A Big Red India Rubber Ball, For Christmas

It was a brown day. The trees were brown, the fallen leaves were, of
course, brown;
and even the river was a dirty mud coloured brown, as brown as the
towpath running
beside it. Even old Josh`s houseboat was a dirty brown colour, although
on a normal
day it would look more green with an outline here and there in a
cheerful red.

Inside the houseboat Josh put some more wood on his stove and put the
kettle on.
Crumpets, that`s what he would have for his tea! And afterwards as the
winter light
faded he would set up his oil lamps and finish off the last of the
ships in bottles
for the "Cutty Sark" order.

He looked round at his saloon cum workshop. As usual it shone with the
result of
years of care, with the photos of his ships all along one "wall" , and
the photos of
his family, wife deceased and son and daughter long emigrated, on a
shelf of their
own.

His daughter`s Christmas card from Australia had arrived that morning
and he noticed
that she continued to put on the envelope "Captain" - although he had
retired from
his last ship, an oil tanker, many years ago.

As got the tea things ready he found himself singing, to his own tune,
a poem from
his childhood:

"Oh! Father Christmas, if you love me at all,

Bring me a big red India rubber ball!"

His first crumpet was browning when he felt the boat lurch as someone
came aboard.
This was strange - he had very few friends and the only person who
regularly visited
him was the District Nurse who popped in occasionally to see if he was
all right,
which he always was. But she came in the morning not when it was
darkening.

It wasn`t her, it was a strange girl.

The hatch door swung open and she came in and swung it shut rather
hard. She was
about fourteen or fifteen he would have said, with dark hair and a face
that would
have been pretty if it wasn`t smeared with mud and weed. She stood for
a moment and
dripped on his deck, pouring water from her school blazer and skirt.
Josh privately
thought that she looked a bit like a mermaid caught on shore.

He made no comment. Then he pointed forward.

He remarked, "There`s a bedroom in there. You will see some clean
towels, and there
is a jersey and jeans lying around somewhere, quite clean both of them.
There is
also a dressing gown if you still feel cold. When you are feeling dry
and a bit
warmer come in here and there will be some tea and a crumpet for
you."

The girl stared at him for a moment and then shot through the door
without speaking.
Josh continued with his crumpets. He had done four and laid out two tea
places when
she returned.

She looked slightly odd with the tartan dressing gown covering her grey
jersey and
jeans. She had cleaned off her face and her dark hair which was long
showed up its
prettiness. She came forward carefully in bare feet.

Josh waved her into a chair and handed her two crumpets ready
buttered.

"Milk? Sugar?" he asked.

"Milk but no sugar," she had a soft rather gentle voice. "Er - thank
you very much,"
she added and smiled at him. "I - er - your river is .." She ran out of
words.

"Pretty mucky at this time of year," he muttered. He waited for her to
finish her
crumpets before speaking again.

Eventually, "How come you to be taking a dip in this part of the
river?" he asked.

"I was going down the towpath, taking a short cut home from school. I
often do, I
rather like the wood and the birds and I love passing your boat. Then I
heard
someone coming - I knew from the heavy crashing footsteps who it was
and I started
running. You see," she began to talk rapidly as the memory surged up in
her, "It was
this boy - I didn`t know he knew this way I came home sometimes - well,
shall we say
I didn`t want to meet him .."

"Mm. I see."

"I was trying to duck out of the way and I slipped. That was just as
well because I
saw him rushing past . I . I waited in the shallow bit until he had
gone and then ."
She indicated herself in her "new" togs. "I do thank you very much sir,
honestly."

"There are no phones here. Won`t your mum be worrying?"

"No. She`ll still be at work. I`ve got my own key. If my clothes are
dry I can leave
at about six, maybe six thirty. If that`s all right with you." She
added, for no
real reason, "To-day is the last day of term."

Yes, thought Josh. Christmas holidays, I should have remembered. But
all he said
was. "Oh, I see. And what is your name my dear." He hadn`t called
anyone his dear
for he didn`t know for how long.

She stood up and put out her hand. "Melinda Pearson," she said, and
smiled.

He took her hand and shook it. "Of course wait here. You can`t go out
into the world
like that!"

While they waited he learned about her, and had he known it revealed a
good deal
about himself. He found that she was a single-parent-only-child, and
that she was
taking ten G.C.S.E.s (whatever they were) and that she enjoyed cooking
and wanted to
be a nurse in time.

In return he offered up a number of tales about his life at sea, and
showed her the
ships in bottles which kept him both happy and brought in a little
extra money. She
seemed to like the sea and told him that her Father had been a Chief
Signalman on
one of the ships which went down in the Falklands. He had not gone down
with it but
since that time he had been weakened and died when she was a year
old.

"So I never really knew him," Her face showed that this mattered to
her.

Eventually, "Right," said Josh. "See if these clothes are dry."

He saw her back to the main road and told her not to use the short cut
again. Tow
paths could be difficult he said, and he would not always be there to
dry her
things. He waved her away and she waved back.

When he got back he found that he was feeling lonely for the first time
since ,,,
since . he couldn`t remember when. His cabin still seemed full of
Melinda`s
prescience.

"Oh well," he told himself, "a little episode before I get old." (He
was seventy
nine) and carried on with pulling up the masts of his little
clipper.

That night he kept on waking, which was unusual for him, and he had a
series of
weird dreams. Mostly they were about his experiences at sea, he had
twice been
torpedoed in the war. One dream was about his long trip in a lifeboat.
Melinda was
on board and he kept talking to her in case she went to sleep, then,
suddenly she
was gone.

This time he woke and felt himself sweating, and made himself some tea
wearing his
tartan dressing gown. He remembered his own daughter at fifteen, fair
and rather
studious. She was now lecturing in Sydney.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The next morning he packed up the clipper and then put together the
parcel of eight
to send off. As usual he left his door unlocked since he believed that
there was
nothing worth stealing in his boat.

He then spent a little time buying his food for the Christmas holidays.
At one time
he found himself in a big store and was vaguely looking for something
for Melinda,
but then he realised that she had not given him her address.

That should have settled it but his mind was thinking about her when he
returned to
the boat.

Curious! There was a light on inside and the hatchway door was open.
Not only that but a delicious smell of pork was floating out. Josh
hurried in to see who was using his galley.

He saw that it was Melinda She gave him a dazzling smile as he came in.
She was
looking very smart with a yellow pullover which contrasted beautifully
with her red
skirt. She was peeling potatoes.

"Lay up will you. I won`t be long with your lunch. Mum said she hoped
and I hope so
too that you aren`t a veggie; and she said that I may have a glass of
white wine
with you as it is almost Christmas..

Stunned he began to lay up with mats for the first time in years and he
even put out
a little silver ship that his Company had given him when he retired
from the sea.

Melinda meanwhile kept up a steady chatter.

"This was my idea to thank you for last night. My mum provided the
necessary! I
dreamed about you last night. That story of yours about the open boat -
I was there!"

"I -" he began, but decided to go no further.

During the meal they continued to get to know each other, and she told
him where she
lived, not very far away as he had guessed

"And mum says, would you like to come to us on Christmas Day. There
won`t be anyone
else. We`d be very glad to have you." She gave him her address, he knew
the
street.

"I`d be charmed," he replied, "I will come along after the morning
service - about
twelve."

Melinda gave him another enormous smile, while in his mind he debated
what he should
bring them. Then she insisted on doing the washing up, though she let
him dry.

When they came outside afterwards the sun had come out from behind the
clouds and
colour had spread around, even the river looked silver rather than
dirty brown.

Again he took her to the road and as she left him she gave him a quick
peck on the
cheek. When he got back on board he got out his modelling tools and two
boats half
finished and started to work on them. And in his head he listened to
the lines -

"Oh Father Christmas my blessings on you fall,

For bringing him a great big India rubber ball!"