BlackEagle Girls
and The Quest to See

Chapter 5 - The Steamroller

'...and I nearly, like, went over the railing I got shoved that hard! Check out the bruises!' Henry hoisted up his trouser-leg and displayed marks across his ankle. 'There's more higher!' He made to unzip and drop his pants.

'No! Too much info Henry!' Priscilla squawked, managing to control the slight panic in her voice and covering Narenda's eyes with her hands. This wasn't an overreaction, considering that the group of girls and Henry were sitting in the school's 'Thumpin' Tummy' cafe. 'We all get the idea. Who pushed you?'

'Dunno, didn't see. I was just going to my dorm this morning with Vincent and Brodie and there were lots of dudes around. We were hanging out on the top rails, giving it to a few guys downstairs when it happened. And I was practically bumped over.'

'You cannot identify those who attacked you?' Monique asked.

'Nah, by the time we looked around it could've been anyone.'

'Roseanne Sole?' said Priscilla.

'Sorry Sis, I didn't spot her, and she's big enough to spot. But there was a guy that grinned and showed us the finger as he went downstairs.'

'Who was he?' asked Priscilla.

'Dunno, Al somebody. I think he's been transferred here to Hopewell from... who knows?'

'We know,' said Louis, rocking up to the table with his Coorie pal Charlie Fairman.

'You get to sit down if you tell us,' Priscilla said, looking up at her big brother.

'Sure Cil,' Louis winked as Charlie lugged two chairs over from another table. 'He's actually Alan Greerson. His dad's in jail for lots of bad things including armed robbery, blackmail and drugs and Al's just come out of a Juvenile Detention Centre. He's in Hopewell to rehabilitate back into the school system. Isn't that nice?'

'No! You're kidding!' said Priscilla. 'How do you know that?'

'I've got family in where he was,' said Charlie. 'Cousins into chroming and drugs and break-ins. Some of my folks who find it hard to stay straight, get sucked in by the dealers and their Crim bosses. I keep in touch if I can, support them, try to give them hope, show them that they can do better. It's not much, but maybe it helps a little.'

Monique turned her huge, beaming smile directly upon Charlie. 'That is a very kind thing to do Charlie.'

Charlie shrugged, almost as if he was momentarily embarrassed, or perhaps caught by the softer side of a kindred nature. 'Ain't no big deal, all my cousins are family.' He managed.

'And what do your "cousins" say about Al?' Priscilla asked, noting the brief eye-contact between Monique and Charlie.

'What? Sorry, missed that,' Charlie said, now ruffling through his pack as if he was looking out text books for his next class.

'Alan Greerson.' Priscilla persisted. 'Is he going to be trouble? Why would he get himself involved with Roseanne? Don't tell us it's Lerv, that makes me want to spew.'

Charlie's head bobbed out from his bag. 'All I know from my Cuz is that Greerson's tough and doesn't buy the system. He's what you Whitey's call "A loose cannon." He'll use this place and her for his reasons. And he won't give a rat's.'

'Yeah, well whatever,' Henry muttered, standing. 'I'm gonna go see Sister Menzies and get some stuff for my legs before next class. See ya guys.'

'What's with your kid brother?' asked Charlie, looking from Priscilla to Louis. 'He's usually fired up like a heat-seeking missile.'

'Uh, I don't know mate,' Louis said, solemnly sucking on his juice.

'Er, maybe just got the wind knocked out of his sails,' suggested Priscilla lamely.

'I don't think so. He's got a problem, and it isn't only about getting his legs smashed against the rails,' Charlie answered. 'What do you think Monique?'

'I think that it's the end of lunch break and we all must go to our classes. Henry will get his act together soon I'm sure. Bye Louis, bye Charlie.'

Priscilla watched her brother and Charlie head off. 'You didn't need to do the stuff with your eyes Mon.'

'What is this stuff?'

'You know "What is this stuff." You'll get Charlie thinking.'

'He is very cute. Let him think. I want him to think a lot.'

'Mon?'

'Well, we are growing up. And guys are interesting. I mean what are they all about and what about touching...'

'Get outta here!'

'A rat's? What doesn't Alan Greerson give?' Narenda asked as the girls headed toward their next class.

'Arse! If you need to have it spelled out,' Priscilla said, her eyes on the pavement ahead. And before Narenda could ask further, the girls turned into the blasting force of the Music Room and the man with the elbow patches, Auguste Munro, swivelling on his stool.

'Serious stuff taday Cats and Kitties! Brubeck's Jazz Impressions of Eurasia, The Planets by Gustav Holst and some Rolling Stones! Van Morrison too. And who, I hear ya say, are those old geezers? Well we got some more-up-to-date stuff as well. Silver Chair, Kylie and Miley. Double class. We'll fit it all in. Get set for the ride!'

Even Jeff Sinclair shrugged his shoulders and rolled his eyes. Ray Sharp smiled at Priscilla, and she did a half-hearted, half- raised-hand 'Hi' back to him as the class shuffled to their seats and Gus Munro propelled himself from white-board to his stereo-control centre.

'Ta get you all up to speed, here's Dave Brubeck's jazz-idiom absolute take on The Brandenburg Gate followed by Nomad. It's sooo cool, just move right along with it!'

Greeo, as Alan Greerson was nick-named almost immediately, soon made his presence felt both on the sports field and off. On the football oval he was quickly known as 'The Steamroller,' a hard enforcer in the back-line who protected his small players by running straight through the opposition and knocking them sideways or flat on their backs. (He claimed he wasn't protecting his team-mates, just enjoying himself.)

In the class-rooms his reputation grew daily with such crazy stunts as standing on top of a desk and leaping up to the metal girders, hanging there a few seconds and dropping into his seat before the teacher turned back from the white board.

It was rumoured that he had slapped a girl's face because she annoyed him and then threatened her with worse if she went to the Head Mistress. It was also rumoured that he had run the corridors stark naked late one night, just for the adrenalin rush, and got away with it.

There were a few boys in his class who cued up to be his henchmen and were told in no short order to 'Piss off! I don't need a gang. Find someone else to suck up to!'

He was also spotted by several Hopewell students drinking hard alcohol alone out on the sports arena, and there was the suspicion that he might have been the culprit in a break and enter into the office of the Head Mistress. Though after investigation over the ransacking of files and the stealing of a laptop, which was never recovered, the school and the police had nothing to go on and Alan Greerson, smirking, swaggered through the corridors like a cocky rooster.

And yet, for some reason no-one could understand Greerson occasionally spent time with Roseanne Sole. They were seen together in the school cafes and at the pool swimming or walking through the gardens at the furthest end of Hopewell.

'It's scarier than Bella and Edward's Vampire Twilighter! I don't get it! Al Greerson's wild and unpredictable and Roseanne's a bully-nutcase, what's going on?' said Priscilla.

Monique, who was lying flat on her dorm bed studying before lights out, scribbled a few notes on a pad and closed her library copy of Jane Eyre. 'How much more obvious could it be? He knows about her family and the family business. He is using her to connect with the Soles and their Underworld friends.'

Priscilla put down her hot chocolate and screwed up her eyes. 'She couldn't be that stupid!'

'Most people are not. But she is. I guess that she has some crazy fantasy about soul mates somewhere hidden far beneath all that bigoted, thick skin of hers. Greeo appeals to her, perhaps like a male skunk to a female skunk, and she cannot see beyond her own nose, pardon the joke, especially when he is friendly with her and no-one else. He has her in his, how is it said? Ah, middle of his hand.'

'Palm.'

'Palm, oui.'

Priscilla absentmindedly played with some strands of her hair. 'If you're right, it's no wonder they call him "Steamroller," he's about to do just that to her and she can't see it coming. I almost feel sorry for the big blonk.'

The huge pearly-white grin from Monique. 'Sorry?'

'Almost... No, let her see what it's like to get hurt. She deserves whatever. Anyway, I've made up my mind about another more important thing.'

'About Henry and you and what he discovered on your birth certificates?'

'Yes Moni. I can't just let this drag on, and thank-you for your suggestion about Harry helping and that, but Henry's still fumbling about unsure of what's happening, what's happened in the past, what to do to understand, some way to find out, to see.'

'What are you going to do?'

'Next time I'm home I'm going to ask Granny Black straight out. She's always been... Well she's Dad's Mum...She must have been there when Henry and me were born. I think she knows the truth... I can't ask Louis, I just can't. If he knows about anything he must have promised not to tell. And anyway it's not his problem. And Dad's all over the country, like Mum... um Rachael, you know. Gran's the only one that Henry and I can rely on...well, up until now. I wonder if she'll...'

'Look Cila, I think that you have made the right decision all by yourself. It takes great strength to face the unknown. But how will you explain about Henry finding out?'

Priscilla heaved a huge sigh. 'Gonna have to tell the truth and hope that Granny understands that he wasn't really snooping.'

'And will you tell Henry what you intend to do before you speak to your Gran?'

'No!' Priscilla was emphatic. 'First off, he's my little Brother. He doesn't need to be stressed anymore and second, whatever I find out might be better that he doesn't know. Not at least for a while.'

'So you will take all this upon your own shoulders? You will take the pressure to shield Henry?'

'Of course Moni, better me than both of us.'

'What ever is the truth about your real Mother, she must be a woman of strength and courage to have a daughter such as you.'

Priscilla's hand went out to Monique's. 'I hope you're right my true friend, but not about me having strength and courage. I hope with all my heart that she still is... alive.'

Chapter 6 next