Page 146 of The Pearl Sister
Drummond raised an eyebrow.
‘She get sick, very sick,’ Camira continued. ‘An’ sad.’
‘Is she well now? Is she here?’ He turned his head towards the house.
‘She in Europe for holiday. She leavum Mister Charlie in charge. Even though he sad too ’bout my daughter, he young and gettum better soon. Maybe marry nice secretary woman. Best for him he nottum know, you see?’
‘And what about Kitty? She is a grandmother like you, Camira. Surely both she and Charlie have a right to know of the baby’s existence? And what of the baby himself? I for one could not just abandon my great-nephew to a mission.’
Camira scrambled out of bed. ‘I come-a with you. You take-a me to mission. Then I care for my grandson there.’
‘You would leave everything you have here? What about Kitty? I know how much she depends on you.’
Camira was already pulling out a hessian sack, obviously once used for vegetables by the smell of old cabbage. ‘I sortum my family, she sortum hers. It for best.’
‘I think you underestimate your mistress. After all, she brought you into her household against my brother’s wishes. She has a loving heart and she would wish to be included in this decision. And I’m certain she would welcome her grandson into her home.’
‘Yessum, but now she take rest and needum peace. Don’t wanta bring shame on her or Charlie, see? Best I go to grandson. Keep secret.’
Drummond realised then that Camira would do everything she could to protect the mistress who’d saved her and the boy she’d brought into the world. Even if it meant deserting them to do it. However, it was her decision to make, whether he agreed with it or not.
‘What about Fred? Surely you will tell him?’
‘He no good at keepin’ secrets, Mister Drum. Maybe one day.’ Camira looked at him expectantly, all her worldly goods now thrown into the hessian sack. ‘You takem me to grandson now, yes?’
Drummond nodded in resignation, and opened the door of the hut.
CeCe
Hermannsburg, Northern Territory
January 2008
Aboriginal symbol
for star or sun
27
The sun sank lower in the sky as I looked at my grandfather. At Francis, once a baby boy who had been rescued from the desert by a man who had not even known they were related.
‘How could it be?’ I murmured and brushed a fly away from my face, only to find my cheek damp with tears.
‘I am living proof that kin finds kin, that miracles occur.’ He gave me a weak smile and I could see that the telling of the story had both exhausted and shaken him. ‘We can’t ask what the reasons are for the extraordinary things that happen to us. They up there – the Ancestors – or God – are the only ones that know the answers. And we won’t have those until we too go upwards.’
‘What happened to Kitty and Drummond?’
‘Ah, Celaeno, that is quite a question. If only he’d had the patience and fortitude to wait, they could have eventually shared a happy life together after Andrew’s death. But he was impetuous, lived for the moment. There is some of my Great-Uncle Drummond in me, I confess,’ he admitted with a smile.
‘Me too,’ I said, wondering if I’d have done the same as Kitty and sent the man –or woman,as Chrissie jumped into my thoughts – that I loved away.
‘Did you ever meet him?’
‘That is the next part of the story, but we shall have to save it for another time. I suddenly feel as old as I am. Are you hungry?’
‘I could eat, yes,’ I said. My stomach was rumbling like a train on a track, but it wasn’t like we could just pop round the corner for a burger here.
There was a pause as he gazed across at the creek in the distance. ‘Then why don’t I take you back to my place? I have plenty of food, and it’s not far.’
