Hero

Just as Greg was making his way to West Beach his Mum and Dad were making their way to the Blue Lagoon Café to meet with Mother Superior as arranged.  Although they had not spoken of this to each other, they were both rather anxious and perplexed about what was about to happen.  They had previously been invited to meet Mother Superior but that had always been in her office at school.  Why was she suggesting this informal kind of meeting place, away from school?

As they walked in they found Mother Superior already there and she suggested they sit in the al fresco area at the back.  They seated themselves and exchanged small talk while staff buzzed around them bringing plates and crockery and eventually a large espresso jug that had just been boiled, three cups and saucers and a plate of biscotti and a small selection of sweet pastries.  Mother had done her homework.

“I suppose you are wondering why I have asked to speak to you in this way,” she began, “but I am concerned about what we can do that is for the best for Greg’s future.”

“I am sure you know as well as we do what is for the best for Greg,” said Eula, somehow aware of a strange maternal kind of wisdom in this woman who had given her life to the church.

“I am not so sure about that,” she responded, “but I hazard a guess that you were no more disappointed than I was when I had to suspend Greg from school this week.  I know that he struggles with many of his subjects at school, but I can tell that he is a good boy and I would hate to see him dragged down the wrong pathways because of some bad choices he made.”

“The best way I know to keep him away from those bad boys,”  said Alfeo “is to give him lots of work to do in the garden.  And you know what, he seems to really like it.  Even better if he has to tinker with the motors on the whipper snipper or rotary hoe.”

“I’ve noticed that, too,” said Mother Superior.  “All his teachers tell me that he makes no effort in their classes, except when he is down in the workshop.

“I have been thinking what school is going to be like for him next year.  As students move into year 11 they start making choices about what kind of work they want to prepare themselves for and most of them are looking for basic university entry, of a course they can pick up at TAFE.

“I think Greg could look at classes at TAFE, but I am afraid that so long as we keep him in classes that he doesn’t really want to do, he will continue to get around with the wrong kids and get himself into trouble.”

“But Mother, isn’t he supposed to stay in school till he is 17 now?” asked Eula.  “I didn’t think there was any other option.”

“The new rules say that they must be in school, training or work until they are 17, and even then, if they reach 17 and drop out they are not eligible for any social security support until they are 24.  It is a way of motivating kids to take it seriously that they have to get into work.”  It sounded a bit like Mother Superior had rehearsed this line many times, not just for Alfeo and Eula, but for the many such conversations she may have had with parents.

“We could probably give him a job in the shop and at home, but I would really prefer him to have the experience of working for someone else.  We can be a back stop if a job falls through or something, but he really should try and get a job elsewhere.”  Alfeo remembered what it was like for him in Naples.  His dad had been a stone mason, and everyone thought he should carry on in the family business, but his dad said he could do what he liked, and so he went down to the fish markets, started selling fish daily, and then got a job in a kitchen cooking.  He loved it.  It made a man out of him.

“I had been wondering about something along those lines, and really that is what I wanted to talk to you about.  Officially, it is not my job to do this, but I really like Greg and I think if he stays on much longer at school it will have the opposite of a good effect on him.  I am afraid that some of the boys he mixes with will actually lead him into things he wouldn’t do otherwise.

“You said he likes tinkering with motors.  Do you think he would like to do motor mechanics?”

“He always said he wanted to work on cars if he could, but I didn’t know how to arrange it for him,” said Alfeo.

“Now that is what I was really wondering about.  Mike Faragher is on our School Council and I am sure you know he runs the Shell garage.  He asked me recently if I could recommend any of the boys at school as apprentices.  He lost a couple of his staff recently, and has at least one place to start in the new year.  I simply told him I could think of a couple of boys, but I wondered what you thought about such an opportunity for Greg before I suggested his name to Mike.”

“I think he would love it,” said Eula enthusiastically.

“But what would he have to do to qualify?” said Alfeo anxiously, hinting at some doubt about Greg’s ability to think into the future.  “Would he have to stick at it for years and years?”

“I am not sure exactly, but he would be working both in the garage as well as at the TAFE and at the end of it he would be qualified to work for others or on his own as a motor mechanic.  Let’s talk to Mike about it before we talk to Greg.  If it comes off he might even be able to start as soon as school finishes.”

“Thank you very much, Mother, for thinking of Greg.  I must admit that when he told me what he had done to get suspended my heart sank a little with fear.  When he is doing the things he really likes doing he can be so good.”  Eula had no pretensions about her children, but she was not unrealistically harsh on them either.  She knew they had to learn from mistakes and that she would be doing them a disservice to prevent them from making them.  Here was a positive option for Greg.  Maybe he will take it.

After thanks and farewells were exchanged, Eula and Alfeo made their way back to The Wildflower Arcade.  Halfway up the hill they saw the Ambulance with a police car escort make its way across the top end of the shopping street on the way to the hospital.  Something big must have happened.  Perhaps a car accident out of town.

They were just about to go into the shop when they saw Greg riding like mad but in his surfing gear.  They ran out to stop him and find out what he was doing. 

“I know I shouldn’t have, Mum, but Dean rang and said the surf was great and we shouldn’t miss it.  I wasn’t going to be long, and I had been working all morning,” he said with a slight exaggeration.  “But then Kai Brennan got bitten by a shark.  I got to him just after the shark swam away and we kept his head above water till three guys on boards came and we paddled him in.  One of the girls called triple zero and we just tried to stop the bleeding.  When the ambos got there they wrapped him up very quickly and got him into the ambulance and took him to the hospital.  I’ve gotta get there to see how he is.  I don’t want him to die.”

The drama Greg had now been caught up into outweighed any need to deal with his disobedience in going surfing when he should have been working at home.  That could be dealt with later.

“Well, off you go, then.  We’ll call by on our way home to see if you are still there and how things are.”

Greg pedalled as fast as he could, stashed his bike and boogie pack near the front doors and went in to see if he was still in Emergency.  He was pointed in the direction of the waiting room, but Kai had obviously been taken straight into the emergency part.  He asked the triage nurse if she knew how he was.  Looking a bit suspiciously at him she looked down her list and then simply responded “He’s still being assessed.”

“Is his Mum here yet?”

“Yes, she was here before him actually, but she is in with him now.  Are you one of his mates?”

“Not really, but I was there when the shark bit him.  My friends and I got him away from the shark and into the beach.”

“Well, he was a really lucky boy then to have mates like you around.  If you just wait over there, I will let you know how he is as soon as I know.”

As he sat down, she picked up the phone.  This was not an internal call.  She dialled the Tribune.  “Tony?  I shouldn’t be telling you this, but one of the kids that rescued that boy in the shark attack this afternoon is waiting around here in Emergency.  You might like to talk to him.  He sounds a bit like a hero.”