The Plantation - Di Morrissey [105]
‘Are you making plans, Julie? We’ve got something arranged for lunch and for dinner.’
‘Oh, I don’t want to impose,’ said Julie quickly. ‘I’m very happy just hanging around here. I’m hoping Christopher might bring back fish for dinner.’
‘Dinner is arranged,’ said Martine, sitting down beside Julie. ‘We have a surprise planned.’
‘For Christopher?’
‘No, cherie. For you. We’re going to the big beach resort for dinner …’
‘Lovely! I hear it’s gorgeous.’
‘It is. We’re having dinner with a guest who’s staying there, an old friend of the boys, Marjorie Carter.’
‘Oh!’ Julie was speechless for a moment.
‘I hope you’re pleased,’ said Shane, smiling at her. ‘We’re all in on Martine’s plan.’
‘I can’t believe it. How did this happen? How lucky we’re here at this time!’ said Julie feeling quite overcome.
‘Thank Martine,’ said Peter. ‘She persuaded Marjorie to fly over from Penang and have a little holiday to catch up with us – and to meet you.’
‘I don’t know what to say,’ said Julie, putting down her cup of tea. Her face was jubilant.
‘We thought we could all have a little social get together tonight, and then you and Marjorie can spend some time together tomorrow perhaps,’ said Martine, pleased at making Julie happy.
‘I can’t thank you enough. Is Marjorie happy to share her memories?’
The idea of sitting down and talking with someone who had known Great Aunt Bette and Uncle Philip, and the extraordinary time they must have shared, was wonderful. How she wished that her mother was there with her so that she could meet Marjorie as well.
‘It must have been a difficult time for her, too, as a prisoner in a Japanese POW camp. Did she have any family with her?’
‘You can ask her the details, but I know that she was there with her mother, isn’t that right, Shane?’
‘Her father, Lionel Potts, was a district officer in Sarawak. I don’t think that our family knew them before that.’
‘So her father wasn’t in the camp with them?’ asked Julie.
‘Let Marjorie tell you what she knows,’ said Shane gently.
When Christopher returned from his fishing trip, he came over to Julie’s house where she was sitting on the balcony.
‘Knock, knock. How’s your day been?’
‘Quiet. Restful. Nice. I’m looking forward to tonight. How was the fishing?’
‘Great, no, not really. All the big ones got away. There’s really no big-time fishing here, but it’s an excuse to hang out on a boat, have a few beers, trawl around the island. But I won’t be barbecuing a monster tonight.’
‘Never mind,’ she said. ‘There are other plans.’ Julie explained to him about Marjorie Carter and how Martine had arranged for them all to have dinner at the exclusive, upmarket resort.
‘Intriguing stuff. From what you tell me, she’s an important link. It should be an interesting night.’
‘Are you coming along?’
‘I hadn’t planned to, it seems more of a family night out.’
‘Come on, Christopher. It’s just Peter, Shane, Martine and me, and I know that all the others have also made plans. You can’t stay on your own. Wouldn’t you like to meet Marjorie? She sounds like a legend.’
Christopher smiled. ‘I would like to come. I was going to say, do you want to meet for a swim and maybe a cold beer now?’
‘Sounds good. I haven’t done a thing all day. Just been sitting here thinking about Grandfather’s memoir that I read when I was at Utopia. Do you know that when he got back to the plantation it was a shambles, his father was dead, and his son had been separated from my grandmother and wasn’t back in Australia as he had assumed?’
Small electric buggies, driven by charming staff in smart uniforms, zipped them through the floodlit tropical gardens of the exclusive beach resort, stopping outside the entrance to the elegant seafood restaurant.
‘You might get your fish dinner, after all,’ said Julie as Christopher helped her from the buggy. They walked past flaming torches and into the restaurant and were taken to a table in a private section, separate from the airy, open dining area with its polished wood and rattan furniture.
Marjorie