Teresa: A New Australian
Page 13
It was a mess.
Nobody said anything.
‘I know there’s still a lot to do,’ Papa apologised. ‘But when it’s finished –’
‘It’s perfect!’ Anna breathed.
‘You think so?’
‘Of course it is,’ Teresa said. ‘It’s our new home.’ She remembered her father’s words after their house was bombed in Malta. ‘And it’s even better than the old one, just like you promised.’
Her papa flung open the car door. ‘Come, I’ll show you around.’
Her parents proudly walked them through the house. There was very little furniture apart from a kitchen table with mismatched chairs, an old sofa and a bed and wardrobe in her parents’ room.
The girls’ bedroom was different. There were two brand new beds with frilled pillows and lace curtains tied back with bows.
The girls squealed and chose a bed each.
‘And if all goes to plan, the third bedroom should be finished just in time.’
‘In time for what?’ Teresa asked.
Mama and Papa swapped a cheeky smile.
‘To welcome our new guest.’
‘What guest?’
Her papa rubbed his chin and frowned. ‘We’re not sure yet, but when they get here, we’ll know.’
‘You don’t know who …’
Teresa and Anna realised at the same time. ‘You’re having a baby?’
Mama nodded. ‘Just in time for Christmas.’
The two girls let out another squeal.
‘We’re going to have a little brother or sister,’ Teresa cried. ‘We can help take care of him and feed him and give him baths and … we have to think of names.’
‘We have been,’ Papa said. ‘When you’re building a house, you have lots of time to think.’
‘If it’s a girl,’ Mama said, ‘we’ll name her Carmelina, after your nanna. And if it’s a boy, his name would be –’
‘Edward,’ Teresa said.
‘Yes. We thought Edward would be a fine name. If that’s all right with Anna.’
‘It is,’ Anna nodded. ‘It’s absolutely perfect.’
Dear George,
The house is finally finished. We all clapped when Papa hung a sign beside the front door that says ‘Fontana ‘.
Mama is very pregnant now and Papa won’t let her lift a thing, which she finds very frustrating. He’s been doing all the cleaning and cooking. Mama says the food is never good enough, but I think that’s because she doesn’t like being told what to do or having Papa in her brand new kitchen.
It’s almost the end of the school year and the beginning of the summer holidays. Anna and I did well in our exams and can’t wait for next year already. We both joined the debating team and she has decided she’d like to be a lawyer. I think she’ll be prime minister one day, she’s so smart. Papa is now foreman of his factory and Mama has applied to do her nursing exams so she can work part-time after the baby is born.
You asked me in your last letter how I am. It’s taken me a long time to work it out but I’m happy. And I’m home.
Your friend forever,
Teresa xox
Acknowledgements
I’d like to thank those who helped in the creation of this book, many of whom had lived through the war in Malta and made the journey to Australia. I’d like to thank them all for being so generous in sharing their stories with me.
Mary and Charlie Cauchi
Dr Barry York
John and Carmen Zammit
Lynne Greene
Fred Fenech
Mary Ramundi
Antoinette Mascari
Mark Caruana
Nicholas Bonello
Alex Abela
Dr Joan Abela
Professor Henry Frendo, University of Malta
Maurice Gauchi,
Frances Bonnici
Scott Heiner, for his brilliant proofreading and for laughing and sighing in all the right places
Claire O’Mahony, for being the first reader of Teresa.
About the Author
When Deborah Abela was young she was fascinated by her father’s story of being born in a cave during one of the heaviest bombing raids of the Second World War. His country was destroyed by the war, and his family, along with a million other European immigrants, sailed to Australia hoping to find a brighter future.
Deb has always loved stories and she’s grown up to write her own, including the Max Remy Superspy and Jasper Zammit (Soccer Legend) series, along with New City and Grimsdon, which are about kids living in a climate-changed world, with sea monsters, flying machines and girls who are good with swords. She’s won awards for her books but mostly she hopes to be as brave as her characters.
And her Nanna Teresa.
Deb is a proud ambassador for Room to Read and Role Model for Books In Homes. You can visit her at www.deborahabela.com.
World Change Starts with Educated Children.®
About Deborah Abela and Room to Read
Deborah Abela is a committed writer ambassador for Room to Read, an innovative global non-profit that seeks to transform the lives of millions of children in ten developing countries through its holistic Literacy and Girls’ Education programs.
Working in collaboration with local communities, partner organisations and governments, Room to Read focuses its efforts on developing reading skills in primary school aged children because literacy is the foundation for all future learning. Since it was founded in 2000, Room to Read has impacted the lives of over 10 million children by establishing school libraries, publishing original children’s books in more than 25 local languages, constructing child-friendly classrooms and supporting educators with training and resources to teach reading, writing and active listening.
Room to Read is changing children’s lives in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zambia.
As Deborah says, ‘Every child has the right to an education and to the joy of reading. By helping to educate the world’s poorest, we are not only creating better communities, we are helping build a better, brighter world. It is that fundamental.’
For more information, see www.roomtoread.org.
Also in the New Australian Series
Bridget
J. Moloney
Bridget isn’t afraid of where she’s going to – she isn’t afraid for herself. She cries for what she’s leaving behind. But when famine takes hold of her beloved Ireland she must set sail for Australia or slowly starve in the workhouse. Crossing the seas, she finds the new world can be as cruel as the old. People keep telling her she’d better rein in her wild spirit – or maybe, just maybe, she can find a way to put it to good use …
Kerenza
Rosanne Hawke
Kerenza isn’t sure about leaving her village in Cornwall and taking a ship to Australia, but she can be brave for her da’s sake. Where he sees a farm, she and her mam see endless bush and flies – millions of them – and hard work from dawn to dusk. It’s almost too much to bear, but the Mallee has its own beauty, and family and new-found friends might just make it her home.
Sian
D. Luckett
Sian is the unlucky thirteenth child in a Welsh coalminer’s family. Life is hard; her mother died after giving birth to her and her father is grief-stricken. Sian’s eldest sister hatches a plan to take them both far away, to find a better life. It will be a long voyage across the ocean, but Sian is looking forward to a new start in a country where the sun shines and she can go to school every day instead of picking coal scraps for pennies. The only problem is, no one must know about the great journey they are about to take …
Frieda
Marianne Musgrove
Frieda, a (mostly) obedient girl from Heidelberg, travels across the seas with her adventurous father and sickly mother to live in Adelaide, South Australia. Nervous and excited about this drought-stricken town with its hordes of flies and barefoot children, Frieda embarks on a
mission: to make some friends. But then World War One breaks out and the Germans, once considered friends of Australia, are now the Enemy. Rumours begin to circulate that Frieda’s father is a German spy. Should Frieda change her name and hide all trace of her culture? Or will her new friends stand by her?
Teresa was developed as part of a Creative Time Residential Fellowship generously awarded by the May Gibbs Children’s Literature Trust
Published by Scholastic Australia
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SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
First edition published by Omnibus Books in 2016.
This electronic edition published by Scholastic Australia Pty Limited, 2016.
E-PUB/MOBI eISBN: 978-1-760271-05-3
Text copyright © Deborah Abela, 2016.
Cover images copyright © iStock.com/RBFried; ricardoreitmeyer; seraficus; nickfree.
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