Ghost Boy Page 7

  Tad leaned forward eagerly as Froggy explained: ‘It’s Tad’s family I’ve been reading about, Cassie, not yours. This has nothing to do with you, I’m afraid.’ He turned back to Tad. ‘It says here that your family came out on the Northumberland. At least, that’s what the authorities think. There’s no record of any Dearborne on board ship, only at the Quarantine Station.’

  ‘Father must have booked us under a different name then, to protect Mary-Anne, I suppose.’

  ‘I’m not dumb, you know. You’re not going to con me into believing you’re talking to a ghost.’

  ‘Read this, Cassie.’ Froggy handed the news clipping to her. ‘This is what I’m talking about.’ He had memorised the details, but didn’t want Tad to read what it said about Joseph. It would be better to break the news himself, he thought.

  ‘The article says that your father and Mary-Anne died at the Quarantine Station. Who’s Mary-Anne anyway?’

  ‘My father’s mistress. They had an illegitimate baby together. My half-brother Joseph.’

  Froggy stole a look at Cassie, but all her attention was focused on the article.

  He swallowed hard. ‘Tad, I have to tell you something. I’m sorry. The report says your whole family, including Joseph, died at the Quarantine Station.’

  ‘What? That can’t be true!’ Tad snatched the paper from Cassie’s grasp, reading feverishly, while Cassie’s eyes blazed with sudden excitement. The paper that had suddenly taken on a life of its own, now hovered not far from her nose. It must be held by a ghostly hand. Was Froggy for real after all?

  ‘I can’t believe it!’ Tad sounded stricken. ‘Joseph was well when I left him. No! He couldn’t have …’ He turned away, raised his hand, pretended he was brushing something away from his eyes.

  ‘It’s not true!’ He glared at Froggy as if it was all his fault. ‘You’re the proof! You wouldn’t be here if Joseph had died!’

  ‘Maybe there’s been a mistake.’ Froggy felt the little rabbit in his pocket. He pulled it out and began to fiddle with it, wishing he’d had better news for Tad.

  ‘What’s that?’ Tad leaned forward and snatched the rabbit.

  ‘It’s my rabbit. Give it back!’

  ‘It’s Joseph’s rabbit! I made it for him. See?’ Tad’s cry was triumphant as he turned the rabbit over and showed Froggy something he’d seen so many times before without realising its significance: TD 1881.

  ‘I made it for Joseph. Where did you get it from?’

  ‘My father gave it to me. He told me that his father had given it to him.’ He looked at Tad excitedly. ‘It looks as if …’

  ‘You wouldn’t know anything about a gold locket, would you?’ Tad interrupted.

  Froggy didn’t normally pay much attention to jewellery, but there was something his mother often wore. It had been a wedding present from his father.

  ‘Gold, with a heart engraved on it? And initials?’

  Froggy screwed up his face, trying to remember.

  ‘Froggy, what’s happening?’ Cassie tugged at his arm.

  ‘FD and CD?’ Tad prompted.

  ‘I … think so. Could be. I’m not sure.’

  ‘That’s mine. My mother gave it to me and I want it back!’

  ‘It belongs to my mother now. I can’t just take it.’

  ‘It belongs to me!’ Tad thrust the rabbit in his pocket. ‘You can have this back if you bring me the locket. I’ll swap you.’

  ‘My mother wears it all the time. I can’t just steal it from her.’

  Tad’s hand stayed in his pocket. Froggy sighed.

  ‘Froggy, what’s he doing now?’ Cassie had watched the rabbit disappear, but the newspaper still floated about.

  ‘I’ll tell you later, Cassie.’

  ‘Get rid of her!’ Tad demanded. ‘This is family business.’

  Froggy wondered how to explain to the popular Cassie that she wasn’t wanted. ‘We’ve got a lot to talk about, Tad and I,’ he said, trying to be tactful. ‘Can you just hold the interruptions for a while?’

  ‘Oh, all right, if you want to keep playing games. But I don’t believe you, you know.’ She stamped off and pretended to admire the view. But Froggy noted that she still kept close enough to hear the conversation, his side of it at least. He just wished Cassie wouldn’t stand so near the edge. If she falls off, Tad can go and save her, he decided. Tad seemed to be good at that sort of thing! Froggy stared out to sea, listening to the faint drone of an approaching plane.

  Tad had heard it too and he flung his head back, watching the silver speck in the sky. ‘What sort of bird is that?’ he asked, pointing.

  ‘It’s not a bird – it’s an aeroplane. It’s like a … a sort of giant balloon that carries people from country to country. Now it only takes about a day for us to get to England.’

  ‘Only a day?’ Tad looked disbelieving.

  ‘And a night,’ said Froggy. ‘We even have spaceships that go to the moon now. Do you know that men have walked on the moon, Tad?’

  ‘Oh sure!’ Tad jeered and then, mimicking Cassie: ‘If men walk on the moon then I’m the Queen of England!’

  ‘Which queen is that?’ Froggy teased.

  ‘Victoria. Oh, no …’ Tad broke off, confused.

  ‘It’s Queen Elizabeth the Second now, and you look just like her!’ Froggy started to laugh.

  Tad cuffed him across the ear. ‘Well, I don’t believe in the men on the moon, so there!’ he said grumpily.

  ‘What are you carrying on about the Queen of England for?’ Cassie sniped. ‘I thought you were supposed to be sorting out Tad’s family, not giving him a history lesson!’

  ‘She’s right.’

  Froggy stopped laughing. ‘So, what should we do now?’ he asked.

  ‘First you must prove it wasn’t Joseph who died!’ Tad crumpled the piece of newspaper and flung it over his shoulder. The wind caught it, sent it tumbling towards the edge.

  ‘Catch it, Cassie!’ Froggy lunged forward, crashing into Cassie as the paper whipped past his grasping fingers and spun out across the sea. ‘Sorry.’ He gave Tad a dirty look as he helped Cassie up. ‘I just hope I’ll be able to remember what it said. I don’t know where to start trying to prove anything about your family.’

  Tad considered for a moment. ‘Can you break into the Quarantine Station?’ he asked. ‘There might be some records there that you can check.’

  Froggy hesitated.

  ‘Why don’t you go to the Quarantine Station and have a look at the records over there?’ Cassie brushed dirt and dry grass from her shorts.

  ‘Are we allowed in?’ Froggy turned to her.

  ‘Yes. They run regular tours.’

  ‘You can get into the Quarantine Station? Just like that?’ Tad asked curiously. ‘What if you get the smallpox, or typhoid, or the plague or something?’

  Froggy laughed. ‘We don’t have that sort of thing any more. We have vaccinations and antibiotics and proper hygiene and things now.’

  ‘No plagues at all?’ Tad looked at him in wonder.

  Froggy thought of AIDS, of cancer, of deaths from smoking, alcohol and other drug abuse. ‘Well, not those sorts of ones,’ he said hastily. He turned to Cassie. ‘When do the tours go?’ he asked.

  ‘I’ve got a friend whose mum works for National Parks.’ She hesitated, not sure whether or not Froggy was having her on. ‘I’ll find out and let you know,’ she said at last.

  ‘Can you come with us, Tad?’ It was only after he’d asked the question that Froggy realised how ridiculous it must sound.

  ‘I’ll do my best,’ said Tad. ‘I’ve often tried to get back there, to see what happened to Joseph. But I’ve never been able to go anywhere except here.’

  ‘Have you ever talked to anyone else?’

  ‘I tried to, once. A man came here. He looked like us but he was a lot older. I’m sure he saw me but he ignored me. And he never came back. So it must all work through you, Froggy. It has to! I’m just not sure what I’m supposed
to do, that’s all. Unless it’s the …’ Tad broke off abruptly.

  ‘The what?’

  Tad ignored him. ‘Maybe I’ll see you at the Quarantine Station,’ he said, adding urgently: ‘If I can’t get there, you’ll just have to find out as much as you can, especially about Joseph. How Joseph …’

  Froggy saw his face contract, his mouth pull down in a thin line of pain. He reached out to comfort Tad, watched Tad’s face waver like a rippling image in water before it faded, leaving Froggy clutching at air.

  ‘Come back!’ he called.

  But Tad remained hidden, mourning his brother in private.

  Cassie and Froggy walked back to the beach in silence. Froggy didn’t know what to say, while Cassie tried to work out whether or not Froggy was trying to make a fool of her. It was only after the cars were packed up and the parents were saying goodbye that Froggy plucked up enough courage to talk to her.

  ‘Please don’t say anything about Tad.’ He glanced over his shoulder to make sure the adults weren’t close enough to hear.

  ‘I won’t.’ She considered a moment. ‘Do you really want me to find out about the Quarantine Station?’

  ‘Of course!’ Froggy looked surprised. ‘But that’s all. You don’t have to do anything else after this, unless you want to.’

  Cassie thought about it. She almost believed in Tad. Almost.

  ‘We’ll see what happens next,’ she said.

  10

  Almost the first person Froggy noticed as he came through the school gates on Monday morning was Jake. Jake had his hands in his pockets as he strode along, whistling tunelessly, looking straight ahead, acknowledging no-one. He reminded Froggy of a kid whistling in the dark to keep up his courage. Froggy grinned to himself. Just a little longer, he thought, following at a safe distance as Jake entered the school building and walked along the passage to the cloakroom.

  ‘G’day, Jake. How’re ya going, mate?’ The speaker was Brett Mackay, not one of Jake’s usual crowd. Froggy wondered where Jake’s mates were.

  ‘Ugh,’ Jake grunted. He dropped his bag onto the bench and collapsed beside it. Froggy noticed his drained face and red-rimmed eyes. He shrank out of Jake’s line of vision and listened.

  ‘Where’s Tony? And Mick?’ Obviously Brett was as curious as Froggy.

  ‘Uh … they’re …’ Jake was distracted, hardly paying attention.

  ‘Too chicken to come to school?’

  ‘What d’ya mean?’ Jake’s head snapped up with a jerk. He looked suddenly terrified.

  ‘Maths test. Big one today, remember?’

  ‘Oh yeah, right.’ Jake slumped back, relieved.

  ‘So, where are they?’ Brett persisted.

  ‘They’re uh … they’re sick. They’ve got … Jesus Christ!’ Jake caught sight of Froggy and leapt to his feet, his face turning dead white. He swayed slightly and stared.

  Froggy came forward. ‘G’day Jake. How’re ya going, mate?’

  Jake’s hand reached for the lockers to steady himself.

  ‘God, Jake, you look like you’ve seen a ghost or something,’ Brett laughed.

  Froggy knew how it felt.

  ‘I … er, I …’ Jake ran a trembling hand through his hair.

  ‘Thought I was dead. I know.’ But Froggy found that he couldn’t blurt out the details of his humiliation in front of Brett.

  Brett was staring in bewilderment at both of them. ‘What are you guys on about?’ he asked.

  Froggy shrugged. ‘Nothing much,’ he said and clapped a hand lightly on Jake’s shoulder before moving down to his own locker.

  He could sense Jake’s eyes boring a hole in his back as he sorted out the books he needed. But they didn’t get a chance to talk until recess when, to Froggy’s surprise, Jake came over and sat down beside him on the bench under a scraggy old eucalypt.

  ‘Thanks,’ he muttered, not looking at Froggy. ‘Thanks for not telling anyone. Jeez, Froggy, we thought you’d drowned! We thought we’d killed you!’

  ‘You didn’t tell anyone, then?’

  Jake shuffled his feet uncomfortably among the dry leaves under the bench. He didn’t answer.

  ‘Is that why Tony and Mick haven’t come to school?’

  ‘No, er …’ Jake kept his head bent, concentrating on tracing patterns in the sand with his sneaker.

  ‘Yes, it is! You thought the news would be all around the school, didn’t you? Weren’t you going to tell anyone where to look for me? Anyone at all?’

  ‘Only if I was asked,’ muttered Jake. ‘We knew you couldn’t swim, you see. Guess … guess you must be better at it than we thought.’

  ‘Guess I must be.’ Froggy was damned if he was going to tell Jake how a ghost had saved his life.

  He grinned at Jake. ‘You’d better go and ring Mick and Tony. Tell them it’s safe to come back to school.’

  Jake flushed a dark red but didn’t say anything.

  ‘At least you came.’ Froggy thought Jake deserved some credit for that.

  Jake flashed him a quick glance. ‘Yeah. Well, thanks for not telling,’ he said again.

  The two boys stared at each other, not quite sure how they should leave it. Unexpectedly, Jake stuck out his hand. ‘You’ve got more guts than I thought,’ he said.

  ‘So have you,’ acknowledged Froggy, and they shook hands on it.

  Froggy looked around for Cassie at lunchtime. She’d ignored him in class and now he saw her with her friends, eating lunch under a tree, so busy talking and laughing they didn’t notice him or anyone else. He sighed, a little sorry that Cassie wasn’t more friendly after their day together.

  He shrugged. He had nothing to say to her anyway. It was better this way. But it meant he’d have to find out about the Quarantine Station himself. He wondered how to go about it.

  Cassie’s phone call came late in the afternoon, just after Froggy had let himself into the house.

  ‘The next tour’s on Wednesday,’ she told him. ‘You have to get a bus from Manly wharf and a guide’ll meet you at the gate.’ Her voice was cool. She was still wary.

  ‘Thanks, Cassie.’ Froggy wondered if he should invite her to come along. Would she want to go? She’d ignored him all day, but she’d still found out the information he wanted.

  ‘Does this mean you believe in Tad?’ Better not ask her to come along until he knew that much at least, he decided.

  ‘No!’ There was a brief silence. ‘I mean, I’m not sure.’ Cassie thought for a moment longer. ‘I kind of hope it’s true. It would be interesting,’ she admitted.

  ‘It is true!’ Froggy made up his mind. ‘Do you want to come to the Quarantine Station with me? The records’ll help prove what Tad said about his family. At least I hope so.’

  This time the silence stretched for so long, Froggy thought he’d blown it.

  ‘I guess I could,’ Cassie agreed at last. ‘We went there last year, in junior school, on a school excursion. So I sort of know my way around … sort of.’

  ‘That’s great! Thanks Cassie!’ Froggy wondered if he’d sounded too enthusiastic, but decided he didn’t care.

  ‘Tad might be there,’ he warned.

  ‘I hope he is!’ There was a short pause. ‘We’ll have to leave as soon as the bell goes. The bus leaves from Manly wharf just after one.’

  ‘One?’ Froggy was dismayed. ‘You mean we have to wag school?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Cassie, and giggled.

  Getting out of school at lunch break was easy. Getting on the bus was harder.

  ‘Shouldn’t you kids be at school?’ The bus driver scowled at them as they held out their money for the fare.

  ‘School project,’ said Cassie, and Froggy nodded seriously, praying that the driver wouldn’t kick them off the bus.

  He looked them over, then held out his hand for their money. ‘Guess if you were wagging school, you’d go some place more fun than this,’ he muttered.

  They were silent as the bus took them up the winding route tha
t led to the Quarantine Station. Cassie looked out at the view, but Froggy was nervous, wondering what they would find up there. People got on and got off, but there was still quite a crowd left on the bus as it was checked through the entry gate.

  They were met by a woman wearing an Akubra hat and the brown uniform of a National Parks officer. Orange emblems on her sleeves confirmed her employment, and so did her tone of authority as she started the guided tour. ‘Please all stay together.’ She looked particularly hard at Froggy and Cassie, who smiled innocently as they set off behind the group.

  ‘Can you see him?’ Cassie hissed.

  ‘No.’ Froggy had been turning circles as he walked along, trying to spot the elusive Tad. He remembered how Tad had faded in front of him. Had Tad gone forever? He had seemed so keen to go away for good, Froggy hoped that he’d made it. Yet there was a sense of unfinished business. It would be better if Tad came back.

  Froggy wasn’t paying much attention to the guide, but Cassie was. ‘These buildings were all put up after Tad’s time here,’ she whispered. ‘Maybe you’ll see him when we get to the old part.’

  Froggy hoped so.

  They followed the guide through the gate to the hospital enclosure and into a small stuffy room with its single peephole where sulphur was pumped to fumigate incoming patients. They saw the lysol showers and the autoclave where clothes and household goods were steamed (and often ruined) in an effort to destroy any traces of disease.

  ‘Is this the old part yet?’ Froggy whispered.

  ‘No. These building came later, but they’re on the same site as the original buildings.’

  Froggy looked around with new interest, but he could see nothing.

  The path wound its way down to the wharf. A wire fence still barred public access from the beach to the Quarantine Station. People were picnicking on the beach, their boats at anchor, bobbing in the peaceful swell.