by Alice Pung
Marly looked out the window at all the grand houses, and figured that she would be safer walking by herself in this neighbourhood than letting the bus full of random people know that she was completely alone – and lost. She would get off at the next stop.
MARLY reached for the bell cord above her head to let the driver know to stop, but realised it was too high. Walking to the front of the bus, she asked the driver to stop. Marly stepped off the bus and found herself on a street of massive houses with big front gardens.
Marly knew her mum would be worried sick. She imagined her calling her dad at the factory, and them both walking the streets of Sunshine searching for her. She knew they would never think she’d have got on a bus on her own. They probably thought she’d been kidnapped!
Standing on the corner, playing with the coins in her pocket, Marly thought hard about what would be the best thing to do. She decided to knock on someone’s door and ask if she could use their phone to call her mum. But which house should she approach?
Looking up and down the street, Marly noticed a Slip ‘N Slide in a front garden across the road. Two houses down was a swing set that looked brand new. She was amazed that they had just been left out in the gardens. If there was a swing set in her neighbourhood, it would most likely be broken. And a brand new Slip ‘N Slide would soon by pinched by someone. Marly definitely felt safer in this quiet, peaceful neighbourhood than on the bus.
She was still deciding which door to knock on when she noticed a boy and a girl in the front garden of one of the big houses across the road. They were sitting on the red-brick driveway, with their backs leaning against the massive garage door, and they were staring at her.
The girl waved.
Marly raised her hand and gave a little wave back. She wondered if their mum would let her use their phone to call home. Only one way to find out, she thought, and crossed the road. The boy was wearing a light blue shirt and dark blue shorts, with his socks pulled up really high. The girl wore a grey-and-blue dress, which had a round, white collar. Two straw hats sat next to their matching schoolbags on the ground. They looked like they’d walked straight out of one of those picture books from the olden days.
‘We saw you get off the bus. Are you visiting someone?’ the girl asked.
Marly wasn’t sure how to reply – she didn’t want to admit that she was lost, so she strode over to where the two were sitting, trying to look as bold as she could, and asked, ‘Is this your house?’
‘Yes,’ said the boy. ‘But we’re stuck outside because our mum forgot to give us the keys.’
His sister gave him a stern look, as if he shouldn’t be telling this sort of thing to a strange girl. Drats! thought Marly. No adults around to let me use the phone! Now I’m really stuck.
‘Where’s your mum?’ asked the girl.
Marly wondered whether she should tell the truth to these kids. They didn’t seem like they could be much help, but they were friendly enough. Besides, telling them sure beat knocking on a stranger’s door.
‘I got on the wrong bus,’ Marly finally confessed. ‘I was just going to ask if I could use your phone to call my mum.’
‘Sorry,’ said the girl. ‘But we’re both stuck outside too.’
‘Do you know what time it is?’ asked Marly.
The girl looked at her wrist. Marly noticed she had a Snoopy wristwatch. ‘It’s twenty to six,’ she told Marly.
Marly felt sick. She wondered whether her parents would have contacted the cops by now. If only she could call them and let them know she was okay.
‘Where am I?’ she asked.
‘This is Parkville,’ replied the girl.
Marly nodded, but inside she was screaming, ‘Where the heck is Parkville?!’
Marly realised that she must look worried because the girl softened her tone and said, ‘Don’t worry. Our mum will be home soon, and when she comes back, you can call your parents from our phone. It’s okay. You’re safe here with us. I’m Lauren and my brother is Bryce.’
Marly felt a little better that an adult would turn up soon. At least she wouldn’t have to hop on another bus, as who knows where that would take her. Lauren patted the spot next to her. Marly dropped her bag on the driveway and sat next to Lauren. All she could do was wait with these kids.
‘Hey, are you from the war?’ Lauren asked.
‘What?’ Marly didn’t know what this girl was talking about. What war?
‘You shouldn’t say “what”, you should say “pardon me” or “excuse me”,’ advised Lauren, but she didn’t say it in a mean way. It was as if she was trying to be helpful, Marly thought.
‘Did you come here on a boat?’
‘Whaa… I mean, pardon me?’ Marly didn’t want to be rude, but this was the strangest conversation she’d ever had.
‘Did you come here on a boat?’ repeated Lauren again.
‘Yes,’ answered Marly. What did that have to do with anything?
‘Wow,’ breathed Lauren. ‘You’re a boat person! I’ve read about people like you in one of my books at school.’
It was strange, thought Marly. This girl sounded as if Marly were the first boat person she had ever met. The way she spoke and how she kept her clothes so clean made her unlike any other kid Marly knew.
‘Where do you come from?’ Lauren continued.
‘I was born in Vietnam,’ replied Marly. She glanced up the road, thinking she’d heard a car, hoping it was Lauren and Bryce’s mum so that she could finally call her parents. But there was no car.
‘Ooh, you’re from Vietnam? We learned about your people! We learned about the Vietnam War and refugees at school,’ said Lauren.
‘Were there pirates on your boat?’ asked Bryce.
‘Don’t be silly, Bryce!’ his sister told him off.
‘As a matter of fact, I think there were pirates,’ Marly said. ‘But I was too young to remember.’
‘Woah,’ breathed Bryce. ‘Cool!’
‘What grade are youse in?’ Marly asked Lauren.
‘Bryce is in Grade Three, and I’m in Grade Four. But you can’t say “youse”. It’s not an actual word.’
‘Hey, I’m in Grade Four, too!’ exclaimed Marly. ‘What school do you go to that you get to wear those uniforms?’
‘I go to St Catherine’s School,’ replied Lauren. ‘Byrce is at Melbourne Grammar. What about you?’
Marly had no idea where their schools were. ‘I go to Sunshine Primary,’ she answered.
‘Where’s that?’
‘Sunshine.’
‘What? You mean, there’s an actual place called Sunshine?’ asked Lauren. ‘That’s funny.’
Marly didn’t think it was funny. And speaking about Sunshine reminded her of how far from home she was. The anxiety came back like a heavy wave. She couldn’t sit still any longer. She stood up and hopped from foot to foot.
‘What’s the matter? Do you need the loo?’ asked Bryce.
Marly didn’t need to go to the toilet, she just felt restless. She paced up and down the driveway.
‘When did you say your mum would be here?’ she asked Lauren.
‘Any time now. Probably just a few minutes,’ Lauren said, looking at her watch.
Marly kept bouncing up and down on her feet while she stared down the street.
‘It looks like you’re dancing,’ giggled Bryce.
That gave Marly an idea. ‘Watch this,’ she said as she took off her shoes and stood on their perfectly mown front lawn in her socks. She pulled them up high, and started to move her arms in time to an invisible beat. Then she spun around and glided backwards, with her face turned back towards her audience.
‘That is soooo cool!’ laughed Lauren. ‘You can moonwalk! We saw it on Motown 25.’
‘Wow, I wish I could do that,’ sighed Bryce.
Marly felt her cheeks glow with pride. Maybe she should show people her moonwalk after all, like Yousra had suggested. It made her forget her problems for a few moments.
&nbs
p; ‘Wanna see something cooler?’ asked Bryce. From his schoolbag, he pulled out a folder and showed it to Marly. Marly couldn’t believe her eyes. There was page after page of swap cards in individual plastic pouches. And, best of all, there must have been at least sixty Donkey Kong cards – half of them were unscratched game cards, and the other half were sticker cards!
‘Woah, those are awesome,’ breathed Marly. ‘And you’re so careful with them, too. You know, one of the kids at my school, Kane, he says that if you keep your cards clean and new, in twenty years’ time they will be worth a lot of money.’
‘Do you want to do a swap?’ Bryce asked. ‘I have a lot of doubles. I could swap you some sticker cards – this “On the Beam” card for the “Jump Man Jump!” one, if you have it.’
Marly wished she had some cards. Once again, she couldn’t play with other kids because she didn’t have what they had. But she did have a pocket full of coins. She grinned as she reached into her dress pocket, and pulled out a handful.
‘I don’t have cards or stickers, but I could buy your doubles off youse,’ she said.
‘How come you have so many coins?’ asked Lauren.
‘I earned them,’ Marly said proudly. It felt good to say that. ‘I stacked shopping trolleys in a car park, and pulled out the coins.’
Lauren and Bryce looked at each other. Marly couldn’t read what they were thinking, and she was confused when Lauren said, ‘It’s all right.’
‘No, wait, I have more!’ Marly said, reaching into her pocket again, worried that she hadn’t offered enough.
‘No, what I mean is, you don’t have to pay us. Bryce will give you his doubles.’
Marly couldn’t believe her ears. These two kids were like Christmas angels in the wrong season. They were very different from everyone she knew in Sunshine. ‘Wow, are youse serious?’
‘Take them,’ said Lauren as she pulled sticker cards out of the back of her brother’s album.
Bryce didn’t even try and yank the cards back. Marly couldn’t believe how generous they were being.
Marly slowly flicked through every card, enjoying holding and looking over each one, as if examining rare treasure maps. This was a strange world to Marly. None of her classmates would ever just give her something brand-new like Lauren and Bryce just had. And she would never be left sitting alone in the front yard after school. If her parents needed to run an errand, they would drop her off at Rosie’s, and there’d always be an adult home with them. Marly realised that perhaps she wasn’t as grown-up as she thought – she liked having adults around, even if they were annoying sometimes. It made her feel safe, having somebody there who always knew what to do.
She looked down the street, searching past what her eyes could see, searching for Sunshine and her parents, and wishing that they would come find her now. She was done with adventures.
‘MUM’S home!’ Lauren jumped up as a big blue car drove down the street. The streetlights flicked on, making Marly cast another glance at Lauren’s Snoopy watch. She couldn’t quite make out the time, but knew it was getting late. Which meant she was getting in more and more trouble with her parents as the seconds ticked by.
‘Finally!’ said Bryce. ‘We’ve been waiting long enough. She does this all the time!’
Marly watched the car pull up the driveway. It had silver door handles and a big silver peace sign at the front. She’d seen that sign on TV ads. Her dad had told her it was a Mercedes car logo, and that only very rich people had Mercedes cars back in Vietnam.
Marly had never seen a real Mercedes before. The car door opened, and Lauren and Bryce’s mother stepped out. She was like no other mother Marly had ever seen. She was a lot older than most mothers Marly knew. Her hair was brown and short, cut like Princess Diana’s, and she had big, white earrings in her ears, and a heavy gold bracelet on one arm. Her shoes were so shiny that the streetlamps were reflected in them. And this was the first woman Marly had ever seen in a suit, although it was not a man’s suit. It was light blue, and had big shoulders and four gold buttons on the front. Marly thought it was beautiful.
Lauren and Bryce’s mum looked around the front yard frantically, until her eyes spotted them on the lawn. Marly opened her mouth to say ‘hello’ and ask if she could please use the phone, but didn’t get a chance to say anything.
‘Bryce! Get OFF the grass now,’ their mum yelled. ‘You’ll get green stains on your trousers. And Lauren – you didn’t remind me that band practice was cancelled! I had to leave work early because of you!’
‘But I did tell you,’ said Lauren. ‘I told you this morning!’
‘Well, you know how I am in the morning, with a million things to do all at once. You should have been clearer. I got a call from Mrs Simpson, that nosey-parker neighbour, telling me you were both sat outside. If she was so concerned about you, then why didn’t she bring you inside her own house so you’d be safe?’
Marly shrank back, but at that moment, Lauren and Bryce’s mum spotted her. ‘Who is this?’ she demanded. ‘I told you that no friends could come over after school!’
When Lauren and Bryce’s elegant mother looked at her, Marly felt very uncomfortable. She knew that in her checked school dress and muddy, glitter-jelly sandals, she was daggy and grotty compared to Lauren and Bryce.
‘She’s not from around here,’ said Lauren. ‘Her name is Marly.’
‘She caught the wrong bus by mistake,’ said Bryce. ‘And ended up here.’
The mother let out a huge sigh. ‘Well then, Marly. Do. You. Know. Where. You. Live?’ Each word was pronounced slowly and carefully. Something in the way this lady spoke irked her a lot. Marly was older than Bryce, and almost the same age as Lauren. What was it about Marly that made this woman think she couldn’t understand English?
‘Does she speak any English at all?’ Lauren’s mum asked Lauren.
‘She does.’
‘Cat got your tongue?’ asked Lauren’s mum.
Lauren looked apologetically at Marly, as if to say, please don’t blame me for my weird mum.
‘She lives somewhere called Sunshine, Mum. Marly, tell our mum your address,’ Lauren said.
‘I, I, d– d– don’t g– give out my home address t– t– to strangers,’ Marly finally stammered.
‘Oh for heaven’s sake, girl!’ sighed Lauren’s mum. ‘I’m going to take you home. Your parents must be worried sick.’
‘Can I call them?’ asked Marly. Her voice sounded very quiet. She was surprised the others could hear her. She was worried she might cry if this lady didn’t stop shouting at her.
‘Yes, yes,’ said Lauren and Bryce’s mum. Marly could tell she was irritated with her. She wanted to be home and away from here as soon as possible. The mum opened the front door, and Marly stepped inside. She felt her mouth drop open as she looked around. Their house was like something from a magazine. Everything matched.
There was a big, gold-framed mirror in the hallway above the telephone. Marly could see herself in it as she dialled home. Her hair was a mess, her cheeks were flushed and somehow, there was a muddy smear across her cheek. She kept staring at herself as the line rang and rang. Lauren and Bryce’s mum appeared in the mirror as she came up behind her. She looked annoyed. Marly put down the receiver.
‘No one’s answering,’ she said.
‘They must be out looking for you,’ the mum snapped. ‘Fancy running away from home like that.’
Before Marly could protest that she hadn’t been running away, Lauren and Bryce’s mother sighed. ‘Get in the car. I’ll drive you back home.’
Marly didn’t know what to say. Part of her was grateful, as she wanted more than anything to be home now. But she didn’t want to have to sit in a car with this lady.
‘Come on, then!’ Lauren and Bryce’s mum said. ‘I haven’t got all day.’
Marly was made to sit in the front. ‘So you can point out landmarks and let me know when we’re close to your house, Marly,’ she said.
‘
Mum, we’re hungry,’ complained Bryce as he clambered into the back seat with Lauren. Marly was so glad that they were coming along, too. And the mention of food made her tummy gurgle with hunger.
‘Quick McDonald’s stop. What would you like, Marly?’ Lauren and Bryce’s mum asked her as the car pulled into the McDonald’s car park.
‘No, it’s okay. I’m not that hungry,’ Marly lied. She knew she had to behave and not act like a starving refugee. But she felt a bit better about their mum – it was kind of her to offer Marly food.
‘Happy Meals!’ sang Bryce as they walked up to the ordering counter in the restaurant. ‘But make sure you ask for the newest boy’s toy for me. I don’t want to get Thor again.’
Marly had never had a Happy Meal before. It was something else her mum and dad wouldn’t let her have. A big waste of money, they said. The food came in a box shaped like a house, with the ‘M’ of the McDonalds as a cardboard handle. Inside was a whole bag of French fries, a hamburger, and, best of all, a small plastic toy.
They found a booth, and Lauren and Bryce instantly rummaged through their Happy Meal boxes to find the toy. Marly was starving but copied them, not wanting to be rude and just start eating.
Marly pulled out a small pink plastic cat.
‘Ooh!’ squealed Lauren. ‘I can’t believe it! You got Custard, Strawberry Shortcake’s cat. It’s a little cat stamp. If you pull off the bottom, see how there’s an inkpad?’ Lauren showed her.
Marly wasn’t very impressed by the stamp, but she could tell that it was something Lauren really wanted. ‘Well, Lauren, since you like it so much, you can have it,’ she said.
‘Are you sure?’ asked Lauren. ‘That’s so nice of you!’ Then Lauren handed Marly her Strawberry Shortcake pendant, which had strawberry lip gloss in its centre. ‘I’ll swap you for this, because I already have two of these.’
Marly took the pendant and smiled at Lauren. It wasn’t her sort of thing, but she knew just the person who would love it. Finally the others tucked into their food. Marly ate the fries first. They were still crisp on the outside and soft inside, and perfect and salty. She licked her fingers to get the salt off before picking up her burger and sipping the Coke.