Guy Fawkes

Guy Fawkes

 

The Lions Avenue Lot were gathered on the Meadow with their carts to collect kindling for the Guy Fawkes bonfire.

Six-year-old Wikky looked up into Peter's face. ‘What's Guy Fawkes?’ she asked. ‘Is it like garden forks?’

‘Guy Fawkes was a bad man who put a bomb under Parliament in London,’ he replied. ‘He was hung for it.’

‘Did the bomb make a big bang?’

‘No. It was discovered before it could be set off.’

‘Was he a German?’

‘No, he was English.’

‘Why did he put a bomb under Parliament then? Was he Hitler's spy?’

‘No he wasn't a spy, he was a catholic.’

‘What's a catholic?’

‘Somebody who goes to a Catholic church.’

‘D'you want to blow up Parliament?’

‘Why should I want to blow up Parliament?’

‘You go to church.’

‘But it's the village church.’

‘Isn't it the same?’

‘I don't think so.’

‘Did Guy Fawkes go to church?’

‘I suppose so.’

‘But you said he was bad.’

‘What's that got to do with it?’

Wikky's face began to pucker. ‘I don't want you to go to church any more.’

‘Why not, Wikky?’

‘You're not bad. I don't want you to be hung.’

‘It's all right, Wikky. This happened a long time ago.’

‘When my mother was little?’

‘A long time before that. A long, long time even before her mother was little.’

This was too difficult for Wikky to grasp. She began to cry.

‘Never mind, Wikky,’ I said consolingly. ‘It's just a story, like the big bad wolf. Here, get into my cart and I'll pull you.’

One behind the other, we went with our carts up the slope towards the Layers.

 

(Adapted from "Gang Warfare" chapter 12. http://www.peterstjohn.net/index_3.htm)