Do You Dare? Jimmy's War by Sherryl Clark

Author:Sherryl Clark
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781743482544
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia
Published: 2015-01-06T16:00:00+00:00

When they met the next day, Frank wasn’t upset with him at all, and said he wouldn’t go either. ‘But if it was Fitzroy playing, you couldn’t have kept me away.’

‘Fitzroy? Fancy barracking for a useless team like that!’ Jimmy laughed, knowing Frank wouldn’t take offence. He’d taken plenty of teasing from Frank over his support for Footscray, who weren’t even in the League. ‘Maybe we can watch Fitzroy play next week.’

‘You’re on,’ Frank said. ‘Let’s go and buy some licorice and then find the boys.’

Sure enough, two of Frank’s mates, Walter and Freddie, were out in the paddock with a footy. The four of them kicked it around for a bit, but without enough boys for a game they soon grew bored.

‘I know where there’s an apple tree hanging over the back lane,’ Walter said. ‘I reckon they’re fair game.’

They followed him through the back streets and into the laneway, but the tree had already been stripped bare. The boys trudged along and around the corner, and found Old Cobbley’s horse and cart waiting patiently in the street.

‘Let’s play a trick on him,’ Freddie said.

‘He’s delivering vegetables,’ Jimmy said. ‘He’ll be out any minute.’

‘Nah,’ Frank said. ‘He lives here. He’s having lunch before he finishes his deliveries. If we’re quick . . . ’ He scooted around to the front of the horse and started unbuckling the harness. ‘Quick, give me a hand.’

Freddie ran around the other side and did the same, and then, while Jimmy held the cart shafts, Walter led the horse through the gate into the front garden. Frank and Jimmy quickly fed the shafts through the fence pickets, and Walter tied them back on the horse. In a few minutes, there stood the horse on one side of the fence and the cart on the other, all harnessed up again.

The boys ran off and hid around the corner, poking each other and snorting with laughter. Not long after, Old Mr Cobbley came out of his house and exploded. ‘What nasty little rats did this?’ he roared. ‘If I get a hold of you, you’ll wish you’d never been born!’

The boys were laughing so hard now they could barely stand, and they had to stagger off down the street before their merriment gave them away.

‘Oh my golly gosh,’ Frank said, holding his stomach. ‘That was a classic.’

‘It’s past two o’clock,’ Walter said. ‘What about going to the pictures this afternoon?’

‘Let’s see what’s on first,’ Frank said. They wandered up the main street and across the railway line, then turned right to the St George theatre. The films showing had been written up on a blackboard.

‘Oh, it’s Charlie Chaplin,’ Frank said. ‘At least he’s funny, not like that Mary Pickford, the soppy “sweetheart”.’ He wrapped his arms around himself and mimed someone giving big smooching kisses. ‘Mmm, oooh, you’re so handsome, Frederick.’

Freddie’s face turned bright red and he wrestled Frank to the ground. The boys cheered and when Freddie let Frank up, he said, ‘Why can’t they show a film about the war? So we can see what adventures those soldiers are having.

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