I waied him back, as did Mariko, and said, “Hi. My name’s Jonah and this is Mariko.” Mariko smiled at him.
“Come, come,” said Abdul, moving his hand in a small downward wave to indicate that we should follow him. “We have to hurry because night falls very quickly and we only have maybe twenty mins before it will be completely dark.”
He walked around to the front of the deck and down the stairs that led to the beach and we followed him down the shoreline, heading south. The beach was about fifty meters wide at its widest point and narrowed sometimes to just twenty as the jungle pushed its way towards the sea. The only sounds were our feet scuffling the sand, cicadas trilling their mating calls and the palms brushing softly against each other in the slight breeze. There wasn’t a wave to be seen and the ocean was devoid of life for all the movement it displayed.
As soon as I saw the house, I knew that I’d buy it. It had nothing to do with the house, it was the location. A bluff of steep-sided headland, dark in the rapidly failing light, rose in front us, and off to our right was the house. The building seemed to be losing the battle against the encroaching jungle and one wall had tropical vegetation pressed up against it.
Abdul smiled at me and lifted his hand to show the way, saying, “Be careful as you come up the step. The wood has rotted and I am afraid that I have been too busy to replace it yet.”
I wondered if he meant too busy sleeping in the hammock and glanced at him. A twinkle in his eye and the wrinkles gathering made me suspect that he knew what I was thinking but I just smiled and gingerly made my way up the steps to stand on the deck that surrounded the house.
The building was stand-alone and badly run down. It had no Travway leading to it and was only forty meters from the sea, white sand covering the distance between. The rear of the house faced the sea and had a large balcony running around the entire second floor. At the front was a garden full of flowers, reaching to the edge of a small patch of jungle through which was a path that led to the nearest Travway four hundred meters further on. I loved it.
As we walked back through the jungle towards the restaurant, a king cobra slithered across the path in front of us, a cautionary hand on my arm from Abdul as with his other he pointed at it. Mariko knelt down to take an image of it with her Devstick. Siti and Abdul walked on ahead of us, to give us some privacy, and I turned to Mariko.
“So what do you think?”
“It’s perfect. I mean it will take a massive amount of work to get it sorted but it is such a great spot. What do you think?”
“I love it.”
The word, love, hung on the humid air between us, and brought me a serious look from Mariko. I took her hand and we walked back to the restaurant. Abdul led us to a wobbly table set in the sand that was piled high with seafood and a cooler sat beside the table with beer and soft drinks in it. Abdul pulled out a beer and twisted the top off handing it to me. He reached in and did the same again, passing the beer to Mariko.
I lifted the beer in toast to Abdul, Siti and Mariko and said, “I think I’m going to like living here very much.”
Abdul smiled, his teeth shining white in the darkness of his face and said, “Does that mean that you have decided to buy the house, Jonah?”
“Yes and I’d like to talk to you about the adjoining land too. Not for development so we can just keep it unspoiled.”
“You don’t need to worry about that. All of this land belongs to my family, and in an agreement we made long ago, none of us may sell to another without approaching all that live here first. It took me three months to get everyone to agree to sell the old beach house, even though it is falling down. But finally when I explained that it was the only way that I was going to get customers for my seafood restaurant did the family agree.” Abdul let out a loud laugh at his joke and we all laughed with him.
“Siti, you will join us for dinner. Please call your father and tell him that you are entertaining me tonight.”
“Ha, I do not think so, Abdul. It is you who should be entertaining me tonight. Is that not so?”
Abdul laughed out loud again and turning to us said, “Well it is good that you will be my neighbors.” He faced Mariko, and took her hand. “You are a very beautiful woman. Please forgive an old man’s forwardness, but at my age when we want to say something we usually just say it. It is a privilege of simply having survived.” And reaching over with his other hand he took my hand in it, still facing Mariko he said, “I am a good judge of character, and I can feel the strength in this one. And in you too. This is a good place for you to find the strength in each other.” Smiling widely he placed Mariko’s hand in mine.
“Now I will leave you to sit and make romantic talk on the beach in the moonlight. Come, Siti, let us go inside tonight. It is semi-final of Malay Idol and Johan has an exemption.” Abdul and Siti walked up the beach to the house and went inside.
Mariko and I remained under the old parachute awning strung out over the cool sand of the beach. The only light came from old oil lamps converted to solar and they were set to emit an orange glow similar to the light cast by their forbears.
Mariko spoke quietly, her foot drawing circles in the sand. “I hadn’t planned on this, our being together. Two weeks ago if you would have told me that I was going to be moving out of New Singapore to live with a man who I hardly know, I would have said you were crazy. But I guess that’s love for you. And yes, Jonah, I do love you, but if we are going to be together then we have to understand why we’re together, and we have to always understand, because if we forget then we shouldn’t be together.”
“Yes, I agree totally,” I said. I meant it too. I understood what she was talking about because I had gone through the same emotional whirlwind.
She continued, “It would be nice, as Abdul said, if we can just talk sweet romantic things but I feel like we’re about to make a big commitment and it’s suddenly rushed up on me. Yesterday this was just a dream and a fun thing to do. Today, now, it feels like I’m standing on the edge of… of… sheesh, I don’t know, but it’s… it’s just different.”
I closed my eyes and breathed in, drawing the salty air deep. The breath of a warm breeze rippled the cloth of my outers against my skin and I breathed out slowly, emptying my mind. What I said now had to be right. If I got it wrong, she could be lost forever. I searched in my mind for the right words to say, feeling for her.
Suddenly a rush of thoughts entered my mind. The hairs on my neck stood up, and a shiver ran through me down to my toes scrunched in the white sand. They were her thoughts flying around, disorganized. I breathed in sharply and let out a soft gasp. The thoughts stopped. I was out of her mind. I felt shaken, shocked, maybe it was just the beer, but I thought for one crazy moment that I had actually entered her mind.
At my gasp she turned to face me and placed her hand on my arm, a small smile upon her lips. I smiled back at her and put my hand on hers.
Speaking softly I said, “I know you are scared of losing your freedom but I will never hold you back from what you want to do. All I can say is that everything that is happening feels right to me. I know it has only been a week since we met, but I also know that I will love you forever. If this feels too quick, we can stay in New Singapore. I confess I do love the peacefulness here, but I love you more.”
She squeezed my arm and said, “No. I don’t care about New Singapore, and I love you too. But when we get back to New Singapore I will request a loan from my bank for half of the amount of the house. Our contract will say that as long as we are together here then we will jointly own the property, but if should split up — ” and she had held up her hand palm facing me to stop my interruption. “If we should split up then we will sell the property and share the proceeds equally. I also want to continue contributing at UNPOL and there are some things that I need to talk to you about that, but that can wait.”
I interrupted her. “Look, I was surprised to learn that you were contributing at UNPOL, and doubly so at your being in the Special Operations Executive, but I understand and support your desire to keep contributing. My decision to quit from Coughington and Scuttle was my decision. Was it influenced by you? For sure, but only from the point of view that you’ve made me happy. Since I’ve never really been happy, I’ve never had anything to compare, with what I thought was my happiness. Now that I have, I can see that I wasn’t happy. But that’s me and I understand that you are in a different space with your contribution.”
She nodded and smiled and turned slightly towards me.
