“Where to Dad?”
“New Guinea. Load of machinery and building supplies to Lae,” his father replied. “Anyway, let me know who wins won’t you?”
“Yes Dad.”
Graham went to bed happy, both the new models positioned on his desk so he could see their silhouettes against the light from the streetlight outside. In his imagination he had no trouble thinking of them as real ships steaming at full speed towards the enemy.
Next day during History Graham was told by Mr Conkey to stay at the end of the lesson. Mr Conkey pointed to a plastic carry box on his desk. “I dug out that game I was talking about yesterday,” he explained.
So Graham, Peter and Stephen stayed when the lesson finished. It was morning break and normally Graham would have rushed out to try to talk to Thelma but he was very keen to see what the game was like. From the carry box Mr Conkey unpacked some large cardboard maps drawn up with grids on them. He laid these on his table.
“As you can see we marked in some land as well. The islands gave it more tactical interest and the harbours added to the fun. We had rules for submarines and mines as well in this game. Because the moves were adjudicated by the third person it was possible to move these and to spring some real surprises. We often tried to send a minelayer in during the night to lay a minefield off the enemy’s harbour.”
“What about radar sir?” Peter asked. “Oh, we ruled that out. We set the game before radar was invented to keep it fairly simple,” Mr Conkey replied. He then placed several small metal containers on the table and opened one. Onto the table he poured dozens of small balsa tokens. Most were only about 2cm long and 5mm wide. They were all coloured green and had large letters marked on them to indicate what they were.
Graham picked one up and inspected it. The token was only a bit over a centimetre long, 2mm wide and 1mm thick. It had a sharp bow and the letter ‘T’ on it.
“Torpedo Boat,” Mr Conkey explained. “And this was a battleship.” He picked up a much larger piece 3cm long, one centimetre wide and 5mm thick. It was shaped to have a sharp point at both ends. A ‘B’ was marked in the centre.
Stephen reached forward and raked through the tokens. “There are a lot of tokens sir,” he said.
“Not really. This is two identical fleets remember. There has to be a duplicate ship for the adjudicator to place on the other player’s map if it is seen. There is a ‘Red’ fleet in this other tin, for the second player to use.”
Graham studied the tokens: cruisers with square sterns, destroyers with a cut-away deck to indicate the raised focsle common to that type, submarines, minesweepers, minelayers, even oil tankers and troopships. “We could make tokens like this easily,” he said.
Stephen picked a token up to examine it. “Did you have aircraft carriers sir?” he asked.
“No. Too hard to keep track of all the planes,” Mr Conkey replied.
“Are those the rules sir?” Peter asked, indicating a wad of notepaper.
“Yes they are. You can have a look but I want them back thanks.”
Peter picked them up. “Can we photocopy them sir?” he asked.
“Yes, I suppose so.”
“Thanks sir. Come on Steve, let’s go to the library and do it,” Peter said.
Mr Conkey shook his head. “At lunch time. You won’t have time now before the bell goes,” he said.
The game was packed away and the rules loaned to Peter. The boys thanked the teacher and walked off excitedly discussing the game and when they might play it. It obviously wasn’t suitable for playing in class. At lunchtime Peter photocopied the rules and returned them to Mr Conkey. Each boy got a copy and Graham devoted his afternoon classes to reading them. This at least kept him out of trouble as he was quiet and not disruptive.
That afternoon he completed the model destroyer by adding some ship’s boats and masts and other small details like searchlights, signal lamps and lockers. He then contemplated his cruiser.
I suppose I’d better make the best of a bad job and finish it, he thought. After all I need it on Saturday.
Having decided he was faced with the problem of what size guns for the main armament. His initial thoughts had been to outgun Max by giving the cruiser 8” guns but again he hesitated. The County-class were much bigger ships and this is only the same size as Max’s. Maybe I’d better not. At the back of his mind was the fact that the HMS Exeter, which had taken part in the Battle of the River Plate had been a small heavy cruiser with only six 8” guns. The big heavy cruisers had eight 8” guns, he told himself. A few minutes of leafing through reference books soon confirmed that the Exeter had indeed had only six main guns. I could do it, he thought.
Again Graham studied the available deck space and was still faced with the problem of not having enough room forward for two turrets. Then he shook his head. Max might get angry if I do. I will just match his cruiser. So he opted for nine 6” guns in three turrets.
He worked on the cruiser till tea time, making balsa gun turrets which rotated on pins driven through them. Balsa gun barrels were sanded to shape and glued on the front of each turret. The gun turrets at least made the model look like a warship and Graham’s spirits rose somewhat.
While washing up after tea his mother asked him if he had decided who was attending his birthday party. “You had better make your mind up so you can send out invitations,” she said. “People need a few weeks warning. You wouldn’t want to be disappointed by finding someone you really want to be there had already made other arrangements.”
That idea sent Graham into a lather of worry. He went to his desk and collected pen and paper. Quickly he wrote Thelma on the sheet. Then he added Peter, Stephen and Roger. Max’s name went next and that prompted him to consider whether Cindy should also be asked. He sucked his pen for a moment, then jotted her name down.
His mother came and sat on his bed and studied the list. “What about your brother and sister?” she chided. Graham blushed. He had forgotten them. He added Alex and Kylie.
“Are you going to ask Margaret?” his mother asked. Graham didn’t really want to but could not bring himself to say no so he wrote her name down also. Then he chewed the end of his pencil. Who else should he ask? After a moments thought he wrote down Janet. I can’t ask Thelma and not her best friend, he decided.
His mind ranged over the people in his class and he added the names of two more girls: Rowena and Louise.
His mother smiled but shook her head. “You can’t just invite girls,” she said.
Graham blushed. He did not want his mother to know that he was now very interested in girls. After some thought he wrote down three boys names: Wayne, George and Michael. Then he thought of Andrew Collins and put his name down as well. He wasn’t sure if he knew Andrew well enough but decided it was worth a try. Then he added Andrew’s sister, Carmen.
The images of two more girls popped into his mind: Rhonda, the sultry blackhead, and Dawn, the busty blonde. They were added to the list along with another boy: Chris.
“How many is that?” his mother asked. Graham counted them.
“Nineteen mum; twenty counting me.”
“Hmmm. Ten boys and ten girls. That should be fine. I think that is enough. Any more will become unmanageable. Now, you had better get to work and write some invitations.”
Graham spent the rest of the evening cutting up white card, drawing ships on the front and writing an invitation composed by his mother on the inside. The bundle of invitations was then placed in his school bag and he prepared himself for bed.
Once in bed Graham began to day dream. He started off fantasizing about rescuing Thelma again but found his thoughts straying to other girls who were invited to the party. Finally he focused on Cindy. That conjured up images of her wearing only a towel and the memory caused him to become aroused. This was quite normal for him but he was worried about it. Recently he had seemed to be much hornier than usual and he was concerned because he seemed to have no control over when or where it ha
ppened.
While lying there he wondered what it might be like to have some of the experiences the older boys were always boasting about. Having almost ‘done it’ with Margaret he was fascinated by a desire to really try it. Driving this urge was not only his physical desire but also a gnawing concern to find out if he was normal. Will I be able to? he worried. Because he had reached the stage where he felt the need for physical relief almost every day, he knew that part of his body worked well but he was deeply anxious that he not fail when he was with a female.
That led him to heated memories of being with Cindy and to speculation whether she might be persuaded to try it.
The next day at school started off in a very ordinary way, but in Period 3 Graham made a smart comment parodying Mr Wilesmith which made the class all laugh. To his delight Thelma turned and grinned at him and laughed too. The joke cost him some lines to write but he felt that they were worth it.
At morning break, as he went down the steps he was surprised when Thelma turned and said to him, “That was funny Graham. Do it again.”
Graham repeated his impersonation of Old Wily and Thelma giggled again. Even Janet smiled. Somehow Graham managed to strike up a conversation and they stood talking while they ate their morning snack. Thelma has got lovely hazel eyes, Graham noticed. He tried very hard to impress her, clowning and saying silly things. Only when he returned to class later did he remember that he had the invitations to the party in his bag.
That thought brought him out in a cold sweat. How do I hand them out without being obvious, or without offending the people who aren’t invited? he fretted. He decided the relaxed approach was the best and just dug them out and started to pass them to the people named on the envelope. Feeling deeply anxious he walked over to Thelma’s desk and held out the invitation.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“I… I… I’m having a birthday,” Graham stammered.
Thelma took the invitation and he turned at once to Janet, fearful that Thelma might see how concerned he was. Janet took the envelope but did not smile. As Graham handed one to Michael he saw Thelma open hers. She read it and smiled. “Ooh! A party! Thank you Graham. I like parties. Who else is coming?”
Graham turned and indicated half the class with a sweep of his hand. Thelma’s eyes danced and that made his spirits soar. She asked: “Will there be party games?”
Graham was stunned. Party games! He had not thought about what they would actually do at the party. “Yes,” he mumbled.
“Oooh goody! What games?”
“What would you like to play?” Graham answered, stalling for time while the names of various games he had heard of flitted through his mind.
Stephen grinned. “Pass the parcel!” he called. That caused a ripple of laughter and Graham blushed.
Louise joined in: “We will definitely have to play Sardines and Postman’s Knock.”
Graham had heard of them but wasn’t quite sure how they were played. But he was aware that they were games that teenagers played that somehow involved kissing and cuddling together in dark corners and he badly wanted to do that. The others added a few more games to play and Graham tried to remember them all. As he listened he wondered how he could find out all about them without people realizing he was ignorant, or innocent. He did not want to be ridiculed.
The arrival of the teacher ended the discussion but Graham set to work to jot down a list of games. Once he had six he re-arranged them into a rough program. His mind went off into a fantasy of playing a game where he had to kiss Thelma and where they would then have to hide in the dark. One result was that he became aroused. Another was that Miss Hackenmeyer singled him out for not paying attention.
“Stand up and speak up boy!” she said.
Graham broke into a cold sweat. That was the last thing he wanted to do but he was terrified of her so reluctantly did so, leaning forward on his desk to try to hide the front of his shorts. As he stood there he was aflame with embarrassment and painfully aware that every eye in the room was on him. It seemed to his heated mind that Thelma’s gaze was focused on his problem. But the shame only lasted a few minutes. When Miss Hackenmeyer had finished her tirade he was no longer aroused and he slumped into his seat feeling wrung out.
Lunch time Graham spent walking around finding people to give them their invitations to his party. He found it a highly embarrassing experience as he feared a rebuff each time; and wondered whose feelings he was hurting by not inviting them. But at last the chore was done without suffering any direct rejection and his spirits rose.
That afternoon after school he worked on his model cruiser; and once again had the problem of deciding on a name for her. To help him with this he looked in books which had pictures of cruisers from the period. Most seemed to be named after towns or cities. That isn’t very inspiring, he thought.
In the end he could not decide on a name so he settled to working on the model instead. After tea he again worked on homework and then went to find his HO scale electric locomotive, a British Great Western Railway King-class 4-6-0. Roger had asked to see it with the idea of using it on the planned model railway. Graham had not played with his electric train in over a year and found the loco badly needed cleaning. The task kept him busily occupied till bed time.
Next day at school Graham was pleasantly surprised to be greeted as soon as he arrived by Rowena (in his mind the most beautiful girl in the class). She gave him a big smile and said, “Thank you for the invitation to your party Graham. Mum says I am allowed to attend. I’m really looking forward to it.”
That made his day. Later, when Thelma also said that she would attend his party he was so happy he felt like singing aloud. Several others also said they would be able to attend. The day passed happily without any clashes with the teachers. That afternoon when he got home Graham completed the model cruiser by adding various small details.
He immediately began construction of a second cruiser. His intention was to correct the design fault in the first one by putting two turrets at the front and one at the stern. And to outmatch Max in case he has made another cruiser, he thought.
Friday came and with it a farewell to his father. Capt Kirk said a gruff goodbye to the two boys, shaking hands with them. He kissed Kylie and hugged their mother, then went down to the car. The children went to school while their mother drove their father to the wharf. It was a familiar event for them and the family rule was stiff upper lips and no emotional gush over partings.
At school Graham received more acceptances for his party: Janet, Rhonda, Dawn, Wayne and George. These made him feel even happier. He already knew that his best friends would be there so the party now looked viable in numbers at least. Hoping to make it a real success he bent his thoughts again to the program.
Again the day passed without incident. Graham felt a mounting sense of excitement as the day wore on. This was added to when Max checked that he would be over to play model ships on Saturday afternoon.
“Yes, Max, I’ll be there,” Graham assured him cheerfully.
“Have you finished that new destroyer?” Max asked.
“Yes I have. You will be in trouble this time, even with your cruiser,” Graham replied confidently.
“We’ll see,” Max said with a grin.
Chapter 13
THE NAVAL ARMS RACE
Saturday morning was taken up by chores for Graham. The lawn had to be mowed, gardens weeded, the dog washed, guinea pig hutch cleaned out and his bedroom tidied up and vacuumed. This gave him little time to work on the second cruiser, or to think about the coming game. In fact his thoughts were as much concentrated on Cindy as on warships.
It was with pleasurable excitement that he set out after lunch with his models carefully placed on a sheet of plywood. He would have liked to catch Max by surprise by suddenly producing his cruiser the way Max had done the previous week but he had no chance to do that. On arrival at Max’s the new destroyer and cruiser were at once inspected by Max.
“What’s her name?” Max asked. Graham silently cursed himself. Fool! He had forgotten to decide. Names jumbled in his brain as he tried not to look or sound flustered. One came to the surface and he grabbed at it, lest hesitation betray the fact he had not named the ship.
“HMS Contagious,” he said.
“Contagious!” Max cried. “What is it; some sort of disease?”
Graham felt his cheeks burn as he realized that was not the word that he had been after; but stubbornness then came into play. Not for anything would he now admit that he meant Courageous.
“That’s right. Contagious. And those are 6” guns.”
“Contagious!” Max cried. Then he burst out laughing. Graham flamed with shame but stuck to his decision. Max chuckled and made another verbal stab. “She should fly a yellow flag to show you have an infectious disease on board. Contagious! Haw, haw, haw!”
Gritting his teeth to hide his hurt and to keep his temper Graham endured the teasing. In an attempt to divert the taunts he asked, “What is the game today?”
“I thought we might try the same as last week,” Max said. “You try to land your army and my fleet try to stop them.”
Max’s cruiser was placed on the lawn over near the coconut tree and his army on the concrete porch. Graham looked at the setup suspiciously. Max seemed too relaxed and not at all fazed by the fact that Graham had an extra destroyer and a cruiser equal to his. Graham walked to the corner of the laundry and looked around. Nothing lurked there.
Max laughed again. “Don’t be so suspicious,” he said. “Just get your fleet over to the shed and put them in quarantine.” He began to laugh again. Graham felt his temper rise but did as he was told. The game began.
The Boy and the Battleship Page 12