The Sausage Tree by Rosalie Medcraft Read Free Book Online Page A

convinced the “boogie man” would get us.
    When the weekend came Uncle Bob drove Granma out in his car to see that we were all right. We were only little kids and had been doing our best to keep each other healthy, clean and, above all else, safe. We still wonder where all the do-gooders were from the church and why the neighbours didn’t offer help.
    Arrangements were made for Joan and Wilma to travel on the train to Nabowla to stay with Uncle Alick and Auntie Gladys.
    Geoff also went to Nabowla but he stayed with Dad’s cousins Keatha and Colin Allenby who were newly-weds. They gave him a real taste of happy childhood, taking him on picnics and to the river to fish. While he was there he attended Nabowla school. He was so happy and contented there that he didn’t want to come home when the other children did and so stayed a full six months. When the time finally came to say goodbye to Keatha and Colin, Geoff stilldidn’t want to come back home. He wanted to stay where he was so happy and had had the opportunity to relish real love and a happy family environment. For the first time in his young life, he had lived the life of a little boy.
    The next time Mum went to hospital Geoff again went to Nabowla where he stayed with Dad’s Uncle Wal and Auntie Nellie. Before taking Valda and the twins back to her place Granma did a mountain of washing and tidying up. On our back verandah, which we all had to take turns scrubbing, stood “the old black cupboard”. We are a family of hoarders and all the junk imaginable was in that cupboard.
    The twins were looking for their gumboots which were in there “somewhere”. They pulled everything out and spread it all over the place. Granma came along with the straw broom in her hands and gave each of them a whack across the bottom with the broom and called them dirty little faggots, told them to put everything back again and said that they wouldn’t need their boots in town. They were terribly upset and had to wait nearly three months for Mum to come home before they could tell her that Granma had called them dirty little “maggots”!
    Mum and Dad were still paying the medical and hospital expenses in 1949 when, after consultations with the hospital administrator and the intervention of a member of parliament, the last of the outstanding money was waived.
    Once in 1942 when Mum was in hospital and Uncle Jeff was away in the army (Granma, who couldn’t read, had unwittingly signed Jeffs enlistment papers and, although only fifteen, he’d easily persuaded the recruiting officers that he’d just turned eighteen) the twins slept in his bedroom that was in the back of Granma’s house next to the kitchen. There was a double bed so the twins could be together. There was no way they would let anyone separatethem. They had to be together or the whole world would have heard them protesting.
    One night Barbara woke Rosalie and whispered to her that there was a big bear in the bed with them. Rosalie was too frightened to even open her eyes and told her sister to go and get Granma. Naturally she wouldn’t because she was terrified that the bear would get her. They both had all sorts of visions about a wild bear. How did it get there? How big was it? Would they be eaten if they moved or talked louder than a whisper? Towards daylight Rosalie had a quick peep, but couldn’t see any bear. Barbara gently patted her side of the bed and whispered that it was still there. In the full light of day it was completely different. The top sheet had moved and left the very rough heavy blanket uncovered. The twins can’t remember if they told Granma or not, but think it highly unlikely that they would because they felt so silly.

    Granma was a very special person and we have some lovely memories which are woven around her. One memory is of her standing at her big kitchen table that was laden with delicious biscuits and cakes. One of her