Oranges and Sunshine Page #7

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with a monster like that in your head.

Well, we should be there

in a couple of hours.

It used to take six before

they graded the road.

God. You should have seen it...

in the back of an open truck,

eating dust and flies,

crying for their mums.

We thought we'd been dropped off

at the end of the earth.

You right?

See it from here first.

Is it what you expected?

I didn't know it would be so big.

And I didn't know it would be so beautiful.

The boys put every stone

of that building together.

I know.

The cement would burn your feet.

We'd no shoes.

The cement would burn

the cuts on our feet

and the sores on our hands and knees.

All day, in blazing heat,

no rest, no water.

I was nine years old and I was lifting rocks

the size of my upper body.

And he's yelling at us, 'You weak, weak,

pitiful sons of whores.'

We built stations of the cross.

But who was crucified, huh?

Tell me that.

You all right to go down?

Suppose they don't let us in.

There's a swimming pool

at the back of the building.

I paid for it. They'll let us in.

He had this...

he had this big knobby stick.

And he would crack you

over the skull with it.

Leather belts.

Fanbelt from the tractor.

Anything that would give you

a good wallop, you know?

They'll still be having their breakfast.

Feel like a cup of tea?

Come on.

Morning, brothers.

I've brought Mrs Humphreys

to have a look around the old place

if that's all right.

Come through.

There we go.

Is there any chance of a cuppa?

We can do better than a chipped cup,

can't we, brother?

We'd hear one of the brothers coming.

Just his footsteps on the wooden floor.

You'd be lying there in the wet sheets

and you're thinking,

'Oh, please, God...

Please, God, don't let it be me.'

He would make you strip naked

and get on the tables

with everybody watching you.

Don't know where I thought I could run to,

there's nothing there for miles.

He came after me on horseback.

When he caught me...

...he tied me to a tree.

And he, uh...

He...

You probably can't believe me.

Of course I believe you.

The f***er raped me, Margaret.

Hey, I think you might have

forgotten something, brother.

I'll fix it up, shall I?

Didn't matter if he split your skull open,

he'd keep whacking away.

You just thought...

'I'm nothing now.

Nothing at all.'

Who's gonna...

Who's gonna look after me?

Who's gonna look after me?

I'm nobody.

Have I disturbed you, brothers?

Have I frightened you?

What have you got to be frightened of?

Grown men like you.

Look at that, Margaret.

Can't see another house.

Nothing but bush.

No-one would find you here.

He'd wait for me after dark,

Brother Norman.

He took a shine to me.

I was a favourite, I suppose.

I don't know.

You just think, 'I'll live through this.

It'll stop one day.'

Bloody years.

Margaret, have a look at that.

Black cockatoo.

Oh, there'd be flocks of them

over here sometimes.

They'd sound like trains

going over your head.

- You all right?

- Yeah.

You've gone a funny colour.

I'll just get you a drink.

There you go.

- You right?

- I'm fine. It's just the heat.

OK.

Know what your problem is, Mrs H?

You don't look after yourself properly.

You won't let anyone else do it either.

Len, it's not for anybody else

to look after me.

I've been loved and

looked after my entire life.

It's your turn now.

But you'll never get it.

Everybody thinks there's going to be

this big cathartic moment

when the wrongs are righted

and the wounds healed,

but it's not going to happen.

I can't give you back what you've lost.

Well, there's plenty of other people

in that boat.

Well, its not enough, is it, Len?

It's never enough.

Jeez, old Bindoon,

it shook you up all right, didn't it?

No, I'm fine.

It should shake me up.

I'm the one who should be shaking.

But even if I was lying here in the dirt

bawling like a kid,

I couldn't feel it all, could I?

Isn't that what you'd tell me?

I had to stop crying when I was eight.

I don't know how to start now.

But you feel it.

You feel it for all of us

because we can't, you do.

No, you're fighting for us, Margaret.

You're in there for us.

You're on our side.

So let the rest go.

Just let the rest go.

What you're doing is enough.

It's more than anyone else

has ever given me.

Happy Christmas.

- And happy Christmas.

- Oh!

Ooh!

Happy Christmas, darling.

Here you go, love.

Happy Christmas.

So, what are you going to give

all of us for Christmas, Ben?

I gave you my mum.

So you did.

So you did, darling,

and we love you for it.

Hear, hear.

Hey, don't do that. Don't do that.

Don't start snivelling.

Bloody hell, woman,

what are you trying to do to me?

- See you in a couple of weeks.

- See you in a couple of weeks.

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