Chapter 13

Sad was unsure what to do.  Should he call for help from his friends or Nurse Smiley? Ruth quickly put her finger to her lips.  

“Don’t tell anyone I’m here because Moses will come looking for me and if Matron or Nurse Smiley know where I am they will have to tell him.”

“But you can’t stay in here with the chooks,” said Sad. “For a start they won’t come in here and that will arouse suspicion. I will have to hide you somewhere else.  And what about food?  You can’t live on wheat!”

Ruth stared at Sad with a strange look. “I would rather starve to death than go back with Moses and marry Esau.”

Sad thought quickly.  He and his friends had already explored the house and knew where the best hiding places were.  At the back of the house was the servants’ staircase, used in the olden days when a wealthy family lived here.  It was narrow and steep and led to a row of small rooms in the roof of the house where the servants used to sleep.  No-one used it now as the cook and gardener lived in their own homes nearby.  Sad decided that it was dark enough to risk moving Ruth to her new quarters without anyone seeing.  The stairs were near the kitchen so he might even be able to take some food up for her after dinner.

He looked at Ruth. “How would Moses know you were here? He wouldn’t even know where this place is.”

“I overheard him talking to someone on the telephone.  He was trying to find the address because he wanted to take some orphans for the weekend in the hope of persuading them to stay. Our numbers are dropping as some people have been leaving.  It is very hard to get away if you are older because you have donated all your worldly goods to the organisation and so you have nothing when you leave. Some people are still so unhappy they leave anyway but then they have to beg on the street to live.  Anyway I saw the address written on his notepad and decided to come here and hide until they get sick of looking.”

“How did you get here?” asked Sad.

“Jehovah’s Children Farm is a few miles from the Picton railway station.  I left in the middle of the night and walked to the station. I had been saving money wherever I could find it and dear Isaiah helped me.  It is amazing how much money we found in the discarded furniture.  Anyway I caught a train to Central and then another one to Cliffside Beach.  It is a long walk down the hill from the station but I was so excited to be here.  Then I saw people in the garden so I hid in the hen house.”

“Well, let’s get you out of here and upstairs without anyone seeing.  I mustn’t forget to lock up the chooks either.”  Sad looked around in all directions, thankful it was almost dark and then quickly scurried to the back door.  Peering inside he could see no-one, so waved to Ruth to follow him.  Together they crept up the steep stairs, their shoes in their hands, until they came to a narrow corridor. Sad looked into each room until he saw one with some sparse furniture.

“Here, this will do.  It has a bed with a mattress.  You can put your blanket over it as it is awfully dusty.  I’ll get you some more blankets as well as some food and water.”

With that Sad rushed off to lock up the chooks and report for dinner.  It was difficult to act normally in front of Step and Tear when he had such an enormous secret.  He had to get them alone before he could say anything as he didn’t want to risk anyone overhearing.  It would be useful if they could save some food for Ruth as well but tonight she was going to have to rely on what he could forage alone.  He slipped a bread roll and an apple into his pockets and then remembered his drink bottle in his room.  As soon as the meal was over he rushed upstairs, filled his drink bottle with water and set off for the back stairs.  To get there he had to walk through the kitchen which was difficult as Cook and the rostered orphan, Peter, were washing the big pots and pans.

The only thing to do was switch off the lights and hope he could slip through unnoticed.

Cook remarked, “There’s a blackout!”  

”Can’t be,” Peter said. “ The lights are on in the rest of the house.”

By this time Sad was off and up the back stairs.  He opened the third door and presented his gifts to Ruth.  He had forgotten to get blankets.  Ruth didn’t mind.  She drank the drink bottle dry and ate her bread roll in seconds.  As she munched on the apple Sad told he he’d better get back as there might be a search for the person who switched off the lights in the kitchen.

Getting back was easier as Cook was out in the hallway talking to Nurse Smiley about the lights going off and Peter had left to go back to the others. Sad checked no-one was watching and fled to his room where he found Step reading a book.  The other two boys were obviously somewhere else so when Sad got his breath back he told Step the whole story.

“Wow!” exclaimed Step. “How are we going to keep her there without anybody finding out?”

“It will only be until Moses has been and gone and then maybe Ruth can be given a place at the orphanage,” whispered Sad. “We have to find Tear and tell her what is happening.”

“What about washing and er… you know.” Step muttered.

“She can go down the stairs and out into the yard in the middle of the night.  No-one will see her.  There’s an outdoor dunny in the back garden.”

Sad and Step were unable to get Tear alone until the next morning.  Sad asked if she would help him in the chook yard so she and Step went out before breakfast to let the hens out of their house.

“Tear, Ruth is here hiding in one of the attic rooms and we have to keep her out of sight until Moses comes to check if she is here.”  Step didn’t waste any words as time was short. “Make sure you keep some food from breakfast for her and fill up your drink bottle with water.  We’ll meet here after breakfast.  Not a word, understand?”

Tear nodded and returned to the house.  Half an hour later they met again at the chook yard. Sad was carrying a blanket off his bed as well as a bag of food.

“I don’t know if we should all go up together.  Maybe if Sad goes first we can follow at a safe distance,” said Step.

The two orphans waited until Sad was out of sight.  Step crossed to the back door next and after a few more minutes Tear followed.

They found Ruth in a very miserable state.  She was hungry, thirsty and cold and snuggled up to Sad’s blanket with relief.  The children spoke quietly and then left one at a time.

Until the new school term started the children were given a roster of activities to keep them busy.  It consisted mainly of work in the garden or the house.  That day Tear was supposed to hang the washing on the clothesline.  Sad was assigned to weeding the garden and Step had to vacuum the carpets.

They all looked out for the Land Rover and sure enough it arrived at precisely midday.  Sad saw the car pull up and watched Moses striding to the front door.  Step paused in his vacuuming while Moses went into Matron’s study and Tear watched from the clothesline as he and Matron searched the back garden.

After a long time he was back in his Land Rover, satisfied Ruth was not there.  That is what they all hoped, anyway.

They all wore jackets with big pockets to lunch so they could stow as much food as possible without arousing suspicion.

However, Rose had noticed something because she approached Tear as she was leaving the Dining Room.

“What are you doing with all that food in your pockets?  I saw you sneaking it away.  I saw the others too.  Tell me now or I will inform Nurse Smiley.”

“Er…um.  A midnight feast!  Step and Sad and I were going to have a midnight feast,” Tear said quickly.  “You mustn’t tell. Please!”

“I won’t tell if I can come too.  It sounds like fun,” replied Rose. “Where are you meeting?”

“At the top of the back staircase, in one of the attic rooms,” replied Tear.  She realised she had given away Ruth’s secret but didn’t know what else to say.

“Great!  Make sure you wake me if I am asleep.  Otherwise…”  She raised her eyebrows dramatically.

Tear broke the news to Step and Sad.  Sad was angry and kicked the wall so hard he hurt his foot and hopped around groaning for several minutes.  When he recovered, he gasped, “Why did you tell her where Ruth was hiding?  You didn’t have to do that!”

“Calm down,” said Step.  “I have an idea.  We can still have the midnight feast, only not in Ruth’s room.  We can warn her to be quiet and have it in the room next door.  We just need to get lots of food so we have enough for both purposes.”

“I don’t want to get up at midnight and have a feast,” said Sad.  “What a stupid idea, Tear.”

Tear looked like she was about to cry but Step hurriedly stepped in. “It was quick thinking in a difficult situation.  What would you have said instead, Sad?  Would you have organised a midnight feast in the chook pen?”

That made Sad laugh and the awkward moment was past.

When Step took the scavenged food to Ruth that night she was lying on the bed with her hands clasped to her temples.

“What’s wrong?” asked Step.

“I have the most awful headache,” she said. “I just want to sleep and hope it will be gone in the morning.”

Step quickly told her about the feast scheduled for midnight in a nearby room.

“Well, I won’t be coming to your party,” she said. “Rather you than me.”

Step left the food and water although Ruth didn’t seem very interested.  He ran downstairs thinking he just wanted this night to be over.

Tear rather hoped that Rose would sleep through the night, but she was out of her bed and tugging at Tear’s sleeve as the church bell chimed twelve times.

Wearily Tear grabbed her dressing gown.  Two more shapes appeared.  It seems Rose had told Wattle and Cherry so they were preparing to join the feast.

“I hope there’s enough food,” muttered Tear. “We weren’t expecting so many people.”

Silently they crept downstairs, through the dark kitchen and up the narrow staircase to the attic.  Step and Sad were already in the first room, candles alight and the food spread over one of the blankets from Step’s bed.

“This is so exciting!” Cherry said, her hands fluttering towards the food. “Thank you for inviting us.”

The children ate quietly, munching on biscuits and cakes and washing them down with tooth tumblers of water. Tear began to breath more easily as she thought they might have kept their secret for one more day.

All of a sudden a loud voice could be heard nearby.

“Let me go!  I’m not coming back! I don’t want to marry Esau!  I’d rather die!”

They all looked up and Rose, Cherry and Wattle appeared genuinely scared.

“Do you think it’s a ghost?” asked Rose.

Surprisingly it was Wattle who dashed out the door to Ruth’s room and opened the door.

“As I thought,” said Wattle.  “Someone is hiding up here.  Calm down Rose, it’s not a ghost.”

Cherry held up the candle to see who was in the room.  On the bed Ruth tossed and turned. Her face was red and she moaned continuously.

“I think she is very sick,” said Step.  “Let’s go and get Nurse Smiley. Tear and Sad, you two stay with her and give her some water.”

The children rushed down the narrow stairs and up the broad ones to Nurse Smiley’s room.  After Step’s brief outline of the situation she donned her dressing gown and grabbed a large torch and her medical bag. On the way she knocked on Matron’s door and let her know of the situation.

Within minutes she was taking Ruth’s temperature and placing a cool cloth on her forehead.  She looked at the children gathered around.

“I don’t know what you were doing up here but I want you all in bed NOW.  Understand?  I will see you tomorrow in my office at 7 o’clock.  Now scoot!”

The children did as they were told but found it hard to sleep, wondering what was going on.  They heard the wail of an ambulance siren, the crunching of gravel on the driveway and muffled voices but what had happened to Ruth they could only guess.

The six children waited outside Nurse Smiley’s office at 7 o’clock.

“I will see Rose, Cherry and Wattle first,” she said.  In a few minutes they reappeared.  Rose looked at Step, Tear and Sad.  

“You three are in soooo much trouble,” she said, swinging her plaits around her head.

The three orphans looked at each other.

“The most important thing,” Step said, “is that Ruth recovers from her sickness and does not have to go back to the farm.  Keep that in mind.”

“Sit down please,” Nurse Smiley looked very serious. “The girl from the attic is in hospital with influenza.  She is in a bad way but the doctors hope that with an antibiotic drip she will recover.  I have been told by the girls about the midnight feast.  Now I want the whole truth from you three as I get the feeling you know a lot more about this than Rose, Cherry and Wattle do.”

Sad spoke first. “I am the one who found the girl in the hen house.  She wanted to stay at the orphanage so I hid her in the attic.  It is all my fault.”

Step spoke next.  “I am the oldest but I decided to help Sad because I felt sorry for the girl. It is my fault that Tear is involved because we should have kept it to ourselves.”

“Before you go on any further,” Nurse Smiley interrupted.  “I know the girl is Ruth from the Jehovah’s Children Farm and that Moses has been looking for her.  As soon as she is better she will be going back to the farm.”

“But Nurse Smiley, she is going to have to marry Esau when she turns 16 and she doesn’t want to.  She is still only young and should not be forced into marriage.  She doesn’t even like Esau.” Sad was in tears, he was so upset.

“I was not aware of that,” said Nurse Smiley thoughtfully. “However, as Moses is her guardian we have no control over what he decides to do. Now as for the three of you I will have to talk to Matron about your punishment.  For the moment you are not to speak to each other and Step and Sad will sleep in different rooms. Step, you can move in with Tom so go and get your things now.”

The three orphans left Nurse Smiley’s office stunned and heartbroken. The future looked very bleak indeed. 

END OF CHAPTER 13