Strange Fruit

After an hour of trudging through the marshes the laughter and discussion around me made me realise that we were approaching our destination. Lennox was still tramping forward with Bliss slung across his shoulder. I watched as her limp hands, hanging down, bounced slightly in time to his stride.

The boy, Rafe, was running along beside him, talking excitedly. His arms swung happily as he walked and the contrast with Bliss struck me. I hated him.

I wouldn’t have admitted it but I was desperate to stop. My arm was hurting, stretched and strained as it was tied against the other. The coach crash was only a few hours ago and since then we had travelled miles. All of these people around me were my enemies. The chatter of the dorm back at the Workhouse seemed a lifetime away. Hot tears came to my eyes as I remembered our friends there. Nobody here cared for Bliss and me.

“There,” said Dev. He pointed down the track and I could just see some lights ahead. “Home‘s near now.”

A young child ran from the direction of the lights. “Pa!” she called. A short man swung the squealing girl up onto his back.

There were a dozen or so sheds, none of them as large as a single classroom in the Workhouse. The sheds were made of metal and in places rust fought with their garish colours, reads, oranges, blues and yellows. As we entered the clearing between the sheds I could see how each was different, benches or seating outside, pots with flowers in, and in front of one a small tree with a roped coach wheel hung from a branch.

Outside the first shed I stopped. If you had asked me why I wouldn’t have been able to tell you what it was that shocked me so. Everything about the woman I saw there was foreign to me. He hair was wiry and a strange light colour, lighter than blonde. Her back was stooped against the she sat in. Her hand was propped over a long wooden stick and she pushed on the stick and shuffled in her seat in her effort to turn towards me. It was that hand I looked at in fascination. The skin looked too big for the bones and here and there were large brown patches on the skin. A sharp seagull laugh from the woman and my eyes flew up to her face. I stepped back in horror. The woman’s face and neck, in fact as far as I could see, all of her, was covered in loose and wrinkled skin.

“All them girls do that when they see me an’ ol’ Smit!” she said grinning. She turned to Dev who was still behind me, “You’ve your work cut out with this ‘un Dev! She’s a bit of spirit in ‘er!”

Dev nodded, smiling too. I couldn’t work out what was going on, my mind was racing and tryingto put together the pieces. What other girls? Why no boys? What did they plan to do with us now they had stolen us form the Plan?

“You’ll never ‘ave seen anyone like ol’ Margy before then?”

“No. Never. Sorry.” I felt I should apologise to the woman for discussing how ugly she was.

She shrugged, “Comes to us all.”

I gaped, “What? Are you just old?”

The cackling gull-like laugh again.

I had to ask again, “People here must live so much longer then?”

She shook her head. “Just let to die dearie… ‘llowed to die.”

Dev pulled me further into the clearing. Lennox had laid Bliss on a pallet outside an orange shed and a woman was kneeling over her, a knife in her right hand. I broke forward at a run, “No!”

Both the woman and Lennox turned in surprise and despite myself I faltered. “Don’t hurt her. She’ll get better! Just don’t hurt her!”

The woman looked at Lennox questioningly and he stepped towards me frowning.

“Marta is skilled in these things. She knows the herbs that can heal. Leave this to her.”

The woman turned back to Bliss and picked up a small bundle of plants in front of her and cut through the twine around them. Two or three twigs were placed around Bliss’s head.

“You din’t understand maybe?” said Dev, his hand on my arm. I shrugged him off as roughly as I could. Holding out my bound hands I met his eye.

“Look at us? You’ve brought us here, for God knows what! I’m tied up like an animal! What do you want with us?” I was shaking with fury. I had been awake all night and now, with the sun rising across the fields in the distance, I was suddenly exhausted.

The woman reached towards me, tentatively touching my grazed and bloody elbow. I pulled away from her angrily. “Don’t touch me!”

It was Lennox that answered. “You need to sleep. You will stay with Dev. Later we will talk.”

Dev’s shed was red. He untied my hands and gestured me towards the bunk he had made me on the floor. It was only as I laid down that I noticed the animal in the corner. I sat bolt upright, terrified. Apart from the rats at the Sewage works I had never seen an animal close up before. Dev laughed and clicked his tongue. The animal ran to his side, it was much larger than a rat and had a long pointed snout, ears that swivelled towards Dev’s voice. Its legs were short in comparison to its body but its tail was long and bushy and swung slightly as Dev spoke. “Good boy, Ginger. There’s a lad. She won’t hurt.” Dev turned to me.

“Never seen a dog then?”

I shook my head. I didn’t want to appear ridiculous though.  “I’ve seen loads of rats though.”

The dog pricked his ears and Dev laughed. “Hear that Ginj? She said that word.” The dog’s ears twisted towards Dev now. “You din’t ought to say the R-A-T word. That’s his job see?”

The dog looked between us his dark eyes seeming to follow the conversation.

“I won’t sleep in here with that animal,” I said.

“OK, I’ll sit with him outside while you sleep. You’ll need a couple of hours of rest.” He sat down with his back across the doorway, blocking the light falling onto my bed. Over his shoulder he said, “You’ll have to get used to our Ginj though!”

“No chance,” I said. I wanted to let him know how filthy the dog was but somehow the moment slipped from me and I felt myself pulled into a deep, deep sleep.