Beryl and other perils
Posted in General	by James Clarke
Health and safety officers in Britain are alarmed at the number of children doing adults' work – illegally.
They found a 12-year-old operating a mechanical digger laying drives in Birmingham, and a 13-year-old girl working as a hospital receptionist. – Report.
Beryl (13) knew, in her heart of hearts, that she was too old for Selwyn (12), but then, she told herself, Selwyn was way ahead of his years.
Did he not drive a 32-ton mechanical digger which could, with one scoop, lift out a fair-sized cottage?
Indeed, had he not done just that – accidentally?
The problem was, Beryl said to herself as she examined her acne in the little mirror at Thornton Hospital reception desk, Selwyn was doing a man's job – yet her parents refused to admit it.
Ok, so it was their cottage he had totalled. But still, it was no reason for them to go on and on about it for two whole days.
The telephone rang and Beryl chanted: "Thornton Hospital! How may I help yoo-hoo?"
It was a very excited woman on the other end. Beryl puzzled, removed the phone from her ear and stared for a moment into the earpiece. Then she said "What? I mean pardon, madam? You say your waters have broken?
"I think you need a plumber. Try the Yellow Pages."
Beryl put down the phone in time to see the dragon-like Mrs Monckton coming down from seeing her husband in ward 6. The old lady waddled up to the reception desk and announced "Ernie is much better today. He says he's dying to come home."
"It's the anaesthetic," said Beryl, "it can't have worn off yet."
Beryl removed the wooden tongue-depressor she used as a bookmark and tried to continue reading Nancy Drew and the Arab Prince. But her mind was in turmoil.
There was the disco tomorrow night, and what to wear, and Bob's invitation to his school dance.
Bob, now in Std 9, was working part time driving locomotives. His kid brother, too young to even climb on to one of those monsters, had to be satisfied working a signal box on Saturday mornings.
It was nice earning money, Beryl told herself, as she thought of all her friends who were either studying or in labour.
The phone rang again: "ThorntonHospitalhowmayIhelpyoo-hoo?"
It was a woman asking how it was that her husband, who was being treated for asthma, died of heart disease? Beryl reassured her: "Please, madam, if the hospital was treating your husband for asthma he would have died of asthma."
Beryl saw young Doctor Harding walking past, nonchalantly swinging his stethoscope. She sighed a little sigh. He once did 10 tonsillectomies in an hour. Everybody said that wasn't bad for a 15-year-old.
Her thoughts slipped back to her boyfriend, Selwyn. Maybe she thought, he would look older if his mother let him wear longs. But his mother wouldn't buy him any until he learned to do joined-up writing.
It was fair enough. Selwyn had a little dyslexia but it was hardly a handicap. There was just the one incident where Selwyn had ripped up the drive of number 31 Oak Avenue instead of number 13. But everybody makes mistakes.
And, anyway, it was nothing compared with what Bertie Grimes did at the airport. But then Bertie was only 11 and, as the chairman of the board of inquiry said, at Bertie's age, he should never have been put in charge of air traffic control.
child labour, children, dangerous jobs	Leave a comment
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