The Plantation - Di Morrissey [114]
‘I don’t care about them. They live ten times better than us,’ said Evelyn. ‘But it’s the surprise searches I can’t stand. I don’t know what they expect to find. As if we’d have weapons or radios, or do they think that we’re digging a tunnel under the fence? And they make us stand for hours outside in the boiling sun while they do it. It’s inhumane.’
Bette didn’t answer. There were some secrets in their camp that were known only to a small group of the women and Bette was one. Some of them had thought it imperative that a record was kept of their imprisonment and so they kept a diary. Bette wrote small entries and added sketches to it. Paper was hard to come by but one of the women had managed to steal some from the Japanese. They kept the diary well hidden and constantly moved it to different locations to avoid it being found. All the women taking part in maintaining the diary knew that they would be severely punished if it was found, but they all thought the risk was worthwhile. Some day they would be released and the world would know what they had experienced.
‘It’s Marjorie’s birthday soon,’ continued Evelyn. ‘What can we possibly do for it? She’ll be thirteen and this isn’t how I imagined celebrating the occasion.’
‘I’ll talk to Babs and some of the others. See what we can come up with,’ said Bette. ‘I think we should celebrate Marjorie’s birthday. It’s important to her and it will show the Japs that we can’t be intimidated all the time.’
The women in Bette’s hut embraced the idea of a celebration, and they quickly became involved in producing a surprise birthday party for her. An evening skirt of shot taffeta was produced, and a top was cut down to make a party outfit for Marjorie. Someone else produced a glamorous hair clip for the occasion.
‘I know she’s still a baby,’ said Norma, ‘but, heck, give her this.’ She passed over a stub of precious lipstick. ‘A sort of symbol of the fun times to come when she gets out of here.’
‘Wish we could get her a cake,’ sighed Evelyn. ‘It just won’t seem like a proper birthday party without one.’
The children got into the spirit of the party and were thrilled to receive gifts of pieces of fruit wrapped in small squares of banana leaf. But the surprise came when Bette came from the kitchen holding a bowl with a ‘candle’ made from a vine twisted around a small stick topped with dried grass tied onto it as a wick.
‘Happy birthday, to you, happy birthday, dear Marjorie …’ Bette sang as the others chimed in and Marjorie, decked out in her finery, blew out the improvised candle. ‘Make a wish,’ said Bette softly.
‘What is it?’ asked Marjorie. ‘It smells wonderful.’
‘Gula melaka pudding! A birthday pudding,’ said Bette, pleased with the way the coconut and rice dessert had turned out. Small scoops of the sweet rice pudding were carefully doled out to everyone and they all ate it slowly, trying to make the treat last as long as possible.
Marjorie hugged Bette. ‘I can’t thank you enough. This is a birthday I’ll never forget.’
‘I have a little gift for you, it’s from Philip and me.’ She handed Marjorie a folded piece of paper. Marjorie opened it up to find a home-made birthday card decorated with a drawing of a thin young girl with long hair and a small boy eating bowls of rice with chopsticks.
Tears sprang to Marjorie’s eyes. ‘This is beautiful. It’s Philip and me, isn’t it? I’m going to hide it and keep it forever. Thank you, Bette, thank you, Philip.’
The little boy hugged Marjorie. ‘You can play with Lumpy,’ and he thrust his treasured toy at her.
Marjorie kissed the little blue elephant. ‘Well, that’s an honour. Maybe one day we can see real elephants.’
‘And orangutans in the jungle,’ smiled Bette.
‘I’m done with walking in the jungle,’ commented one of the women