“Thanks,” smiled Dah.
“That’s my girl!”
After she had finished serving, Kakko went and sat at the same table as Mrs Smith.
“You and I share the same name,” she smiled.
“Common as dirt,” said Mrs Smith unexpectedly.
“What’s that?” asked Kakko.
“The name. Common as dirt. I told that to my Jim before we were married. Now my name – my family name is different. It’s Prendergast. Now that’s a special name if ever there was one.”
“I was wondering,” said Kakko, “if your husband might have been related to my father in some way. He’s called Jack and his father was Shaun.”
“Where they come from?”
“Persham. Well that’s where my dad grew up.”
“Persham?” said a lady from the same table. “Persham. That’s in England isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“I thought you were English. My husband’s mother was English. I think she came from somewhere like Persham. Met during the war they did, his ma and pa. He was a GI stationed over there. Met her at some dance. He gave her chocolate and silk stockings and that was it. They didn’t have those things because of the war… not that she didn’t care for him. She loved him all her life. A good woman.”
“Most of us here came from Europe though, didn’t we?” said another. “I mean in the beginning. Even if you can trace your line back to the very early days in America, you come from Europe. My family were Dutch. Could be I am a direct descendant of the original settlers.”
“Could be,” said the lady proud to be born a Prendergast.
“All of us. Except him,” she said theatrically, “the new one from Atlanta. His ancestors would have been African for certain.”
“Now, then. Don’t talk like that. We’re all equal these days. We won the war so they could be free.”
“That was when your husband’s father met his mother?” queried Kakko.
“No dear, not that war. The civil war. The war we fought here, among ourselves.”
“How many wars have there been?” asked Kakko.
“So lucky you young’un’s today. You take peace for granted. There’s been hundreds of wars over the years, dear.”
“And there’s hundreds going on today in different parts of the world that we don’t know about,” said Mrs Smith.
“Hundreds?” queried Kakko amazed.
“Hundreds. They don’t bother putting them on the news any more. My son says that if you look on the computer you can learn what’s really going on. But the news, like you get on the television, they only tell you the bad stuff from around here, and the stuff about the big boys like China and Russia – and the Arabs, of course.”
“Sometimes it gets over here though, doesn’t it? I mean we had ’Nam didn’t we, and then the 9/11 lot…”
There was so much Kakko wanted to ask her father and her nan when she got home. She listened as the old folks on her table went through war after war that they had lived through or heard about.
“Why do people want to fight wars?” she asked. “I mean so many people getting killed and so on. I mean isn’t there a – ”
But Kakko never got to finish her question. Dah had let up a scream, threw her chair back and was chasing a man out of the door. Mrs Gillespie was shouting, “He’s got my purse! That man, he just came in and stole my purse!”
Dah was after him, but the man had rollerblades on his feet for a quick escape. He whistled down the path and was at the gate before Dah could catch him, quick though she was. Kakko was on her feet too and Tam instinctively followed. The thief had not anticipated being pursued so immediately, but he clung on to Mrs Gillespie’s bag as he pulled the gate open and skated off down the hill. Dah dragged her skateboard from the hedge, threw it through the open gate, leapt on it and was in hot pursuit as Kakko and Tam got to the gate themselves.
“Not just a musician,” declared Tam. “She can handle that thing.”
“It could be nasty if she catches him,” breathed Kakko as she tried to run. Her chest hurt and she slowed up but Tam was in hot pursuit. He rounded a bend and saw the thief and Dah below him. She was keeping up with him, possibly even gaining slightly. Suddenly the thief leapt to his left off the road into a wood. He stumbled and fell down a steep slope, got to his feet and tried to run across an open clearing. Here the wheels on his feet were an encumbrance, as with each step he strained the ligaments in his ankles just to keep his feet upright, but if he made the cover of the trees on the far side of the open ground he would have a chance to hide from his pursuers.
An instant after the thief had left the road Dah had reached the same spot. She took a quick glance and saw the challenge but she had enough speed to take her and her skateboard up and over the edge and the slope. Crouching on her board, Dah landed upright in a mass of undergrowth on the edge of the clearing. She was now only metres away from her quarry, only she was on foot over the springy turf.
As he reached the trees, the thief spun round and threw Mrs Gillespie’s bag at Dah, just missing her right ear, and then plunged through the undergrowth. Dah continued in pursuit but Tam had now arrived at the top of the drop from the road and saw what was happening.
“Dah,” he yelled. “Leave him! Dah, if you catch him what’re you going to do? Leave him!”
Dah stopped. Tam’s call had quietened the adrenalin coursing through her veins and she stopped, breathing hard on the edge of the clearing. She couldn’t see the thief, he had dived for cover somewhere, but he hadn’t taken the bag with him.
Tam and finally Kakko caught her up.
“He’s in there somewhere,” said Dah.
“I guess they will have called the police,” puffed Kakko. “Let them find him. He can’t get far without being seen. Anyway, we’ve got Mrs Gillespie’s handbag which is the main thing. Let’s get it back to her. She’ll be able to relax then. She was really upset.”
Tam picked the bag out of a thorn bush. “The way she reacted, you’d think she had the family jewels in here.”
“Probably has,” said Kakko, wheezing. “Sorry, I’m not quite fully mended.”
“You OK?” said Tam with concern.
“Yeah. I’ll be fine. Just give me a minute.”
Dah had retrieved her skateboard from the undergrowth.
“You can really use that thing,” said Kakko.
“Thanks. I’ve had one for years. I got this one for my eighteenth. Loads of parents were buying their kids wheels – only they had cars. My mum said she reckoned I would prefer this kind of wheels, she says she was lucky I wasn’t actually born with a board attached to my feet.”
Kakko winced. “Sounds painful!”
“But she’s right,” said Dah as they climbed back up to the road, “I reckon I was using one of these as soon as I could walk.”
As they got back to the gate a police car pulled up. Kakko was aware of Dah flinching.
“It’s OK, Dah,” said Kakko. “You’re the hero!”
Tam walked up the path with Mrs Gillespie’s bag in his hand. As soon as she saw it she gave a whoop.
“My purse! Oh thank you, thank you!” she grabbed his wrist and pulled him to her and planted a huge kiss on his cheek.
“It wasn’t me,” explained Tam. “It was Dah. She was so quick on her skateboard.”
Dah and Kakko were talking to the police and showing them which way the man had gone.
“I reckon we’ll need helicopter back-up,” drawled one, and he got back into his car and began to talk on his radio.
The other motioned to Kakko and Dah to go back into the hall. “We’ll need you to make a statement,” he explained.
Dah looked at Kakko and Kakko nodded, “No problem, officer.”
As they stepped into the hall the old folk applauded them. Mrs Higgins came over to them all effusive with congratulations and praise, which Tam and Kakko immediately directed towards Dah.
“We really, really are so grateful to you. You we
re so fast. One minute all was peace and joy and the next Mrs Gillespie’s purse was gone and you were in hot pursuit. She really shouldn’t put all that money in there. Two thousand dollars,” she said. “Imagine. Two thousand dollars in your purse! She was scared to leave it in her apartment. Well, I don’t blame her but it’s no safer with her is it? I mean she could get mugged anywhere, couldn’t she?”
“She was!” said Dah.
“Yes. Well, all’s well that ends well. That’s what I say. I do hope they catch the man. It was a man, wasn’t it? Mrs Gillespie said he had a scarf over his face and sunglasses. Gloves too so there won’t be any fingerprints. Didn’t have a gun, did he?”
“Nah,” said Dah, “at least I didn’t see one.”
“He could have one tucked away somewhere. What you did was very brave. I was just thinking of that report I read in the New York newspaper the other day. Terrible things happen in New York City, you know, and this man could have come from there. I tell them, don’t think that because you’re across the state-line that you’re safe. I mean it’s not just New York is it? We’re not that far from Providence, or Boston come to that. I heard about this gangster who hitched a ride in a truck…”
As Mrs Higgins was talking on, Kakko started to panic inside. Suppose this man did have a gun! Because people in Joh didn’t go round toting weapons it didn’t mean that they didn’t in other parts of the universe. And apparently it wasn’t unheard of in this place.
“Miss.” Kakko woke from her musings to see that the police officer wanted to talk to her.
“If you can tell us what you saw, Miss?”
“Er… nothing much at the beginning. I was over there talking to those people when I heard Dah – Da’yelni – scream and Mrs Gillespie shouting and then I saw Da’yelni run out after someone. She was almost at the gate behind him when we got there. He had rollerblades but Dah has a skate-board. That’s how she got close to him.”
Dah described the events and the police officer noted them down.
“Mrs Gillespie,” he said, “is everything still in your purse? Is there anything missing?”
“No, it’s all here officer. Thanks to this young lady.”
They were then aware of the sound of a helicopter. The officer left them and he and the other policeman drove off down the hill.
“Well, what a to-do!” declared Mrs. Higgins. “And it’s now about time we should be rounding things up. We’ll have the draw, and then I did suggest that our young friend led us in another song before we all head off home. Are you still up for it, or have you had enough excitement for one day?”
Dah recognised that she could not disappoint these old folks. She had made something of an impression on them in more ways than one.
“OK,” she said. “But this time you all have to join in.” And line by line she taught the assembled company the chorus. And nearly everyone did join in and Mr Williams struck his knee in time. Needless to say, Mrs Smith was in her element.
“Do you know, ‘Be Not Afraid’ by Bob Dufford?” she called out when the song had ended.
“No, sorry – ” began Dah.
“I do,” Kakko found herself saying. “It’s my dad’s favourite.”
“Can you sing it for us, Kakko?” asked Mrs Higgins.
Tam looked at his girlfriend and nodded to the front. “Go on,” he said, “be not afraid!”
“I can’t sing,” she hissed, “not like Dah.”
“That doesn’t matter,” said Tam. “You’ve told them you know the song. You can’t let them down now.”
Kakko screwed up her face at him, she was wishing she had not jumped in, but she was already on her way.
“I have to explain,” she said. “I can’t sing like Dah. But my dad taught me this when I was little. He used to sing it to me when I was scared of something. Like when I had a nightmare. Dah will you me give a good note to start on – not too high and not too low.”
Dah twanged a G. Kakko nodded and cleared her throat. She tried humming it and Dah twanged again and smiled as Kakko got on the note. Kakko began to sing.
After the first line she thought of how relevant the next lines sounded now she was here on a strange planet. For the first time she understood one of the reasons the song appealed so much to her father.
“You shall wander far in safety though you do not know the way. You shall speak your words in foreign lands and all will understand,” she sang. Her dad had explained that it came from the Scriptures from Earth. God had spoken them to a man called Jeremiah, or someone, when He called him to go out and take on the corrupt leaders of his planet.
By the time Kakko had finished the third line she found that not only Mrs Smith and Mr Williams, but a number of the others were joining in with her. Mr Williams had a lovely voice, deep and rich. As Kakko reached the chorus, “Be not afraid. I go before you always. Come follow me, and I will give you rest…” he had virtually taken over. Mrs Smith was now in full voice too. Kakko was grateful to them for keeping her on course. Then Dah started to pluck the tune and by the third verse was playing full chords and even twiddly bits here and there. Even Tam was joining in.
“That was brilliant,” he said to Kakko as she rejoined him amidst the applause. “Well done!”
As Mrs Higgins brought the gathering to a close, Mr. Williams stood and declared: “The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us for evermore!” and, despite the gathering not being a religious one, there was a resounding, “Amen!” One thing was sure, noted Mrs Higgins, this new Mr Williams was by no means a shy character. She was going to have to watch him, but his antics this time had not seemed to cause offence.
As the old people got to their feet and walked, hobbled or were pushed towards the exit, the young people did what they could to help. The three people from Mrs Merton gathered themselves together to leave too and Kakko, Tam and Dah took their leave of Mrs Higgins.
“Whoops,” said Kakko. “No gate!”
“No,” said Tam. “I had just noticed that. Looks like we’re stuck here for a while.”
Just then a minibus drew up with the words, ‘New London YWCA’ in bright orange on the door and a young woman jumped out of the driver’s seat.
“Hi, Hermione,” she said approaching Mrs Higgins. “How’s it all going?”
“We have just so much to thank you for, Amy. These six young people you sent are such a wonder. Not only did they lead us in a singing session second to none – I don’t know how I am going to get Mr Jones accepted again – oh dear, I mean he tries hard but he never got everyone going like these young people, and then, as I say, it was not only the singing but they also rescued dear old Mrs Gillespie’s purse that some man stole from the table by the door right in front of everyone – just came in all covered up and took it, as large as you like, thought we couldn’t catch him, but then Dah here, she went after him on her skate thing and got it back, these two as well, and the police are after him right now. You can hear the helicopter…”
“But Hermione, I don’t recognise…”
“Sorry,” said Tam, fighting to get a word in. “We never said we were sent by you. Mrs Higgins just assumed it and…”
“It was too late to explain properly,” sighed Kakko, “by the time we got out of the loo…”
“You don’t need to explain!” laughed Mrs Merton, “I can quite understand. Anyway, you seem to have made an impression. Where are you from?”
“To tell the truth,” Kakko spoke up, “we had come a long way and we were tired so we lay down there under the tree. Then a gentleman fell off his wheelchair and we just came forward to help rescue him…”
“Oh, I had quite forgotten about that!” declared Mrs Higgins. “What a day! We are just so glad you were here. Without them it would have been a disaster from the beginning. They had poor Bert back in his seat pronto, and then the music thing with Mr Jones being ill, and of course the thief… excuse me, I have to say goodbye to Mrs
Smith and make sure Mr Williams comes again. My, can he sing!” and she was off.
“Where are you staying?” asked Mrs Merton.
“Nowhere. I mean we haven’t got anything sorted out yet,” stuttered Kakko. “Is there anywhere we can stay in New London?”
“There is room in the hostel,” said one of the other three young people, “they can stay with us can’t they?”
“Well, I don’t see why not.”
“I’m afraid we haven’t got any money,” explained Kakko. “It’s a bit embarrassing really.”
“I’ve got some,” said Dah who produced two fifty-dollar bills.
“Where did you get that?” asked Tam alarmed.
“Mrs Gillespie gave me one of them. She just pushed it into my hand… said I had to take it. I had saved her bag. She wouldn’t take it back and while I was trying to tell her I couldn’t take it, Mr. Williams gave me another one. He said I have a black soul and I should take it to buy strings for my guitar. I was too afraid to argue with him… I thought I would give it to Mrs Higgins.”
“Well now, one hundred dollars will get you all full board for one night at the YWCA,” affirmed Amy Merton.
“And you can play for us tonight. Teach us some of your songs,” suggested one of the other young people. “You were brilliant in there,” she said gesturing towards the hall.
“In this YWCA place,” asked Dah, “are they all young like you?”
“Mostly,” answered Amy, “the ‘Y’ stands for ‘Young’. We began as the ‘Young Women’s Christian Association.’ Don’t worry,” she said, seeing Tam look a little worried, “we have some rooms for men. You won’t be on your own. There is John here.”
“Thanks,” said Tam.
“But if they’re young,” said Dah, “they are not going to like the stuff I sing.”
“Garbage!” exclaimed John. “You were brilliant. What you sing is good for any generation!”
“Careful!” yelled Kakko, looking past Mrs Merton and charging forward just in time to prevent Bert from repeating the same mistake as he had on the way in. “I reckon you should have a line of people along your route like a president to make sure you keep straight,” she said.
Ultimate Justice Page 21