by Gary Seeary
Mrs Parmenter apologised to us for how violent the night had become and said she regretted putting Lettie and me in the way of danger. I was about to say in no way was it her fault, when Lettie jumped in looking quite emotional, saying although she was a little scared, the greatest shame of the evening for her, was that there was no debate.
Lettie said she would have loved to hear both sides of the argument debated openly, even ask questions of the speakers, and that the University may have lost a great opportunity to bring all the groups together to release some of the tension she has felt around the campus, from the day she walked in to see the ‘Peace Group’ meeting.
Everyone agreed wholeheartedly with Lettie’s sentiments, but William added that unless the situation in Spain changed overnight, it would be a very long time before these rival camps embraced each other.
Lettie and I waved to our new friends while saying goodnight, before walking back through the arched entrance to the Quadrangle Garden, the cries of ‘Viva Cristo Rey’ disappearing completely not far along the vaulted corridor.
11
* * *
Taking Stock
The Vice-Chancellor is in big trouble at the Uni, Grub,” Lettie came out with all of a sudden, before sitting down next to me at Aunty May’s small kitchen table.
She said Madeline had told her the Vice-Chancellor had been summoned to face the Chancellor and the Board of Management to explain how he could have allowed the Spanish debate to proceed, when every indicator pointed to a complete debacle.
“Madeline reckons they will keep at him until he resigns,” Lettie added nonchalantly.
My mind had only begun to clear three days after the event, allowing me to make some sense out of what had happened on Monday night. I couldn’t believe the contempt the opposing groups held for each other when, in the end, they were only expressing ideas. It was a real eye opener to see how easily people can be drawn into taking sides, and then turn on anyone who doesn’t agree.
“The College grounds and the Uni campus were like ghost towns during the week, Grub,” Lettie added with a smile. “I don’t think anyone’s willing to show their face, in case they get recognised by someone who saw their bad behaviour at the lecture theatre. Everyone in the kitchen reckons that the five blokes who turned on the firehose will get suspended. If they can find ’em!”
“I’m sure everyone in the Uni knows who they are, Lett, except the big wigs. No-one will dob them in.”
Lettie said Madeline had troubles of her own on Tuesday morning, angry that she had to leave the college kitchen for several hours in order to post her husband’s bail at the Russell Street Police station.
“She called him every name under the sun, not all under her breath before she left. She says he’s gone from being an ordinary bastard, to a real bad bastard,” Lettie giggled.
“Leticia, what are they teaching you in that kitchen?” Aunty May huffed, shaking her head. “Can you come and get the kettle please, if it’s not an inconvenience.”
“Heads will roll for sure, Grub. Dunno how many though,” Lettie declared, before getting up.
I didn’t think Easter could come quick enough for the University of Melbourne.
*
Later that night, Lettie and I were enjoying the best cup of tea from Aunty May’s silver teapot while she busied herself damping down the Aga for the night. The reality of our trip home tomorrow was beginning to sink in, when a face appeared in the darkened frame of the screen door, and softly called, “Hello?”
It was William’s voice.
“William, is that you? Don’t be like a stranger, hangin’ out there. Come in,” Lettie insisted jumping up to get the door. “What brings ya ’round these parts?”
“Just popping in for a quick visit, Lettie. How is everyone?” William asked jovially, conspicuously holding a book in his left hand.
It occurred to me that neither William, nor Elaine for that matter, had ever been into Aunty May’s and our home, or had met Aunty May before. This could be interesting.
Aunty May threw off her apron and patted down her hair and dress before William had a chance to look over and notice her.
“Hello, you would be Lettie and Seb’s aunt, if I may be so forward. They have spoken of you often, in glowing terms. Glad to finally meet you,” William said charmingly, laying it on thicker than necessary, but exactly how Aunty May would have liked it.
“I doubt that my young charges would have said that, William. Please call me May. I am so glad that Sebastian and Leticia have been able to make friends with such generous and substantial young people as Elaine and yourself. Much has been recounted about the wonderful evening they spent at Elaine’s parents’ house in Camberwell. I felt a little jealous, not attending myself,” Aunty May gushed, turning a little red in the face.
“The next soirée the Parmenters have, I will personally make sure Elaine places you on top of the list, May. But, I do have a mission this evening. I found a book, as I was shuffling through my wardrobe this afternoon that I thought Lettie may like to read on the train or at Easter. It’s my favourite of Blake Parmenter’s books Men Are Human, Too!”
Aunty May interjected, “I’ve read that book, William. In fact, I have a copy somewhere in my room, such a witty book. He must be a clever man. Would I be correct, William?”
“He’s a very down to earth man, May, great to talk to. Can’t say anything bad about him, of course.”
“Of course you can’t!” laughed Aunty May as if she was Madam Pompadour.
After flattering Aunty May, William turned to me and asked if he could have a word with me outside, before going back to the college.
“Lovely to have met you, May, and I hope you enjoy the book, Lettie, but I must have a word with Seb,” William apologised, holding the fly-screen door open for me.
“Sure will, see ya soon, William,” Lettie smiled and then as she waved. “Please take care.”
William returned a tiny smile back to her.
“Pleasure to meet you, William. I hope you can bring Elaine around one day. I would love to meet her as well,” Aunty May requested, her voice rising as William headed backwards out the door.
“I will make sure of it …” William called back, closing the screen door while I tentatively followed him out to the back of the boarding house.
“Let’s go down the lane a little, Seb,” William said without emotion.
“Sure,” I replied. We moved out of the glare of the only street light in the vicinity, to the shadows under a peppercorn tree, in the laneway at the rear of Aunty May’s.
“I’m going, Seb, I’m going to Spain,” William said, becoming quite jittery. “I have to, but I’m not going to fight. I’m going for another reason. I told you already about the rumours coming out of Spain.”
I hoped for Elaine’s sake that I was never going to hear those words, but in the back of my mind I also knew that it was only a matter of time.
“William, no, ya talkin’ rot. Don’t do it to Elaine,” I pleaded. “With what’s happening with her sister, she will be devastated. Don’t be a bloody fool,” I said, trying my hardest to convince him it was a terrible mistake, but not having any effect on his demeanour.
“Don’t disrespect me by saying that, Seb. I’m trying to save Aggy’s life. When I told you Agatha was amongst four women under suspicion for being a spy, I didn’t tell you the whole truth … She’s the only woman under suspicion. The Provisional Government only gives suspected spies so much time to prove their innocence. Then, they lose patience.”
Why didn’t Agatha just leave with her family?
“Listen, William, think about Elaine, how would she be if you were captured or killed?” I argued, walking back into the streetlight.
“I have no intention of being captured or killed, Sebastian. I’ll be travelling with a high-ranking figure in the Seamen’s Union, a Kiwi called Kernot who worked out of Barcelona for several years in the merchant navy. He has many contacts with
local Government officials, and we have documents and letters to clear this up. I am not going into this blindly. To do nothing in this matter would be negligent and make a coward out of me,” William said firmly, as he joined me under the streetlight.
“The suspicion came about when the Provisional Government was informed that the family Agatha was billeted with in Rome during her Red Cross training, had a son in the O.V.R.A, the Italian Secret Police. In all her letters from Rome, Agatha only mentions two daughters, and they and their parents were vehemently opposed to the fascist government, so it cannot be the same family. It’s a horrendous error, Seb. I have to correct it,” William explained, looking exasperated, feigning a kick at the wooden paling fence.
“When are you leaving, William?” I asked, resigned to the fact that nothing was going to change his mind.
“I don’t want to tell you when, or how Seb, because I want you to leave with me,” William declared, standing squarely in front of me. “I need you with me. You’re the only person I can trust to have my back, all the time. You can tell me who to watch out for over there.”
William looked at me with an expectation that I would jump at it.
“No, William, I can’t. I want to help Elaine’s sister, but I can’t. I have to go back home tomorrow to decide what to do about my brother, Robbie. I have to give him priority at the moment. He is stuck in an asylum that only horror stories come out of. Lettie and I have to look after him,” I tried to explain, becoming frustrated that I had been asked to choose between my family and someone else’s.
“You’re not his father, Sebastian …”
“I know, but I am his brother,” I said simply back.
William started to walk off and then turned around.
“You’re a great bloke, Seb. But you will never grow up staying here. You will always do right by others, but not yourself. You can stay and work at Cooks for the rest of your life. Who cares? No-one will ever say that’s when Sebastian made his mark. That was his day. All people will say is, how could he have put up with that stinking place for so long? He was better than that. They won’t praise you for being strong, they will laugh at you for being weak.”
William walked deep into the lane, returning soon after with a large canvas bag.
“People only judge you on what you do when it matters. I know you love Lettie and your family, but they’re not you. Don’t look back twenty or thirty years down the track and then realise that this was your chance, maybe your only chance, to decide where your life takes you. Help me bring Agatha back home to her family. Don’t throw this moment away, Seb.”
William continued to look at me for some time, and then walked to the end of the lane, not turning around as he disappeared out of the streetlight into the night.
I moved into the shadow of the peppercorn tree and leant my head against the wooden paling fence, knowing I would never see William again.
*
“Grub, are you there?” Lettie called out from the back steps of Aunty May’s.
How could I hide the disappointment I was feeling? I had let down a friend who asked me to help save someone’s life. I wanted to tell Lettie what had just happened, but that would only put her in the same dilemma as me; wanting to support friends that had already set themselves on a path, well before Lettie or I arrived on the scene.
“Out here, Lett. Just enjoying the fresh air,” I called back from under the peppercorn.
“You’re a strange one sometimes, Grub, it’s freezing out here. Is William still around?” Lettie asked, as she stepped out into the streetlight with a cardigan over her shoulders, probably wondering why I was still hanging around in the laneway with a cold wind starting to bite.
“He’s gone, Lett,” I replied, fighting a waver in my voice. “Back to the college, I suppose.”
“Inside the book were two notes. One’s nice, the other … I dunno. William left a note saying how much he cherished our friendship, and how he loved to watch Elaine and I get on so well. He is a nice guy, ya know.”
“I do know that, Lett. Who’s the other note from?” I asked. “Ya don’t have to tell me if ya don’t want to.”
“Now, Grub, don’t get angry, but it’s from the man I was dancing with towards the end of the night at the Parmenters. He wants to take me out to a dance, or elsewhere at a time of my choosing. I thought I’d let you know that I might take him up on it, if I get back,” Lettie explained, giving me her best girly look, with her head leant to the side.
“The old bloke, Lett, he could be our dad. You don’t know anything about him.”
“I know he’s just turned thirty, never been married before and he seems really nice. I like him, Grub.”
“That’s up to you, Lett, but I’ll be watching him like a hawk. Ya know that?” I replied, not angry, just glad to have Lettie to talk to at the moment. “Let’s go inside, it’s gettin’ too cold out here.”
I moved out of the shadow of the peppercorn with my head bowed, trying not to show my face. Lettie stayed her ground.
“When’s he leavin’, Grub?”
“Who, Lett?”
“William. Sometimes ya don’t give me much credit. I see more than ya think I do. It’s what his life revolves around. He didn’t come over to give me a book with a couple of notes in it. He came to ask you to go with him, didn’t he?” Then Lettie looked at me closely.
“Are ya goin’? I won’t blame you if ya do.”
I looked at Lettie knowing that I had been treating her like a kid ever since she arrived in the city. I kept forgetting she was eighteen; already a young woman.
“No, Lett, it’s something William has to do. Elaine’s sister is in trouble, perhaps more trouble than any of us know. Lett, please don’t go and tell Elaine that he’s going to leave, it won’t make a stitch of difference to what’s gonna happen.”
Then, I tried to explain to Lettie, the best way I could, that getting Robbie out of that asylum is all we should be concentrating on at the moment.
“Grub, Elaine’s no fool. She knows one day William won’t be in the dining room for breakfast. She told me that when we were on the tram to Camberwell. She’ll be a mess for a time but she is surrounded by people who follow their convictions. I wish William had never come around here. I wish he had just gone…” Lettie said starting to cry.
I took a step towards her, but she walked away from me and then out of the lane. I followed Lettie to make sure she was all right, keeping my distance, not realising how much she cared about William. She stopped after a while, telling me to take it slow on the way back home, neither of us wanting to show Aunty May how upset we were.
*
Reading Mr Parmenter’s book Men Are Human, Too! turned out to be the best medicine Lettie could have taken, as we whiled away the long hours on Good Friday, in our more-than-comfortable carriage on the giant ‘Spirit of Progress’ locomotive. Lettie said the insights shared by Blake Parmenter into the funny way people behave with each other were so revealing and hilarious at the same time.
Our soft seats and the motion of the train, allowed us to drift off into the deep sleep that neither Lettie nor I, had been able to find the previous night, or for many nights before that. After we woke, all we could think about was the drama that would be playing out in the student dormitories of the King’s College at the same moment. The reality would have dawned upon Elaine in the morning that William had gone. He would have left a letter, one that I hoped went some of the way in explaining why he was hurting her so much.
Lettie and I hated the fact that we were even put into this situation, knowing that whatever we did it was never going to be right. In the end, we made the right decision to let Elaine and their friends sort it out on their own. William was set on a course now that would be difficult to change anyway. Most likely, sitting in the damp hold of a steamship heading out to sea, surrounded by like-minded souls; all looking toward an uncertain future.
At least all the thinking about William and Elaine had
given us a reprieve from what we might be facing back home. I had to tell myself time and time again not to open up my big mouth and give an opinion unless it was really necessary, when the family gathered to talk about Robbie. I had stuck my foot in it with Lettie last Saturday, only barely managing to make things right, so I really didn’t want to do it again back home.
For some reason, William’s comment about me not being Robbie’s father kept repeating in my mind. He really was a piece of work. It was good enough for him to trek to the other side of the world for his girl’s sister, so why should he make me feel guilty about coming home to look after my brother.
Lettie and my concerns about home were instantly swept away when the ‘Spirit’ slowed in its approach to the Stawell Railway Station. We stepped out onto the smaller-than-I-remembered platform to see Tiny, Mum, Dad and Robbie waving madly at us from under the canopy of the old colonial-style station building.
“Robbie!” Lettie yelled out dropping her full canvas bag on the spot and running flat out towards him. She almost knocked Robbie over as she picked him up in one motion and spun him around and around, oblivious to everyone else.
“How ya doin’, Grubby?” Tiny asked in his remarkable and familiar deep voice as I approached. “We got a bit o’ good news for you and Lett.” He grinned as he nearly crushed my hand in his massive paw.
“I can see that, Tiny. We didn’t know what to expect after your letter,” I replied, relieved to see Robbie surrounded by family.
Tiny picked up Lettie’s canvas bag as if it was a feather and then we headed over to Mum and Dad, who were also being squeezed to death by Lettie. She was letting out every ounce of emotion that had built up inside her since she arrived in the city nearly four weeks ago.
I grabbed Robbie myself and gave him a big hug and roughed up his hair, before asking if he had been looked after in the asylum. He said he was happy in there, because he could study all day, but now, all he wanted to do was go home to study, which I said sounded like a damn good idea to me.
