Helen looked up from her pastry. ‘I hope
you’re not just keeping your options open, young lady. It’s as
plain as the nose on your face how you feel about Dan. I just think
it’s only fair that you let Major Hunter know where he stands
before Dan arrives.’
‘I can’t do that, Aunt Helen, Lyle’s spending
a few days at Point Danger. He’s already down there. He went last
night.’
‘Well, I suppose that’s convenient, if
nothing else.’
Faith was about to say something but decided
against it. Instead, she left her toast and tea unfinished and got
up. ‘Got to run,’ she said quickly, ‘or I’ll miss my tram to
work.’
Faith gazed out the window of the crowded
tram as it rattled towards the centre of the city. She couldn’t
help but think about what her aunt had said about clearing the air
with Lyle before Dan arrived. She remembered one of Lyle’s friends
had told her he was going down to the coast that morning and
returning the next day. She could catch a ride with him and be back
in Brisbane before the rest of the staff went on leave. Before the
tram reached her stop, Faith made up her mind to go.
*
Dan got up early on December
22
nd
, anxious to be on his way
to Queensland. He had been pleased when the airline had offered him
a flight a day earlier than expected because of someone’s
cancellation. By eight o’clock he had packed his clothes, showered,
put on a brand new uniform, eaten a light breakfast and was sitting
waiting inside the main entrance of the hospital for transport to
the airport.
A week before, he had been given the all
clear by his doctors. Except for ongoing treatment to prevent the
recurrence of malarial attacks, he had been deemed as sound as any
man. Now he couldn’t wait to share the good news with Faith and
hopefully start planning their future together.
‘Captain Rivers.’
Dan looked up from his happy thoughts. A
hospital orderly approached him waving a brown manila envelope.
‘I’m glad I caught you before you left,
Captain,’ the orderly said.. ‘This just came in the mail for
you.’
Dan took the official looking letter. It was
postmarked Canberra and stamped OHMS in thick black ink. At last
the long awaited letter from the Australian Immigration Department
had arrived. Everything had come together at last. It would be a
Christmas to remember. He opened the envelope and took out the
letter. The wording was cruelly brief:
‘We regret to inform you that under the
provisions of the Commonwealth’s
White Australia Policy, your application for
permanent residency has been
denied.
Dan’s heart sank. He felt the blood drain
from his face.
‘Captain Rivers.’
Someone else had called out his name from
across the foyer. He looked up from his chair. This time it was the
ward sister. He rose ashen-faced from his chair.
‘I just wanted to say goodbye and wish you a
Merry Christmas.’ The sister sighed nostalgically. ‘Of course, I’m
from Cincinnati and it just doesn’t seem like Christmas without
snow on the ground and chestnuts roasting in the fire. Oh well, I
suppose it will be even hotter in Queensland than it is here in
Melbourne. When is your flight?’
When Dan didn’t answer right away the sister
suddenly realized he was as white as a ghost.
‘Are you all right, Captain? You don’t look
well.’
‘I’m okay, Sister,’ Dan said softly. ‘I think
perhaps it just hit me that I’m about to go out into the real world
again.’
The sister took Dan’s arm. ‘Sometimes,’ she
said gently, ‘after a long stint in hospital following a lengthy
period in combat, servicemen find that being discharged can be
quite daunting. All of a sudden taking charge of one’s life again
and accepting responsibilities can be very difficult. If you’re not
sure you’re ready just yet Captain Rivers, perhaps you should stay
with us a little longer. Would you like to talk to the doctor?’
‘I’ll be fine, Sister.’ Dan tried to put on a
brave face. His taxi pulled up outside as he spoke. ‘Well, I’d
better be going.. They said to be at the airport by nine at the
latest. Unlike the Army Air Corps, commercial flights tend to leave
exactly on time.’
*
Dan’s plane touched down at Brisbane’s Eagle
Farm airport in the early afternoon. The Qantas flight had seemed
to last forever. Unable to share the happy holiday mood of his
fellow passengers, he had spent the whole time bitterly pondering
his situation.
How foolish he had been to think that an
education and an American officer’s uniform could make things any
different on the other side of the world. White men were the same
everywhere. He had known the ugly face of racism all his life. It
was not restricted by geography. Suddenly Australia seemed very
alien. It was no longer the friendly country his heart had embraced
so readily—the country that he had laid his life on the line for.
More than once during the flight he had recalled the words of
Colonel Toki on Guadalcanal. ‘Ask your self the question, Captain,
are such men worthy of your loyalty?’
Dan took a taxi from the airport into town.
In Melbourne, he had planned to go straight to the Sharkeys’ house
in New Farm and wait for Faith to come home from work. But under he
circumstances he wanted to see her straight away and told the
cabbie to take him to US headquarters downtown.
Some of his cynicism left him when he
saw some of the familiar places which had etched fond memories in
his mind. The cab drove along the banks of the muddy Brisbane
River, past the docks at Hamilton where he and Dick Sharkey had
confronted each other when the
Shenandoah
had berthed, then past rows of homes
in the inner city suburbs, little houses, which like the Sharkey’s,
were set up high on stilts to catch the cooling summer
breezes.
A guard at the main entrance to headquarters
saluted smartly and directed Dan to the third floor. When he
entered the liaison office it seemed almost deserted and he stood
inside the door for a few moments without anyone noticing him. A
staff sergeant stood at the back of the general office, with his
back towards Dan, busily talking with two civilian office girls.
The conversation was obviously frivolous because it was punctuated
by loud laughter from time to time until one of the office girls
saw Dan and alerted the sergeant.
He casually walked over to Dan. ‘Can I do
something for you, sir?’
‘I’d like to see Miss Brodie, Sergeant.’
‘She’s not here, sir. Won’t be back until
tomorrow morning. She went down to the coast this morning to see
Major Hunter, our chief liaison officer.’ The sergeant raised his
eyebrows and gave Dan a knowing glance. ‘Can I help you in any
way?’
‘No, I don’t think so, Sergeant.’
Dan eyes appraised the non-commissioned
officer dubiously. He didn’t like the staff sergeant’s attitude and
thought he was altogether too familiar. He looked slovenly too. His
collar was undone under the knot of his necktie and his shirt
sleeves were unbuttoned and untidily rolled up half a turn over his
wrists. The sergeant didn’t fit at all the picture Dan had formed
in his mind of Gus Welenski, from what Faith had told him.
‘Sergeant, is you’re name Welenski?’
‘No sir, I’m Peterson. I replaced Welenski a
little while back. He was transferred to New Guinea.’ The sergeant
shrugged his shoulders. ‘Are you sure there’s nothing I can do for
you, sir?’
‘Can Miss Brodie be reached by phone?’
Dan thought he saw a barely discernible smile
on the lips of the before he answered the question.
‘Yeah, I guess so. I’ll get someone to put
you through.’ The sergeant beckoned one of the office girls over.
‘Place a call to Point Danger for the captain will you, Jane.‘ He
turned back to Dan. ‘Perhaps you’d like to take the call in Major
Hunter’s office, sir.’
‘What is this Point Danger place, Sergeant?’
Dan asked as Peterson led the way to the major’s office. ‘Is it an
Army installation or something?’
The Sergeant grinned. ‘Hardly, sir. It’s an
exclusive beach resort at Coolangatta, on the Gold Coast. Very
popular with the brass here at HQ for weekend R and R.’ The
sergeant reached the door of Hunter’s office. He turned around to
face Dan and gave him the same knowing look as before. ‘Major
Hunter and Faith Brodie go down there a lot.’
Dan’s eyes narrowed. ‘You mean they go there
together?’
‘What I mean is, Captain.’ Peterson winked
his eye. ‘They usually go down there at the same time.’
‘I have the receptionist at Point Danger on
the line Captain, the office girl called out. ‘I’ll just transfer
it to the major’s office.’
Dan stepped inside the office and closed the
door behind him. The phone on the desk rang immediately. He picked
it up.
‘Reception, may I help you?’ a cheerful voice
asked.
‘Yes, may I speak with Miss Faith Brodie,
please.’
‘Hold the line, please. I’ll have to check
where she is. We’ve had so many Christmas bookings, a lot of guests
are having to share.’
Dan waited several minutes before the
operator came back on the line.
‘Miss Brodie is sharing room eighteen. I’ll
put you through now, sir.’
‘Hello.’
The phone was answered on the first ring. The
voice was female, but American.
‘Faith Brodie, please.’
‘Faith’s not here, I’m sorry.’
‘Can you tell me when she’ll be back?’
‘I don’t think she will be.’
‘Do you mean she’s checked out? Is she on her
way back to Brisbane?’
‘No, no, she’s still here at the guest
house—try room seven.’
‘Thanks,’ Dan said, then asked cautiously.
‘By the way, do you know who’s room that is?
‘Yes, it’s Major Lyle Hunter’s.’
Stunned by the second body blow of the day,
Dan hung up the telephone and walked stiffly from the room.
‘Did you get through to Miss Brodie okay,
sir?’ Peterson called out as Dan was heading for the exit.
Dan stopped and turned around. ‘No, I didn’t
Sergeant. But it’s all right, it doesn’t matter.’
‘May I give her a message, sir?’
Dan caught a trace of mischief in the
sergeant’s eye.
‘No, you may not, Sergeant,’ Dan snapped
angrily. ‘You will not even mention anyone was looking for her. And
that’s an order.’
Dan hurried downstairs and out onto the
street. His head was swimming. In a few short hours, everything he
had been looking forward to for so long lay in ruins and the
bitterness and alienation he had felt earlier in the day returned
with such an intensity that it made his whole body shake. Suddenly
he felt very lonely and a total outsider. And for the first time
since being posted overseas he just wanted to go home.
Half an hour later, Dan was back at Eagle
Farm airfield. The girl at the Qantas desk said she was sorry but
there were no tickets available for flights to Melbourne or
anywhere else until after the Christmas holiday period. He had
better luck at the US Army Air Corps hangar at the other end of the
airfield. When Dan said he just wanted a flight out and its
destination didn’t really matter, the traffic officer had him
aboard a transport bound for Sydney within the hour.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE
There was no joy in Dick and Helen
Sharkey’s home over the holidays. Their sorrow at spending their
first Christmas without Mike was only compounded by Dan’s
inexplicable absence. Faith came home from the coast late on
December 23
rd
half expecting
Dan to be at the house when she arrived. Her disappointment only
grew the next day, when alone in the office, she waited in vain for
a telephone call from him or to see him show up unannounced at
headquarters.
Faith spent Christmas morning either
listening for Dan’s knock on the door or looking out the window
hoping to see a taxi pull up outside the house. At midday, Helen’s
Christmas dinner was ready to be served. An hour and a half later,
the family sat down without Dan to eat the two roast chickens and
all the trimmings which she had so painstakingly prepared. In the
late afternoon, Faith walked to the telephone box at the end of the
street and tried to place a call to the hospital in Melbourne but
the operator said that because of it being Christmas, it would be
impossible to get a trunk call through.
Knowing Faith was alone in the liaison office
between Christmas and New Year, Lyle Hunter phoned in the day after
Boxing Day to see how she was doing. When he asked after Captain
Rivers, Faith told him Dan had failed to show up. Lyle said he
wasn’t really surprised and told her he would return to Brisbane
that night. The next day they had lunch together at Lennons.
‘When you came down to Point Danger and told
me that you were still in love with him, I was going to say
something then.’ Lyle said gently. ‘But I didn’t because I thought
you might think I was attacking him behind his back. I told you
once before that a Navajo never commits himself to anyone outside
his own people. He may seem like anyone else, Faith, but he isn’t.
He’s an Indian. They’re different from us. They’re still primitive
people. They have no integrity or any sense of values. I knew he
would let you down in the end. That’s why I’ve always been prepared
to wait.’
Lyle was very persuasive but Faith remained
unconvinced. She phoned the Melbourne hospital again but could get
no information because the nursing sister she had met on Dan’s ward
was off for a few days. It was the day before New Year, when Faith
finally spoke to her. It was only then that Faith began to realize
that perhaps Lyle was right about Dan after all.
‘He did leave for Brisbane three days before
Christmas, Miss Brodie, the nursing sister said. ‘At least, that’s
where he said he was going. It’s funny though, when it came time to
leave the hospital he seemed a bit overcome by it all. It happens a
lot with long term patients. It’s something to do with being faced
with everyday responsibilities again. I spoke with the doctor after
Dan left and he said the problem would be more severe for someone
with Dan’s cultural background.’