The Echo Of Youth

Chapter Six

November 29th 1914
Dear Art,
How are you little mate?
I do hope everything is going well and that Mum and Dad aren't missing us too much. I hope that Dusty is behaving himself and that Boots and Chops aren't barking all night long.
We certainly are missing a lot of things but have fully accommodated to army life, even if all we've done is sail.

Yesterday Ned and I were up on the top deck, hitting a cricket ball around with a few of our new found mates when we saw some very unusual creatures leaping out of the water. Some bloke called them dolphins, I'm telling you Art they were the most majestic creatures I have ever come across. Pure beauty.

Anyway, how's cricket been going? We've all been trying to play as much as we can without smashing all the windows on the top deck. We must have lost all the cricket balls on the ship except mine, which is not coming out of my kit anytime soon.

Shouldn't be too long and we'll be in Egypt.
Has Elsie left yet?
I'd want to hope so.
Ned and Tom are both well, as am I. I'm struggling with seasickness a bit but slowly getting over that.
Love to all in Kununurra,
Clancy.
-
"Quick through us the bucket!" I yell out, as the clock ticks closer to the middle of the night. Ned lifts the bucket up from the floor and the contents of my stomach falls into the bottomless pit the bucket seems to be.
"We've been sailing for almost six weeks, you'd think you'd be used to it by now you poor bugger." Ned sighs, climbing up onto the top bunk with me.
I groan and lean my back against the wall. Beads of perspiration trickle into my eyes and my hands shake.
"It's worse at night time too, I'm practically fine during the day." I put my hands behind my head.
"Well, Egypt is just around the corner, you'll be on dry land before you know it." Ned reassures.
Three knocks echo through our room.
"Tom get the door." Ned orders, Tom groans this time and hauls his 3 and a half feet long legs towards the door.
He opens it and reveals a short Australian soldier. He looks no older than 17 and no taller than 5'4.
"G'day, um my name's Private Jack Salter, sorry to disturb you at this ungodly hour but I can't help but hear how sick someone is in here." He studies the room for a moment.
"Yes that'd be me." I chime in, holding up the bucket.
"I have a remedy as such," he begins, we beckon him in. "Peppermint sweets." Jack reveals two lollies wrapped perfectly in paper.
The three of us stare.
In disbelief mostly.
"Please just give it a crack, if it helps it helps, but I've had a pretty good run so far." Jack says.
I take the sweet and put it on my tongue, the sweet flavour filling my mouth. I feel my stomach begin to settle and my body temperature to cool.
"What in the world?" I state, confused out of my mind.
"Good aye?" Jack grins.
"Got anymore of those?" I ask.
"You can have the whole tin, eat one every night before you go to sleep and you'll be right till morning." Jack explains handing me the tin full of peppermints.
"Cheers mate, I can't believe it." I chuckle.
"All good cobber, good luck with it all." Jack says.
"Yeah same to you." I shake his hand and he leaves quietly.
"Well I'll be." Ned states, taking a sweet for himself.
Tom is already dead to the world.
Out like a light.

Ned and I lie on the top bunk and stare up at the dark ceiling. Patterns form in front of our eyes and they dance along the ceiling as the ship sways from side to side.
"I'm going to star hallucinating if I keep watching this." I squeeze my eyes shut.
"Me too." Ned rubs his face with his hands.
We stay quiet for a minute, waiting for sleep to come.
It doesn't.
Not unusual.
"Want to go on the top deck?" I ask turning my head to Ned.
His eyes light up.

We scuttle down from the bunk and sneak down the passage way to the stairway that leads to the top deck.
Thunder cracks.
Lightening strikes.
Adrenaline pulses.
"This is living." I stand in awe at the terrifyingly captivating storm in front of us.
"Bloody unbelievable." Ned puts his arm around me neck.
"Glad I'm doing this with you mate, wouldn't want to do it with anyone else!" He says and I grin.
"I didn't think you'd come." I admit.
"What?"
"I genuinely believed you wouldn't sign up."
"Dead set?" Ned cocks one eyebrow.
"Yes, you are so set on getting married, I thought you'd stay." I focus back on the storm.
Ned is quiet.
He's thinking.
I can see his mind whirling.
"You are the one person on this planet that knows more about me than myself. I'm really struggling with the fact I'll have to wake up without you there annoying me. Instead I'll wake up to the most beautiful woman I know, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to that but I'm not looking forward to not having a hundred jobs to do before 10 o'clock. I'm going to miss our childhood." Ned explains.
"Ned, we're going to war, what has our childhood got to do with anything?" I ask.
"Because this war is the last of our childhood. This is the last time we'll be young and excited and ready to conquer the world." Ned seems sad. Like he's loosing control of everything.
"Don't say that, we've got our whole lives ahead of us, that's more than enough time to conquer the world." I say rather poetically.
He grins at me and ruffles my hair.
"I love ya mate." He mutters affectionately.
"I love you too." I reply.
-
•TELEGRAM•
Dear Elsie,
Peppermint sweet help with seasickness.
You can thank me later.
Love always,
Clancy.