Michael Peter Larobina (Part 3 of story)

Story

Part 3

Frightened & unsure of my present position I started to cry. The person who pulled me out through the gate said to me, while supplying me with a handkerchief, ‘Where\’s your father, Michael?’

How did he know my name, I asked myself, & with a hesitant sob I answered, ‘He\’s gone to Australia to find a new home for us.’ I was then swept off my feet with a warm embrace & smothered with a kiss on the cheek. All that was replied was, ‘My son’.

So the stranger was my father, a medium built man with warm, brown, sleepy eyes. His grip on my hand was firm but warm. A few questions were directed at me which I wasn\’t able to answer. My mother\’s voice broke the spell. Like me, she was also beckoned to the gate. As my father wedged himself back to the place where the gate was I was trying to follow him through the maze of legs & waists.

After finally reaching the gate there was a happy reunion between my parents. The next few hours were spent greeting long-forgotten friends & relatives. It seems that everyone had something to say about what they left & the beauty they found.

The maze of bodies soon thinned out. While we were waiting for Customs to clear all the luggage some of Dad\’s old friends & relatives decided that we should go to Taronga Park Zoo. Not knowing what a zoo was & with the thought of solving another mystery in this strange land, I was very pleased that Dad accepted.

We boarded an electric train & headed out into the labyrinth of buildings. Although I had been in an electric train once before, the train in Sydney had a strange attraction for me, so without telling anyone I decided to explore this new, giant-sized toy. All the compartments were almost full & everybody spoke differently to what I was accustomed to hearing from my parents. Looking out the window I could not see an end to the undulating sea of houses. What a contrast from my native town of only two thousand people where the houses were clustered together. I moved joyfully through the tunnel of faces until I was grabbed by the arm. Looking around I saw that one of Dad\’s friends had caught me & was returning me to my anxious parents.

After travelling for what seemed to me an eternity, we got off the train to go to a ferry. At this stage another peculiarity struck me. Here we walked straight off the train while in the old country we had to climb down the train steps. In any case I don\’t remember anything in particular about the zoo. At that time I must have dozed off because the next thing I remember was Dad & some of his friends loading the luggage onto a truck.

Early in the afternoon all the luggage was packed onto a train for our trip to the new home in Queanbeyan. Since our train wasn\’t to leave until early night we went to the home of one of Dad\’s friends which is, I realise now, in Fairfield. There we were to have something to eat before our proposed trip. I was too excited to eat so I decided to have a look around the ‘new country’. Compared to the house I used to live in these houses of Fairfield were mansions. The amount of noise made by the many forms of transport had me bewildered; after all, a mountain village of small population wouldn\’t have had the number of cars that exist in the average street of Sydney.

The trip to Queanbeyan seemed an eternity in the little compartment which was packed with luggage. Throughout the journey I repeated asked about our destination & when we would arrive. I remember being shaken to wake up & smartly being bundled out of the train to a small & almost deserted railway station. Around it electric light radiated the love & understanding of the little town,Queanbeyan.

The next morning I woke up to explore my new world. To my annoyance the ‘new home’ was only a little larger than the one I had left behind. In fact it was only a two-roomed garage in between a ‘sheep skin station’ on one side & an Ambulance Station on the other. I was later to learn, understand & appreciate the slight prosperity which we Australians enjoy a great deal more than some other poor individuals in the world.

The garage only proved to be a temporary residence for just over 27 months. After leaving Queanbeyan we moved to the National Capital where we are now living like any other ‘old’ Australians, as naturalised citizens.

< Back to the Stories