The Birthmark (14 page)

‘Perhaps we'll find another sword here anyway,' Christina said.

‘What do you mean?' Lily asked.

‘Well, if they had a bath up here, it was obviously a special place for the officers. And if they were the only ones who had swords…'

Lily still couldn't work Christina out. Was she just a smart arse? How much did she know, or thought she knew? Did Lily know less about her own history than this girl who had been here a week? People didn't talk about the history of Tevua. They were more interested in talking about football or fishing or music or sex, or just getting drunk and being stupid. History was dull in comparison.

The vegetation cleared and the ridge appeared before them: a steep, grey rise, dotted with huge coral boulders, each bigger than a large pig.

In the yellowed light the air was still and oppressive. Lily couldn't hear the familiar scratch of crabs or the scurry of lizards, just the drone of Riki's muttering as he lumbered behind them.

‘Up there in the rocks,' Hector said, pointing, ‘that's where the Jap soldiers hid.'

‘Pretty good camouflage,' Christina said. ‘You'd never guess there was anything there except a cliff.'

‘We're going up there?' Lily asked, full of trepidation. ‘It's easy,' Hector called, bounding up the slope.

Lily climbed steadily. It was so steep she had to pull herself from one pinnacle to the next tier. Her leg muscles burnt with exertion. Her lungs heaved. She wanted to stop, but she wouldn't dare let Hector show her up like this. He was only a few tiers above her, perched on a boulder like a bird. She inhaled sharply and willed herself onwards. Sweat trickled down her cleavage, pooling at the band of her bra, and a sweaty moustache had formed on her upper lip. She licked it away. Behind her she could hear Christina panting too.

‘How much further?' Lily gasped as she reached Hector. She noticed the sheen of sweat on his temples. The humidity had slowed him too.

‘Not far,' he said, watching his grandfather's progress. ‘Come on, Ibu. You're nearly there,' he called down the hill.

The old man stepped his way up the slope, his breath coming in loud puffs. As he climbed, he used the pinnacles to haul himself up, as Lily had done. She watched the muscles of his long arms ripple in the muted light. Long ago, she thought, he would have been a tall thin youth.

When Riki reached them, Hector nodded towards a huge rock at the base of a coral ledge that jutted out about three metres above them. A young beach almond had established itself right on the edge, its roots encasing the cliff like a badly woven fishing net.

‘We've got to get up there,' he said. ‘Watch where I put my hands and feet—then follow that pattern. It's the easiest way.'

Riki was still puffing, but his mumbling had stopped. His lined face was covered with sweat. He used one finger like a windscreen wiper to clear the sweat away, then he shook his head and his shoulders slumped. ‘I don't think I can,' he said. ‘You three go ahead. My legs are tired. I cannot climb.'

‘Are you sure?' Hector urged him. ‘If you rest a while, you'll make it.'

‘I will sit here and wait for you,' he said, smiling. ‘You will tell me what you find.'

Lily imagined Hector's
ibu
in his youth, climbing coconut trees and cutting the young shoots to collect toddy. But now he was crumpled and worn and his belly heaved as he caught his breath. He didn't seem so weird now he was exhausted like her, but she was glad he was staying behind. It wasn't just Lorelei's warnings. There was something about his manner that spooked her.

The rock at the base of the cliff was waist high. Hector jumped up then looked down at the girls. ‘Once we get over this cliff, it's much easier,' he said.

Lily hitched her skirt above her shorts and clambered onto the rock. She watched Hector scale the cliff face in front of her. He reached up to his right for a handhold and found a notch to the left for his foot. Two more similar manoeuvres had him within reach of the sapling. He clasped a root and heaved himself up towards the trunk. Once he'd caught the base of the trunk he pulled himself up over the ledge. Then he stood beside the sapling and coached the girls as they made their way up to join him.

‘Wow, what is this place?' said Christina, her eyes wide like a big bonito.

Their ledge formed a small platform out over the forest.

‘My old school teacher says it's where the Japs were,' Hector said.

‘The sentries stand there and look down to see if anyone is coming,' Riki called from beneath them.

Hector walked to the edge and crouched behind one of the large boulders that formed a natural barrier to hide behind. ‘Tck, tck, tck!' he pointed his arm into the air and shot off an imaginary round of ammunition.

Lily laughed at him. ‘You're like a little kid,' she said. Then she shivered as the air around her cooled. She looked up for the telltale change in the clouds, but the forest canopy blocked out the blue. She glanced at Christina whose nervous eyes were also scanning the treetops. Even Riki was gazing about uneasily. Hector was still shooting imaginary invaders with his invisible machine gun.

‘Shut up, you idiot, and listen for a minute,' Lily shouted. ‘Can't you feel it?'

Hector stared at her blankly. ‘What do you mean?'

She shuddered as a tingling sensation crept down her body. ‘I can feel
them
. The soldiers, guarding the way. Their ghosts.'

Hector looked towards his grandfather. ‘Is that what you mean, Ibu? Can she feel the air?'

The old man raised his eyebrows and brought a finger to his lips.

‘They are here, Hector,' he said, ‘the air is thick with ghosts here.'

fourteen

Baringa District
6 March 1943

Tarema scaled the cliff face like a lizard on a rock. Tepu followed, terrified that at any moment one of them would lose their footing and tumble. He was glad it was too dark to see how far they'd climbed, but poor visibility meant they had to feel their way, sometimes doubling back when there were no handholds. The rocks were jagged and tore at their exposed skin. Tepu was thankful that his hands and feet were tough after labouring on the work gangs, but he worried how Tarema's hands were faring.

The noise grew louder as they neared the top. They could hear someone speaking rapid Japanese while another shouted. The brothers froze—had they been spotted? Tepu's heartbeat thundered at his throat. He held his breath.

A long silence followed, then the sound of many Japanese voices, someone coughing and a group of men chuckling.

Tepu exhaled. His legs shook.

‘Come on, Tepu, we're nearly there,' Tarema whispered. Tepu struggled after him, blinking away the falling debris dislodged by his brother's feet. Moments later Tarema stopped and Tepu hoisted himself up beside him. They had reached the top of the cliff. The Japanese voices were very close now, perhaps only a few feet from where they perched.

Tarema was about to peer over the edge when Tepu caught him by the shoulder.

‘No, I must do it. I am older,' he whispered. Gingerly, he raised his head. Before him was a tent peg which held down one corner of a large tarpaulin. The tarpaulin formed a makeshift roof over a natural basin in the rock. About a dozen marines sat on the ground talking and drinking in the glow of a lamp. He recognised one face. It was Egirow. The Lieutenant drank from a large bottle, listening to his fellow officers and occasionally saying a few words.

‘They drink while we starve,' Tarema whispered at Tepu's ear. Tepu was so engrossed he hadn't noticed his brother at his side.

‘Get down,' he hissed, pushing Tarema back. Unbalanced, the boy slid, gasping and clutching madly for a handhold.

The noise made the marines turn. Someone shouted an order and they all rolled onto their stomachs, drawing their revolvers. A dozen pale faces squinted into the darkness, directly at Tepu.

Baringa Bunker
Wednesday 30 June 2004

Hector gulped at the humid air that hung around him. A sinister chill had come from nowhere, pawing at the sweat on his head and chest. He was unsure about going on, but Christina jolted him back to a kind of courage by her words: ‘Must be a storm coming.'

Despite her scepticism about ghosts she looked frightened, as if she thought someone was watching her. ‘So where's the bath?' Lily said hoarsely, pulling at Hector's shoulder.

‘We go this way,' he said, pointing to a space behind the sapling. A path led to a cleft in the rock. Inside, limestone cliffs formed the walls of a narrow corridor. They walked single file down the curving path. The carpet of leaf litter, several centimetres thick, silenced their footfalls.

‘Our teacher said this might have been an old reef, millions of years ago. Then volcanoes put a crack in it,' Hector said.

Lily snorted. ‘You lie. There are no volcanoes here.'

‘That's what he said. He told us all about this place. He said only one soldier at a time could come through this path. He said it was good for an ambush.' Hector looked up and imagined jeering Japanese high above, pointing their rifles at him. He would have been dead in an instant, like a squashed piglet on the road. Then all the blue flies would come and sit on his eyes and mouth. Dead Tevuan boy, move no more.

The path opened into a clearing as the two walls of rock veered off in opposite directions. An old lime tree shaded the clearing and plenty of sour-sob seedlings struggled for a patch of sunlight. Beyond them the scrub was thick again.

Hector pushed his way through the bush, skirting the line of the right ridge. The girls followed as he plunged into the greenery again.

The ridge formed a wall, higher than any building Lily had ever seen. Its steel-grey surface was pock-marked with holes and crannies. The wall continued around in a curve. They kept close to the ridge for several paces, then Hector stopped and pointed to a recess in the wall. ‘Look, can you believe it?'

Christina shook her head. A rusted white tub, filled with sixty years of mud and leaf litter, sat like a throne in the rock recess.

‘How did
that
get
here
?' Lily's eyes were wide with astonishment.

‘They must have dragged it up here. Well, forced slaves to drag it up here,' Christina said.

‘Slaves?' Lily and Hector said in unison.

‘Yeah…On of Dad's mates reckons the Japanese forced most of the locals to work as slaves.'

Hector could just imagine a soldier sitting in the bathtub, his pale body lifting a tin of water. He could see the water trickle down the sides of his head and his eyes would close for an instant. Then he would shake his black, stubbled head and his bottom lip would drip, drip, drip the last of the water—precious Tevuan water, while the islanders starved.

A rage of injustice seethed in him. He wanted to shout or swear into the forest, but stings like hot needles pierced his feet. He flinched and looked down. Dozens of orange-red ants crawled over his thongs. He brushed them away, stamped his feet and jerked sideways in a crazy dance.

‘You look stupid, you idiot,' Lily laughed. She moved back from him, then stumbled to one side as she tripped over an old bottle. ‘Shit!' she yelled.

‘Who's stupid now?' Hector muttered. ‘See, I told you they had beer bottles up here.' He pointed to where a few brown bottles lay beside the curved legs of the bathtub. Hector picked up the one Lily had tripped over and turned it in his hands. The neck was broken and inside he could see the same filth that filled the bathtub.

‘Are you sure it's a beer bottle? Maybe they drank sake,' Christina said.

‘What's sake?' Lily said.

‘It's a Japanese drink, some kind of alcohol.'

‘I don't know, can anyone read their writing?' Hector rubbed his fingers over the Japanese markings on the glass and handed it to Lily. ‘Whatever it was, they got drunk.'

‘Shit,' Lily said. ‘They must have sat here and drank beer in the bathtub while the rest of them…' she screwed up her face and paused while the realisation hit her, ‘they beat up our relatives. What arseholes!' she shouted, and she hurled the bottle at the bathtub. It smashed against the side with a clunk, spattering humus and glass everywhere. Her laughter was strident and she looked at her companions. There was cold fury in her eyes.

Christina didn't laugh. Nor did Hector. He felt afraid in his gut and he wished she hadn't smashed the bottle. He was sure Ibu would have liked to keep it. The air around them cooled once more and Hector looked to the sky, noted the dimmed light and knew it was about to rain.

‘Come on, we're nearly there,' he said.

He forced his way through another curtain of dense scrub and a small maze formed by a rocky outcrop. The girls followed a few paces behind. A distant boom sounded and the roar of a tropical downpour fell on the leafy roof above them.

Big droplets of rain spilled down from the waterlogged leaves onto their sweaty limbs. Drip, drip, drip—the rain soaked their shirts and Hector felt himself shiver.