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  The Black Pram
    by Eric Dunstan
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    Black!. The average over-the-garden-fence philosopher would 
  turn round and say. "Hey! Now just a cotton-picken' minute. 
  Black? It's just not on . . . Why Black?" 
  
    Well why not? It is only the nerds, the so called "er-roo-dite" 
  who say that black is really an absence of any colour and that its 
  opposite, white, is a mixture of all colours. Thems that knows, 
  knows? So it can be said, for starters, that this "colour" is 
  neither a colour in the true sense, nor is it suitable for prams. 
  It is only "tra-dit-ion," and perhaps them hot rays of the sun 
  that says, prams should be white or at least a cream colour. But 
  this is what made this particular pram "you-nique." It was glossy 
  black on the outside with thin-lined red and blue trim and big 
  silver coloured overlapping wheels with white tyres, and an open-
  spring system that would make a carriage manufacturer real proud. 
  It was a Cad-il-lac, the "creme-de-la-creme" of prams and it 
  belonged to Mary. And Mary was black. 
  
    So, Mary with a pride usually found among young mothers 
  with their first-born, would nestle the little mulatto, in the 
  whiteness of the interior lining, stroll among the sorrow of the 
  street and share with her near neighbours; so that they could goo 
  and gah, and smile, and wave little handsies, and "chin-chuck," 
  and cheek-pinch, and "ditty-ditty", and "Oh isn't she nice?" and 
  "How old is she?" and "Oh! My! My!" . . . within, and between  
  each other. The fact there was no dad to accompany the child on 
  the street rounds on any similar dirt-day, made little difference. 
  People were used to the "single mamas" in this black "neigh-burr-
  hood," and the falsity of their real indifference to another 
  ghetto new-born -- showed . . . .
  
    But Mary in her youthful "ex-uber-ence" and simplistic view of 
  life became careless. She left the baby outside the drugstore on 
  the corner while she went to get some "form-you-lar." When she 
  returned both baby and black pram had gone. 
  
    Even the black policemen were reluctant to come to this 
  part of the ghetto and of all the questions they asked not one 
  reference was made to the father. Nobody had seen nothin' and 
  even if they had they would only give the ghetto head shake and 
  shrug to questions asked by a "po-lees-man." The kidnap case was
  reported and indifferently shelved when there was no result after 
  eight days, but Mary cried for a much longer time, and the "oh-
  deary-mes," and "we-help-you-chyl," and "holy-holy-her-daddy-
  whoever-he-was-musta-cum-fo-her," . . . from those offering 
  comfort did very little to help Mary. 
  
    Two boys, Jelop and Joseph, found the black pram under a heap 
  of old soggy cardboard cartons, down the end of an alley that few, 
  except for the most brazen of all the street-wise kids, would care 
  to visit. After a, "Get-your-focking-spik-arse-outa-here-and-
  take-that-focking-pram-back-to-wheres-you-got-it." And a, "Me-
  and-your-oncle-and-your-muddar-wez-get-some-works-to-do," and a 
  muffled, "Compree?" came through the slammed door -- type 
  explanation when they took it home, left the boys in no doubt 
  their thinking was wrong; and their boxed ears were still ringing 
  to confirm it. But they continued to scramble the second flight 
  down when they were called back. They hesitated and looked at one 
  another, remembering that their ears were still ringing from the 
  first blows and they were loathe to get more. 
  
    When they returned, they were told to keep the pram and hide it
  somewhere safe but in the meantime they were to see Jose and get
  him to steal a car big enough to hold the "theeng." The boys did 
  not understand, but for fear of another beating, did as they were 
  told. 
  
   Jose read aloud to the boys about the bank robbery and how 
  three robbers thought to be Hispanic had entered a midtown bank 
  just on midday and at gunpoint robbed the cashiers of between 
  $50-$60 thousand dollars, then fled to a big black car and 
  disappeared. The police were puzzled by the disappearance of both 
  the money and the robbers and the speed at which the whole event 
  had occurred. The black car thought to be the getaway car had been 
  found but it did not lead to anything. But the boys knew. Their 
  mother had practised walking the black pram up and down the street 
  for some weeks before the event and it was only one street and an 
  alley away from the bank. Friend Jose, the boy's papa and uncle 
  had transferred the money to the pram and mama had casually 
  wheeled it away while the sirens wailed all around her. The black 
  pram having served its purpose was dumped uptown in a deserted 
  ally. And that is where Annie found it.
  
    There wasn't much to Annie. She was your typical bag-lady, 
  a scavenger that hummed tunelessly as she walked, and hummed
  because she was not one to wash frequently. No one knew much
  about the squat shambling figure, where she came from or even 
  how long she had wandered the town between rubbish tins:  she 
  was a loner and it was in her liking to be that way. Always 
  dressed in a man's overcoat and down-at-heel shoes, she would 
  work the restaurants and bakeries and the hotel rubbish tins for 
  food or anything that seemed of value. The police knew her and 
  sometimes spoke to her because she was far from being stupid -- 
  eccentric, yes -- but if you wanted to know something about what 
  was happening on the "street" you could just, ask Annie, and she 
  would know. 
  
    The fact that she had swapped a super-market trolley for a far-
  from-new black pram did not register in the minds of the policemen 
  and she continued to walk it and collect her rubbish without being 
  questioned. And Annie merged with the ambience of the wind-blown, 
  paper-littered streets that were sometimes corridors of concrete 
  shadows, to become that familiar figure wandering the town with a 
  black pram filled with all that she owned and cherished. She became 
  part of the quality of the streets -- the life-blood and character, 
  and one day, without her knowing, she also became the subject of a 
  photograph.   
  
    But they all mourned for her when they found that she had been
  killed by a hit and run driver; the fancy restaurateurs who left 
  the odd plate for her; the bakers of the fine french bread who 
  left her yesterday's stale; the policeman who respected her for 
  her street eyes and ears; and the street kids who frequently teased 
  her about the baby she didn't have in her old black pram. But it 
  was a yesterday's event that is forgotten tomorrow, and they took 
  Annie without ceremony to the morgue to await a nothing grave, 
  and a little further on, the pram filled with its aluminium cans, 
  bottles, rags, old buttons and a few coins was tossed ignominiously 
  to the dump. Both, it seemed had served little useful purpose.
  
                                 *  *  *
  
    It was called "The Gallery" and it was filled with the uptown 
  yuppies with their cellphones ringing indifferently from their 
  pockets and the gaggle of finery-bedecked women with crooked 
  little fingers and hour-glass bodies and sparkling slippers that 
  had just walked off a cat-walk, and bubbling champagne at $120 a 
  bottle, and an insincerity that drooled down the walls and into 
  the street where the chauffeur's waited in their shiny black 
  limousines . . . . And interspersed with the moneyed zoo was the 
  ingenuousness of the five finalists who talked amongst themselves 
  quietly and held themselves aloofly from the pain-in-the-arse 
  babblers. They knew why they were there and wandered together as 
  a group around the rooms inspecting and admiring the great beauty 
  of the black and white prints. Each had submitted prints, and the 
  overseas judges had reached their decision.
  
    The third prize was awarded to a print of a young black baby 
  sitting on a man's knee with the afternoon sun casting soft shadow 
  into a dingy one-room apartment highlighting the character of a 
  strong yet rather sad Spanish face. It was called "Mary's Child in 
  The Sun." The second prize awarded to one showing a back view of 
  an old lady in an ankle length coat and turned-over shoes. She was 
  leaning forward away from the camera and may have been pushing a 
  pram or trolley, titled "The Bag Lady." The winning picture was 
  that of a discarded pram thrown carelessly into a dump and hinting 
  at a wealth of secrets which assured the viewer that it *must* have 
  had a history. It was called the "Black Pram" and all who studied 
  it wondered . . . . 
  
                             (DREAM FORGE)
  
  Copyright 1996 Eric Dunstan, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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  Born in New Zealand closer to 100 than 50 years ago. University with 
  Physics and Maths. Merchant seaman (engineer) working mainly South 
  America, East coast of North America, and Pacific Islands. He likes 
  giving essence and flavour to short stories & poetry; published by 
  small press in Canada, UK and Australasia under various pseudos. 
  He's won various prizes. Loves: wife; kids; animals; life; trees; 
  women; New Zealand; 30 foot putts; wine; music; women; writing; 
  computer; laughing - and did I mention women? And refuse to give 
  up on any of the above. Hate TV crap; nuclear testing; war; inane 
  government thinking; un-environmentalists; boring conversation; 
  yuppies who can't get it right; and rejection slip wallpaper. 
  Email:  meric@igrin.co.nz
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