Chapter 13
The bus came to the stop at the end of the road and Amelia got on and asked how much it was to West Beach. The driver smiled and said it was three ten coins. Amelia paid him the money and went and sat down in an empty seat. The bus was half full of old women in headscarves and a couple of families. The children were nicely dressed and quiet. The bus was hot, but there was some breeze from roof windows as it moved off. She opened the bag and started eating the grapes. She watched the castle disappear in the background as they journeyed to the next village. She felt angry at the village where the bar was with its rows of neat houses with hanging baskets outside and a fountain. Didn’t the people know that there were hungry children with no homes living in the town near West Beach? She watched as one of the families got off, and wondered if she would be any different: If she would care about other people when she had a family. An old woman opposite her was crocheting with a hook. Amelia took a sip of her water.
‘Can I have a sip?’ asked the woman. Amelia smiled and handed her the bottle.
‘I forgot to bring mine. I was in such a rush. I have a new grandchild coming and I had to rush and see my daughter at the hospital. Are you not getting off here?’
‘No, I am going to West Beach.’
‘Is that where your family lives?’
Amelia thought for a while. What would the woman’s reaction be if she told her that she had no family? Pity? She didn’t want pity. She was the agent of Don Oro. Soon everybody would know about her. She thought about making up a lie about living with her mother in the village, but she didn’t like to lie and said,
‘I am staying there with my cousin.’
‘I don’t like West Beach, it is too rough. I prefer it up here where the people are looked after by Don Oro, with work in the factories. In West Beach there is nothing.’
‘There are the fishermen. They are nice people. I like West beach. Do you want a grape?’
‘Thank you I will.’ The woman took a grape
‘Do you know Don Oro?’
‘No. I only knew his father. Nobody knows who the younger Don Oro is. Probably he is so rich that he thinks he is too good for people. He probably spends all his time at Royal Moorings where all the other rich people live, on a yacht. ‘
Amelia smiled. She felt like telling the old woman about who Don Oro was, that he was sad about the way he had been treated, but she kept quiet as she did not want to betray Don Oro. The woman asked her if she could count and add up, and she spent the rest of the journey testing her in sums. She asked Amelia if she went to school , and told her to come to her church saying it was very wicked not to go to church, that was where you went if you want to be good. She was quite cross. Amelia said,
‘I am good. I help all the children on the beach get bread. What does your church care? They only care about having nice hats. Why don’t they come and give the children bread’
‘Don’t insult the church you preposterous child!’ said the woman and took out a cross and started praying. Amelia folded her legs and drew close to the window. Another woman looked over from the seat in front.
‘You are a real West Beach child. Full of spirit, but it is important to pray. Put your hands together and ask God to help you and your friends. It will help.’
Amelia felt sulky. How had God helped the children so far? Peto said that some of the children from the town died of hunger or from not being taken to the doctor. She didn’t need to pray, she had Don Oro. But the woman was insistent and came and sat beside her and made her pray with her for the rest of the journey. At first Amelia was just pretending, but then she concentrated on her prayers. The woman called on God to help the children and help Amelia in her suffering. She told Amelia that God put his prophets in her way if you prayed. She asked her to think of people who had been kind and thank God for them, not everybody was sent by the devil, you had to thank God for his kind people. Amelia thought of Fisherman Papa, of the fisherman, of Raindrop and Melons and thanked God. She felt calmer. The first lady got off the bus at the town bus station and said to the other woman,
‘I don’t know how you have time for these West Beach riff-raff.’
‘They are all God’s children, you have to remember this.’
The woman ranted about going to church, if you didn’t you did the work of the devil, as she picked up her bag and dismounted. Amelia looked around at the bus station. There were lots of children begging. They looked half-starved and their clothes were ragged. Their eyes did not shine in the way kids eyes should. She felt anger rise up in her. She had four apples left, and she went to the front of the bus and called a street boy over. She handed him the apples and took them and said,
‘Just apples? Don’t you have any money?’
Amelia thought of the five paper money she had. She might need it to go back and see Don Oro, it would make the boy happy, but she could not risk having nothing. She felt bad; she was as bad as other people. She shook her head and went back and sat down as the driver was starting to want to move off, but what could she do? She was just a girl.
‘That was very kind of you,’ said the woman she had prayed with. She took out a pen and paper and wrote down her address
‘Come and see me. I live in the cottages. Are you all alone?’
Amelia shook her head
‘No I have my friend Prince.’
‘You must stay away from boys. You must not do the work of the devil.’
Amelia drifted off as the woman spoke about boys leading you to the devil, to make sure they don’t watch you. Amelia thought of Peto and George and Beno and Prince. They were not doing the work of the devil, they were kind. The woman meant well, but she just wanted to see Prince and all her friends again. The woman got off at the stop before West Beach, and told Amelia to come to her, she would take her to the Lord. Amelia thanked her, normally she would be glad to meet someone with a house, but she felt that the woman, if she was from church, should love boys as well as girls. Amelia felt excited as the bus moved towards the beach. She had to decide who she would take to see Don Oro: Fisherman Papa or Prince’s fisherman. She wondered if there would be room in the house for George and Beno, Pinkie and Pearl, and Prince. The bus stopped at West Beach and she got off excited. It was quite late now, the time that Prince and the fisherman would be at the hut. She decided she would ask the fisherman as he was more serious than Fisherman Papa, and he had given her a home.
Amelia walked slowly up the beach keeping her head down, what she was going to do was important; it would mean change for everybody on the beach. She bumped into bracelet boy.
‘Hi Amelia, where have you been? There are lots of tourists on the beach. You missed out on a lot of money.’
‘I was with Star Strummer. He was going to make me a star. We went to a village bar. Up there is different. There are no abandoned. I ate fried chicken and drank coca cola. You should see my belly, how it sticks out! I ate five pieces of chicken.’
‘I love fried chicken. I have it at Christmas. So how come you are back here if you were going to be a star?’
‘I’m on to bigger things.’
‘For real?’
‘For real, but also Star Strummer is a fake. He left me in the village and went off.’
‘You can’t trust people. They play with your dreams. I get people talking to me, once they see that I am smart, “come and live and work on my farm, come and stay in my church, come and help me in my kitchen,” but they are all fakes. They have a nice smile, but they don’t want to pay you nothing, and want you to work from dawn til dusk. Anyway Amelia, you stay good. I have to go back to the café. I want to work and buy my baby brother some shoes. He can walk now he is so sweet.’
Amelia gave him a hug. He was a nice boy, how could the woman say that boys were bad when bracelet boy was doing that for his brother.
She walked up some more to fisherman Papa’s hut, but it was locked and there was nobody there. She had thought about telling him about Don Oro. H
e loved children. Maybe he could help with the children’s home. She felt a bit sad and walked on up to Prince’s shack. They would be so glad to know their lives were going to change. She was bursting to tell them. When she got there she walked up to the front, but it was locked. She didn’t understand; it was late where were they? She sat on the front of the step and tried to collect her thoughts. They were probably off getting some water or food. She waited and waited and watched the sun go down, red and orange lights spilling across the water. She was glad that she could stay by the Ocean once she got her house. There was no sight as beautiful as the ocean. It was not something just for the rich people, it was for everyone. She put her head on her shoulder and just sat, not thinking of anything for a while.
It started to get quite breezy, and started to feel worried. Where was Prince? She looked over to a pier where the fisherman’s boat came in. There were a few men there. Maybe they would know where he was. She made her way over. There was a man with ginger hair that she had seen talking to the fisherman before.
‘Have you seen the fisherman from the blue hut? I stay there. I am Amelia, Prince’s friend.’
‘They have gone to see Melchior. They will be away a week. The fisherman was looking for you. He was very angry.’
Amelia felt really annoyed. How could Prince have gone off without her? Now where was she going to stay? She had forgotten about Melchior. He was supposed to be some big man, but how could he let his own family be sold by an indigo man? Don Oro was a much better bet. Feeling like talking to someone, she decided to go and look for Peto. She had wanted to go and see Don Oro tomorrow and sleep in her new house the next day. Now she had to wait for them to come back, and she had nowhere to sleep. Perhaps Peto would know where fisherman Papa was, she would have to see if she could stay there for the night.
After a lot of searching, she found Peto.
‘Amelia! Come here! You were with the band! I thought you had left us forever!’
He hugged her and tears came out of his eyes.
‘I didn’t want you to go, you are my friend, my good friend,’ he continued, squeezing her tight.
‘You know, music is not really for me. It is alright, but I got bored of singing, and decided to come back to the beach.’
‘You know that the beach is the life. You know you can’t leave us, but that Star Strummer is something else. I danced, danced, danced. Forget all them rich people. West Beach people know how to have a party.’
‘You know that! Only now, I have a problem. Prince is away.’
‘Prince was mad at you. He said he was taking you to meet his grandfather and turn your life around, but you were just some stupid dancing girl.’
‘Oh I hope Prince isn’t going to be mad at me. He will be happy when he hears about my plan.’
‘What plan is that?’
‘I can’t tell you yet, I have been blessed. Someone is going to help me, help all of us.’
‘Who?’
‘I can’t tell.’
‘You will,’ said Peto and began to tickle her ‘Tell me, tell me. I hate secrets.’
Amelia laughed and pulled away, but he chased her and tickled her more. They were absorbed in their game when they heard some shouting from the top of the beach.
‘What is that?’ she asked. They looked and saw that there were a lot of police on the beach with batons. Three large police Lorries had pulled up at the top of the beach. The police were picking up the people sleeping on the beach and making them go. One of the police had a loud haler and shouted through it,
‘All vagrants off the beach. No sleeping on the beach allowed. Everybody leave the beach.’
Amelia and Peto shivered. They watched the police hit someone with a baton and chase the children off the beach
‘Everybody leave peacefully, and you will not have to go to jail. I repeat everybody off the beach,’ shouted the policeman through the loud haler.
‘What shall we do? Hide?’ asked Amelia
‘We better go. I don’t want a beating. They have done this before.’
‘But where will we stay?’
‘Let’s just go. They even put children in jail sometimes.’
Amelia and Peto walked up the beach frightened. The police were pushing people. A policeman saw them and said,
‘Move out, move out’
‘But sir, I sleep at the fisherman’s hut. He will be looking for me,’ said Amelia to the policeman.
‘I’ve heard it all before, abandoned. No vagrants on the beach.’
‘But why, why can’t you leave us in peace?’
‘The owner of the beach is coming; the Mayor wants the place cleaned up. Now move!’ he shouted, pointing his baton at Amelia and poking her with it. Prince pulled her away and she started to cry. Everybody had to leave the beach. Some of the policemen had fierce dogs. It was all wrong. It must have been Don Oro’s phone call to the Mayor; he must think he was like rich people that hated the poor. Amelia seethed. She would have to go back and tell Don Oro, but now it was late and there were no buses. When they got to the top of the beach the police with dogs told them to get out of the area. Any vagrant in half a mile of the beach would be arrested.
‘We will have to go to town until all this dies down’ said Peto
‘But where will we stay?’
‘It’s not nice, but you can survive.’
Amelia thought of the ragged boys at the bus stop. She felt desperate. She thought of the praying woman’s address. Maybe she could shelter them. She reached in her pocket, but it was gone. She should have been more careful. She had to see Prince and the fisherman, how would she make contact if she was not allowed on the beach? She followed Peto and all the other people on the dusty road to the town. Praying had not helped her, but she tried again, just praying that she would get through the night.