Perry Angel’s Suitcase

by Glenda Millard

  On winter evenings Ben played rollicking sea shanties and lilting love songs on his mouth organ while Annie sang the words and made soup as thick as porridge in a pot as big as a baby’s bath. On winter mornings Nell put rocks in the oven of the wood stove until they were hot, then she wrapped them in old newspapers and gave them to Perry and Griffin to keep their hands warm while they walked to school.

  On their way home, it was Griffin and Perry’s job to check for mail. On the corner of the road that led to the Kingdom of Silk eleven letterboxes stood, all in a crooked row. One August afternoon there was a slim blue envelope in the Silk’s letterbox. There was tiny writing printed on the front of it next to a picture of two hands. One of the hands in the picture was big and it was holding on to a small one.

  ‘You can carry it if you like,’ said Griffin. Perry took his backpack off and put the letter inside.

  When they reached home, Nell was sitting on the veranda watching storm clouds blow across the valley. Perry handed her the letter. She took her glasses out of her apron pocket, put them on and peered at the tiny writing and the picture of the two hands, then she tucked the envelope in her apron pocket.

  ‘It’s for Ben and Annie,’ she said.

  That night, after Perry had gone to bed, Ben and Annie Silk told Griffin and the Rainbow Girls that the letter contained important news.

  10. Castaway

  Melody was coming back to the Kingdom of Silk in spring. When Layla heard of her return she thought it would be the perfect opportunity to celebrate.

  ‘What sort of a celebration?’ asked Griffin, wondering if Layla had somehow guessed about the important news. Layla bunched her shoulders up near her ears.

  ‘I don’t know. Weren’t the Rainbow Girls going to have a party to welcome Perry?’

  ‘Yes, but he’s been here for ages, now.’

  ‘Spring, then,’ said Layla, ‘or because Melody’s coming back. There’s heaps of things we can be thankful for! What about Perry’s birthday? When is that?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Griffin.

  ‘Nell might know, let’s ask her,’ said Layla.

  ‘Not till December,’ said Nell.

  ‘Oh, that’s too far away,’ said Layla.

  ‘Too far away for what?’

  ‘Layla wants to have a celebration when Melody comes,’ explained Griffin.

  ‘Now that’s a good idea!’ said Nell, and for a minute Griffin thought Nell had forgotten about keeping the secret. ‘But first let me ask Annie and Ben what they think.’

  Ben and Annie agreed some kind of celebration was in order.

  ‘Yes,’ said Annie, ‘Layla’s right, we do have a lot to be thankful for.’

  ‘What will we call the party?’ asked Layla.

  ‘I’m sure you and Griffin will think of something,’ said Nell.

  While they were thinking, Nell asked them what sort of food they thought she should make.

  ‘Sausage rolls,’ said Griffin, because they were his favourite.

  ‘And chocolate cake,’ said Layla. Then Amber came into the kitchen.

  ‘Chocolate cake, what for?’ she asked.

  ‘We’re having a celebration,’ said Griffin.

  ‘I’ll make my Armenian Love cake if you like,’ said Amber, not bothering to ask what they were celebrating.

  ‘Two cakes?’ asked Griffin, but no-one seemed to notice. Then Layla thought of an excellent name for the party.

  ‘We could call it the Day of Cake and Thankfulness!’ she said.

  ‘That, said Nell, ‘is the perfect name.’

  On the eve of the Day of Cake and Thankfulness Layla stayed at the Silk’s house to help with the catering. There was much to be done. She sprinkled sausage rolls with poppy seeds, bread triangles with hundreds and thousands, and lamingtons with coconut. Then she and Griffin floated sixteen chocolate frogs on sixteen jelly ponds and before they went to bed they blew up sixteen red balloons.

  On the morning of the Day of Cake and Thankfulness, the daffodils unfurled their yellow trumpets. The table was set beneath the Cox’s Orange Pippin. Nell used a tablecloth with holly wreaths embroidered in the corners, even though it wasn’t Christmas. Layla and the Rainbow Girls put Wickedly Watermelon smiles on their faces with Nell’s new pink lipstick and Blue had his hair brushed and his toenails trimmed.

  Miss Cherry and her small scruffy dog were the first to arrive. They brought a gift for Perry — a rainbow in a box; a tin of pencils of his own. The Elliotts came next and then the preacher. Layla hardly recognised him because he was wearing a pink and orange Hawaiian shirt and jeans. Then the yellow taxi came with Melody. That was when they discovered Perry had gone missing.

  The Elliotts and the preacher, Miss Cherry and Melody all helped the Silks to search for the precious thing they had lost. They looked everywhere; in the house and under the house, in the bedrooms and under the beds. They looked in the Bedford and in the hen house and turned the yellow light on in Ben’s shed, but Perry wasn’t there. Their footsteps grew quicker and they muttered little prayers and made promises inside their heads while they climbed the crooked steps to the tree-house and searched the tangled garden. But not a trace could they find of Perry Angel. Their faces grew white and their hands and hearts trembled when Griffin came running to tell them he had found Perry’s small, shabby suitcase lying on the end of the jetty.

  Perry Angel sat as still as could be in the middle of the raft. He wished he hadn’t put his suitcase down before he lifted the loop of rope off the mooring post. He wished the corner of the raft hadn’t dipped so dangerously down into the water when he’d taken a step back to try to reach his case, and he wished the life jacket hadn’t floated away. He wondered how long it would take him to reach the sea and hoped it wouldn’t be too long. He felt the breeze in his hair and wished it would blow harder and fill the rag sail because the water was coming up through the cracks between the logs. He wished he had oars so he could steer the raft. Then Perry told himself it was no use wishing for things that would never come true.

  He had seen Melody’s taxi arrive moments before the raft nudged its way around the far side of the island. She was too late; they’d never find him once he reached the sea. He lay down on the raft and watched the clouds drifting and wondered how Layla would feel when she found out he wasn’t important at all. What would she think when she knew the suitcase was stolen from a thrift shop and the five golden letters only stood for Post Master General’s Department of Australia and prepositions didn’t count? Would Melody show them the newspaper clipping that told the story of how he had been left in the suitcase on the steps of the Maxwell Street welfare office? And what about Griffin when he found out Perry wasn’t short for anything, that it wasn’t even his proper name; it was just made-up, something you called a boy whose mother hadn’t given him a name? He wondered how Nell would feel if she opened the suitcase and discovered he had stolen some of her lamingtons for the voyage. But it didn’t matter what they thought, because he’d never see them again.

  He put his hands over his ears so he wouldn’t hear them calling. Then he curled himself up as small as he could and tried to pretend he wasn’t there.

  Time passed and Perry felt the raft gently rocking. He pictured white-capped waves and golden sand. When he opened his eyes he stared in dismay. He wasn’t at the sea at all. The raft had done a complete circle of the island. Ben Silk was running towards the jetty. Perry scrambled to his feet. He steadied himself against the mast and braced his feet on the slippery logs. The raft tilted and the water lapped greedily over the edges. Perry was afraid, but not of the water. He was afraid Melody would take him back to The Others the way she always did. But this time it would be worse, much worse, because this time he had found his special place. Then the feeling began to come back and there was nothing and no-one for Perry to hold on to. The raft began to rock and he couldn’t keep his balance. His whole world was spinning out of control.

  ‘Don’t move!’ Ben shoute
d and dived into the water in all his Sunday best. Then he was there on the raft and his big, kind hands cuddled Perry against his heart. After a while the storm inside Perry quietened and Ben began to talk. Perry kept his eyes shut and listened.

  ‘Melody is your friend, Perry, just like we are.’ Perry could not believe what he was hearing. Ben Silk was the same as all the others. He would say how much they had enjoyed having Perry, but now it was time for him to go. ‘She wants you to be happy, that’s why she’s come today.’

  Perry scrunched his eyes tighter and clamped his hands over his ears again. But the shouting was inside his head.

  ‘No, no, no!’

  Ben firmly peeled Perry’s hands away. ‘We want you to stay with us, Perry,’ he said. ‘That’s why Melody’s come; to make sure that’s what we all want. Is that what you want, Perry? Is it? Will you stay with us?’

  11. Of Cake and Thankfulness

  Nell was magnificent in the crushed purple cloak she wore when she was Mistress of Ceremonies. In her left hand she held the Sceptre of Office, which was really a shiny brass curtain rod she had borrowed from the front room. She explained she would use it to bang on the table if the people making speeches went on for too long.

  It seemed everyone had something to be grateful for on the Day of Cake and Thankfulness. But Ben had the most to say. He wanted to thank everyone and everything. He was thankful for the weather, the food, the visitors and his family. His beautiful Annie kept her arms around his shoulders while he was talking and he kept his arms around Perry. Then he said he had something important to tell them and he stood up in his soggy clothes. Annie put out her arms like Madonna’s wings to Perry and he went to her and sat on her lap.

  Ben walked up to the end of the table near Nell and he said, ‘This all happened a long, long time ago. Annie and Nell know the story and now we think you children should know, too.’ He was quiet for a while as though he was remembering how it was all those years ago, then he said, ‘When I was a little boy, my mum couldn’t take care of me.’

  Griffin wondered if Nell had been sick; maybe she’d had a broken heart like Mama did after Tishkin died. Daddy went on. ‘I lived with many, many families, sometimes for only a couple of weeks, sometimes longer. I began to wonder if I would ever find a place that I wouldn’t have to leave.’ There were long pauses while Ben told his story, but no-one made a sound. ‘Then one day they sent me to stay with a lady who had once had a husband and two children, but now she had no-one. Together we became a family. We were very happy together, that lady and I — and we still are. Her name is Nell.’

  The Rainbow Girls, Griffin and Layla sat in confused silence while their minds whirled with unasked, unanswered questions. It seemed impossible to believe that Ben was not Nell’s real son. Ben continued.

  ‘Nell shared her home with me and loved me all the time I was growing up but there were … reasons why she couldn’t adopt me.’

  What about his name? the children wondered. Nell was a Silk and so was Ben, how could this be? Then Ben explained.

  ‘When I was old enough I asked Nell if she would mind if I changed my last name to hers.’

  Griffin remembered the yellow paper on Easter morning; the promise from Ben that was always the same, signed with his full name. Now he understood it was because of what Nell had done for his daddy.

  Ben had already done more than his share of talking but the Mistress of Ceremonies couldn’t see the second hand on the clock, because her eyes had come over all misty. She didn’t gong the table with the Sceptre of Office, but nobody minded when Ben kept going.

  ‘I haven’t told you this before because Ben Silk is who I am and Nell Silk is my mother and that’s the way it will always be. It’s just that we didn’t start off that way. The reason I’ve told you is because I want you to understand why I’m so incredibly proud of the way you’ve welcomed Perry into our family.’

  Then it was the preacher’s turn but he seemed to have forgotten. He sat there in his Hawaiian shirt with the sun shining down on his eggy head and a red balloon bobbing about in the breeze at the back of his chair.

  ‘You’re next, Reverend,’ said Nell, and the preacher stood up. For a long time he didn’t say a thing, which was most peculiar for the preacher. Then he said, ‘It seems when we are most thankful, words fail us. I am privileged to have shared this special day with all of you and my only wish is that everyone could spend a day in the Kingdom of Silk. It is the closest place on earth to the Kingdom of Heaven.’

  When the preacher sat down, Ben took his mouth organ out of his pocket. He emptied the water out of it and began to play a lilting love song and Annie sang the words. Griffin found the first yellow daisies of the season and made them into a crown for Perry, while Layla and the Rainbow Girls danced in their hats and high heels and smiled their Wickedly Watermelon smiles.

  Perry Angel didn’t say anything at all on the Day of Cake and Thankfulness, but inside he was very, very thankful and he made up his mind that on the next day he would ask Nell for a whirl on her Hills Hoist.

  Some little-known facts about Glenda Millard

  When she was young, she used to jump off the roof of her Nana’s shed and try to fly.

  Two of her favourite activities now, are hot air ballooning and bike riding. Both of them make her feel a little bit like she’s flying.

  She enjoys sucking the chocolate off Clinkers lollies and trying to guess what colour the middles are. Her favourite ones are pink.

  Some Sunday mornings, she reads ‘The Wind in the Willows’ out loud, to her husband and her dog, in bed. She thinks they love it.

  She and her husband cook sourdough bread and pizza in a wood-fired oven in the back yard.

  When she plays her beautiful red piano accordion, her dog goes to sleep inside its case.

  A little-known fact about Stephen Michael King

  Stephen Michael King loves being barefoot. The main drive behind his becoming a book illustrator was not fame, fortune or artistic integrity. It was simply the most perfect barefoot job he could find.

  You can visit Stephen Michael King at: smkbooks.com

  Other Books by Glenda Millard

  When the Angels Came

  Bringing Reuben Home

  The Novice

  Angel Breath

  Mrs Wiggins’ Wartymelons

  Applesauce and the Christmas Miracle

  The Kingdom of Silk series:

  The Naming of Tishkin Silk

  Layla, Queen of Hearts

  Perry Angel’s Suitcase

  All the Colours of Paradise

  Plum Puddings and Paper Moons

  Copyright

  The ABC ‘Wave’ device is a trademark of the

  Australian Broadcasting Corporation and is used

  under licence by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia.

  First published in 2008 by ABC Books for

  the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

  This edition published in 2013

  by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited

  ABN 36 009 913 517

  www.harpercollins.com.au

  Copyright © Glenda Millard 2008

  Copyright © illustrations Stephen Michael King 2008

  The right of Glenda Millard and Stephen Michael King to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.

  This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  HarperCollinsPublishers

  Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia

  31 View Road, Glenfield, Auckland 0627, New Zealand

  A 53, Sector 57, Noida, UP, India

  77-85 Fulham Palace Road, London W6 8JB, United Kingdom

  2 Bloor Street East,
20th floor, Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8, Canada

  10 East 53rd Street, New York NY 10022, USA

  National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Print data:

  Perry Angel’s Suitcase/author, Glenda Millard;

  illustrator Stephen Michael King.

  1st ed.

  ISBN 978 0 7304 9548 2 (epub)

  Self-actualisation (Psychology) – Juvenile fiction.

  Signs and symbols – Juvenile fiction.

  King, Stephen Michael.

  A823.3

  Cover design by Ellie Exarchos

  Cover illustration by Stephen Michael King