Tears of the Moon - Di Morrissey [7]
‘I’d love that. Let’s make it a date. I love you, Mum.’
‘Love you too. Take care, Sami.’
Lily hung up, grateful to her daughter for her thoughtfulness, but feeling worse than before. She felt history was repeating itself. Deep in thought, Lily packed the photos and letters back in the leather suitcase but kept out the silver-framed photo of the man from Broome. She kept the necklace on and that night slept naked, wearing just the pearls. They felt alive and warm against her skin and once, waking in the moonlight, she looked at them and thought it was like they’d come to life, for their lustre had an almost luminous glow.
By morning, she’d made up her mind. She’d take three months’ leave from the medical clinic where she worked as a research technician, for she was owed long service leave. She would go to Broome and start the search for her mother’s family there. She owed it to herself and to her daughter.
The more she thought about Georgiana’s attitude, the more convinced Lily was that there were secrets that perhaps her mother felt best buried and forgotten.
It surprised her how easily one could make things happen. In a matter of weeks she had rearranged her life.
Tony, her lover, good friend and part-time companion, was initially surprised and asked why she was undertaking this search now. ‘Why didn’t you do this years ago? You said you felt strongly about it when you were pregnant with Sami. Why do this now? What’s it going to achieve?’
His gentle questioning made her try to find the answers in her heart. Several times in her life she had felt the need to trace her family. Being pregnant had made her wonder about hereditary traits and genes but she had enough to deal with at the time and never followed it up. She always intended to sit her mother down with a bottle of wine and ask all the questions. But she never got around to it. And at boarding school, when girls talked about family stuff and shared secrets, Lily had little to offer and let them think she was holding something back rather than tell them how little she knew about her family. Dear God, had Sami faced that same questioning and, like herself, had no answers?
Maybe it was shock, grief, the emotional rocking of her life, the realisation that she owed her daughter something. But Lily knew the time had come to look at her life—the past and the future.
Strangely, she felt invigorated and renewed and she spoke aloud, ‘I hope you’re at peace at last, Georgie, but I have unfinished business. Family business. I’m going west.’
Lily lifted up the pearls and kissed the pendant and for the first time in many weeks, laughed aloud.
Lily was sitting in the forward section next to the window, her face obscured by the pages of the Australian newspaper. Her concentration was interrupted by the flight attendant unlatching the small table and placing a tray of food in front of her.
Lily started, and then smiled over the top of the paper. ‘Sorry, I was reading.’
The young woman in the Ansett uniform smiled back. ‘Tea or coffee?’
‘Tea, please.’
As she began pouring the steaming tea the stewardess gave this attractive woman a friendly glance. ‘Going to Darwin on a holiday?’
The cabin crew had been eyeing this pretty fortyish woman in the beige linen slacks and cream silk shirt, her thick dark hair coiled on her head, a minimum of tasteful gold jewellery. ‘Classy’ was the word they’d decided suited her. She had olive skin and large dark eyes. Her mouth was wide and generous. She was one of those beautiful women whose looks crept up on you, feature by feature.
Lily answered in her soft husky voice. ‘I’m actually going on to Broome.’
‘Oh, that’s a great place for a holiday.’
‘I’m going there on business. Family business. How long do I have in Darwin?’
‘Five hours, I’m afraid. You have to change planes.’
The attendant smiled and moved on to the next row.
When she returned later to offer a refill, Lily was lying back with her eyes closed and a wistful expression on her face