Balmoral Hall School - Optima Anni Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

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15 Palm Trees and Flamingoes Jeremiah McLauf awoke that morning with a queer feeling in the pit of his stomach. He felt hot and as he raised his arm to rub his face, he realized that his nightgown was soaked with per- spiration. He wondered if he were sick-if he had neglected his glass of hot milk before he had gone to bed-and then he remembered! All through the night he had tossed and turned with a horrible dream. He, Jeremiah McLauf, had suddenly, and for no reason at all, turned from a meek, quiet, honest and dependable Christian man - a man who was as inoffensive and as pure as anyone could hope to be- into a loud, bois- terous, and eccentric crook! And worst of all, a crook who wore a tie, with-horrors of horrors- a quite indecent girl painted boldly against a back-ground of palm leaves and pink flamingoes! The very thought of it turned his face red with shame! Making an effort to forget such a shock- ing thing, he swung his white legs out of bed, felt for his slippers, and padded to the window to shut it. Somehow, as he looked out on the peace- ful street, with its steady traffic, the stop-lights blinking at regular intervals as always, and the people walking methodically along the sidewalk in a constant flowing stream, this familiar scene made Jeremiah more serene again. Jeremiah McLauf owned his own grocery store. He had bought it after years of careful and methodical saving. His was not what one might call a big store, but it was clean, well-run, with fair prices, and never, never, could one find any items on his shelves that had been there more than a week. Every night after he had locked the door, and pulled the blinds, he care- fully went through his books, tallying his ac- counts, and making careful uniform little checks, fwith nice conservative blue inkj, at the end of every complete list, Today, as he moved quietly around his little store in his white apron, he looked, to the casual passer-by, like a happy and contented man at peace with the world. But the more observant person would notice that as Mr. McLauf was add- ing up a cheque, or cutting slices of ham, his face would water, would though Jeremiah was struggling to put the remem- brance of his fitful night out of his mind, the vision of that tie, with its flamingoes and dis- graceful girl, kept jumping before his eyes, so that he could not help stumbling over his feet, and went around the counters mumbling inco- herently. In fact, he grew so agitated that at noon he shut up the store ten minutes early, and took a quick walk down-town to quiet his nerves. suddenly get very red, his eyes would- and he would have to turn around and be seized by a coughing-spell. For al- He was on the main street, when suddenly, something caught his eye-a flash of pink. He glanced into a store window, but kept on walk- ing. Then something clicked, and he stopped as if someone had suddenly pulled some string which was attached to him. He turned his head, hardly daring to look, afraid that it really was what he thought it was. And it was! The tie- there it was on a tie-rack, knotted into a huge knot-the tie of Jeremiah's dream! His eyes bulged, his hand passed over his damp forehead, and he wondered if it were another dream. But it wasn't, for he could feel the heat from his face as it was pushed, pushed, forced from the very core of his chest. He moved closer to the tie- opposite to it. Another man was staring out at him, a man with wide eyes-a man wearing the gaudy tie! Suddenly the strangers eyes began to glisten, to narrow, his hanging jaw tightened, and his slack mouth straightened into a thin sharp line. There was a look of cunning devilry in his eyes. Frightened, Jeremiah began to move away but the stranger moved too, and the tie dislocated itself from the strangers neck and stood on the rack as before. Then it occurred to Jeremiah Mc- Lauf that the tie had never moved at all, that the stranger was himself! The whole bottom seemed to drop from his stomach, and everything spun around till it all stopped with a crash and he found himself leaning on the side of the building. Trying to straighten himself out, Jeremiah stag- gered back to the store, to start afternoon business. If Jeremiah McLauf's customers thought that he had behaved oddly in the morning, they were now certain that they were dealing with a lunatic. His once orderly writing was illegible as he scribbled out their bills. His fingers kept wander- ing nervously through his once immaculate thin- ning hair, and he kept thinking of that villainous face that had gazed at him mockingly from the store window. He had almost looked like a crook! Why, a crook .rfole things! And a shudder passed through Jeremiah's body-a deep shudder which started at his hairline and ran down his body- and yet-a deep longing began to possess him, a frantic longing, a longing that began in a mere wish, and ended in an intense desire. Again he closed his shop early! When ten o'clock came, it was pitch black, and most respectable people were in their homes. But on the main street, a suspicious-looking char- acter lingered in the doorway of a small shop. He stepped out into the street, looked both ways, and raised his arm, bringing it down swiftly upon the glass window. There was a sound of splinter- ing, cracking glass, then the pound, pound of feet as he raced up the street. He was wearing a very ordinary mackintosh topped by a very ordi- nary hat. He flung the hat into a gutter, tore the

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I4 Where I'd Like to Live Hare been tm1z5fer1'ed to Bella Bella 110117 flfleet we here the fezztla flop Park only fzerefritiey flop Bring children J'f0,U, So there it was. No more warning than that. In two days we left our secure and peaceful home, our friends and our pussy cat to meet my father and to go on to Bella Bella. Five hundred miles up the coast from Vancou- ver Island lies a small, sleepy, Indian fishing vil- lage, Bella Bella meaning beautiful, beautiful. Of all the places in the world it is here that I would most like to live. Here, a new world was opened to me and I have never forgotten it - the world of the violet sea anemone, a world of bound- less fertility and unsurpassed natural beauty. At the beginning of the war Bella Bella was turned into an air force base. A station and land- ing strip were blasted out of solid rock three miles from the town site. In peace time the white population consists of five people. During the war it rose to about two hundred, all service men and their wives and families. We arrived at the most beautiful time of the year, the late spring. The country was a mass of green. You could not take a step without crush- ing some delicate and fragile fern or mountain flower. Our cottage was right on the ocean. Except for a boat which came up from Vancouver every two weeks, we were completely cut off from civiliza- tion. These boats were the life blood of the tiny settlement. Without them we had nothing- no food, no fresh fruit or vegetables, no milk - nothing. I can remember walking three miles along a board walk, muskeg on either side of me, the pungent moist odour of the jungle-like growth filling my nostrils, the hot noonday sun beating down on my bare head, to meet the boat, to pick up mail, news from home and to buy fresh milk. I can remember, after the long trudge home again, crying because the heat of the sun and the three- day boat trip had soured the milk and I had to wait another two weeks for more. How I de- tested that powdered milk! I learned many things way up there. We had to depend upon ourselves for amusement. There were no shows to wander into when nothing else could be found to do, no tennis courts on which to run off excess energy. There was only the moun- tain, the streams and the ocean. Our rubber boots were our best friends. I distinctly remember how thrilled I was with the first pair and how, the first time I wore them, I walked out in the ocean at high tide and felt the cool, salt water ooze over ,al V' , 4 4 l7 l V I 5 K - I l E' 'f l ' I 3 .,l. ,lp- the tops and down in between my toes. They took three days to dry out and I was furious. I remember the sail boat we had and the little red row-boats and how terrified my mother used to be when she'd look out of the window toward the bay and see my four year old brother and his friends paddling out to the sand bar. The ocean fascinated me, It still does. I used to go down to the beach when the tide was out and wander around on the wet sand watching the small, soft-shelled crab scuttle to safety, pick up the abalone shell I'd find strewn in the sand and gather the tiny porcupine-like sea anemone on the end of a pencil. I was happy here, cut off from everything, revel- ling in natures beauty, running like some kind of shy, young animal. I no longer had to wear black patent leather shoes and stiffly-starched cotton dresses. Overalls and my beloved rubber boots were my everyday clothes. The grown ups were too busy with the business of war to bother with us much. Bella Bella was a number one alarm station. Submarines had been sighted just off the coast. Daddy and the rest of the men were always armed. japanese attack was expected at any mo- ment, but Eric and I and the rest of the children were too young to realize the gravity of the situa- tion. This was our childhood. We had no worries, no cares, no fears. Our days were untroubled from beginning to end. Some day I'll go back to Bella Bella. I'm al- most afraid to, however. Maybe it won't be as perfect as I remember it, now that childhood has passed. Sonja Nelson, Grade XI. iid f rim l - M Inf gmmw

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I6 coat from his shoulders, and put a brightly col- ored strip of material around his neck. Now he slowed down, having reached a corner. He knot- ted it into a huge knot, and gazed lovingly down at it. There was a beautiful native girl, artistically hand-painted against a striking background of strong palm trees and exotic pink flamingoes. He smiled, and with a laugh disappeared into the darkness. Nora Anne Richards, Grade XI. Terror Before Triumph I strove to steady my shaking hand as jim directed me in the applying of grease paint to his disappearing features. Widen my nose-here, and he handed me a black tube. Oh brother, what a mess! I mumbled as I attempted to smear the grease on. I shuddered to think that in a few minutes, I would lovingly be stroking that hideous mess when I portrayed my role of Titania, Queen of the Fairies, in love with an Ass. Does he look like an ass? I thought des- perately, as I checked the brown stockings stretched over wire frames. They were rather precariously fastened to the top of his head with adhesive tape. I had a panicky feeling he didn't, which made the butterfiies in my stomach flutter more vigorously than before. I was feeling very uneasy and deserted in the stillness of the vacant dressing room, lost in the depths of the Nelson Civic Auditorium. If only Miss Stevenson, our coach, could have been there to supervise these last hectic minutes! And what was the time! Neither of us had a watch. All we knew was that there were miles of corridors and stairs to find our way along to the stage and there-that black audience with the one little light and a bell beside it, the adjudicator's desk! My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of hurried footsteps coming down the cement passageway. Then Miss Stevenson's voice called out, jim, jim, where are you?'! Two seconds later she burst in on us and an- nounced, They've been waiting fire mizmfer for ou. Y Help! I shrieked and frantically started to gather up parts of my costume, not forgetting my paper posies. Miss Stevenson, gasped as she saw the conglomeration of muck on jim's face and then she fiew at him with a bunch of Kleenex. Take that off, she ordered. You'll look better without ir. My mother's dining room curtains which were draped on me in such a way as to resemble a fairy costume presented quite a problem on the stairs as I tripped on them at every step. But finally I made my way along the last hall before the stage door. I remember hearing the running footsteps of both jim and Miss Stevenson behind me, Miss Steven- son giving orders for making jim's costume resemble a little more closely the character of his part, and poor jim trying to carry them out as he ran! At last I reached the bright lights of the stage and gathering up a green, furry blanket which was to be our mossy bank rushed onto the stage. I hurriedly arranged the blanket on a piano bench in the centre of the stage, praying all the while that the curtains would not open. Then I dropped a few of my paper posies on it and, hear- ing the swish of the parting curtains behind me, dashed for the wings. The next moment I was Titania, the fairy queen, leading my lover the Ass, into my mossy bower. After it was all over, a hopeless feeling came over me as I tried to compare our performance with that of the other entrants in the Shakespeare under 21 Class. So many things that we had re- hearsed, we had forgotten! I tried to congratulate gaily the other contestants as they came off the stage, but I felt so small and unimportant! Then the adjudicator was on the stage and read- ing the criticism of the first group, ours. A well- timed entrance was one of the few things I re- member her saying. Next she read the adjudicat- ion of the other groups. At the end of this a hush fell over the audience as everyone strained to hear the marks. First, with 85 marks is - Group One from Trail. And the next thing I knew I was on the stage receiving the silver cup and certificate and not knowing how it all happened! 7 Mary-Kaye Simpkinson Grade X. As I Went By On the long, dark road, In the cold winter's night, The diamond-dropped stars gave an icy light, As I went by. .The silent trees in their shrouds of white Looked down as they heard my steps in the snow, While the smiling old moon seemed to say Hello, As I went by. While travelling along that road alone I wondered how any could fail to see This beautiful winter-land-my home, And the stars and the trees agreed with me, As I went by. joan Laird, Grade XII.