Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms Read Online Free PDF

working at Mulyan got midday meals and had electricity and running water, he nearly hit the roof, literally: he threw a punch in anger and missed the ceiling by an inch. It was an unusual display of aggression that scared Joan and the kids.
    Mary follows the boys closely, half worried, half laughing, as they run at speed all the way back to the station. As they cross the golf course there are shrieks and giggles, the odd attempt at scaring each other, and every time there’s a strange noise, one of the lads asks fearfully, ‘What’s that?’
    After a while, the group slows down to a fast walk, almost breathless from running, fear and laughter. Claude is at theback of the pack as he is the least fit. He doesn’t play football like the other lads. Mary walks alongside him but says nothing. She suspects there’s some damage to his ego as the others are way ahead and Claude is panting and breathless. She doesn’t want to make it harder for him.
    Only minutes from Erambie, in the still of the cold night, Claude has slowed his pace considerably and so Mary walks ahead, eager to get home and out of the cold.
    Alone, Claude feels a hot breath on the back of his neck and stops in his tracks, too terrified to move or to speak. He tries to sing out to Mary but she’s too far away and his voice won’t cooperate anyway – he cannot muster the slightest sound and his mates are still walking ahead. Claude is convinced he will die, that a Japanese soldier is about to kill him, probably with a machete or a karate chop. If not that, he will definitely goonan his pants. And then he hears a familiar sound, a gentle neigh, and realises the hot breath on his neck was from a local horse.

    Lying in bed that night, Joan is worried. ‘We really don’t have enough food, Banjo, and we could lose the children if anyone finds out. You know they’re looking for reasons to say we’re bad parents.’
    Banjo doesn’t respond. He shares his wife’s concerns but the last thing he wants to do is add more worry to her life.
    â€˜Father Patrick has always been good to us,’ Joan continues. ‘St Raphael’s helps the poor. I’ll just have to ask for more.I can take some of the clothes they’re going to throw out and mend them for him. I do it for the kids all the time.’ She knows there’s no room for shame when it comes to asking for food and clothes. She needs to keep everyone alive, even if she has to go without.
    Banjo pulls his wife closer to him, her body warm against his in the cold night. His lean but muscly arms are firm around her frail frame.
    â€˜You’re right, love, food is scarce and I really want to just fatten you up. But we will manage, we always do.’ He nuzzles into the nape of her neck.
    I married the right brother , Joan thinks as she dozes off to sleep.

2
    â€˜D on’t let the goothas anywhere near the river today,’ Banjo orders Joan. He’s shaking as he lights a cigarette and pulls a chair out to collapse onto. It’s the morning after Hiroshi has appeared and they haven’t yet risked getting any food to him. For all they know, he has escaped his hiding spot.
    â€˜What is it?’ Joan has never seen her husband so shaken. She sets some water on the wood stove to boil for a cup of tea, grateful there’s plenty of chopped wood thanks to young Claude being busy the last few weeks.
    â€˜I saw them,’ he says softly, taking a long draw on his cigarette then resting his head in his hands as he exhales. In the early hours of the morning, Banjo had taken a walk down to the river and around the local area to see what he could find out. He’d planned on asking anyone he saw if they knew anything. He didn’t expect to find death on his doorstep.
    â€˜Saw who?’
    He looks up, eyes watery, distressed. ‘Hanging in the trees. I saw them.’ He drags again on the rollie as if it is the only thing