Page 27 of Sisters Under The Rising Sun
‘Not long enough, but you clearly needed the rest.’
‘What we need is food, Kingsley. I’m going to go and see if I can find something. Maybe there’s a village close by.’
‘What if the villagers turn you in?’
‘I’m prepared to take that risk,’ Vivian says firmly. She reasons that if she doesn’t, they’ll just starve to death in this jungle.
She heads off once more, weak, but determined to bring something back. It’s early, so the sun hasn’t yet begun its relentless pounding. Vivian reasons that the village First Officer Sedgeman found can’t be too far away. Probably no more than half a mile. She hasn’t walked five hundred yards before the smell of cooking renews her resolve to keep going.
Vivian feels tears prick her eyes when she spies the outskirts of the village. She is surprised that no one is paying this wounded, bedraggled, half-starved woman much heed as she enters. But she has to get their attention! Using a combination of the few words of Malay she knows and gesturing repeatedly to her mouth and stomach, she hopes she has made herself understood. And just in case she hasn’t, she says, ‘Food! Food! Hungry!’ over and over again.
She can’t understand what they’re saying, but the elder men of the village are angry, indicating she retrace her steps and leave the village. In the end, a couple of women chase after her with parcels of food as she makes her way back to the jungle, saving the day.
‘Kingsley! Wake up. I have some food.’ The soldier has fallen asleep again. Vivian is worried his wounds are infected. But what can she do?
He slowly opens his eyes and focuses on Vivian’s face. He struggles to sit up.
Vivian unwraps two banana leaves containing some cooked rice and pineapple slices. She figures they can make this meagre food stretch to at least a couple of days.
‘Are you all right?’ Kingsley asks.
Vivian wipes away her tears before they fall into her food. She shakes her head.
‘I’m not all right, Kingsley. Look at us. Look at you.’ She lays down her banana leaf and gestures towards the beach. ‘My matron and my friends were gunned down right next to me. I watch it happen again and again and again. We all knew we were going to die, and what did we do? We didn’t cry out, we didn’t run away – it would have been a futile attempt in any case – we just looked at one another. I knew that if we had to die, at least we were all dying together. And then …’ Vivian swallows a sob. ‘The guns …’ She raises her eyes to the young private, tears falling freely down her cheeks. ‘Why am I alive, Kingsley? Why was I spared?’
‘I don’t know, Sister,’ he says softly.
‘I’m really worried about you. I don’t think we can stay here any longer.’
‘What are you saying?’
‘We need to surrender. We need to find the Japanese and put our lives in their hands.’
‘You can’t be serious!’
Vivian knows that if she’s haunted by the slaughter of her friends, then so is he.
‘There are only two of us, Kingsley. We have to hope they’ll just take us prisoner. We can’t tell them we survived the slaughter on the beaches, or they’ll probably just finish us off; if we say we were shipwrecked, we might have a chance. But one thing I do know is that if we stay here, we’ll definitely die.’
‘I can barely walk.’
‘I’ll make a crutch for your good side and support you on the other.’
It is decided.
‘We’ll fill up our canteen of water and leave first thing in the morning,’ says Vivian.
When Vivian finishes speaking, the sound of women weeping fills the hut. The nurses are huddled together for comfort, supporting each other in their grief. But Nesta is worried that Vivian will exhaust her final reserves of strength before telling them what happened when she went in search of help. They need to hear the rest of her story.
Vivian is holding a water bottle tight against her tummy.
‘The Japanese came after we surrendered in the village. They searched us for weapons but found nothing, of course. We were interrogated for hours and then a car arrived and brought me here.’
‘Vivian,’ Nesta begins, taking her hand. ‘I can’t imagine how you’re feeling … everything you’ve been through. It’s too awful. And your injuries, we need to take a look at them.’ Nesta gazes around the room, meeting the eyes of the other nurses. ‘But first, you, me, all of us, need to make a vow. What Vivian has just told us can never be repeated to anyone. Ever.’ Nesta pauses to confirm that her words are striking home. ‘Vivian is a witness to a brutal crime and if any Japanese soldiers know she survived, they’ll kill her too. And if they think we know, we can expect the same fate. Agreed?’
Heads nod vigorously as the reality of Nesta’s words sinks in.
‘Come on then, Sister Bullwinkel,’ Nesta says, with a little more cheer in her voice. ‘You need to lie down so we can examine those wounds.’ She extends a hand to Vivian, who gets shakily to her feet, still holding the water bottle to her tummy.
