East of India

by East of India (retail) (epub)

  Smile, smile, smile… Make them feel you only wish to please them. She wished she was wearing bells around her ankles, bangles on her arms.

  It is just a case of keeping your nerve. Sureya had said that.

  Spreading her arms and deftly crossing one foot over the other, she bowed low.

  They clapped enthusiastically, giving her time to dart over the bridge.

  Peggy was waiting for her. ‘Well, that was some show!’

  Closing her eyes, Nadine leaned against the hut, unable to control her trembling.

  Peggy looked anxious. ‘They didn’t touch you, did they?’

  Nadine shook her head. ‘No.’

  ‘So what did the She-Dragon say? Did you get what you wanted?’

  Nadine nodded. ‘Yes. I’m moving out.’

  Peggy’s jaw dropped. ‘Tell me more. I might want to come with you.’

  Nadine told her what she had done.

  ‘My, my, but aren’t you the dark one. You’ve certainly drawn yourself a cushy number. If you could get your hands on some quinine… A few of us are already showing signs of malaria. Do you think you can?’

  ‘That’s my intention. But I don’t want everyone to know. One whisper and I’ll get the same treatment as Lucy got.’

  ‘OK.’ Peggy nodded, then indicated the inside of the hut. ‘Her majesty Queen Rosalyn’s going to have something to say about that, you know. “Fraternization, darling.” That’s what she’ll say.’

  ‘I know. But think about it, Peggy. What are our needs – and I don’t just mean medicine? A few luxury goods would keep our spirits up, wouldn’t they?’

  Peggy pursed her lips around a dwindling cigarette – one pilfered from a packet she’d stolen from a Japanese officer. ‘Food, soap, various sanitary items that all girlies need – oh, and cigarettes.’

  Nadine’s eyes shone. ‘Everything. Everything and anything can be bartered to get things we want. And aren’t things going to get scarcer as the war goes on?’

  ‘You bet.’

  ‘I’m hoping it might be over by the time my virginity is sold off.’

  Peggy narrowed her eyes. ‘I thought your husband got killed back on the island.’

  Nadine nodded. ‘That’s right.’

  Peggy’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Sorry to disappoint you, sweetheart, but I don’t think the war is likely to be over before you’re required to hand over the goods. Then what? It’s not too easy to reinvent your virginity, and not delivering the goods as described could land you in very deep water.’

  ‘I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.’ Her eyes shone with excitement. ‘Think of it, Peggy. I’ll be inside the She-Dragon’s lair. Did you see the boxes going in there today? Can you imagine how much she’s making from all that stuff?’

  Peggy blinked. ‘You’re a crafty little cow for your age, aren’t ya?’

  It almost felt treacherous to laugh in such dire circumstances, but she’d achieved something. However, there were concerns.

  ‘Peggy, I don’t want you to mention what I’m up to. Some of us can’t keep our mouths shut. It’s a bargaining chip. Yes?’

  ‘Yeah, and some of our colleagues would do anything for a few things to make their lives more comfortable.’

  ‘Exactly. She’s dealing on the black market with anything and everything she can get her hands on. We’ll need some of that stuff, Peggy. And there’s sure to be more medicines besides quinine in there, don’t you think?’

  Peggy’s eyes lit up at the mention of medicines. ‘Crikey, Christmas comes all at once, don’t it?’

  ‘You could say that.’

  Peggy flicked the stub of her cigarette into the water. ‘That could be bloody dangerous.’

  ‘I know, but think of the benefits.’

  Her nervousness diminished, Peggy shook her head and smiled. ‘We can use a bit and sell a bit. Marvellous idea!’ She slammed her hands down on the railings.

  ‘We’re desperate women, Peggy.’

  ‘You do realize you’re going to leave yourself open to accusation. Hope you’re got a broad back.’

  ‘I have.’

  Chapter Fifteen

  That night Nadine slept on a mat in a small alcove leading off from the main room of Madam Cherry’s quarters, considering the likely repercussions of what she had done. Her sleep was fitful and full of troubled dreams. Something woke her. Rolling over onto her side, she lifted the screen between her and the main room.

  The noise she had heard was the grating of a chair and the rush of paper money and coins onto a table. Madam was counting her profits. She saw Nadine looking and reached for a bamboo cane lying next to her.

  Nadine curled herself into a tight ball whilst three raps from the cane landed on her shoulder.

  ‘Go back to sleep. In the morning you will prepare my breakfast. Get rice from the kitchen and fruit. Make coffee. I like plenty of sugar. It is all there in that cupboard.’

  Morning came and Nadine was up early, sweeping the veranda outside with a flimsy brush, occupying herself until called for.

  ‘You may prepare breakfast. Everything you need is on the small table inside the storeroom. Here is the key.’

  The key was warm in her hand. Nadine unlocked the door.

  Madam’s private stash was something to behold. The storeroom was like an Aladdin’s cave, and there were things in her private cupboard that were already fetching high prices on the black market: coffee, sugar, tea; there was even a tin of shortbread biscuits.

  Normally Nadine would have salivated.

  ‘You may pour yourself a small cup of coffee and take a piece of fruit with your rice. There is also a tin of sardines in oil – so much nicer than Japanese dried, don’t you think?’

  Whilst Nadine devoured her breakfast on the floor inside the hut, madam ate out on the veranda where she nodded and made polite conversation with passing Japanese officers. To native tradesmen she nodded imperiously, as if marking them for future investment.

  Making the excuse to Madam Cherry that she had left a particularly pretty sarong behind at the Bamboo Bridge House, Nadine crossed the trickle of water separating the house of women from the rest of the camp.

  Her whole body turned numb with each faltering step. This was the morning for facing what the women had done and what she herself had done. She kept telling herself that her purpose in becoming resident with Madam Cherry was twofold – to obtain medicine and things they could use to barter plus her own survival, but not everyone would see it that way.

  She took a deep breath before entering.

  The smell of men pervaded the hut, the stew of sweat, polished leather, sex and cigarettes. The girls had rolled up the bamboo blinds that formed the walls of the hut. Their future was mapped out. They would repeat the action for many mornings to come until they were worn out or dead.

  Fearful eyes stared from strained expressions and they were silent – so terribly silent. A few trembled and rocked backwards and forwards, arms hugging their bellies. Some had serviced more than one man. There was no refusing even the ugliest of conquerors, though no one, it seemed, had been beaten.

  ‘They lapped it up,’ whispered Peggy. ‘The music, the dancing, the playing of cards – so even those who indulged in sex didn’t turn violent, thank God!’

  Nadine refrained from asking her how she’d fared. The question was too painful and she wasn’t sure she could cope with her answer. The niceties of their world had changed and would not be easy to deal with.

  Caroline looked up from rummaging in her sea chest. ‘Nadine. We wondered where you’d got to. Are you all right? Where have you been?’

  The usual voice of confidence was strangely staccato – coping but only just.

  She stood in the middle of the room looking around her. ‘I’ve got something to tell you. I am to lodge with Madam Cherry for the time being until…’

  She was the consummate actor, leaving the last part of the sentence unsaid in order to add effect.

  �
�There, didn’t I tell you?’ shouted Rosalyn. ‘Typical native! Traitors, the lot of them.’

  ‘Hold on there, Rosalyn…’

  Rosalyn appeared not to hear. ‘Never darken our door again. You understand me? Never again! Collaborator!’

  ‘All right for some,’ grumbled Betty.

  Peggy threw her countrywoman a warning look. ‘Give the girl a chance. You don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t know what’s going on.’

  One of the Malay girls threw a sandal at her. A row of dark eyes regarded her with something close to hatred, but also fear.

  Nadine wasn’t surprised by their reaction. That was what fear did to people, but it was obvious that she would have to watch her back. She hung her head, took a deep breath and told them the basics. ‘I’m being auctioned off to the highest bidder. She insists on chaperoning me until it happens – or until we are rescued. In the meantime I will do whatever I can to make your lives more comfortable.’

  She was the subject of disbelieving stares, the girls not sure whether to pity or envy her predicament.

  Rosalyn was outraged. ‘More comfortable! I don’t believe a word of it. She’s a collaborator. I swear it. I know her sort. Blood will tell. Always does, always will,’ she said, and stalked off in the direction of the latrines.

  Peggy watched her go. ‘Not quite the comment I’d expect from a general’s daughter.’

  Nadine gave her a grateful smile and joined Peggy as she went to see how Kochi was doing. The girl had been a virgin but wasn’t one any longer. The officer who’d taken her had drunk a few bowls of sake beforehand so hadn’t noticed. Kochi was still in pain, curled up in a corner, her brown eyes staring vacantly above her thin, brown knees.

  ‘The pain will pass,’ Peggy said, kneeling down beside her. ‘Here.’ She passed her a sanitary towel. ‘Last one in the camp. You’ll have to wash it and reuse it, but it’s better than nothing.’

  * * *

  Items looted from the Red Cross, captured British military supplies, contents from the homes of displaced persons and empty plantation houses were being carried into the storeroom when Nadine got back.

  ‘I have a task for you,’ Madam Cherry said, her gaze following the burdened natives carrying a variety of merchandise into the already packed room. ‘I need to keep a careful record of my transactions.’ One fine black eyebrow rose quizzically. The dark iris of an ultra-dark eye measured her from top to toe; Because I too am a commodity, thought Nadine.

  ‘I am expanding,’ said Madam Cherry. ‘I have no clerk to record my stock. I believe you know some Chinese. You will do this, I think.’

  She handed Nadine a notebook and pencil.

  ‘Write these down for me. One box of silk stockings. Twelve in box.’ She passed a box to a waiting native and told him where to store it. ‘Not there! There! Come on, I haven’t got all day.’ As she cussed him in Chinese she cuffed his head so hard that his neck sprang like a bedspring. ‘One piano,’ she said. Lifting up the cover, she poked at one of the keys. There was a muffled, dead sound, certainly not the sweet note she’d been expecting.

  She shouted at two young natives. In response they lifted the lid and her expression dropped.

  Nadine too saw that the piano was no more than a fancy wooden case; the guts of the thing were mangled beyond repair.

  Madam was livid. ‘Robbers! That native headman robbed me! All we can do is use it for storage.’

  Besides medicines identified by a red cross on the side of the box, there were also luxury goods, wines, food, clothes, antiques and furniture. Nadine listed everything including the broken piano.

  Once it was all stowed away, the key to the storeroom was hung on a nail above Nadine’s sleeping mat.

  ‘They are your responsibility,’ said Madam Cherry.

  ‘Of course, Madam.’

  Nadine bowed gratefully, and why shouldn’t she? She was trusted.

  Madam Cherry had a bathtub, running water and a mirror. She also had a whole box of soap tablets. The following day, Nadine took one; now to get it along to the Bamboo Bridge House. God knows they would need it.

  She pushed it into the knot that held her sarong.

  Sentries were guarding the overworked natives busily building the prison stockade opposite their compound. They followed the roll of her hips as she made her way along the lean road between huts, palms and heaped supplies.

  When she arrived, the girls were washing and squabbling over the only soap they had.

  Betty snatched it from one of the Malay girls. ‘Hey, go steady with that. We’ve only got one bar.’ She passed it to Caroline.

  Caroline swirled it in a bowl of water, took it out and placed it to one side.

  ‘It won’t last long,’ she sighed before dipping a cloth in the water and gingerly dabbing between her legs.

  Nadine looked for Peggy and saw her crumpled in a corner, her head resting on her knees.

  One eye peered out over the crook of her elbow, then disappeared again.

  ‘She had a hard night last night.’ It was Peggy’s friend, Betty. ‘It’s the blonde hair, I suppose. Something different that they had to try.’

  Nadine sighed. ‘I’m sorry. Here…’ She thrust the tablet of soap at her. ‘I stole it.’

  ‘Wow!’ Betty took it, sniffed it and lovingly fingered its smooth, rounded surface. ‘Can’t believe I feel like billing and cooing over a piece of bloody soap. My, but we have sunk low!’ She looked up suddenly. ‘I suppose you and the She-Dragon have got plenty.’

  ‘Too much. I thought a little redistribution might be in order.’ Lowering her voice, she moved closer. ‘I thought it best that I steal a few small items we can trade for other things. She’s got loads of stuff – jewellery, clothes, food and goodness knows what else. We might even be able to pay someone to get us out of here.’

  Betty squinted as though she could see right through her. ‘Don’t think I can’t guess what you’re up to. Peggy and me have been best mates for years. Not that she told on you, but then she didn’t need to. I can read her well enough. Bin cobbers for ages!’

  ‘Cobbers?’

  ‘Friends.’

  It worried Nadine that too many might find out what she was up to, but she decided Betty was trustworthy.

  ‘How’s Lucy?’

  Nadine saw a look in her eyes she couldn’t quite read.

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘They would have had her again if Peggy hadn’t intervened.’

  She looked to the corner where Peggy had been.

  ‘Where’s she gone?’

  Betty nodded to a place in the wall where the woven panel had come adrift. ‘Her favourite place.’

  Ducking under the matting, she sat down beside Peggy. The floor at the back of the Bamboo Bridge House stuck out like a balcony high above tangled vegetation and a stream that seemed to bubble up from nowhere.

  Peggy was dangling her legs over the side, her eyes fixed on the trickle of water flowing beneath their feet. Nadine noticed a bruise on the side of her face.

  Nadine flexed her legs and studied her toes. There were no right words. She waited for Peggy to speak. Eventually she did.

  ‘I’m a tough old bird really – at least, I thought I was, but in there…’ She jerked her head back at the wall. ‘I felt… invaded. But I won’t let it kill me. I’m blowed if I will!’

  Despite Peggy’s air of defiance, her thigh muscles tightened as though she were subconsciously drawing her legs together.

  ‘Did you fight?’

  Peggy smiled as she fingered the bruise. She shook her head. ‘No. Does that surprise you?’

  Nadine shook her head. ‘No. They expect obedience as theirs by right. That’s what I think, anyway.’

  Peggy nodded. ‘I think you’re right. Do the other and you’re a goner!’

  Nadine looked at the water. ‘I’m sorry I wasn’t here.’

  ‘And suffer as well? No worries,’ said Peggy, looking at her. ‘You’re going
to be living dangerously enough along with that slit-eyed bitch. Get caught pilfering her stuff and you get…’

  She didn’t finish the sentence. There was no need to. Both women knew what would happen once things – really important things – went missing from Madam’s cache.

  Nadine gave Peggy a hug, then got to her feet.

  ‘I think I’ll keep Lucy company for a while.’

  She left Peggy sitting there.

  Back inside the hut, the little woman who looked after the till when madam wasn’t around was calling for Peggy.

  Nadine passed back through the communal room that served as the girls’ daytime quarters. A young lieutenant was preening himself at the front door, taking off his hat and smoothing his jacket as though he were out on a date. She guessed he had come for Peggy.

  Betty had just finished washing herself. She was stripped naked but seemed totally unreserved, as though she walked around naked all of the time.

  Once she’d finished with the bowl, Nadine took the same scented water to bathe Lucy’s bruised flesh. She also managed to force a little coconut milk mixed with mashed rice between her friend’s lips.

  Lucy managed to speak. ‘I’m not a dog. Nor a slut.’

  ‘Of course you’re not!’ Nadine spoke softly as she smoothed Lucy’s hair back from her forehead. ‘None of us are.’

  Lucy’s lips trembled. ‘The Japanese have always been envious of the Chinese. It’s traditional.’ She spoke defiantly – proudly even.

  Nadine put down the rice. ‘Let me make you feel better.’

  Pulling back the sheet, Nadine bathed the bruising on Lucy’s belly and between her legs. She gritted her teeth, determined that neither her horror nor her fear would show.

  ‘Let me help you turn over.’

  Painfully and with Nadine’s help, Lucy did as she was told.

  Nadine paused. There were bruises; there were even teeth marks. Worst of all dried blood crusted the cleft between her buttocks.

  ‘Tell me if I hurt you,’ said Nadine. She barely succeeded in controlling the trembling in her voice; bathing Lucy’s soreness through a veil of tears.

  Once she’d finished, she pulled the sheet back over her and pasted on a brave smile. ‘Does that feel better?’