3. Another Best Thing

Scarlet and Mr Kadri were just as excited about Perry’s idea as Saffron was. As usual, Scarlet suggested they begin by writing a list of all the things they needed to do. They had hardly started when Scarlet’s friend Anik arrived at the café to start work.

‘Leave the dishes for now, Anik,’ said Mr Kadri. ‘Come, we must help Miss Crimson make lists.’

‘Okay,’ said Anik. His knees were muddy and his shorts were grass-stained, because he had just come from playing football with the Cameron’s Creek Cats. ‘Let me put my bag away first.’

‘Anik is a fine footballer,’ said Mr Kadri while they waited for Anik to come back, ‘but an even better writer. He is getting excellent marks at school.’

Like Mr Kadri, Anik and his grandma Mosas, aunties Shim and Janda and uncle Tansil had come from a faraway land and had learnt to speak and write English only in the past few years. Anik worked very hard at night school to thank Mr Kadri for paying for his lessons. Scarlet says Anik is better at reading and writing than a lot of students who have lived in Australia all their lives. She says he can run faster too and is kinder. She says it’s no wonder Mr Kadri is proud of Anik. Scarlet is proud of him too.

She sits in the tree house in the Cox’s Orange Pippin and writes poems about Anik, and listens to the music inside her while she writes. Sometimes she puts her poems in a small notebook Violet made from recycled paper. Other times she writes them on her skin. Once or twice she has read them to Perry Angel.

Nell is teaching Perry about poems called haiku. She says that if Perry listens carefully, his music will help him write poetry. Sometimes the notes Perry hears are sad, sometimes they are peaceful and other times happy, but always they are beautiful. He wants to write poems about old dogs, woolly jumpers, pussy willows and red galoshes. He will make a book of them to have and to hold and he will call it Little Love Poems to the Kingdom of Silk.

By the time Anik came back, Scarlet had already ruled columns on a piece of paper and had written headings above some of them.

‘Perry wants to organise a dance,’ she explained to Anik. ‘An old-fashioned one where you dance with a partner.’

‘And music,’ Perry reminded her.

‘Oh yes, we’ll need a band,’ said Scarlet.

‘And the girls and ladies have to come dressed up in pretty clothes,’ added Saffron, patting her hair and gently shaking her head so the glass diamonds on her earrings trembled like teardrops. Her lipstick had got a bit smudged by then, but she stood up and did a twirl so the others could admire the swirling skirts of her dancing dress.

‘And it is a very big secret from Grandmother Silk,’ said Mr Kadri.

‘Oh yes, that’s important,’ said Saffron.

‘Keeping it from Nell is probably going to be the hardest part of all.’ Scarlet sighed.

Everyone in Cameron’s Creek knew Nell and Nell knew most everything that happened in Cameron’s Creek.

‘If it’s going to be a surprise for Nell, how will we let other people know about it?’ asked Anik.

When there was going to be an event in Cameron’s Creek, people usually put flyers up at Elsie’s post office and in the window of the Colour Patch Café and on the notice boards at Saint Benedict’s Church and the railway station.

‘We’ll have to put flyers in people’s letterboxes I suppose,’ said Scarlet.

‘Okay, so let’s make a guest list,’ said Saffron. ‘It’s your idea, Perry, so is there anyone you’d especially like to invite?’

‘Jenkins,’ said Perry, watching Scarlet’s face carefully as she wrote Jenkins’ name on top of the list. But he couldn’t tell what she was thinking so he added, ‘And Melody and Sunday.’

Sunday Lee was Perry’s other mother. The one who’d been afraid when she discovered Perry was growing inside her when she was only sweet sixteen. Sunday and Melody were always invited to the Silks’ celebrations.

‘Of course,’ said Scarlet, adding the two names to her list. ‘We’ll send their invitations in the mail.’

Before too long there were three pages filled with names. Then Scarlet looked at the time.

‘We’ll have to stop soon,’ she said. ‘It’s getting late and we don’t want the others to start worrying about where we are.’

‘But we’ve only done one list!’ said Saffron. ‘There’s heaps more planning to do.’

‘We’ll have another meeting next Saturday,’ answered Scarlet.

‘Next Saturday — that’s ages away. Couldn’t we have one sooner?’

‘I’ve got an assignment due at the end of the week, so I won’t have time,’ said Scarlet grumpily.

‘Maybe we need more helpers,’ said Anik. ‘What if we all brought someone else along next week? Then we could make a list of tasks and ask for volunteers. That would make it easier for everyone.’

At 5:00pm the following Saturday, Mr Kadri closed the door of the Colour Patch Café and stuck a sign in the window. ‘Closed for private meeting’ it read. Then he and Anik pushed four tables together.

This time, it wasn’t just Perry, Saffron, Scarlet, Anik and Mr Kadri at the meeting. All the other Silk children were there, together with Layla and her parents, Mr Jenkins, Perry’s teacher, Miss Cherry, Mr Fairchild the butcher, Elsie-from-the-post-office, Grandma Mosas, Uncle Tansil, Auntie Shim and Auntie Janda, Mr Kadri’s brown-eyed wife, Sergeant Teddy Wilson, Doctor and Mrs Larsson and the preacher. Annie and Ben had taken Nell for a drive in the Bedford.

Scarlet was in charge again. She liked being in charge of things, but she invited Perry to sit beside her at the head of the row of tables.

‘I’ve made a list of what needs to be done, so I’ll read it out. If there’s a task you’d like to help with, please put your hand up and I’ll write your name beside it.’

By the time Scarlet got to the end of her list, Miss Cherry had offered to hold lessons for people who wanted to learn how to dance or to practise before the event. Uncle Tansil, who worked at the smallgoods factory, said he’d ask his employer to donate a ham and Mr Kadri’s brown-eyed wife volunteered to make it into pinwheel sandwiches for supper.

Hilde Larsson said she would make Lussekatter buns and Violet asked Amber to make an Armenian Love Cake.

The preacher offered Saint Benedict’s hall as the venue for the dance and Mr Fairchild agreed to give Layla and Griffin as much butcher’s paper as they needed to make paper chains and Japanese lanterns.

The Rainbow Girls put their hands up to make the invitations and Elsie-from-the-post-office said she’d have them delivered. And still there were people who wanted to help but hadn’t been given a job.

‘I’m sure we’ll think of other jobs that need doing,’ Scarlet said, ‘but let’s see if we can organise some musicians now.’

For a few seconds, no-one said anything, then Mr Jenkins put up his hand.

‘I suppose I could play the bagpipes,’ he said.

Perry Angel didn’t know what to do. Everything had been going so well, but he didn’t want Jenkins to be in the band. He couldn’t let that happen. Jenkins had to dance with Nell! Surely Scarlet must know about the peaches and the look of wishfulness in Nell’s eyes. But Scarlet just went ahead and wrote Jenkins’ name on her pad and suddenly Perry wondered if he’d made a terrible mistake. He could feel his cheeks growing hot. What if Jenkins didn’t want to dance with Nell?

‘I’ll put Daddy’s name down too,’ said Scarlet. ‘I’m sure he’ll play the harmonica.’

‘Nils will play his violin,’ said Hilde Larsson, nudging the doctor.

Sergeant Wilson said, ‘I can play the squeezebox. I’m a bit rusty now, but I’ve got a few mates who used to play in a dance band.’

‘Can they play the beautiful Tennessee Waltz, Sergeant Wilson?’ asked Saffron.

‘They could play anything!’ said Sergeant Wilson. ‘I’ll get in touch with them. I’m pretty sure they’ll help out.’

‘Good!’ said Scarlet.

Then Jenkins said, ‘In that case, Scarlet, would you mind crossing me off the list? Sometimes nowadays I get short of breath playing the bagpipes and besides … I’d really like to have a dance.’

‘That’s okay, Mr Jenkins,’ said Scarlet. ‘It sounds like we’ll have enough musicians without you.’

Scarlet and the others kept talking, but Perry wasn’t listening. He looked down to where his friend was sitting. Jenkins didn’t seem to be listening either. He was folding a paper serviette into tiny triangles. Perry wondered if he was trying to remember the last time he danced and if it was with his Juliette.

Jenkins had shown Perry a photograph of himself and Juliette on their wedding day. Juliette wore a lace wedding gown with a train as long as the church and she carried a bouquet of tulips. Jenkins was dressed in a pin-striped suit, with a sprig of lily of the valley in his buttonhole.

Just like Nell and Johnny, he and Juliette had been sweethearts since they were very young. Jenkins told Perry he had had many empty hours when his Juliette died and that becoming Perry’s personal assistant at school was one of the best things that had ever happened to him. Perry hoped with all his heart that dancing with Nell would be another best thing.