for him. And sorry for Ma and Dad, to lose a friend like that. Over and over he asked himself what would happen to them now that they were stuck here with no proper job for his father and no house of their own. He knew Australia would be different to Ireland. But living here was like living on a different planet. There were parts of it he really liked, such as fishing for yabbies in the river, going up to the scrubby hill behind the village and shooting rabbits with Mr Hogan’s gun, and cooking on the makeshift barbeque he’d made out of stones in the back garden. It
was certainly hotter than Ireland but the flies were a pain. And he missed his friends from school. Here in Gullumbindy there were hardly any boys his own age and even those few who did live here were at school all week. To fill in the time he did odd jobs around the place, chopping wood for both the Hogans’ house and the hotel, and he was thinking of putting a notice up in the corner store to say he’d mow people’s lawns for them. In one way he couldn’t wait to start school up in Tam-worth. Then at least he might meet some fellas he could be friendly with. He also missed playing rugby, and while he hit the tennis ball up against the garage wall, it wasn’t the same as having a court to play on.
So he was pleased when his parents called him into the living room one night after dinner and told him he was starting school the next week. ‘I went to see the Christian Brothers in Tamworth when I was there this afternoon,’ his father said to him. He lit his pipe and took a puff. ‘As Finn said, they seem like a grand lot. And the boys looked happy enough running around and playing rugby. After they heard what had happened with Finn they made a place straightaway for you, rather than waiting for the New Year. As it’s a fair way to come home each night and you’ll no doubt have after-school activities, like rugby, it’s probably better to stay in Tamworth during the week. Come home at weekends.’
‘So it’s a boarding school?’
‘No. But the head brother told me about a family who have a boy at the school. They have a spare room and would like you to stay.’
‘So I’d board with another family?’
‘Yes,’ his mother said. ‘Dad’s going up again tomorrow, so you can go take a look. By the sounds of what they told Dad you’d be in the second last year of high school. So it won’t be for long. I’d come but that young girl who does the cleaning at the hotel rang in to say her mother’s sick and she can’t come in till later tomorrow. Lillie and I will have to clean the rooms in the morning, as there’s a full house tonight and tomorrow.’
‘We’ll need to leave about nine, as I want to be home to be in the bar by five,’ James added. ‘Nancy’s son will run it until then.’
Ronan wasn’t sure what he thought about living in another family’s house, but it seemed as though he didn’t have much choice.
‘So it’s all organised then?’
‘In the circumstances it seems for the best.’
His mother smiled. ‘If you really hate it we can try and arrange something else.’
‘I’m sure it’ll be okay.’
But as he walked back to the sleep-out he wished it was a boarding school and he didn’t have to live with another family. What if he and the other boy didn’t get on? There wasn’t much he could do except to go along with it.
* * *
At nine the next morning he and his father set off for Tamworth.
As he drove, his father asked, ‘Have you heard anything from Clara lately? I was wondering about her and Jessica.’
Ronan glanced at his father. It was unlike him to inquire about Jessica. Even when Clara was staying with them at Rathgarven he hardly ever mentioned her name.
‘I had one letter. They’re still in London. Clara said her mother’s getting her to mix with the “in crowd”.’
‘Oh is she? That’d be Jessica all right.’
‘You’re not that keen on her, are you?’
James hesitated. ‘Your mother likes her. That’s the main thing. I must admit I find her a bit over the top. And spoilt. Luckily Clara seems nothing like her at all.’
Ronan had to agree: Clara was very different to her overbearing mother.
‘Maybe Clara’s more like her father,’ he said.
‘Could well be so,’ James said. ‘I never met the man, so who knows.’
When they arrived at the school, they pulled up under a gum tree out the front. It was a brown brick building built around a central asphalt playground. Some of the students looked as though they were going on an outing in their blue blazers, long grey trousers and straw boaters. Others were kicking a football around and a few were sitting on narrow benches eating from their lunchboxes. For the first time in his life Ronan felt shy; much shyer than he had on his first day at school in Cork.
He got out of the car and walked around to join his father, who was knocking his pipe against his heel.
‘Well,’ James said. ‘What do you think?’
‘Looks okay.’
As they walked to the front door, Ronan’s heart beat hard against his chest. What could be worse than starting at a new school where everyone else knew each other? At least in Cork it was the beginning of the school year when he had started and there were a number of other new students starting as well. Here he would be the only new one.
Inside, they were met by Brother Michael, a middle-aged man with short dark grey hair dressed in a flowing black robe with a tassel around his waist.
First of all he asked Ronan a number of questions about his studies in Ireland, then he said, ‘Being nearly seventeen, you should probably be in the class between the Intermediate and Leaving Certificates. So that’s where I’ll slot you in and see how you go. But come,’ he added, ‘I’ll show you around and introduce you to some of the boys.’
When they went out into the playground he was introduced to a couple of the boys who would be in his class, including Dave, who was the son of the family he was to billet with, who appeared a decent enough bloke. Many of the students seemed to have heard he was coming and despite his thoughts to the contrary, they did their best to make him feel at home, asking about Ireland and if he played rugby. By the time they left, Ronan felt he might fit in all right after all, although sure as eggs there’d be one or two boys who’d give him a hard time.
When they were back in the car, James looked at him anxiously. ‘Appears a nice enough place.’
‘Yeah it does, doesn’t it?’
‘Now,’ he continued, placing his hand on Ronan’s shoulder, ‘let’s go grab a bite of lunch. Then we’ll head around to the Thompson house. Mr Thompson will be at work but Mrs Thompson will be there.’
They parked in the main street of town, which was lined with tall trees, and found a milk bar selling takeaway food. At the counter they each ordered a hamburger with the lot and a bottle of lemonade, which they took back to the car; James had decided they would eat their lunch down by the river.
‘Those weeping willows across the water remind me of the part of this river below Eureka Park homestead,’ he said, as they sat on a timber bench under a Casuarina tree.
‘Have you been back since you found Uncle Finn’s body?’
‘No. The police have closed the whole place up while things are sorted out, like his will and such. Besides … what’s the point? It would just make me lament what could have been. No, we’re better to try and make a new start. That’s why I’ve got feelers out for another house. And a job.’
Ronan took a bite of his hamburger and chewed slowly, watching a family of ducks swimming on the river. Downstream a man was fishing out of a small wooden rowboat, making him think of his rowboat at Rathgarven. He shook his head to try to dislodge the image.
‘And if neither turns up?’
‘Thankfully we’ve a roof over our heads for the time being. And I still have a bit of money left over from the sale of Rathgarven and the furniture, together with what the Hogans are paying us.’ He scrunched up the paper bag his hamburger had been in. ‘Now when you’ve finished eating we’ll have a quick drive around town before we head to the Thompsons.’
To Ronan, Tamworth appeared to be divided into two. On one side of the main street below the lofty hill the houses seemed much older and were mostly brick or sprawling weatherboards with wonderful rambling gardens and lots of tall trees. The other side of town seemed to be less affluent, with the houses and gardens not so grand. As it was school time there were few children playing in the streets, but here and there grown-ups stood in their front gardens gossiping with their neighbours. All in all the streets were much wider than in Ire
land. And there were different sorts of trees and thick colourful bushes.
They easily found the Thompsons’ house with its neat garden. Mrs Thompson greeted them at the door. Her hair was greying and she wore a blue twin-set and a pleated tweed skirt.
‘So this is Ronan,’ she said with a welcoming smile.
‘We’re very grateful for your generosity in having Ronan stay,’ James said. ‘It’s more than kind of you.’
‘Dave will be delighted to have the company,’ she replied.
‘I met him up at the school,’ Ronan said.
‘I’m sure you two will get on like a house on fire.’ She laughed. ‘Nonetheless … so you won’t be on top of each other, we’ve given you a separate room. Our eldest son, Andrew, normally sleeps there, but he joined the Navy last year. It’ll be good to have someone in the room again. Come and I’ll show you.’
The room was at the back of the house with a view through to the clothesline. It was obvious from the posters on the wall that Andrew was a rugby fan, which made Ronan feel at home.
‘Does Dave play rugby too?’ he asked Mrs Thompson.
‘He certainly does. Why? Do you?’
Ronan nodded. ‘I did back in Cork.’
‘Well there you go, you’ve got something in common already. Now,’ she said, pointing to the living room, ‘let’s get you a cool drink. And,’ she added, glancing at Ronan’s father, ‘a nice cup of tea for you, Mr O’Sullivan.’
‘Thank you,’ James said. ‘That would be very welcome.’
Later, as they drove home, Ronan thought that although Dave seemed nice enough, and so did his mother, it would be quite strange living with another family. An Australian family.
CHAPTER
16
The Homestead on the River Page 15