Coal Flat
2
2
Flora, on one of her twice-weekly visits to Rogers, asked him about it. Rogers was on the glassed-in veranda of the ward, which meant he needed less attention. She had been telling him about Jimmy Cairns taking offence at the Truth poster outside Sid Raynes’s and tearing it up. It read WEST COAST TEACHER ON SEX CHARGE.
She told him too that Dad had put up the pub for sale, but no one was keen to buy it so soon after the boycott. ‘Dad was hoping a small man would make an offer. But so far there’s only one from the brewery. And they haven’t offered as much as Dad wants. Oh, he said the Miners’ Union were after it, for a Working Men’s Club; they’d have to raise a loan to buy it, and anyway Dad wouldn’t sell it to them. He reckons he ought to stay and build up trade again before he sells. But Mum’s keen to get away.’
She told him that the Miners’ Union had sent off a letter to the Education Board expressing its confidence in him. ‘Dr Alexander tried to get a motion of confidence through the school committee too. He said it only lost by one vote. It was the new headmaster. Paul, do you think you’ll get your job back?’
Rogers thought before answering. ‘It was the new headmaster and half the committee as well,’ he said. ‘They were shocked at my methods. Why can’t people face the truth? What they know is true, what they base their lives on, talk about or think about and forget about every day of their lives. And they won’t let you tell it to a boy who’s got wrong ideas about it. I thought the committee would support me. The Education Board won’t take much notice of the Miners’ Union. It looks as if I’ll have to start thinking about another job.’
Flora hesitated. ‘They reckon if your leg doesn’t mend, Paul—it’s funny how Mum takes it for granted your leg won’t heal properly—she reckons we could go and live with them. You wouldn’t have to work much…?
‘Flora, this leg is going to get better. I know it!’ Rogers said grinning.
‘What if you can’t work, Paul? You mightn’t get your job back.’
‘I’ll get work. This leg will be as good as before…. It’s peaceful here you know.’ He looked out towards the beach and a lowering sky. ‘Seeing the weather outside makes you glad to be indoors and not have to go to work.’
‘What sort of work would you do, Paul?’
‘I haven’t thought yet…. I don’t know that I’d want to go back to Coal Flat, Flora, we’ll go away somewhere. Christchurch perhaps, even Auckland. No, nor Auckland. Dunedin—Dunedin’s far enough away.’
‘Why don’t you want to come to Nelson? There’s no harm. Mum and Dad aren’t against us getting married now. Mum says we’d be welcome, we wouldn’t have to pay any board. You wouldn’t have any heavy work. Dad says you could help with the bar, look after the books, take the bets.’
‘I thought we’d settled all that long ago.’
‘I haven’t asked you before.’
‘We’re not living with your parents.’
‘Why?’
Flora starred when Rogers replied so fiercely, ‘Flora, can’t you see where you’re leading me? Back where we started. Right under old Mum’s thumb. A fine bloody ending for a man! Do you want me a kept hireling, incapacitated for preference, hobbling about on a gammy leg, pitting my brains to calculating the divis for your old man’s bookmaking?’
‘Oh, you’re exaggerating,’ she said.
‘Didn’t I warn you?’ he asked. ‘I told you what to expect if you married me. If we did what your mother wants I’d be half-dead in a year, in the soul, in the mind and heart. There’d be no one to meet except customers laying their bets, there’d be no talk, no ideas but football and races and the local gossip. I want to stay awake in this life, Flora. So must you, I want to do something, not snore off in the handiest comfortable corner. It’d be a pretty awful existence for both of us, vegetating together, waiting to step into their money when they died, watching each other get fat and complacent and ugly. If I was an invalid, as you all seem so sure I’m going to be, I’d feel imprisoned, I’d end up by hating you all.’
‘Now, Paul, there’s no need to make a scene about it. This is important for both of us. Let’s talk it out sensibly.’
‘I’m sorry, Flora.’
‘Paul, the past is over. There’s no need for any bad feeling now…. Mum needs me, Paul. She could have managed before and I’d have made no bones about leaving her. But she’s not well, Paul, and you know she’s had a hard time.’
‘I know she has. But she’s got your father.’
‘She wants one of us to be around. And I’m the only one left. We could go to Nelson. It wouldn’t be as hard as you think.’
‘We’re not going, Flora.’
‘I can’t let Mum go up there when I know she needs someone with her. I’m only being loyal, Paul.’
‘I know.’
‘We wouldn’t need to live with them even.’
‘No, Flora; no.’
‘Well, let’s think again. We’ve got to work this out somehow. What if they were to stay in Coal Flat? It wouldn’t be hard to persuade them. Then there’d be Doris there too. And we could be there: we could get a house and just go and see them now and again.’
‘No, Flora. I don’t want to go back to the Flat unless I teach. It’d be like defeat. I’d feel out of place.’
‘You always liked the Flat though.’
‘I did. And I felt at home in it…. What would I do? There’s only the mine or the dredge. Unless you want me working in a shop…. Grocer’s assistant.’
‘I can remember the time, Paul, when I would have turned up my nose at those for jobs, and you would have called me a snob. What’s wrong with the mine? As long as you get well again, you could do it. You’d be with your friends. Most of the people think the same way as you about politics. I’d have Doris and Mum and Dad. You’d have your friends. We’d have each other.’
‘Maybe I am more of a snob than I knew, Flora… I’ll have to think it over. I can’t answer now. I just know the idea of going back doesn’t appeal to me…. We’ll go together, wherever it is.’
‘I’ve been taking that for granted.’
‘We’ll talk about it next time you come…. Is there any news of Peter?’
She shook her head.
‘Poor kid. He must have gone into the river. Oh, Flora, I’ll always feel to blame for it.’
‘Don’t be silly, Paul, you’re not to blame. It’s just the way things happened.’
‘If I believed in Peter’s religion I’d pray for him. It’s rotten to know there’s nothing more you can do for him.’
‘You did enough and it didn’t work out the way you thought it would.’
‘No. As I said, I’m to blame.’
‘Stop thinking about it.’
He would have to go away, he thought when she was gone. Even if the board did reinstate him, there would be too many memories of failure. What had he done in his seven months at the Flat? Failed with Peter. Got involved in a boycott and a strike without making any difference to the outcome. Lost friends. Got himself smeared. They wouldn’t want to trust him with their children again. How could he fight his reputation for hesitance and unorthodoxy? He was a failure—another Mike Herlihy. At least he had gained Flora. But they would have to go away together somewhere, somewhere away from Mum.