The Birthmark

by Beth Montgomery

  A tapping at the louvres woke her and the whisper of her name made her heart freeze for just a moment.

  ‘Lily, wake up,’ came Jonah’s voice from outside.

  She sat up, her pulse pounding in her throat.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ she whispered as she pulled herself up to the window and peered into the night air.

  ‘Come out, Lil. Come with me down to the beach.’

  ‘How did you get here?’

  ‘From the hotel...my cousins were drinking there. They think I’m still asleep in the back of the Landrover.’

  She could smell his sweet breath. ‘You’re drunk, aren’t you?’

  ‘Come on out, Lil,’ he said impatiently.

  ‘Shut up,’ she hissed, ‘you’ll wake everyone up.’

  ‘Lil, they won’t know, come out, come down to the beach.’

  She took a deep breath. Should she risk it? What did it mean that Jonah was drunk? Still, it was her chance now, and she knew he must really like her if he was brave enough to come to her window at night. ‘OK, wait, I’ll meet you down there.’

  She fumbled about for her thongs in the dark and when she looked up again Jonah had gone. She eased the bolt across, cringing at the small clack it made.

  The door creaked open and Lily padded through the lounge room to the back door.

  twenty-four

  Anbwido Leper Colony

  21 May 1943

  In the evening Tepu reached the outskirts of the leper colony. He hadn’t ventured this close since the deaths of Tarema and his mother over a month ago. Movement at the side of a wooden hut alerted him to danger. He fell back into the shadows of the pinnacles and beach creeper. He saw a shape he knew well. It was Edouwe, carrying a bucket from one hut to another.

  He made a hissing noise to attract her attention.

  She stopped, looked around, then placed the bucket gently on the ground.

  He hissed once more and called her name.

  Checking that no one was about, she dashed to the edge of the forest to greet him.

  ‘You’re very bold,’ she said, her eyes sparkling. She reached out and clasped his hands.

  ‘Are you well?’ Tepu smiled.

  ‘We go hungry, Tepu. Sometimes we catch a few fish, but there is barely enough food.’

  ‘Eat what you can,’ he encouraged her. ‘Even the rats have meat on them.’

  ‘Tepu, I thought…I’d heard…they’d beaten Tarema to death.’

  ‘Yes,’ his voice trembled, ‘it was my brother.’

  Edouwe leant closer. ‘They will catch you and kill you too if they see you here.’

  ‘Don’t fear, they won’t find me,’ he said. ‘Meet me again, next week.’

  She smiled at him, squeezed his hands, and nodded her head to the right, ‘Yes, when the moon is up, in those pinnacles towards the beach.’

  ‘I’ll be there,’ he whispered.

  Anbwido

  Friday 2 July 2004

  Lorelei tossed in her sleep, lingering on the edge of wakefulness. Someone was talking in the night. ‘Lily’. At the word ‘Lily’ she was awake in an instant. She listened into the darkness and heard snoring from the boys’ room; the murmuring came from somewhere outside near Lily’s room.

  Trut! That girl was going to get a hiding tonight if she was caught with a boy. Trying not to make a sound, Lorelei heaved herself off the mattress. Her knees cracked as she stood and she swayed for a moment, expecting to hear the night visitor run off, but the murmuring continued.

  She tiptoed down the hallway past the snoring boys and into the kitchen. The voices were clearer now.

  Lorelei held her breath. She heard the bolt on Lily’s door slide open. The door creaked and she knew Lily had entered the room. She waited until she could hear her unlocking the back door, then she flicked on the light.

  ‘Going where, you trut?’ Lorelei screamed and flew at Lily before she had a chance to open the door.

  Lily blinked, stunned by the ambush and the bright light. ‘The shower block…I…I need to use the toilet.’

  Lorelei wrenched at her daughter’s hair, pulling her head sideways and smashing it into the kitchen bench.

  ‘You lie! I heard you talking with some boy…’ Lily clamped onto Lorelei’s wrists and dug her fingernails into the sinews. Her mother swore and released her grip on Lily’s hair. The girl spun free and retreated to the lounge room. ‘Leave me alone, you witch!’

  ‘You’re not going outside!’ Lorelei screamed and she leant heavily on the door.

  ‘I’ll do what I want!’

  ‘What’s going on?’ came a groggy voice from behind Lily. Rongo stood rubbing his eyes, wearing only a lava lava around his waist and a pained expression. Eldon staggered behind him blinking stupidly.

  ‘A boy, there’s a boy outside!’ Lorelei shrieked.

  Rongo’s eyes widened and he sprang at the door, pushing his mother aside, ‘I’ll get the bastard!’

  ‘No!’ Lily screamed, trying to follow Rongo. But Lorelei pulled her back by the arm, flinging her towards Eldon. Then she pushed the door shut and leant against it again.

  Lily ran from her uncle and scrambled to her room, slamming the door behind her.

  Lorelei lumbered over to the door. She pounded her fist against it. ‘Come out, come out, you trut!’ she bellowed.

  She recognised the scrape of shifting furniture. Lily was barricading herself in. She’d have to break the door down now. She thudded her shoulder against it. The door bowed and flexed against her weight but it didn’t break. ‘Get this door open now!’ she screamed at Eldon.

  He hesitated, then moved to help his sister. Together they rammed their shoulders into the door and this time something cracked. The door fell open a few inches then jammed against the barricade.

  ‘Push it, you fool, push it away from the door,’ Lorelei yelled.

  Eldon reached inside to push the wooden chest away. Something clanked and whooshed, then Eldon sprang back.

  ‘Fucken! Eeiyee!’

  He pulled his arm out from the doorjamb. A spray of blood painted the wall beside him.

  Lorelei roared and pushed harder against the door. ‘Open the door, you bitch!’

  ‘My hand, my hand!’ Eldon groaned, bumping Lorelei sideways. ‘Look at my hand…’ and he held up what she thought was a bloody fist. ‘My fingers…’ Lorelei took a few seconds to notice in the stream of blood that there were only two fingers left on his hand.

  ‘My fingers…’ he said pressing his hand to his chest.

  He backed away from her in shock, his mouth open and a spreading stain darkening the front of his T-shirt.

  ‘Jesus!’ Lorelei screamed. ‘Your shirt. Wrap it in your shirt.’ She lunged after him. In her efforts to help her brother, she didn’t see Lily emerge with the sword and slip out the back door.

  twenty-five

  Anbwido Leper Colony

  30 June 1943

  ‘They’ve sent my parents away, and my sisters, even baby Rita,’ Edouwe whispered.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Tepu asked. He held her hand and they sat together in the darkness, enclosed by pinnacles and beach creeper, on the edge of Baringa Bay.

  ‘Last night, in a big ship, they took my cousins away too. But not just mine, everyone who has relatives at the leper colony went in a big ship. Only a few of us…carers who stay at the colony, like me…well they didn’t take us.’ ‘Where did they send them?’

  ‘I don’t know, no one knows. Maybe they’ll blow them up, or take them back to Japan and eat them.’ She leant against him for comfort and he hugged her tightly to him. Her hair smelt of coconut oil and it was soft and greasy against his cheek.

  ‘Why have those evil men come here? How much longer will they stay?’ she said. ‘I hate them.’

  ‘They will die soon, Edouwe. They will die for all they’ve done and then we must marry.’

  ‘Marry!’ she said snuggling closer. ‘Yes, we will marry.’

  T
epu grinned. He’d asked her in such an off-hand way and it worked. There was no romance, no glamour. But she’d accepted him. He wanted to leap to his feet and shout with happiness, but they had to stay hidden. Instead he smiled at his fortune, praying that the war would end soon.

  Anbwido

  Friday 2 July 2004

  Hector hid his bike in the long grass beside the pillbox near Lily’s house. In the blackness he felt his way up onto its surface. It was still warm from the day’s heat. The warmth was welcoming as the wind off the sea made him shiver in the night air.

  What he really wanted to do was go to Lil’s house and tell her what he’d found, but she was too angry to talk to him. Never mind, it was a small island and there would be a right time. She’d talk to him soon enough when she realised that Jonah was just a dumb shit like the rest of them.

  Hector had crept out after his ibu had fallen asleep. He wanted to tell Ibu about the skull, but he thought Lil should be the first to know. And Ibu would want to take control and tell them what to do. Right now he didn’t want advice, he just wanted to talk to Lily.

  He lay watching the stars, wondering whether the ghost would come to him or not and somewhere in his thoughts he fell asleep.

  When he woke the warmth had almost gone from the pillbox. His bones were sore, as if someone had stretched him like a plastic dolly then let his arms and legs spring back to off-centre. He sat up and rolled his head from side to side to relieve the stiffness in his neck.

  A movement to his left startled him and he flattened himself against the pillbox, turning his head slowly to make out what it was.

  A figure staggered along the beach. He couldn’t be sure but he thought from the way he moved it might be Jonah. He looked drunk. What was he doing here? Creeping around Lily’s house, I’ll bet. Bastard! Hector spat his envy out into the sand. There was nothing he could do. He couldn’t stop them this time. He couldn’t risk hanging around any girl’s house at night. Shit, Jonah was such an arsehole. What was he thinking? He’d get himself killed if they caught him.

  Certain now it was Jonah, he watched him move past the bunker and continue up the beach until the darkness ate him. Hector dropped down onto the sand. He breathed deeply and scratched his head. Should he follow or just wait here? No, he had to go. He had to see what Jonah would do. He crept up the beach at a safe distance and listened into the night.

  Soon enough he heard a faint tapping sound. He edged along the path until he saw the house in the distance. Jonah’s figure was lost in the shadows against the wall. Hector heard him speaking but he dared not move any closer. He stood on the path as motionless as a pinnacle, controlling his breathing and hoping that Lily wouldn’t wake up.

  Suddenly a light flared in the house and Jonah ran from the shadows, bolting towards him. Hector fled to the beach, making for the safety of the pillbox again. He heard shouts from the house, a door slam and panting from Jonah running behind him. Hope they catch him, the arsehole, he thought as he reached the side of the pillbox and crawled in.

  The pillbox stank of urine, dead fish and stale beer. He perched on the rubble wondering what other rubbish was inside with him.

  He saw Jonah’s silhouette approaching and heard someone shout from behind. Jonah turned, looked back, tripped, then got to his feet again, making straight for the pillbox.

  Hector froze and braced himself for another occupant, but Jonah pulled himself up onto the roof of the pillbox and was gone from sight.

  ‘Ngaitirre!’ Jonah cried out, then gasped in pain. Hector hoped he’d hurt himself badly.

  ‘What the…stupid shit bicycle,’ he heard Jonah exclaim, then he heard nothing more. Hector grinned, imagining how Jonah would have jumped off the pillbox and landed on his bike. Then he thought again and cursed silently: Jonah had probably ridden off on it.

  He was about to emerge when another figure loomed into view. Puffing and swearing, Rongo reached the pillbox and lugged himself onto the dome.

  ‘Bastard!’ he bellowed into the night. ‘The police will get you, you arsehole. You wait!’

  Hector didn’t move. He held his breath until he thought his brain had begun to spin. He heard Rongo land heavily in the grass on the other side of the pillbox and at last he let himself breathe out. He waited a moment or two then crawled outside. He pulled himself up onto the dome and looked out to the roadside. A pale shape in the distance walked along the side of the road back towards Lily’s house; it was Rongo in his lava lava. Hector waited until Rongo disappeared then he jumped down into the grass and felt around in the shadows for his bike. Just as he’d feared, it was gone. Jonah was probably half way to Pago on it by now, the bastard! Hector would have to steal himself another one.

  He sighed. The day had been so stuffed up and now his bike had gone. Shit! What was the point of it all? He climbed back onto the pillbox and stared out into the blackness of the sea.

  ‘Hector, is that you?’ came Lily’s voice from the beach.

  ‘Yeah,’ he said warily. Was she about to tell him to piss off again? Then he saw her emerge, her shoulders slumped. She dragged the sword behind her in the sand.

  ‘What are you doing?’ he said. ‘Are you OK?’

  ‘I need help,’ she said.

  twenty-six

  Anbwido

  July 1943

  Each night Tepu ventured out to call the ancestor bird. Now he knew Egirow’s secret place he could execute his plan. He would surprise Egirow one morning. But Tepu was weak from hunger and Egirow was armed. How could he overpower the marine? It would involve the black stone, the only magic he had. He trusted that the bird would show him how to use the stone to defeat Egirow.

  Once he’d communed with his ancestor he walked south, skirting patrols, to spend the nights in Anbwido.

  Sometimes he met Edouwe near the leper colony. If the bombers came they huddled in the pinnacles. He covered her as each blast shook the ground but they dared not leave their hiding place for fear of being caught. She never stayed with him long, however, because her grandparents would be alarmed by her absence. Once the raid was over she ran off, hidden by the night to slip back to the leper colony.

  Tepu then walked through the forest and slept beside the Witch Track. He knew he had to watch Egirow’s movements to know precisely when the Lieutenant would come to his secret place. Usually it was early morning, pre-dawn. The sound of his quick footsteps roused Tepu from his dreams.

  The Lieutenant spent half an hour or more in his secret place. Tepu listened each time. Egirow would mutter a litany and then there was silence. Was it some kind of spiritual ritual? Tepu could only guess, but it struck him that Egirow was calling on his own Japanese ancestor gods.

  They have no power here, Tepu thought. My magic will defeat them.

  During the day Tepu laboured with a strength that astonished the other men. He had only two thoughts: what it felt like to be with Edouwe and what it would feel like to kill Egirow. Both thoughts burned into his mind and drove him to go on regardless of the heat, the pain and the gnawing hunger.

  Anbwido Friday 2 July 2004

  Lily was trapped like a little fish in a rock pool. There was nowhere to go and nothing to stop them coming in after her. She’d pushed the bolt across but knew it wouldn’t hold. She felt the door bow when they pushed on it. Even the barricade she’d set up wouldn’t keep Lorelei back. She leant against the clothes chest, straining to keep it against the door.

  In the dim light she saw the sword glint. She lunged across the room for it. Then came the rip of wood splitting and Lily knew the lock had broken. The clothes chest scraped across the floor. Lily dived back to strengthen the barricade and crushed something underfoot. The sword fell to the floor beside her. She fumbled about for it but felt instead her little wooden box, squashed and splintered—her box of hands. Why her box of treasures? Everything was ruined, they wrecked everything! Rage seethed inside her. Everything she loved had been smashed or spoilt by her family.

  A shadow cur
led around the door, attempting to push the barricade away. Furious, Lily grabbed the sword off the floor and struck at it. There was a thud like a Chinaman cleaving meat and she knew she’d hit her clothes chest.

  ‘Fucken!’ Eldon roared from behind the door.

  ‘Get away!’ she screamed. She wrenched the sword free from the wood and raised it ready to strike again, expecting a second attempt, but the door was still and a kind of wailing had begun. ‘My hand, my hand! Look at my hand!’ she heard Eldon cry.

  She climbed onto the clothes chest and peeked into the lounge room. Lorelei was fumbling with Eldon’s T-shirt, pushing him backwards while he howled like an injured dog, stumbling away from her.

  Lily slipped out of the house and fled down the path to the beach, still clutching the sword. I’ve hurt him, I’ve hurt the bastard. He deserves it though, the way he hurt me. She hoped she’d cut him badly too, hoped she’d chopped his hand off. Those hands that had mauled her wouldn’t touch her now. He wouldn’t dare. She was strong and fierce and no one would hurt her again. No one would push her around anymore. Not Eldon, not Lorelei, not anyone.

  She clenched her fists but her left hand felt strangely numb and heavy, her fingers stiff. The sensation flowed up her arm, making her shudder. It’s just a reaction to what happened, she reasoned, just a build up of tension.

  How would Eldon and Lorelei react to her now? They probably wouldn’t let her back in the house. That would be fine. She never wanted to live there again.

  But where would she stay? Decima was still in Australia. There was nowhere to go. She couldn’t stay at Hector’s. That would be against custom and anyway, Hector had infuriated her today: followed her, spied on her, mucked up her plans.

  She remembered Christina’s words. ‘You’re welcome here, anytime…when you need to escape…’ Anytime—did that mean midnight when you’re running away from trouble? Not likely.

  She ran along the beach in the moonlight and headed for the only sanctuary she knew: the pillbox. Those fat arseholes couldn’t fit in, so she knew she would be safe. And she had the sword with her; no one was going to scare her anymore. The pillbox would do for now. In the daylight she’d make her way up to Christina’s house. away into the night somewhere. He hadn’t stuck around. He wasn’t here for her now. He wasn’t any different from all the others. He had wanted her to follow him to Leper Beach. What would have happened if Hector hadn’t interrupted? Would he have forced her just like Eldon? Maybe he really was like Eldon and she just couldn’t see it. No, he wasn’t like the others. But then he was drunk, drunk and stupid, wanting her to go down to the beach. To do what? Just kiss, or something more? Stupid shit, why did he have to get drunk?