December 24, 2005

A Christmas story written for St Matthew-in-the-City by Joy Cowley.

Alright, I said I would tell you about the fish. Well summer was early that year and there was no going to town on Christmas Eve because of the hay, you see. Mum was driving the tractor, Dad was on the trailer, and us five kids were helping Uncle Pete load.

Hard work in the heat. Bales like big Weetbix tied with green twine. We had tough hands but the string still cut, and there were thistles to be dug out of fingers. Boy, were we pleased to see Uncle Pete’s wife Aunty Roimata bouncing across the paddocks on her motorbike. It was a BSA Bantam with a spring clip on the carrier, and a box with two flagons of lemon cordial and some sandwiches, and I forget what else. (No, not the fish – I’ll come to that!)

So we all sat in the Macracarpa shade, us kids still moaning about town. It was the shopping, you see – we hadn’t bought anything for Mum and Dad. The tree was up in the bay window. We’d made our own decorations – ping pong balls painted with glitter, silver bells from milk bottle tops, crepe paper streamers … but what about the presents?? It was all right for our parents – they’d got stuff for us kids weeks before. We’d seen the parcels at the back of the garage. It was them who were going to miss out.

I said we should all drive into town when the hay was finished, but Mum said we’d be too tired. Forget it, said Dad – getting the hay in the barn is the best present you could give us. And Uncle Pete and Aunty Roi said Yeah, yeah, too right! But they didn’t understand how us kids felt. You couldn’t put hay under the tree with a card, Merry Xmas Mum and Dad. And they were spot on though about us being tired. We didn’t get the last bales in until dark, and by then we were just about asleep on our feet. If I remember rightly I didn’t even get into my pyjamas. Oh, the fish! – No, I haven’t forgotten about the fish. We’re coming to that.

I guess we woke up early – kids always do, don’t they. Our toys were by the tree and they were corker. Mum and Dad had been around the auction mart, bought second-hand stuff and cleaned it up. I got a tool kit with real tools and a pump-action oil can. The others had a bike, a scooter, cricket set and a music box. Mum got some of us to help her pod the peas. My sisters sang –

While shepherds washed their socks by night
all seated on the ground
a cake of Lifebuoy soap came down
and soapsuds splashed around.

Mum told them off but she really wasn’t mad. It was when she opened the meat safe that she got upset. No fridge in those days, you see, and with the hot weather the leg of lamb for Christmas dinner was as high as a kite. It smelled like it had been lying in the paddock for three weeks. Poor Mum!! She threw the stinking meat out to the dogs and said, That’s it, that’s it – I give up! Dad put his arm around her. He’d kill another sheep, he said. He’d shoot a couple of ducks. We could have dinner later. But Mum wouldn’t cheer up.

And while they were talking there was a knock on the back door. I went out, and there in the porch was this little kid with this sugar sack in his arms. Honest, he could hardly hold it. His skinny brown legs were bowed with the weight, and I waited for him to say something and he didn’t. We just looked at each other, and then he pushed the sack at me – For your Mum and Dad, he said. And I tell you, I nearly dropped it. There was something inside - heavy, kind of floppy, the kid nearly dropped it. He walked backwards across the veranda, then turned and ran over the paddocks. I put the sack down and opened it. Yes, it was the fish – a huge thing, blue and silver, still wet and smelling of the sea.

Well, you should have seen my mother, and Dad too – they couldn’t believe it. Dad thought the boy was someone staying with Pete and Roimata, and he phoned to thank them, and Uncle Pete said he didn’t know anything about it. Come off it Man, he said. You think if I got a fish like that I would give it away?!

So we never found out who the kid was, or where the big fish came from. Like I said, it was fresh caught – and the sea was more than 30 miles away. All I know is we had a 14 pound snapper with peas and new potatoes from the garden, and it was the best Christmas dinner I ever tasted.