Mum said, “Pip,I have to tell you something”. It all started on a warm Sunday afternoon. The BeLerse boys(that what I always called the Le Blerse boys) came over for a Sunday afternoon at The Gap, which meant a fun time with the Baskerville boys between the times of Sunday morning church and Sunday night church. The lunch was finished and all the dishes were cleaned and stacked away. The call then went out to explore the creek and so a collection of boys, Baskerville’s and Belerses’ went trundling down the Gawalla St hill. As we approached the intersection at the bottom of the hill where a right turn would lead to the creek and the other a straight path would lead to the Arnold’s, a choice would be made but for me there was no choice, Mum had always told me not to go to the creek, so I headed off to the Arnolds. A day of fun was had at the Arnolds and after this I then headed off home, alone. Into the kitchen I bouldered, hungry, looking for something to eat. Found the jam and bread but could not find the peanut paste. With both of my hands holding the lower cupboard doors wide open and with me squatting down on my haunches, I yelled out to Mum,” Where is the peanut paste?”. Hoping to fill my belly with 4 or 6 sandwiches. At that moment I heard Mum come into the kitchen behind me, I stayed on my haunches expecting Mum to say, “It is on the lower shelf or behind the flour”, but instead she said, “Pip, I have something to tell you”. I waited without even turning around, then the words hit me, “Tuffy’s dead, he drowned in the creek”. There was no movement from myself, I just stayed in that position in front of the cupboard, tears welling in my eyes, as I thought of Tuffy. The moment at that intersection, where I had obeyed my mothers command, our dog Tuffy was in fact walking with me to the Arnolds, to have a day of fun in the bush. The boys were heading off to the creek and Tuffy and me were heading for the Arnolds, when one of the Belerse boys yells out to Tuffy and and that dog left my side and bounded towards the large group of boys. My thoughts at the time were that he would have more fun with them rather than with myself. Our dog never came back alive that day, and I can only imagine the anguish that Sam and the boys went through that day, but my thoughts were of that intersection where decisions are made and with the events that unfold from those decisions.
See also related story by [Tom] [Sam]
