| "Andy's Quest" |
| Copyright Francis Blow, 1996. |
| CHAPTER 2 |
| At ground level. There! The stormwater drain. |
| Andy only had time to register the narrow gap; he threw himself into it, while the policeman's hands brushed his jumper. Andy bumped against the concrete edges, then landed on garbage and broken bottles. He flinched away from a hypodermic needle, before he crawled into the drain pipe, and away from the arms that were reaching for him. |
| "Damn it, kid! Come out of there. One storm and you'll drown! Come on out. I promise you won't get hurt!" The policeman's voice echoed after Andy. |
| It did not take long before the light was gone from the tunnels where Andy crawled. There were bends and connections to larger pipes. Water still ran in the bottoms of the pipes, making Andy worry about rainwater flooding in. He had to watch where he put his feet, for all of the sharp rubbish lying about. |
| As soon as he thought it was safe, Andy turned into another pipe that led to the surface. The way out was too narrow, so he backed all the way to the main pipe and kept searching. It seemed like hours before he was back on the surface. His knees and elbows were bleeding where the material of his pants and jumper were worn through. His toes and fingers were worse. |
| The city was a trap. Andy knew he had to get out, but how, and where was he, anyway? The street names meant nothing to Andy, it was not a part of the city he knew. When he heard a deep rumble through the ground, he knew a train station was nearby. If he could get on a train it would take him to the country, where there were better chances of finding food and shelter. |
| Unfortunately, when he got there,the station staff refused to let him into the station without a ticket. Andy wandered around, staying close to the station. Every now and then he would see if he could get in, but he was caught each time. The railway staff must have got tired of chasing Andy away, because a police car pulled up on the footpath, and the police talked to the staff. |
| Andy decided to try somewhere else. He wanted no trouble with more police; besides which, he was getting very tired, and there were no places to sleep. |
| After it got dark, Andy passed a big metal clothing bin, where people left donated clothes. Not only would it be dry, but he might find clothes that fit, and were not torn. Andy looked around at the street. No one was in sight. He lifted the lid and started to climb in. |
| "Get the hell outa here!" A gruff, echoing voice shouted at him from inside the bin. Andy fell backwards, bruising his hip and an already sore elbow. He ran. |
| Andy tried sleeping in a doorway off an alley, but the wind blowing through made it colder than he could stand. It was not raining, yet everything was still so wet, that few places were dry enough where he could sit. Andy wandered aimlessly for hours, sometimes so exhausted he had to rest for a while before he had the energy to walk on. He shivered non stop. Andy was so cold and desperate for sleep, that he cried and could not stop himself. The dark was a nightmare of cold, as he wandered, dazed through the hostile streets of Sydney. |
| Andy was not sure how, but he ended up in the back of a pantechnicon truck that was loaded with cardboard boxes. He made a bed for himself with a pile of canvas. |
| Andy did not wake when voices approached the truck. Two men climbed into the cab and the engine was started. He did not wake when the truck moved off, rocking Andy around in his improvised bed. Andy was still sleeping by the time the truck crossed the Victorian border. The further south it moved into mountains, the colder the weather became. |
| He slept through that whole day and into the next night, long after the truck was parked at its destination. Andy was completely unaware that the truck had moved from Sydney, until he jumped to the roadway. His bare feet landed in snow. Darkness surrounded him. The only sound was that of the moaning wind that cut through his clothes in icy blasts. |
| The truck was once more Andy's refuge. He was confused. It never snowed in the Sydney! Where was he? |
| He had no answers that night, though he did fall asleep again. There was nothing else to do. |
| Morning came, bringing a pale, grey light into the back of the truck. The sunbeams did not quite reach where Andy lay between layers of canvas. It was the barking of two dogs that woke Andy. He felt cold and stiff, while his mind was fuzzy from having more sleep than he was used to. Before he went outside, he tore some cardboard off the boxes, and tied the cardboard to his feet with some blue, plastic straps that were lying loose in the truck. The cardboard soon soaked through with water, though at least his bare toes were not in snow. Andy gazed around at his surroundings as he plodded away from the truck. He saw a town of a dozen or so buildings. Everything was dusted with white. |
| Nothing moved. The air was still. |
| Even the dogs had gone quite. |
| There was something special about the place; almost magical. Almost as if it were waiting to wake up. |
| Andy took a step up from the snow and ice of the roadway, and onto the wooden boards in front of a shop. The timber footpath creaked under his weight. The shop in front of him sold hardware and electrical things. Andy walked to the next shop along, a newsagents and book store. He looked into a women's clothing shop, a bank, a doctor's surgery, and more. What really took his interest was a cafe, with its coloured pictures of hamburgers, fish, chocolates and other unreachable marvels. |
| When he got to the last shop, a place that sold animal food and other things, Andy went around to the back of the buildings, to search for anything useful in the rubbish. The first treasure he uncovered was a battered hat, stained and giving off a strong animal smell. Was that what horse stank like? |
| The hat covered his head and ears, while leaving his eyes free. There was great stuff everywhere he looked. Rags and string to tie around his feet and hands, and to stuff into his jumper; there were more than enough rags in the dress shop bins. Best of all was what he found in the garbage behind the cafe. It was all frozen, of course, not that it mattered to Andy. Half eaten hamburgers, fish pieces, chips, salad things and heaps more. A feast better than anything he had ever eaten. |
| Andy did not care that he felt colder, filling up with frozen stuff, or that his teeth ached like mad. He was full. No more hunger! If he could eat like this every day, he would be happy to live in the snow forever. Andy kept eating, even after he was full, because he did not know when he would eat again. |
| A big hand grabbed his shoulder, and Andy was spun around. A hairy, bearded face was baring huge teeth a few centimetres from Andy's face. Blazing red eyes glared at him, while hot, sour breath wafted around his own face. |
| "That's my food!" The hairy man growled at Andy. "I work this town. Go som'eres else!" |
| Andy was too shocked to say anything at first, then he recovered enough to ask what town it was. |
| "Don't you know? It's Envoy. How'd you get here anyways?" |
| "I slept in a truck in Sydney and woke up here. How far am I from home?" |
| The man laughed at Andy. "You've got a good walk ahead of you mate! More'n eight hun'red kays." |
| Andy shook his head. Eight hundred kilometres! How would he get back home? |
| Home? What home? Certainly not to live in the Loomis's house. Nor could he stay here, not if this smelly man had first claim on the garbage bins. "How far is it to the next town?" |
| "Mate, you really don't know nothin', do you?" The hairy head shook in exasperation. "You're in the Dandenong Mountains. If you try'n walk out, you'll die of exposure. There's nothin' between here'n Cobalt, thirty five kays to the north, while Scholarton's nearly fifty kays south." |
| "What do I do then?" |
| "Beats me! But this food's mine, so rack off outa here." |
| Andy's shoulders drooped. Dejected, he went around the man and walked away. |
| "Hey!" The man called after him. "If you try the cop shop, ask Billy for a lift." |
| "Who's Billy?" |
| "He's the copper . He's good for a handout now'n then." |
| Andy turned away again. Ask a policeman for help? He laughed to himself. Yeah sure! |
| As soon as he was out of sight of the man, Andy started rummaging through more bins, looking for anything useful. He ignored the surgery bin, when he saw bent needles in it. Weren't needles supposed to be put in special bins? |
| At the hardware store he found a piece of electrical wire that made a better belt than the string he wore; Andy kept the string, just in case. Past the hardware store was a shop he had not noticed. A butcher shop. Someone had already been through the meat there, leaving only bones and fat. Andy took a handful of frozen, raw fat and a bone, for later. |
| He circled back into the main street, and crossed over to the other side. There were mostly houses there, plus a two story pub and a service station. |
| Andy watched a car drive slowly into the service station. A man left the car and unlocked the office. Andy wondered if he should ask customers at the service station for a lift to another town. Maybe later, when there were more people about. |
| Andy was getting wary of anybody. Most grown-ups were bad news. |
| Maybe there were clothes lines with kids' clothes around the back of the houses! Andy ran around the other side and peered over fences. None of the houses had clothes on the lines. How dumb could he be? No one hung up clothes overnight when it was snowing. |
| There! A pair of gum boots! |
| Andy was half way over the fence, when a dog ran up to him, barking. Seconds later, half a dozen dogs added their noise. Andy took off in a flash. He hid in the spindly trees at the edge of town. |
| There was the smell of smoke in the air. None of the buildings in Envoy's main street had any signs of smoke, so Andy went searching for the source. A dirt road led off the main street, and two widely seperated houses fronted the track. One house was well kept, and had a police car parked in the driveway. The other house was old and fallen apart. The smoke came from a chimney on the policeman's house. |
| Andy crept into the old house. From the look of the inside, the hairy man probably lived there. Empty wine bottles and rubbish were in every room. It stank like a dirty toilet, and there was nothing that was useful to Andy. All the good stuff must have been hidden. |
| A noise outside warned Andy to climb out of a window and run into the trees. He did not try to see who it was. |
| Andy sat on a log, watching the town. He was waiting for something to happen, to give him an idea of what to do. There was more movement of people and traffic. Not a lot, but Envoy was waking up. The newsagents opened next, and a couple of men went in for newspapers. The animal food place followed, then the cafe. The policeman drove into town, parked in front of the bank, and walked around, talking to people for half an hour. Andy saw the policeman talk to the hairy man, and after a few seconds, both men looked around the main street. Andy knew they were searching for him. |
| Andy definitely could not stay in Envoy much longer. He waited for the policeman to drive out of town, then Andy walked to the service station, where a utility was being filled with petrol. |
| "Excuse me." Andy said to the car's owner. "Would I be able to get a ride with you to the next town? If you're going that way, I mean." |
| The man stared at Andy for a moment, and down at Andy's feet. "Where are you from?" |
| "Up north." Andy hesitated about saying exactly where. "I really need a lift. Please?" |
| "I guess. Okay. Wait here a sec." The man went off to pay for the petrol, then returned. "Hop in. I can take you as far as Scholarton." |
| The road was slippery, so the car went slowly. It took an hour to get to the other town. Andy was thankful that the driver did not ask many questions. They mostly listened to country music cassettes. All the songs were about unhappy things. |
| When the car pulled up in a bigger town, Andy got out and thanked the driver. He hurried past shops, to another street. There was less snow about, though an icy wind made it feel much colder on Andy's skin. |
| He was chased away from the backs of several shops, until he found an unused garbage bag. Andy tore arm and head holes in the plastic. He put it on under his jumper and tucked it into his pants. It made a big improvement in how cold he felt, because it trapped body warmth against his skin. All he needed now was shoes. Too many people were staring at the wet cardboard that was tied to his feet with blue plastic straps. |
| Andy left the shops and went prowling the streets that had houses lining them. He looked at doorways, hoping someone left their shoes outside. Unfortunately, the houses that had shoes or boots, also had people. |
| As Andy rounded a corner, he saw an answer. A school house. |
| The door was closed, and on the verandah were boots and raincoats of all sizes. |
| Without hesitation, Andy took the junk off his feet, sneaked up to the verandah and grabbed the first pair of boots that might fit. He also stole a raincoat. |
| "Hello?" A woman's voice came from inside. "Who's there?" |
| Andy ran as fast as he could, though not before the door was opened and the woman shouted at him to stop. He ran until his lungs were heaving for air. He sat and pulled the boots on. They were loose, which did not matter too much. The raincoat was perfect. It even had a hood to keep his head warmer than the old hat. |
| Some of the rags that were stuffed into his clothes, Andy used to wrap around his feet, since he did not have socks. He used enough rags to make his feet fit the boots. |
| He was warm and he had shoes. With the raincoat on he looked like a normal kid, except for the hat. He threw the hat away, in case the teacher saw it and told the police about it. The only problem was that if the police were searching for him he could not stay in the town any longer. Andy kept his eyes open for a way of getting away. |
| No one gave him a second glance, as he walked around the streets. He was just another kid in a yellow raincoat. Being small for his age was handy; he knew little kids could get away with a lot more than older kids. |
| Midday went past without Andy being any nearer to a way out. He wanted to keep going south, because somewhere in that direction was Melbourne. He would not be known there, and he might just be able to start a new life. |
| A light drizzle started, and Andy was surprised to see some of the rain hit the ground as ice. He had never understood what sleet was until he felt it on his hands and face. He was really thankful he had stolen the raincoat; it kept him warm and dry. |
| A moment after congratulating himself on what he had done, Andy felt a twinge of guilt. Some other kid would get wet going home, while another would have to walk home in socks. |
| That's just tough, he told himself, at least they had warm houses and beds, and as much food as they want, whenever they want it! Still, he could not quite get rid of a feeling that he had done something bad. |
| He blinked, as ice crystals formed under his eyes. |
