Page 52 of The Pearl Sister
‘Yeah.’ I drew the envelope of photos out of my back pocket and put it on the table. ‘They’re for you.’
‘And here’s my mobile number,’ he said, handing me a piece of paper in return.
We stood there awkwardly, staring at each other. And I just wanted the moment to be over.
‘Thanks so much for . . . everything.’
‘No need to thank me, CeCe. It’s been a pleasure.’
‘Right then.’ I made to heave the rucksack onto my shoulders again, but then he opened his arms.
‘Come here.’ He pulled me to him and gave me an enormous hug, his chin resting on the top of my head. ‘Promise to keep in touch?’
‘Yeah, course.’
‘And you never know, I just might make it to Australia,’ he said as he carried my rucksack to the gate.
‘That would be great. Bye then.’
‘Bye, CeCe.’
Po pressed the red button to let me out, and I gave him the cash for the photos then offered him the tip. Surprisingly he refused it, shaking his head and looking at me with that guilty expression of his.
‘Bye bye, madam.’
I walked down Plebs’ Path to Railay, feeling too upset to go and say goodbye to Jack and the gang. Not that I expected they’d miss me. As I passed the bar, I saw Jay loitering on the edge of the veranda with a Singha beer, an accessory that seemed to be glued permanently to his fingers. I made to walk straight past him – I wasn’t in the mood for small talk.
‘Hiya, CeCe,’ he intercepted me. ‘You off?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Not taking your new boyfriend with you?’ I saw a glint in his booze-soaked eyes and a smile that managed to be more like a sneer on his lips.
‘You got it wrong, Jay. I don’t have a boyfriend.’
‘Nah, course you don’t.’
‘I’ve got to go, or I’ll miss my flight. Bye.’
‘How’s that sister of yours?’ he called after me.
‘Fine,’ I shouted back, as I continued to walk.
‘Send her my best, won’t you?’
I pretended not to hear and marched on across the sand towards the long-tail boats waiting to ferry passengers back to Krabi town.
* * *
As the plane left the runway at Suvarnabhumi airport heading for Sydney, I thought that the upside of my head having been so full of Ace in the last few hours was that at least I hadn’t dwelt on either the twelve-hour plane journeyorwhat I might find when I got there. I had also managed to buy what the airport pharmacist had called ‘sleepy pills’ to aid my journey. I’d taken two for good measure just as boarding was announced – but if anything, I now felt more awake and alert than I normally did and wondered if those pills contained caffeine rather than a sleeping potion.
Thankfully, the plane was relatively empty and I had two spare seats next to me, so as soon as the seatbelt sign was switched off, I stretched across them and made myself comfortable, telling my brain that I was exhausted and drugged and would it please do me a favour and go to sleep.
It obviously wasn’t listening and after some restless tossing and turning, I sat up and accepted the plane food offered by the Thai stewardess. I even had a beer to calm my thoughts. That didn’t work either. So as the cabin lights dimmed, I lay back down and forced myself to think of what lay ahead.
After landing in Sydney in the early morning, I was headed for a town called Darwin right up on the northern tip of Australia. From there, I had to take another plane to the town of Broome. What had really irritated me about this when I’d booked my flights was that I had to fly straight over both places down to near the bottom of Australia, then all the way back up again. This meant extra hours in the air, never mind the time spent in transit at Sydney airport.
I’d looked up Broome on the internet at the airport and, from the photos, it looked like it had a really cool beach. These days it was a tourist spot more than anything else, but long ago, due to what I’d learnt from Kitty Mercer’s biography, I knew it had been the centre of the pearling industry. I wondered if that was where my legacy had come from . . .
