A Bit of Earth (10 page)

When the Welsh rarebit arrived at one o'clock he let it get cold. This was one of the most beautiful books he had ever seen. And very old. His mother's name (before she had married Daddy) was written in the front in writing that was worse than his. He bet she would have been in trouble for that.

‘This album,' he read, ‘when completed, contains 100 cards issued by arrangement with the United Tobacco Cos. (South) Ltd., Westminster Tobacco Co. (C.T. & L.) Ltd., Policansky Brothers Limited, for the benefit of smokers of their products.'

The missionaries must have been dedicated smokers, or at least friends of dedicated smokers, for the album was complete.

The inside front and back covers were landscapes in sepia tones of what the South African veldt of the imagination
looked like. Some gentle-looking deer, or maybe antelope or possibly gazelle, were grazing beside extravagant flowers with a backdrop of mountains. His fingers itched for his coloured pencils, but Mum would definitely be cross. He read:

FOREWORD

The flora of South Africa is celebrated for its great size as reckoned in number of species; for its endless botanical interest; and also for its richness in plants of beauty and distinction.

The illustrations in this book have been made from a few of the vast number of subjects which the South African flora presents. They depict plants from various parts of the Union, though the Cape Province with its outstanding floral wealth …

The words blurred in front of his tired eyes. Nobody yet knew that Guy needed glasses. And Guy, fortunately for a small boy, knew nothing of what was currently happening in the land whose plants were about to enchant him, or that ‘Kafir' was now a term of abuse. He looked at the Afrikaans pages. Maybe he could teach himself this language by switching backwards and forwards between the two texts. Or maybe not. The pictures were the thing. He was simultaneously bewitched and soothed by the vivid colours and the exotic names. He had hardly seen any of these plants before. The gardens of England had yet to be overrun by Osteospermum. Here was
Erica foliacea
, and many other members of that family. He read that the flowers of Erica ‘though relatively small, are produced in
great numbers and are remarkable for their beauty of detailed form and colour'.

It was the start of a long love affair. He gazed and gazed, and tried to decide which one he liked best. Was it the peacock flower, or the wild pomegranate, or perhaps the Kafir honeysuckle or Port St John's creeper? Which one was the most amazing? Was it the stone flower (how he longed for one) or the carrion flower (he couldn't decide if he wanted one of those) or the Big Wooly Protea? Could you eat the cones of the Kafir bread tree?

He kept the book hidden from Jenny. After ten days he was better and ready to go back to school, and he had the whole of
Ons Suid-Afrikaanse Plantegroei
off by heart. There was only a week until the Easter holidays, and they were all going to stay with Granny and Grandpa Misselthwaite in Yorkshire. Guy was taking the book to show them. He had it safely wrapped (and still hidden from Jenny) in a pillowcase in his bag.

Guy often had daydreams about being left behind in Yorkshire, where time and outdoors seemed to go on forever. Grandpa had been one of the gardeners at the ‘big house'. He had retired just before it was sold. He said that his own garden was nothing much, but Guy loved it. Granny knew just as much as Grandpa. Behind her bit of the garden (which was where the flowers were) was a little shrubbery where you could hide, and then the vegetables. Guy liked helping with all of it. Jenny didn't help much at all. Unless the job was picking things, she just sat around and watched. Guy knew that she was secretly frightened of worms.

The only rule Grandpa had was ‘Be careful in the
shrubbery'. When they were little they'd thought that there might be monsters or bad men in there. Now they knew that it was because of Grandpa's camellia. It was called
Camellia japonica
‘Eleanor Clark'. The family at the big house had given it to Grandpa when he retired, along with a watch, but that wasn't quite so treasured. Grandpa said that it was the only camellia with a little natural blue in the white, and that it was very rare. He said that when he and Granny died, they must make sure that it was looked after. Guy had nodded and promised. When Grandpa offered him a just-snapped broad bean the pact was sealed.

Miss Block's class were going on a trip. Even Guy couldn't fail to be unimpressed. It was a geography field trip to the local shops. They had worksheets to complete and boxes to tick. They would draw maps of it all when they returned. Felix, as usual partnerless, was with Miss Block.

‘Block,' said all the parents. ‘What an ideal name for a primary school teacher!'

Miss Block had once been engaged. There had been a chance of her exchanging Block for Benning. But she had broken the engagement off when her intended had laughed at the sketches she had made at her weekly life-drawing class. Miss Block had really wanted to go to art school, but somehow she had done a B.Ed. instead. She thought of herself as a cautionarytale. This was her first proper position, it was only a maternity cover job, but who knew … it was a nice school. Perhaps they would ask her to stay. She was desperately hoping that Mrs Partridge would find herself unable to return after the baby was born.

Felix and Miss Block were bringing up the rear. There
would have been little chance of Felix running off, Miss Block speculated, she hardly needed to keep an eye on him. He was plodding along like a little old man; perhaps his shoes were uncomfortable. She looked down at them. They looked like the most sensible shoes in the class. Perhaps he was just bored.

‘Do you come to these shops all the time with your mum?' she asked him.

‘My dad and I don't go shopping to these shops. My mum's dead.'

‘Oh Felix, I'm so sorry!' Why on earth hadn't they told her?

‘It's OK,' he said, plodding on.

‘When did she die?'

‘When I was little.'

Miss Block thought that he was still very little. Only seven.

‘It must be very hard for you and your dad.'

‘We're all right.'

Perhaps he didn't want to talk about it.

‘Miss Block?' Her spirits soared. He did want to talk about it!

‘Will we be able to buy things in the shops.'

‘Not really. We're doing a survey, aren't we? Counting things, that sort of thing …'

‘It would be nice if we could buy things.'

The line of children had now reached the shops. They divided into groups. Felix stayed with Miss Block. They also had Poppy and Prue and Sultan and Zak in their group.

Question 1
–
How many greengrocers are there?

Question 2
–
How many shops selling newspapers are there?

Question 3
–
Where would you go if you wanted to buy a kettle?

‘Argos,' said Poppy.

‘Argos Direct,' said Zak. ‘You wouldn't have to go anywhere. You could do it online.'

‘I think we could go to the hardware store,' said Miss Block, ‘or to a shop that sells lots of different things, like Woolworths. The answers to the questions are here in these shops.'

On it went until:

Question 10
– (‘Look, we're on the last one already!' said Miss Block. She found being off school premises whilst in charge of children horribly unnerving.)
Which shop is your group's favourite? Vote for it.

They all liked Woolworths best. It was a pokey Woolworths, carrying only a limited stock, but the children loved it. It won hands down. It got all the votes except Felix's.

‘What would you vote for then Felix?' Miss Block asked him.

‘I like the stationery shop. Everything there is beautiful.' They walked back a few steps to look. It was a bargain, cut-price stationer's. The window display was of wheels of felt pens, huge cases of two hundred, all different colours, and blue, black and green box files (buy one, get one free!), a shredder, an easel, portfolios (the manager was drifting towards artists' materials) and stacks and stacks of Black n' Red hardbacked notebooks, some indexed, some for accounts, some A4, some A5, and some A6.

‘I have always, always wanted one of those books,' said
Felix. Poppy and Prue sniggered. A whistle blew. The children were counted. The walk back up the hill to school began. Felix and Miss Block took up their position at the rear again. They had to stop whilst Miss Block had a sneezing fit.

‘Don't… worry… Felix …' she said between sneezes. ‘Tree pollen.' When it seemed to be over Felix said, ‘Oh, I thought you were just doing it to annoy.'

‘Felix! What a thing to say!'

‘Oh, that's just what Dad and me always say,' said Felix. ‘You know –

Speak harshly to your little boy and beat him when he sneezes.

He only does it to annoy, because he knows it teases

Miss Block smiled.

‘And what else do you always say?'

‘We say “Off with his head!” if we don't like someone.'

‘Well, I hope you won't say it about me.'

‘Oh, we only say it about people on TV. We don't really know very many people.'

That evening Miss Block went into the stationer's on her way home. She bought two A4 ruled Black n' Red books, two A5s and an A6 with columns. She didn't know what he might do with that one. She knew that it was unethical, so she saved them for Friday afternoon. The Monday was an inset day, and somehow that made it less risky. At the end of school on Friday afternoon she called Felix back.

‘These are for you. I do hope your dad won't mind.'

‘Oh, Miss Block. Thank you!' Felix gave her a really big smile. ‘He won't mind.' Or notice, Felix might have added.

He took the books home and showed them to Guy.

‘Look, Dad, Miss Block gave these to me.'

‘Block? Do you really have a teacher called Block?'

‘Yes,' said Felix.

‘Block. Are you sure? Spell it.'

Felix could.

‘Good God,' said Guy. ‘Are you really sure?'

‘I only wanted to show you the notebooks,' said Felix, rather cross. ‘She said on the first day that it was block like a brick.'

‘Oh, I dare say it was originally Bloch. German or similar. Ask her.'

Felix would do no such thing.

‘Five books!' he said, thrusting them at Guy's stomach.

‘Oh yes, very nice. Clearing out the stationery cupboard, was she? Funny time of year to be doing it. Usually do it at the end of term.'

‘She's new,' said Felix.

‘New brooms … new blocks … new block on the kids …' mused Guy. ‘Wonder if she gets sick of people saying that to her.' Actually nobody had yet.

Felix took his notebooks and wandered away. Upstairs by himself he propped them up on his pillow so that he could admire their covers properly. Imagine having five! Just one would have been brilliant. He didn't know why he had wanted them so badly.

He loved the way that they were not only black and red,
but said ‘Black n' Red' on their covers. Why would that be? Everybody could see that they were black and red. If it was to tell blind people that they were black and red, it should have been in Braille. Perhaps it was for people who were colour-blind, just in case they happened to hate black and red, but then why wasn't everything labelled with its colour?

Anyway, he loved them. They were smart, serious, and important. And they had hard covers that nobody could rip. He knew that Dad had one in the lab with A–Z, a little one with phone numbers. But in these you were allowed to put things in any order. He loved the way that the pages had margins. They had to draw margins sometimes at school and the ruler would always slip and spoil it. These had margins that magically swapped sides as you turned the pages and hardly showed through. It was several days before it occurred to him that he could actually use the books for writing in himself. He started with an A4 one. Miss Block had calculated correctly that if she gave him enough of them, he wouldn't worry about using them up.

Felix Pieter Misselthwaite
Age 7. This is my book. This was Dad's new pen.
Felix P. Misselthwaite. Felix P. Misselthwaite.
Today I asked if we could have a dog. Dad said maybe. I have a kind of pet already. Snowy is my cat who lives in the garden. A sharing cat. But I don't know who feeds her. Or maybe it is a him. Also Sea Monkeys.

Miss Block gave me this book. Her name is Miranda!!! Miranda Block. Miranda Block. Mrs Cowplain
called her that at playtime. I hope she stays at our school for ever.

I like Erica too. She is very beautiful and kind also. List of why

1. Does not wear stupid clothes.
2. Good at being very quiet in the garden.
3. Knows many insects and animals also more about plants than me. I like creatures better.
4. Brings things to do, like frisbees. Also cakes and drinks.
List of things I know about her
1. Three brothers older than me.
2. She has a sister who lives in France up a mountain with goats and a boyfriend. Also older than me.
3. Her mum has twenty-four hens.

Felix stopped writing. He wished he had some brothers or even sisters. They wouldn't be babies but at least four or five years old so that they could play and do things.

Erica had said that he could go to tea with her soon. He had never seen her house before. She had said that she would collect him from school, and that, another time, maybe in the school holidays, she would take him on a trip somewhere – maybe to a museum or an aquarium.

He wouldn't have minded if the the trip was to the house where her family lived. She'd said it had a river.

At last it had come. Today was the day that Felix was going to Erica's house. He told Miss Block. He told all the children on his table at school.