by Di Morrissey
‘Progress, man. You can’t stop it. You should be glad to be part of America,’ said a loud man in an equally loud aloha shirt.
Catherine heard the voices of Kiann’e and Beatrice speaking from the front and there was a roar of approval from the crowd. She moved closer to hear Beatrice.
‘Here, on the sacred ground of our ancestors, on the steps of the building where our Hawaii Islands were annexed as a US territory, we demand that the lands of Hawaii be returned to our people, that there be no evictions of residents so their land can be turned over to outside interests. We call for a stop to the urbanisation of our precious wetlands, coastlines, hinterland and agricultural lands. We call for a halt to the military misuse of Hawaiian land. One day, from here, where our Queen was deposed, we will claim sovereignty once again, to be a nation within a nation!’
There was another cheer. Catherine lifted her camera and saw through the lens a photographer taking a photograph of her. She turned her head away and then looked for him again but he had disappeared in the crowd, which now numbered many hundreds. She pressed through the throngs of people and felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to see several of the surfers who she had met at Kiann’e’s dinner.
‘So you made it,’ called out one of them.
‘Yes. It’s quite something. A lot of passion and not much opposition to what’s being said,’ remarked Catherine.
‘There will be. Say, this is Damien, he’s from Down Under, too.’ He introduced one of the young men who smiled at her.
‘You staying here or just here surfing?’ asked Catherine.
‘Both. It’s not “just surfing”. We’re on a world surfing championship safari,’ he answered. ‘You seen the North Shore?’
Catherine shook her head as there was another deafening roar and people around them surged forward.
‘Catch ya later. Good luck with the pictures.’ Damien and the other surfer plunged back into the crowd.
Catherine decided that she’d covered most of the action and was about to head over to the Hawaii News office. She stopped to snap a placard ‘Preserve Our Natural Beauty’, which was trampled on the ground. A little girl in a muu-muu was standing next to the placard, lost for the moment and crying loudly, a crown of flowers tipped to one side of her head. Catherine took her picture and bent down to comfort her but the child was quickly scooped up by her father, who smiled at Catherine.
‘Thanks, she’ll be just fine now. This is great isn’t it?’ The little girl was hoisted onto her father’s shoulders and they disappeared back into the crowd.
Vince Akana was anxious to hear about the photos that Catherine had taken.
‘Taki isn’t back yet, it’s all still going on. What’d you get? I heard some of the speeches of the rally on the radio.’
Catherine carefully took the film from the camera, handed Vince the two exposed rolls and read off the notes she’d hastily made.
‘I tried to move around and be the back of the crowd as I saw Mr Kitamura was focusing on the main action at the front.’
‘Sounds good, sounds good. Daisy hasn’t come back yet to write her story. I’ll rush these through, take a look and give you a buzz. If I’m using any I’ll let you know.’
‘I’ll buy the paper tomorrow,’ said Catherine.
‘Great. Thanks. And send me an invoice if any of yours appear, eh?’ Vince dashed into the darkroom and Catherine walked outside to take the bus home.
Bradley was late home full of apologies about the game. He asked how her day was, but it was a polite enquiry and he jumped in the shower before she could answer. They walked over to the Bensens’ large ground-floor condo for supper with some of Bradley’s colleagues and their wives. As the cocktail hour dragged on, Catherine wished she could see the television news to see what coverage the rally had been given. No-one mentioned anything about the rally during supper, so she guessed no-one had been in the capitol area downtown that day. They mostly chatted about the upcoming Christmas craft fair, who was going back home for the Christmas vacation and the pull-out from Vietnam.
On the way home Catherine asked tentatively, ‘So what are we doing about Christmas? Can we go to Australia? Mum and Dad are so keen for us to come out.’
‘Catherine, darling, I’m sorry. On Friday I agreed to work through Christmas so some of the families could have leave. We just had the trip at Thanksgiving. We’ll go to Australia later. March perhaps. How’s that?’
‘Oh, I see. Well, that’s nice of you. I suppose with kids it’s good to be with family. It’ll still be warm at Heatherbrae in March.’
‘Let’s wait and see. I should be able to get some leave before I go to sea.’ He reached over and squeezed her knee. ‘Anyway, you said you liked it here and an Hawaiian Christmas will be different.’
Catherine perked up. ‘Yes, that’s an idea. I’m sure Kiann’e and her family would love to have us share it with them. That’d be such fun . . .’
‘Oh no, if we’re here it’s only right that we spend it with the rest of our base family. The Goodwins will throw a lavish function. They bring in turkey, mistletoe, fresh pine trees, the works.’
‘We could go to the Palm Grove! How fabulous that would be! Just for a day or so over the break,’ suggested Catherine, thrilled with her idea. ‘Wouldn’t you rather have a more informal, family fun party with my friends?’
‘Catherine, I won’t have leave to go anywhere over Christmas. I’ll be lucky if I even get all of Christmas Day off. We don’t always have a lot of say in these things. We have to do what’s expected of us. It’s my career. You know that.’
‘Yes. How could I forget?’ she said tightly.
The Sunday edition of the Hawaii News had the photograph of the little Hawaiian girl crying and at her feet the crumpled placard ‘Preserve Our Natural Beauty’. The headline above stated in bold type ‘TEARS FOR OUR LOST LAND’.
Catherine was thrilled that her first professional picture was on the front page. She was about to wake Bradley to show him but then she opened the paper to see what else was in it. On page three there was another big picture of the leaders performing the old chant and quite prominently in the background she saw herself. Thankfully most of her face was covered by her hands and the camera but a close look would identify her to anyone who knew her well. She closed the paper and hid it. The other papers had given the event less prominence and their coverage had included some negative comments from others, including bystanders, tourists and a city official. She decided not to mention her part in the rally to Bradley and hoped no-one would recognise her although she didn’t think any of his colleagues would read the Hawaii News anyway, as it didn’t carry mainland news and sports results.
Christmas, then, was settled. They’d stay in Honolulu and join the Goodwins and other navy couples for Christmas luncheon. There was a separate function arranged for the single men and a dinner dance for everyone in the evening after church services. Carols would be held by candlelight in the park at Fort De Russy on Christmas Eve.
Catherine’s parents were disappointed and she bought lots of gifts at the PX like the other wives were doing.
Bradley complained about her buying bulky and heavy items to mail to Australia, which was expensive in comparison to the rates to the mainland. She phoned her parents on Christmas Eve, which was Christmas Day at Heatherbrae, and the phone was passed around to all the friends and neighbours.
‘Send us some of that liquid sunshine you have,’ shouted Rob down the line. ‘It’s drier than Hades here.’
‘We miss you, darling, but the time till you get here will go in a flash,’ said her mother.
‘It’s going to be so dry, never mind, we have the pool,’ sighed Catherine. ‘I wanted Bradley to see it at its best.’
Christmas was predictable. The men wore dress whites for the Christmas meal held at scattered tables in the enclosed informal entertaining area of the Goodwins’ home. The room had been kept air conditioned round the clock to preserve the fresh pin
e tree. One of the Christmas wreaths they’d made for the craft festival hung on the front door. Decorations of large glass ornaments covered in silver ‘snow’ and figures of Santa and elves were displayed on coffee tables along with macadamia nuts in monkey pod bowls. Christmas cards covered the top of a bookcase. Each table had festive runners of red and green laid along the white cloths with formal flower arrangements tied with Christmas ribbon.
The commander said grace, conversation centred around complimenting Mrs Goodwin on the food and waiting for the naval steward to refill the tiny crystal wine glasses.
No gifts were exchanged. The Goodwins had asked that donations be made to the naval children’s charity. After the meal the ladies withdrew to the screened and air conditioned sunroom and the men to the patio pool room. Catherine couldn’t wait to escape.
*
‘It was excruciating,’ she wailed to Kiann’e.
‘You would have so loved our Christmas Day. We started the morning at the beach, a sort of breakfast picnic, then everyone pitches in for the big family luau . . . We cooked for days. M’ma came from Kauai and brought her special ingredients, Uncle Henry did the pig . . . we played games, it was fun. Maybe next year?’
‘I doubt it. I can’t believe how everyone at the base just mixes with the same people. It’s like we’re living in a foreign country and no-one speaks the local language,’ sighed Catherine.
‘There is a bit of a cultural gap. But then everyone comes together at public functions. You should bring all of Bradley’s friends down to Kapiolani Park for the children’s hula competition. The bands and dancers come from all over the Islands. Everyone brings a picnic, makes a day of it. There’re stalls where people sell what they’ve made – some amazing things you never see in the shops – shells, carvings, quilts, woven grass hats, mats, bowls. You come anyway,’ said Kiann’e.
‘I’ll try to persuade Bradley. I’m sure the wives would love it.’
Catherine was right. The other wives did want to come and they dragged their husbands along to the park for the big day of the hula competition. Just the same, they went in the morning and didn’t take lunch as they didn’t expect to stay very long and someone suggested they have lunch at one of the hotels in Waikiki.
However by midday when local families were bringing out their food, cooking on their hibachis and settling down during the lunch break to sing and play their ukuleles and guitars, Bradley’s group was hungry. Bradley suggested they buy food from a stall and they all ate sitting on the grass. They watched families playing games with their children, pets tied to a tree in the shade, one family were bottle feeding a box of squeaking orphaned piglets. Catherine was amused to see all their friends had bought something from the stalls and taken photos of the ‘darling little hula hula dancers’.
‘Yes, it has been a nice day,’ agreed Bradley. ‘It was all very cute. A once-a-year thing. Jim suggested we go and see the new Don Ho show next Saturday night. In fact maybe we could get Don Ho to sign some of his LPs as gifts to take to your family next month.’
‘I think you have to be here to appreciate Hawaiian music. But why not? Probably a more sensible gift than an aloha shirt for my dad,’ said Catherine.
‘And what will we bring back as gifts from your neck of the woods?’ he asked. ‘The Goodwins might appreciate a little touch of Australiana.’
‘I can just see a big cowskin in their formal sitting room,’ laughed Catherine. ‘No, I know. Slim Dusty records. He’s a big country and western singer at home. Swap him for the Don Ho records.’
Catherine was excited to be going home with Bradley for a two-week visit. A few days in Sydney being escorted around by Mollie and a week at Heatherbrae were going to be wonderful. Soon Bradley would be at sea and Catherine planned to finish her photography course and start printing her own pictures. Vince had told her she could use the News darkroom when available and he was prepared to pay her for any good photos. Bradley seemed happy with this arrangement as he realised that, while it was not exactly a proper job, it would keep Catherine happy while he was away. To Catherine, Vince’s offer was a doorway to discovering more about the Islands.
7
CATHERINE TRIED TO SLEEP on the long flight back to Hawaii after their visit to Heatherbrae. She had mixed feelings. She glanced out the window and saw thick clouds and knew beneath them there was only the Pacific Ocean stretching between Australia and the tiny dots of the Hawaiian Islands. She felt the threads that bound her to her home country slowly stretching and she thought that there would come a point when she’d let Australia go and the Islands would draw her into their embrace.
But in this limbo her thoughts were with her family. The visit hadn’t been all she’d hoped. It was still the end of a searing summer. The farm and landscape were brown, the creeks and the river dangerously low. The flies had driven Bradley mad and while he was charming and polite, Catherine could read him well enough to know he was bored and felt he had nothing in common with her family or their friends. But everyone liked him, thought him sophisticated and charming and said how lucky Catherine was to have married him.
The visit got off to a great start. They’d had a few days in Sydney with Mollie who broke the news that she had just got engaged. So they’d had dinner with Mollie and Jason, who was a stockbroker, which suited Mollie for, while she might claim to be a free spirit, she liked to do it with money.
Alone with Catherine, Mollie told her they were madly saving to buy a house but they’d love to go to Kauai and stay at the Palm Grove some day and she planned to keep working ‘until kids come along. Of course I adore Jason,’ she added, ‘but he’s just an average Aussie bloke, isn’t he? Not a dazzler like your Bradley. God, he’s so good looking.’
Mollie seemed to have her life planned out and this made Catherine realise how many upheavals she and Bradley were likely to have in the future. She had talked to navy wives who’d moved around the world, sometimes being uprooted at short notice and who had never felt they had a permanent home of their own. Their kids hated being moved from schools and friends and with husbands at sea, the wives were lonely and the burden of the family and home fell on their shoulders.
While Bradley was in Administration he’d assured Catherine he’d be shore based most of the time, but now that seemed to have changed and she wondered how she would cope with his long absences. It was all so different from what she’d grown up with. Bradley was sympathetic about the poor weather conditions at home, but he really couldn’t understand how awful a drought could be for everyone. She was upset and concerned. She could see how hard her father was working and the terrible plight of Rob, whose father’s property Craigmore was in dire straits.
In the brief time she had to talk with Rob alone, he’d told her that his father had run the place down terribly but wouldn’t let him make any changes to modernise or reassess the management of it. Putting money into race horses had been a bigger concern for his father than putting money into his property. Rob’s sisters had no interest in the place, nor did Barbara who, now that they were married, tried to spend as much time as possible going to Sydney to see her parents and friends.
‘It’s only country people like us, born here, growing up here, that really understand what this is all about,’ said Rob. ‘The economy is doing okay, wool and cattle prices are good. Mind you, what the meat sells for in shops is way, way more than we’re getting. But our feed isn’t good, the land needs revitalising somehow. Dad won’t listen to my “way out” rubbish-talk of course.’
Catherine missed the yarns with her father and his neighbours and their cronies about farming, the land, cattle, life in general. But she understood that it probably was boring for Bradley, just as she’d been bored by his father’s talk about the golf club, a favourite new restaurant and his sports games. She knew, too, she would miss the cups of tea and long talks with her mother when she returned to the Islands. They seemed to talk about everything. It was such a contrast to conversations with Angela and
Deidre, which never got beyond clothes, shopping sales, going out to lunch and some light-hearted reminiscences about Bradley and his siblings.
As if reading her thoughts, Bradley took her hand. ‘Missing everyone back at home already?’
She nodded, suddenly choked up. ‘Not just the family. Heatherbrae and the country is so much a part of me. I know you didn’t see it at its best, but it is beautiful.’
‘I imagine so. I thought the sunset barbecue fire at the top of your knoll was lovely.’
‘Until the mozzies came out,’ she reminded him. Bradley had been eaten alive despite liberally dousing himself in insect repellent.
‘Well, I did see lots of wallabies.’ He hesitated. ‘But really, Catherine, growing up there, what on earth did you do?’
She stared at him in amazement. ‘I told you. We rode horses, helped on the farm, went to the cattle sales, the ag show, bush races, picnics, dances. And that’s not even leaving the district. We went to Sydney and to other towns. I found Sydney less fun than being in the country. Bush kids know how to have a good time. We made our own fun.’
‘But it’s so rural. Aren’t you happier in a city like Honolulu where you can have both? The mountains, the sea. And then we have Waikiki on our doorstep. It seemed to me your friends were quite envious of your life, Catherine.’
‘They were. And I know I’m lucky, Bradley. It’s just I do miss old friends, my home . . . and I can’t help wondering what our life’s going to be like. Not owning a home, being settled.’
‘Catherine! We own an apartment. And what’s all this about being settled? You were the one that wanted the gypsy life. You were so carefree, flexible, willing to take on the world. Where’s that Catherine?’
She knew he was right. He hadn’t wanted to marry a girl who lived near his mother, had lunch with their parents every Sunday, saw the same people, same places all the time. He wanted someone who loved to travel, someone happy to move each time the navy told them to. ‘I guess I’m just homesick, saying goodbye and all. And not knowing where we’ll be after Hawaii.’
