Page 136 of The Pearl Sister
Slipping into bed next to her mother as quietly as the cat she was nicknamed after, Alkina tried to still her breathing.
Helpum me . . . please, Ancestors, help me,she pleaded.
That night, she dreamt that thegumanybahad come down to their cave. She watched them as they went through the forest and the Old Man appeared. They ran off back to their cave, but the youngest was left behind. Suddenly, the Old Man was pursuingher, but when she arrived in the cave, she knew she had to find something that was buried deep down under the red soil. Her sisters were calling to her, telling her to hurry, that the Old Man was almost upon her and would take her for his own. Yet still, even though she could hear his feet thundering across the ground, she kept digging because she could not leave the earth without it . . .
Alkina opened her eyes just as the dream version of herself had clutched at a tin and pulled it out of the ground. A memory came flooding back to her of her mother leading her into the Bush when she was fourteen to initiate her into the ways of their Ancestors. On the way to the corroboree, her mother had said she must stop and check on something. They had arrived at a cave just like the one she’d seen in her dream, and her mother had bent down and begun scrabbling in the earth before drawing out a tin box.
‘Step back,’ she’d told her daughter, as she’d sat cross-legged and opened it. Curious, Alkina had done as she was told, but had watched as her mother had opened the small leather box that lay inside the tin. At that moment, the sun had caught the object inside, which seemed to shimmer with a pink opalescence, the likes of which Alkina had never seen before. It shone like the moon itself, and she had been transfixed by its beauty.
Then the box had been snapped shut, returned to the tin and buried back in the earth. Her mother had stood, mumbling some words under her breath, then had walked back towards her.
‘Bibi, what is that?’ Alkina had asked Camira.
‘You nottum need know. It safe where it is, and so is Missus Kitty. Now, we go on our way.’
As Alkina watched the dawn beginning to break through the wooden shutters of the hut, she knew what she had to do.
25
Charlie, too, had a sleepless night. He tossed and turned, trying to think of what was best to do, and berating himself for having triggered all of this to begin with – after all, it had been he who had given Cat the champagne.
He understood her fear, and there was no doubt it would be hard for them initially. Yet given thereweremixed-race unions in the town these days, surely theirs would be accepted too?
There was only one other option, and Charlie had considered it many times in the past year as he’d sweated over his future as a pearling master. No one had ever asked him if it was what hewantedto do. Like the son of a king, it was taken for granted he would don the mantle when the time came – no matter if he was even suited to the task. Charlie had known for a while now that he was not. He’d hated every second of his Economics course at university. Even his professors had said he did not have an aptitude for numbers, but when he had tentatively raised this with his mother, she had brushed away his doubts.
‘My dear Charlie, you are not there to add and subtract, you have plenty of clerks to do that for you. You are there to lead, to inspire and to make decisions on where the businesses should head in the future.’
It was cold comfort, as he was completely uninspired by all facets of the business empire, whether it be pearls, opals or cattle. They all seemed to involve deprivation and sometimes death for those who worked for the companies, while the ‘bossmen’, as Cat called them, became rich on their employees’ toil.
So . . . if Cat refused to marry him in Broome, Charlie was prepared to give up everything and go away with her wherever she wished.
His mother was already at the table when he walked into breakfast, reading her habitual newspaper.
‘Good morning, Charlie. How did you sleep?’
‘Well, thank you, Mother. You?’
‘Far better after I knew my precious roses were safe from the rains. Thank you for being so thoughtful.’
‘Coffee, Mister Charlie?’
‘Thank you.’ He looked up, ready to give Cat a smile, but was instead greeted by Camira’s eyes looking down at him. A sudden tightness clutched at his chest. Cat always served breakfast.
‘Is Cat unwell?’
‘She well, Mister Charlie. She go visit cousin,’ Camira replied calmly.
‘I see. When will she be back?’
‘When cousin baby born. Maybe one week, maybe two.’
Camira’s inscrutable eyes bored into him and he broke into a cold sweat, even though the heat of the day was already overpowering. Was she giving him some secret message? Surely Cat would not have told her mother of her condition?
‘Right,’ he managed, trying to still his breathing and keep control in front of his mother – in front ofbothmothers – when all he wanted to do was jump up from the breakfast table and go and find her.
‘Did you say Cat is away?’ Kitty removed her reading glasses to look at Camira.
‘Yes, Missus Kitty. I take over while she nottum here.’ Camira replaced the coffee pot on the sideboard and left the room.
