by Di Morrissey
All three of them ordered more coffee and Chris quickly took the opportunity to ask Norma some questions.
‘From the work you’re involved in, I guess you think that we should be paying more attention to our neighbours in this Asian Century,’ he said.
Norma nodded. ‘I think that if we don’t engage and exchange more ideas, especially on a friendly basis, we will miss a great opportunity,’ she said. ‘While it is true that Australia is a Western-style country, sometimes we forget that we are located in southern Asia. This country looks north to Europe and the USA and in doing so skips over one of the rising world powers. Indonesia will be one of the biggest world economies by 2020.’
‘Hard to believe, considering the way it was when we were there,’ sighed Susan.
‘Norma, can I ask you what your opinion was of the men who were in the Neighbourhood Aid programme with you? I have to tell you that anything you say is in the strictest confidence. I just want to get a feel for the men I’m writing about,’ said Chris.
‘Chris, your mother was a very good friend to me,’ said Norma. ‘I don’t know if she ever told you, but I was very sick for quite some time when we were in Java. I thought I would have to return to Australia, but your mother nursed me and cooked for me and made sure that I got better. We hadn’t known each other very long and yet she was more than happy to put herself out for me. I owe her. So if you are sure that my name will never be attached to any comments I make, I will tell you what I knew about these men and the work that they did. Have I your word that my privacy will be respected?’ She raised her chin and looked him straight in the eye.
Chris felt a tingling sensation. It was the sense he sometimes felt right before a story cracked wide open. Perhaps Norma was the key after all. He returned her gaze and said, ‘Absolutely, Norma. If you like, I’ll send you anything I write before it’s published so that you can make sure.’
‘Don’t worry, Norma,’ said Susan. ‘Chris will keep his word.’
Norma nodded her head. She paused, waiting for the waiter to serve their coffees, then took a sip before starting to speak.
‘Well, of course, I couldn’t fault Evan and his work. He was so young and had barely qualified, but he had a gift for medicine. I expect that was partly because he came from a medical family, but it was something more than that, too. He had a knack for creating extraordinary relationships with his patients. It’s hard to explain, but he was able to radiate such confidence they sometimes seemed to want to get better just to please him. I remember him telling me that he used to be frustrated when people came to him convinced that they had been cursed and would likely die. Yet his quiet assurance often seemed to have the desired effect on his patients and they survived whatever spell had been placed on them.’
Norma looked at Chris and smiled.
‘I see that you think that they would have recovered anyway, but that was not always true, was it, Susan?’
‘No,’ said Susan. ‘Sometimes belief in the supernatural can be very strong.’
‘I didn’t know the others quite as well as I knew Evan,’ said Norma. ‘From what I could see, David loved being out and about with his farmers, helping them improve the yields of their crops. He was always enthusiastic about his work and as I remember he had a great sense of humour, sometimes at my expense,’ she added.
Susan laughed. ‘He still has that sense of humour and I’m sure he meant no harm when he directed his wit towards you.’
‘Yes,’ said Chris. ‘We’ve seen quite a bit of David lately and he’s still travelling the world, helping raise crop yields in poorer countries.’
‘Good for him. I remember Mark quite well too. I felt he could have been the odd one out, coming from such a wealthy family, but he fitted in well and quickly gained the respect of Bogor’s small traders. He wasn’t easily frightened, either.’
‘What do you mean by that?’ asked Susan, frowning.
‘Even after all the trouble at the Tans’, he wouldn’t move out. He continued to live with them. Said that if they had to stay in their house, then he would too.’
Susan was silent for a few moments, then she said, ‘I didn’t know that.’
‘No reason you should,’ said Norma. ‘You’d gone home by then, which was the right thing to do. You suffered a terrible experience. That’s why I’ve been so pleased to hear that your subsequent life has been so happy.’
The three of them sat for a while, saying nothing, drinking their coffees in silence, each deep in thought.
Then Norma spoke. ‘I used to see quite a bit of the Tans, after I went back.’
Chris glanced at her. The way she said this seemed to hint at something.
‘Goodness,’ said Susan. ‘How were they?’
‘Old Mrs Tan had died, but Mr Tan remembered me. One of his daughters was running the family business because he had no sons, and we became quite good friends. She was a very good businesswoman.’
Quietly Susan asked, ‘Did they ever mention Jimmy?’
‘Yes, of course, Jimmy . . .’ She stopped talking as she and Susan looked away, both clearly remembering the terrible event of Jimmy’s murder.
‘Those protests,’ said Susan, softly.
‘Rabble rousers using those riots as a cover.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Chris.
‘The people who killed Jimmy weren’t taking part in a political protest, they were using the chaos of that night to target the Chinese. It was common knowledge that most Chinese hoarded their money, mostly in gold. They didn’t trust the banks,’ Norma explained.
Susan sighed. ‘Yes. Jimmy died because the Tans were raided and Jimmy got in the way of a robbery. It was tragic.’
Norma opened her mouth to say something, seemed to think better of it, and took a sip of coffee instead.
‘Mum told me you lived at the hospital, is that right, Norma? She said it was only Mark who lived with the Tans, so why did you go and see the Tans when you returned to Bogor?’ asked Chris.
Norma looked down at her coffee. ‘The Tans were old friends of Anwar’s and his family, so we used to visit them on occasion. I got to know them well. Anwar had a lot of other friends in Bogor, friends who over time told him stories about the night Jimmy died.’ She took a breath and looked at Susan. ‘It turns out that events weren’t quite the way we had accepted them at the time.’
For a moment there was complete silence around the table. Then Susan spoke.
‘Norma, will you tell me what you know? It might have been a long time ago, but I still want to find out what really happened that night.’
Norma held up a hand. ‘All right, Susan, I’ll tell what I’ve learned about his death. But it won’t be easy for you to hear.’ Norma paused and Susan looked at Chris and then back at Norma and nodded. ‘For starters,’ Norma began, ‘you probably didn’t know that when Jimmy came up from Jakarta that weekend to see you, he told Mr Tan he was going to propose to you. He showed him a picture of a ring and asked him if he could copy it. He knew Mr Tan was a good goldsmith.’
Susan made a small sound and her hand flew to her mouth. ‘I never knew,’ she whispered.
But Norma continued talking, obviously keen to tell Susan everything now she’d started.
‘Anwar had some friends who were businessmen. I think they liked to be seen with Anwar because he was so admired in Bogor. They probably felt that his status rubbed off on them. One day we were having lunch with a couple of them and something came up about the six of us and the work we’d done in ’68. I mentioned Alan Carmichael to them and said that I thought he was now a rich businessman. They were very impressed. Then one of them said, “Mr Carmichael a very good friend to Indonesia. He try very hard to get rid of bad Chinese, communist Chinese.” We all knew that Alan hated the Chinese and used to tell us that Indonesia would be better off without them. Then the other man said that Alan had actively worked on getting the Chinese out of Bogor. I had no idea what he meant, so I didn’t say anything.’
Chris
glanced across to his mother. She hadn’t taken her eyes off Norma’s face and he realised that neither woman was aware of his presence, so intent were they on Norma’s story and remembering back to all those years before.
Norma continued, ‘I was puzzled about the comments from these men, so I later asked Anwar if he understood what they were talking about. Anwar said that he would make some inquiries to find out. A few days later he came back and told me what he had discovered. I found it quite shocking. Alan had made no secret of his dislike for the Chinese, but what Anwar discovered was that when Alan was in Bogor, he was actually involved in pursuing them.’
‘But how could he do that? Surely we, someone, would have noticed?’ Susan asked, her voice filled with horror.
Norma shifted in her seat and then drank from the glass of water that had been put in front of her, gathering her thoughts. ‘As you know, there were gangs that intimidated the Chinese. Remember that day at the markets, when Mark and you and I saw them extorting money from the Chinese traders there? Well, evidently some of the manual labourers who worked for Alan were members of those gangs and he actually encouraged them in taking this sort of action against any of the Chinese.’
Chris simply stared at Norma. ‘What sort of people were they that Alan was involved with?’ he finally asked.
‘Chris, it was a time of madness. It was like a fuse had been lit and there was no stopping the explosion that would follow. There was sporadic but unpredictable chaos, and it could be quite indiscriminate. Anyone could be denounced as a communist and killed. So many people were frightened that they might be singled out, quite erroneously, that they often turned in other members of their own family to save themselves. And there were gangs that took part in these killings with impunity. Sometimes they were complete strangers to the victims. Sometimes they all dressed in black carrying swords, sometimes they wore camouflage outfits and carried guns; it varied. But they all hated communists and thought of themselves as patriots, and that the killings were justified. Thousands of innocent people were victims of these gangs. But the Chinese were the biggest target for the anti-communist riots, and as they often had money and valuables in their homes, the gangs particularly went after them,’ Norma explained.
‘And Alan believed in all this?’ asked Chris, trying to reconcile what he was hearing with everything he’d learned about the well-known property developer.
‘This was the 1960s, Chris. Throughout the West there was a fear of communism. This was the time when the Vietnam War was at its height. Communism, it was thought, would run right through South East Asia, conquering country after country, even invading Australia if not actively stopped,’ said Norma.
‘Yes, many Australians believed that this domino effect could easily happen,’ Susan chipped in. ‘So it was thought that anyone who was connected with communism, either in Australia or in nearby countries, was a threat to Australia’s freedom. Communism was an idea which could not be allowed to flourish, something that had to be actively fought.’
‘So you’re telling me, Norma, that Alan was involved in the violence against people who were thought to be communists in Bogor, especially the Chinese?’ said Chris.
‘Yes, but there is more to the story. Anwar found out that Alan was forewarned that there would be riots that terrible night and that using the ensuing chaos as cover, several Chinese homes would be invaded and robbed. One of those homes would be the Tans’.’
‘What!’ Susan’s stunned expression turned to fury. ‘Alan knew that the Tans would be attacked and he did nothing? He never told us. He did nothing!’ said Susan, her voice rising.
Chris reached over to take his mother’s shaking hand.
‘Norma, are you sure about this information? This is dreadful,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘Mark lived with the Tans. I thought he and Alan were supposed to be friends. Why wouldn’t Alan tell him what was going to happen, or at least drop some sort of a hint?’
‘You’d have to ask Alan that,’ said Norma, evenly. ‘But I suppose if he had said something to Mark, or Jimmy for that matter, then they would have known about his relationship with those terrible gangs and he might have been sent home in disgrace. But also remember, generally white people were never targeted by these gangs, because they knew that then the police couldn’t just turn a blind eye. They would have had to become involved. Maybe Alan was just taking the chance that nothing would happen to either Mark or Jimmy.’
‘But the police never caught whoever stabbed Jimmy,’ said Susan quietly, almost to herself.
‘Norma, may I ask why you didn’t tell my mother all this before now?’ asked Chris, gently.
Norma hesitated and looked at Susan. ‘I suppose I knew that this could only upset you, as it did me. It’s in the past. I may have been wrong to keep this information to myself, but I did. Why bring up something that can’t be changed, especially something so painful?’
Susan nodded, her face flushed, and while Chris felt enormous sympathy for his mother and what she had just learned, he couldn’t help feeling a tingle of satisfaction that his story had taken such a huge leap forward.
Susan was still trembling and shaking her head at the news. ‘I can’t believe Alan would deliberately not warn us, the Tans, Mark and Jimmy . . . No, it’s unforgivable that he didn’t say something. I think that he’s responsible for Jimmy’s death.’ Susan’s eyes filled with tears.
‘I’m so sorry, Mum.’ Susan leaned against her son for a moment. Then Norma reached into her handbag and handed Susan a tissue, which she accepted gratefully, sitting up straighter again.
‘I just think it’s so sad,’ Susan said, dabbing her eyes. ‘It was such an unfair, random act of brutality. Poor Jimmy. Maybe his family should also know what really happened. Jimmy’s brother, Thomas, wrote to me, you know,’ Susan said to Norma. ‘He went to Indonesia, to Bogor, a year or so after Jimmy’s death, trying to find out more about what had happened to Jimmy, but by then it was a closed chapter. An unfortunate incident, as far as the authorities were concerned.’
They were all quiet a minute. Then Susan reached out and touched Norma’s arm. ‘I know you didn’t have to share this. But I’m glad you did. Thank you.’
Norma nodded and gave a small sympathetic smile. ‘I’m sorry this has upset you, but at least now you know the truth.’
‘Oh, Norma, it was a special time back then, wasn’t it? For both good and sad reasons. I have never forgotten a moment of it. I learned a lot about life, which made me grow up. Those first impressions and images of such a different, exciting, amazing place and people have always stayed with me,’ said Susan.
Norma agreed. ‘We were lucky to glimpse the heart of a country. And I never regretted marrying Anwar. He was a remarkable man, but our backgrounds were too different. Sometimes your own customs, heritage and childhood claim you, even when you don’t want them to, isn’t that so?’ said Norma.
Susan glanced at Chris and he smiled at her.
‘Yes, that’s true, but often you’re not aware of it until you make that return journey,’ Chris said. They sat quietly for a few moments, lost in the momentous and emotional moment they had just shared. Chris could see his mother looked tired and spent and he thought that perhaps it was time to wind things up.
‘Thank you for giving me the privilege of meeting you,’ said Chris to Norma. ‘I’d like to keep in touch, if I may.’
‘Perhaps,’ Norma replied, her face now closed.
Susan managed a smile. ‘Yes, thank you for telling me the truth. It’s not always an easy thing to do, but I appreciate that you have.’
Chris settled the bill and then Norma clasped Susan’s hands, inclined her head towards Chris and then rose and walked out into the gathering gloom of the winter’s evening without a backward glance.
*
Chris had asked Georgia out to dinner, but she’d suggested he come to her house for a meal, so Susan took the train back to Pymble to spend the evening with Mark and Lorraine while Chri
s went out to Balmain. On the way he picked up a good bottle of wine and bought a bunch of dramatic oriental lilies.
Georgia’s terrace cottage was tucked at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac in the harbourside suburb. It had a tiny backyard surrounded by a high brick wall and contained a tumbling garden lit by well-concealed lighting.
‘It’s very Mediterranean and secluded. You’re not overlooked at all,’ said Chris as he gazed at it. ‘And I can hear boats on the harbour.’
‘I have some harbour glimpses from upstairs. Come and see.’
As they went back inside and up the narrow staircase, Chris couldn’t help but admire Georgia’s eclectic décor, a happy marriage of shabby chic, modern art, antique etchings, and a retro modern dining room and kitchen.
The bedroom was next to a surprisingly large bathroom, all crisp white tiles with a dark blue trim.
‘I sacrificed a minuscule second bedroom for a decent bathroom where I could swing a cat, if I had one,’ said Georgia. She indicated the bedroom window. ‘There’s the view.’
Peering out, Chris could see the spangled city lights across the water. ‘That’s gorgeous,’ said Chris. ‘My place at Neutral Bay is not nearly as exciting.’
‘But you’ve got Neverend as well, and that’s really lovely,’ said Georgia. ‘Now let’s go open that wine, I’m dying to hear about Norma. Did you learn anything interesting?’
Settled in a deep chair with Georgia stretched out on the sofa, the long coffee table between them, Chris relayed all that Norma had told them that afternoon. Georgia listened quietly and when he finished, said, ‘Wow. Your poor mother. That’s a lot to take in.’ She paused and took a sip of wine. ‘And this also puts a bit of a new slant on the story. Are you going to tackle Alan with this information?’
Chris shook his head. ‘Bit hard if he refuses to make contact. I believe Norma, but I can’t prove any of it. Anyway, I really can’t write about it. Alan would sue the socks off me. Still, it does make one think about what sort of man Alan Carmichael must be.’
Georgia straightened up and put down her wineglass on the coffee table. ‘Speaking of your book, I have something for you. Come into my den.’
