The Plantation - Di Morrissey [149]
‘But Margaret had made it on board,’ finished Caroline.
Bette rubbed a hand over her eyes. ‘Yes. Poor Margaret. She told me later that it was an absolute disaster on the docks and when that last bombing raid occurred, the captain decided that it was too dangerous to wait any longer and the gangplank was raised and the ship sailed. Margaret had no idea where we were and when she looked at the horrific scenes on the docks she didn’t even know if we were dead or alive. Of course it was years before I found out that Margaret’s ship had made it safely to Australia.’
Caroline and Julie just stared at Bette.
‘How did you feel when you realised that the boat had sailed without you and Philip. What did you do?’ asked Julie.
‘Well, in a way we were lucky, thanks to dear Gilbert. As we ran down to the burning docks Gil took matters into his own hands.’
‘He sounds very resourceful,’ said Caroline.
‘He was. He saved us,’ said Bette softly. ‘Gil found a Malay with a small trading vessel. He had his wife and three children on board with him and when Gil gave him a fistful of money he let us jump on board. We were among the flotilla of small boats streaming away from Singapore in every direction, trying to escape the Japanese. We headed south towards the Dutch East Indies, hoping to land in Java. None of us had any idea just how far the Japanese would spread and Gil thought that we would find a way to get from Java back to Australia.
‘The first night we pulled into a tiny island that seemed to be uninhabited. We tried not to use any lights, though Gilbert and the boatman waded ashore with torches and caught us several good-sized crabs, which we boiled on a paraffin ring on the stern of the boat. I often recalled that delicious meal during the lean times in the camp. We anchored in a mangrove inlet and the mosquitoes were ferocious. Philip and I rolled together under some canvas and Gil sat up and kept watch. In the morning Philip was tired and cranky and very weepy. Gil took him aside and told him that he understood just how he felt, but that he had to be a little man and do everything I said until we got home to his parents. That man-to-man talk from Gil seemed to do the trick and I was forever grateful as Philip tried so hard after that not to be difficult, and he wasn’t.’
‘It must have been like a bad dream.’ Caroline shook her head. ‘I wonder how I’d have managed, if I’d been thrown into such a terrible situation.’
‘You don’t know what reserves of strength you have within yourself until you need them,’ replied Bette.
‘But you didn’t get to Java before the Japanese, did you?’ said Julie.
‘No. We were trying to travel among these little islands in the hope of not being spotted. Several planes flew over us and the next thing we knew there was a large powerful gunboat coming towards us. Gilbert made every one except the Malay hide below and Gil lay under the canvas on the deck. He and the Malay boatman had concocted some story that they were only poor fisherman or something like that. Gil spoke Malay quite well.’
‘Did that work?’ asked Julie. She and Caroline were transfixed by Bette’s story, imagining what they would have done in such a ghastly situation.
‘They pulled alongside, shouting in Japanese, which of course the boatman didn’t understand. Then one of them jumped onto the bow of the boat and fired through the deck and the little windows down below. The Malay man started shouting and his wife started