Drowning in Her Eyes (10 page)

They had spent a few days in Honolulu, while
the
Gol
d
en Ray
off loaded her cargo, and took on stores, fuel, and water. The whole family enjoyed doing the things a million tourists had done before them. James Junior ate pineapple for the first time and soon it became his favourite fruit.
“Dad, do they raise pineapples in Australia?
” he asked. No one knew for sure.

For Jimmy, a visit to Pearl Harbour and the memorial to the
Arizona
was essential. He had mixed
thoughts. He was sad
so many good men had perished here in that surprise a
t
tack, but was proud of them and his own service in the U
.
S
.
Navy. On the other hand, if this had not happened, he would not have been in the Navy, and he would not now be suffe
r
ing from cancer.

Golden Ray
sailed on. Tomorrow they would be in Fiji. James Junior teased his sisters that they would have to wear grass skirts and go topless in order to fit in with the locals. Sarah, with her trim figure and long legs, thought it would be a great idea; her mother scolded
them
for even thinking about it.

Jimmy and Marci lay entwined in their stateroom and tried to chart the future.
“Jimmy,
” she said,
“It seems the kids have settled in well. There have been no demands for a return home yet. Susan has been doing a lot of reading and the crew has been marvelous with James Junior.
” Jimmy had liked what the crew had done. They had found an officer
's cap for James Junior, and had dubbed him
‘
The Midshi
p
man
',
or
‘
Middy
',
for short. They gave him the run of the ship, and he was frequently on the bridge
‘standing watch
' with the Captain. Ernshaw
's young son had perished at El Alamein in 1942, and
for him, James Junior helped
ease that pain.

Sarah flirted outrageously with the crew. She earned her mother
's ire by sunbathing regularly in a skimpy bathing costume. She was particularly interested in the young Se
c
ond Officer, but the crew had had their orders and never once crossed the bounds of propriety.

“Darling,
” said Jimmy,
“I know my time is short, but since we made the decision to travel, I have felt a great sense of freedom. Everything has a startling clarity. I think we should follow my instincts when we get to Brisbane. Let us just go along with whatever happens. I feel that God is gui
d
ing us towards our final destination.
”

Marci was not so sure about that, but it was his time, and she was determined to let him use it in whatever way he needed.

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
—1963

In 1963,
Brisbane was not an attractive place to a
p
proach by sea. Recent rains had turned the river into a brown flood. Where it reached the sea, there was a dirty stain spreading like some malignant disease on the clean blue su
r
face. They passed oil tanks, factories, refineries, and dredges before nudging into the planks of the wharf. There they took their leave of the
Golden Ray
and its friendly crew, James Junior s
till wearing his officer
's cap.

Captain Ernshaw bade them farewell.
“On your way, Jimmy. I hope you find that road you
're searching for
.
”

The family left with thanks, and rather sadly, for they had enjoyed a wonderful voyage.

Brisbane was on the verge of turning from a big country town into a city. The taxi to the city centre
passed
through industrial precincts,
skirted
the airport, and
travelled
through suburbs
filled with
timber houses
,
on high stumps
, with large verandas and iron roofs
. The cabbie told them
the houses were designed for the climate of mild winters and hot, humid summers. To these Americans, it al
l looked a li
t
tle strange.

They passed clanging grey trams with conductors wea
r
ing strange caps, more like the kepis worn by French army officers. Traffic was not heavy, and traffic lights were few. They passed busy intersections controlled by policemen in khaki uniforms and brown slouch hats, like the hats worn by the Australian army.

James Junior was interested in the traffic, dominated by cars that looked like small Chevrolets
. The word
Holden
identified them as car
s
they had not heard of. Later they would learn that the Holden car was an Australian instit
u
tion, built by a subsidiary of General Motors. Moreover, they drove on the wrong side of the road! Other strange vehicles resembled the cars, but with only a
front seat
and a cargo a
r
ea at the back. The cabbie said
they were
Utes
. Subsequen
t
ly, they found out
the name was an abbreviation of
utility vehicle
. They soon learned that Australians have a habit of shortening na
mes like that. Hence, they say
barby
for
barb
e
cue,
cozzie
for swimming costume, and
pressie
for present.

The centre of the city looked like a big country town, not very different t
han
Albuquerque in size, and with few tall buildings. Later, after dinner, as they lay together, Marci said,
“Jimmy, what will we do now?
”

Jimmy thought for a while, and then said,
“I kinda like the idea of a smaller place, like one of our small college towns. We need a college for Susan and a good high school for the others. Why don
't we spend a week or so here and see what Brisbane has to offer in the way of sightseeing then catch a bus from here to Melbourne. Somewhere along the way we
'll find something we
'll like.
”

Brisbane offered quite a lot. They rode the riverboats, visited the zoo, and handled the kangaroos and koalas. Ji
m
my even went to see a cricket match, although he had no idea of what was going on. The man alongside him had tried to explain, but that had made it even more confusing.

One day they made an excursion south to the area known as Surfers Paradise. This was a strip of holiday homes along the Pacific coast. In years to come, massive d
e
velopment of the tourist potential of the place gave it the name
‘Gold Coast
', becoming the Mecca for Austr
alians
—naturally shortened to
Aussies
—
who wanted a beachside holiday.

They swam in the lovely cool waters and tried a bit of surfing. Sarah and James Junior liked this, and Sarah was admiring of the bronzed life savers patrolling the beach. Jimmy looked out to sea. The Pacific Ocean rolled away to the horizon. Somewhere out there, more than
seven thousand
miles away, lay his old home. He had a premonition then; a voice in his head told him there would be no return to Ame
r
ica. So be it, he decided, this was as good a place as any
to die.

When the week was up, they boarded a Greyhound bus for the trip south. Each felt a tingle of anticipation. Som
e
where do
wn the road lay their futures. T
he fact that they were unknown only made the prospect more appealing.

Meanwhile, not far to the north in a small country in Indochina, small men and women, dressed in black, carrying AK47 assault rifles, were beginning to ambush their enemy, cache weapons and food in a maze of tu
n
nels, under the direction of regular officers of another small country in Indochina. Most of the weapons had come from Russia and China.

Goondiwindi, Queensland, Australia
—1963-
64

November was hot as usual, but the summer storms were late this year. Paddy walked around with a scowl on his face. The cattle and sheep were running out of feed and lo
s
ing weight on the dry grasses left over from the spring flush.
“I don
't know what I
'll do with those bloody cows and calves if it doesn
't rain soon. There
's nothing left in the back paddock, and bugger all in Long Tom
's,
” he said to Jack
.
“
What do you reckon we can do?
”

Jack thought for a while.
“Bob Anderson, you know him, works for th
e Shire Council?
” Paddy nodded.
“Well Jim Brown was talking to him the other day and said there was good feed on the stock route down towards Thallon. If that
's the case, maybe we can find a drover and walk them around for a month or so.
”

“Good thinking, mate. That might work. Fancy a few weeks in a swag?
”

Bugger it
, thought Jack.
What have I talked myself into here
?
I don
't want to go, not now when that new she
i
la at the Pharmacy has just arrived in town.
“I
've dug a hole now! I suppose I
'll have to go, won
't I?
”

Paddy smiled.
“Do you good
,
mate. Anyway, if you join the army you
'll be digging holes all bloody day and all bloody night, you silly bugger.
”

Jack felt a surge of hope.
“You mean I can join the a
r
my, Dad?
”

“Not a bloody chance, my boy. We need you here. I
'm not as quick on my feet as I used to be. However, it
's off to
uni
versity
for you if your mother has her way, and she usua
l
ly does.
”