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210 lines
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HTML
210 lines
9.2 KiB
HTML
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">
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<title>1</title>
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<link rel="stylesheet" type="application/vnd.adobe-page-template+xml" href="page-template.xpgt"/>
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</head>
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<div id="text">
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<div class="section" id="xhtmldocuments">
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<h1>6</h1>
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<p>Summer 1991</p>
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<p>
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'That's what my mum says anyway,' the girl said, looking down from the fork in the sycamore tree. 'I'm her one and only. I'm special.'</p>
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<p>'I can't see anything special about you. You've got freckles.'</p>
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<p>'Well they're <em>special</em> freckles, ' the girl said, and stuck out her tongue.</p>
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<p>
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'They're not freckles. They're the black spot,' a voice came from further up in the tree, the speaker hidden by the thick broad-leaved foliage.</p>
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<p>'They are not spots,' the girl slung back.</p>
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<p>'Not spots. The
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<em>black</em> spot. If you get one of them, you're dead. Pirates come and cut you up with cutlasses.'</p>
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<p>'My mum says they 're freckles. They're a sign of beauty. '</p>
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<p>'Beauty? Ha!' The boy at the bottom of he tree was busily carving his initials into the dark green bark on the shadow side of the tree. His tongue was sticking out on one side of his mouth as he worked carefully and intently.</p>
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<p>'Anyway, I'm
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<em>my</em> mum's one and only,' the boy said as he leaned back to admire his handiwork. 'So you're not the only one.'
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</p>
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<p>'Not the only one and only. Hey, that's poetry. ' From the fork in the tree high above, Nicky Ryan held on with both hands, arcing his body back and forward, making the leaves shimmer and shake. He let out a yell that was supposed to sound like Tarzan, but just sounded like a small boy yelling.</p>
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<p>'Oh, stop that racket,' Barbara Foster said. She too sat in a fork, the place where a large, thick bough stuck out almost straight from the trunk. 'My dad'll hear you. '</p>
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<p>'Oh, then there'll be big trouble. Heap big trouble,' Colin Blackwood said from below, still working his penknife into the bark.</p>
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<p>'I'm not supposed to be just the one,' Nicky Ryan said. He was starting to climb down the tree, moving carefully. 'I mean, my mum was supposed to have more. But they died. Before they were born.'</p>
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<p>
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'Miscarried,' the girl said, knowledgeably. 'That's what they call it when a baby dies before it's born. That's what my dad says. Mrs Bell had a miscarriage, and my dad says she should try for another one as soon as possible. I heard him telling my mum. '</p>
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<p>'How do you try for another one?' Colin asked. 'I thought you just got them. '</p>
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<p>Barbara started to laugh, a high-pitched peal of tinkly laughter that almost shook her off her perch.</p>
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<p>
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'Don't be so daft. Where do you think they come from?'</p>
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<p>'From heaven, of course. My mum says that's where all babies come from, and you get a guardian angel sent down to look after you. '</p>
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<p>Barbara started quaking with laughter again. Up above, Nicky Ryan called down: 'What's so funny?'</p>
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<p>'He thinks babies come from heaven.'</p>
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<p>'Well, where do <em>you</em> think they come from? Colin wanted to know.</p>
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<p>'Inside your mum's belly. That's where.'</p>
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<p>'How do they get in there, then?'</p>
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<p>'Your dad puts you in there, stupid.'</p>
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<p>'Well, where did my dad get me from, smartypants?'</p>
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<p>Nicky had reached Barbara 's forked seat. She rolled her eyes up in exasperation.</p>
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<p>
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'It's sex. They have to do sex.'</p>
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<p>'What the hell is sex? '</p>
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<p>
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'Don't say hell. It's a bad word, my mum says,' Barbara scolded. 'Sex is like mating. '</p>
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<p>'What like cows and bulls? '</p>
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<p>'Something like that. It's all in one of my dad 's books. The man puts his penis into the woman's virginia. '</p>
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<p>
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'What's a penis?' Colin asked.</p>
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<p>
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'What's a virginia? ' Nicky said from beside her.</p>
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<p>
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'Don't you boys know anything?'</p>
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<p>Nicky looked blankly at her. She giggled. 'It's your thingy,' she said.</p>
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<p>'My thingy? A virginia?'</p>
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<p>'No, a penis. A woman's got a virginia. '</p>
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<p>Nicky could feel himself beginning to blush in his ignorance. 'Why do they call it that?'</p>
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<p>
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'It's just a name, stupid. The proper name.'</p>
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<p>'Hey, why's it called a penis? ' Colin shouted up at the top of his voice.</p>
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<p>
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'Ssh,' Barbara hissed down. 'My dad'll hear you and I'll get called in.'</p>
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<p>'Well, why is it called that?'</p>
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<p>'Because you pee with it,' Barbara said briskly.</p>
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<p>'I don't believe all that, ' Colin said. 'My mum says I come from heaven.'</p>
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<p>'Well, I wouldn't have been an only child if my mother hadn't whatchyacalled it. '</p>
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<p>'Miscarried. '</p>
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<p>'Right. She said they would have been boys. Big brothers. That would have been great. Huh? No getting duffed up by Fraser Ballantyne and Charlie Beaton. Great stuff'</p>
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<p>'Well, we're all one-and-onlies, ' Colin said. 'The only one-and-onlies.' His voice broke out of speech into song: 'Only the lonelies, the one and the onlies,' badly imitating one that his mum had on a record.</p>
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<p>'Oh shut up Collie,' Nick said, sliding down the trunk, his bumpers making little scrape marks on the thin covering of moss.</p>
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<p>'Look. I've done my name,' Colin said proudly. 'That'll be there forever. '</p>
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<p>'Nah, it's not deep enough. That'll grow over. You've got to go right through the bark.'</p>
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<p>
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'It's all right. I'll betchya a pound it'll still be here next year.' "</p>
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<p>'Right, you're on, sucker,' Nick licked his thumb and Colin did the same and they rubbed the spit together, sealing the bet.</p>
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<p>'Hey, do you believe all that?' Colin asked.</p>
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<p>'All what?'</p>
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<p>'All that stuff about babies? '</p>
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<p>'I dunno.'</p>
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<p>'Do you think your dad would do that? '</p>
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<p>Nick had never thought about it. He'd heard some of the older boys talking about that sort of thing, but they called it by another word. A word worse than hell, even worse than bloody and that was a no-pocket-money-for-a-week-my-lad word. In a small town like Arden, that sort of thing was only a playground rumour that nobody knew too much about. Everybody knew about cows and bulls. But they were animals.</p>
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<p>He thought about it for a bit, trying to imagine the mechanics of it, and thought about the problem of getting it into a virginia, of which he had only a half-glimpsed impression gleaned from an infant at school who'd lifted her skirt and dropped her panties and wee'd behind the tree at the far end of the playground. Nick had done a double-take when he saw what was missing, and eventually came to the carefully thought-out conclusion that
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<em>this</em> was the big difference.</p>
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<p>'No. I don 't think so.'</p>
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<p>'Mine neither,' Colin said. 'Especially my mum. Even if she catches me scratching down there she gives me a clip round the ear.'</p>
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<p>Babs came swinging lightly down from the lowest branch, the one that was smooth worn from the hands and feet that had been climbing it all summer and many summers before that. She wiped her forearm across her snub nose and grinned at them, standing at ease in her jeans with the big patch on the knee, her feet planted wide apart. Her hair was a short-cut, fair tangle, and her eyes sparkled from their welter of freckles.</p>
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<p>'Well, it's true. That's how they do it. Everybody. Just you ask if you don 't believe me. '</p>
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<p>'Not me,' Colin said. 'My mum would leather me. She doesn't like that kind of talk.'</p>
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<p>
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'I've just had a thought,' Babs said. 'There's only three of us in the class. '</p>
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<p>
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'What's that got to do with it?' Nick asked. He was just a week past his tenth birthday, small and lightly built, with straight brown hair that fell in a fringe over his eyes.</p>
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<p>'I'm not talking about that, silly, ' Babs said. 'I mean,
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<em>only children</em>, there's only the three of us in our class. Everybody else has brothers and sisters. '</p>
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<p>'Lucky us,' Colin said sincerely. 'Billy Kerr's got three big sisters and they 're always bossing him about. '</p>
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<p>'I would have liked big brothers,' Nick said, thoughtfully.</p>
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<p>
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'Sisters!' Colin stuck to his theme. 'Who needs sisters? They're just girls. All they want to do is dress up and play with stupid dolls. '</p>
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<p>'I'm not stupid, <em>stupid</em>,' Babs rounded on him, and Colin took a step back.</p>
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<p>'I didn't mean you, Babs, honestly,' Colin said earnestly. 'You're not a girl.'</p>
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<p>Nick laughed out loud.</p>
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<p>Colin 's face went red: 'Well, you <em>are</em>, but you're not <em>like</em> a girl.'</p>
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<p>Barbara almost visibly swelled with pride at this.</p>
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<p>
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'You're one of us,' Colin assured her.</p>
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<p>'One of the one-and-onlies,' Nicky chipped in. 'The only one-and-onlies.'</p>
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<p>
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'That's what we are. Who needs brothers and sisters?'</p>
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<p>'Not me,' Colin said, stoutly.</p>
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<p>'Nor me,' Nicky said, although he had always wondered what those missing big brothers - those
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<em>miscarried</em> big brothers - would have been like.</p>
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<p>'And me neither,' Barbara concluded, grabbing their hands and placing them on top of hers.</p>
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<p>
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'We're <em>all</em> special. '</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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