The more she thought about it the more angered she became by Luke’s attitude, by the recurring idea that he might have been using her all this time. By the time the train squeaked and clattered back across the River Kwai on its way to Kanchanaburi Station, she had made up her mind about what she would do.
20
Tom did not have the strength or the stomach to eat the food that the guard continued to shove roughly through the bamboo bars. Every so often, with a great effort of will, he managed to lift his arm to guide the tin cup of water to his lips. They were so cracked and swollen, and his tongue and mouth so parched and sore that it was painful to force it down. He knew that he must though, if he was to have any chance of getting out of this hell.
His memories had become vivid to him, vivid and bright and real. It was his present existence that his mind rejected: the camp, the shadowy figures moving about the clearing, the Japanese guards sauntering around by the guardhouse, the other prisoners assembling for parade and dinner had ceased to be reality for him now. He was only dimly aware of movement and the colours and shapes of his surroundings. His mind found comfort in the past, and he let it.
He tried to go back to the time when he had first arrived on Penang. He wanted to find solace in the memory of those carefree, pleasure-filled days, but instead his mind carried him to the time when the atmosphere on the island had begun to change. When the war that had previously been thousands of miles away began to threaten to disrupt the life on this tropical paradise.
It was around the middle of 1941. Training with the Volunteers had previously had a recreational feel, but it now became more intense and took on a serious note. The newspapers were filled with accounts of Japanese aggression: the escalation of the war in China and the hideous atrocities that were committed there, the occupation of Northern Indo-China with the co-operation of the Vichy French, the US trade embargo on Japan. It suddenly felt as though this perfect life could really be under threat.
The Malay Peninsula was filling up with troops from India, Australia and Britain. According to reports in The Straits Times, the bars and fleshpots of Singapore were crawling with off-duty soldiers in the evenings, hell-bent on getting drunk and brawling the night away.
‘Do you seriously think they’ll need a bunch of amateurs like us, with all the trained professional manpower they’ve now got on tap?’ Tom asked Henry as they sweated their way round the obstacle course one sultry evening under the watchful eye of the Bull.
‘They need all the manpower they can get, old man. The Japs have no shortage of men, all ready and willing to die for the Emperor.’
A month or so later, they were taken for a week’s training to the jungle on the mainland. It was the first time Tom had been off the island of Penang in over two years.
When he asked for leave to go, Jones, the manager of the plantation said, ‘By all means take your leave, Ellis, you deserve it. Most people would have been due to go home at some point. But with the situation in Europe as it has been …’
‘I haven’t wanted to go home,’ said Tom quickly. ‘There’s nothing for me there.’
The manager eyed him curiously for a moment.
‘Well, off you go with the Volunteers then, lad. We can manage for a week without you. But I must say, it doesn’t sound like much of a holiday to me.’
They were taken by covered army trucks deep into the jungle in the hills behind Butterworth. There they were taught the basics of jungle warfare. They learned how to camouflage themselves so they were invisible to the enemy, how to move silently through the undergrowth in tight columns, how to use the trees and foliage to ‘dig in’, how to make an invisible jungle camp and how to survive on berries and plants. Once out of the jungle, they were taken to a camp on the edge of the town, where they were taught to use hand grenades, and practised bayonet fighting and hand-to-hand combat.
Like the training sessions in Georgetown, this all seemed to Tom a bit like a boy-scout outing. He wasn’t yet quite convinced that there might one day be some practical application for all this preparation. After a couple of days, he found that he was missing Joy with an almost physical longing. He spent his nights under the canvas thinking of her, picturing the moment that he would see her again. He could not wait to get back to her.
They met on the waterfront in Georgetown, in the early evening of the day he returned home. He took her in his arms and kissed her.
‘I’ve missed you so much, Joy,’ he murmured as they began to walk along the waterfront.
‘I’ve missed you too,’ she said, tucking her arm into his.
His heart was filled with happiness. It was a beautiful evening. The buildings on the waterfront were already lit up and the reflection of the lights danced on the darkening water. He had a sudden impulse.
‘Come on, let’s go and celebrate my return at the club.’
She stopped walking.
‘Oh no, I don’t think so,’ she said. ‘I don’t think I’d be allowed in there.’
‘Nonsense. They’re not like that there.’
She took her arm out of his.
‘I think that they are. Have you ever seen a coloured person in there? Apart from the servants, of course.’
‘I suppose not. But I think it’s probably more because the membership is very expensive than for any other reason. I’m sure it will be OK. Everyone is very friendly and relaxed. Let’s give it a try.’
She dragged behind as he strode
