Chapter 6
That morning trade didn’t start off well for Amelia. She had forty shells and she laid out the best twenty on the sand. She had told Prince goodbye until later and felt sad to see someone so handsome picking up rubbish and clearing away poo poo from the sand into bags for beach dwellers to flick a few coins at him. Why didn’t the fisherman who let them in the hut give him money? His grandfather was supposed to be rich.
She had gone to the tap to fetch water before she started and wetted the shells a little to make them look shinier. On the way back from the tap she had seen Melons, the son of the old Lady who danced and shouted. He gave her a big piece of watermelon and patted her on the head. He asked her if she had seen his mother, but she had not seen her for a while. He looked very worried. He told her that he was very stupid, but his mum was smart: she bought the melon cheaply for him to sell; he didn’t know how to bargain. He told her not to forget to eat something in the morning so she wouldn’t fall over. He said,
‘No matter how bad it is, don’t fall over,’ and went on his way.
Amelia didn’t realise that she had dripped melon juice all down her dress. A pretty girl came and smiled at her and asked her questions about the shells. She asked her what they were called and what type of shells they were in her intelligent voice. Amelia said she didn’t know and laughed. The girl laughed too but then her mother came over and moved her roughly away saying,
‘I told you not to speak to any riff raff on the beach. Look at that girl’s dress, all dirty and stained. Do you think that was a decent person to speak to? No it was not.’ The girl walked off with her mother. Amelia looked at her dress, it really didn’t look good. There was a woman who sold t-shirt dresses on a stall with straw hats near the tap. Amelia had seen her this morning and asked her how much they were. She had said
‘Ten paper money. I think that is just something you would dream about. Don’t touch them please.’
She was very snooty and if Amelia could go anywhere else to buy a dress then she would, but there wasn’t anywhere else. She wondered how long it would take to save up. That was the same as a hundred ten coins. She could do it, she was sure. In one of those dresses with the flowers on she wouldn’t look abandoned. There was right now to think of though. She tried to clean the stains off with some water but her whole dress was dirty with stains from when she had slept in the road, and stiff from seawater. She put her head down and felt like crying as people walked past looking her up and down and ignoring her as she said,
‘Buy my shells,’
The hat seller came over to her. He had been doing well all morning.
‘What’s wrong? No luck today?’ he asked
‘No and I went and dived long for these; they are beauties. What is the matter with people? I think it is my dress.’
‘Change your dress then.’
‘I don’t have another dress.’
‘No joking, you only have one thing?’
‘Only this.’
‘Well that is not good enough. You are a trader! You are not some wasted girl who just cries. I can help you. A tourist gave me some t-shirts and shorts. They are too small for me.’ He went back to his stall area and opened a rucksack. He pulled out some folded t-shirts and little shorts. He selected one with Mickey Mouse on and brought it over and gave it to Amelia. It looked brand new.
‘Are you sure a tourist gave it to you? I saw some boys steal tourist clothes while they went in the sea.’
‘What do you take me for? Go on have it. Put it on and it will help you sell. You need to make your area look more fancy. You should see if you can find some wood to put your shells on, like a stand,’
‘That is a good idea. What is your name?’
‘Just call me hat boy,’ he said. ‘I used to be called “rat boy” because I used to kill rats for that come around the bins near the station. I used to feed them to the dogs, and when I killed them I showed the café and the hotel owner nearby and they would give me tips, but then a lady who worked in the hotel gave me some tourist things that had been left and told me to come and sell them on the beach. She still gives me things and I give other boys coins for bringing stuff to me. They don’t know how to sell on to town people. The town people don’t have much money so that is why they buy my stuff. Today I sold a cap with real leather on it for three hundred coins so I am packing up and going in to town to go cinema. You ever been Cinema?’
‘No my grandmother didn’t like it.’
‘Anyway you get changed and shout some more. You will sell something. Most of the time the tourists don’t come until lunchtime. Here want a peanut? I have some.’ Amelia nodded and held out her hand. He filled it up with nuts and then wished her goodbye as he went and packed up what was left on his stall into a big bag. Amelia quickly took off her dress and put on the t-shirt and shorts. She must look cute now but she still didn’t have any shoes. She had quite a lot of things to buy. She felt sad as she remembered she had to buy bread for Pinky and Pearl and the boys so this wasn’t going to happen any time soon. She had better get selling, she thought. The café was filling up with tourists.
‘Buy precious, beautiful shells from deep under the ocean! Your only chance to have an original souvenir you can treasure for ever!’
She smiled and smoothed her hair. She splashed a bit more water on the shells. Some tourists started to come over and she sold three shells for a fifty coin. That was bread sorted. She wouldn’t be stupid and buy a burger again, it was way too much. All through lunchtime she sold until she had twenty left. The shorts had a little pocket with a button that was now bulging with coins. The boy selling friendship bracelets came over.
‘Hey you are doing well, are you going to spend it on ice-cream or going to the arcade?’
‘No that is what happened to Prince, he lost all his money. Thank you for introducing us, now I have somewhere to sleep. I am just me so this is for my food and clothes.’
‘Oh you are abandoned. My mother has a shack. She sells fish and in the evening she makes bracelets for me to sell that way I have food and there is milk for my little brother.’
‘That is nice,’ said Amelia feeling jealous, although the memory she had of her mother putting the garland on her head was near a big house not a shack. Who was she? She wondered in awe of the memory, but was jolted by tourists arriving
‘I have to go; I have customers.’ A tall tourist came over.
‘What are you selling?’ he asked
‘Beautiful shells, shells from the islands, the most unusual shells you could ever want.’
‘They are beautiful,’ he said. They would look nice on my mantelpiece. How much are they?’
Amelia was about to say they were a ten coin when the friendship bracelet boy held her back and said,
‘For you Sir, you can take them all for ten paper money. My friend has to dive in the ocean and find these specially. It takes a very long time.’
The man opened his wallet. It was bursting with paper money. He took out fifty paper money. Amelia had never seen so much money
‘Like this?’ he asked
‘Yes’ said the bracelet boy winking at Amelia
‘No,’ said Amelia ‘That is fifty paper money. We want ten.’
‘You are very honest, unlike your friend.’ The man looked through his notes and said,
‘Do you have any shoes? The sand is too hot without them.’
‘No, somebody took my shoes at night’
‘Here this is for you. Buy yourself some shoes,’ he said and gave her a twenty paper money. Amelia nearly fainted. She grasped his hand
‘Thank you, thank you sir. He opened his bag and she helped him put in her last twenty shells. When he had gone the friendship bracelet boy said,
‘I helped you get that price what are you going to give me? Half?
Amelia frowned. The money was for her dress and some shoes.
‘I can’t give you. I haven’t got a mother.’’
‘
So you don’t help friends. You are mean.’
‘Look I can give you ten, ten coins. It was me that had to dive for the shells.’
‘Okay Meany. I just wanted to buy my little brother an orange.’ He took the coins and walked off to his spot nearer to the café. Amelia had nothing left and was excited about buying a dress from the woman who had been snooty this morning. She put the paper money into the pocket of her dress and folded it into a bag. The sun was glaring down onto her face she would like some sunglasses too. The dress lady had funny pink and blue ones, but maybe she should just get one thing at a time.
Feeling hungry, she went to get a bread; she would buy some more later for the others. She sat down on the sand and ate it. Some of the town children, on the beach with their parents, asked her to play. She felt annoyed. They wouldn’t ask her if she had on her old dress. She shook her head and thought she would just relax for a little while until it was time to meet Prince and do more diving. Her water was nearly gone and it would need topping up soon. She lay back on the sand and dreamed off then she felt water dripping on her face. She looked up and saw Peto.
‘Hey Amelia! What are you doing in the full sun with no hat? You should go in the shade!’
‘Hey Peto, come and sit down and talk to me.’
‘I can’t stop; come with me.’
‘Where to?’
‘The fisherman Papa is having a big cook-up in his shack for George and Beno and everybody. The fish will be delicious. I helped catch it myself.’
Amelia jumped up and followed him. The fisherman Papa’s shack was a rundown hut, not posh and crisp like Prince’s grandfather’s, but there were about fifty children outside eating fried fish from a barbecue. George and Beno rushed up to Amelia and hugged her and took her over to the barbecue.
‘Are you George and Beno’s Dad? ‘she asked the fisherman Papa
‘I am not their father. They have no-one but they have me. I am like a father. They are just fish paste.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘They are just little fish spread on the bread of the beach. Their mother must have been a piece of fish bait who trapped their dad a fish, but they had no money so their kids are fish paste. I made a song about it called the “fish paste, fish bait” song. I love children though. I spent all my wages like fish paste for all the little fishes I know. My father’s say you should talk to fish paste children and give them bread until they are a fish face. That means that they will learn your trade and be helpful and be like a fish you see every day for your lunch. What I mean is they will be like me, who brings the best fish to the market so they can make their living. I dress George and Beno and let them sleep here. You need a place to sleep?’
‘I have somewhere, and it smells of fish here.’
‘Thank you! Do you want fish? You are thin.’
‘Yes please.’
Amelia didn’t want to sound unkind but the place really did smell of fish. Pinky and Pearl were there and they called out to her. She went and gave them a kiss and she sat down and ate the delicious fish. The fisherman was very kind and gave all the children three helpings. Peto came and sat down and told them all about going on the fishing boat and how he nearly got thrown in the sea by a big wave, he said it was as tall as the hotel but George and Beno said he was lying. The party was going to go on all night and people started doing singing turns. The fisherman sang his fish paste song
‘He was fish bait he pulled in the fish, and now his name’s fish face’. Everybody laughed. Amelia was having a great time, but she had no shells left and she had to meet Prince. She gave Peto seven ten coins to buy bread. She had a thought: maybe the fisherman would keep Pinky and Pearl. She went up to him and asked him. He was in happy party mood.
‘Maybe. It is not my shack it belongs to my boss. I will see,’ he said
‘Please, they are just little and they sleep on the road.’
‘I will see. You know I was fish paste myself so that is why I try to be kind.’
‘Thank you and thank you for the party.’ Amelia shook his hand. She had never met a person that actually smelt like a fish before, it was overpowering. She told everybody goodbye. All the children said she was like a town person being serious about her shell stall when she could be having fun at the party. Amelia thought about staying but skipped off to meet Prince washing her hands in the sea first so that she didn’t smell like fish paste, as she was sure she wasn’t that.