Wandering Girl

by Glenyse Ward

  “Oh, of course I know the song. Bill.” And I started to play it straight away, not waiting for Bill to sing. When I played one verse, I looked at him to see if he was ready to sing. I kept right on playing.

  He had his mouth wide open in lockjaw fashion, but no sound was coming out. I just let it rip!

  The old man looked so astonished. He peered up to the ceiling with his hands outstretched and cried out, “Where’s it gone?”

  I could not stop myself from laughing at him and apologizing at the same time. In the end the old man was cracking up himself and wiping the tears from his eyes. I think that both of us were suffering with a bad case of nerves.

  After we had a few more songs and laughs, our nerves settled down and our voices began to come loud and clear. Then I said to Bill, “I’ll play you one of my favourite songs, one I learnt in the mission. It goes, “I love to go a’wandering, along the mountain track...”

  After I finished, Bill gave me a clap. I felt very honoured, stood up and curtsied to my one-man audience as I accepted his appreciation, then laughed as I could see the funny side of it all. If the boss knew that we had turned her V.I.P. room into a concert hall while she was in town on business - I shuddered to think what would happen...

  We spent the rest of the afternoon just singing and enjoying ourselves. Bill had a couple of goes on the piano. I must say he didn’t do too bad. Then I asked him what the time was? He said it was four o’clock! I said, “Gee, doesn’t time fly when you are having fun.” I asked Bill if he would like another cup of tea?

  He was only too pleased. He jumped up and offered to put the kettle on for me and get our cups ready. I said, ‘There’s fruit cake in the pantry on the top shelf, if you want something to eat. I would like some too.”

  While Bill was in the kitchen, I was making sure everything was back to normal in the V.I.P. room. I cleaned off any trace of finger marks left on her piano, that might have aroused her suspicions. Now it all looked spick and span again, so I went out to join him in the kitchen.

  Bill had the teas poured out. I took a sip of mine, then sat back in the chair. “Oh, this is just what we needed after all that singing. What do you reckon. Bill?” He said, “Sure is, lassie.” Then we both helped ourselves to the fruit cake.

  He said the cake tasted wonderful, and asked me if the boss baked them herself? I said, “I can’t see her slaving over a hot stove. I think I heard her say that one of her friends or her daughter, Janet, the one that lives in town, bakes them.”

  Bill said, “We don’t mind who bakes them, hey lassie, as they taste alright to us!” We both sat back and had a good laugh. He asked if there was anything he could do to help me, as he had finished his work in the orchard and still had a spare hour up his sleeve.

  I thanked him, and said, ‘The eggs need to be collected and the gardens need watering. Other than that, everything that has to be done is done. Thanks to you, Bill. The jars of fruit are all filled on the shelf and the wood boxes are stacked up with wood. All I have to do for the meal is prepare the vegies. Before we went into the lounge to sing, I put the leg of silverside into the pot to boil. It should be just about done by now.”

  “Right-oh, lassie. I’ll go and get the eggs for you and water the garden.” I couldn’t thank him enough. As he went out the door, I handed him the egg bucket and continued on, setting the table. I made sure the serviette rings were polished, as she had given me a scolding the day before, saying that I didn’t clean them, as she could not see her face in them.

  While I was just putting the finishing touches to the table, old Bill came in and asked if there was anything else he could do for me as he had finished watering the garden. I said, “Thanks, but everything is done.”

  He looked out through the lounge window and remarked, “Gosh lassie, the boss is coming!”

  He made a quick dash out the back, as I shouted, “See you later!” I heard the back door slam and casually walked back into the kitchen, pottering around as I waited anxiously for her.

  When the front door opened up, it was to her normal manner of speaking, “Oh, there you are. Go out to the car and bring the stores in, and put my shopping on my bed. Did you do all your jobs today?”

  I said, “Yes, Mrs Bigelow.”

  Having had Bill around all day talking and laughing, made me more confident. I wasn’t feeling so withdrawn in myself anymore, and must have shocked her by asking if she had a nice day in town? As expected, I was looked at in a most disdainful manner.

  I went out the door to collect the shopping. When I came back inside she was nowhere to be seen, so I put all the groceries away. Thinking she was in her room, I didn’t want to go there, as the further I was away from her the better it was for me.

  After the evening meal, she came out to me in the kitchen. I stopped sweeping the floor and looked her straight in the face - something I had not done since beginning to work for her. All my work was done and she could really have nothing to complain about.

  She was taken aback. I noticed her flinch a bit as she commenced explaining to me, that seeing I had completed all my jobs she was taking me into town with her tomorrow, which was Thursday.

  Wondering in my mind why the sudden change, since my town day was Friday, I kept looking at her as she went on. I would have to do my morning jobs, then go and have a shower and put my working clothes on. After breakfast we would be leaving for town. “Is that understood?”

  I said, “Yes, Mrs Bigelow.”

  She went out, closing the door behind her. I poked my tongue out at her back, then I felt terrible and said a prayer to God, asking Him to forgive me.

  As I explained before, my up-bringing was strict, and if you poked your tongue at someone that was what was called a sin, and the nuns would punish us with a hit, if they caught us.

  Now that I’d said my prayer, I felt better. I put the broom away and went off to my room, never giving town another thought as I felt pleased inside. I was going to town and that was enough - I’d be able to see my friend, the lady at the comer shop.

  THE DAUGHTER’S HOUSE

  I fell asleep, only to be awoken by the shrill ringing of the alarm clock. I turned over and groaned, thinking I could stay in my bed for a week.

  As I lay flat on my back for a minute to get my brains ticking, it suddenly dawned on me that she was taking me to town. I quickly jumped out of bed, had a wash, got into my working clothes, just skimped through my jobs, then went inside to prepare breakfast.

  She came in just as I had finished cooking it, and told me to get the boys’ breakfast ready too, as they were also going to town and would be joining their parents at the table.

  Seeing her’s and her husband’s ready, she took the plates of food in. As soon as I had cooked the boys’ breakfast, I was to knock on the door and bring it in also. They would be waiting. So I hurried up and made the toast. By that time the bacon and eggs were sizzling, so I served everything out on their plates, put them on the trolley and knocked on the door. She called out to come in.

  The boys were there as I pushed the trolley in. As usual, everything was quiet. All eyes were on me. Suddenly the phone rang. To my surprise, she turned to me and told me to answer it. As I said before, I had never used a phone, so I went over feeling very nervous and shy. Everyone was looking at me. I picked the phone up off the hook and said, “Yeah!” I could not hear anything, except a lot of noise from the other end.

  She slammed her knife and fork down on the table and came rushing over to me, snatched the phone out of my hand and pushed me out the way. Never had a girl working for her been so stupid and humiliated her so much! She wondered whether I had any sense at all.

  Holding her hand over the phone, she pointed out to me that I must speak into the speaking part, not the listening part, then she ushered me out of the room.

  As I went back and sat down to eat my weeties, I wondered why I had heard someone talking at the other end of the phone?

  When I finished those weeties,
I thought I’d go out to the toilet, as I was still feeling a bit shaky from her sudden outburst. Just as I was ready to open the door to go out the back, she rang the bell. I made out I never heard it, snuck out quietly and ran flat out to my own toilet. I just made it.

  When I got back to the kitchen, she was standing there fuming. She shouted at me, “Where have you been?” She had given me strict orders never to leave the kitchen while her family was still in the dining room.

  I apologized, and told her where I had been. “Next time you want to go to the toilet, come and let me know - and did you wash your hands after?”

  I said, “Yes,” and she told me to get a move on, as she wasn’t very happy with me or my attitude towards her; and when everything was done, I was to comb my hair and put clean working clothes on, then meet her outside near her car. With that she strutted out the door.

  I sat down on the chair to collect myself again. I felt like having a good cry, but I soon rose up, wiped my eyes and got stuck into my work.

  After I completed everything I went out, washed myself, put a clean change of clothes on, and wondered - why working clothes? Then I tripped out to her car, which was standing in the driveway.

  She wasn’t there, so I tried opening the doors, only to find everything locked up. So I waited patiently.

  It was a couple of minutes before she came out. She opened her door and gave me her keys to open the back door. I did so, climbed in, then handed the keys to her. We were on our way.

  Despite the hurt I was feeling inside, I felt glad to be going to town, although Mrs Bigelow was as usual quiet in the car.

  Soon as we reached the outskirts of Ridgeway, she veered off in an unexpected direction. I saw a sign saying Hospital and I was thinking, “That’s funny, we’re not going to the shops,” when she turned to the left, and stopped outside this beautiful home. The gardens were so colourful. Every flower seemed to be in bloom.

  I noticed that the house was built high up. And from here I could see all the township as I looked back over my shoulder. I was still sitting in the car waiting for her, as she made her way up the garden path.

  A couple of kids ran out to her singing out, “Nanna”, as they grabbed one of her hands on either side and walked with her. It was then that I realized this was her daughter’s house. The one that came to see her every now and again.

  Then her daughter Janet came out to greet her. They stood talking for a while. I wished that she would hurry up, as I wanted to go to the shops! I felt hot in the car and could have done with a bottle of cool drink.

  In the meantime, while they were still talking, her grand-kids were coming down, peeping into the car at me, then running away laughing and sniggering. I felt like a monkey in a cage.

  Then I saw them both coming down the path. When they reached the car, she told me to get out and follow her up to the house. I was beginning to get confused, and wondered whether I would go into town at all.

  When I reached the house, her daughter asked me inside. It was beautiful, just like her mum’s. Then she came over to me with a list of duties to be done. I looked at it, then at her, and it suddenly dawned on me why I’d been brought to town a day early.

  Mrs Bigelow explained to me, in front of her daughter, that every fortnight she was bringing me in to clean Janet’s house, while they both went shopping.

  With those instructions she left me. Janet called for her kids, and they all trooped outside, climbed into their car and drove off.

  I sat down on the chair in her kitchen. As I went through the list of jobs her daughter had given, I felt very down-hearted. The chores weren’t anything new. They were just what I did for her mum; but where to start, where to begin? The whole house was a mess!

  I began with the kids’ bedroom. There were clothes everywhere. It took me nearly two hours to get through the room. I wondered whether I would finish the rest of the house before they got back. I looked at the time. It was twelve o’clock.

  I went and looked in her fridge. There was a jam sandwich on a tin plate. I presumed she had left that for my lunch. I didn’t feel like a jam sandwich, so I helped myself to cold meat and salad, then I went down to her backyard to see if she had chooks. She did.

  Screwing the sandwich up, I chucked it to them. They were quite pleased to get it too, as they scrambled over one another for every bit of bread.

  Feeling worn out, I went back into the house to continue on with my work. It was nearly half past three by the time I had finished cleaning. The whole house smelt fresh and clean, as I had used plenty of Dettol to freshen the place up. I looked around the house and felt something was missing.

  “Oh yes, that’s it. I’ll go and pick some flowers and put them around the rooms.”

  So I went to find some vases, which she kept in the laundry - put them on the shelf in the kitchen, then got some scissors out of the drawer, and went outside. I cast my eyes over her beautiful garden then went over and snipped some red, pink and white carnations. I held them to my nose. “Mm, they are beautiful” - and I breathed in deeply the fragrance.

  I added a few other types of flowers, snapdragons, hollyhocks. Now that I had bunched up a variety of flowers in my hand, I went back into the kitchen to place them in the vases and arrange them around the house.

  I felt pleased with myself, as the flowers made the rooms so much more alive, and I thought I’d take myself off on a bit of a walk, seeing I had done my jobs. I strolled down the garden path, casually taking in the scenery all around me. It sure was a pretty town. The green hills towering behind the houses reminded me of those around Wandering Mission.

  While I stood there gazing around, I had the feeling I was being watched. I looked to my left and right and saw a couple of ladies out in their front garden talking together and pointing at me. When I looked over the road the same thing was happening. There were ladies everywhere over the fences in the front yards - all eyes were on me!

  Being used to talking to old Bill, my shyness having worn off me, I thought I’d better go over and ask the ladies if something was wrong? I made my way over to the nearest house and when I got to the fence, glanced up. There was no-one in sight. I sang out, “Are you there?”

  Then I caught a glimpse of someone peering out from a window. They reminded me of a mob of chooks in a cage.

  I went back inside the daughter’s house and had just sat myself down comfortably on a chair in her lounge, when I heard a car door slam. I quickly got up, ran to the kitchen and made out I was busy wiping the sink.

  When the door opened, her two grandchildren came in, laughing and sniggering. They said, “Nanna wants you!”

  I left them there laughing as I went out the door. As soon as the boss saw me, she told me to hurry up and take the shopping in, since she had to take me back to the farm to get tea on for the family.

  Janet hardly ever spoke to me on those fortnightly working days in town. The only time she smiled was when I caught her off guard and she had no choice. It was only when I looked after her kids that she had to face me, to tell me what times to send the boys in for their washes or meals.

  Mrs Bigelow and her daughter walked past me, as I quickly began unloading the shopping, took it into the house and put everything away. By then she was saying goodbye to her daughter.

  She told me to get into the car! As we made our way back, I had a notion she was going to tell me something.

  SUNDAY BEST

  Back at my normal place of work, as I set about doing my chores, I tried not to get myself all worked up about whether it was to be good news or bad. I knew that I had to accept it, because in those days we had no choice. We just had to take what came along.

  Later, having cleaned up after tea, I was sweeping the floor and sure enough, just as I had expected, she came in. She told me that seeing I had been there eight months and had done such a good job - I nearly fainted, thinking, “Wonders will never cease” - she had a surprise. She explained that a friend of hers had hired a girl from the
same mission, to work for her on their farm, on which they bred racehorses.

  I had never heard of racehorses and didn’t understand what she meant. Naturally, I thought she meant horses running up and down the paddock and that was why she called them racehorses.

  Well, she continued on, the friend was arriving at their farm tomorrow, and had asked if she could bring this girl into town in a fortnight’s time to meet me, which I thought was quite humane of her friend.

  “So, I won’t be taking you into town with me on Thursday, which would have been your town day. You can wait till next Friday, when my friend will bring the mission girl in.”

  As much as I hated my boss, I could have hugged her for joy. I couldn’t control my emotions. My tears splashed onto the floor. It seemed like years since I had seen anyone from home.

  I was dying to ask her: what was the girl’s name? She just told me to wipe my eyes, as I was a big girl and only babies carried on that way.

  Over the months that I had been there I had written a couple of letters to the mission, but never received an answer. Now I’d find out from this girl all the news. She’d tell me everything! Oh, I was so overwhelmed with joy inside me that nothing else mattered. I put the broom away, went to my bedroom, knelt down and thanked God for letting me be near my mate.

  Next day when she went into town as usual, I was still bubbling with joy. As soon as everyone left the farm and I was on my own, I couldn’t wait to run flat out down to the orchard to tell old Bill the good news!

  He felt very pleased and happy for me. He wiped his eyes and said, “Hey lassie, I can see a change in you already.”

  I told him I couldn’t wait to see her.

  He asked me where was I the other day? I told him, “She took me into town to clean her daughter’s house out. She’s taking me in every second Thursday to do her daughter’s cleaning.”