Bungalow on Pelican Way

by Lilly Mirren

  30

  April 1944

  Sydney

  Edie’s eyes blinked open to the sound of a door slamming. It jolted her out of a deep sleep. Every muscle in her body was tired and she ached from head to toe. Sister Durham had decided yesterday was the day to scrub the bedpans, surgical instruments, walls, floors, and furniture in every single one of the wards and operating theatres they covered, over again.

  She groaned and tugged the pillow from beneath her head to wrap around her ears. The high-pitched chatter of feminine voices drifted in from the hallway, along with shrieks of laughter followed by noisy shushing sounds and cackling.

  “Noise, too much noise,” she croaked.

  The springs in her bed squeaked as one side of the mattress dropped beneath someone’s weight. She peeked out from beneath her pillow.

  “Good morning,” said Mima in a chipper voice.

  Edie frowned. “It was until someone sat on me.”

  Mima chortled. “But I have something I want to tell you and it really can’t wait.”

  Edie pushed the pillow hard against her face. “Yes, it can.” Her voice was muffled by the goose down stuffing.

  Mima pulled the pillow out of Edie’s hands and away from her face. She set it on the end of the bed and faced Edie with a wide smile.

  “Ollie asked me to marry him!” She squealed and clapped her hands together in delight.

  Edie sat up, leaning her back against the wall behind her. “But you barely know him…”

  Mima’s smile faded. “We’ve been seeing each other for a whole month.”

  “A month is nothing…”

  “Don’t ruin this for me Edith Watson,” pouted Mima.

  Edie cocked her head to one side, then opened her arms. “Come here. I’m happy for you, Mima, really, I am. I’m sure the two of you will have a wonderful life together in Hollywood. I’ll miss you…” Her voice broke and she couldn’t finish.

  Mima accepted her embrace. “In Hollywood? Do you really think I’ll get to live in Hollywood?”

  Edith pushed her friend back and held her by the shoulders. “You haven’t talked about where you’ll live?”

  Mima shrugged. “Those things don’t matter. We’ll work it out after the war’s over. For now, all that matters is that we love each other and we’re going to be together forever, wherever that may be.”

  “I’m glad you’re happy, I only hope your parents will be just as delighted.” Edie knew Mima’s family would be less than thrilled by the idea. They’d already expressed their horror at her travelling all the way from Bathurst to Sydney alone to live in a dormitory with what they called a group of loose women with no moral compass to guide them.

  She also knew Mima didn’t want to hear it. She loved her family but had taken to the single life, parties, concerts, theatre, dance halls, and independent living in Sydney with gusto. She had no desire to return to Bathurst and live under her mother’s thumb again.

  Mima grunted. “You’re in a foul mood today, I’m going to tell the rest of the girls. They’ll be happy for me.” She trounced from the dormitory room, her curls bouncing against her back.

  Edie called after her. “I’m grumpy because someone woke me from a deep sleep by sitting on me! And I am happy for you!”

  She slumped down on the bed, her lips pinched together. Mima was engaged? It’d happened so fast her head was spinning. She wanted only the best for Mima, and Ollie seemed like a genuinely nice man, in fact Edie really liked him — he was handsome, funny, kind, and had so far shown Mima more respect than any of the other men she’d dated. She and Mima had spent a lot of time with him and his friend, Paul, over the past month, going to the movies, staying out late, dancing, or walking beside the glistening water, eating at the various restaurants that dotted the bustling harbour, and swimming at Bondi Beach.

  It turned out that the man she’d danced with on the green was Ollie’s best mate. They’d been stationed on the same ship together and were injured at the same time. And since neither of them had any serious ailments, they’d been allowed, or had taken, plenty of liberties during their rehabilitation in Sydney. Still, she knew nothing good lasted forever. Both men were scheduled to return to their ship the next day. No doubt that was the reason for Ollie’s hurried proposal.

  And when they were married, he’d take Mima with him to live on the other side of the world. With Charlie gone, that meant Edie would be left all alone. She might never see her friend again.

  She lay on her side, reached for her pillow, and hugged it to her chest, her knees tucked up beneath her.

  The sounds of girls showering, dressing, applying makeup and all the while talking in attempted hushed voices wafted down the hall and through the still-open doorway. Edie huffed and swung her feet to the cold floor. With her toes she searched out her slippers and slid her feet into them, then pulled on her dressing gown and cinched the belt around her waist.

  She rubbed her eyes. There was a letter sitting on top of her bedside table. She had the bottom bunk, Mima took the top. They shared the table, and she’d set the letter there the day before, too tired to open it and read about all the things Mother had helped Keith do. All his first times were happening without her. It exhausted her to know what she was missing, so she often didn’t read the letters until she’d steeled her nerves.

  After Mima’s news, she needed something to ground her. To help her feel as though she wasn’t alone in the world. A letter from home might help.

  She slid a finger beneath the flap of the envelope and tore it open. Then, tugged two loose pieces of paper free. They were covered in Mother’s neat cursive. She never smudged the ink.

  Her gaze flitted across the page, skimming over the words, looking for something, anything about her son. She could only think of him that way when she was alone. She’d never said the words out loud to anyone else. To the world out there he was her brother, in the private world of her mind he was her son.

  Then something jumped off the page that stole the breath from her lungs.

  Bobby was dead.

  She gasped and clutched her throat with one hand. No, it couldn’t be. She’d been so worried about Charlie, she hadn’t thought anything could happen to her big brother. It couldn’t, not when his best friend was already dead. It wasn’t fair to take both of them. There must be some kind of mistake.

  Her fingers frantic, she brushed them over the words as they sank into her mind. He’d been shot during the British takeover of Maungdaw, Burma when they pushed back the Japanese occupiers. He was gone.

  Mother’s words were stilted, as though she’d stopped and started writing more than once. There was an unlikely smudge on the edge of the page that might have been a tear. Mother stated that Father had received leave from the militia and would be coming back to Bathurst for a short time. She should ask leave to attend the funeral, it would be held in two weeks’ time, as soon as they could arrange it.

  She lay on her bed, pushed the letter beneath her pillow, and moaned into it, her mouth pressed to the pillowcase. As she rocked back and forth, tears cascaded down her cheeks, wetting the fabric, and tearing loose all the pain she’d been carrying around inside her heart for months.

  Bobby was gone. She’d loved him, looked up to him, written him a letter every week of his service and received the occasional one from him in return, forwarded by Mother after her move to Sydney. But nothing had prepared her for this. To her he’d been invincible. Now the world seemed crueller than ever. She didn’t know how she could continue to live in its crushing grasp.

  Edie couldn’t get out of doing rounds. Especially since she hadn’t told anyone her news. How could she? She couldn’t utter the words that Bobby was dead, that would make it real. She couldn’t face it. It was her secret for now, hidden away in her heart, pushed out of her mind. Although it hovered in the shadows of her thoughts, causing an ache like there was a stone lodged in her throat.

  “Are you okay?” whispered Mima, as she turne
d the top sheet around the bed corner, forming a crisp fold.

  Edie nodded, her face numb.

  “Because if you’re worried about me, don’t be. I’m going to be fine. Better than fine, actually. I’m deliriously happy — or I would be if my best friend in the whole world would get on board.” Mima straightened, then smoothed her skirts with both hands.

  “I’m on board,” replied Edie, as she finished with her corner of the bed. “I’m completely on board.”

  “Good, because I want you to be my maid of honour and I can’t have you sporting that miserable look on your face.”

  Edie squeezed her lips into a half-smile. “Don’t worry. I’ll do my part, I promise.”

  “Edie?” It was Paul. He’d come up behind her and stood with his hat in one hand, a bunch of wildflowers in the other. Some of the flowers arched toward the ceiling, others hung limp, and there were a few blades of wayward grass clutched between his fingers along with them.

  She widened her smile, the physical pain of it almost too much to bear. “Hi Paul. Are these for me?”

  He nodded, his eyes eager and bright. He handed her the flowers, then squeezed his white cap between both hands.

  “Thank you, they’re beautiful,” she whispered, pushing them to her nose to smell their sweetness.

  “I’ll see you in a few minutes,” said Mima with a knowing smile.

  Edie nodded. “Okay.”

  When she focused her attention on Paul again, he’d fallen to one knee. He reached for her hand and held it between his own, his gaze searching her face.

  “I know we haven’t spent enough time to truly get to know one another, Edie. But I’ve fallen for you — well and truly. You’re the woman of my dreams, and I can’t get you out of my mind. I’m going tomorrow, back to war, and I’d sure feel easier about it if I knew you’d marry me when it was all over.”

  Her mind was blank. Her mouth gaped, but no words came out.

  “So, will ya? Will ya marry me? Make me the happiest man in the world?” asked Paul, his eyes burning with love.

  She shook her head and pulled her hand free from his grasp.

  “We haven’t courted, Paul. I don’t feel that way about you. I’m sorry.”

  He stood, his brow furrowed. “Oh. I understand. Sorry… I thought…”

  “It’s not your fault. That was a lovely proposal,” she said. “But when I marry, it’ll be because I can’t live without the other person, and I don’t feel that way about you. Maybe if things were different… another time, another life…”

  He bit down on his lower lip.

  “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to hurt your feelings. It’s just that, we’re not right for each other. There’s someone else — someone I’m waiting for.”

  He nodded. “Sure, I understand. I hope he comes back to you, because you deserve all the happiness in the world.”

  She offered him a genuine smile then. “Thank you, Paul. And I wish you all the best as well.”

  His lips pressed into a straight line as he turned on his heels and strode through the ward. His hands pushed deep into his pockets, his shoulders hunched, he stopped. With one last glance back at her, he inhaled a deep breath and stepped through the doorway.

  She wouldn’t see him again. He’d go back to the battlefield the next day, and if he survived, he’d return to America after the war was over. She felt nothing but emptiness in the space where her heart should’ve been.

  31

  February 1996

  Cabarita Beach

  Kate slapped the diary shut and stared at the ceiling. In her box, Cocoa rustled, then went quiet again. She’d taken her to the vet the day after the accident and the animal had a bright white bandage around her back leg and tail. Otherwise she was fine and eating them out of house and home. But Kate wasn’t ready to release her back into the wild yet, not until she could remove the bandage and make sure the wounds wouldn’t become infected. She’d had Bruno build a possum-sized enclosure on a long branch, near the place where Cocoa had previously pushed her way into the Waratah’s roof cavity. Cocoa would have a home at the inn after all.

  Kate pressed her hands to her face. Pop had proposed to Nan and Nan turned him down. She was still waiting for Charlie to return from the war, which he obviously never did.

  Her heart ached and her throat tightened.

  She flung her feet to the floor and stood, shook her head, and hurried down the stairs. She found Mima seated in an armchair in the breakfast nook. The black and white cat purred in her lap. It lay on one side, its eyes squeezed shut, a steady buzz emitting from its body. Mima’s eyes were shut also, her head nodded forward, then jerked back up again.

  “Mima?”

  Mima’s eyes blinked open. “Oh, hello love. What can I do for you?” Mima shooed the cat to the floor, and it scampered out of the room. “Don’t mind Rooster, he’s a mischief but he’s got a good heart.”

  Kate frowned. “Rooster?”

  “He’s like an alarm clock. Tends to pounce on my feet while I’m sleeping, scares the living daylights out of me.” Mima chuckled.

  Kate sat on one arm of the chair next to Mima and leaned forward. “Can I ask you something?”

  Mima cleared her throat. “You certainly can.”

  “I asked you once about Nan and Charlie…”

  Mima’s eyes widened and she wriggled in her seat. “Uh, well…”

  “And you said you didn’t remember much about it, or something like that.”

  “I don’t recall exactly.”

  Kate quirked an eyebrow. “And now I have to tell you why I asked.”

  “Okay.”

  “I found Nan’s journals, and I’ve been reading them.”

  Mima grunted. “You did?”

  “Yes, I found them before the funeral actually. I’ve been reading them, bit by bit, this whole time. And I know all about her, about Charlie and how he was Dad’s biological father.”

  Mima squirmed again, her cheeks turning pink. “Right, well you know…”

  “I’m not here to rouse on you, Mima.”

  “Well, that’s a relief.” Mima chuckled, then offered her a wink. “So, what’s up, buttercup?”

  Kate sighed and rested a hand on Mima’s arm. “The journals also talk about an Oliver… someone you once agreed to marry.”

  Mima’s lower lip trembled and she pressed arthritic fingers to her mouth. “Oliver… yes, Ollie. He was a wonderful man.” She swallowed.

  “Whatever happened to him, Mima? You never married, so I’m assuming it didn’t work out.” Kate’s voice was soft.

  Mima stood slowly, working out the kinks in her back before straightening it. “He was the love of my life. I’ve never forgotten him, or gotten over him, as you young ones like to say.” She paced to the open window and stared out into the darkness as the soft shushing of waves washed back to them through the stillness.

  Kate’s eyes smarted with tears at the pain in Mima’s voice.

  “He was killed in Papua New Guinea, I’m afraid. Right after he proposed, they set sail and he was killed within months. I didn’t know what’d happened to him for the longest time, since I wasn’t family. I had to write to his parents back in California, and finally they sent me a letter to tell me what’d happened. It broke my heart.” Mima’s voice wobbled.

  Tears spilled from Kate’s eyes and she wiped them away with the back of her hand. “I’m sorry, Mima.”

  Mima shrugged, then faced her with a wry smile. “Thanks, my love. I suppose it wasn’t meant to be, although I often wonder how my life might’ve gone had he lived.”

  “I imagine it would’ve been very different.”

  Mima’s eyes shone. “I could’ve lived in California,” she said. Then laughed. “Of course, I’ve had a good life. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Well, anything other than having my Ollie here with me, by my side.”

  “And what about Nan’s Charlie? Did she feel the same way about him?”

  Mima pushe
d up her glasses to dab a handkerchief at the corners of each eye. “She loved Charlie, that was for sure. Although I don’t want you to think she didn’t love your Pop. She did, and they had many good years together. They couldn’t have children, you know, so they had to make a life for themselves with Keith. And they did that. There was a lot of joy in their little family. You should know that.”

  Kate’s heart ached and she wiped away a few stray tears. “Thanks, Mima. I think I needed to hear that. It’s been… unsettling to learn that Nan and Pop weren’t the people I’d always thought they were.”

  Mima shuffled to Kate’s side and raised a hand to brush against her cheek. “Your Nan and Pop were exactly the people you knew them to be, but with a bit more mystery and excitement in their lives than you were aware of. That’s how it always is, my dear. The younger generation never considers that we oldies might’ve done a thing or two in our past.” Mima chuckled, then continued past Kate and out the door.

  “But Mima…”

  Mima waved a hand without turning around. “I’m off to bed, sweetheart. We’ll talk some more another time. All this talk about memories and the past has worn me out.”

  Kate called goodnight to Mima, then settled into one of the armchairs to think about what Mima had said. Perhaps Nan really had loved Pop the way she’d always thought, or maybe it was all a lie. She was confused and she wasn’t sure Nan’s diary would bring her the closure she needed. Reading Nan’s words hurt too much. Hearing her heartache reverberate from each page was drawing Kate into a darkness that weighed her down with a heavy melancholy.