Do You Dare? Jimmy's War Read online

  ‘No, I promise.’ Relief washed over Jimmy and he felt a glimmer of hope that Arthur would start improving now, but it was mixed with his dread of what was coming tomorrow with Bill.

  Jimmy’s mind skipped from Arthur to Bill, and he could barely eat his stew for tea. It was Bill’s stew, paid for with Bill’s money, and it stuck in his throat. When he went to bed, he was unable to sleep, and when Arthur had his usual nightmare, Jimmy was happy to send Mum back to bed and get up and sit with him.

  In the morning, even a basin of cold water splashed over his head didn’t help to liven him up. After Mum went to work, he sat at the table staring into his cup of tea.

  ‘Jimmy.’ Arthur poked him on the arm. ‘What’s wrong? You’re not still thinking I’ll –’

  ‘No.’ He checked the clock. Bill had said first thing, so he should’ve been on his way by now, but he couldn’t move.

  ‘Are you working for Bill today?’

  ‘Supposed to be.’ And then he’d be carted off to the lockup.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Arthur peered closely at him. ‘Has Bill got you doing something illegal?’

  Jimmy snorted. Everything Bill did was illegal.

  ‘I think you’d better cough it up,’ Arthur said. ‘Right now. I can see it’s eating away at you. Come on.’

  Suddenly, it burst out of Jimmy like an egg breaking and splattering all over the floor. The two-up, the collecting money, and the job that might involve guns.

  Arthur listened quietly and then whistled, long and low. ‘It’s got to be a robbery. You’ve really landed yourself in a pickle.’

  ‘I know!’ Jimmy said. ‘I’m not stupid. But we had no money, and Mum was going to lose her job. It was all right until this.’

  Arthur rubbed the good side of his face. ‘This is my fault.’

  ‘Don’t be stupid. I was the one who –’

  ‘Didn’t you ever ask yourself why Bill was so keen to take you on?’ Arthur didn’t wait for an answer. ‘Bill’s a piece of work, all right. When I was playing for Footscray, he tried to bribe me to throw a game. Had all sorts of ways worked out for me to make the team lose. He stood to make a small fortune from the betting.’

  Jimmy’s mouth fell open in astonishment. ‘But you –’

  ‘No, I turned him down flat. He threatened me, but I ignored him. Then I enlisted and got all caught up in the excitement of going off to fight. Never really thought about it again. Maybe I should’ve reported him.’

  ‘So you reckon Bill is paying you back by getting me doing illegal stuff, making me the patsy. Gee, he can sure hold a grudge.’ Jimmy started to feel a hot spark of anger inside.

  Arthur thought for a moment. ‘Stay here. Don’t go. Tell Bill I’m sick and I need you.’

  It might work, but it might not. Besides, he couldn’t hide behind Arthur forever.

  The clock ticked loudly on the mantel. Bill would be looking at his fancy pocket watch by now. Mum would be sitting in her office chair, thinking everything was all right. Frank would be daydreaming about their next footy game, never thinking Jimmy might not be there to play again. It wasn’t fair. He was just trying to get by.

  Jimmy made up his mind. He stood up.

  ‘I’m going to Bill’s.’

  ‘You can’t do that!’ Arthur said. ‘Bill will beat you silly and toss you into the back alley.’ He clacked his crutches together angrily. ‘If I wasn’t so damned useless, I’d deal with him for you.’

  ‘I know,’ Jimmy said. ‘But I’ve had enough of Bill Prosser and I’m going to tell him so.’

  Jimmy climbed on his bicycle, his heart thumping in his ears like an army drum, but he didn’t feel like a soldier and he certainly didn’t feel as brave as his words to Arthur had been. The spark had almost fizzled out. His hands shook on the handlebars and his legs felt like they were stuffed with cottonwool. All the way, he wished for a bolt of lightning to hit him, or a horse and cart to run him down, or even just for his bicycle to crash into a big mud puddle.

  But none of this happened, and soon there he was, at Bill’s house. A strange car sat out the front, an old Daimler with worn seats and bent mudguards.

  Rather than go around the back, Jimmy knocked on the front door.

  Bill opened it. ‘Where have you been?’ he said angrily.

  ‘Home, having my breakfast . . . and thinking,’ Jimmy said.

  ‘I don’t pay you to think,’ Bill snapped. ‘Get in here.’

  ‘No, thanks,’ Jimmy said. ‘I just came to tell you that I won’t be working for you anymore.’

  ‘Is that right?’ Bill glared at Jimmy, his face turning dark red. ‘So I suppose you’re going to run off to the coppers now, are you?’

  Jimmy felt the angry spark ignite again and pushed his fear back down. ‘No, I’m not. You know I’m not a squealer. And my brother wasn’t either.’

  Bill leapt forward and grabbed Jimmy around the neck, shaking him. Jimmy gasped, struggling to breathe. ‘Bill, I . . . ’

  ‘You’re a turncoat, Jimmy, is what you are,’ Bill snarled. ‘I oughta get my iron bar out right now and whack it around your legs. Two of ya on crutches – that’d make ya mother cry, wouldn’t it?’

  Bill’s threat sent an icy chill through Jimmy’s guts, but he wasn’t going to back down now. He twisted and straightened in Bill’s grip and stared him in the eyes.

  ‘I’m sorry, Bill, but I can’t help you. I’ve got Mum and Arthur to take care of. Do your worst to me, if you really have to.’

  A flash of something that might’ve been admiration crossed Bill’s face, then he shook his head and shoved Jimmy away from him. ‘Get the hell out of here, then, and don’t come whining to me when you need money.’ He slammed the door, and Jimmy sagged, grabbing at the verandah post. He’d been half-expecting Bill to do something much worse, beat him up or take him down to the river and throw him in. He staggered down the path, climbed on his bicycle and rode home, wobbly at first and then faster and faster. The further away he got from Bill Prosser’s house, the lighter he felt. He let out a ‘Yahooo!’ Freedom felt pretty darned good!

  Arthur was waiting for him at the front door, worry etching deeper lines into his face. He broke into a cheer when he saw a grinning Jimmy racing up the street. ‘By the look of you,’ Arthur said, ‘you’re home clear.’

  ‘Yeah, I hope so,’ Jimmy said. ‘He was pretty mad with me, and he thought I’d run off to tell Ross, but I won’t, even though I know I should.’

  ‘If Ross is any kind of copper,’ Arthur said, ‘he’ll catch Bill without our help.’ He clapped Jimmy on the back. ‘Good on you, Jimmy. Dad would’ve been proud of you.’

  Arthur’s words gave Jimmy a warm glow. Yeah, maybe Dad would’ve been proud. It was a bonzer thought to keep inside of him.

  ‘Come on,’ Arthur said, ‘let’s go and clean up the backyard for Mum. It’s nearly time to get the veggie garden going for summer.’

  Jimmy spent the rest of the day with Arthur, and he didn’t even care that he ended up doing all the heavy work and Arthur sat on the back steps and did all the bossing around. It helped to keep his mind off Bill. He didn’t dare go out into the street.

  When Jimmy was having a break, sitting on the steps with a cup of cold water, Arthur said, ‘So you’re playing a bit of footy now, are you?’

  ‘Just with Frank and the others,’ Jimmy said. He carefully didn’t look at Arthur’s missing leg.

  ‘Are you any good?’ Arthur asked. ‘’Cause if you’re my brother, you’d better be. Someone’s got to keep up the family name on the footy field.’

  ‘I’ve kicked a few goals,’ Jimmy admitted. ‘But it’s just a bit of fun, you know.’

  ‘Well . . . ’ Arthur paused, watching a chook scratch in the dirt. ‘Maybe I might come and give you lads a bit of coaching one day. What d’you reckon?’

  ‘That’d be beaut!’ Jimmy said. ‘And, er . . . ’ He pointed at the chooks. ‘Do you reckon we should get some more chooks? Good money in eggs.
You’d have to look after them, though.’

  ‘I think I could just about manage that,’ Arthur said, and gave Jimmy a friendly punch on the arm.

  By the time Mum came home, the garden was dug over and the hens had a new roof on their house.

  ‘Did you hear the news?’ Mum said as she took off her hat and re-pinned her hair.

  Jimmy’s stomach twisted and he and Arthur glanced at each other. ‘No, Mum. What?’

  ‘Bill Prosser and his gang tried to rob the payroll down at the fertiliser works this morning.’ She shook her head. ‘What a great to-do it was. Police everywhere, and someone even said there were guns!’

  Jimmy’s knuckles were white on the spade he was cleaning. So it was a robbery. What a narrow squeak he’d had! ‘How did the police catch them?’

  ‘I met Sergeant Ross on my way home,’ she said, and blushed. ‘He’s asked me to tea on Saturday afternoon.’

  ‘What did he say about the robbery?’ Arthur asked.

  ‘Oh. Well . . . ’ Mum shrugged. ‘He said he’d been watching Bill for a few days, and there’d been some odd things going on – known criminals going to and fro from his house, so he suspected something was up.’ She hung up her coat. ‘But he wouldn’t have guessed what, except that . . . Apparently Bill’s young cousin, Hector, was involved. Did you ever hear such a thing – so young!’

  ‘Hector?’ Jimmy was stunned. Had Bill called Hector in after Jimmy had refused? He didn’t like Hector, but he wouldn’t wish gaol on him!

  ‘Hector was on his bicycle racing off with the bag of money, but when he saw Sergeant Ross on the corner he got such a fright he crashed into the lamp post. The money went everywhere!’ Mum shook her head. ‘The sergeant said Hector spilled the beans straightaway.’

  ‘Spilled the beans,’ Jimmy echoed, his mind whirling. That could’ve been him!

  Mum swung around and gave Jimmy a stern glare. ‘Sergeant Ross assured me that you had no part in it, I was glad to hear. And you won’t be going near Bill Prosser or his like again, will you?’

  Jimmy shook his head smartly. He wasn’t about to explain to Mum how close he had come to being in the lockup along with Bill and his gang! ‘I’ll be out looking for a new job, though,’ he said.

  Mum sighed. ‘I do wish you’d go back to school, son.’

  Arthur cleared his throat. ‘Well, he might be able to soon. It’s maybe time I thought about finding a bit of work,’ he said. ‘I’m going to get more chooks, like Jimmy suggested. And, er . . . Mr Wimple did say the other night that if I brush up on my arithmetic and writing a bit, I might be able to get on where he works. Mrs Wimple said she’d help me.’

  Mum’s mouth dropped open. ‘I thought you told him you wouldn’t go near a job like that.’

  Arthur flushed. ‘Well, maybe I had to hit rock bottom before I could see my way up again, eh?’

  ‘Seems like we should do a bit of celebrating,’ Mum said. She went out to the washhouse and came back holding a dusty bottle. ‘The last bottle of ginger beer!’

  ‘Careful, Mum, you’re living dangerously now,’ Arthur said with a laugh.

  Jimmy smiled. Living dangerously? They’d all done quite enough of that this year!

  hen I was a kid, all I knew was that Grandad was in the war in the desert and his brother was killed on the Western Front. It was only when I started researching for this book that I began to realise there was so much more to discover about them.

  The internet is a wonderful thing when it comes to family history – or any kind of history! I found both their military records and also a photo of my great-uncle that I had never seen before. Suddenly they had stories that I could learn about and imagine.

  What was it like for two lads from the farm to go off to war? How did their family feel when only one came home? And what did my grandfather experience in the field ambulance unit in Egypt, seeing so many injured soldiers coming back from Gallipoli?

  I named my characters Arthur and Jimmy after my grandad and his brother, and through writing this book I feel much closer to them.

  I also loved the opportunity to set Jimmy’s story in Yarraville. There are so many original old buildings and houses still there, and I spent a whole day walking around taking photos and getting a feel for what it used to be like during that time.

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  Text copyright © Sherryl Clark, 2015

  The moral right of the author has been asserted

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  Cover and internal design by Tony Palmer

  © Penguin Group (Australia)

  Illustrations by Guy Shield

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  ISBN 978-1-74348-254-4

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