Sian: A New Australian

by D. Luckett

  There was another cyclone later in the season but it went away from Darwin instead of towards us and that was a good thing, because it was so powerful that ships couldn’t come in for fear of getting caught in it. So the store kept on buying Mr Gok’s vegetables and he bought himself a new hat. Mae said that some of her cousins were starting market gardens of their own.

  I went to Mae’s most days. I’d help her do her work and then we’d go to the creek. There were fish in it now as well as frogs, and birds nesting beside it. When we looked in the shade or under rocks we’d see the big lizards called goannas. We carried long forked sticks in case of snakes. It was shady and we still liked playing Amazon explorers, finding lost cities and sometimes panning for gold. But we didn’t go far away anymore and we kept a lookout for crocodiles.

  Christmas came and Miss Alberts made a plum cake with icing and little silver beads on it, and we had Territory goose for Christmas dinner.

  I got some books and a magnifying glass. A big one. Looking through it I could see the shimmer on a butterfly’s wings, or the veins in a leaf.

  On Boxing Day I went over to Mae’s to show her. She was talking to her father who was looking down at a piece of paper and scratching his head.

  He looked up and saw me, then he said something to Mae. He handed the paper to her and nodded at me. Mae said something back. It was something like, Oh, Father, do I have to?

  Mr Gok nodded and gave her a nudge. Yes, you have to.

  She took the paper and looked down at it, scowling.

  ‘What’s that?’ I asked.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Mae muttered.

  ‘You don’t know?’ I asked.

  ‘No,’ said Mae. ‘Father doesn’t, either. We don’t know what it says.’ She thrust it at me. ‘Here. You read it.’

  ‘Why can’t you read it?’

  I realised my mistake too late. I stopped speaking. Mae looked angry.

  ‘I can’t read English,’ she muttered. ‘A little, maybe. But this is too hard. You read it.’ She pushed the paper at me again.

  I took it. It was a letter. It was headed ‘Government Stores, Darwin’, and then underneath that, ‘Order’. I looked at it. Apart from the heading, it had prices and the names of vegetables and how much of each they wanted.

  ‘It’s an order for vegetables,’ I said. ‘The store wants fifteen bushels of peas, twenty of beans, sixty pounds of onions … my goodness, two hundredweight of carrots … Chinese pumpkin … I suppose they mean gan shu …’

  ‘Two hundred pounds of carrots!’ said Mae. ‘We won’t have that much for months! Peas … yes, maybe. How much are they paying?’

  ‘Um … it says four shillings a bushel for the peas … my, that’s dear …’

  ‘You’ll have to tell us the rest. I’ll have to remember it. Father, too.’

  My head was lagging behind again. Because I was still reading, I suppose. ‘They want you to deliver with a bill attached to it, with the weights on it. You’ll need to write it all down …’ I said.

  Mae just glared at me. ‘You keep this paper,’ she said, flicking a hand at the order. ‘You can tell us what it says. And write down what we send.’

  ‘You could do that for yourself, you know, if you went to …’

  ‘Be quiet, Sian,’ said Mae.

  I held out the paper. ‘Fine. Take your order back and I’ll be quiet, all right. I won’t say another word. Or write one, either.’

  ‘You have to …’

  ‘No, I don’t have to. If you don’t have to go to school, I don’t have to read stuff for you.’

  ‘Oh, come on. I can’t go to school. You know why. Chinese don’t go to school.’

  ‘Chinese? I thought you were born here,’ I said.

  ‘Same thing.’

  I shook my head. ‘I don’t think so.’

  ‘Then you don’t know much about it.’

  ‘All right. Perhaps I don’t. But you’re not the only one who gets teased. I get teased for the way I talk but two’s better than one to give it back to them.’

  Mae looked back at her father. He was watching us. I don’t know how much he understood.

  But Mae didn’t say anything more. She took the paper back, folded it, and tucked it into her sleeve.

  We went down to the creek, not saying much. Mae took a while to get out of her bad mood but I showed her the magnifying glass I’d been given for Christmas.

  ‘I don’t want to go to school,’ said Mae as we came back. It was getting dark.

  ‘I don’t mind going,’ I said. ‘Miss Alberts is nice.’

  ‘My father wants me to go.’

  ‘Maybe you could tell him you’ll go to school if he learns to speak English.’

  May brightened. ‘That’s a good idea. He won’t do that. He reckons he can’t. Too old for that sort of stuff, he says.’

  During the wet every Sunday we’d go over to Miss Alberts’ and she would make cake and scones for tea. And then we’d all go for a walk when the sun was setting and it was a little cooler. Not all that much cooler, mind, but it was better than when the sun was burning right through your hat. We’d get back after dark, under a sky that was like a city of lights, or if a storm was rolling in, it was like watching an army marching towards you, firing off cannons as it came. Flashes of light and rolling thunder and the clouds massing in the crimson light.

  The frogs were calling one Sunday, I remember, but soon the wet would end. Then the creeks would stop running and the pools would dry up and the frogs would be gone until the next wet season. I’d miss them, I thought. But they’d be back.

  On Monday after school I went around to the store. There was a new bakery – but that wasn’t all. There was a notice that said that they were building an ice works! Fancy! We’d be able to get ice to put in an ice chest and keep things cold. Well, some things, anyway. Even ice to put in drinks.

  So I bought a loaf of bread from the bakery – beautiful, it was, all fresh and crusty – and went into the store to buy some butter because there’d been a ship in. There were letters too and the shopkeeper gave me one. It had stamps from home on it, I could see straight off. The address was in Gwynnie’s writing.

  But it was addressed to Ellis so I took it home and waited for him to finish work. When he came in, I gave it to him.

  He sat down at the table, still in his work clothes, opened it and read it. I was watching his face and I knew something was wrong.

  ‘What is it?’ I asked him.

  He looked up at me. ‘Your da … well, you see … he’s taken it very bad that you’re not coming back home straight away. He says I’ve carried you off, away from your proper family to some heathen country nobody’s ever heard of. He’s very angry about it, your sister says. Even says he’ll have the law on me.’

  He gave me the letter to read. Gwynnie was very upset, that was plain, and I knew why, if Da was like she said. I didn’t like to think about Da being so angry, even though he was an awfully long way away. ‘I don’t want to go back home, if that’s the way it is. With Da so angry,’ I said, looking up.

  ‘No,’ said Ellis. ‘I can’t blame you.’ He got up. ‘I don’t know about the law,’ he said, looking out of the door.

  I couldn’t say anything. They weren’t going to send me back, with Da like that? Were they?

  I got up from the table. ‘I’ll get tea ready,’ I said.

  ‘You don’t want to go back home, you say?’ asked Ellis. He turned and watched me.

  ‘Perhaps, one day,’ I said. ‘When I’m grown up. But not now. I don’t want to go back now.’ I’ll go back when Da can’t use his belt on me, I thought.

  But that wasn’t all of it. I didn’t want to leave Ellis on his own. I didn’t want to leave Darwin. I’d miss Mae if I went away.

  Ellis brought Gwynnie’s letter with him when we went to Miss Alberts’ next and he and Miss Alberts put their heads together over it. I was doing homework but I could still hear what they were saying.

&nbs
p; ‘Well, I’ll write to my school friend in Sydney, the one who married the lawyer,’ said Miss Alberts, at last. ‘I’m perfectly certain though that whatever Mr Roberts does, it will take a very long time indeed. You might just put him off by telling him that you can’t send Sian back straight away or even simply ignore him.’

  ‘I won’t send Sian back to Wales against her will,’ said Ellis. ‘That’s all there is to it.’

  ‘Very well, then. We’ll see.’

  So Ellis wrote back to Gwynnie, knowing that Da would be reading the letter. He said that he was sorry to hear that Mr Roberts was not happy about it but that Sian had settled very well in Australia and had a chance to go to a very good grammar school here. Olive would have very been proud of Sian, he said. Education is the great thing, after all, isn’t it? So he wouldn’t be sending me back straight away and he hoped that they would understand.

  We put it in the next post. It wouldn’t get to them for six weeks at least. We came back after posting it and sat at the table. ‘Well,’ said Ellis, ‘that’s all we can do for now.’

  My birthday came. We went to Miss Alberts’ for a special tea. She had made an iced cake but that wasn’t all. There were currant buns from the bakery and real ice to put in the lemonade.

  Currant buns! Cold drinks! My goodness, I knew that things were getting better in Darwin. New buildings were going up. Houses – proper houses, not just made of poles and mud and tin. Ellis said there was more work for a carpenter than he could do. He was already thinking about what he’d need to start a joinery shop. He went on and on about it to Miss Alberts.

  It was a good birthday, though. Back home Da used to say that it wasn’t a day to celebrate so I was lucky if Olive baked a plum cake and I might get a hairpin or a ribbon. The horse and cart brooch Ellis had given me was still the best present I’d ever had and it wasn’t even for my birthday.

  And in Wales my birthday was at the darkest, coldest part of the year too. Here everything glowed with light and colour. It was very hot and very wet but I was getting used to it. School was going back in only three days. Miss Alberts was saying that if I worked hard, I’d get the scholarship to go to the grammar school in Sydney. Well, we’ll see, I thought. Olive used to say that and I remembered what it meant: perhaps but mostly perhaps not. I missed her. I thought she would have liked Darwin.

  After tea we went for a walk as the sun was getting low. Ellis and Miss Alberts talked together, laughing sometimes.

  We walked over to the docks and Ellis pointed out the new works. I watched the sun and the sea for a while as the shadows got longer and longer. I had lots of things to think about.

  After a while the sun went down and I turned around and came back. The mosquitoes would be buzzing soon. It was time to be indoors.

  The next day I went over to Mae’s place. She was working but I helped her. There were new beds being planted out and another Chinese man was working on them. I said hello to him. He eased his back, looking up at the sky and then said it might not rain today.

  Mae nodded at him. ‘That’s my cousin, Weng,’ she said to me.

  ‘He speaks English,’ I said.

  ‘Yes,’ she said. Her mouth turned down. ‘He’s talking English to my father.’ She didn’t seem very pleased, though. She didn’t say any more and it wasn’t until afterwards that I worked out what she meant.

  Mae went on pulling weeds and later we made mud pies. There was plenty of mud. Then we played hidey for a while.

  As the sun set we went back to the garden. Mr Gok smiled at me.

  ‘Hello, Miss Roberts,’ he said. ‘You want vegetables?’ He waved a hand at the beds. ‘We have cabbage, squash, carrot, peas. All kind.’

  ‘All kinds,’ said Cousin Weng.

  ‘So,’ said Mr Gok. ‘Yes. All kinds.’

  ‘Yes, please, Mr Gok,’ I said. ‘I want peas. Fresh peas.’

  Mr Gok nodded to show he understood. ‘I get them,’ he said, and he smiled and turned away.

  I looked at Mae’s face. She wasn’t smiling. But I smiled. To myself, like.

  The first morning of school I went by way of Mae’s place. She had her things ready – a writing book, and a pencil.

  ‘I’m using a pen and ink, myself, nowadays,’ I said.

  ‘I’ll get to that,’ muttered Mae. I smiled. We walked to school together.

  Mae was coming to school.

  Miss Alberts introduced her to the rest of the pupils and said she was very welcome. She asked Mae to tell everyone about herself but Mae was too nervous to say much.

  ‘Where do you come from, Mae?’ asked Miss Alberts. ‘Where were you born?’

  ‘Darwin, miss,’ said Mae, shuffling her feet.

  She looked around the class, at the two bigger boys fidgeting in the front row. ‘Where do you come from, Johnnie?’

  Johnnie Draper squinted. ‘Liverpool, miss. Me da and mam come out when I was little.’

  ‘Ah. You’re from Britain, then.’ She looked at Mae again. ‘Sit here, Mae. Here is a copybook. Here are the letters. Start copying them into your book. I’ll come and see how you’re going in a little while. Now, the rest of us will be doing arithmetic.’ A groan went up. School had begun.

  At break Johnnie Draper still tried calling Mae Ching-chong. I told him to put a sock in it.

  ‘Who’s going to make me, Taffy?’ asked Johnnie. ‘You?’

  ‘Say it in front of Miss Alberts and you’ll find out who,’ I said. ‘Come on, Mae. I brought a skipping rope.’

  ‘Huh,’ said Johnnie. ‘You think I care what Flossie does?’

  But I’d already turned my back on him. Mae and I played jump rope until the bell went again.

  ‘See what I mean?’ asked Mae.

  ‘Don’t worry about Johnnie Draper,’ I said.

  ‘Easy for you to say,’ said Mae. But she went into school again after the break and when school was over we walked home together. Johnnie didn’t follow us. I remembered the other Johnnie, back in Sydney. His mam had died, he had said. Maybe that was why he was the way he was.

  Maybe Johnnie had some reason for his meanness too. I never knew. Miss Alberts watched him and for all his big talk, he didn’t want to annoy her. So Mae kept coming to school and there was nothing he could do about it.

  Well, I thought that, anyway.

  ‘Mr Williams,’ said Miss Alberts, as she put a plate of cucumber sandwiches down on the table. ‘I’m afraid I need to talk to you.’

  Ellis was about to sip his tea but he put his cup back on its saucer. ‘Sian?’ he asked. ‘What have you been doing at school?’

  ‘It’s not about Sian,’ said Miss Alberts. ‘And she has been doing very well.’

  ‘No,’ she went on. ‘It’s about this Parents and Citizens meeting at the school on Thursday night. I believe there may be some trouble.’

  ‘Trouble?’ asked Ellis. His eyebrows went up. ‘What kind of trouble?’

  ‘I only said there may be some, not that there will be. But Johnnie Draper has been talking. I’m sure he told his father about Mae Gok coming to school and on Friday he let slip that his father is coming to the meeting. This would be the first time Mr Draper has come to a P and C meeting – or, so far as I know, taken any interest in his son’s education at all.’

  ‘Ah,’ said Ellis.

  ‘I wonder, Mr Williams, if you will be able to attend, yourself. I have the feeling it might be … useful.’

  Ellis nodded slowly. ‘I will, of course,’ he said.

  ‘Seven o’clock, in the schoolroom,’ said Miss Alberts. ‘Do have another scone.’

  On Monday I walked to school with Mae. Johnnie didn’t come that day – he often wagged school – so there was no trouble from him then. He turned up on Tuesday though.

  ‘You wait till Thursdee,’ said Johnnie, at break. ‘You just wait. Me da’s gonna fix you.’

  I didn’t say anything. I just turned the rope for Mae and then took my turn. He couldn’t do anything. Miss Alberts was on the v
erandah, watching us.

  I told Ellis that night though. ‘Johnnie said I should just wait for Thursday.’

  ‘Did he, then?’ said Ellis. He was sitting at the table. He folded his newspaper and put it down. ‘He should have kept his mouth shut about it. Giving it away, he is.’

  ‘Giving what away?’ I asked.

  ‘What his da thinks he’s going to do on Thursday. I’ve been asking around, since Freda – Miss Alberts – spoke to me about it. Draper thinks he can stop Mae coming to school. Only he can’t, you see, and he’s going to find that out.’ And he went back to his paper. After a minute or two he said, ‘I’ll go and see Mr Alberts about it anyway. Just in case, like. He’s a Tory, right enough, but he knows what side his bread’s buttered on.’ I didn’t ask him what he meant by that.

  So Ellis went to the meeting but I wasn’t allowed to. When he came back he was smiling.

  ‘Can Mae still come to school?’ I asked when he came in and took off his hat. I was worried.

  ‘Yes, of course, she can,’ said Ellis. ‘Draper got put in his place. By Mr Alberts, no less.’

  ‘Miss Alberts’ da?’ I asked. My, that was news.

  ‘Yes. Mr Alberts told him not to be so daft. Trying to say the school shouldn’t let the Chinese in, indeed! The law said Mae could come to school and there was nothing the school could do about it, even if it wanted to. And Freda – Miss Alberts – chimed in to say that the school didn’t want to stop her coming.’

  Ellis stopped to smile. Then he went on: ‘Anyway, Mr Alberts said the Chinese have to learn to read and write in English or we can’t do business with them. And we need to, he said, so there’s an end to it.’ He smiled again. ‘I said he knew what side his bread was buttered on, didn’t I? I think that’s what really matters to Mr Alberts. I’m sure he’s making a good profit out of selling fresh vegetables. Anyway that pretty much decided it. I thought I’d have to get up to say something but I didn’t have to. The meeting didn’t even put it to a vote.’

  ‘So Mae can keep coming to school.’

  ‘Yes, of course.’