Alien Son

The possession of money, he said, would compensate us for the trials of living in a strange land. (p. 1)

We should lose everything we possessed; our customs, our traditions; we should be swallowed up in this strange, foreign land. She had often wheeled my sister and me to shipping offices to inquire for ships leaving for home. And once she almost bought passages for us but she didn't have quite enough money. (p.1)

We arrived at our new home long after the sun had sunk beneath the hills, which had become mysteriously black with odd lights that blinked forlornly as if signalling messages of distress.

In the dying light Mother stood gazing at the dingy, brown wooden cottage and while she stood she seemed to age and her narrow shoulders to grow more stooped. Her sad eyes wandered hopelessly over the broken picket fence and the neglected fruit-trees with their naked limbs outstretched.

Suddenly Mother was startled out of her deep musing by a merry clamour that sprang around us like a wind springing up from nowhere. The street which had been deserted was now alive. Men in shirt-sleeves and women in aprons stood behind fences and from open doorways flickered the yellow light of kerosene lamps. Children appeared from all the dark corners of the street, clustering around the wagon, chattering in a language of which we understood not a word. Mother seized my sister and me by our hands and bundled us into the house. And, disconsolate and weary, we sat on chairs in a room that smelt musty with dampness and disuse. By the light of a spluttering candle, our parents silently walked to and fro and emptied the bulging wagon. (pp.5-6)

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