Lessons from the Heart by John Clanchy

that’s clean and bright and some of the kids go in there to buy chocolate and things, but the others just hang around the teachers and some even drift back onto the buses. And I look for Toni but can’t see her and I wonder if she’s even got off in the first place, and I start to look for Mr Prescott then, and catch myself doing it and think I shouldn’t and get confused, but luckily Miss Temple says to me:
    â€˜That’s one of ours, isn’t it? Go and get her, will you, while I get the others on the bus.’
    Miss Temple’s pointing to the edge of our group where Luisa has strayed and is standing and gazing at the people on the corner who are gazing back. And I walk slowly towards her because I almost like the town – it’s so grotty – and the sun’s so warm, and I don’t think the Aborigines mean any harm to anyone at all just standing on the corner and waiting for whatever they’re waiting for and they didn’t ask for a hundred white kids to land on them with their mouths open, and a few of them – the girls and women – are smiling and fluttering their hands and looking at our jeans and our shoes, and I smile and wave back, and Luisa, when I come up to her, is standing and gazing, not with her mouth open, but just absorbed, and Sarah’s right behind her and saying, ‘C’mon, Luisa, the bus is going now. We’ll be late,’ but Luisa for once is taking no notice, and she’s almost – till I touch her – in another world.
    I look then where she’s looking and there’s a man at the edge of his group – and he’s older and not the drunk one – in fact he doesn’t look drunk at all, and he’s got white whiskers which look so stark against his black skin, and at first I think he’s frowning, his brow is so pulled together, but then I realize he’s not, he’s staring but not frowning and his eyes are so intense, and fixed on Luisa, and then on me, and it’s more he’s puzzled than anything and it’s the sort of look someone gives you when they think they know you but can’t place you and they really look and search your face and then they usually give you a small smile, like in apology, and look away, but he doesn’t, he just keeps looking and staring till even I feel a bit uneasy, not scared but more wanting to say something to him, because he is asking us something and I don’t know what it is, and then I see him looking at Luisa again and turning his wrist, cocking it so that his palm is turned upwards and one finger shoots out and it’s almost like it’s pointing at me even though he’s still looking at Luisa. And then he turns his wrist and palm again, and this time he pushes out his lips as well and points with them. And I understand then, and we’ve been warned about this in the briefing before we started and told not to give, it only makes things worse, and they only spend it on drink anyway.
    â€˜He’s asking for money.’ I take Luisa by the shoulder because most of the kids are back on the buses now and their engines are starting. But it’s not that easy to turn her. Her body is frozen suddenly, and my hand seems to make no impression on the hard, fixed bone of her shoulder.
    â€˜Luisa, c’mon.’ She finally hears me and looks up.
    â€˜Laura,’ she says, and I don’t know who she expected, but her eyes are wide.
    â€˜C’mon,’ I say, leading her away. ‘He’s only asking for money.’
    â€˜No. He was asking about you.’
    And I’m too astonished to say About me? and think I must have misunderstood her, and by then Sarah’s taken her by the hand and they’re clambering back up the steps of the bus.
    â€˜Not as interesting as I thought,’ Miss Temple is saying to Dave as she counts us on, and this time – first time – she gets the number right and we can go.