All the Colours of Paradise Read online

  Nell had made tea in the same pot for fifty years. On the day she married Johnny Silk, she poured tea from it. When her babies Katie and Ella were born, the first thing Nell wanted was a cup of tea from that pot. When her girls went to school for the first time, wearing their checked dresses, white socks and shiny black shoes, Nell drank tea from that pot in her too-quiet house. The policewoman had made tea in it, too; strong black tea with plenty of sugar, after she told Nell there’d been a car accident and that Johnny and Katie and Ella were never coming home.

  In the shed near the house with the poem on the door, sat a man who was once the boy Nell had taken into her empty home and heart. He had been a lost and lonely boy, a bit like Perry, who belonged to no-one. His name was Ben. Now Ben was a man and had a family of his own and Nell was still part of it and so was Perry Angel.

  Nell had brought her teapot with her to the house Ben bought to hold his family close and near, and on that Monday night, when the moon and all the stars shone down, she poured tea from it for Ben and for Annie and for Miss Cherry. And they all agreed it was important for Perry Angel to understand Mr Elliott’s philosophy, that words can only change things if you let them.

  In small towns like Cameron’s Creek, news travels fast. Miss Cherry talked to Mr Jenkins and Mr Jenkins talked to Mr Kadri about what the teenagers had said to Perry Angel. The news squeezed Mr Kadri’s heart and he talked to his brown-eyed wife and their three curly-haired children and they decided to make a special effort so Perry Angel would understand that some things never change, like love, and Paradise.

  In a city by the sea, far away from Cameron’s Creek, lived a young woman called Sunday Lee. Sunday Lee did not have a teapot, but she had a photograph inside her wallet. It had been taken inside a hospital and was the only one she had of herself cradling her newborn baby in her arms. Sunday Lee had looked at the picture every day since she was sixteen years old, when she had no money, no family and no way of looking after her baby boy. And although she knew that words are only words and they don’t change anything unless you let them, she wished she could tell her boy that some things never change and that the ache in her heart was one of them.

  While Nell, Ben, Annie and Miss Cherry drank tea and ate Melting Moments, and while Sunday Lee looked at her photograph, Perry Angel lay awake in the sleep-out at the back of the house. He was thinking about the small, shabby suitcase which was kept in the dark under his bed.

  12. Five Days and Finishing Touches

  On Tuesday morning Perry Angel dressed himself in his Superman costume. After breakfast he cleaned his teeth and said goodbye to Blue. Then he and Annie went to the bus stop. When the bus arrived, Perry got on first. He gave Mr Davis one shiny dollar coin, ‘Two tickets to the Colour Patch Café, please.’ He watched out the window until he saw the number 7 bus stop. Then Mr Davis opened the door and he and Perry called each other buddy.

  Annie and Perry sat in the courtyard under the white sails while Mr Kadri made mint tea for Annie in his tall silver teapot which did not have a cracked spout. Then he made a Raspberry Spider for Perry. He put the teapot and the spider on a silver tray with a small dish of sweets and carried it out to the courtyard. Mr Kadri shook his head from side to side and his eyebrows were joined together in the middle.

  ‘Ah, Superiorman,’ he said sadly, ‘already today is Tuesday. In four more days it will be Saturday.’ Mr Kadri held up four fingers. ‘On Saturday it is the judging of the art show, but you can see, Superiorman, I still have many spaces on my walls. I am hoping you might make a picture for me. But then I am thinking you might not have any paint. So my wife and I will be honoured if you will accept this one small gift.’

  Perry Angel had never seen Mr Kadri’s wife before. She usually stayed in the kitchen and did the cooking. But today she came outside into the courtyard. Her brown eyes smiled and she held out a parcel. It was wrapped with tissue paper the colour of the Turkish Delight she made at night when the curls of her three children rested on their pillows.

  ‘Thank you,’ said Perry.

  ‘You may open it now if you wish,’ said Mr Kadri, and Annie nodded.

  Carefully Perry unwrapped the parcel. Inside was a box and inside the box, a tray of twelve tubes of paint.

  ‘It is all the colours of Paradise!’ said Mr Kadri. ‘Just in case you are needing them.’

  On Tuesday at lunchtime the telephone rang and Nell picked it up. She smiled and put her hand over the holes made for talking into and said, ‘It’s Melody!’

  After she and Melody had talked for a while, Nell passed the telephone to Annie. Annie didn’t talk much, just listened. Then Perry heard her say she would have to speak to Ben when he got home and she put the telephone down and stared at it for a long time without talking. Then she looked at Nell and Perry as though she had forgotten they were there, and said, ‘Melody might come up for the art show.’

  Annie went down to her studio then to do some more work on her special painting.

  ‘You stay with me for a while, Perry,’ said Nell. Perry showed Nell all the colours of Paradise that Mr and Mrs Kadri had given him and she said, ‘Maybe you could do a painting for when Melody comes.’

  But Perry didn’t make any pictures on Tuesday.

  On Wednesday Perry Angel went to school. He sat with his friend Jenkins and they wrote their names on the lines. Then Perry went to the toilet before it was too late. At lunchtime Layla told him he was her best friend in the entire universe next to Griffin. But he didn’t make any pictures on Wednesday. On Thursday morning Perry Angel helped Mr Jenkins mow the grass with his new mower called Fangled. And after lunch he and Ben went into the shed amongst the timber off-cuts, the tins of paint, the bolts, the bicycle wheels and the broken toasters. But he didn’t make any pictures on Thursday.

  On Friday at school Layla was worried. She talked to Griffin.

  ‘We’ve only got today left to get our pictures done,’ she said, ‘and then it’s too late.’

  ‘Nell said we’ve got till 10 o’clock in the morning to have them in,’ said Griffin. ‘Indigo hasn’t even started and I’m going to put the finishing touches on mine tonight.’

  ‘But what about Perry?’ asked Layla.

  ‘He doesn’t have to go in the competition.’

  ‘I know, but what if he’s not going in it because of … what those mean boys said?’

  ‘Maybe he’ll do one tonight. Mr Kadri gave him paints and Nell said Melody’s coming. He likes Melody, so he might paint a picture for her.’ Griffin was quiet for a while and then he said, ‘Nell said Melody might be bringing someone with her, too.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘I don’t know her name,’ said Griffin.

  ‘Maybe she’s a welfare woman, too, like Melody.’

  ‘I wish she wasn’t coming.’

  ‘Why, Griff?’

  ‘Because I think Mama doesn’t want her to come.’

  ‘Maybe she’s worried Perry will run away like he did last time Melody came.’

  ‘That was only because he thought Melody was going to send him to live somewhere else. He knows he’s part of our family now so he wouldn’t be worried about Melody coming.’

  ‘Did you ask your mum about the other lady?’ Griffin nodded. ‘Mama just said she’s someone who knew Perry a long time ago.’

  ‘Well, my mum says mothers have more than their fair share of worrying to do, so maybe Annie’s worried about getting her special painting finished in time for the art show, or something like that.’

  On the walls of Annie Silk’s studio hung the portraits she painted of each of her children. On Friday night she put the finishing touches to the last one; the big red ‘S’ on the front of the costume and a gleam of love in the old dog’s eye. Then she hung it on the wall with the others. But Annie knew it wouldn’t stay there.

  While everyone else was working on finishing their pictures that night, Perry Angel tiptoed down the hallway and into the sleep-out. Then he lay down on the floor next to
his bed and pulled out his small and shabby suitcase with the five golden letters.

  13. Bolts, Bicycle Wheels and Inspiration

  On Saturday, in the park beside the Colour Patch Café, a man with a hat like a chimney pedalled a bicycle which powered an orange-juicing machine. A small grey bird with rosy cheeks and a yellow crest whistled Amazing Grace. You could buy a pair of hand-made dancing shoes with bells on the curled-up toes, or a bunch of rhubarb tied with string, a bundle of books or a paper cone filled with hot buttered popcorn. You could blow rainbow-coloured bubbles, or look through a giant kaleidoscope, or bounce as high as the moon on a monster-sized trampoline. You could have a lady-bug painted on your face for fifty cents or pat a piglet for free.

  At 9 o’clock Layla was waiting for the Silks to come. Already her painting, Saturday Breakfast at the Kingdom of Silk, was hanging in the courtyard. Mr Kadri said the bunch of grapes, the plate of scones and especially the teapot with the rainbow-coloured cosy and chipped spout, were most realistic.

  At 9:30 Layla heard a train whistle and a few minutes later, Melody and another lady appeared on the platform opposite the Colour Patch Café. When Melody saw Layla she waved. Layla watched them crossing the road. The lady next to Melody was only about as tall as Scarlet but Layla guessed she might be about twenty-two or twenty-three. She had spiky brown hair and green eyes and freckles across her upturned nose and Layla thought she looked more like a pixie than the sort of person you wouldn’t want coming to your house.

  ‘Oh, Layla, it’s so good to see you,’ said Melody hugging her. ‘Are the Silks here?’

  ‘Not yet,’ said Layla.

  ‘Oh, I forgot, this is Sunday Lee,’ said Melody.

  Layla was trying to decide if she should ask Sunday how she knew Perry Angel when the bus rounded the corner and pulled up at the number 7 stop. A crowd of noisy passengers spilled out onto the footpath. Layla caught a glimpse of Nell, and then the Rainbow Girls and Griffin. ‘Here they are!’ she said pushing her way towards them. By the time she and Melody and Sunday Lee had reached the bus, the door had closed. ‘Where are Annie and Ben and Perry?’ she asked.

  ‘They’re doing something important,’ said Nell. ‘They’ll be here later on.’

  While Melody was introducing Sunday Lee to everyone, Layla noticed Griffin wasn’t saying much and that Nell was holding his hand tightly. She wanted to ask him what was wrong, but not in front of everyone else. After the introductions, Nell said, ‘Let’s have a look at all the entries while we’re waiting for the others.

  Indigo’s artwork was another of her deep mysteries. She had persuaded Violet to dress in an old pair of bathers and to tuck all her yellow curls into a tight, rubber bathing cap. Then she had painted her from head to toe in seven shades of blue with spirals of glitter and sequins. Layla thought she looked a bit like a beautiful dolphin or even a mermaid. Mr Jenkins wasn’t quite sure where to stick the label, Different Skin, so Indigo tied it to Violet’s ankle so it wouldn’t spoil her work.

  Griffin’s picture, Namesake, was engraved onto thick paper called scraperboard with a small metal nib which scratched the black surface off the paper and let the white show through.

  ‘It’s almost as good as the griffin Ben carved on your Naming Day Book,’ Layla said, but Griffin didn’t seem to hear her.

  Other people had come in from the park to look at the artwork, too. Then the preacher came and Nell said, ‘Quick, find yourselves a seat!’

  Everyone knew it was time for the official opening when the preacher came, because he was the Official Opener for almost every event held at Cameron’s Creek. Layla and Griffin sat in the middle of the front row with Nell, and the Rainbow Girls sat in the row behind them. Melody and Sunday Lee found seats towards the end of the front row next to Mr and Mrs Elliott, Miss Cherry and Mr Jenkins. Even Mr Davis came. But still there was no sign of Ben, Annie and Perry.

  The preacher tapped on the microphone and told everyone how to vote for their favourite work of art by name or by using the number on the label. He was almost up to the declaring open part of proceedings when Mr Kadri rushed into the courtyard and whispered something into the preacher’s ear.

  ‘It seems we have one last entry,’ said the preacher. ‘There will be a short interval before I declare this exhibition open.’

  Then Ben and Annie came into the courtyard with Perry Angel and Blue. Perry Angel had his Superman costume on and his gumboots, but not his bicycle-tube mask. He sat on Annie’s knee on an orange chair beside the stage and Blue sat beside them looking very handsome in his going-out bow-tie. Ben was carrying an inspiration which he and Perry had found in the shed amongst the bolts and bicycle wheels and broken toasters. It was large and wooden and looked, for all the world, like an old door. Mr Kadri rearranged a few paintings and helped Ben move the door into an empty space. When they turned it around, there were twelve pictures, one mounted to each of the twelve panels on the door.

  The preacher put his spectacles on and looked long and carefully at all the pictures. Then he said, in his beautiful, deep Sunday morning voice, ‘When I look at this door, I’m reminded of another, on which a poem is painted. Many of you gathered here today will have passed through that door. And even if you haven’t been to the Kingdom of Silk, you might have heard of the poem. It begins with the words: To everything there is a season. This exhibit reminds me in many ways of the words of the poem.’

  Then the preacher and the people grew as silent as flowers opening, while they looked at the pictures Perry Angel had made and kept in his suitcase under the bed. They saw things they had never seen before, like the purple blanket of being held in someone’s arms, laughter the colour of watermelon, love like chocolate melting in the quiet dark, the song of being born, babies you can keep and the ones you can’t, a dog with no sharp corners who knew things other people didn’t, orange buddies with no black bits and many fingers, and dancing the Spanish Fandango.

  After a while, the preacher gave a small cough the way he did in church to wake up the people who had gone to sleep when they were supposed to be saying their prayers. Then he said, ‘Now I see this exhibit hasn’t been labelled. Do we have a name for it, Mr Kadri?’

  Perry Angel was surprised. He felt sure that everyone would know his picture was called Kind, because it was something he had made to give to his friends and family who loved him. But he didn’t say anything, because he wasn’t sure if it was a time to speak up or a time to stay quiet.

  So Mr Kadri said, ‘It needs no name, Reverend, because in Paradise there are no words, only pictures.’

  The preacher declared the exhibition open and when people began to clap, Layla leaned in close to Griffin and whispered, ‘Did you find out who Sunday Lee is?’

  Griffin nodded.

  ‘Well, who is she?’

  For a moment Layla thought Griffin wasn’t going to answer, then he said, ‘She’s Perry’s other mother.’

  14. Sunday Lee

  On the wall of an apartment in a city by the sea, far away from Cameron’s Creek, there hangs a picture. It is a portrait of a small boy in a Superman costume with his arms around an old red dog called Blue. The boy’s name is Perry Angel. His other mother looks at that picture every day.

  It reminds her of the time she spent with Perry and his new family, the Silks. She remembers the art exhibition where she looked at Perry’s pictures of things she’d never seen before. She thinks of sipping tea poured from a teapot with a cracked spout, and of eating Armenian Love Cake under the boughs of the Cox’s Orange Pippin. She recalls a studio and the pictures on its walls; portraits of Annie’s children who had come from the quiet dark inside her; the children she had kept and the one she couldn’t and the empty space where Perry’s had hung, for just one night. Sunday Lee notices the way Annie’s brush has stroked the canvas and she understands that only love could make a picture like that. She also remembers the poem painted on the door of the house at the Kingdom of Silk and wishes she had known about it soon
er. She is glad that Perry will grow up knowing the words of that poem, for she is certain Nell will teach him. And the last thing Sunday Lee remembers is the promise Annie and Ben made, that when Perry is old enough to understand, they will show him the photograph she has given them. The one she had kept in her wallet since she was sixteen years old. Then Perry will have a story of his own to tell and will know he has been held in his other mother’s arms.

  The A-Z of things Glenda likes

  Autumn

  Being happy

  Cooking

  Dressing up

  Echidnas — especially the one that visited Glenda’s garden

  Flamenco dancing and music

  Galoshes — because the word sounds so good

  Hammocks

  Imagining

  Jack Russell Terriers

  Knitting scarves

  Limericks and Liquorice-flavoured ice-cream

  Melting Moments biscuits — once Glenda’s daughter made her a whole jar of them for Mother’s Day … Mmmmmmmm!

  Nutmeg seeds — when you grate them and see how beautiful they are inside

  Offspring — that means children and Glenda loves hers very much

  Patting pigs, especially big black Spanish ones called Benito

  Quizzes in the newspaper — Glenda and her family do them together on weekends

  Red and Rain

  Singing out loud when nobody’s listening

  Thimbles

  Ukuleles — Glenda’s daughter plays one

  Violets — Glenda’s grandmother’s favourite perfume was April Violets

  Wind in the Willows — a book by Kenneth Grahame