The Stamp Album

I was listening to the radio about collecting and a man began to talk about how he started to collect stamps when he was young. I recalled my stamp collecting childhood. I had 3 passions when I was 9 years old animals, bird watching and stamp collecting. The excitement of going into town to Coles and Woolworths to buy stamps hoping against hope that I would get a rare one was matched with swapping stamps with other kids. I learnt a lot about the world with stamps. I learnt about bad people who figured large in the collection like Hitler, Stalin and Franco but I had a lot of the Queen who I loved more than all the film stars.

I did see the Queen once. She came to Benalla and the family drove to see her. I stood in the front row waving a flag but as she passed in the big black car she turned away and waved at the opposite side and I only saw her white glove and the Duke of Edinburough which was a terrible disappointment.

It was a spring day and the wild flowers were out in the bush. I was wandering around as I did by myself when the next door neighbour's young worker called me over and asked me if I wanted to go up the bush. I guess he was about 18 years old and I hardly knew him but I still went with him. I soon realized that he wasn't interested in looking for greenhood orchids and early nancie's but we climbed the hill anyway and sat in the bald part looking at all the country below us. It was a beautiful sight. I never got sick of looking at that scene and the feeling of serenity that came over me.

The boy started looking restless and moving closer. He asked did I want to do something with him and started unbuttoning his fly. I knew what he meant. All the boys had played with us girls as younger children but this one was different. Alone in the bush I bravely said no. He offered me a stamp album if I did it with him. I will never forget the terrible dilemma I was in. More than ever I wanted a stamp album with good stamps, rare ones he said he had the best. A real collector is transported into a delirious state when offered an object of desire. My mouth filled with saliva as I thought of the prospect of having it.

I looked at him, his desperate wild face close to mine and realised the cost would be to great and I was scared. He grabbed me by the arm, the big strong boy but I broke his grip and ran down the hill running as fast as my little legs would go with him after me crashing through the trees and trampling the wild flowers.

I got home battered and bruised. Mum never noticed that anything was wrong and I never told her or anyone, such was my shame. There never was any stamp album and I never went near that boy again.