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Chapter Two: You rang, My Lady?
In the words of a song yet to be born, there was
no country, religion, possessions --- or heaven
and hell. Only imagining. Up, up in his tree,
Graham paused life itself.
These were a solution fit only for Graham. No
more punches in the face, just the soft rustle
of leaves. No nightmares or planned escape,
but peace.
In coed y melin, or in English, honey wood
--- now called Jews' wood by the locals ---
Graham sighed and stretched.
Above... summer clouds. Then --- a voice:
his mother calling. Time to eat.
No no no !
Bed after. Shared in a room with three of
his siblings. All snoring, wetting the bed.
Making his mother hate them. All boys.
His sister next door, mendacious.
His nightmares continuing.
The next day --- out down and free ---
then scrambling up to safety. And
so it went on.
Then there were books. Instead of
Sunday school - Tolstoy. Margaret
Mead, his mothers choice.. with
Greek smutty fables. Graham
cared only... to stretch.
Soft dark olive ivy leaves gave birth
to fruit clumps, small, dark, juicy.
Graham knew they were poison.
The elm tree was his guardian.
Finally.... junior school climaxed.
Exams loomed. Graham sent to
mug up. With a private tutor....
and a new friend, also there.
His mother, had pulled strings.
She saw Graham as a genius.
Not yet. But she would make
him one. Ambition grew in
her like the ivy's berries.
As her net closed, Graham's
nightmares warned him off.
A recurring, screaming dream
where a voice behind a bush,
called softly.. coaxed. Again
and again.. Graham neared
the bush - only to find not
his mother - but a hag.
He would - over and over -
run away for dear life.....
and wake up in his bed
drowning in urine and
tears of sweat.
Each word of sharp reproach
from his mother ----- cutting
his soul away.
''More of this - and I'll put
you in a baby's nappy!''
Chapter Three. In For A Treat.
The little jewellers shop in Carmarthen, now Hearts of Gold,
on the middle of the High Street --- had an air of excitement.
''Are you sure,'' asked Aneirin, her husband, shaking his
head, that it's today?''
''How can you keep asking?'' replied Rhiannon, sweetly,
''If I've told you a thousand times. It's due by 10, and
those poor girls will be arriving --- with just their
souls and nothing else to keep them warm.''
Rhiannon tutted as her husband - still worrying - tip
toed into the blue-glazed kitchen to make another
pot of tea. It seemed to him, a small skinny dip
of a man, that the world had gone full on mad,
and he wore a permanently pained look to
suit. He looked at his fob watch --- 6am.
His wife, ...smoothed down her dress, and thought
about what the ladies had spoken of, at chapel
last Sunday, warning: ''Two London girls - and
into their teens! Duw --- you're in for a treat.''
She sipped her tea now, peering out at the cold
early morning, waiting for that London train.
The two girls, Rita and Mary, stared at the strange
land clattering past, hills and sheep, more hills
and more sheep.. and giggled. Each had a
brown worn suitcase above their heads
on the netting, little inside besides a
change of clothes, a tooth brush
and for Mary, her orange Teddy.
''A jewellers shop,'' breathed Rita -- at 14 already
strikingly beautiful, with mounds of delightful
flesh.... secreted under her neat black coat.
She stretched her legs and arms - arching
her back: watching Mary's innocent blue
eyes ...widen.
''We'll be princesses,'' she cooed.
As the train pulled into the station, a young
squaddie on his way to Ireland gave way
to the two, as they squeezed past him.
''Hallo, gorgeous,'' he smirked - at Rita.
She stepped over his feet and smiled.
''Got a big rifle there, she flirted.
''Know how to use it, do you?''
''I know... how to slide it into your guts,''
he whispered. Holding the bayonet
up to her face, and inviting her..
to submit.
Rita ran away .....screaming softly.
There they were, waiting and watching.
By the ticket office door. They stood
now --- looking for their evacuees.
The train doors opened against the hiss
and puff of the slowing steam engine..
It was... 1942.
Next Chapter - on January 29th!