| "Andy's Quest" |
| Copyright Francis Blow, 1996. |
| CHAPTER 3 |
| Andy's wandering took him to the southbound highway. He would try hitching a ride. Andy decided that if any one asked him about himself, he would lie and say his name was Alan and he was ten years old, because that was how old the Loomis's said he looked. He would say he had been visiting friends in Scholarton and lost his bus money. As he walked, he chewed the bone he had brought, worrying at the shreds of meat on it as much as his plans. |
| Just outside the town, Andy walked into a truck-stop service station, which had a restaurant. He stood on the exit driveway with his finger pointing the way he wanted to go. Many cars and trucks ignored him, until a well dressed man walked up to him. |
| "What are you doing, young man?" He asked in a friendly voice. |
| "I need to get to Melbourne, and I lost my bus money." Andy's voice cracked as he said the lie. |
| "That's very unfortunate. Luckily for you, I'm on my way to Melbourne. Would you like to ride in my car?" |
| "Would I ever!" Andy's eyes lit up. What a nice man he was. |
| "What is your name, young man?" |
| "Alan." |
| "Alan what?" |
| "Um... Alan Prentice." Alan gave the name of the lady who used to run the shelter where he had stayed, a long time ago. |
| "Come on then, Alan." The kind man led the way to a beautiful, big, black car. |
| There was a heater! And the seats were so soft. It did not take long for Andy to drift off to sleep. |
| Andy woke when the car stopped at another truck stop. |
| "Where are we?" |
| "You're awake? Good. Want something to eat?" |
| "Yes, please! I'm starving." |
| "Okay. I'll order something inside, if you'd like to wash up. Your hands are a little dirty." |
| Andy blushed at the state of his hands. He ran to use the rest room. Andy studied himself in the mirror, and realised what a mess he was. Dirty, greasy hair. Grey streaked his face and hands. He scrubbed his face, arms and hair in the sink. The hot water felt wonderful, as did the hot-air blower when he dried his hair and hands. |
| Andy found the kind man in the restaurant. He was reading a newspaper and smoking. "Ah, there you are, Alan. I see you made good use of the facilities. Cleanliness is next to Godliness." |
| "Yes, sir." Andy said, as he sat in a spare chair. |
| "You can call me Jason. I've ordered steak and vegetables for us." |
| Andy's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Steak! "That's great... Jason." |
| Jason smiled a very kind smile at Andy. Andy smiled back, though he noticed something strange in Jason's eyes. Andy could not work out what bothered him about Jason. The food arrived, and Andy forgot about anything else. The hot, juicy steak was so tender it dissolved in Andy's mouth. Big, fat potatoes, dripping with sour cream, piles of sliced, sweet carrots and crisp, green beans. |
| "My, you were hungry, weren't you, Alan? There's apple pie and ice cream to come." Jason said, beaming at Andy's expression. |
| After they finished eating, and were having coffee, Andy again asked where they were. |
| "Oh... About a day's drive yet." Jason waved another cigarette vaguely, before lighting it. |
| "I didn't think Melbourne was that far." Andy was uneasy about the answer. |
| "Oh, yes. We're right off the beaten track here. In a couple of hours, I'll stop at a motel and we can share a room." |
| "A motel?" Andy was dubious. Something about Jason's tone bothered Andy. |
| "Yes. Is there anything wrong with that?" Jason asked through a cloud of smoke. |
| "I guess not." Andy was starting to feel uneasy again. What was it about Jason that sent up little warning signals? The man was nothing but kindness. |
| "If you're finished, we can go, Alan." |
| "Don't you think it's a little warm in the car for a raincoat? Why don't you throw it in the back?" |
| Reluctantly, Andy did so, aware that his clothes were torn and filthy. Jason did not say anything, even though he obviously noticed the state of Andy's clothing. They drove in silence, as evening grew deeper into night. Jason started yawning loudly, and soon Andy was forced to copy him. |
| "We're both getting tired . There's a town ahead with a motel I've used before." Jason told Andy. A half an hour later, they drew into the forecourt of the motel. Jason went into the office, and returned a few minutes later with a key. In seconds, they were parked, and Jason let them into a room. When the lights were on, Andy saw two beds, a TV, a couple of chairs, a wardrobe and dressing table, and another doorway. |
| "There's the bathroom. You could use a good shower." |
| Andy went through the other doorway and locked the door behind him. He peeled off layers of clothing and plastic, leaving it piled in a corner. The steaming hot shower was unbelievable. Every inch of his skin came alive under the spray and soap. Andy washed his hair again, because it felt so good. |
| A knock at the door. |
| "How much longer, Alan? I'd like my shower." |
| Reluctantly, Andy turned the taps off, and dried himself with a towel, which then went around his waist. He rolled his clothes into a tight bundle and claimed the second bed. Jason was in underpants and singlet, and went into the bathroom, while Andy threw his own clothes under his bed. Andy hung the towel over the bed end, and climbed between the sheets. It had been a long time since Andy had known such luxury, and he let the comforts lull him into a doze. He was in a state of half sleep when Jason came out of the bathroom. Andy could hear, but could not move; his body slept, while his mind kept working. |
| "Asleep already, Alan?.. You sure sleep a lot... Let's see what you're hiding under here... Holy!.. No wonder you stink. Well, my boy, I think you've been lying to me. Alan, if that's your real name, I'd say that nobody knows where you are. How interesting. And how handy!" |
| Andy tried to wake himself up, hoping it was a bad dream, but his body refused to move. The bed settled under Jason's weight, and a hand brushed Andy's forehead, moving his hair. Please make this a dream, Andy screamed inside his head. |
| "Tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow I think we can take another detour. Yes. Oh yes, we will." |
| Andy raved at his muscles to do something. Anything to get him away from Jason. He knew what Jason was now. The people at the shelter had warned him about creatures like Jason. They looked like people but were monsters inside. Andy once saw what happened to another, older boy who had been taken by one of the monsters. The boy was all torn and bruised, and he could not talk or do anything but stare into space, though sometimes he cried and screamed if a man came near him. |
| God, please, if you're there, please make me get up and run away! Andy strained to move even a finger, without success. Please, God! Please! Please! |
| God did nothing. |
| Jason's hand slid to Andy's shoulder. "Tomorrow." |
| The weight was gone from Andy's bed. |
| Andy did not know how long he slept. It was still dark when he finally woke. Jason was snoring soundly across the room, and Andy could see the monster's shape in the light from the street. Andy tip-toed to the open suitcase which lay on a chair. He found a clean singlet, a pair of socks and a shirt. Andy took them and pulled them on quietly. He took Jason's wallet and stuck it in the pocket of the oversized shirt he wore. Then he got his own pants and boots on. In his hand he carried the plastic bag which he normally wore under his clothes, and he crept out of the room. As he passed the office, Andy peered inside the window, hoping to find a map or sign to tell him where he was. Nothing. |
| Andy went to the highway. He tried to wave down passing cars as he walked. No one stopped. |
| When the cold started to affect him, Andy took off the jumper, shirt and singlet, pulled the plastic bag on, and dressed again. It was amazing how quickly he got warm like that. Andy walked almost three hours without a lift. His legs ached, and he had blisters from wearing the badly fitting boots. His forearm ached from holding his hand up in the signal for getting a ride. |
| Just as dawn was breaking, Andy heard a car pull in behind him. He turned to look. A big, black car. Andy almost ran, until he saw the driver. It was a different man. |
| "Want a lift, kid? I'm on my way to Adelaide." |
| Andy was quickly in the passengers seat. |
| "What're you doing in the middle of diddle-squat, kid?" |
| Andy debated with himself about what to say. |
| "You don't have to tell me, kid. Are you running away from home?" |
| "I don't have a home. I'm running away from a man who's...I think he's a child molester." |
| "Want that we go to the cops?" The driver's face became angry. |
| "No. I stole his wallet when I ran away." |
| "Way to go, kid! How much did you get?" |
| "I haven't looked yet." Andy opened the wallet and counted out three hundred and thirty two dollars. There were papers and credit cards in the wallet as well. |
| "You keep that money, kid. You got it fair and square. I want you to give me everything else." |
| "Why?" |
| "Let me put it this way. You can't use it, but I know people who can." The driver thought for a moment, the anger still on his face; he turned to look straight into Andy's eyes for an instant. "I have a cousin. A pretty girl she was. Until one of our uncles hurt her real bad. Poor Charlotte was never the same after that." |
| There was a minute of silence, then the driver laughed. It was a scary laugh. His hands squeezed the steering wheel. "I've waited a lot of years for a chance like this. Now you have delivered this man into my hands... Imsh'allah." He almost whispered the last word, and Andy was not sure if he heard it right. |
| After driving for a while, the man asked Andy where he wanted to go. |
| "I'm... I don't know." Andy realized he had no idea of a destination. He had not considered it in detail at all. |
| "You had better think about it, kid. Because if you don't know where to find what you want, you'll never get there... What do you want to do with your life?" |
| Andy reflected for a while. "I want to be able to eat every day, whenever I want. I want to be warm all the time, and be clean. I don't want to be afraid, and I want people to like me." |
| "How do you think you can have these things?" |
| "I don't know." Andy shook his head in defeat. |
| "Open the glove box. There's a pen and notepad. Write down each thing you want, and number them, then see if you can write down ways to get each wish. If you do that, then they're not wishes or dreams any more. They're goals that you can really reach for and grab hold of." The driver glanced sideways at Andy, and gave a twisted smile. "Go on, kid." |
| Andy stared at the blank paper, then started writing. |
| Under "Food" he put "Steal it, Grow it, Buy it". |
| Under "Steal it" he wrote "Just get caught, go to goal.", under "Grow it" he had "Buy land and seeds. Get a job?" while under "Buy it" was "Get a job!" |
| With "Be warm all the time" he wrote "Find a warm place to live and stay there", while for being clean he had "Wash every day". |
| When he got to "Not be afraid" all he could think to write was "Hide" and "Be brave". |
| The last thing he had was "Have friends" and he wrote "Meet people and make them happy to be with me". |
| Andy studied his plan. Some of the things he could do were canceled out by other needs. Stealing was out, because he could not stay in the same place for long, and if he got caught he would lose a lot of what he wanted. At the top of a new page, he wrote out what were the best ways of getting what he wanted. |
| "Find a warm place to live, get a job, get some land and a little house. Be brave and make people happy." |
| Andy thought about it some more, before he asked, "Where are some places that are warm?" |
| "In Australia? Hmm... To be warm all year, you'd have to live up north, like Queensland or the Northern Territory or the top of Western Australia." |
| "Well, I want to get a job and make friends and have a place to live." |
| "You could find that in all of those places... How much schooling have you had?" |
| "I can read and write. I know numbers." Andy did not want to admit how little education he had recieved. |
| "That's what I thought. Kid, you need to go to school. There are no jobs these days you can get without school. Even a jackaroo needs schooling." |
| "What's a jackaroo?" |
| "If you don't even know that, you have got problems... Kid, you can't do it on your own. Somewhere, you're going to have to ask for help. The government has to be told about you. What I mean is, there are welfare places especially for kids like you. They foster you out and make sure you get a good education." |
| "I don't want to be fostered." That was a word most orphans and street kids despised. |
| "Don't be fostered then. But at least get help. Lot's of kids live in boys homes, and become good citizens. You can too, if you want to. I guess the best place to get what you want, is Queensland." |
| "How do I get there?" Now they were getting somewhere! |
| "You can't from here. Wait until we get to Adelaide. Then if you're careful with your money, it might be enough to get you most of the way to Queensland by train." |
| Andy was thinking about his goals when he fell asleep. And dreamed. |
| The car bounced over rough, unpaved road, waking Andy. "Where are we?" |
| "Middle of nowhere, kid. How'd you like to reach in back and get that paper bag? There's enough sandwiches for both of us. A couple of Pepsis, too." |
| "Great. How far to Adelaide?" Andy undid his seat-belt and leaned between the seats to get their lunch. It was difficult, with the car bouncing all over the place. |
| "We'll be there sometime tonight. I was thinking of dropping you off at the Refuge Centre. You can get a bed and some food there, and in the morning it's not far to walk to the station." |
| "I'd like that." Andy passed a sandwich to him, then took one for himself. |
| "Then you can start your quest." |
| "My what?" |
| "Your quest. That's a long search for something special." |
| "My quest. I'm going on a quest." Andy ate his lunch, bemused at the odd way the driver described Andy's problem; he re-read his notes. |
| There was probably enough money in his pocket to get to Queensland. Once there, he would go to the welfare people and ask for help. School was something he would have to attend again. Andy would try and get a job, though what was he qualified to do? He could clean houses and look after gardens. He could cook a little. That was about all. Andy was not very strong, nor was he very big. Maybe a list could help. Like the one he made for his goals, his quest. The writing pad and pen came into use again. |
| He drew a line down a clean page. On the left he wrote "Good Points" and on the right "Bad Points". |
| Cooking, cleaning and gardening were good. Bad were: short, skinny, no schooling, liar, thief, no family, no friends, no manners, stupid, scared. |
| For a long time, Andy studied his new list, and thought very hard. He made a decision. He crossed off "liar, thief, no manners and scared" and added to the "Good" list the words "Honest, good manners and brave". |
| He would be those things starting right away. |
| "I want to thank you again for all the help you've given me. I don't even know your name. I'm Andrew Lewis Hay and in a few days I'll be turning thirteen. I was born in Sydney. My parents are in goal for stealing. The people I was staying with are no good. I think they were trying to kill me, because I heard them making plans about crimes, so I ran away. I stole clothes and food. Now, I'm going to start a new life as an honest person." |
| The driver glanced at Andy every few seconds. "Quite a story, kid. I pray that Allah will guide you on your quest, and keep you safe." |
| "Who's Allah?" Andy had an idea it had something to do with religion, but was not sure. |
| "He is the One True God. God is great. Verily, I swear by the day of resurrection, and I swear by the soul which accuses itself, does man think that we will not gather his bones together?" |
| The man chuckled, but it was pleasent, not like Jason. |
| "I don't understand." Andy wondered if the driver was a religious nut. |
| "These are words of truth from the Holy Koran. Do not concern yourself, kid. I'm David Ibrahim Moussa, and one of my uncles is an iman of Islam. I am an agent for a steel mill. Now I am pleased to share bread with you, Andrew Lewis Hay." |
| Their journey to Adelaide was fairly quiet, except for a flat tyre and fuel stops. Andy helped David change the wheel by the side of the road. It was night when David left Andy at the Refuge Centre. They shook hands and David drove away, while Andy went inside. A woman at a desk asked Andy some questions about himself, and he told her what he could. He was given a hot meal of vegetable soup and bread, then allowed to shower and sleep in a narrow bunk. In the morning, an old man put a change of clothes in Andy's arms: jeans, shirt, socks, underpants, and shoes that fit very well. There was even a clean plastic bag to put his old clothes in. |
| Walking to the railway station was so comfortable in the soft sandshoes, which some family had donated, that Andy thought he could walk forever. |
| "Where in Queensland did you want to go?" The ticket seller asked. "Queensland's a big state." |
| "The main city, please." |
| "Brisbane. Let's see...via Broken Hill, Parkes, Tamworth..." |
| Andy got his ticket and stayed at the station until the afternoon, when the train was due to leave. With some of his leftover money, he bought a hamburger, a large bottle of lemonade and a dozen small apples, to take with him. No one bothered him, and Andy was happy. He did not have to run anywhere or hide from anyone; it was a wonderful feeling of freedom. As the time for his train's arrival drew near, Andy did become anxious and pestered the station staff about each train that came in, until it was finally there and he was able to board. |
| The first few hours were sort of interesting, because Andy could watch the scenery; then it got dark. He was told by another passenger, an old lady, that he could get dinner in another car. The old lady thought that Andy was ten, because he was so small. |
| For a few dollars, Andy got a roast beef sandwich that made his mouth feel like it had gone to heaven. After his sandwich, Andy went back to his seat, where he ate an apple and drank some lemonade. The old lady came to sit with him and talked about her grand children. Andy fell asleep and did not wake till morning. He opened his eyes and sat up from where his head had been resting on the old lady's lap. |
| "Good morning, Andy. You slept well. Though you mumbled in your dreams." |
| "Morning, Mrs. Gilltor. I didn't mean to fall asleep on you." |
| "Don't give it a moment's thought, darling. Many's the child that's slept in my lap." She smiled at him and brushed the hair out of his eyes. "Shall we see if the breakfast bar is open?" |
| They had to wait an hour for breakfast, but they spent the time talking to other passengers and watching the countryside. Andy ordered a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice. It tasted really good. He was not yet used to having so much food that tasted so nice. His money was almost gone, but he would enjoy it while he could. |
| During their long trip, after two other old people joined Mrs. Gilltor and him, Andy was taught to play cards, a game called Five Hundred. Hours passed and evening drew on. By eleven o'clock, Andy was feeling tired, so he curled up on a seat and went to sleep. He woke up and found a blanket over him. During the night the train had passed through Broken Hill and some of the passengers he met were gone, while others took their place. A couple of boys were among the new arrivals, and the three of them played games until the two boys and their parents got off at Dubbo. Towns came and went, and Andy was the only original passenger from Adelaide who reached Tamworth. The train made fewer stops, so it travelled faster. |
| It was not until Andy got off the train at Brisbane that he found he had missed his thirteenth birthday. At first he was sad, then angry with himself. Eventually, Andy realised it did not really matter, so he bought himself a cream bun to celebrate his becoming a teenager. |
| While he was still in Brisbane station, Andy asked at the information desk about the child welfare people. He was given a phone book and told to look it up for himself. Andy wrote it down on the sheet of paper that had his goals, using a borrowed pen. A map of the city cost him a little more of his dwindling money, and he was on his way, walking into a new adventure. |
