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| Available on Amazon 6/6/16 |
As promised in my blog last week about my childhood in Indonesia, I am posting part of the opening chapter to whet your appetites. Make yourself a cup of tea and enjoy...
The Puppet Master
By Emma Clark Lam
Chapter 1
Indonesia 1977
I stared
into the face of an air hostess and decided that Death wore a batik uniform and crimson
lipstick. Over our heads, the rain hammered upon the cabin like gunfire, while
the wind sucked at the egg-shaped windows. Jakarta lay waiting at our feet, a
smudge of rickety, red roofs and yellow-green grass. As the aeroplane listed
from side to side, I gripped the hands of my two little girls and opened silent
negotiations with God. We were three hundred passengers holding our breath,
waiting for an engine to blow. My eyes sought out the air hostess once more, scanning
her features for any trace of panic. Her mouth remained composed, still fixed in
a faint smile, her lips ghoulish in the dimmed light. Then, without warning, the
wheels of the plane struck the tarmac with a deafening roar. A hoarse cheer broke out,
followed by the snapping of seatbelts as we ground to a juddering halt. It was all
over – we had arrived safely. My hysteria shrank back down like a defeated
genie into its lamp.
The sky, emptied of rain, was turning charcoal grey by the time we staggered
across the runway to arrivals, crumpled and exhausted. We had endured forty-eight
hours of travel, with eight pieces of luggage, a pushchair and a wooden crate.
I thought I would be used to it by now, but the trip still knocked me for six. There
were pustules of vomit on my jeans from where my eldest had deposited her
evening meal and my swollen feet filled up every crevice in my shoes. It was a
journey to shake body and soul.
Within minutes of arriving, the sun deserted us, tunnelling down to
another part of the world. I inhaled the soupy air and straightened my spine.
It was a reflex – partly a reaction to the cramped cabin, but also a stiffening
of resolve. We have returned! That
said with defiance and weariness. After a summer away in Sussex, expatriate
life was about to resume. While we swung croquet mallets in an English garden
and caught up with the relatives, it was like someone had lifted the needle off
the record player. Now that our annual leave was over, the music would begin
again with a little crackle.
When we reached the baggage hall, Simon disappeared into the rabble by
the carousel to collect the suitcases, while I ushered our girls over to a bank
of seats. Two flights had arrived at once and there was general confusion as to
whose baggage would materialise first. Outside the window, our jumbo jet melted
away into a twinkle of lights, which swam in fluorescent waves as my eyes struggled
to focus. A muscle in my left lid went into spasm. The urge to close my eyes was
overpowering. Everyone had managed to sleep on the plane apart from me – the
girls sprawled on the floor at our feet, Simon swathed in blankets. Ever
watchful, I sat condemned to a numb kind of wakefulness, queasily aware of the
body odour drifting over from across the aisle. Now sleep was calling me. The
babble of the baggage hall was oddly soothing and I felt myself falling gently
off a cliff… until a small jab on my forearm brought me back round.
“Mummy! Katie won’t let me have any of her water,” complained a voice by
my side.
Slowly, automatically, I reached into my hand luggage for a flask to give
to Hannah, my youngest. She took one swig and then flew back to her sister,
invigorated. Both of them had been fractious and tearful when we left the
plane, but now the excitement of arriving had given them a jolt of energy.
“Katie! Hannah! Please! Calm down,” I called after them. My glance
flickered between Simon’s head, now floating above the crowd at the conveyor belt,
and the girls in mid-flight. “Shush now, Daddy will be cross.”
After a while – I lost track of time – Simon and a porter returned with our
luggage piled high on a trolley.
“For God’s sake, try to make the girls behave,” Simon snapped, before
heading off to sort out the paperwork for the new dog.
During our summer in England, my husband had finally relented and
allowed the girls to adopt a russet cocker spaniel called Dixie. For too many
hours the poor animal had been holed up in a crate, two rows behind us on the
plane, whining for her freedom. When we stopped in Bahrain to re-fuel, I watched
out of the window as Simon gingerly led her around the plane. She eventually peed
beside the wheel of a nearby truck as impassive soldiers looked on, cradling
their machine guns. After Simon returned to his seat, he looked at me as if to
say, This was all your bright idea.
More minutes ticked by in the baggage hall. I felt a dull ache rolling
through my body – I was thirsting for a cigarette! With some sort of sensory
memory, my fingers began twitching in my lap. The girls clambered across the
floor, pretending to be donkeys. Where in the world had Simon got to?
“Girls, please! Get up off the floor, it’s dirty.”
I gazed out across the marbled tiles and spotted my husband in the
distance, arguing with an official in a blue uniform. Simon’s head was jutting
forward, shooting words into the space between them. Something was wrong. Hauling
myself to my feet, I walked towards them in my sick-spattered trousers, trailing
small girls, a porter and a squeaking trolley in my wake.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s the bloody dog,” said my husband tersely. “There’s an issue with
the paperwork.”
That was Simon to a tee – controlling, aggressive, persuasive. He turned
his back on me to continue his wrangling.
“Selamat datang,” the customs man
said, ignoring Simon and beaming across at me. “Welcome to Indonesia, Nyonya!”
Despite my malaise, despite the ache in my head, despite bloody everything,
I smiled back. It seemed the thing to do. For the dog’s sake.
“How can we resolve this?” Simon cut in, his voice officious.
“I am sorry sir,” said the man with another
oily smile, “but you are not permitted to bring this dog into Indonesia. It is
against our regulations. Your paperwork is not in order.”
He jabbed his finger accusingly at the documents
on the table in front of us.
The pulse in Simon’s jaw started to throb. His
fury was like ice in my veins. I almost pitied the customs official – he had no
idea who he was dealing with, poor soul. Dixie whined pathetically in the
background, scrabbling at the door of her wooden crate. I held out my hand to
her through the mesh window. There,
there, little one. One of the girls started to cry again – Hannah – she had
a knack for tuning into emotional static. Katie leaned despondently on the
crate with her arms hanging by her side.
“Give me your gun then,” Simon said.
“Sorry sir?”
“You heard me. Give me your gun.” Simon
gestured towards the man’s holster. “If I can’t bring this dog into your
country, I will have to shoot her with your gun.”
The breath was sucked out of me, my fingers snagged
on the mesh. Katie gave a yelp of dismay. “No Daddy, please!”
The man gaped at Simon, his mouth hanging
open, revealing an array of yellowing teeth.
“One moment please,” he said and
disappeared into an office by the side of us. Inside my head I began to scream. No one
deserved to die. Not yet, anyway...
The Puppet Master by Emma Clark Lam is now available on Amazon as a Kindle book. You can download the ebook onto a Kindle, iPad, iPhone, computer, tablet or Android phone. For any non-Kindle device, you would need to download a free Kindle app first and sign in with your Amazon account.
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