Exactly five weeks and three days passed, then they arrived at noon in Darwin on the 1st November.
Blistering heat. That's all Kathy felt. Filtering sweat out of every crevice like water out of a hose filling a pool in the summertime. It was sticking to her clothes. She wore as little as possible to a point where if she wore one less thing she'd be half naked.
Susan had washed all the clothes worn by the family and packed them away neatly in the suitcases. They were all ready to leave. But Kathy didn't want to go. Her mum kept commenting on the fact that two months ago she didn't want to get on the boat, now she wants to stay. 'You're contradicting yourself' she would say.
Kathy would reply by saying 'but Ellie wasn't in the picture back then'. That would be her only argument. Apart from the few her mum and her had that particular day.
Lisa stayed with her dad, upset that Kathy broke her promise and most pain stakingly for Kathy, disappointed. She felt almost disgusted with herself for doing that to her sweet little sister. She had to accept that she was leaving for Kulgera in two day's time.
Kathy left her seven closest friends back in Peckham, now she had to leave another in Darwin. But she had to be strong for Lisa's sake. She was the one that was never leaving Kathy, so she had to do what really was right for her and not think about herself for once.
As hard as it was to leave the boat, now just a place with memories, she carried and dragged her suitcase off the boat and onto the dock. And that was where she would leave Ellie. Lisa had said her goodbye's to Ruby and Lily and their family were off, all that was keeping the Campbell's on the dock was the farewell to Ellie's family. Kathy's parents hadn't got on well with Ellie's parents but they put up for the sake of Kathy's happiness. John had tried to make friends with Lisa, Kathy said not to be mean and he ended up going round with Lisa, Lily and Ruby.
Kathy was near to tears as she hugged Ellie tightly.
"I'm gunna miss you mate" Ellie sniffed, trying to held back her tears, but failed as they spilled and trickled down her face. And that got Kathy's flowing.
"I'm gunna miss you too. You made the trip bearable" Kathy spoke, giving a wet grin, trying to be strong, but the constant supply of tears made it quite a challenge.
"Here" Ellie started, and reached for her pocket "My address." She pulled out a small crumpled bit of paper with freehand scribbled writing on it. "Please write"
"Oh, mum" Kathy turned to her mum who had already found a bit of paper and was scrawling on it, using Richard's back for support. She then gave it to Kathy with a small smile.
"Pindan" Kathy read from the sheet "Wherever the hell that it"
She handed it over with a smile and they hugged one more time, as tightly as they could. Kathy ruffled John's hair and they both went in separate directions, waving to each other until the bustle of the dock engulfed them both.
Kathy looked at the piece of paper. "So that's eight long letters I have to write" she thought. It would be worth it though, they were the only decent people Kathy knew and she suspected that there would be next to nothing in personalities where they were going.
There was yet another man to help with their furniture, but only to a hotel placed near the docks.
Australia seemed very different according to Kathy. People spoke funny and had very bad tan lines. In Peckham, at this time of year, a tan would be impossible. They don't dress too differently, they are just dressed for the summer and it was strange for Kathy to think of the date and the weather at the same time, a big change from back home. And everyone looks fairly happy, not that everyone's smiling. If you walked down a street in London, you'd surely see fairly miserable people. Maybe it was just the sun shining in everyone's faces, it made them seem much happier. Kathy knew that if she was walking round in sun all day she certainly wouldn't be down since sun was a rarity for Peckham. But the thing that shocked Kathy the most was the landscape. Tall and short buildings surrounded the dock. Small areas of grass had people sat down for lunch. She didn't expect it to be so fertile. Not just in nature but in infrastructure as well. She thought it would be dry mud for miles. That's what her auntie said when she sent her letters. And since she didn't pay much attention in geography she thought all of Australia was dry desert. Apparently not.
The sweat continued to drip from her forehead as she walked to hotel with her luggage. Kathy was happy to receive a cool shock as they entered the slightly air-conditioned hotel lobby. The temperature had only dropped about five or six degrees but it was better being in cold shade than in the direct sunlight.
Richard had their room sorted and because they couldn't afford a big, swanky hotel, theirs didn't have a porter so they had to again carry their luggage to the first floor.
Halfway up the flight of stairs, Lisa keeled over. Kathy immediately went to her and tried to coax her up but she was so full of fatigue she couldn't get up.
"I got her" Richard announced and quickly runs his bag upstairs and came back down to pick Lisa up. He cradled her in his arms and went back upstairs. Kathy grabbed Lisa's bag and instead of carrying them both she just dragged them up the stairs. Susan didn't even object the action. In a way, she took her anger out by dragging them, and on the last step she groaned really loudly, exclaiming her fatigue and anger.
Richard had already opened the door to their room so she left the bags in the doorway. When she entered the room she didn't even bother looking round, she just went to the door that looked like the bathroom and opened it.
She was hit by a wall of fresh, cold air. Kathy sighed at the sensation of the immense temperature drop and moved herself towards the sink. She turned on the cold tap, splashing her face with the running water until she needed to breathe. She turned the tap off and looked up at the slightly tarnished mirror and thought to herself. 'I wish we were there. I hate waiting. The sooner we get there the better'.
She splashed herself some more with the stimulating liquid and left the bathroom. Two small double beds and a chest of drawers.
"You know, this all better be worth it. The house out there better pay off" Kathy half shouted, grabbing the attention of everyone in the room.
"Yeah, it should have a swimming pool" Lisa mumbled from on top of one of the beds. "So we can swim in it every day."
Kathy gave a small smile at her sister's comment. She walked over to the bed and crashed down on it next to her sister. "If you're gunna lie on the bed, at least make some room for me"
Lisa shuffled over in a sluggish manner, annoyed that she had to move in the stifling heat. Kathy crashed down next to her.
"Kathy" Lisa groaned.
"Mmmm" she said, monotone.
"I don't want to be here"
Kathy cocked her head to the left to look at her bothered sister. She wished she could do something, but she had no power to decide for her future, let alone her own.
Susan looked over as well. She heard Lisa's comment and felt bad. Susan didn't want to be there either, but they had nothing left back in Peckham. Sure, Kathy and Lisa had their friends and Susan and Richard even had their own friends but they couldn't pay the mortgage with friendship, it doesn't work that way. She hoped that things would work out in Pindan, Patricia; her sister-in-law said things were fantastic out there, and they really had nowhere else to go. What Kathy didn't understand was that Richard and Susan had to make a lot of sacrifices for themselves as well as leaving friends. Susan had to leave her work and her friends there but most of all she had to leave her family behind. She didn't have much: a mother, a father and an older sister but still she didn't want to be halfway around the world without them. Richard thought it would be good since he hadn't seen his sister in over a decade and his parents were out in the world travelling some place whilst they still had the time.
Richard was devastated when he found out he had lost almost all of his money to his so called friend and partner. They both had known each other for over fifteen years and when they had their best year yet, he left with the money that was stored in the business account. He was honestly god-smacked. Luckily Richard had some saved up in his own account and Susan still had her job as an office worker so they weren't left penniless. And Susan's family had the audacity to 'give' them some money so they could get back on their feet. Richard promised that it would be paid back but as far as earning money went he didn't have any so he decided when he was out in Australia working he would eventually send them the money.
It was a few weeks after the Campbell's had lost their money and Richard was on his way to talk to his banker. He stopped at a corner shop to buy a paper and come across an article about £10 one way trips to Australia and immediately became intrigued. He even asked about it to his banker, who replied by saying 'Those deals have been very popular since the end of the war, but there's a fifty-fifty chance that some people make their luck out there, otherwise, you're unlucky'. Richard talked about it with Susan that night and they had pretty much made their decision and sent out a letter to Patricia as soon as they had their idea straight. A letter came five weeks later saying that coming to Pindan would be the best idea they'd ever had.
And so it was from that moment on. They would move to Pindan and live and work out there. Patricia mentioned in the letter that the food shop owner was getting a little old lately. Richard hoped he could take it of his hands and run it himself but that would have to be sorted out when they were physically out there. Breaking the news to the girls was the horrible part of the idea. Kathy broke out into anger and rage as soon as they finished their sentence. They knew that she would get angry, Susan would have gotten angry if her parents said to her at the age of fifteen they would move half way across the world to a peculiar place that she never wanted to visit, but her family didn't have financial problems so they really didn't have to worry. Susan would've have accepted the shouting if it wasn't for the fact that she broke her expensive vase. It was an accident but she still broke it.
They got the silent treatment for weeks as they prepared all their belongings for travel. They were worried about Kathy, but they really had no choice but to go on with the move. Poor little Lisa had to deal with all they hassle of the family. She often kept out of arguments for her own benefit which Susan and Richard understood but they didn't want her to feel like she had been forgotten about since most of the time the attention was on Kathy's situation. They had to reassure her at times that the move was the best thing for them, and to ignore whatever Kathy said since she was only angry. Lisa also fretted for her sister since she isolated herself even from her at times. Lisa and Kathy had always been close and she hated the silent treatment she got whenever Kathy was in a mood.
Kathy had promised her that they would never leave and this really bothered Kathy since she broke her promise. Lisa wasn't really bothered as such; she just wanted her sister back. It was hard to choose to listen to Lisa since all she talked about was that it was fine that they were leaving and that as long as they were together that's all that mattered as long as they were all together as a family. Kathy always listened to Lisa when she talked to her in bed at night, sometimes crying herself to sleep because she knew that she was being a complete nuisance to the family but she really didn't want to leave her friends that meant everything to her.
When her friends talked to her at Café 101 for the last time it really did change the perspective on the move. Even her friends wanted to pack up her ideas and move. It wasn't really said like that but that's what it felt like to Kathy, who wanted nothing more than to whinge about her parents to them. She tried to co-operate with them at first but eventually she gave up and left it to her mother to sort out, who had other ideas.
Kathy was old enough by that time that she could pack her own suitcase so Susan didn't really want to help her with it but she was proving to be a little too difficult to deal with. Kathy couldn't really be asked to do it herself so she used the technique she used when her bedroom was messy; wait until her mother got so fed up so she does it herself. But Susan had too much on her plate to worry about Kathy's ineptitude since she all of the other belongings to manage.
Kathy finally chucked everything into her suitcase and was forgotten about until they went on the boat.
"Do you girls want to come and look around the place? We could grab some lunch since we haven't had anything yet" Richard suggested after dropping the suitcase from the hall way into the room.
"Can't you just go out and get some food whilst we wait here? It's too hot to move" Kathy groaned, hardly moving her lips.
Richard sighed and gave in. Just him and Susan went out whilst Kathy and Lisa hardly moved from the bed they led on.
A couple of days passed and Kathy only got hotter with every day. But with every hot day came closer the time when they would leave for Kulgera.
On the last day in Darwin, they all went out for lunch, something they hadn't done in a very long time, and they seemed to have enjoyed themselves. Lisa decided on a picnic, so they sat in a park, wearing all of their summer clothes and munching on the freshest fruit and cold beverages. It was complete bliss for Richard and Susan since they had never been so relaxed in such a long time. Richard had a nap whilst Lisa and Kathy did handstands and cartwheels; having competitions to see who could stay up the longest.
After the exciting afternoon the Campbell's went back to their hotel room, packed and then signed out. They dragged their luggage to the train station were they grabbed a small bite to eat and waited for the 19:00 train to take them to Kulgera.
"Are you girls excited?" Richard asked.
"Yes, oh I can't wait to sleep on a train" Lisa exclaimed. Kathy stayed silent for a while, contemplating her answer.
"Well, what about you, Kathy?" Susan inquired.
"To be honest, I'm quite excited to be seeing Auntie Patricia, but won't it be hotter out there?" Kathy replied.
"Yes, a lot hotter actually" Richard answered wearily.
Kathy sighed heavily. 'Just what I need' she thought.
18:45 rolled around and their train pulled into the station. They had their crates of furniture sent from the dock to the train station when they arrived for less hassle. Richard went over to the staff and confirmed that it was their luggage and joined the rest of them on the train. They took their seats and didn't talk to one another.
Kathy started to feel tired as the train pulled out of the station to start the 930 mile journey. Kathy dreamed of her friends back in Peckham, and they were all running for some reason. They just kept on running until Queenie fell over and the ambulance was called. They all got in and they ended up playing a word search, using Queenie's dress to write on.
Kathy woke up suddenly. She looked out of the window her head was flat against and saw desert. Long, stretches of desert. There were hardly any plants, just greeny-brown dots that would shoot by. She looked out to the edge of the horizon. She kept on looking, hoping that she might see something, but there was nothing. She yawned and stretched in her seat, avoiding touching Lisa's body as she was still in a deep slumber. She looked over to her right to see her parents. They were both asleep, Richard snoring quietly.
She got up in her seat to have a look around at every one and they were all sleeping as well, apart from one small boy, who had his knees up to his chest and was tapping them with his fingers, obviously trying to create a beat. He looked up suddenly, aware that Kathy was staring at him. He waved timidly, a little wary that she was still staring. Kathy felt the impulse to wave back but she didn't. She just slumped back down in her seat, agitated and slightly clammy from the night's sleep.
The heat didn't help her boredom either. It also didn't help that one of Kathy's legs was numb and she couldn't move it more than 10 centimetres. She didn't know what the time was and looked out of her window towards the sun to see if that would help. In the olden days, they used to tell the time by using the sun, but also a sun dial, and Kathy didn't have one of those.
Kathy felt a small stir beside her and shot her head round to look. Lisa was lifting her head slightly, and reached over to poke Susan.
"Mum" Lisa grumbled. She poked her a little but she didn't respond. She did it again and Susan's eyes started opening.
"What?" she murmured.
"I'm thirsty" Lisa said, and you could hear the croaking in her voice.
"There's money in my bag, take some out and get some water for all of us" Susan strained, obviously wanting to get back to her sleep, and not trying too hard to wake herself up by speaking to much.
Lisa bent down across from her seat to grab Susan's purse and kicked it back under her seat. Kathy got up and followed Lisa who hadn't realised she was up, so she had quite a shock.
They walked down a few carriages, trying not to sway into people so much in case they woke them up. They bought four bottles of water and walked unsteadily back to their seats, but only Lisa sat down.
They started talking since some people started to wake up and talk themselves. The little boy still looked at Kathy, mentally demanding a wave back, but Kathy didn't give him a second glance.
As everyone in their carriage started waking up, Kathy's headache began to pound its way into Kathy's brain. She drank water to try and calm it, but that didn't help. 'The only way to get rid of it' Kathy thought, ' is if everyone shut up'.
They had a breakfast of bread and butter, Kathy only nibbled at hers though, not really feeling in the mood to digest the bland food, so she drank two bottles of water instead.
At 10:15, they arrived at a rural train station. Kathy looked over with Lisa to their parents but they shook their heads, this was not their stop. Kathy sighed and flopped back in her seat, Lisa copied her.
Kathy looked out of her window to watch the departing passengers bustle around with their luggage and just as Kathy was about to turn her head to look at Lisa, she spotted the little boy, holding onto his mother's hand, being thrashed to and throw amongst the crowds to fetch their family's belongings. He looked very bored indeed, scuffling his feet and looking everywhere around him to see. Then he locked eyes with Kathy.
They stared at each other for a few seconds, and the impulse Kathy had a few hours previously came back, and she gave a little salute to him. He smiled a toothy grin and saluted back. This made Kathy smile, 'Maybe another letter' she thought, but she didn't know this boy's name, where he was going or why he was going. Maybe he was going to see family, but why would they have the crates. No, they were moving to the area, so either from Darwin or England. He did look pale, so possible England. Why? What happened to his family? Kathy couldn't see what would look like his dad anywhere. Was he just here with his mother? Did they run away from his father? Kathy then looked at his mother. She didn't look like she had bruises, she looked professional, a respected woman from what she was wearing. That little boy will never see his friends again, just like Kathy. 'Poor thing' she thought.
They pulled away from the station. There were a few more seats spare in their carriage so Kathy and Lisa decided to go and sit somewhere else. Kathy moved directly to the little boys seat.
Lisa sat opposite her and they just talked. Kathy liked it far more at the back then where they were previously sitting.
"So, what's they first thing you're gunna do when you're out there?" Lisa asked.
"Um, well, have a flavoured drink. I'm sick of drinking water" Kathy answered.
"Oh yeah, a nice cold lemonade for me" Lisa smiled.
"And me" Kathy smiled as well. It was like old times. Them sharing lovely, little conversations.
As the hour finished, they had made a friend. Yvonne. She was from Darwin going to see her family down south. They talked about everything that they felt comfortable with, but Kathy didn't want to write to her. Eight people was enough, maybe a mental ninth to the little boy. 'Shall I give him a nickname?' she thought. 'Well, I don't see why not. Right, um, finger... sailor fingers? No, that's just weird. Sailor... boy? Sailor Boy. Yes, I like that one. Sailor Boy you are, you, you Sailor Boy' Kathy smiled to herself. 'I wonder what Sailor Boy would be doing now?' She looked back out of the window and towards the horizon. She saw a flicker. 'Maybe Sailor Boy's saluting to me'.
The both napped for the remaining journey, exhausted from the heat. Kathy dreamed a dreamless sleep.
At 13:57 they pulled into a station. They both looked out of the window and saw the orange sand.
"Is this us?" Kathy questioned.
"Alright girls, wear your hats" Susan announced, passing them the sun hats purchased in Darwin.
"When you get off, see if you can find Auntie Patricia" Susan said.
"But I don't know what she looks like" Lisa mumbled.
"Sure you do, remember, she sent that picture not too long ago" Kathy reminded. Lisa looked blankly back at Kathy. "Well, I know what she looks like. Just hold my hand"
Kathy reached out to grab Lisa hand and smiled. She let Lisa get off first and she followed, into the heat screen. It hit her more than when she got off at Darwin. She immediately started sweating.
Lisa grabbed Kathy's hand once more but it was damp with sweat. She made a disgusted sound and Kathy laughed. She then looked up and tried to locate her Aunt.
She looked off to the far left and saw a dark green truck, and her auntie standing in front of it.
"There she is!" Kathy exclaimed and grabbed Lisa's arm and ran around the small crowd. They both held onto their hats.
"Auntie Patricia!" they shouted and when they reached her, they gave her a tight hug, not caring about the sweat or dust. Lisa hat fell off during the implode of bodies.
"Watch out Lisa, don't wanna loose it" Patricia spoke, and now with an Australian accent. They both found it slightly weird.
"Where's your mum and dad?" she asked.
"They're sorting out the luggage, they asked us to go find you" Kathy explained.
"Alright, well you girls get in the truck, get outta the heat and I'll go help your mum and dad" she ordered.
They both got in and sat in the back seats, thankful the truck had air-conditioning.
"Auntie Patricia's really nice" Lisa said.
"You were just a small baby when you met her, yet you were hugging her and everything" Kathy pointed out.
"I don't know, it's like I remember her even though I was just a baby. But she's really nice" she repeated.
They stayed silent for a while, consuming the cool air.
When the luggage was chucked into the back and Richard, Susan and Patricia were seated they started the fifteen minute journey to Pindan; the actually town they would be living.
"Where are the crates?" Lisa asked.
"People are bringing it over tomorrow. We'll just have to live without furniture for a day. We're going to stay at Auntie Patricia's tonight" Richard informed.
Kathy sighed. The heat was getting to her. She didn't feel like talking to anyone.
The journey seemed to drag on. What was meant to be fifteen minutes felt like half an hour. Kathy spotted an odd house in the distance. 'We better be getting close'.
As more houses passed by, Patricia kept honking her horn and everyone who saw the truck.
"I told everyone that you guys were coming. They know how excited I've been" Patricia explained. Richard and Susan laughed as Patricia kept waving at people, and eventually slowed down enough so she could talk and drive.
A man came by the window and started introducing himself to the Campbell's. 'What is going on? Can we please just get to the house?!' Kathy screamed in her mind.
Eventually, he walked off and Patricia sped up but Kathy was still feeling restless. 'So, everyone's friends here. Just great'.
They went slightly out of town to a medium sized house. It was brown and slightly worn on the outside. Kathy couldn't wait to see it on the inside. To choose her bedroom and lock herself in.
She put her hat back on her head and slammed the door on the truck. She didn't want to do it to annoy Auntie Patricia, she was just tired and she wanted her parents to notice it.
They all climbed up the front porch whilst Patricia was talking.
"I made sure everything was clean before you came and got rid of all the rats" she explained.
"What?" Lisa gasped. She hated rats.
One time, in their old, old house, Richard found their skirting board in the hallway a little nibbled. He immediately assumed mice so he set a few traps. Lisa really wanted to see the little mice before they were killed so she got up in the middle of the night to see them. She waited at the bottom of the stairs with a dim light for hours and eventually she saw a shadow. But it wasn't a mouse. She screeched so loudly and dropped the light and ran back upstairs to hide under her blanket. Richard ran out to see what the problem was, and was greeted by an extremely grumpy Kathy who was just woken up. They all tried to coax her out and she told them that she saw the mice, but they weren't mice.
Richard said to wait until the morning to see what it was but Lisa cried until they went downstairs to get rid of it. Richard went downstairs to grab kitchen tongs whilst Susan, Lisa and Kathy waited at the top of the stairs. With the light on they could see that a huge rat had been trapped. Lisa ran back into bed, still scared whilst Richard got rid of it. She had been scared ever since.
"Don't worry; there weren't any in the first place. You've got nothing to worry about" Patricia reassured.
She handed Richard the keys and let him unlock the front door to his house. They all walked in.
Lisa dragged Kathy around to see everything. She generally seemed quite excited whereas Kathy was the complete opposite. The kitchen was clean but Kathy didn't care, she just wanted to pick out her room.
When they both reached the stairs after the tour of the ground floor, Kathy raced upstairs to open all of the doors.
"You can't have that one" she heard Patricia shout. "That's the master bedroom" She joined Kathy and pointed to two rooms. "You can have either"
She walked into the biggest one and shut the door. She looked round at the square room and sighed. 'So I'm actually here. It's finally happened'.
She walked over to her only window and leaned against it. 'I wonder if Sailor Boy has a room like this. Maybe he enjoys it more than I do'.
Kathy looked to her right and saw the town. She estimated one hundred and fifty people lived their altogether. 'What does everyone do?'
Her question was quickly answered as a herd of cattle raced by to her left followed by a person on a horse. 'So everyone's a cowboy. Stupid cattle. Stupid town. Stupid Australia'.