Alexander (1)

1.

 

The night coach from Warsaw to London was full. Alexander found a seat near the back, squashed against a window alongside a girl with two bottle green military rucksacks. ‘My name is Danuta’ she said and Alexander shook her hand. She was tall with long dark hair and slightly retruded front teeth. ‘On such a long journey there is no need for us to be strangers’ she said and Alexander agreed.

 

Danuta was traveling with Lidia, a slim fair haired girl, who, Alexander thought, looked undernourished. She sat in the seat opposite, next to another girl who was sleeping. There was a toilet at the rear of the coach but, such was the amount of luggage in the aisle, it was difficult for anyone except those seated in the last two rows to gain access.

 

‘The journey is thirty-five hours’ said Danuta. ‘Have you got an empty bottle, Alexander, in case you need to piss ?’

 

He laughed. ‘Maybe I'll do it out of the window.’

 

The coach followed a route across Germany, through the Netherlands, and across the English Channel by ferry to Dover. Alexander had always held an ambition to live in England. For his peers it was the country of The Beatles and famous old football grounds. But for Alexander it was the land of Shakespeare, Dickens, and Hardy - authors he’d discovered while at university. And it was the country of democracy, freedom, and justice where a person could work hard, make money and maybe, just maybe, find their way to become part of the elite.

 

‘Why are you traveling to England, Danuta ?’ he asked.

 

Ten hours had passed and the excitement and expectation of the journey had worn off, replaced now by sleep, stiff legs and far-away thoughts.

 

‘For me, I have a job. Then who knows ? Maybe I'll meet a rich man and enjoy many adventures. What about you ?’
Alexander thought for a moment. ‘I want to become an English gentleman’ he said and Danuta, thinking it was a joke, laughed out loud.

 

Alexander noticed that Danuta spent a lot of time comforting Lidia. She was curled up on her seat with a blanket wrapped around her. She seemed breathless and her lips were cracked and dry. Occasionally Danuta put a bottle of water to her mouth and told her to drink.

 

‘Is she ill ?’ Alexander asked. Danuta shook her head. ‘Just travel-sick I think. She is my half-sister. I promised our mother I would look after her.’

 

At daybreak they crossed the channel. Danuta took Lidia onto the top deck so she could breathe fresh sea air. Alexander, who had implicated himself in their journey, sat with them. ‘You don't have to stay with us’ Danuta said but Alexander said he wanted to, unless, of course, they objected. Danuta didn't offer any objection. Instead, she told Alexander to wait with Lidia; she wanted to go below deck for a while.

 

Danuta returned nearly an hour later carrying a plastic bag. Inside the bag were packs of sandwiches, various cakes and pieces of fruit as well as packets of crisps, energy bars, and three large cartons of milk.

 

‘Did you buy all this stuff ?’ Alexander asked. None of the three travelers had much money - the little they did have would be used to tide them over until they started earning. ‘No, Alexander, of course I didn't buy it. One of the stewards gave it to me.’ She opened a sandwich pack and began to feed Lidia mouthfuls of ham, cheese and bread.

 

‘Why did he give it to you ?’

 

Danuta smiled. ‘I don't know, Alexander. Perhaps he liked me!’

 

The coach made its way through London at mid-day. Alexander saw smart, cosmopolitan people wearing expensive looking clothes. He saw billboards advertising beautifully jewelry in amongst buildings that looked either new and futuristic or old and grand. He saw many fancy cars - Porches and powerful German made saloons - and he thought how different the world must be for the people travelling in them, people who lived in plush apartments and attended premieres and garden parties.

 

As the coach passed the Albert memorial Danuta gasped. ‘Is that really made out of gold ?’ She stood up, twisting herself to follow the sight line of the statue, unable to believe that a memorial made out of gold could sit in the middle of a park without people chipping off its fingers and toes in order to make some easy money.

 

At Victoria, the coach reached its destination. There was cheering and a sudden injection of energy and anticipation among the passengers. The station was packed with travelers. Groups of people stood waiting to be transported across England and beyond - African and Asian people as well as young men and women Alexander immediately recognized as fellow Poles. Danuta strapped one of the military rucksacks onto her back and carried the other like a holdall. Lidia, still wrapped in her blanket, followed her half-sister along the aisle in a daze.

 

Because Danuta and Lidia had already secured jobs, and because Alexander liked the idea of being around the two girls for a while longer, he decided to wait with them. Their new employer, a farmer, had arranged to pick up twelve new employees from the coach station and take them directly to the sprawling farm in the English countryside where they would live and work.

 

It was a further two hours before the farmer arrived. He drove an old mini-bus and, once he’d checked each individual's paperwork, they were ushered on board. Four prospective workers hadn't made the trip. But there were other new arrivals eager to take their place. Alexander was one of them.

 

It was another long, uncomfortable ride. The bus’s engine groaned whenever it was pushed over sixty miles per hour. The food that Alexander had packed for his journey had either been eaten or discarded. Danuta's bag of food from the ship had also gone, replaced now by chocolate bars and fizzy drinks they'd purchased at the coach station. Lidia seemed to be wide awake now. It was Danuta who looked exhausted. They had retained the same seating positions on the mini-bus as they had on the coach. Danuta fell asleep and her head dropped onto Alexander's shoulder.

 

They arrived at the farm late in the afternoon. The farmer and his assistant showed the new workers to a field in which a number of caravans were sited. There were beds for fifteen people. Where each person slept and how the beds were allocated was entirely a matter for the new employees. There was a shower and toilet block, and a portacabin acted as a canteen. Food costs would be deducted from the workers’ weekly wage. The assistant told them to settle in and get a decent night's sleep. In the morning they would start work in the fields at seven o'clock sharp.

 

Danuta, Lidia and Alexander shared a caravan with a Romanian man in his late forties. His name was Tomas. Lidia told him he smelled; Tomas called her a spoiled brat. The caravan was divided into two sleeping quarters, each containing bunk beds. Alexander couldn't bear the thought of sleeping beneath Tomas and asked if he could sleep on the floor near the girls. Danuta playfully told him he could share her lower bunk if he wanted but he refused. ‘I don't see you in that way, Danuta’ he said. ‘I like you as a friend.’ It was the first time a man had said such a thing to her. Danuta didn't know if she was flattered or offended.