Stories from the Ropewalks…

–The Conclusion

Galousha

Dear Dad,

     Somedays (like today) people knock at nannys, but I know I must not answer. Mum says no news is good news, but I always look out from the bedroom window in case it’s you. I don’t move the curtains though, I just move up close to the crack where they join and stay dead still. Even if the person is looking up at the window, they wont see me if I just stay dead dead still.

     Me and Nory are too scared to leave nanny’s bedroom at night and nannys toilet is in the yard so we pee in bottles and pans from the kitchen and we always sleep with the lights on. Last night I woke up dry and drank some of Nory’s strawberry Yazoo but he had peed in the bottle. Can you die from pee poisining Dad?

***

Dad,

Today we’ve been exploring Nanny's house. There is black bags full of papers and more dead birds in the other rooms. The living room is where she prayed so we don’t go in there, but the birds do. Her stuffed birds are everywhere, pinned to the walls, on the shelves and in glass bottles. Their beedy eyes follow us everywhere. We found black and white pictures of nanny in the olden days dressed as a white lady with a hat on. She looked young and pretty out of her vail veil, a little bit sad though.

     To save money I’ve been sending Nory out early in the morning to take milk from next doorses. I stand on the stool that I use to lock the front door at night and wait for him to return. I keep the door on the latch so he can get back in quickly. When I’m stood on the stool I can watch him too. I watch him walking away through the spy-hole. He looks so little through the spy-hole it makes me sad I don’t look after him better. I wonder if that’s what we look like to nanny’s birds?

When he went out to get the milk today it was like someone was in the house with me, watching me. First I thought you had found us, but then no. I was scared to stay put, but scared to go out incase Nory had been caught. So I just froze, when I finaly got the guts to turn around, I think I saw that really, really tall black man getting into the coal cupboard under the stairs. I don't think he saw me though

***

Dear Dad,

     I wish mum had let us wait for her at home cos I don’t like it here much. The £20.00 mum left us is nearly gone. Today I beat Nory for not tidying up nanny’s room. The pee smells bad and we have started to pooh in pans cos we are both too scared to go to the toilet at night because we have to go past the coal cupboard under the stairs to get to the yard. When I beat him, he cried for you. He kept saying I want my daddy. I told him for six and a half he was very imature and I would tell mummy how naughty he has been. But I wouldn’t really, I know I must not tell tales.

     When John was nakid naked on mum’s private parts. He kept wispering whispering to her that he was on top of the world. Where is the top of the world? If I go there will I be able to see where you are? Maybe mum will take us there one day.

***

Dear Dad,

Nory is asleep. I am on my own. I remember now.

     When Nanny was alive she said that because she hated it so much in this country, a galousha (black man) had followed her here all the way to England, all the way from Libia Libya. She said that he lived in the coal store under the stairs. She told mum that every night as she walked past the cupboard on her way to bed, the galousha would climb out and follow her up the stairs and to her bedroom door. She said she never ever looked back but one time she saw his reflection in the handle of her bedroom door. She said he was the tallest man she had ever seen and he was blacker than coal but worst of all he didn’t have no feet. She said he’d follow her to the top of the stairs and then stand all night long facing her bedroom door watching over her and then by morning time, he’d be gone.

     He scares me. Do you think if I stay dead dead still he will go away. I think he is stood at the bedroom door right now dad

***

Dad,

     Do you hate me? Is it because of John? Cos if it is I will stop talking to him. I don’t love him I love you more.

Today I told Nory about the galousha. It made him cry. So I told him I was just teesing tricking him but I don’t think he believed me.

     We don’t have much money left but we are ok cos we’ve still got some sweets and cakes left over and plenty of sugar. Find us dad.

***

Dad,

   When kids at school call us Pakis mum says just tell them we are Arabs. But is it don't make much difference. What do you think? You're white so we must be white too?

     Men came knocking at the front door today and they put another note through the door saying DISCONNECTION NOTICE in big red letters. Now nothing works, we can’t sleep with the lights on any more and in the dark it sounds as though the house is full with other people. I can hear someone going up and down the stairs and kicking around in the yard and sometimes throwing stones up at the window too. Me and Nory go under the blankets and stay dead still till it stops or we sleep. It’s worse after Nory has fallen asleep and I am on my own. I wish I could make it stop.

     Maybe the galousha don’t like us cos we are not blacks, whites or Arabs. I held Nory tight last night and we stayed dead dead still. I listened to every footstep that made its way down Diamond street just incase it was you or mum. But no one ever puts a key in the door. What if no one comes back?

***

Dad,

     The money run out, so me and Nory have been eating Sugar Puffs, sugar, Black Jacks and white chocholate mice. Mum said we must not let anyone know she is in Africa otherwise we will get taken away from her. So tonight we sat in the dark and made shadow puppets on the walls out of the street light and told happy storys with boxes of Sugar Puffs on our laps pretending it’s popcorn.

Nite Dad ☺

***

Dear Dad,

     Me and Nory knew it was coming cos lately I’ve been letting Nory sit in the yard and look out for planes. We try to guess which one mum is on. It stops him from crying. But this day the whole sky was grey clouds and sometimes it lit up as if the electrics was malfuncktioning, and the thunder was like lorries in the sky, it made the house rattle.  By night time it was much worse, rain drops trickled down the windows like the house was crying and the wind made the curtains move all by themselves like someone was behind them. So we made a den out of our blankets and got in it and played eye spy till we was too tired to talk anymore.

     The banging at the bedroom door woke us up or maybe it was the front door and then it seemed as if it was the back door, then I realise it was my heart too. Nory didn’t cry at all, he just stayed dead still his eyes as big as china marbles. We both sat there for a bit with our mouths wide open like goldfish so we could breath heavy without making no noise. But then came the sound of smashing glass.

     Dad, I thought that the best thing to do was to grab Nory and jump out the window into the pool of light in the street. We might be spun in the air like the little slivers of paper or maybe we would float like a floating balloon to the top of the world or maybe we would twirl down to earth like on the hellter-skelter.

     But then I hear voices saying, get it, get it, and I think maybe it wasn’t the galousha trying to get us. Maybe it was someone trying to get the galousha! I says to Nory when I says go, you run as fast as you can and no matter what hold my hand. Dad, we didn’t run at all, we tip toed like little rats that walked on air, following the walls and skirting boards in the dark. We tip toed across the landing and down the stairs, stopping dead every time the light that shone through the glass panes in the living room door came our way. There was lots of noise from the living room and lots of noise from the storm but most of all what I could hear was the banging of my heart in my ear drums.

     We couldn’t get out the front door cos we needed the stool to reach the deadbolt. The wind made the yard door swing open and then bang shut like the door was beating the house, over and over again. I tried to be brave but I’ve never been so scared, it made the skin on my face burn and made my belly ache. It was worse than a beating. We was just about to run out the back door but then something dead strange happened, dad. The coal cupboard door under the stairs slowly opened, just a little bit, just enough to see his eyes looking out from inside it. I thought I wouldn’t be able to get Nory to do it. I felt his nails digging into my hand and his little body pull away as we approached the blackness. I couldn’t see much as we climbed into the darkness, except maybe the white bits of the galousha’s eyes and his long black fingers.

       When we went in the galousha’s den it was like we disappeared from the world. The cupboard door opened wider till I could almost see him clear but then all by itself the door slammed shut and soot fell on our hair and lashes like majical black angel dust (I’m not lying Dad). We crawled over the coal and sat in the furthest corner of the cupboard opposite him. I know the galousha kept sniffing us cos I could feel his breathing on my face but he didn’t hold us. The galousha said nothing, but we whispered to him thank you over and over and over again even after the words stopped coming out.

When I woke up the cupboard door was open and he was gone. He had watched over us all night, just like nanny said he would.

***

Dear Dad,

     Mum and John came home (yippee!), mums not mad cos the house was bergled robbed. She says there was nothing in the house worth stealing anyways. She’s gone really black and John’s gone really pink. She said she rode in a hot air balloon and saw Mount Kenya and the birds at Lake Victoria.

She said she will show us the pictures when she gets them developed. I wanted to ask if she saw the top of the world, but John was in the room and I didn't want him to go any pinker. She says you’re in jail.

     Mum brought us back wooden figarines statues of the Maasai. She said that when the Maasai boys are our age they have to live apart from their parents in homesteads called Manyatta’s. This is how they prove themselves as worriors warriors, they hunt and kill. If they kill a lion they get to have feathers in their head dresses to show how brave they are.

     I don’t really like my present, you can’t do nothing with it. But I like the little white fluffy feathers in the head dress, today I pulled one out and made a wish on it. I clasped the feather in my hands like I was holding a little mouse. I stood on our balcony and looked over our block’s courtyard with all its empty washing lines and metal bins. Then I opened my hands and let it fall over the edge. And you know what, it didn’t drop down to the estate below. It floated up higher and higher till it blended in with the white clouds in the sky and I couldn’t see it anymore.

Maybe it will find you.

Kalif. x.

***

-Cheyelle Omar

COPYRIGHT ©2006 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: CHEYELLE OMAR