Read Online Memories of You by Benita Brown - Free Book Online Page A

about you. And you still haven’t told me which one you are.’
    Joe grinned. ‘You’ll work it out.’
    â€˜You mean there’s a way to tell the difference?’
    â€˜Yep, but if you figure it out don’t let on to anyone else, OK?’
    Ginger looked at him searchingly for a moment and then returned his grin. ‘OK.’
    â€˜Now go back to bed and let me sleep. I’m fair whacked.’
    Keeping his torch pointed down at the floor, Ginger left without further comment and made his way across the dormitory to the bed opposite Joe’s. Joe heard the bedsprings creak and a rustle of bedclothes. Then all was silent. He lay back and tried to sleep but the talk with Ginger had unsettled him.
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    When they had arrived at Haven House Mr Jenkins had taken them straight to the headmaster’s study. After he had knocked and received the summons to enter he had ushered them into a book-lined room with a large desk dominating the floor space. A thin scarecrow of a man stood warming his backside at the fire. He looked at them over the top of half-moon spectacles perched near the end of his nose.
    â€˜Ah, yes, the Norton boys,’ Mr Ridley said, ‘Joseph and Daniel.’ He paused as if trying to remember what he should say next. ‘Um – I hope you will be happy here. If you work hard and follow the rules there is no reason why you should not be.’ And then the air of geniality gave way to stern admonition. ‘But if you are disobedient and cause trouble of any kind you will be dealt with accordingly.’
    Joe had not been sure exactly what that meant but he didn’t think it would be pleasant.
    Mr Ridley cleared his throat. ‘But I’m – ah – sure that any boys recommended by Mr Partington will fit in here admirably.’ After bestowing a vague smile the headmaster seemed to lose track of things again. ‘Now then, Mr Jenkins, what shall we do with them? Have they missed supper?’
    â€˜No, sir, the boys are just going in.’
    â€˜Well – ah – that’s good.’
    Mr Ridley walked over to his desk looking relieved that everything was settled, and Mr Jenkins shepherded them out and shut the door behind them. ‘I’ll take you up to your dormitory first,’ he said. ‘Just leave your bundles on your beds. You can stow your things in your lockers later.’
    They hadn’t had much time to take in the long, high-ceilinged room and the narrow, iron-framed beds before Mr Jenkins hurried them down to the dining room, found places for them at one of the long tables, introduced them perfunctorily – ‘Joseph and Daniel Norton’ – then abandoned them. The boys already seated there looked at them curiously. Joe heard someone mutter, ‘Peas in a pod’, but no one spoke to them until a red-haired lad with a freckled face pushed a plate of bread and butter across the table towards them.
    â€˜Help yourselves,’ he said. ‘It’s butter, not marge. You can have as much as you want. You can even ask for more up at the hatch there, but there’s only one piece of cake each.’
    Despite the sandwiches they had eaten on the train, both Joe and Danny had healthy appetites and they began to eat thick slices of bread and butter while a woman in a white overall came round the table with a large enamel jug and filled everyone’s beaker with warm milk.
    â€˜Ugh,’ the ginger-top said. ‘I hate warm milk.’
    â€˜You don’t know how lucky you are,’ the woman retorted. ‘Think of all those poor starving children in China.’
    â€˜I do think about them,’ he replied. ‘I’ve thought and thought but I still don’t know how me drinking warm milk can help them.’
    The lads each side of him giggled and the woman shook her head and moved on. No one spoke very much and if they did they kept their voices down. A young man in a shabby