The Plantation - Di Morrissey [156]
‘I suppose that now he’s twelve, you’ll be sending him to boarding school?’ asked Bette.
‘Roland put Philip’s name down at his old school in England before he was born. I’d much rather he went to school in Australia, it’s much closer. Going to school in England means he’ll never really know or visit our parents in Brisbane. But Roland insists that that’s the way it’s to be and his mother backs him. I wish she’d keep out of it.’
Bette nodded. She realised at once that Margaret was not looking forward to losing her son and she thought this was quite understandable. ‘I’m so looking forward to meeting little Caroline. I can’t wait to see her.’
‘She’s running around and becoming very independent. You may recall how the servants indulge and spoil the children. Caroline will be princess of the estate while I’m away,’ said Margaret.
‘Yes, she’d probably have a better time there than getting bored shopping and dining out with us,’ said Bette, who wasn’t especially looking forward to doing these activities either.
Nevertheless, as she and Margaret spent the next few days travelling about the city, Bette found that being back in bustling Malaya was exhilarating. All signs of wartime austerity were gone. She would have liked to explore more of KL, but Margaret flatly refused to venture into Chinatown or the seedy areas, preferring to wander through the new department stores.
Margaret was pleased with her purchases and enjoyed her break away in the city. She was a lot more relaxed as Hamid drove the two of them to the Selangor Club for tea. ‘We’ll have to do this again, or we could take another trip. I was thinking of going to the Cameron Highlands or Fraser’s Hill. I could take the children, Caroline’s old enough to enjoy that,’ said Margaret.
Hamid glanced at them in the rear-vision mirror of Roland’s new Oldsmobile. ‘Tuan says that it’s not so safe to travel in the countryside, mem,’ he advised. ‘The communists are making trouble for everyone.’
‘Those wretched Chinese communists. It’s all a lot of fire in the belly and shouting, as far as I’m concerned,’ said Margaret. ‘They want the British out of Malaya, but these people aren’t ready to rule themselves.’
‘Be independent, like India? I don’t know about that, Margaret. Surely the most important issue is for all the different races to live together in peaceful harmony and then decide what sort of an independent Malaya they want,’ said Bette.
‘Really, Bette, you’ve been so far removed from all of this. Speak to Roland before venturing an opinion, though frankly I think some of the planters are being rather alarmist. We’ve had no trouble on Utopia.’ She nudged Bette and nodded her head towards Hamid. ‘It’s rumours and innuendo flying around that start the trouble.’
In spite of Margaret’s comments about the communists, when they left KL, their car was escorted by two special constables armed with submachine guns. Margaret admitted to Bette that Roland would not allow her to travel to KL and back without such an escort.
As they approached Utopia, Bette began to recognise the once familiar countryside. As soon as the car slid under the portico, two people appeared at the front door. Bette gasped as she realised that one of them was Philip. She saw he was now a young man, not yet as tall as his father, who looked, Bette thought, rather careworn. Hamid opened Bette’s door and she leapt out of the car and raced to the steps as Roland came down to embrace her.
‘Welcome, welcome. Wonderful to see you again, Bette. Hello, darling,’ he said, turning to Margaret as she stepped from the car.
Bette stood at the bottom of the four steps staring up at Philip. They looked at each other curiously. Then slowly a smile broke out on Philip’s face and in one leap he was down the steps, standing before her.
Bette couldn’t speak. The physical memory of the thin body she’d held in her arms