Sydney Bridge Upside Down (14 page)

What they did in Bonnie Brae at carnival time was to decorate the town and have something going on in every street. There were seven streets, including the main street, and there was also a paddock at the end of town for horses to race and jump in, so you could reckon that round every corner there would be things to see. Everywhere there were flags and banners and bright posters, and a band played on a platform half-way along the main street. No cars or trucks were allowed in the main street, so the people could wander wherever they wished. People came to Bonnie Brae from
miles away at carnival time, from back-country places and from coastal towns like Laxton and Port Crummer and Wakefield.

Mr Kelly had parked the Reo in a side-street, not far from the main street. On the main-street corner was a notice: BONNIE BRAE’S HAPPY DAY. This notice, Mr Kelly told the small Kelly kids before they ran off, could be the landmark for them when they returned to the lorry for lunch. Not that those kids, I reckoned, needed a landmark.

Dad and Mr Kelly did not stay long at the Reo. They said they had to meet some carnival officials and would watch out for us later. Mrs Kelly wanted to know where they were meeting the officials. Mr Kelly said they were all meeting at the Rob Roy hotel, but she must not get the idea that much drinking would be done, only two or three sociable glasses. After all, he said while she gazed at him, he had to keep fit for the drive back to Calliope Bay. He’d better not forget it, she said when he was already on his way, Dad hopping along beside him.

‘And what, young man,’ she said, turning to me, ‘is keeping you here? Aren’t you eager to see the carnival sights?’

‘Caroline doesn’t know her way around,’ I said. ‘I’ll show her where everything is.’

What I
was
anxious about was when Mr Wiggins would find the Reo. He had got caught up in the traffic and we had lost him. But I knew it would not be for long.

‘What a splendid plan!’ Caroline told me. ‘I mustn’t miss anything.’ I was sure that if Mrs Kelly hadn’t been there,
Caroline would have kissed me for being so thoughtful.

Mrs Kelly, who was getting to be as crabby as my mother, seemed about to say what she thought of the plan. Luckily, two excited-looking women greeted her at that moment, and the three of them began gossiping.

‘Come on,’ I said to Caroline. ‘She can catch up with us when she wants to.’

We hurried to the main street where quite a few people were strolling already, enough of them at any rate to make it hard for Mr Wiggins to spot us.

‘Did I hear somebody calling you?’ Caroline asked as we turned the corner.

‘I didn’t hear anything,’ I said, not looking back. Anyway, plenty of kids were named Harry.

Now that I was with Caroline I was not so keen to look for Buster Kelly. Eventually, I thought, I would meet him. I no longer cared what Dibs and Cal told him, I would easily put him right about their fibs later.

The fellows in charge of the hoopla stalls in this part of the main street were certainly sharp-eyed; not one of them, no matter how busy he was lifting hoops off the things on his table, missed noticing Caroline and me as we went by. ‘Come along!’ they cried. ‘Try your luck! Prizes for everybody!’ One of them called to me: ‘Come on, young fellow! Bring your sister over! Win a prize for your sister!’ That was when I wished I had a sack of money. I would spend it all on Caroline, I would win the biggest prizes and give the lot to her.

With what I did have, even at a penny a throw, I could not hope to win many prizes. Best to hurry on.

Unfortunately, Caroline seemed to want to linger at every stall. And she kept clicking the catch on the little red-and-gold purse that was one of her presents from the
Emma Cranwell
sailors. Her doing that, of course, only made the stall fellows try even harder to tempt her to have a go. If I had not pulled her along by the arm she would not have got past the first stall. She would have made it too easy for Mrs Kelly or Mr Wiggins to find us.

‘We can come back here later,’ I kept telling her. ‘Plenty more things to see.’

This worked for a while, almost to the end of the first block. Then we reached the stall where there was a big fellow with curly yellow hair and very tanned skin and the whitest teeth I had ever seen, and he held out the hoops to Caroline with a smile that was so goofy I felt like snatching the hoops from him and throwing them away.

‘We can come back later—’ I began.

‘Oh, what a lovely vase!’ Caroline said, moving to the stall before I could grab her. ‘That would make a nice welcome-home present for Aunt Janet.’

She had her purse open. She was holding out a note to the stall man.

‘A little suggestion,’ he said as he handed her six hoops. ‘Try for one of the smaller prizes first. That way you’ll get your hand in.’

‘You hold this, Harry,’ Caroline said, giving me the purse. ‘Then you can have a turn.’

‘Don’t be too long,’ I said, looking along the street.

Some of the strollers moved to the stall when they saw Caroline with the hoops. I saw nobody I recognised.

Well, my beautiful cousin won the vase. She also won a box of chocolates, a plaster puppy, a doll and several trinkets. She was the luckiest thrower at the stall. I didn’t see every throw she made, because I was so busy looking up and down the street, but I did notice a couple of times when the stall man seemed to help the hoops settle over items. It was queer too that none of the twelve hoops I threw settled over anything, I was right out of luck.

‘A little suggestion,’ said the stall man when I at last got Caroline to quit buying hoops. ‘I’d be happy for you to leave your prizes here while you’re looking at the other attractions. You can pick them up later.’

‘That so nice of you,’ Caroline said, close to him, smiling up at his teeth. ‘We’ll call for them on our way back.’

‘I’ll be waiting,’ he said, turning on another of his goofy smiles.

‘Wasn’t that exciting, Harry!’ she cried. She gave me some coins. ‘These are for you. For bringing me luck.’ Before I could dodge, she kissed me. ‘And that as well.’

I knew my face was red. She should not kiss me when so many people were around. Heck, she was so excited it was a wonder she hadn’t kissed the fellow at the stall.

I said nothing. I put the coins in my pocket, not looking at them.

‘Oh, I must go there,’ she said a few yards further on.

I thought she was looking at the Town Hall. The notices said there was a pioneer parade inside, with prizes for the biggest beards.

It turned out she was looking at the
Ladies
place beside the Town Hall.

‘Will you wait for me while I have a weewee, Harry?’ she said. ‘Then we’ll look for some more excitement.’

‘I’ll wait,’ I said, keeping my hand in my pocket, jingling the coins. I watched her follow several other women into that place, she would have to queue.

How much had she given me? I couldn’t tell by feeling the coins. But I did not want to take them from my pocket because I had seen three tough-looking boys staring at me from not far away. These boys, I remembered, were at the hoopla stall when Caroline was having so much luck; they probably saw her giving me the coins. They might even have seen the notes in her purse and, like me, been surprised that she had so much money. I must keep an eye out for these boys as well as for—

My arm was grabbed. I could not get my hand from my pocket so I could use it to try to struggle free.

I was spun round, still held tightly.

And guess who was holding me. Uncle Pember!

That, at any rate, was who I thought was holding me. I did not think it for longer than a second. Because then I recognised Mr Wiggins behind the big black beard.

Mr Wiggins was so hairy at ordinary times, with his moustache and long sideboards and thick swish-back, that the beard seemed to close up his face altogether, leaving glaring eyes and fierce teeth as all that I could see of what was really him.

‘Hello, young fellow,’ he said in a friendly voice that made me shiver. ‘Enjoying the carnival?’

‘Yes thanks, Mr Wiggins,’ I said.

He let go of my arm. I rubbed it.

‘Waiting for the parade?’ he asked, looking past me at the Town Hall. ‘Think I stand a chance of winning the beard contest, son?’ He looked up and down the street.

‘It’s quite a large beard,’ I said. My voice too was friendly. ‘I thought they’d have to be real beards.’

He had not heard me, he was so busy looking around. ‘What’s that, son?’

‘They needn’t be real beards, eh?’ I hoped Caroline had not reached the head of the queue yet.

‘No, no,’ he said, looking everywhere except at me.

‘I’m waiting for my brother,’ I said. ‘We’re going in to see the pioneer parade. Haven’t seen my brother lately, have you, Mr Wiggins?’

‘Your brother?’ he said. ‘No, no.’ Then he did look at me. ‘By the way, Harry,’ he said, ‘have you seen your cousin? Where would Caroline be?’

‘I think she went to the Rob Roy hotel with Dad and Mr Kelly,’ I said. ‘Think they wanted her to meet some carnival officials.’

‘Is that so?’ he said. ‘Is that where she is?’

‘I
think
so,’ I said. ‘I think they said they were going there.’ Now would he head for the Rob Roy, two blocks back along the main street?

He looked at his watch. ‘That reminds me. Some officials I want to talk to. Probably find them along there. Enjoy yourself, son.’ He went off quickly in the direction of the Rob Roy.

‘Sorry you had to wait so long, Harry,’ Caroline told me about three seconds later. ‘There was such a big queue. Now where shall we go?’

I glanced across the street, but the three tough-looking boys had vanished. I guessed they had seen me talking to Mr Wiggins and had been scared away.

‘How about we go along the end and see what’s happening at the jumping paddock?’ I said.

‘All right,’ said Caroline. ‘Harry,’ she said the next moment, ‘was Dibs’ brother—you know, the one on the motorbike—was he coming to the carnival?’

‘He’s around somewhere,’ I said. ‘We might see him at the jumping paddock. Dibs and Cal went to look for him. They might have found him by now.’

‘He’s very daring, isn’t he?’ she said.

‘Yes, he is,’ I said.

She was walking faster, which was all right since it got us away sooner from the Town Hall part of town.

We were not far from the jumping paddock when I saw six cowboys standing 3-2-1 in a pyramid, the three at the foot of the pyramid pulling faces to show how heavy the others were, the others grinning to show how easy it was.

Caroline went up close to the pyramid. She seemed to enjoy going close to things, like faces.

She clicked her purse. I told her to wait until they began turning somersaults. I said it was not very clever to make a pyramid unless they also turned somersaults.

They did not turn somersaults, though. What they did was wink and grin at Caroline, even the bottom three.

Caroline waved back.

‘They’ll get tired, standing like that all day,’ I said, squeezing her hand and pulling her along through the crowd.

‘They weren’t doing it for themselves, Harry,’ she said.
‘They were doing it for the life-saving team. Didn’t you see the sign?’

‘They should
do
something if they expect people to give them money,’ I said. ‘What’s so clever about standing like that?’

‘Poor Harry,’ she said.

‘Heck!’ I said.

‘I know why you said that,’ she said. ‘Because you’re not having fun. Why aren’t you having fun, Harry?’

‘I
am
having fun,’ I said, stopping because Caroline stopped. I tugged her hand. She moved only a few steps. What made her stop, it seemed, was the band beginning to play back along the main street. She turned to look.

‘We can see them later,’ I said. ‘They’ll be playing all day.’

‘Mmm?’ she said. She seemed to be forgetting me.

‘It
is
fun,’ I said, studying the faces in the crowd. ‘If you think I’m not having fun, Caroline, it’s because—’

‘They’re playing
Painting the Clouds with Sunshine
,’ she said.

‘They must have seen the sky,’ I said, huffy because she was forgetting me. ‘It’s not so blue now.’

‘My poor Harry,’ she said, looking sadly at me. She seemed to have guessed I was too busy watching for enemies to enjoy the carnival.

‘It’s because school starts on Monday,’ I said. ‘I keep thinking of it. Wish I didn’t.’

‘You’ll have your schoolmates to play with,’ she said. ‘Think of me, Harry. I won’t have anybody to play with all day.’

‘We can have fun after school,’ I said. ‘It’s still sunny when we finish school.’

‘And during the day I can write more of my autobiography,’ she said. ‘While you’re doing your lessons, Harry, I’ll be writing the story of my life.’

I was nearly going to tell her I’d seen Uncle Pember outside the Town Hall, but that would have meant mentioning Mr Wiggins, and I knew Caroline would rather I did not mention
him.

I said: ‘I’d like to hear some more of your autobiography. Especially about your uncle. The one with the black beard.’

Caroline said: ‘Uncle Pember? Yes, he had an amazing secret.’

I said: ‘I know. You told me. That’s what I’d like to hear about. Can’t we skip some of the earlier parts of your autobiography and get to the secret bit?’

Caroline said: ‘It would spoil it, Harry. You must be patient.’

I said: ‘If I told you
my
amazing secret would you tell me Uncle Pember’s?’

Caroline laughed. ‘No, you’ll have to be patient, Harry.’

She did not believe I had a secret. Even if I told her what it was, she would think I was making it up to try to get her to tell me about Uncle Pember.

We had stopped at a tent near the jumping paddock. Caroline was first to stop, and this was because a boxer was on a platform outside the tent. He had a broken nose and oily black hair and a hairy body and he looked very tough.
He was bobbing about and every now and then pretending to give an invisible opponent some hefty swipes with his boxing gloves. A sign on the platform said this boxer, Kid Savage, would accept challenges, and anybody who lasted three rounds with him would get a prize.