Boy – out and About

By Bradley Mill

Autobiographical fiction, the further happenings of Boy. His voice continues. Hear how he copes with the new environment, the new friends, the new disciplines. How does he manage his separation from Clive? Will he find another friend or friends?

The parents appear to have made a mistake in moving house. Hear Boy’s voice tell you of his new problems. The teenage years are filled with new adventures and new companions, one in particular, Gordon. But Boy is maturing, and he must ready himself for life with a capital L. As expected, it’s not easy for him. Somehow, he comes through several trials, but they just seem to continue to occur daily. Follow him into business, and the theatre and through romances or attempted romances. Meet the girls he encounters or, more particularly, pursue him on a daily basis. Meet the men who want to have encounters with him. Boy is never at peace.

Once again, the police become involved in Boy’s adventures and he has to do some fancy sleuthing with a mate to resolve several issues.

Will Boy find peace? Will he find a resolution to his early childhood traumas? It all unfolds in the sequel to ‘Boy in the Long Grass’.








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• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: May 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669888314

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Copyright © 2022 by Bradley Mill.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 05/10/2022

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840806

I

was making my way down the hill, taking in the view of the valley and the river in the distance. It wasn’t as impressive as I first thought. It wasn’t much different from our side of the high street. I was looking at the houses and the gardens – yes, they all had gardens – but I didn’t think they were all that impressive. Had we been sold a pup by my father?

I stopped to admire an impressive flowering shrub when, all at once, I heard, ‘Hello, Cocky.’ My heart skipped a beat; I looked up, and there was our cocky sitting on a side gate, chatting to me. He recognized me.

He probably thought, If only I could get off this chain, I’d go over there and give him a peck for old time’s sake. Well, this was encouraging, I knew where he lived, and I could always come and visit.

I spent a couple of minutes chatting with him, and then I continued down the hill. It was a long walk to the new street, but I eventually got there; the dog was getting tired, what with his lung problems and all, and I was quite tired of carrying my kitbag full of books.

I turned into the street and just saw the furniture van moving away from the lovely new house. Well, this was it; at last, I’d see what all the fuss was about. I came up to the front gate and stopped and looked at the property. Well, it was double-fronted with steps up to a veranda with lawns and shrubs. It was well-laid-out and looked impressive. I could see why my mother was attracted to it.

My father was carrying in the final boxes, and I could see my sisters, through a window, in what must be their bedroom. I let the dog off his leash and went through the front door. There was an entrance hall with two bedrooms off it, one on either side, and a small bathroom on one side. This hall led into what would appear to be a lounge room with another room off it to the left; it had double glass doors opening into it. This, I surmised, was the dining room.

The last room that these led into was the kitchen, and my mother and father were unpacking boxes and putting things away. There were ample cupboard space and a walk-in pantry. I noted the refrigerator was well-positioned so everyone coming in could see it. I wondered if all the ladies in the street had refrigerators, or were they still with ice chests, with the iceman coming in once a week? I did hope it wasn’t the same man who delivered the ice down by the station; this could cause trouble.

Well, I plucked up the courage to ask where I went, and my father immediately took me through a door off the kitchen onto the back veranda. Well, it was very narrow; you couldn’t swing a cat in it. I immediately protested. ‘I can’t sleep here,’ I said. ‘I’ll have no privacy. I’ll have people pushing past me all night to go to the lavatory. I imagine that’s in the backyard as I haven’t seen it on my walk through.’

‘Yes, it’s just outside the back door. But we do have a problem,’ he said.

‘Yes, I think we’ve got more than one,’ I retorted.

‘Don’t cheek your father,’ my mother said from the kitchen.

‘Well, what’s the problem?’

‘Your bed is too wide for the back veranda. Nobody would be able to get past you. We’ll have to buy you a smaller bed, a three-quarter size, to give a passage through.’

‘But I’ll never sleep in such a narrow bed. I won’t be able to roll over. And where am I going to sleep until you buy a bed?’

‘Well, tonight you can sleep on the floor in the dining room under the dining room table, and tomorrow your mother will buy a bed and hopefully have it delivered tomorrow.’

In addition to the lavatory being outside my back door, the wash house was off the back veranda to the right, so I was really living in the servants’ quarters that I knew well from all my films.

Well, you can imagine I was extremely disappointed. We’d left a house and an area I loved. My beloved long grass was there. I’d been born there, all my friends were there, and my life was there; how could I live here? And I thought, It’s an awful long way from the high school. What am I going to travel in, and what time will I have to get up to get to school on time? I was devastated.

I walked out of the back veranda and into the backyard. It was covered with lawn and had lots of flowers and shrubs and hedges and what appeared to be fruit trees. My father will have his work cut out here, I thought.

And then I saw a swing; well, I was getting a bit old for a swing, but I went and sat on it and thought of my past life and all my adventures, especially my friends and above all Clive. What would I do without Clive? He looked so forlorn when we parted this morning at the railway gates. I wondered what he was up to at this moment. I do hope he’s not forgetting about me. I’ve got to find a way to see him regularly outside of school hours. But how to do this? It was going to be a problem. I couldn’t invite him home for the weekend. We’d never both fit in the three-quarter bed on the back veranda.

He’ll laugh his head off when he comes to visit. He and Derek and the baby have beautiful accommodation at their house. How will I survive this? I thought. I don’t think my parents have thought this one through. I can see us moving again shortly. Unfortunately, the Russians now own our house, so we can’t go back there.

I started to move into a black despair. I’d lost all my humour and creative energies. I just sat on the swing.

I eventually went back inside, and the first thing I heard was my sisters chatting in their room. They were decorating it with pretty things my mother had given them to make it attractive to the visitors they planned to have. No thought had gone into any visitors I might want to have.

I thought, I’ll go out the front and explore the area. It was so boring compared with where I’d lived before. No paddock, no railway, no kids.

Where were all the kids? I thought. Then just as I was thinking this, a boy came out of the house next door to us. He appeared to be about my age. He said his name was Gordon, and I said I was Boy.

‘That’s a bloody stupid name,’ he said.

Well, this is a good start, I thought. I tried to explain why I was called Boy, but it didn’t seem to interest him. I asked him where he went to school, and he said he went to a local school at the moment, but he would be going to my high school after Christmas.

Well, this is a good thing, I thought. I could have a friend here, although he gave off very masculine vibes to me.

We were standing at the fence between our two houses when his front door opened, and an older man – his father, I think – called him to come in. He went to his father, and as they entered their door, I heard the father say to Gordon, ‘He’s a siss. Stay away from him.’ All this in my first afternoon in the new house.

Obviously, I’ll have no friends here, I thought.

I thought I’d explore the area, so I started to walk from the house down to what appeared to be a railway line. Now this would be a different line to our place, but at least I felt happy with a railway line. I went up and into the station; it was much bigger than our station and must have been a busier line. I had a good look around and chatted with a chap in the ticket office. I didn’t say I was familiar with all the stanchions along the line.

I walked down to the gates which spanned a wide street. This was the main street of this suburb and was lined with shops on either side. I took a leisurely stroll along here, looking in all the shops. It wasn’t as big and busy as our high street was, but at least it brought some life to the district.

Then I saw a picture theatre. It was a lot smaller than the theatres I’d been used to, but at least it showed pictures. Wow, I was over the moon. I crossed over to it and spent some time checking out what was showing and what the coming features would be. This made me feel more at home.

The funny thing was I couldn’t work out where the river was. So much talk about the river, and it was nowhere to be seen. After a time, I thought I should return to the lovely new house and see how it was going.

When I got back, my sisters had finished their room and invited me in. It was very nice – twin beds, wardrobe, a fireplace. There seemed to be fireplaces in every room. They’d put little frilly things around everything; it looked very feminine, my mother would say. My parents’ room was finished; the lounge and dining rooms were finished. (I did notice a mattress under the dining room table, where I was to sleep.) The kitchen was in order, and the back veranda with the louvre windows was a disgrace.

What had I come to? I thought of Clive and Derek and Trevor and Tommy, all my masculine friends, and I was over in this house with nothing and a neighbour who’d already warned his son not to play with me.

Somehow, I got through that night. We ate at the kitchen table; there was less room than our old house. It was so cramped that the table was pushed up to a one-fire stove at one end, and we, all five of us, sat around it. My father was at one end and the four of us two each on either side. I wondered what my mother would do if she ever decided to do her baking in the oven; she always baked her pies and tarts in the one-fire stove.

Everyone was very pleased with the lovely new house but me. My sisters were going to invite friends from the Sunday school after the session. I couldn’t think of inviting anyone over yet, not with me sleeping under the table in the dining room. Clive always thought my family was strange, and they were certainly proving it at the moment. What would Clive say if he saw my mattress under the table in the dining room? This was a Friday night, and there was nothing to do, so I sat in the dining room and read a book until I got onto the mattress.

The next day, I thought, I’ve got to get out of here. I was walking my bike up the sideway to take it out when I heard the boy next door coming out on his side.

He said, ‘G’day.’ And I responded.

He said, ‘Where are you going?’

I said, ‘I thought I’d explore a bit.’

‘Would you like me to come with you?’ he said.

‘But I thought your father said you weren’t to see me,’ I replied.

‘Oh, I don’t take any notice of him,’ he said. ‘Anyway, he’s at work.’

He quickly fetched his bike, which was a Malvern Star racer; he gave mine a strange look, and I quickly said, ‘Don’t say anything. You don’t want to know.’ He laughed; I think I cleared the air a bit. So we both laughed and hopped on our bikes.

I said, ‘I’d like to see the river. I can’t think which direction it is.’

He said, ‘Follow me. I’m always down there.’

So off we went. Was this a more grown-up version of Clive and me and the creek? Anyway, we had to cross some major road and traffic lights to get down to the river; and when we did, we had a good time. The river was wider than I’d imagined; our creek couldn’t compare to it at all. Gordon certainly knew everything about the bush; he was a scout and went camping all the time.

We spent several hours there and walked a long way along the river. He said I could go camping with him as he often did that at weekends, he and a couple of mates. I said I didn’t know if my parents would let me, and I had a problem as I couldn’t swim. ‘Can’t swim’, he said. He was dumbfounded. ‘I’ll teach you to swim.’ I was beginning to panic a bit. It was all getting away from me; I didn’t feel as safe as I did with Clive and my friends.

When I returned home, my father was in the front garden. I think he’d just realized all the extra work he’d given himself. He was looking a bit dumbfounded, staring at the long grass appearing on the lawn. I said stupidly, ‘It’ll need mowing.’

‘Yes, I know that, you stupid bastard. I’ll have to go and buy a mower.’

I was becoming a bit brazen, having just been down the river with a Boy Scout. ‘And what about my bed?’ I said.

‘Mind your mouth,’ he said. ‘That’s your mother’s domain.’

Well, I couldn’t see my mother getting to the shop on a Saturday, so, I thought, I’ll be under the dining room table for a while yet. As I thought earlier, this hadn’t been thought through, and I could see clouds on the horizon. I went inside and grabbed some food, ignored everybody, and got outside on my bike again. I was going home to my old house and my friends.

I rode up the hill and breathed much more easily when I started down the other side. I saw our old house, the station, and my beloved long grass. I sped up through the railway gates and pulled up at Clive’s house. I hammered on the door; Clive’s mother opened the door. ‘Oh, Boy,’ she said, ‘Clive’s not here. He’s around at Tommy’s, I think.’

I couldn’t believe it; I’d been gone one day, and he was around at Tommy’s. ‘Thanks,’ I said and ran back to my bike.

I quickly rode to our street and knocked on Tommy’s door. His mother opened it and welcomed me. ‘Come in,’ she said. ‘The boys are in Tommy’s room.’

I ran into Tommy’s room; they were both engrossed in some board game. I threw my arms around Clive and burst into tears. ‘Hey, hey, hey’, they both said. ‘What’s wrong?’

I took a while before I could speak, and then I said, ‘I can’t cope. It’s horrible. The famous lovely new house isn’t big enough to swing a cat in, my bed won’t fit on the back veranda, and I’m sleeping on a mattress under the dining room table. I’ve just been down to the river with a Boy Scout whose father told him he wasn’t to see me as I was a sissy, and he wants to take me camping and teach me to swim.’

‘Whoa’, Clive said. ‘Take a breath. You’ve only been gone two days.’

‘Well, I can’t live there. I want you all. I want my friends. I want to go out with you and have adventures, and, Clive, I want you to kick the bad blokes in the balls.’ I sobbed again. Clive and Tommy were dumbfounded. Clive held me tightly until I stopped sobbing. Tommy’s mother came in and said she had the kettle on and would make tea.

I calmed down, and we started talking more rationally. Tommy’s mother said, ‘It seems your parents haven’t thought about your needs, Boy.’

‘I know, but you see, my sisters are over the moon, and my mother is trying to like it. I don’t think it’s as glamorous as she expected. The street is so dull compared with what we had here. My father is like a bear with a sore head. He knows he’s made a mistake but won’t admit it. He’ll soon find a pub to rush to so he can drown his sorrows. I passed one on my way to the river with the Boy Scout. All he can see is the work that the house and garden needs.

‘But there’s nobody in the street. You can walk up and down it, and you don’t see a soul. It’s not the high society my mother was expecting. I don’t think she’ll be having afternoon teas now.’

So we all sat around Tommy’s table, drinking Chinese tea and eating macaroons. I said, ‘Isn’t this wonderful? This is home.’ And everyone agreed with me.

Clive, always the level-headed one, said, ‘Boy, we’ve got to get you to fit in with your new environment and your new neighbours.’

‘Well, what do I do?’ I said.

‘Well, what’s this boy’s name?’

‘Gordon’, I said.

‘Well, do you think you could get to like Gordon?’

‘Well, he’s a bit more forceful than our boys over this side of the high street, but he is starting at our high school after Christmas.’

‘Well, that’s a positive, but that’s three months away. Would you go camping with him?’ Clive asked.

‘I don’t think so,’ I said. ‘Not at the moment. I’d have to get used to him first. I’d be frightened to be alone with him at night.’

‘But you’ve been able to cope with lots worse in the past,’ Clive said.

‘It’s not that,’ I said. ‘He gives off feelings of domination as if he wants to control me. I mean, I’d only seen him for a few minutes, and he wanted to take me camping with his mates and practically had me swimming in the river.’

‘Yes, Boy, you’re right, I’m afraid we sheltered you over this side of the suburb.’

‘No, you didn’t. I coped with everything we had to deal with. It’s just this boy’s different.’

‘Well, if he’s the only boy in the street, I think you’ll have to try to get to know him and work in with him. It may not be that difficult to start with as his father probably wouldn’t let him go out with you just yet. They need to see your strengths. Have you met his mother?’

‘Not yet, but he said she’s an actress.’

‘Well, that’s a start. Theatre people are generally broad-minded. Look at your neighbours, the magician and the acrobat. You got on well with them. Perhaps you have to charm the mother. And you know you can do that, Boy. Suggest to your mother that she invite Gordon’s mother into afternoon tea, and she’ll get to understand you better. Have Gordon come in too, and that will break the ice. Do they have any other children?’

‘He has a brother, a lot older. He’s in the navy and at sea most of the time. He only comes home when he’s on leave, and he shares a room with Gordon.’

‘Well, that all sounds good. Charm the mother, recite some of your poems for her in your lovely voice, and when the sailor returns, charm him and show an interest in the navy. There you are, problem solved,’ said Clive.

He made it sound so easy. I was a bit dumbfounded. ‘What do you think, Tommy?’

‘I think Clive’s summed it up very well. I know he’s always solved my problems for me. Give it a go.’

Tommy’s mother agreed. ‘I think it’s a good solution. I’m forever grateful for what you all did for Tommy with Judith’s problems. And your mother was the heroine there, wasn’t she, Boy?’

‘You’re right, she was,’ I said.

I tentatively asked, ‘Clive, do you think you could ride over to me one day and meet up with Gordon? Then you’d know if I can cope with him or not. If you don’t, you won’t meet him until the new year at school.’

‘I could do that,’ he said. ‘But shouldn’t I wait until your parents sort out the house first? It seems your father isn’t coping very well, and we all know what that leads to.’

‘Yes, he’ll get on the grog again, and they’ll start fighting again. At least in this house, my mother can’t see him coming out of the station. We have to wait until he rolls in through the front door.’

So I left them. I said I’d see Clive at school on Monday and rode home. I was feeling a little better but not fully convinced that I could cope with the new environment. I must say, I was a bit jealous of Clive and Tommy; they looked so happy together, playing their game. I was put out that I couldn’t join in and stay over with them, but I supposed those days were over, and I had to move on. It was just I never thought Clive and I would be separated. But of course, this was what the Sorcerer and his apprentice had been warning me about for years.

When I got home, it was time for tea. My parents asked me where I’d been, and I told them. ‘Look, Boy, you can’t keep going back there. That time of our life has ended. You’ve got to move on and fit in here.’

‘But there’s nothing to do here at the moment. We don’t know anybody, and the street seems deserted, and nothing happens.’

‘Look, we’ve only been here a day. Give it some time. I’m sure we’ll find lots to do here.’

‘Well, I did find a picture theatre,’ I said. ‘It’s not big, like the ones we