Chapter 19
The Empire
The following day I felt optimistic about everything. I was in a really good mood. I put it down to a bright morning sun and a good night’s sleep. I also assumed that Lizzie’s disappearing trick had been just that. The cupboard might have been something else in 1946 and Lizzie had just disappeared through it. Dad was a bit chatty before he went to work. It was just stuff to do with his day but it was good to hear him talk about it. It seemed that work was a right laugh. I couldn’t wait to have my own job and money. At that particular moment I had a real yearning for being grown up. I suddenly became impatient with being a child and wanted to be older and mature and responsible.
Another couple of years at school seemed such a long time.
Without knowing it my mood had already started to nose-dive so I quickly focussed on school and avoided disaster.
I had remembered the conversation I had had with Albert and made a mental note to ask Mr Butler about the empire and how it had got on after the war. I didn’t have history today so I followed Mr Butler’s tracks at dinnertime by asking teachers where he was. The trail led to the staff room so I knocked on the door. I politely asked a tall and skinny teacher who I didn’t recognise if Mr Butler was there. The tall, skinny teacher fetched him for me.
“Afternoon, Mr Webber,” he said over the rim of his glasses. “And what can I do for you?”
I told him what I wanted to know, that I wanted to know how the empire had got on after the war. Mr Butler frowned and asked me which empire I was referring to as there were several.
“The English one,” I guessed.
“Ah,” he answered, “commonly referred to as the British Empire.”
“Yes. That’s the one.”
Mr Butler was frowning as if I was pulling his leg or something. I suppose a teenager coming to you during dinnertime, asking questions about the British Empire, doesn’t happen every day. A few teachers and students bumped into me as they passed in or out.
“I’ve twenty minutes or so to spare after school, Jay. Have you?”
“Yep. I’ll be there.”
“Good. See you then.”
Just before dinner finished I was watching some sixth formers using a digital camera out on the fields when I felt woozy and had very quick flashes of the old stone farmhouse. They were just thoughts really but I definitely recognised the woman with the headscarf. I felt rather than saw the presence of the short man with the temper. I sort of heard him as well. He was shouting again. I couldn’t tell if it was at me or not. All the inhabitants of the little cottage spoke in German or something. I wasn’t that good at languages so I couldn’t really work it out.
No sooner had it come than it had gone and I was sat alone and the sixth formers had moved on. Light rain was starting to fall.
On me and my half-eaten ham and tomato sandwiches.
After school I found Mr Butler picking bits of paper off his classroom floor. He saw me and stood up with a groan.
“Good timing, Mr Webber, you can help me pick these up,” he said grimacing and holding the small of his back.
I put my bag down and started to help. “What happened?”
“These torn shreds, Mr Webber, are what Year 9 think of the Reformation.”
I didn’t know what the Reformation was so I just nodded.
After we had given the cleaning duties over to the cleaner we sat down at Mr Butler’s desk. He had a computer with John F Kennedy as a screensaver and other history related bits and bobs were placed randomly around. There was a toy cannon with two plastic flags crossed over it. I know them to be the flags of the Union and the Confederacy from the American civil war. There was a model of a Victorian soldier and a medieval knight that doubled as a pen-holder as well as some DVD’s. The top DVD I noticed was called Failsafe and it had grim old soldier types on the front and a nuclear explosion in the background. It looked like intense stuff. It also seemed that Mr Butler had a bad back as he kept pulling a face and rubbing the area near his kidneys.
“Right-O, Mr Webber, what’s this about the empire?”
I couldn’t tell the truth so I had to lie again. I was surprised how easy it was.
“Well, I heard my Granddad talking about it. It sounded interesting so I thought I’d ask you about it. You know, so I got it from an expert.”
Mr Butler flushed a little at what I suppose was a compliment and breathed out making his lips vibrate. “Well, I’m no expert on the British Empire, but I’ll tell you what I know.” Then he stopped and lightly tapped the side of his face with a thoughtful finger. “But then you did mention that you were interested in the empire after the war.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Well then, forgive me but wouldn’t your Granddad be fully aware of its decline,” he said and looked at me sideways still tapping his cheek.
I still have trouble telling lies and I must have gone a little red as I struggled to answer. It didn’t matter as Mr Butler interrupted by starting to talk.
“No matter, no matter. The British Empire after hostilities between the warring nations cease. Interesting. Yes, very interesting.”
And that’s where I lost Mr Butler – on the crowded streets of what he called the Indian sub-continent.
But I came away with a book called End of Empire and a note Mr Butler wrote. It's at the back of this book. I think Mr Butler calls it the appendix. So it's in the appendix.
I didn’t understand the note at all. I hoped Albert would.