by Alice Pung
Marly watched her mother’s face. She knew what her mother was thinking: an extra hour with Marly out of the house would mean she could get through more shirts.
‘Okay, but be waiting for me at the gate by half four, do you hear?’
‘Yes, yes,’ said Marly as she ran through the school gates. Her backpack fell from her shoulder as she bumped into Kane, who was scratching away at his latest set of Donkey Kong cards. ‘Oi! Watch it! You almost wrecked my game,’ he shouted.
Marly looked around the schoolyard and could see Donkey Kong madness in every corner. More than anything, Marly still wanted those packets of Donkey Kong cards and stickers. Sure, it was great having Yousra to hang out with during lunchtimes and recess, but everyone still ignored her during class, and no one ever wanted to partner up with her. Marly longed to fit in, to play the scratch cards and swap the stickers.
‘Hey! Marly!’ Yousra called to her and waved from the other side of the yard. Marly waved back, but didn’t go over. Somehow, she didn’t feel so friendly towards Yousra right now. Yousra’s secret job had caused a gap between them.
When it was finally home time, Marly rushed out of the big, red-brick schoolhouse to make sure she didn’t miss Yousra. She waited behind the bike shed, and spotted Yousra with her purple backpack heading out the front gate. Marly grabbed her own backpack, slung it over her shoulder, and followed her friend down busy Hampshire Road, making sure that there were a couple of kids with their parents between them. The last thing she needed was for Yousra to see her.
Marly struggled to keep up as Yousra walked fast on her long legs, past the houses and the big roundabout, towards the shops. She watched Yousra cross the road, past the closed-down Waltons department store, and head to the local Sims supermarket. How on earth did she get a job at the supermarket? Marly wondered, feeling a little jealous.
She waited for Yousra to enter, but her friend went around the back of the store, to the car park, instead.
Puzzled, Marly crossed the road and followed Yousra. She hid beside a large ute, and watched Yousra grab a stray trolley on the edge of a parking space. Yousra took it to the ‘Trolley Return’ area, right next to where Marly was hiding. She joined the trolley with the other trolleys by their chain link, and pocketed the twenty-cent coin that popped out from the centre of the handlebar. Then she went to collect another trolley, and another. With each trolley that she returned, she took the 20-cent coin that came out.
Marly realised that this was how her friend made money. It was such a clever and simple idea, to collect the trolleys that people hadn’t returned to the trolley bays, and keep the 20-cent deposit. Marly wanted to cheer for Yousra, to tell her what a genius she was, but she knew she had to stay hidden.
Just then, a man in a blue Bonds singlet, carrying two shopping bags, walked towards the ute Marly was hiding behind, so she had to edge away from it. Marly watched him load the bags in the back, get in the driver’s seat and start the engine. The vehicle reversed and drove out of the supermarket. Marly had lost her hiding spot!
‘Hey, Marly! What are you doing here?’ exclaimed Yousra.
Marly couldn’t think quick enough to lie and say that her mother was just shopping. ‘Umm,’ said Marly. ‘Errrr . . .’
‘You followed me here, didn’t you?’ Yousra crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Marly.
Marly felt terrible. She knew that friends didn’t sneak around behind each other’s backs. Maybe Yousra was right not to trust me, thought Marly, and wondered how she could make Yoursa not be mad at her. She noticed a stray trolley. ‘Hey, Yousra, here’s one!’ Marly walked over to help her friend collect it.
‘It’s mine!’ Yousra shouted, and she stood in front of the trolley before Marly could reach it. ‘They’re all mine! Get lost!’
Marly was shocked. ‘Okay, okay.’ She stepped back. ‘You don’t have to yell at me.’ She looked at Yousra, but Yousra wouldn’t look at her. Her friend had been rude to others when they deserved it, but she had never been so rude to Marly before.
‘You followed me here!’ accused Yousra. ‘Just so you could steal my job!’
‘No, I wasn’t trying to steal your job, I swear,’ said Marly. ‘I was just cross because you kept it as this great big secret from me. Come on, I tell you everything!’
Yousra stopped shouting and looked at her. ‘Look, Marly. I have to give most of this money to my family, all right? Do you get it?’
Marly got it. She got that Yousra, like her, never had the latest toys. She got that Yousra needed the money to help her family out, in the same way that Marly’s mum and aunt needed the help of the whole family when sewing orders were too massive. And she got why Yousra had kept all this a secret from her – because she didn’t want Marly to take her job, just as Marly wouldn’t have liked it if her mum gave a new batch of shirt collars to Rosie to do instead of her. She got it all.
And so Marly nodded, and said, ‘I think it’s very smart that you figured out a way to make money like this. I wish I’d thought of it. Good on you, Yousra. I’m sorry that I followed you.’
Marly saw relief sweep over Yousra’s face, and that made her feel a lot better.
‘Look, I don’t mind you using my idea,’ said Yousra. ‘Just don’t do it at my supermarket. I know where there’s another Sims supermarket, though. My mum sometimes shops there and they have the same trolley system. You could try getting the coins there?’
‘Oh yeah!’ exclaimed Marly. ‘I know that place, it’s on a corner! My mum goes there, too, every time she visits Dr Cheng. But I’m not sure how to get there. My mum always drives us.’
‘You can get a bus there from here,’ Yousra said. She pointed back towards the road. ‘Tomorrow, if you wait across the road from school, the 220 bus will take you there and stop outside the supermarket. Here, take this,’ she said as she handed Marly a handful of twenty-cent coins. ‘That should be enough for the bus ticket.’
‘Geez, thanks, Yousra. I’ll pay you back, I promise.’
‘Don’t worry, that’s what friends are for. But I swear, if you tell anyone else about my job, I’ll punch you. I give this money to my mum, and I don’t want Kane and the rest of them coming around stealing my idea and my money.’
‘Don’t worry, Yousra, I won’t tell anyone,’ Marly promised.
Marly waved to her friend as Yousra rounded up more trolleys, and headed back towards school. She reached the gate just in time, as her mother turned the corner on the other side of the road to come and pick her up. Phew! she thought.
‘See, Mum? I told you I’d be waiting here,’ Marly said, wanting to make sure her mum knew that she was responsible. ‘Can I stay behind again tomorrow while you finish off some more sewing?’ She felt bad about lying to her mum again, but knew it was the only way. Her mum wouldn’t even let her walk to school on her own, so there was no way she would let her catch a bus and collect trolleys at the supermarket – even if she was earning money.
Her mum hesitated only for a little bit. ‘Sure. Why not?’ she said. The fresh air can’t be bad for you. But promise me again, Marly, that you will be waiting at the school gate at half-past four, you hear?’
‘I promise,’ said Marly. At least she wasn’t lying about that . . .
THE next day at school, Marly was even more fidgety that usual. She couldn’t wait to get started in her new ‘job’. She had it all planned out. She figured that it would only take fifteen minutes for the bus to get to Sims supermarket. Then she would have half an hour to collect the coins from the trolleys, and then it would take another fifteen minutes to get back. She’d be back at the school gates just in time for her mum to pick her up at half-past four.
Marly didn’t have a watch, but she knew half an hour was a long time from all the times she’d waited when her mum had said ‘just another half hour’. Marly had never caught a bus by herself before, but it seemed pretty simple from when she’d been on it with her mum – what could go wrong?
M
arly watched the clock all day, and couldn’t believe how slowly time went. When the clock hands finally pointed to half-past three, she was the first out the door and through the school gates. The bus arrived at the stop just as Marly crossed the road.
Marly stepped onto the bus behind an older kid. ‘Concession Zone 1, three hourly please,’ he said. She watched how many coins he handed over to the driver and made sure she had the right money ready in her hand.
‘The same, please,’ Marly said to the driver when the older kid moved to take a seat.
‘Rightio young lady,’ said the cheery bus driver. ‘By the way, I haven’t seen you on this bus before.’
Marly felt her cheeks go red, but she kept her cool. ‘Just going to the supermarket in Footscray to meet my mum,’ she said.
‘Great, I will holler when it’s your stop then,’ said the driver, handing her a yellow ticket.
Marly put the ticket in her dress pocket to keep it safe for the journey home. She found an empty seat near the back of the bus – she didn’t want to have to answer any awkward questions from well-meaning adults. She sat next to the window and looked outside. There was Yousra, smiling and waving at her from the other side of the road. She waved back and felt excited. This was an adventure!
The bus took much longer than Marly had thought it would. She had forgotten that buses stopped very often to let passengers on and off. As Marly sat on the bus alone, clutching her schoolbag on her lap, she started to feel panicky. The bus inched slowly along the road, and after each stop, Marly worried more and more about being on her own. But then she saw the big bold letters spelling out SIMS SUPERMARKET, and her excitement came back.
She sprang up from her seat as the bus driver shouted, ‘Young lady! Your stop!’ She thanked the driver, stepped off the bus, and went around the back of the supermarket to check out the car park. It was huge!
Marly smiled and set to work.
She grabbed trolley after trolley, returned them to the bay, clicked in the chain link and collected each coin that popped out. Marly couldn’t believe how many people didn’t return their trolleys to the bays. Didn’t they care about getting their twenty cents back?
She was just connecting three stray trolleys when she got a tap on her shoulder.
‘Hey there, little girl.’ A tall, worried-looking lady with hair the colour of Samboy Chips looked down at her. ‘Where’s your mum and dad?’ The woman was holding on to a small, squirming kid who had the same coloured hair, and, with her other hand, she was struggling to control her trolley.
Marly realised that she needed a convincing story to stop adults from bugging her. ‘My mum is just inside,’ she lied. ‘She forgot to get the milk. She asked me to return this trolley and wait by the car for her.’ Marly pointed out a red car she knew had only recently been parked there by a bent old man.
‘Okay. But you wait here for her, and don’t wander off by yourself anywhere,’ the lady said while her little boy almost pulled her arm out of joint, trying to get away.
Marly smiled her sweetest smile. ‘Hey, can I help you put your groceries away in the car?’ she asked. ‘My mum will still be able to see me.’
Marly pushed the trolley for the lady over to her car. She loaded the white plastic bags full of food in her boot while the lady strapped the wriggling little boy into his car seat. ‘Don’t worry,’ said Marly. ‘I can return the trolley for you and bring you back the coin.’
‘Oh no, just keep the coin,’ said the mother. ‘You deserve it.’
Marly smiled. She had a new technique that Yousra didn’t have. Yousra had avoided other people at her supermarket, because, Marly figured, she was worried about being kicked out of the car park. But Marly decided she would talk to people and make herself useful.
It worked! Everyone was so grateful to her that she got to keep all the twenty-cent coins from returning the trolleys for them, instead of only waiting around for abandoned trolleys.
The next busy mother who Marly helped gave Marly a whole dollar, as well as letting her keep the trolley coin. Marly could not believe her wealth, or how fast it was building up. She was careful about who she approached, because she knew all about how dodgy strangers could push you in the car boot and drive away. She had good street smarts. Mothers with kids, yes. Mysterious strangers, no.
Marly patted her pocket full of coins. She couldn’t wait to get home and count her earnings – just think of all the Donkey Kong packs I’ll be able to buy! she thought. That’ll show Kane and the others.
Marly left the car park and crossed the road to the bus stop there. A bus had already stopped to let people on, so she ran to catch it before the driver closed the doors. She pulled her yellow ticket from her pocket and showed it to the driver, and then found a seat close to the front of the bus. This time, the bus did not stop so often. Marly was relieved. She didn’t know the exact time, but she was pretty sure she had spent only half an hour at the supermarket, giving her enough time to get back to school before her mum arrived to pick her up.
Feeling happy and relieved that she’d pulled it off, Marly looked out the bus window to see where she was, but things didn’t look quite right. The streets were getting narrower, and the houses were packed together more closely. In fact, this did not look at all like Marly’s neighbourhood.
Marly’s heart started to race. She frantically searched for something that she recognised, but there was nothing.
Unsure what to do, she left her seat and walked up to the driver. She asked him timidly, ‘Excuse me, is this bus going back to Sunshine?’
‘Oh, no!’ said the bus driver. ‘You’ve caught the wrong bus, little girl.’
MARLY felt breathless and her palms were clammy as panic set in and it dawned on her – she was lost! She thought back to when she had got on the bus and realised with dread that she hadn’t checked the number on the front of the bus. She had been so distracted by the sound of the jingling coins in her pocket that she had just hopped on the first bus that arrived.
The driver spoke again, making her jump. ‘We’re heading towards North Melbourne,’ he said. ‘Your best bet is to get off at North Melbourne station, catch a train into the city, and then hop on the Werribee or Williamstown line back to Sunshine. That would be the quickest route. Where’s your mum?’
‘Oh, she’s waiting for me at the bus stop in Sunshine,’ Marly lied. She had no idea where this North Melbourne was, and what was worse, she had no idea what the Williamstown or Werribee lines were. Were they bus stops? Train stops? The driver’s instructions sounded way too complicated to remember.
Instead of asking him to repeat them, Marly figured that she would just get off at the next stop, cross over to the other side of the road, and catch the bus going back the other way. If the bus she was on came from Sims supermarket, then surely there must be a bus that would take her back that way. Yes, that seemed like the best idea. If she could just get back to Sims supermarket, then she would be able to find her way home from there.
Marly stood in the aisle of the bus, feeling anxious, until the driver said, ‘This stop is North Melbourne. Your stop.’
Marly got off the bus and quickly crossed the road to the bus stop there. She had a plan, and she wanted to get going as quickly as possible. But as Marly waited at the bus stop, she didn’t feel too good about her plan. A bald man kept smiling at her in a creepy way, and so she moved closer to an Asian mum and her baby boy, so that the bald man would think they were her family.
The Asian mum noticed. She asked Marly a question, but Marly didn’t understand what the woman was saying. She did recognise some of the words as Vietnamese, though. Her family had spoken Cantonese when they lived in Vietnam, and so she had only known the odd word of Vietnamese. But right now, she really wished she knew more.
When the bus arrived, the lady beckoned Marly to get on with her. Marly didn’t know what else to do, so she followed the lady and sat with her on the bus while her baby sat on her lap. His hair stuck up like a toil
et-brush, and he kept dropping his elephant rattle. Marly smiled at him and picked it up a couple of times, but spent most of the bus ride staring out the window, desperately searching for something that looked familiar.
The houses started to get bigger. The fences grew taller. Little towers poked out of rooftops, and big, curtained windows stood proudly looking over well-kept front lawns. None of it was anything like Marly’s neighbourhood of cement houses, overgrown front yards and broken-down cars.
Marly knew that she’d got on the wrong bus – again – and her heart sank. She glanced at the Vietnamese woman’s wrist and saw a small, elegant gold band with a white face. Marly pointed to the woman’s watch and the woman held it closer for Marly to have a look. Marly could not believe her eyes. Surely the watch must be wrong. The time read quarter-past five. Marly’s heart began to beat faster. She had no idea where she was, and knew her mum must be frantic with worry about her at the school gate. She thought she might cry.
The Vietnamese woman pulled the bell cord, and stood up while the bus slowed to a stop. Her little boy was now howling and she struggled to make herself heard over his shouts. ‘’ the lady said to her.
Marly shook her head. She had no idea what the woman was saying. She didn’t want to get off the bus with this strange lady and screaming son, and go to a house where she couldn’t understand anything being said.
The woman got off the bus and shook her head sadly at Marly.
Marly was very aware that she was now alone. She checked out the other people on the almost-empty bus. There was the creepy bald man, dozing with his cheek resting against the window. There were two women who looked the same age as Marly’s mum, with cloth-covered shopping trolleys, speaking in another language that Marly didn’t recognise. There was a guy with a Mohawk haircut wearing a cut-off denim vest who looked a bit like a criminal Marly once saw in her local paper. He glared at her. Marly quickly looked away.
This was no longer an adventure. It was turning into something weird and dangerous, and Marly was terrified. Her legs felt weak and shaky, and she just wanted to crawl under the bus seat and hide.
