The Golden Land (20 page)

Natalie nodded. She found the stories of the old royal family fascinating.

‘Anyway, that's all history now. If you are interested you should stay in contact with Aye Aye. She's a prolific letter writer. She's had an amazing life and she still does wonderful things. I haven't seen her for years, but she loves to talk. She's a great charmer, a family trait, and has used her talents resourcefully.'

‘What a shame I can't meet her. Yes, I'll write to her again,' said Natalie.

‘I'm sure she would like that. The mail from Burma is not reliable and it's frequently read by the authorities, but hopefully her letters will get through.'

‘Okay, I'll enjoy writing to her anyway,' said Natalie firmly.

‘I'm so glad you haven't sold the kammavaca.'

‘I never really wanted to, I mean, I rescued it from a shed where it had been sitting in a packing crate for decades, so I can't let it go to goodness knows where now. It doesn't seem right.'

‘Perhaps not. It is up to you to decide,' replied Mi Mi. ‘I must also thank you for your help at the rally, and for bringing your friends. It's a slow process to gradually awaken other ears and minds and hearts to our situation but with caring people we can do it.'

When the builders had gone for the day, and Adam and Charlotte were occupied drawing at the kitchen table, Natalie opened her emails to send some photos of the children in their new soccer gear to her mother. She was surprised to see a message from Peter Michaelson, the London art dealer.

I have been following the sale of your kammavaca on the net. I see you have removed it. Does this mean you have accepted an offer? As I said, I would like the opportunity to make a counter offer to any that you receive. I am willing to make a substantial increase on your last bid. As I recall the highest bid was around AU$9000.I am offering you AU$14,000 as a definite final offer. Please contact me as soon as possible.

Natalie was shocked. Why would he leap in like that with such a high price? Surely a dealer would not be so generous unless he was sure there was an even bigger profit to be made. How strange, she thought. I'm sorry, Mr Michaelson, but the kammavaca is definitely not for sale.

‘Hey, Mum, it's been ages since we spoke. Have you been busy?' asked Natalie when she rang her mother later that evening.

‘Yes. Terribly.' Sarah sounded distracted and not her usual cheerful self.

‘But that's a good thing, isn't it? I mean, the shop's doing well?'

‘Reasonably. Are you busy Nat?'

‘No, the kids are asleep already. You don't sound too good, what's up?'

‘Can you chat for a minute? I've been meaning to call you, but I've been so preoccupied. How are you feeling? You'd be seven months pregnant by now! I wish I could see you but it's difficult. I can't get away easily because I'm now fulltime at the shop.'

‘I'm fine, Mum, but why are you slogging away every day in the shop? You need a day or so off every week. What happened to the woman you had helping you?'

‘I've had to let her go. Things at home aren't too good at present. I've wanted to tell you what was happening but I didn't want to worry you.'

‘Mum! What's up? Are you all right? Are you sick? Is Steve?' Natalie was now quite alarmed.

‘No, nothing like that. We're fine. It's just that financially we're not very healthy at all, to tell you the truth. We've had a bit of a downturn.'

‘In what way, Mum? I didn't think that you had money worries. You guys have a solid nest egg.'

‘Not anymore.'

‘What do you mean?'

‘I told you that Steve's been dabbling on the stock market but it's been a disaster.'

‘What do you mean?'

‘He started to play the share market but he got caught on the downslide and he kept trying to recoup his losses. I suppose it's a classic mistake but now most of our savings are gone.' There was anger and fear in Sarah's voice.

‘Oh my god. Why? Steve's never been a gambler.'

‘No. He's a dairy farmer,' said Sarah bitterly.

‘How serious is this, Mum? Where do you stand? We'll help you. Mark's earning good money.'

‘Nat, Nat darling, I don't want you to worry. The house is paid off. We'll just have to be frugal, and live on what I make at the shop for a while. Steve is looking for some part-time work, fencing, or whatever. He feels terrible of course. We've lost our joint savings.'

Natalie couldn't believe what she was hearing. She wanted to say something about Steve but held her tongue.

‘I suppose you won't be travelling any time soon then.'

‘No, not even up to you at the Gold Coast because I'll have to work extra hours. We just have to pull our heads in. I feel terrible, I didn't want to worry you with the baby coming and all. I'd planned such lovely things and now I don't know if I'll be able to help you at all. . .'

‘Listen, Mum, Mark and I and the kids are fine. It's you I'm worried about. Do you want me to drive down next week? I haven't seen you for ages, the kids would love to visit.'

‘I have to work, sweetie. Steve feels so bad about it all. He thought he knew what he was doing. He has a friend who's been investing and he made money, and Steve thought he could do the same, but he couldn't. I mean, how could he? He had no experience playing the share market. We'll be okay. Things will work themselves out and I feel better now I've told you. It just means I can't buy you the nice things for the baby that I'd planned. And heaven knows when I can get up there to help you.'

‘Mum, Mum, it's okay, we can manage. Anyway the baby's not due for two months and we'll have everything sorted by then. Well, at least the bathroom. We've got it all worked out so don't worry about us, we're okay. Just look after yourself. And Steve. But please Mum, let us help you.'

‘You will do no such thing; I wouldn't dream of taking money from you. You have a young family and you might need that sort of money down the track. I want you to have the house of your dreams. Steve and I will be fine. Things haven't quite turned out as we would have liked, but we have a roof over our heads and we can pay our bills, so things aren't as bad as they could be. We'll just have to be a bit careful. I'm really grateful for your offer, darling, but I have no intention of accepting it. Things will come good, you'll see. Now tell me, what did the doctor say? Have you asked what sex the baby is?'

They talked a while longer, until Natalie heard Adam call out. ‘Mum, I'll have to go. Adam's woken up.'

‘Look after yourself and that baby. Give my love to Mark and the kids, and, please, don't worry about us. We're okay, truly we are.'

‘I love you, Mum.'

‘Love you, too.'

Sarah and Steve's finances were the first thing she raised when Mark rang the next day. He heard the worry in her voice straight away.

‘What's happened?'

‘Mum and Steve. Steve has lost all their savings playing the share market!'

‘Shit! How did he do that? I thought they were well set up financially.'

‘They were, but not now. I think Steve thought he'd improve their situation like some mate of his was doing, but now he's done the lot. Thank goodness they own the house and have an income from the shop to keep them going, but their nest egg, their security's gone. Poor Mum. She sounds very worried.'

‘I'm not surprised. I know she wouldn't want to sell that house they just bought. Can she flog off the boutique?'

‘Don't think she'd get all that much for it in this market. And then what would she do? You know Mum, still the glamour girl, professional working woman. I did offer to give her money but she won't have it. You don't mind, do you?'

‘Of course not.'

‘And Mark, I didn't tell you something else. There was an email from that dealer, Peter Michaelson, in London. He's upped the offer quite a lot. Fourteen thousand.'

‘What? Why would he do that? That's a big jump. Why wouldn't he offer, say, only one grand more? That thing could be more valuable than we think, Nat.'

‘Maybe, but if we're never going to sell it, what's the difference?' said Natalie.

T
HEY WERE SO ENGROSSED
in their little project that it took a few moments for the silence to sink in. Natalie leaned back on her heels, her gardening fork poised.

‘The noise from the bathroom's stopped. Let's hope that's the end of it, at least for a while.'

‘When can we have a bath again, Mummy?' asked Charlotte.

‘Not till everything is back in place again, darling. There's still lots to be done in there before it gets back to normal. But I'm glad the jackhammering has finished. Okay, let's finish planting our carrots.'

The vegetable plot in the backyard had started when Natalie planted some herbs. The children had then wanted to grow something they liked eating and since carrots were one of their favourite vegetables, Natalie decided they could plant some. She showed Charlotte how to pat the earth down around the seedlings as they planted them, and managed to convince Adam not to yank the carrots up just to see how they were growing.

Natalie straightened up and rubbed her aching back. ‘Let's go inside and make ourselves a milkshake.'

As she came into the house, her phone was ringing.

‘Hi, Thi. How're you?'

‘Natalie, put the TV on. There's something happening in Burma. The midday news reported it. There seems to be some sort of demonstration happening. It sounds terrible.'

‘What? I'll turn it on now.'

But by the time Natalie turned on the TV, she only caught the tail end of the report, which mentioned a crisis in the economy in Burma due to the escalation of fuel prices. That didn't seem to be momentous, so when the newsreader moved on to the next story, she turned the TV off.

Later, while Charlotte and Adam napped, Natalie tried to clear up the dust that had spread throughout the house from the reconstruction of the bathroom. Even as she was doing it, she knew it was a pointless effort as the builders still had much more to do.

That evening, the children had finished dinner and were bathed and playing with some puzzles as they waited for Mark's phone call, so Natalie sat down and turned on the evening TV news. As soon as she realised that the headline story was about Burma, she switched to SBS, knowing that the multicultural channel would cover the story in depth. The images seemed to jump out at her. She felt so surrounded by the noise and colours on the screen that she gasped.

Hundreds of red-robed monks were massed along a street, shouting through loudhailers, waving their arms, their faces contorted in anger. Blocking their way were rows of soldiers in steel helmets holding large shields in front of their bodies, on which they banged their truncheons. People hung from balconies and windows and stood on top of the old wooden buildings that lined the street.

Natalie watched the blurry, shaking footage. She could see a stream of Burmese people, young and old, men and women, coming into the street, linking arms or holding hands to form a ring around the massed monks. They all seemed to be singing. There was no mistaking their intent to form a living barrier between the revered monks and the ominous green military at the far end of the street. A few young men dashed into the space between the two groups, hurling stones in the direction of the impassive soldiers.

Whoever was holding the camera was in the thick of the action, racing beside the crowd, trying to grab a few breathless comments, which were translated in subtitles at the bottom of Natalie's TV screen: ‘There is no democracy in Burma.' ‘Where are the rights of the Burmese people?'

Natalie heard the phone but ignored it. She knew it would be Mark to talk to the children and Charlotte ran to answer it but Natalie was swept up by the scenes from the streets of Rangoon. Suddenly she glimpsed a breathtaking shot of a huge golden pagoda in the background. Then she could see an old bus disgorging even more monks into the demonstration, some carrying flags and loudhailers.

Many of the bystanders bowed and clasped their hands together in reverence as the monks strode purposefully past them, while others cheered and clapped. A small boy fell to his knees and touched his forehead onto the ground. As the surging crowd jostled him, someone quickly helped him to his feet.

Suddenly there was the sound of shots. Natalie realised the protestors were now facing soldiers armed with rifles, shields and truncheons. Puffs of smoke began to blossom from the guns.

‘Oh, god, they're shooting real bullets!' she exclaimed aloud.

The children, talking to Mark, took no notice of their mother's comments.

Then, through the crowd, from the distance where the camera operator stood, she saw a wild surge. The crowd was breaking up, fleeing from gunfire and tear gas. People were running, some bent double, others covering their mouths as they fled down the streets in panic. There were people falling over and then being hurriedly dragged away by other demonstrators. All the time the unmistakable sound of gunfire continued in the background. The camera jerked wildly, as the person holding it also ran.

‘They're shooting the monks!' cried Natalie, tears beginning to stream down her face. She could not believe the horrific scenes she was watching. The frightened faces of women, men and young people, the defiant expression of monks, some with bloodied shaved heads, still waving their flags in protest, flashed like a collage over the screen. A picture of a stream of blood running across the cobblestones towards a monk's solitary sandal ended the shaky footage.

The TV presenter summed up what little was known of the events they'd just shown.

These pictures of this violent demonstration have been smuggled out of Burma and at this stage we have few other details of what has happened in Rangoon today. It is known that unrest has been building for several weeks, ever since the junta suddenly removed fuel subsidies. Fuel prices have doubled and food prices have also jumped, creating great hardships for the people of Burma who are already living at a subsistence level. For the first time in many years, unrest has brought the people onto the streets in a show of civil disobedience. For the monks to break their vows by engaging in politics and calling for reform is an indication of the deep resentment felt by the people in this repressed and poor country.

Natalie didn't move; tears slid down her face. The story about Burma had taken only a few minutes of air time but to Natalie it seemed like an age, and the pain and anguish she felt about the shocking scenes had frozen her to the spot. She continued to stare at the TV screen even though the program had moved on to another story. She could still hear the cries of the crowd and the sound of gunshots as the military fired on their own people, including the monks, the spiritual leaders of the country.

‘Mummy, what's wrong?' Charlotte tugged at her arm. ‘Daddy wants to talk now.'

‘Give me the phone then, please, sweetie,' said Natalie, brushing her cheeks, not wanting the children to see how upset she was. And not wanting to explain to them what she'd just seen.

‘Hey, Nat, are you okay? Charlotte said you're crying.' Mark sounded concerned.

‘I just saw the most shocking thing on TV. See if you can catch it on the late news. There's been a major demonstration in Rangoon. The monks, hundreds of them, took to the streets and thousands of ordinary people joined them, trying to protect them, and then the soldiers started firing at them. They're monks, holy men, pacifists! Can you believe it?'

‘Slow down, Nat. You really are worked up. From what you've told me this is a very troubled country. There's a lot of unrest.'

‘How can people just stand by and watch helpless unarmed people mown down because they want basic rights – like food! They were mostly monks, Mark! It's tragic.'

‘I understand you're upset, but remember, Nat, you are already doing something for Burma. It does sound terrible though. I'll catch it on the late news. Now, tell me about Charlotte's ballet concert. She sounds pretty excited about it.'

Later when the children were in bed, Natalie automatically began cleaning up the kitchen. But she felt distracted and still disturbed. She glanced outside at the lights glittering on the calm water of the canal. In the brightly lit houses opposite she could see people moving around, a TV screen flickering; she could hear the faint sound of music as families settled into their evening at home, safe and comfortable.

Her phone rang and she was surprised to hear Vicki's voice.

‘Hi, Natalie, I'm at your front door. I didn't want to alarm you or wake the children. Did you see the news? I'm so upset. Can I come in?'

‘Of course. I'm so glad you're here,' Natalie said in a rush of sudden relief.

Natalie put the kettle on as Vicki pulled out a kitchen chair.

‘It's shocking, just dreadful.'

‘Vicki, I burst into tears, I couldn't believe innocent people could be shot in cold blood like that, and the monks! Even I understand the extent to which they're held in such esteem and reverence by the Burmese people. How could the soldiers do that?'

‘The generals have made the military into machines. But even so, I am really surprised that they took action against the monks.'

‘Surely there has to be some retribution. Now that the international community has seen what went on,' said Natalie.

‘I doubt it. The generals never take any notice of what the outside world thinks. They're a law unto themselves. Things must be very bad for people to come out onto the streets to protest. They are so afraid of the military junta and they know that if they protest, they risk their own lives and those of their families. That's how the regime gets back at you – they punish your family,' said Vicki. ‘I've been trying to reach friends there, but the whole country seems to be blacked out. I couldn't get through to anyone on the phone.'

‘Those pictures on the TV were like a terrible movie,' said Natalie. ‘So many young people seem to be involved, even though they only had stones and sticks. Do you think the protests will make any difference?'

‘I don't know. There's been protests for some time, all over the country, as people object to the way the economy is run. But when you see situations like this it's so depressing. I guess it means that people like us have to work even harder to tell people about the plight of Burma. But it's not easy.'

Natalie nodded. ‘I'm thinking about my kid's safely tucked up in there, and this little baby on the way, and how lucky we are. What would it be like struggling to feed your family, worrying about a knock on the door in the middle of the night and having your husband or mother taken away?' Natalie sighed. ‘I wish I could do more . . .'

She poured their tea, then said, ‘Vicki, it's just struck me. Maybe I could send the kammavaca back to Burma. To Princess Aye Aye. It belonged to her family. Uncle Andrew felt that returning it was the right thing to do, because it should not have been taken in the first place, and I think that King Thibaw's kammavaca is part of Burmese culture. It belongs to that country and I think I should make sure that it goes back to its rightful owners.' She gave Vicki a worried, querying look.

Vicki nodded slowly. ‘Perhaps you're right. I'm sure its return would mean a lot. The princess would never ask you for it, but, really, to you it's just a curio with a connection to a relative you never knew, an exotic family footnote. To her it has more relevance. It was cherished by her grandfather and it's a link to her family's powerful past. Returning it would be a very selfless act on your part.'

‘Seeing for myself those shattering pictures on TV has made me want to help the Burmese in a more tangible way than just turning up at rallies. This is one way I can do it.'

‘What will Mark say? You could do a lot with the money that dealer in London offered,' said Vicki.

‘Can you put a price on the suffering and sacrifice of those people? It's not just Aung San Suu Kyi and her pro-democracy followers, it's all the Burmese people,' exclaimed Natalie vehemently. ‘I see that now. Maybe sending the kammavaca back is symbolic, but I want to do it. Otherwise I'll feel so helpless. I know there are people here in Australia who are suffering but in Burma it's everyone! The whole country is being repressed!'

‘You are so right.' Vicki raised her tea mug.

‘I'll write to Aye Aye tonight.'

‘I'm so glad I came by,' said Vicki. ‘I was devastated. Well, I still am, but it's nice to know I'm not alone. I'll talk to Mi Mi and Thi tomorrow, but I just had to talk to someone straight away. Thanks, Natalie.'

‘No, I should thank you. You've helped me crystallise my thoughts. The kammavaca has sent me on a bit of a trip. Now I understand so much more not just about Burma, but funnily enough, about myself as well. I'm seeing what's really important in life.' Natalie grasped for words as she tried to articulate these new thoughts occurring to her.

‘How are you going to get the kammavaca to Aye Aye? I wouldn't risk posting it,' said Vicki.