mzawf.org • View topic - Pat Ritter. Books
Login

  • Advertisement

Pat Ritter. Books


An extraordinary writer
:read ENJOY READING THE PAGE PER DAY

  • Author
    Message

Re: Pat Ritter. Books

Postby patritter » Tue Aug 08, 2017 10:28 pm

'The Drover' - Page 45:

‘I think so – Mum couldn’t cook like this.’ She continued.
Henry dished up bread and butter custard and all was satisfied after a slice of damper and billy tea.
‘I’ll wash up,’ Rose said.
‘You’ve never washed up in your life.’ her father stated.
‘After this meal I’m happy to help out.’ Rose continued.
‘I’ll help.’ Henry called.
Harry and Ted moved away from the camp to have a smoke. A full moon made it as bright as daytime. After they settled and lite up a smoke Harry said, ‘I don’t want you to talk about the war if you don’t want too but I’m interested how you survived. It must have been tough.’
‘I suppose I should start at the beginning.’ Ted said.
‘Whatever you want to say will do.’ Harry wanted Ted to tell his story in his own time; he couldn’t imagine being held a prisoner-of-war for three years or more and come out of the ordeal sane.
‘At the time I joined up I thought it was too late because of my age but they took me – they must have scrapped the bottom of the barrel. We trained at Redbank in Brisbane for a few weeks and then got shipped off to Malaya. It was February 41; it took about two and a half weeks on the boat.’
‘Pa and Harry, I’m off to bed, see you both in the morning.’ Rose called out.
‘Don’t forget you’re the horse tailer – do you know what to do?’ Harry answered.
‘Get the horses in, I suppose – anything else.’ Rose replied in an inquisitive voice.
‘Let the dogs go for a run,’ Harry commanded.
‘Alright, goodnight - see you both in the morning.’
‘Goodnight.’ Both said in unison.
Harry thought more of Ted’s story and wanted to hear the rest of his tale but it was getting late and he had to have a bathe before he went to bed. Since Rose had gone to bed he could now have a dip in the river without embarrassment of being seen.
CHASE THIS BOOK CLICK HERE: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95766
User avatar
patritter
mzawfer
mzawfer
 
Posts: 3522
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2011 10:45 pm
Location: Brooloo - Queensland - Australia
Has thanked: 0 time
Have thanks: 1855 times

Advertisement

Re: Pat Ritter. Books

Postby patritter » Wed Aug 09, 2017 10:48 pm

'The Drover' - Page 46:

‘Ted, do you mind if we continue your story tomorrow – I’ve got to go for a skinny dip before I go to bed.’ Harry asked.
‘Yeah, that’ll be okay – I’m exhausted anyway and should turn in, see you in the morning bright and early.’ Ted answered.
Ted wanted to share the rest of his story with Harry but each time he thought about those days the nightmares returned to haunt his every moment, especially the atrocities handed out by his captors.
Before retiring to bed Harry went to the river stripped and entered the water. He washed himself with soap and brushed his teeth with his toothbrush. After drying on a towel he retired to his swag and in no time fell into a deep sleep, his thoughts only of Rose and images of Ted held as a prisoner-of-war.

The smell of freshly cooked fish spread through the camp as the sun broke through the early morning dawn.
Harry awoke with a startle and thought he’d slept in. He always awoke before dawn, a habit he had since starting droving. His nostrils filled with the fresh morning air and the smell of cooked fish.
‘I’ve let the sheep go and your horse is saddled and tethered,’ Rose told Harry when he joined them.
‘Thanks Rose, how is everyone this morning?’ Harry said with a smile in his voice.
‘Wonderful,’ Ted replied, ‘I’ve never felt as good in a long time.’
‘Brekkies ready – come and get it’, Henry called and the others formed a circle around the camp fire. Each secured a plate filled with fish and ate to their heart’s content, finished off with a pannikin of hot black tea and freshly cooked Johnny cakes.
CHASE THIS BOOK CLICK HERE: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95766
User avatar
patritter
mzawfer
mzawfer
 
Posts: 3522
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2011 10:45 pm
Location: Brooloo - Queensland - Australia
Has thanked: 0 time
Have thanks: 1855 times

Re: Pat Ritter. Books

Postby patritter » Thu Aug 10, 2017 10:41 pm

'The Drover' - Page 47:

Daylight broke across the horizon; birds sang their early morning songs.
‘What are these?’ Rose asked before she mouthed a Johnny cake.
‘They’re Johnny cakes, a bit of flour, water, cream-of-tartar, soda and drippen.’ Henry told her.
‘Why are they called Johnny cakes? Did a fellow named Johnny invent them?’ She asked.
‘I dun know – Harry taught me how to cook them, do you know Harry?’ Henry asked.
‘No, my father taught me and he never told me who invented them,’ Harry answered, ‘they’re pretty good, the fish are good too’ he finished with a piece in his mouth, ‘did you let the dogs go for a run Rose?’ He mumbled with a mouth filled with food.
‘Yes Boss, they emptied out and are ready for the day – the sheep are down along the river drinking.’ She explained.
‘Alright then we’d better hit the road, Henry we’ll meet you at the 12 mile.’ Harry commanded.
All three finished breakfast, mounted their horses, whistled the dogs and commenced to ride around the sheep.
Sheep are strange creatures, there is always a leader, much like humans, and others follow the leader, just like humans.

It was mid morning and time to rest the sheep to graze, ‘we’ll put the billy on for a cuppa, what’d ya reckon?’ Harry cooed to the other two who were across the other side of the mob. Both waved and headed to where Harry stopped under the shade of a gum tree near the river.
By the time they dismounted Harry had a fire going and his quart-pot boiled. The others joined him. Henry prepared damper and jam for morning smoko and all three shared.
Leaning against his saddle Harry said, ‘I’m having a kip, the sheep will be okay.’ He laid his head against the saddle and pushed his hat over his face, snoring erupted from his nostrils.
PURCHASE THIS BOOK CLICK HERE: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95766
User avatar
patritter
mzawfer
mzawfer
 
Posts: 3522
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2011 10:45 pm
Location: Brooloo - Queensland - Australia
Has thanked: 0 time
Have thanks: 1855 times

Re: Pat Ritter. Books

Postby patritter » Fri Aug 11, 2017 11:00 pm

'The Drover' - Page 48:

‘We’d better have a rest also Pa,’ Rose shared with her father and both lay down with their heads on their saddles to rest. Under the shade of the gum tree, a slight breeze, Rose’s eyes closed.
Rose awoke with a smile – she now understood why Harry loved droving; it was his life, his destiny. She would do anything to make this trip a success. She was beginning to take a shine to him but this wasn’t the time or place to commence a romance. It was back to work.
She stood and walked to recapture the horses. With all three in hand she bought them to the shade of the tree when the others slowly awoke from their deep sleep.
‘Thanks Rose,’ Harry muttered rubbing his face to wipe away the sleep, ‘you’ll make a horse tailer yet.’
All three saddled their mounts and slowly reformed their previous positions – Harry at the tail; Rose on one wing and her father on the other. They moved the sheep off.
Harry moved toward Ted’s wing and soon both men came abreast. He swung his right leg over the pommel of the saddle, drew tobacco from his shirt pocket and rolled a cigarette, cupped his hand around the cigarette and lit it with a match. Slowly drawing on the cigarette he said, ‘Ted, we have time, do you want to tell me more of your story?’
‘Yeah, alright – where were we?’ Ted asked.
‘You arrived in Malaya – I think. What happened next?’
‘We were at Mersing when Japan entered the war and began their invasion of Malaya. They already reached Johore by January 42 and on the 21st we started the fight with Japan. We had 25 pounder field guns and this was when we were attacked by the Japanese aircraft.’
‘Woe up a bit, I have no idea what you’re talking about – where are these places? They’re all foreign to me.’ Harry spluttered.
PURCHASE THIS BOOK CLICK HERE: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95766
User avatar
patritter
mzawfer
mzawfer
 
Posts: 3522
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2011 10:45 pm
Location: Brooloo - Queensland - Australia
Has thanked: 0 time
Have thanks: 1855 times

Re: Pat Ritter. Books

Postby patritter » Sat Aug 12, 2017 11:01 pm

'The Drover' - Page 49:

‘Sorry Harry, its north of Australia, past New Guinea and the bottom of China.’
‘I know where China is – alright I’ve got a bit of a picture of where it is, go on.’
‘We were there about 12 months before the fighting started. Our job was to stop the Japanese from moving south. When the fighting started we were attacked by Japanese aircraft.’
‘What’d you do – what was your job – did you shoot back at them?’ Harry wanted to know.
‘I was a signalman, my job to make certain the wires were always connected for communication. One time I was in a bomb shelter and communication went dead. The wires along the line must have been hit by a bomb and broke.’
‘What’d you do?’
‘I asked the Lieutenant for his revolver and he gave it to me. I strapped it on and left the bunker. It was raining and the line was hard to see. I felt my way along the length of wire and found a break and in the dark joined the wire together. Shells blasted the area and one time I thought I was a goner when I lay flat on my tummy. After the bombing stopped I started back to the bunker. The rain poured down in torrents, I was wet through to the skin. On the way back I saw a cave and thought it was a good thing at the time to go into the cave until the rain stopped.’ Harry was in awe of the story told by Ted, he visioned the soaked uniform and Ted moving into the cave.
‘I’m listening.’ Harry said locking eyes on Ted to encourage him to tell him more, he’s a brave fellow if ever he knew one, Harry thought.
‘It was dark and the flash light I carried was dull. Inside the cave the glow from the touch showed a pair of eyes. I didn’t know if it was a Japanese soldier or a mountain lion – we’d seen a few mountain lions since we arrived. Anyway I hightailed it out of there and returned to the bunker.’
TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK CLICK HERE: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95766
User avatar
patritter
mzawfer
mzawfer
 
Posts: 3522
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2011 10:45 pm
Location: Brooloo - Queensland - Australia
Has thanked: 0 time
Have thanks: 1855 times

Re: Pat Ritter. Books

Postby patritter » Sun Aug 13, 2017 11:17 pm

'The Drover' - Page 50:

‘Alright you two I’m not being paid enough to do the job of three.’ Rose called to Harry and her father.
‘We’ll catch up later; I want to know the rest.’ Harry told Ted and returned to the tail of the mob.
Droving is a lonely life; at times dangerous particularly when water is scarce. This trip was a joy because Harry enjoyed listening to Ted’s story and the sheep grazed along the stock route. Because they only travelled six miles a day Harry worked out he had plenty of time for rest.

Chapter 7

It was almost noon when Harry cooed out to the other two to have a break near the river. There was a slight cool breeze blowing and the sheep looked relaxed. He was happy with wether sheep because to control them was easier compared to ewes and lambs. Wethers were better sheep to drive.
Under the shade of a gum tree near the river bank Harry dismounted from his horse; unsaddled and placed dinner camp hobbles around its front legs and let it graze. The other two did the same and joined Harry by the fire he’d built to boil their quart pots and have lunch. Henry made sandwiches for their lunches with mutton and damper sprinkled with golden syrup over the meat.
Rose moved away from the camp to rest under a nearby gum tree to give her father and Harry time to chat. She didn’t want to be in their conversation or to know what they were talking about, especially if it was about the war.
She had no desire to mention the war with her father because; in the past he almost chopped her head off with abuse and told her it was none of her business. She was alarmed at the thought he would never allow her to wear rubber thongs because they had made in Japan stamped on them. She never understood why he hated Japanese however; it was his problem, not hers.
TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK CLICK HERE: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95766
User avatar
patritter
mzawfer
mzawfer
 
Posts: 3522
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2011 10:45 pm
Location: Brooloo - Queensland - Australia
Has thanked: 0 time
Have thanks: 1855 times

Re: Pat Ritter. Books

Postby patritter » Mon Aug 14, 2017 10:56 pm

'The Drover' - Page 51:

‘What happened after you got back to the bunker?’ Harry asked.
‘The line was re-connected and communication fixed. The fight went on but we were forced to withdraw to Singapore Island. Many lives were lost - a new unit called ‘G Troop’ was formed’.
‘Weren’t you scared?’
‘Bloody oath, we were all terrified and thought we were going to die.’
‘Don’t worry I’d be the same – you’re a bloody hero, Ted. Did you know?’
‘No, I’m not a hero; those people who fought and were killed are the heroes, those ones who fought and fell back to Singapore Harbour. We fought like this for about a fortnight and on the 14th February we surrendered.’
‘That must have been a tough thing to do.’
‘I thought we could have fought on but the top brass told us to put our guns down on the ground and raise our arms. It was strange, in the distance we heard noises – it sounded like army tanks and over the horizon we saw hundreds of Japanese riding bicycles without tyres – the sound from the steel rim of the bicycles on the road sounded as if army tanks were coming.’
‘You must have been shattered.’
‘We’d been fighting for over a fortnight and losing the battle, then the water supply was cut off to one million Singapore civilians. They were being massacred by the intense bombardment of bombs – death was everywhere.’
Harry couldn’t believe anything of this magnitude could exist among human beings. In his minds eye he saw people dead, others fleeing from the enemy and proud to know men like Ted who fought brave to fight the enemy - had to surrender.
‘I can’t imagine how you put your rifles down and surrendered.’ Harry questioned.
TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK CLICK HERE: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95766
User avatar
patritter
mzawfer
mzawfer
 
Posts: 3522
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2011 10:45 pm
Location: Brooloo - Queensland - Australia
Has thanked: 0 time
Have thanks: 1855 times

PreviousNext

Return to The Author, Pat Ritter