Dragon Land

by Maureen Reynolds

  ‘Goodnight, Mr Wang.’ I could sense his gaze following me as the four of us stepped out into the street.

  As we walked along, Jonas explained that Sue Lin and Alex were going back to the hotel, and if I didn’t mind, there was a small seafood restaurant on the same street that we could go to.

  I didn’t tell him that I would follow him to the moon and back, but just nodded.

  The restaurant was tiny, but we got a table by the far wall, and a tiny Chinese lady came and took our order. It was all so surreal. One day I was working away at the school and now I was sitting here with a virtual stranger, and the strange thing was, I was loving every moment of it.

  After we had eaten, we sat with tiny bowls of fragrant tea and talked.

  Jonas said, ‘I originally come from Cork, in Ireland, where my father has a small farm and also breeds and stables horses. I’m afraid I’m a disappointment to him, as I didn’t want to stay on the farm or in Ireland. My uncle has a farm in the Scottish Borders, and I didn’t want to go there either. I came to Shanghai ten years ago and I love the life there as a freelance journalist and now an author. I sometimes worry about my father, as my mother died five years ago and I haven’t seen him since I went back for her funeral. What about you, Lizzie, what brought you to Hong Kong?’

  ‘My father was killed in the war when I was six and my mother never recovered from it. My granny and mother are both dead, but I’ve got my aunt Margaret to thank for coming out here. Her friends run the school I teach in. I’ve always longed for adventure. When I was a child, I used to shock my granny by saying I wanted to be a pirate.’

  He burst out laughing. ‘A pirate?’

  ‘Or an explorer, I didn’t mind which.’

  He became serious. ‘You must all have missed your father very much.’

  I said we had. ‘My mother always said the war had a lot to answer for, with all the families left behind to mourn their loved ones, and she was right. In the end it killed both my father and my mother.’

  He sighed. ‘The worst thing is there’s no end to conflict. There’s a war brewing in China, with the Japanese armies taking over the northern part of the country. Then there’s Chiang Kai-shek with his army and the Communists under Mao Zedong fighting one another, and the Japanese have their sights on the rest of the country.’

  I was shocked. ‘But people said the conflict of 1914 to 1918 was the war to end all wars.’

  ‘Well, they’re wrong. It will happen all over again. Not just here, but in Europe as well.’

  This statement depressed me. Surely there had been enough killing and, judging by Jonas’s book, there had been enough in China as well.

  ‘Let’s speak about something cheerier,’ said Jonas.

  ‘What a lovely girl Sue Lin is. When are she and Alex getting married?’

  ‘Well, tomorrow if Alex had his way, but Sue Lin loves her job as a journalist on the newspaper, and with Alex and I always travelling and looking for news, as well as starting another book, they just never seem to set a date.’

  I said I was surprised by her Scottish accent.

  ‘Her father is a doctor from Glasgow who came out to China to do missionary work. He met Sue Lin’s mother in Shanghai and they were married. She takes her looks from her mother. They moved back to Glasgow when Sue Lin was a girl. When she got the job on the newspaper, she came back to Shanghai and her birthplace.’

  I looked at my watch and was alarmed to see it was almost twelve o’clock. I stood up. ‘I must get back to the school or Marie, she’s the other teacher, will be worried about me.’

  ‘All right, Cinderella. I’ll walk back with you and make sure you get home safely.’

  The streets were still crowded with people, and I wondered if the population ever slept more than a few hours. The rain had cleared, and it was a pleasant night as we headed back. When we reached the door, he said, ‘Alex, Sue Lin and I are here for a week, and I would like to see you again. What about tomorrow night?’

  ‘Yes, I would like to see you again as well, Jonas.’

  I turned to go, but he put his arms around me and gave me a gentle kiss. ‘Goodnight, Captain Flint,’ he said softly.

  I laughed. ‘Just make sure I don’t scratch you with my talons.’

  He was still laughing as he walked away down the street.

  When I went inside, I almost fell over Sandy. He was wearing his dressing gown and he whispered furiously, ‘Where have you been, Lizzie? I’ve been worried about you.’

  ‘I’m fine, Sandy. Please don’t worry about me. I’m seeing Jonas tomorrow night, but I’ll tell Marie about it.’

  As he walked away, I overheard him say, ‘Well, I hope you know what you’re doing.’

  Jonas came to the school the next night, and I introduced him to Marie before we left to go out. We were going to the hotel to meet up with Sue Lin and Alex, and we found them waiting for us in the hotel bar.

  Sue Lin wanted to hear about Scotland. ‘It’s been ages since I was home, but I keep in touch with my parents. Maybe one day we’ll go and live there. Won’t we, Alex?’

  For the short time I had known Alex, he hadn’t said much, but he smiled at her and said it would either be there or Shanghai or New York, he didn’t mind. I loved his American accent. He said he had been born in Brooklyn to Italian parents who had left Italy for a better life. Sadly they were both dead now and he didn’t feel like Brooklyn was his home any more.

  ‘I think we might stay in Shanghai, Sue Lin. I’ve got my photography business and you have your career.’

  ‘What about you, Lizzie? Will you stay here?’ he asked.

  ‘I don’t know. I’ve been thinking of going back to Dundee to see my aunt, but I haven’t made up my mind.’

  Sue Lin said she led an exciting life following up stories for the paper. ‘I travel quite a bit, but it’s nothing like these two do. They’re always travelling to far-off places for their scoops, and also for their book.’

  I said it all sounded dangerous and asked if Shanghai was a dangerous city to live in.

  ‘We live in the International Settlement, which is run by the British, and there’s a large population of different nationalities,’ said Jonas. ‘It’s just like living in London or any large city.’

  Later, as we walked home, he asked me, ‘Are you really thinking of leaving Hong Kong?’

  I hesitated for a moment. ‘Well, I’ve been thinking about it since the New Year. Marie has a new girl starting this month. Her parents have just arrived here. Her father is in the army and she’s looking for a teaching post, so I won’t be leaving them without a teacher.’

  ‘Why don’t you come to Shanghai with me?’

  I was speechless for a moment.

  ‘I don’t think Marie and Sandy would like that, Jonas. They told my aunt they would look after me. Not that I need looking after, you understand,’ I added. ‘I wouldn’t like to worry my aunt that I was going off with someone I hardly know to a strange country. For all I know, you could be a married man with children.’

  ‘Well, I’m not, and I’m not asking you to come and live there forever if you don’t want to. Just come for a holiday.’

  ‘I’ll think about it, I promise.’

  I was desperate to join him, but my feelings for him were too intense and I thought I might not want to leave after my holiday.

  He kissed me again, but this time I returned the kiss and held onto him like I never wanted to let him go. My emotions were all over the place, so I quickly opened the door.

  ‘Goodnight, Lizzie. I’ll see you tomorrow.’

  ‘Goodnight, Jonas,’ I said as I quickly went inside.

  The next morning I casually mentioned going on holiday to Shanghai. Marie looked shocked, as did Sandy.

  ‘Are you going with Jonas?’ he asked.

  I was amused by this. It was now Jonas instead of ‘that chappie’.

  ‘Yes, but only for a holiday. I thought when June comes to work here then I could maybe hav
e a few weeks off.’

  Marie gave me a stern look. ‘I don’t like the idea of you going to Shanghai. Oh, I expect it’s a wonderful city, but I’ve heard stories about the place and I don’t think Margaret will be happy about it.’

  I had the same thoughts, so I said it was merely an idea.

  That evening when Jonas met me I told him I couldn’t go with him, but that I would still like to keep in touch.

  He said he’d thought I would turn him down. ‘I’m leaving in two days’ time with Alex and Sue Lin, but yes, we will keep in touch, Lizzie.’

  That night in bed I was almost crying. I reread Dragon Land and wished with all my heart I could be with Jonas. Not just for a holiday, but forever.

  Two days later I said goodbye to Alex, Sue Lin and Jonas at the docks and watched as they boarded their ship for Shanghai. Jonas said he would write and keep in touch, but I didn’t believe him. Once he was back in his own environment he would soon forget me. But would I forget him?

  I think Marie and Sandy were pleased that he had gone. Sandy organised an evening out again, but my heart wasn’t in it. Although I didn’t mention it to Marie, as I wanted to wait till June was settled in the job, somehow Hong Kong had lost its fascination for me and I made up my mind to return home.

  35

  JONAS O’NEILL AND

  DRAGON LAND

  June was an efficient young woman, and as my assistant in the classroom she was proving to be a good teacher. I was pleased about that, as it meant I could go ahead with my plan to go back home. I had posted Jonas’s book Dragon Land to Margaret, but had said nothing about leaving Hong Kong, as I was sure she would tell me to stay and enjoy the experience of living in another country.

  Jonas was as good as his word and he wrote a lovely long letter when he arrived back in Shanghai. I was missing him terribly, but he sounded more friendly than besotted with love in his letter, so I didn’t answer it for a few days. When I did, I said I was thinking of leaving and going back to Dundee. I never mentioned how much I missed him, but tried to write my letter as more of a friendly note from one friend to another.

  A week went by, then another, and he didn’t reply, so I thought he wasn’t interested in keeping up the friendship. Sandy noticed both how I hurried to the letter box every time the mail was delivered and my downcast face when there was nothing for me.

  ‘No letter from Shanghai yet, Lizzie?’ he asked.

  I shook my head but said nothing. I thought he was being flippant about Jonas, but one morning he said, ‘I’m really sorry it hasn’t worked out with you both. Maybe you should have gone with him when he asked you.’ He stopped as if giving this some thought. ‘Well, maybe not, Lizzie. Anything could have happened to you in China, and Marie would never have got over that. Nor would I.’

  I gave him a hug. ‘Thanks, Sandy, you’ve both been very good to me, but I’ve made up my mind to go home. I wouldn’t have left if you’d had no one to replace me, but June will be able to take over my class.’

  ‘Actually, Marie and I are planning on retiring next year, so we’ll be giving up the school. Marie wants to go back to Skye, and I might just stay here. I haven’t made up my mind yet.’

  This news came as a shock.

  ‘I thought you both loved the school and I always thought you would both be here for a long time.’

  ‘Well, if we were both young then we would be, but we’re getting old, so retirement is on the cards, I’m sorry to say. Just one thing, Lizzie: don’t say anything to Marie, as she thinks I don’t know about her plans to return to her misty island.’

  I was depressed about receiving no letter from Jonas. It was as if I had met my soulmate only to have him disappear from my life. And now Sandy was talking about retirement. It was all too much.

  ‘You can always take June out in the evening when I’ve gone,’ I told Sandy, but he shook his head.

  ‘I don’t think so, Lizzie. She’s a nice girl but very dull in her outlook. Anyway, she goes home to her parents very night and I think she does embroidery with her mother as a hobby.’

  I laughed. He was incorrigible. ‘Why do you think that?

  ‘She showed me a handkerchief she had embroidered and she said that was how she and her mother spent their leisure time. Quite honestly I had to pretend to go into raptures over it. No, Lizzie, she’s nothing like you.’

  I was overcome with emotion when he said that. ‘Well, I’ve enjoyed every minute of our outings, Sandy, and I’ll always remember them, even when I’m old and grey-haired.’

  ‘By then I’ll probably be ancient.’ However, he said it with a smile.

  My one consolation was Mr Wang’s bookshop. With Sandy disappearing on our nightly visits for his beer, I spent ages in the shop. Mr Wang looked so ancient and wise, and he would tell me about his previous life in Canton.

  ‘I came here years and years ago, but I want to go back to Canton one day,’ he said.

  ‘That makes two of us, Mr Wang. I’m planning on going home as well.’

  He shook his head. ‘No, Lizzieeee, you’ll live in China with Mr O’Neill.’

  I was taken aback by this statement. ‘What makes you say that?’

  He gave me a smile. ‘I just know it.’

  ‘Well, if Mr Wang knows it, why doesn’t Jonas?’ I thought.

  It was two weeks later, a day I will never forget, when Sandy came into my classroom. He whispered that someone was waiting to see me. When I looked puzzled, he said to June, ‘We won’t be long.’

  I followed him out and he gave me a conspiratorial grin. ‘He’s in the kitchen with Mrs Kydd.’

  ‘Who is?’ I asked. But I was talking to myself, as Sandy hurried off to his own classroom.

  I could hear Mrs Kydd clattering her pots as she took them down from the high shelf, making preparations for the evening meal. I could also hear her talking to someone, and I had the insane notion that it was Margaret. I knew she loved travelling and I wondered if she had come to see Marie, Sandy and me.

  That was why my mouth fell open when I saw Jonas standing by the kitchen table. He had a huge bunch of flowers in his hand, and when he turned and smiled at me I felt my knees begin to shake.

  He came over with the flowers and said, ‘These are for you.’

  ‘Surely you didn’t come all this way to give me flowers, Jonas,’ I said.

  He laid the flowers down by the sink, and Mrs Kydd said she would find a vase for them. He gave her a charming smile and I was amused to see her blush. It was obvious he had this effect on women.

  ‘Let’s go outside, Lizzie,’ he said, tucking my arm through his.

  ‘I’ve got a class of children, Jonas. I can’t just leave them.’

  ‘Sandy said you have a new teacher, so of course you can leave them for a short time.’

  We went to the small café across the road, and once seated I asked him, ‘Are you back signing books, Jonas? Is that why you’re here?’

  He shook his head. ‘No. I’ve come here especially to see you and to tell you not to leave and go back to Scotland.’

  I must have looked idiotic as he said that. ‘You’ve come all the way from Shanghai to tell me that?’

  ‘No, I’ve come all this way to ask you to marry me and come back with me as my wife.’

  I stared at him. ‘Marry you?’

  He grinned. ‘Yes, you know, get the minister to join us in holy wedlock.’

  ‘I don’t understand, Jonas. Why do you want to marry me? You hardly know me.’

  ‘Ah, well, when I was a young lad in County Cork, I went to the fairground one day and old Mrs Donaghue, our local oracle and fortune teller, told me I would get married one day to a pirate. She was well known in Cork as being in league with the leprechauns and the little folk, so she was always correct with her predictions.’

  I laughed. ‘I don’t believe it.’

  He looked sheepish. ‘Well, maybe I’m wrong about the leprechauns and the little folk, but she did say I would marry a wo
man with strong connections to the sea, and a pirate has that, hasn’t she?’ He took my hand and became serious. ‘What do you say, my beautiful little pirate?’

  I wanted to scream out loud, ‘Yes, yes, yes,’ but I composed myself and said, ‘I suppose we can’t have Mrs Donaghue have a faulty prediction, can we?’

  ‘So that’s a yes then?’

  ‘Yes, it is.’

  All at once I was laughing and crying. As we made our way back to the school, Sandy and Marie heard the commotion, but when they heard the good news they both congratulated us. I thought Marie’s good wishes were a bit subdued, but Sandy made up for it by shaking Jonas’s hand and slapping him on his back.

  The next few weeks were a whirlwind of activity and planning. Jonas left most of the plans to me, and I said I wanted to be married in the small church that Marie attended every Sunday, so we went to see the minister and he readily agreed to marry us. I did ask Jonas if he had any preference for the service, but he said he didn’t.

  ‘I was brought up a Catholic, but I haven’t been to a church in years, so I don’t mind where it is,’ he said.

  ‘What about having the wedding meal in the seafood café on the docks?’ said Sandy, who was fond of the food there and was a regular customer.

  I said no, we were planning a meal in the Oriental Hotel with just a few guests.

  The wedding day was fast approaching when we hit a snag. Sue Lin and Alex were to be our witnesses, but they were both away on business for the newspaper that took longer than expected, which meant they wouldn’t make it to Hong Kong in time.

  I said to Jonas, ‘I’m sorry your two friends can’t be here, but what about having Sandy and Marie as witnesses?’

  Jonas said he didn’t mind. All he wanted was for us to get married and he wasn’t concerned about the details. ‘I would have liked Alex and Sue Lin to be here, but they’ve promised us another reception when we reach Shanghai.’

  To start with, I was unsure how Marie would take to the idea, but when I mentioned it she seemed pleased, while Sandy was delighted. I also asked Mrs Kydd to come to the church, but she said she couldn’t manage as she had another engagement that day.