The Reef
Page 47
Christina had never visited the island but with Vi and Don back in Sydney she was planning trips ‘down south’. Still she couldn’t be away too long from her adored granddaughter. Tourists were settling into the tranquil rhythm of Branch Island. The birds and turtles continued their cycle of life on this particular part of the reef.
Mac had new students gathered in his cottage to hear Isobel give an impassioned talk about her work. They listened transfixed, taking no notice of the baby, who played with a toy on the rug on the floor.
Tony ran his hands along the bow of the old white schooner. ‘White Lady, she’s got quite a history. She’s led a colourful life. I feel privileged to own her.’
‘Treat her with respect and she’ll give you years of pleasure and loyal service,’ said Gideon. ‘A coat of paint and a touch-up here and there is in order too.’
‘I’m thinking of asking Jen to write the story of White Lady as a book. In between everything else she has going!’ Tony laughed.
‘And it’s a reason to . . . what’s the word . . . collaborate?’ said Gideon, lifting a quizzical eyebrow.
‘Indeed, wise man that you are. Jen and Bella are very special to me.’
‘When you feel the time is right, tell her so,’ said Gideon softly. ‘You’ll know when.’
‘Your island has been good to us,’ said Tony. ‘It’s changed us, given us all a new way forward.’
Gideon was thoughtful. ‘Sometimes you need time to sit on an island and reflect on what is important, where your life is going. I made my choice a long time ago.’
Tony looked across the aqua lagoon, past the white curl of the breakers on the reef to the silken dark blue sea. ‘It’s just a matter of charting a way through the reef into calm waters, isn’t it?’
‘Ah,’ sighed the old man. ‘We need those reefs in our life. And this is the beginning of what we’re finding.’
Deeper and deeper still she glided through the translucent water. Clouds of curious neoncoloured fish swarmed before her face. A rose and yellow coral wall slid down to greener depths. Lazily, an enormous yellow-spotted blue Maori wrasse cruised past, its massive mouth closed in a benign expression. Manta rays performing their own ballet sailed above her. In the underwater forest she was dwarfed, threading her way through the fleshy waving tangle of seaweed arms reaching to sunlight.
In a stretch of clear water she felt she was flying through the sky. A flick and a shark was there, and gone, minding its own business.
Across the seagrass meadows of waving gold, to a ledge where anemones clung with the soft corals protecting their beautiful but poisonous residents, a starry reef eel slithered and a fat red emperor held its mouth open for cleaner fish to dart in and clean its mouth and teeth. The tiny blue fish swimming in and out of the predatory jaws had read the signals: they were safe until their job was done.
And in the shimmery distant water, did she glimpse for a moment or two the soft human shapes of a boy and girl? Holding hands, swimming together, at home and at peace in the warm kind waters of the reef and its world. So different from the turbulent coastal seas and a rocky ledge where waves had snatched a family’s joy, children’s dreams and a mother’s hope.
Upwards, bubbles hissing from a breath, she broke through the surface. A hand reached down and helped her swing onto the ladder, and she pulled herself up as water streamed off her red wetsuit and silver airtanks. Jennifer pushed her mask back on her head, took out her mouthpiece and snapped the straps as Tony lifted the tanks from her back.
‘Was it bella, bella?’ he asked gently.
‘Very. I never believed I would be able to experience, to really feel part of that world . . . down there.’ She dropped her flippers on the deck and gazed down into the water. ‘I’ll keep doing this. But right now, at this moment, I feel a chapter has come to an end.’
Tony leaned over and kissed her salty wet lips. ‘There will be plenty of time to begin other stories.’
It lay dead and white in the palm of her hand. The ancient shell she’d found in her father’s field one day. Jennifer picked her way across the reef flat to the rim of deep water. The tide would soon turn back towards the island. She drew a breath and fell forward into the startling blue, kicking down, her arms pulling her towards the rocky ledge she’d seen from the surface. She saw a clump of pink branching coral nestled in the arms of seagrass and so she placed the fossil between them. As she thrust her body back to the surface she liked to think the limestone that had frozen the small shell in time would re-form, that grains of coral sand would support the tiny creatures in rebuilding, continuing the reef’s cycle of life.
Her head rose from the crystal water. The sun was shining.
THE END
Di Morrissey
Barra Creek
In the wild Gulf country of northwestern Queensland, there’s a cattle station – Barra Creek – on a tributary of the crocodile-infested Norman River.
It’s 1963 and Sally Mitchell, the well-bred daughter of a wealthy New Zealand sheep farmer, is on her way to England with her friend Pru. When the young women stop over in Sydney their plans go awry. Sally impulsively takes a job as a governess at Barra Creek, and when the mail plane that flew her there takes off she finds herself left in a different world. One dominated by the overpowering John Monroe and his strict and proper wife Lorna.
Here Sally’s life changes forever. The challenges of coping with her three young charges, wild stockmen, the heat and the Wet, brumby musters and cattle rushes all pale beside a great passion, a great loss and a gruesome death.
Only Lorna knows the truth of the death and of a terrible injustice. Now, in 2003, she searches for the former governess to finally set things right and share her horrific secret.
Di Morrissey
Kimberley Sun
The remote town of Broome, the desert and the Kimberley coast – Australia’s last frontier and a land of ancient beauty – are the backdrop for Kimberley Sun, the sequel to Di Morrissey’s international bestseller, Tears of the Moon.
Lily Barton, now 53, is beautiful, adventurous and looking for a life change. Sami, her daughter, is driving alone through the outback to finally, reluctantly confront her family roots. Together they are swept into a world where myths and reality converge, as they find that everyone they meet has a story to tell. From Farouz, the son of an Afghan camel driver, Bobby, the Chinese-Aboriginal man who is tangled up in the murder of a German tourist, to Biddy, the survivor from Captain Tyndall and Olivia’s era . . . and who is the mysterious artist hiding in the desert?
All have a secret and a story to share as each finds their place under the Kimberley sun . . .
Di Morrissey
The Bay
The Bay is a peaceful town on the Australian east coast; a melting pot of city escapees, alternative lifestylers, lost souls, and men and women in search of a new sense of identity.
When Sydney corporate wife Holy Jamieson turns forty-five she shocks her husband by buying an old house in The Bay with plans to transform it into a B & B. This gesture of independence soon changes her life. The Bay was once a whaling town, then a sleepy resort that became trendy, and now developers are moving in for the kill. Holly, her family, and an unusual band of friends are in the battle lines – and not always on the same side.
The Bay captures the atmosphere of a unique place and its people so you can feel that you are there.
Di Morrissey
Blaze
BLAZE exposes the new order of women and power in the cutthroat arena of up-market magazines. The idealistic baby boomers have been pushed aside and it’s every woman for herself.
Ali Gruber, 28, is slick, smart, ambitious. She is determined to be editor of the New York edition of BLAZE, the world’s most popular magazine. But fate intervenes, taking her back to the secret of her Australian childhood.
Nina Jansous, 60, is the founder of BLAZE. Croatianborn and Australian-raised, the elegant Nina is haunted by memories of the past.
&
nbsp; Larissa Kelly, 35, has everything – a prestigious career and a loving man. But can the relationship survive when he’s a stockbroker in Greenwich Village and she’s been posted to BLAZE’S new magazine in Sydney.
Miche Bannister, 22, wants to be a journalist and follow in her late mother’s footsteps. In Paris, Miche infiltrates the life of supermodel Jessica Shaw and finds a murky world of drugs and sexual abuse. Should she reveal what she uncovers when faced with her mother’s nemesis?
BLAZE is an intimate look at four women coping with their private and public lives in the world of magazines.
Absorbing. Biting. Funny. Real.
Di Morrissey
Scatter the Stars
A mesmerising novel of the film industry and one man’s life that charts a path for all of us.
Larrikin Australian actor Randy Storm had it all. Swept up by Hollywood in the 1950s he had the looks, charm and talent to take on the world. But by the 1990s he’s forgotten, burned out after a life of movie star excess.
When producer Michael Matthews meets the once great Randy Storm, he is surprised to find a man who is at peace with himself. Both he and researcher Janie Callendar set out to discover the source of this inner peace. Meanwhile his agent Ariel Margoles finds out that Australia’s world acclaimed film director Patricia Jordan is making the hottest Hollywood film of the year and she sees a chance for Randy to be a star once more.
But just as Randy is about to reach his pinnacle, a secret from his past threatens to bring down his greatest triumph . . .