King's Cross Kid Read Online Free PDF Page A

being part of the biggest empire in the world, and were drilled to remember the important days like Trafalgar Day, Empire Day, the King’s Birthday. I remember that on one of these great anniversaries a band arrived and we spent the day marching up and down, bugles blowing. Different flags were hoisted on the big flag pole that stood in the centre of the parade ground. I can’t remember what day we were celebrating but I do remember the noise and excitement and the grand carry-on.
    At first I thought I was on some form of strange holiday; it never crossed my mind that it might be a permanent arrangement. But, as the days passed and the holiday did not come to an end I began to feel more and more depressed. I was in a sort of limbo and I found that very hard.
    After a few days I was taken up to a room by one of the prefects who knocked on the door and a voice called ‘Come in’. Inside was an old man with long grey hair. He told me to sit down beside him and told the prefect that he could go. He offered me a large saucer of sweets and said: ‘Have a sweetie, Victor, nobody here is going to bite you.’ Then he told me that it had been reported to him that I appeared to be very unhappy and he asked if I understood why I was there. I was only seven and was now a bit frightened. I did not know how to answer, but I tried. ‘My gran said I was going on a holiday. When can I go home to my mum?’ This was one of the few times that I shed tears. ‘Dry your eyes, Victor, big boys don’t cry and you are a big boy now, aren’t you?’ He said this in such a way that I had no option but to nod my head. Then he offered me another sweet and explained why it had been necessary to take me in, how hard it was for my mother. He said he was certain that everyone at home loved me very much and if I needed to talk to someone I only had to ask one of the teachers. He gave me no indication of how long I might stay but I must have felt a lot better after the interview as I apparently knuckled down and got into the swing of things. So much so that after some weeks I was again taken to the office and presented with a star that I was told to sew on to my going-out shirt. I remember being very proud of the star although I never understood what it stood for.
    When the weather was fine the prefects took us outside to show us how to march in lines four abreast swinging our arms level with our shoulders. On rainy days, instead of the marching drill the class was taken to the gym, a huge hall with all manner of equipment, including vaulting horses which we were encouraged to run at and somehow leap right over. Not many of my class could get anywhere near jumping them, but the teacher who led us was quite a jolly sort of man, always laughing and joking. I know that I looked forward to these gym periods.
    I wanted to prove to the others that where I came from the boys were braver than anybody else. Hanging from the ceiling on the end of these thick ropes were big iron rings covered in leather. I discovered that when I stood on one of the benches the rings came down to within an inch of the top of my head.
    A couple of weeks later, back in the gym, I decided that now was the chance to prove that I was not to be messed with. I shouted to the boys, ‘Oy, you lot, watch this.’ Then I dragged a bench under one of the rings, stood on it, grabbed the ring which seemed to weigh a ton, and swung it as hard as I could towards the ceiling. Up it went . . . and down it came like a thunderbolt. It didn’t stop an inch above my head but bounced squarely off my forehead and knocked me cold.
    I came to in the matron’s room with a bandage round my head and a massive bruise and swelling. As soon as I had regained consciousness, Matron called the headmaster and I was grilled as to why I had behaved in such an irresponsible manner, told how lucky I was to be alive, and that if anything had happened to me I would have