by Simon Royle
“Come on, this way,” Mariko said, pulling me by the hand again. We walked over to a walky that was going up to level two, the sign for Bangkok Line hanging above the entrance. The Bangkok Line is a Vactube that runs along the coast of the Geographic of Malaysia until it reaches the major concourse hub in Bangkok. I looked at the time on the Devstick, fifteen minutes since we’d left the Boat Quay, and put the Devstick back in the pocket of my white cotton bottom outers.
The walky zigzagged its way up to level two, and we walked out on to the platform. Mariko said, “Hey not so busy. Less than three deep in most places – we won’t have to wait for another Lev.”
“No. I thought there would be more people traveling this line but it doesn’t look too bad, does it?”
“Let’s walk up to the far end of the platform. It looks like the queue is only one deep there and we may be able to get a seat.”
We strolled along the bright cavern of a tube. The domed ceiling, painted white, gave a sense of height. Along the walls, the Lev doors every ten meters were sealed shut to contain the vacuum of the Vactubes. In between the doors, Devscreens displayed suggestions. The volume of the suggestions was muted but increased and then faded as we walked past each of them, reaching the end of the platform. A woman standing by the Lev door smiled at us as we stood next to her. She wore a pink scarf covering her hair in the fashion of Muslim women and was wearing blue overalls with a Hitachi logo over the left breast pocket.
The Devscreen next to the Lev door we were waiting at changed color to sky blue and the words ‘Breaking News’ scrolled across the bottom of the screen from right to left. The image changed and the woman with the scarf gasped and held her hand up to her mouth. On the Devscreen an image of grey rubble, the remains of a building. At first I thought earthquake and then I read the text scrolling along the bottom of the screen. I had a sense of déjà-vu but I often got that and didn’t say anything to Mariko. Her eyes were glued to the screen. I turned back and continued reading, part of the word lost as it scrolled, “…rist attack on main Lev port in New Manhattan. Casualties feared high. Bomb ripped through main Vactube at peak trav ho....”
I squeezed Mariko’s hand. This was the second terrorist attack in a week: the first had been the Paris bombing of the cafe. Still no one claimed responsibility and the rumors gave no direction, only added to the confusion. We hadn’t had this kind of violence for many years and the shock of it was profound. In some deep part of me there was a fear, a fear that happiness could be ripped away. As I watched the Devscreen, I saw a stooped-over fireman walking, his face a white blur under his black helmet, his eyes wide and his hands covered in blood and dust, held out at his sides, his yellow jacket open.
The Lev door opened and we walked in, our mood somber with what we had just seen. Mariko held both my hands in hers, our knees touching as we sat on the bright yellow plastic seats nearest the doors and looked up at the Devscreen inside the Lev. It was showing the same images as outside. The doors beeped their warning and closed with a hiss. The Muslim woman sat on the opposite side of the Lev and stared at the wall of the Lev beside Mariko. Mariko held out her hand and patted the seat beside her. The woman got up from her seat and, taking Mariko’s hand, sat down beside her. No one said anything.
At the Mersing stop, another eight minutes and a stop in between later, the Muslim woman, still holding on to Mariko’s hand, raised it and pressed it against her cheek, smiling at us. She got up and releasing Mariko’s hand softly, walked out of the door. We were alone in the Lev. I put my arms around Mariko and she curled up into me. I held her tight.
The blipping white ball that signified the Lev moved closer to the next red square on the line that was displayed on the end wall indicating our progress. Kuantan, our stop, was next and I patted Mariko on the back to let her know, rising at the same time. I stumbled as the rapid deceleration of the Lev caught me off balance and Mariko, still sitting, steadied me. The Lev stopped, the doors beeped and hissed open and we got off on to the platform. Directional lights, prompted by the map in my Devstick, led the way to a walky ten meters further down the platform. We got on the walky hand in hand and silently rode up to ground level.
As we reached ground level Mariko said, shaking her head from side to side, “I can’t understand the mentality of someone who could do such a thing. What could possibly be worth that kind of action? What do they want with this senseless killing? It’s just barbaric. I don’t understand it.” Her voice choked as she said this and I stopped, gathering her in a hug, pulling her tight to me.
Stroking her hair, I said, “They’ll catch them, whoever they are, they’ll catch them and life will return to normal. This is an aberration, a throwback. This isn’t us.”
“I hope you’re right. I pray you are,” she said into the cashmere outer top I was wearing. She pulled free of me and wiped her face with her hands. Forcing a smile, she shook her head and had to wipe away another tear. I smiled at her trying to convey that I felt the same, and she sniffed loudly and said, “Come on. Let’s go find this place.”
The Kuantan Lev port exited onto a main pedestrian street, behind which a Travway ran. The town was spread out along this street with a pedestrian street on each side and two four-lane Travways in the middle. Taxis, private vehicles and EVTours waited on the Travway side. I took out my Devstick and highlighted my profile for Siti Merican, the Malaysian realtor we had contacted mid week. Across the street a woman standing next to a white Toyota Terra Cruiser that had seen better days waved her arm at us and we crossed the street to her.
Siti was about one hundred and sixty-five cents tall, slim and with a big smile showing off her white teeth. She gave us a wai and we waied back, smiling.
“You guys made good time. Was the trip up smooth?”
I exchanged a quick glance with Mariko and an understanding passed between us not to share the terrible news. I said, “Yes, it was fine,” and smiled in return.
Siti pulled open the rear door and we climbed into the back seat as she climbed into the front, saying, “I know it is a little warm but I thought we’d drive with the top down. What do you think?”
“That would be great,” Mariko said as she scooted her backside over the seat. I climbed in after her and pulled the door shut while the roof of the terra folded itself behind us. Siti pulled out into early evening traffic on the Travway. The inside lane that we were in was a snarled mess of traffic. Old long-haulers crawled by in the next lane as three-wheeled tuk-tuks, motorcycles and bicycles zipped in and out of the slow moving traffic. There were no maglev tracks here and the dust from the dirt roads leading off the main Travway hung heavy in the air. Siti drove confidently in the bustling evening traffic and soon took a left turn that, within fifty meters, dropped the noise level to the sound of the rubber tires of the Terra bumping over the dirt road we were traveling on. Siti talked over her shoulder the whole time, giving us a run down on the locality.
“It takes about twenty minutes to reach Sisik from Kuantan – the road is just a dirt road and the locals want it to stay that way. They’re afraid that if the roads are better then the area will see more development and they like the old lifestyle. The schools are good though and even in Sisik we have a good online connection most of the time. There is only one shop in Sisik but it has most of the basics that you would need. Most of us go to Kuantan or catch the Lev to New Singapore or Kuala Lumpur if we want to shop for anything other than food and toiletries.”
The jungle closed in quickly as the sun dropped out of view behind the trees and Siti turned on the lights of the Terra as we bumped our way east. Driving quickly and confidently, the fifteen kilom distance between the town of Kuantan and Sisik was covered quickly. The dirt road we were on narrowed to a track that was filled by the Terra and then turned sharply left as the jungle on our right-hand side was replaced with a view of the South China Sea at dusk.
Siti drove on for another couple of hundred meters and then pulled over beside a small light blue
building with a huge deck running around the outside covered by the roof. A white sign with red lettering written in Malay had an image of a fish and a shrimp on it. Hanging off the roof was what looked like an old brown parachute acting as an awning, billowing in the light breeze that came off the ocean fifty meters away. Underneath this awning were a mixture of blue and red metal tables and plastic chairs set in the sand.
Siti got down from the Terra and we followed her as she walked up onto the deck surrounding the restaurant. It turned out to be the house of the owner of the land and he approached us after swinging his legs off the hammock he had been lying in on the deck facing the sea.
“Welcome to Sisik. My name is Abdul Haqq,” said the man, who was wearing a sarong and nothing else. He looked to be in his sixties, the grey hair on his head matching the few sparse grey hairs on his chest as he walked towards me his hands lifted in a wai.
I waied him back, as did Mariko, and said, “Hi. My name’s Jonah and this is Mariko.” Mariko smiled at him.
“Come, come,” said Abdul, moving his hand in a small downward wave to indicate that we should follow him. “We have to hurry because night falls very quickly and we only have maybe twenty mins before it will be completely dark.”
He walked around to the front of the deck and down the stairs that led to the beach and we followed him down the shoreline, heading south. The beach was about fifty meters wide at its widest point and narrowed sometimes to just twenty as the jungle pushed its way towards the sea. The only sounds were our feet scuffling the sand, cicadas trilling their mating calls and the palms brushing softly against each other in the slight breeze. There wasn’t a wave to be seen and the ocean was devoid of life for all the movement it displayed.
As soon as I saw the house, I knew that I’d buy it. It had nothing to do with the house, it was the location. A bluff of steep-sided headland, dark in the rapidly failing light, rose in front us, and off to our right was the house. The building seemed to be losing the battle against the encroaching jungle and one wall had tropical vegetation pressed up against it.
Abdul smiled at me and lifted his hand to show the way, saying, “Be careful as you come up the step. The wood has rotted and I am afraid that I have been too busy to replace it yet.”
I wondered if he meant too busy sleeping in the hammock and glanced at him. A twinkle in his eye and the wrinkles gathering made me suspect that he knew what I was thinking but I just smiled and gingerly made my way up the steps to stand on the deck that surrounded the house.
The building was stand-alone and badly run down. It had no Travway leading to it and was only forty meters from the sea, white sand covering the distance between. The rear of the house faced the sea and had a large balcony running around the entire second floor. At the front was a garden full of flowers, reaching to the edge of a small patch of jungle through which was a path that led to the nearest Travway four hundred meters further on. I loved it.
As we walked back through the jungle towards the restaurant, a king cobra slithered across the path in front of us, a cautionary hand on my arm from Abdul as with his other he pointed at it. Mariko knelt down to take an image of it with her Devstick. Siti and Abdul walked on ahead of us, to give us some privacy, and I turned to Mariko.
“So what do you think?”
“It’s perfect. I mean it will take a massive amount of work to get it sorted but it is such a great spot. What do you think?”
“I love it.”
The word, love, hung on the humid air between us, and brought me a serious look from Mariko. I took her hand and we walked back to the restaurant. Abdul led us to a wobbly table set in the sand that was piled high with seafood and a cooler sat beside the table with beer and soft drinks in it. Abdul pulled out a beer and twisted the top off handing it to me. He reached in and did the same again, passing the beer to Mariko.
I lifted the beer in toast to Abdul, Siti and Mariko and said, “I think I’m going to like living here very much.”
Abdul smiled, his teeth shining white in the darkness of his face and said, “Does that mean that you have decided to buy the house, Jonah?”
“Yes and I’d like to talk to you about the adjoining land too. Not for development so we can just keep it unspoiled.”
“You don’t need to worry about that. All of this land belongs to my family, and in an agreement we made long ago, none of us may sell to another without approaching all that live here first. It took me three months to get everyone to agree to sell the old beach house, even though it is falling down. But finally when I explained that it was the only way that I was going to get customers for my seafood restaurant did the family agree.” Abdul let out a loud laugh at his joke and we all laughed with him.
“Siti, you will join us for dinner. Please call your father and tell him that you are entertaining me tonight.”
“Ha, I do not think so, Abdul. It is you who should be entertaining me tonight. Is that not so?”
Abdul laughed out loud again and turning to us said, “Well it is good that you will be my neighbors.” He faced Mariko, and took her hand. “You are a very beautiful woman. Please forgive an old man’s forwardness, but at my age when we want to say something we usually just say it. It is a privilege of simply having survived.” And reaching over with his other hand he took my hand in it, still facing Mariko he said, “I am a good judge of character, and I can feel the strength in this one. And in you too. This is a good place for you to find the strength in each other.” Smiling widely he placed Mariko’s hand in mine.
“Now I will leave you to sit and make romantic talk on the beach in the moonlight. Come, Siti, let us go inside tonight. It is semi-final of Malay Idol and Johan has an exemption.” Abdul and Siti walked up the beach to the house and went inside.
Mariko and I remained under the old parachute awning strung out over the cool sand of the beach. The only light came from old oil lamps converted to solar and they were set to emit an orange glow similar to the light cast by their forbears.
Mariko spoke quietly, her foot drawing circles in the sand. “I hadn’t planned on this, our being together. Two weeks ago if you would have told me that I was going to be moving out of New Singapore to live with a man who I hardly know, I would have said you were crazy. But I guess that’s love for you. And yes, Jonah, I do love you, but if we are going to be together then we have to understand why we’re together, and we have to always understand, because if we forget then we shouldn’t be together.”
“Yes, I agree totally,” I said. I meant it too. I understood what she was talking about because I had gone through the same emotional whirlwind.
She continued, “It would be nice, as Abdul said, if we can just talk sweet romantic things but I feel like we’re about to make a big commitment and it’s suddenly rushed up on me. Yesterday this was just a dream and a fun thing to do. Today, now, it feels like I’m standing on the edge of… of… sheesh, I don’t know, but it’s… it’s just different.”
I closed my eyes and breathed in, drawing the salty air deep. The breath of a warm breeze rippled the cloth of my outers against my skin and I breathed out slowly, emptying my mind. What I said now had to be right. If I got it wrong, she could be lost forever. I searched in my mind for the right words to say, feeling for her.
Suddenly a rush of thoughts entered my mind. The hairs on my neck stood up, and a shiver ran through me down to my toes scrunched in the white sand. They were her thoughts flying around, disorganized. I breathed in sharply and let out a soft gasp. The thoughts stopped. I was out of her mind. I felt shaken, shocked, maybe it was just the beer, but I thought for one crazy moment that I had actually entered her mind.
At my gasp she turned to face me and placed her hand on my arm, a small smile upon her lips. I smiled back at her and put my hand on hers.
Speaking softly I said, “I know you are scared of losing your freedom but I will never hold you back from what you want to do. All I can say is that everything that is happening feels rig
ht to me. I know it has only been a week since we met, but I also know that I will love you forever. If this feels too quick, we can stay in New Singapore. I confess I do love the peacefulness here, but I love you more.”
She squeezed my arm and said, “No. I don’t care about New Singapore, and I love you too. But when we get back to New Singapore I will request a loan from my bank for half of the amount of the house. Our contract will say that as long as we are together here then we will jointly own the property, but if should split up –” and she had held up her hand palm facing me to stop my interruption. “If we should split up then we will sell the property and share the proceeds equally. I also want to continue contributing at UNPOL and there are some things that I need to talk to you about that, but that can wait.”
I interrupted her. “Look, I was surprised to learn that you were contributing at UNPOL, and doubly so at your being in the Special Operations Executive, but I understand and support your desire to keep contributing. My decision to quit from Coughington and Scuttle was my decision. Was it influenced by you? For sure, but only from the point of view that you’ve made me happy. Since I’ve never really been happy, I’ve never had anything to compare, with what I thought was my happiness. Now that I have, I can see that I wasn’t happy. But that’s me and I understand that you are in a different space with your contribution.”
She nodded and smiled and turned slightly towards me.
“I’ve never lived with anyone else before. Well of course I lived with my parents, but that’s different. I’ve always been alone – even when I was in barracks in early UNPOL training I kept myself and my routine to myself. It’s been great living with you this last week, but a week and a lifetime are totally different.”
I kissed her hand and brushed my cheek against the top of it. “Mariko, if my life were to end next week, then I would have wanted to have spent that last week with you.”
“That’s another thing. I’m quite a traditionalist at heart, and although the subject hasn’t come up yet, I want to get it out in the open now.”
