The Ghost Ship

by Richard Middleton

  The Bird In The Garden

  The room in which the Burchell family lived in Love Street, S.E., wasunderground and depended for light and air on a grating let into thepavement above.

  Uncle John, who was a queer one, had filled the area with greenplants and creepers in boxes and tins hanging from the grating, sothat the room itself obtained very little light indeed, but therewas always a nice bright green place for the people sitting in it tolook at. Toby, who had peeped into the areas of other little boys,knew that his was of quite exceptional beauty, and it was with acertain awe that he helped Uncle John to tend the plants in themorning, watering them and taking the pieces of paper and strawsthat had fallen through the grating from their hair. "It is a greatmistake to have straws in ones hair," Uncle John would say gravely;and Toby knew that it was true.

  It was in the morning after they had just been watered that theplants looked and smelt best, and when the sun shone through thegrating and the diamonds were shining and falling through the forest,Toby would tell the baby about the great bird who would one day comeflying through the trees--a bird of all colours, ugly and beautiful,with a harsh sweet voice. "And that will be the end of everything,"said Toby, though of course he was only repeating a story his UncleJohn had told him.

  There were other people in the big, dark room besides Toby and UncleJohn and the baby; dark people who flitted to and fro about secretmatters, people called father and mother and Mr. Hearn, who were aptto kick if they found you in their way, and who never laughed exceptat nights, and then they laughed too loudly.

  "They will frighten the bird," thought Toby; but they were kind toUncle John because he had a pension. Toby slept in a corner on theground beside the baby, and when father and Mr. Hearn fought atnights he would wake up and watch and shiver; but when this happenedit seemed to him that the baby was laughing at him, and he wouldpinch her to make her stop. One night, when the men were fightingvery fiercely and mother had fallen asleep on the table, Uncle Johnrose from his bed and began singing in a great voice. It was a songToby knew very well about Trafalgar's Bay, but it frightened the twomen a great deal because they thought Uncle John would be too mad tofetch the pension any more. Next day he was quite well, however, andhe and Toby found a large green caterpillar in the garden among theplants.

  "This is a fact of great importance," said Uncle John, stroking itwith a little stick. "It is a sign!"

  Toby used to lie awake at nights after that and listen for the bird,but he only heard the clatter of feet on the pavement and thescreaming of engines far away.

  Later there came a new young woman to live in the cellar--not a darkperson, but a person you could see and speak to. She patted Toby onthe head; but when she saw the baby she caught it to her breast andcried over it, calling it pretty names.

  At first father and Mr. Hearn were both very kind to her, and motherused to sit all day in the corner with burning eyes, but after a timethe three used to laugh together at nights as before, and the womanwould sit with her wet face and wait for the coming of the bird, withToby and the baby and Uncle John, who was a queer one.

  "All we have to do," Uncle John would say, "is to keep the gardenclean and tidy, and to water the plants every morning so that theymay be very green." And Toby would go and whisper this to the baby,and she would stare at the ceiling with large, stupid eyes.

  There came a time when Toby was very sick, and he lay all day in hiscorner wondering about wonder. Sometimes the room in which he laybecame so small that he was choked for lack of air, sometimes it wasso large that he screamed out because he felt lonely. He could notsee the dark people then at all, but only Uncle John and the woman,who told him in whispers that her name was "Mummie." She called himSonny, which is a very pretty name, and when Toby heard it he felt atickling in his sides which he knew to be gladness. Mummie's face waswet and warm and soft, and she was very fond of kissing. Everymorning Uncle John would lift Toby up and show him the garden, andToby would slip out of his arms and walk among the trees and plants.And the place would grow bigger and bigger until it was all theworld, and Toby would lose himself; amongst the tangle of trees andflowers and creepers. He would see butterflies there and tameanimals, and the sky was full of birds of all colours, ugly andbeautiful; but he knew that none of these was the bird, because theirvoices were only sweet. Sometimes he showed these wonders to a littleboy called Toby, who held his hand and called him Uncle John,sometimes he showed them to his mummie and he himself was Toby; butalways when he came back he found himself lying in Uncle John's arms,and, weary from his walk, would fall into a pleasant dreamless sleep.

  It seemed to Toby at this time that a veil hung about him which, dimand unreal in itself, served to make all things dim and unreal. Hedid not know whether he was asleep or awake, so strange was life, sovivid were his dreams. Mummie, Uncle John, the baby, Toby himselfcame with a flicker of the veil and disappeared vaguely withoutcause. It would happen that Toby would be speaking to Uncle John, andsuddenly he would find himself looking into the large eyes of thebaby, turned stupidly towards the ceiling, and again the baby wouldbe Toby himself, a hot, dry little body without legs or arms, thatswayed suspended as if by magic a foot above the bed.

  Then there was the vision of two small feet that moved a long wayoff, and Toby would watch them curiously as kittens do their tails,without knowing the cause of their motion. It was all very wonderfuland very strange, and day by day the veil grew thicker; there was noneed to wake when the sleeptime was so pleasant; there were no darkpeople to kick you in that dreamy place.

  And yet Toby woke--woke to a life and in a place which he had neverknown before.

  He found himself on a heap of rags in a large cellar which dependedfor its light on a grating let into the pavement of the streetabove. On the stone floor of the area and swinging from the gratingwere a few sickly, grimy plants in pots. There must have been, afine sunset up above, for a faint red glow came through the bars andtouched the leaves of the plants.

  There was a lighted candle standing in a bottle on the table, and thecellar seemed full of people. At the table itself two men and a womanwere drinking, though they were already drunk, and beyond in a cornerToby could see the head and shoulders of a tall old man. Beside himthere crouched a woman with a faded, pretty face, and between Tobyand the rest of the room there stood a box in which lay a baby withlarge, wakeful eyes.

  Toby's body tingled with excitement, for this was a new thing; he hadnever seen it before, he had never seen anything before.

  The voice of the woman at the table rose and fell steadily without apause; she was abusing the other woman, and the two drunken men werelaughing at her and shouting her on; Toby thought the other womanlacked spirit because she stayed crouching on the floor and saidnothing.

  At last the woman stopped her abuse, and one of the men turned andshouted an order to the woman on the floor. She stood up and cametowards him, hesitating; this annoyed the man and he swore at herbrutally; when she came near enough he knocked her down with hisfist, and all the three burst out laughing.

  Toby was so excited that he knelt up in his corner and clapped hishands, but the others did not notice because the old man was up andswaying wildly over the woman. He seemed to be threatening the manwho had struck her, and that one was evidently afraid of him, for herose unsteadily and lifted the chair on which he had been sittingabove his head to use as a weapon.

  The old man raised his fist and the chair fell heavily on to hiswrinkled forehead and he dropped to the ground.

  The woman at the table cried out, "The pension!" in her shrill voice,and then they were all quiet, looking.

  Then it seemed to Toby that through the forest there came flying,with a harsh sweet voice and a tumult of wings, a bird of allcolours, ugly and beautiful, and he knew, though later there might bepeople to tell him otherwise, that that was the end of everything.