The Empire Trilogy - J. G. Farrell [718]
‘Ahhhh!’ He stumbled in the darkness and, as he did so, it was almost as if his Chairman deliberately ground his sharp knee painfully into his ear. But, of course, that was out of the question. ‘Where are you, Walter?’ he cried feebly into the darkness. ‘I say, old boy, please don’t leave me!’
Once Dupigny, whose wound fortunately had proved none too serious, had been returned to the Mayfair, Matthew had to consider what to do next. With only a few hours left before the Japanese occupation of the city it had become urgent to find a place where Vera might be able to lie low and conceal her identity. She needed a Chinese family willing to take the risk of hiding her, but neither Vera nor Matthew knew one. The Major suggested that they should ask Mr Wu. But Mr Wu was nowhere to be found. Either he had managed to escape during the early part of the night or else he, too, in danger as a former officer in the Chinese Air Force, had decided to lie low. Matthew and Vera wasted two precious hours in a vain search for Mr Wu. Such was the confusion in the city that nobody knew where anybody might be. As they made their way once again through the city centre Matthew gazed with envy at the troops who had stretched out to sleep on the pavements. By now both he and Vera were too tired to think constructively: they just wandered aimlessly, hand in hand, full of bitterness and discouragement as a result of their abortive attempt to escape and longing to be at peace.
At last, in desperation, they went to visit the tenement where Vera had lived before. The building was half deserted and there was no longer anyone sleeping on the stairs or in the corridors. Evidently many of those who had lived there formerly had moved to kampongs outside the city to avoid the bombing and shelling. Vera’s little cubicle was still as she had left it. Nothing had been touched in her absence.
‘You can’t stay here. Someone in the building would inform on you sooner or later.’
‘Where else is there to go?’ Vera put a soothing hand on his shoulder. ‘They’re simple people here. They don’t know about what happened in Shanghai.’
‘They’ll think you’re suspicious. They’ll have seen you with me.’
‘They will just think I’m a prostitute. To them all Englishmen look alike,’ she smiled wanly. ‘Really, I shall be all right. I have been in a situation like this before.’ She shrugged. ‘Besides, we have no choice.’ After she had rested her head against his shoulder for a little while in silence she said: ‘You must go now, Matthew. It would be best if we weren’t seen together any more. When you have gone I shall cut my hair and take off these European clothes.’
‘Is there nothing else I can do for you? Let me give you some money, though it may no longer be any use once the Japanese have taken over. Perhaps it would be best to buy some things tomorrow, then exchange them later when they get rid of our currency.’
Vera nodded and took the money. She began to weep quietly, saying: ‘I’m sorry to be like this. I feel so tired, that’s all. Tomorrow when I have slept I shall be all right.’
‘We’ll see each other again, won’t we?’
‘Yes, one day, certainly,’ she agreed.
Early on Tuesday afternoon European civilians were at last marched off to Katong on the first stage of their long journey on foot to internment in Changi gaol. They had been assembled on the padang all morning under the tropical sun. Many of them were already suffering from the heat, weariness and thirst. The Major and Matthew walked one on each side of Dupigny who, despite his injury, insisted on walking by himself. Matthew carried a small bundle of Dupigny’s belongings as well as a water bottle and a suitcase of his own. They walked in silence at first. The Major, in addition to his suitcase, carried a folded stretcher they had improvised, lest it should become necessary to carry Dupigny.
The ruined, baking streets stretched interminably ahead.