Part 36 (1/2)

'No more expensive gifts,' said Bette. She looked at him, and suddenly her eyes filled with tears.

'Is everything all right?' he asked softly.

'Yes. It's just that before you came in, I'd been sitting here and thinking ... about the camp. I think that I would like to go back to Sarawak and see what has happened to the POW camp.'

'Settle a few ghosts, perhaps?' said Tony.

Bette nodded. 'Sort of. I can't explain why, I just feel drawn to it.'

'Then we must go. I will make arrangements,' he said firmly. 'We shall make it our wedding anniversary trip.'

Bette wasn't sure exactly why she wanted to return to Sarawak. Part of her wanted to revisit the place where the prison camp had been just outside Kuching. But as they flew over the dense jungle canopy and she saw the broad, brown, snaking sweep of the Sarawak River, its protective mangrove wetlands stretching inland, and the pretty towns.h.i.+p of Kuching strung out along its banks, she felt a great sense of delight.

'Thank you, darling. This is very special,' she whispered to Tony.

They settled into the comfortable Aurora Hotel and walked into the centre of Kuching along the riverfront, exploring the towns.h.i.+p on the way. Bette spotted the Sarawak museum and told Tony that she would like to spend time visiting it. Tony agreed, as he wanted to see someone recommended to him by a business a.s.sociate in Penang.

When they met later that afternoon by the river, Bette's eyes were alight. 'I met the curator at the museum, Tom Harrisson. An extraordinary fellow! And very interesting. I told him I was going to visit the old camp and we got talking about the war. He recognised my Australian accent and told me that he had been parachuted onto a hidden plateau in Borneo with seven Australian special operatives from Z force,' said Bette. 'He said that not only did they provide intelligence reports, but they managed to recruit a thousand blowpiping headhunters who killed or captured about one and a half thousand j.a.panese soldiers.'

'That does sound interesting,' said Tony. 'I've heard of this fellow. He's regarded as being a bit eccentric and very colourful.'

'He's lived here since the war and says he's made some amazing archeological discoveries in the Niah caves. He's found fossils and skulls which he says date back more than forty thousand years. I would so love to go there and see them. He says the caves are huge.'

'You would? I'll look into it if you like. What about visiting the camp? Is tomorrow morning all right with you?'

Bette nodded, her bubbling enthusiasm about the museum curator subsiding at the thought of revisiting the internment camp.

It wasn't as she remembered, for which she was glad. It was now a peaceful place. Green fields surrounded the original barracks, which were now part of a teacher training college. Gra.s.s had replaced dust. There were neat signs, a monument, a flagpole, and some of the occupied buildings were cleaned up and open to the public. There was no sign of the barbed-wire fences or the watchtowers. But the faces of the women and children Bette had seen every day, came clearly to her mind.

She walked alone towards the buildings she remembered as being her world, her home and her prison for nearly four years. When she walked back to Tony, who stood smoking a cigarette in the shade of a tree, she was smiling.

'Are you all right?' He embraced her and she clung to him, resting her head on his shoulder.

'Yes. At last I really am all right.' She looked up into his face. 'You are my life now, Tony. Everything that happened before I married you, means very little to me any more.'

He kissed her softly. 'Then we shall make every day ours.'

Back in Kuching, Tony took Bette's idle remark about visiting the Niah caves quite seriously. But when he talked to the museum curator, Tom Harrisson told him that the caves were quite isolated and difficult to reach, and the area was off limits because it was a dig site. Nevertheless, Tom invited them both to come to his house in Pig Lane for a drink and to discuss the possibility of visiting other parts of Sarawak.

Bette was fascinated by the cluttered, ramshackle home that Tom shared with his anthropologist wife Barbara, who was currently making a doc.u.mentary about their work at Niah. The house was like a museum. Walls and surfaces were smothered in the artifacts that Tom had collected over the years he'd been in South East Asia. native woven baskets and hats, ornamental knives, krises, blowpipes and mats were hung everywhere, while the walls were decorated with magnificent, boldly coloured murals. Tom explained that the paintings and carvings in the house had been done by various orang ulu upriver natives. Bette was intrigued by his collection of pottery pieces and shards of Chinese and Siamese porcelain, which were very much older than the perfect porcelain on display in Rose Mansion.

'This is amazing,' said Bette. 'These artifacts are such a contrast to the things that we have in Penang. Just look at those paintings. Fantastic.'

Seeing her enthusiasm and interest, Tom suggested that since they couldn't go to the caves, they might like to visit a longhouse, where he had Iban friends.

'Leonard is one of the a.s.sistants working at the museum and he's Iban. I'm sure he'd help you, if you'd like to go,' said Tom.

Tom also introduced Bette and Tony to his 'children', and Bette was fascinated. Kept in cages out the back of the house and roaming around inside, demanding constant attention, were several baby orangutans. Tom explained that they had been rescued from illegal traders trying to smuggle them out of the country. Barbara was rearing them and trying to prepare them to be released back into the wild.

'Can they look after themselves if they've been hand reared?' asked Bette, as a small orange-furred creature took hold of her hand and swung into her arms, its saucer-shaped eyes studying her face closely, before it rested its head on her shoulder.

'We've created a small, sheltered camp where the orangutans live in cages for a month. After that we leave the cage doors open so that they can come and go as they like. Hopefully, when they get used to their surroundings, they will mate and live with the wild orangutans,' said Tom.

'They are amazing. Aren't they lovable creatures, Tony?' said Bette.

'Yes, at this age, but an adult male might be a different matter,' said Tony.

Tom was a boisterous, boastful, heavy-drinking, entertaining, knowledgeable raconteur. Bette was not surprised when he was able to arrange for them to go upriver with Leonard to visit the orangutan camp.

Tony was not comfortable roughing it and he was amused at how well Bette took to travelling in the canoe with its clunky outboard motor driven by Leonard at a high incautious speed. They drew up at a small landing on the edge of the jungle. From here they walked through the swampy river fringe into the jungle to Camp Salang. The small clearing contained tents, a hut, cages and a feeding platform for the orangutans. Two Iban women brought fruit each day for the apes. A young German woman was on field duty, making notes, taking photographs and keeping a record of the comings and goings of the primates.

'This is pioneering work,' Leonard told Tony and Bette. 'But it is also sad for me, because I believe that one day these orangutans will have nowhere to live.'

'But look how much jungle there is!' exclaimed Bette.

'It's being eaten up every day,' said Leonard. 'The timber industry and land clearing are destroying it.'

Bette looked at him. 'Surely the government will protect the forests?'

'The government and businesspeople see more dollars in wood than in orangutans,' said Leonard.

'It's true,' said Tony. 'There is very big money to be made from tropical rainforest woods like ramin, and I don't believe there are enough restrictions and regulations in place, yet. You know the meeting I had in Kuching the other day? It was with a man who wanted me to go into the timber industry with him.'

'But you're not, are you?' said Bette.

'No. I told him that I preferred to pursue other opportunities,' said Tony.

'I'm glad. I'd hate to think we were party to hurting these wonderful animals,' said Bette.

Once Bette and Tony became familiar with the area, they were left to their own devices. They liked to walk quietly through the jungle staring into the trees, waiting to spot the orangutans, eating, playing and courting. Bette spent hours quietly waiting and watching, occasionally making quick sketches in her notebook.

Tony watched her and smiled. 'I'm so pleased that we made this trip and you have laid to rest the ghosts of the war. All I want is your happiness. Will you be okay on your own for a while? I want to go to the village and talk to the headman.'

'Of course. I'm sorry if you're bored. I could stay here for hours. We'll have to come back for a longer visit. Leonard says we can go to his village upriver and stay in their longhouse.'

'Would you like that?' asked Tony. 'I could never have imagined that you would be so swept up by this very different culture. I know that you enjoy studying Chinese and Peranakan history and culture because that's my family background, but your thirst for knowledge seems prodigious. You want to explore all around you and I love you for that.'

'Thank you, darling. I'll meet you back at the boat in, say, an hour or so?' She glanced at her watch. I'll meet you back at the boat in, say, an hour or so?' She glanced at her watch.

'Fine. Leonard will take me to the headman and come back for you.'

But later, as Tony talked with the village chief at the river landing, Bette came hurrying towards them looking distraught. She pulled Tony aside and quietly told him what she'd seen. As soon as Tony had finished speaking with the headman, he found Leonard and said, 'My wife says there are two men with guns trying to shoot the apes.'

'Poachers. The orangutan camp is a target for them because the apes are tame. Quickly, can you show us where you saw them?' asked Leonard. Bette pointed to the direction where she had seen the men, and Leonard set off at a fast jog, with Tony and Bette following him.

The subsequent events were defining moments for Bette. Her heart ached, and she tightly held Tony's hand as the boat sped back down the river towards Kuching. The death of the mother orangutan and the disappearance of its infant had shocked and saddened her, and she vowed that somehow, one day, she would try to teach people the value and uniqueness of these gentle creatures.

When Bette and Tony told Tom about the poachers, he was furious.