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| Chapter 2 |
Rough
Draft |
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"What time is the
train due to arrive at Elford Tom?” said Emily.
“I was just looking at the timetable not five minutes ago,
and according to it, we are due to arrive just on 3 o’clock. I’m not sure if
Patrick will be meeting us there, but either way, we should be able to easily find our way
to the Cottage if he’s not there to meet the train,” said Tom.
Tom and Emily then glance over at Dan who is looking out the
carriage window at the passing countryside; he appears to be deep in thought.
“A penny for your thoughts Dan?” said Tom.
“Oh, nothing really, I was just admiring the scenery. There
truly is something special about a train ride; it’s just marvellous to watch all the
passing fields, country lanes and cottages. I’ve often wondered what it would be like to live in a small
village. Mother often talks about what it was like when she was young,” said Dan.
Just at that moment, the train gives a sudden jerk.
“I think we are coming into Barnham Green,” says Emily
with a smile.
They all look out the window and see that the train is slowly
pulling into a small platform.
“There’s not many people waiting here is there?”
she says. “I’d imagine these small stations don’t see much traffic these
days.”
As they watch, an old Porter hustles by with some luggage on a
trolley. An
elderly man then slowly walks past and awkwardly boards the train, carrying a small
leather bag, they hear him loudly close the sliding door to his sitting berth.
A whistle sounds out loudly.
”Right Away Mr. Fletcher,” calls the
Porter. |
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“Thank you Mr. Moore.” calls back the Guard, and, with
that, the train jerks violently and slowly pulls away from the platform.
“I think it might be time to have some lunch,” said
Dan.
“Yes, I was just thinking the exact thing! We have not had
anything to eat at all since we left Woodford. Where are the food bundles your mother packed us for the trip
Dan?” asked Emily with an eager smile.
“There they are! I will get them down from the luggage
rack.”
Tom stood up and reached over and collected the three neatly
package parcels. They were all separately
wrapped in brown paper, carefully tied-up with string.
“Lovely, now, whose parcel is who’s?” says Tom.
“Oh, hold on just a second, our names have been penciled on them. Dan, this is yours, this one is mine, and the lucky
last is yours sister.”
The children quickly attack the string, eager to start their
lunch.
Emily looks across and sees Dan having trouble undoing the knots
in the string tied around his lunch. She
watches for a moment and then says, “Pass it over; my fingers are a little more
nimble than yours.” In a few seconds,
Emily has untied the knots and passes the bundle back across to him.
“Thanks Em” says Dan.
“I seem to be all thumbs lately. I don’t know why?”
“All thumbs lately! What’s
so recent about that? The other day at target practice you couldn’t even hit the
target,” said Tom. “Let’s hope we don’t have to rely on your
marksmanship to save our lives, otherwise we’d be all sitting around counting out our
last minutes if that was the case.”
“Then lets hope we never find ourselves in that
situation’ said Dan.
“These sandwiches are just magic aren’t they?”
said Emily. “I have ham and egg on mine; I’m not sure if I should save one for
later and go onto this piece of fruit cake? Your Mother is truly a wiz when it comes to
making-up lunches.” |
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“Well Emily, I really don’t like fruit cake, so you can
have mine” said Dan.
“Are you sure?” she replies.
“Take it before Tom grabs it Emily. He is known to eat
almost anything, I’ve seen him at school eyeing off everyone’s lunches. Giving him the cake would be just a waste. At least you would enjoy it for what it is and not
just another left over morsel,” said Dan.
Tom looks across at them both talking in hushed tones. He smiles and continues with his own ham and egg
sandwiches.
While the children are eating their
lunch, the strong smell of tobacco waffles in from the adjoining passageway.
“Someone is smoking a pipe!” Dan exclaims.
“It can only be that elderly gentleman that got on the train
at Barnham Green. I don’t think there is
anyone else in this coach apart from us and him. I
have to go and get some water from the water dispenser in a minute, and I will have a
little snoop around and see who is actually onboard,” said Tom.
“I’ll come with you, I need a drink also” said
Dan. “I will bring back a flask for you too Emily.
We can top up our water bottles so we don’t have to go looking for water once
we get to Elford. Mother says Patrick is
rather absent minded when it comes to keeping appointments, so it would be prudent to make
sure we have something with us to drink in case he’s not there waiting for us”
said Dan.
The two boys get up and walk forward towards the train’s
engine. They look into every cabin as they move ahead and find that all the seating booths
are vacant.
“Well, no one up here Tom” remarks Dan. “Let’s have a look at the back of the carriage. We know that there’s at least one other
passenger onboard; we had seen him join the train at the last stop.
”They pass their own
cabin and give Emily a sheepish shrug of their shoulders. They tell her that
there’s no one forward of them. She gives them a reassuring smile as they walk
on towards the rear of the carriage. |
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“Wow, there’s more smoke from that pipe than what is
coming from the engine itself, back here,” laughed Tom.
As they walk slowly by the berth, they peer in through the
frosted glass sliding door. Smoke is wafting
freely through the berth’s slightly open door. Inside,
Tom and Dan can just barley make out the figure of an elderly man sitting next to far
window. The gentleman is completely occupied
reading a book, and thickly rimmed glasses sit awkwardly across his nose.
“OK, let’s get along and fill these water bottles
Tom,” said Dan.
At the end of the carriage, the boys find the water tap and pump
handle. Dan places the first bottle
underneath and holds it while Tom vigorously pumps the handle. In no time at all, they have filled the three
bottles.
“Wow, this water is icy cold and sweet,” said Tom.
“Here Dan, have a swig!”
“It’s OK, we
better get back to Emily; we can tell her about the man in the cabin behind, I’m sure
she’s just as curious about our neighbour as we were” said Dan.
As the boys pass the elderly mans cabin,
the train suddenly rears forward and then drops back sharply.
With nothing to grab onto, Tom loses his balance and the two
water bottles he was holding go flying out of his hands. ‘Smash’ went one of the bottles as it hit the
iron door track outside the elderly man’s cabin.
The door almost immediately flies open. “What in the name of heaven are you two boys up to?”
said the angered man.
He stood there with a look of thunder on
his face, waiting for an explanation.
“I’m sorry Sir, we were just getting some water for our
bottles; Tom lost his balance when the train jerked” said Dan. |
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“That’s no excuse,” bellowed the man.
“You young boys these days, you just cannot sit down for five minutes without getting
up to mischief of sorts. I should have a good
mind to call the Guard and have you both removed from the train.” With that, the elderly man abruptly throws the
sliding door shut and hastily returns to his seat.
At that moment, Emily popped her head outside the door to see
what all the commotion was about.
“Its OK Em” said Tom. “We accidentally just
dropped two of the water bottles. The gentleman in this cabin flew out and gave us the
rough edge of his tongue. We will be with you in a few minutes. We just have to pick up
this broken glass off the floor.” He then
looked over to Dan, “better get onto this before we get to the next station.”
“Yes, let’s do it quickly, and find something to mop up
all this water on the floor. I’ll just go
and refill this other bottle while you pick up the broken glass,” said Dan.
Ten minutes later the boys had cleaned up the mess and soaked up
all the water with an old newspaper they had found in another cabin and finally returned
to their seats.
“Well you chaps, we’re off to a great start on this
holiday,” said Emily. “I do hope
things travel along alot smoother without any further drama when we eventually reach
Elford.”
“Don’t worry sis, I think our stop is next anyway. I’ll be glad to get off this train. I really
don’t want to be met by that man back there again.
Rather an excitable old chap wasn’t he Dan?”
“I agree Tom. I tell you what I see now; have you noticed
that the country side has changed from thinly wooded forest to rolling fields and
pastures? See how they’re all divided up
by miles of low stone walls, broken up only by the farm houses and barns? I’m really
looking forward to staying at your Aunts’ boarding house.”
“Aunties boarding house
is only a few shorts miles from the Perris River, and hopefully, we can hire a boat and
row up a few of the streams that run through the area. One of these streams actually
runs right alongside the town itself! We will have to cross it to get to the
house,” said Emily excitedly. |
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“Don’t forget Em, there’s also a few old
buildings that had been bombed during the war” adds Tom. “They weren’t bombed because of anything
of importance in the area, but by planes that were crippled by our fighters. They would turn round and make a run for it back to
their bases in France. One their way,
they’d simply drop their bombs to lighten the aircraft and Elford just happened to be
close to their return flight path.”
Dan’s eyes lit up like lanterns with the thoughts of bombed
out buildings.
“As you know Mother also lived in Elford when she was young,
but she never mentions nor talks about the war. I
would often ask her, but she would remark ‘it’s
all in the past now’. She’d quietly say, ‘some things are best forgotten.”
Emily looked across at Dan; he appeared again lost in thought. She reaches across and touches his hand gently. “Dan, perhaps your Mum is right, let’s
concentrate on what we're going to do for the next ten days.”
“Hey, look at the time,” said Tom. “It is almost
nearing
3 o’clock!”
“Yes, surely it can’t be much longer before we arrive
at the station,” says Emily.
Tom notions to Emily and Dan, “let’s eat the last of
our lunches. There’s still that bag of
broken biscuits to eat also.” Just at
that moment, a loud whistle pierces the air. The whole train then rears forward and
gradually starts to slow.
The children all anxiously look out the
window. The view had suddenly changed from that of fields and pasture to once again
thickly wooded forest. The engine again
sounded its piercing whistle. At that moment, the train drew to a grinding stop alongside
a small railway halt.
“We’re here! Come on everyone, grab our things and
let’s get going before the train starts off again,” says Dan. |
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The three children collect their things and walk quickly along
the passageway to the outside door. Tom opens
the door and they all step out onto the platform. The
train guard calls out ‘Elford Halt’ and then begins unloading luggage from his
compartment directly onto the platform. The
platform is almost lost in smoke from the standing off engine.
Just then, from behind the children, a
voice calls out in anguish “stand aside! stand
aside!” It’s the elderly
gentleman from the same carriage. The three children look at each other in surprise, half
expecting another ear full.
Fortunately, the man says nothing
further; he just coughs deeply, clears his throat and then walks off the station clutching
his leather bag, disappearing into the engines smoke haze.
“Strange fella” said Emily. “I really don’t
want to run into him again too soon.”
“Doubt it sis, he’s likely catching a bus into town and
travelling further along into the country. Either
way, there’s our luggage at the end of the platform. Come on Dan, let’s go and
collect it.”
The train guard blows his whistle and, with a long engine whistle
in reply, the train slowly moves off. As the
guard travels past, he waves cheerfully to the children.
“OK, all our luggage is here Tom” says Dan. “Let’s carry it all down to the end of
the platform. Patrick is nowhere to be seen. You know, I suspected he wouldn’t be here to
meet us.”
“Oh well, we may as well just sit around here for ten
minutes, perhaps he’s just been unavoidably delayed for some reason or another”
said Emily.
“I don’t know about you two, but there is a slight
chill in the air just here. Let’s just
move along the platform a little and sit in that small patch of sun,” suggests Tom.
“What a lonely desolate place this is! I could easily image
how dark it would be here after dusk, though I give it one thing, it’s rather
picturesque in its own unique way. Those large
Elm and Sycamore trees really give the place a picture postcard feel about it”
remarks Dan. |
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“Absolutely Dan, look over there!” points Emily. “Just behind the waiting room, there’s a
huge Norwegian Spruce. I recently read in
class about them being introduced to Britain in the early sixteenth century. Miss Warwick told us in History that they
hadn’t been used as Christmas Trees until 1841.”
“OK! OK! enough! I haven’t come all this way to admire
the scenery,” grumbles Tom. “Nor do
I wish to hear about school or anything else further about trees. We are on holidays don’t forget!”
“According to that sign at the end of the platform, the way
to Town appears to be off to the left. Where’s
that map you brought with you Emily? I dare
say we will have to make our own way to Aunties now,” moaned Tom.
Emily shuffles through her skirt pocket and produces the hand
drawn map they had made just a few days earlier. She unfolds the map and lays it out
across one of their luggage cases. Tom
carefully pours over the map while the others casually observe.
“This wouldn’t be necessary,” says Emily, “if
Patrick had been here you know. I will indeed
be telling Aunty Beth about this inconvenience when we arrive. It’s simply not a nice start to our holiday
sitting around here like lost sheep waiting for our cousin to arrive’.
“Right ‘O’ everyone” says Tom. “We shall take the Lane off to the left of the
station and follow it along until we come to a crossroad.
From there, we take this road to the right; this will bring us into Elford itself
proper.”
The children collected their carry cases and luggage bags and
make ready to set off to the Town Centre when Emily notices a small note pinned to the
side of the platforms waiting room, an envelope addressed in pencil, ‘TOM.’ Dan, standing nearby takes the envelope down and
passes it along to Tom. Tom quickly finishes
off tying up one of his shoelaces and then opens it; the others both then look on with
curious interest. |
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“What could be inside this letter?”
“It’s a message from Patrick!” says Tom. “He writes that if for any reason or other he
does not make it to meet us for the train, we are to find our way to the Tea Rooms located
in the high street and he will meet us there just on 4 o’clock.”
Dan looks at his watch. “It’s
just after half three. We had better get a
shuffle along everyone! Emily. Tom and I will
carry the heavier luggage cases between us. Can
you carry those two smaller ports and my archery equipment please?”
“Not a problem” she says. “OK,
off we go!” |
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