Little Exiles. Robert Dinsdale
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Название: Little Exiles
Автор: Robert Dinsdale
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Историческая литература
isbn: 9780007481729
isbn:
‘I was number one,’ says George, considering the bowl of dry hash he has collected.
‘Don’t you think …’ Jon’s thoughts are too fast for his words to keep up. ‘There isn’t even a list.’
‘So?’
‘The boy in the dairy, he reckoned Judah Reed doesn’t even know his name …’
‘I don’t think he knows mine.’
Jon Heather thinks: better keep it that way, George.
‘Eat up,’ he says, remembering, dimly, that first morning in the Home, the fat boy with porridge pumping out of his ears.
George pokes some of the food into his gullet, but the taste is horrific; it must be the scrapings from the bottom of a pot. After a few attempts, he perfects a way of poking it to the back of his throat, so that he barely tastes a thing, but by that point the hand bell is clanging.
‘Dairy for me today,’ says George. ‘I’m going to sneak a suck of milk.’
Jon should have thought of that. ‘Tell Tommy I said …’ Jon falters. ‘Hey, George,’ he says, as they traipse after the other boys into the morning light. ‘You do what Tommy tells you, OK?’
‘You don’t need to badger me, Jon Heather. You’re not Peter, you know.’
After they have parted ways, Jon joins a rag of other boys outside the sandstone huts. There are boys of all ages here, only the very youngest spared and sent off for village muster, and Jon finds a spot to stand among them, not too close to the front and not too close to the back.
‘What is it today?’ asks a little one next to him.
Jon Heather only shrugs.
They seem to stand there, in a useless clot, for an age. The coolness of morning evaporates, to be replaced with a dull, insistent heat. Finally, Judah Reed and another man in black appear from the dormitory shacks. They have, Jon knows, been carrying out inspections, making mental notes of which boys have failed to make their beds, or which boys have sneaked banned treats and trinkets under their mattresses. Once, a boy was found to have been saving chunks from his evening stew to have as a midnight supper. He had to make a trip to Judah Reed’s office and wasn’t allowed dinner for five nights straight, in order to teach him a lesson.
Judah Reed approaches and the boys part to let him through. Without looking back, he makes a simple gesture and, snatching a shovel from its prop against the wall, begins to march. As one, the boys follow. Jon tries to catch the eyes of a bigger boy beside him, giving him a questioning look – does anybody
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