by Gloria Bevan
On the Saturday morning Robyn awoke with a niggling sense that the date was somehow meaningful. Then it came back to her. This was the night on which Noeline's parents were giving a party for their daughter at their hotel in Suva. "Don't be late," Johnny had said, and she had promised to be there without fail, and ask David to accompany her. Well, she had done what Johnny had asked her and David had accepted the invitation. That was almost two weeks ago and no doubt the matter had long since faded from his mind. An unimportant "forgettable" date with a girl in whom he wasn't particularly interested . . . now.
A dark cloud of misery engulfed her spirit so that even the golden sunshine outside meant nothing. She would be thankful when it came time for her to relieve Selani at the gift shop this afternoon. The crowd of customers might prevent her from eternally thinking of David. Seeing she had promised Johnny she would attend the function tonight she would go to Suva, although she failed to understand why her attendance
at the party should be of the slightest importance to either her brother or Noeline, unless — why not face it — tonight's function was planned for the purpose of announcing an approaching marriage? If that were so then Johnny would have no further need to concern himself with making a living from his island property. Married to a wealthy girl he would no doubt spend his time cruising the south seas in a luxury yacht. Why did she feel this cold touch of apprehension? Was it because she had a suspicion that there was no depth of feeling between the other two? How different had it been Pam and Johnny who were joining their lives. There would be something real there, something worthwhile, but Noeline ... The other girl's secretive smile returned to mind. Johnny would be making the mistake of his life. A high price to pay for the salving of hurt pride and a chance to even a score against David Kinnear.
Robyn sighed. One thing was certain. She would have to take herself to the function, for she hadn't seen David since the night of the ceremony of the firewalkers. The hours dragged slowly by until at last it was necessary for her to relieve Selani in the gift shop.
When she arrived there, however, she was surprised to find that guests were clustered around the closed door. Evidently Selani had left the store earlier than usual. With a quick glance around Robyn went inside. At the same moment Maria came hurrying towards her, an unaccustomed flush staining her cheekbones. "Oh, Robyn, I was just coming to get you. Selani's gone."
Robyn stared at her in bewilderment. "Gone where?" Maria shrugged. "Why ask me? Home, I suppose." "But didn't she leave any message?"
"No." Customers were lining the counter and Robyn said no more, but something evasive in the other girl's glance pricked at her mind. Maria knew more of Selani's strange conduct than she had let on, Robyn was sure of it. At last when guests had made their purchases and drifted away, some to the units, others to stroll along the beach, Robyn approached Maria.
The manageress was seated at a desk in the reception room. "Maria, are you quite sure Selani didn't leave a note for me?"
The other girl's gaze was hostile. "Don't you believe me?"
"Oh yes, of course I do. I just thought you mightn't have seen it." As always, Robyn felt herself flurried under the battery of that cool compelling stare. "It's not like her to run off like that. Anything could have happened. Could be she's been taken ill —"
"You can save your sympathy. She's not ill."
A thought flashed into Robyn's mind. She stared down at Maria accusingly. "You didn't tell her to go?"
Black linen-clad shoulders lifted in a disdainful shrug. "It was entirely her own fault. She was insolent. I told her that maybe she could come back here when she's learned how to behave. Maybe."
"Selani insolent? She couldn't be ! You must have misunderstood her. Her English isn't the best and sometimes she doesn't understand what you're saying, she makes mistakes —"
"She understood all right. It's time she got it into her head that if she works for me she'll do as she's told and be quick about it! All that 'tomorrow will do' stuff of the islands is all very well, but when it comes to the staff, I 'won't have it, not for a minute !"
Something that had lain dormant in Robyn suddenly crystallised into firm resolve. She disliked the other girl and sometimes she was horribly jealous of her, but this was too much.
"I won't have it !"
Maria's mouth falling open in astonishment would have been amusing if Robyn had been in the mood to be amused. "I'm going to see her and bring her back right now," Robyn announced firmly. "There's a special way of treating staff in hotels in the islands and it isn't your way. Why don't you ask Mrs. Daley to show you how it's done? She never had any trouble with the native girls."
Before Maria could come back with a sarcastic rejoiner she turned away.
"But the craft shop, there'll be no one at the counter if you go !"
"That's your problem, you're in charge !" Robyn said, and marched through the open porch and out into the sunshine outside.
As she hurried along the path she thought hotly of the injustice of Maria's treatment of Selani. Funny how she had endured so much in silence — Maria's maddening efficiency, the manner in which she contrived to make Robyn feel young and stupid and incompetent, especially when David were around; her habit of directing David's attention firmly in her own direction. Look at that night of the fire in the bures and the fainting attack by the pit of hot stones. On all of that Robyn had kept silent, but when it came to the Fijian girl, so pathetically anxious to please, so ill-matched for Maria's sophisticated dominance, Robyn had found herself hitting back without a second thought.
What matter that she had set herself a two-mile walk to the village during the hottest part of the day? Most of the route lay in the cool shade of thickly growing palm trees and clusters of tall bamboo and forest trees. Anyway, she thought angrily, she would gladly walk a distance twice as far to bring Selani back.
When she emerged from the shelter of the jungle growth, the sun beat down in a brilliant blue sky, striking her with fierce heat, but a short distance ahead of her were spreading trees and the scattered thatched huts of the native village.
She threaded her way between the lines of women, their beautiful tapa-cloth wares they had made from the crushed bark of the mulberry trees laid out on the grass. Soon she was standing at the entrance to one of the thatched bures and dazzled by the glare; it was a moment before she could focus her gaze on the Fijian girl who was bending over a stove at the end, of the hut. The two small boys turned a shy gaze in her direction.
"Miss Carlisle!" A wide friendly grin lightened the island girl's face. "I thought I never see you no more." Salani rose from kneeling on the clean swept earth floor. "You like something to drink? A pineapple?"
"No, no, thank you, Selani. I just came to bring you back."
Tears welled up in the great dark eyes. "Can't come back, Miss Carlisle. That other one, she tell me —"
"It doesn't matter what Maria says. You're coming right back to the house with me ! How can I manage without you to help me in the shop? You wouldn't want me to have to work there all day long and never have a single moment for my painting, would you?"
"But she say I can't come back. What if Miss Maria says `No'?"
"Then I'll tell her that she's the one who will have to leave the Islander!" Could this be herself, so definite and determined, careless of consequences? I expect it's because I've finished with David and Maria. At last I'm myself. I don't have to worry about either of them ever again.
The wistful expression of the big-framed Fijian girl changed to a happy smile. "That all right then, if you say so, Miss Carlisle. But I have to wait until my sister comes back to tell her where I'm going."
"Of course." I can wait forever. David won't be coming to the Islander now to take me to Suva. Probably he never really meant it when he said he would.
The younger child was whimpering softly, clinging to Selani's lonk skirts as she turned back to the stove. Afraid the child might venture too near the flames, Robyn picked him up
in her arms. Tears still sparkled on the child's smooth brown cheeks and tenderly she wiped them away. "How about a smile? No? A kiss, then?" She pressed her cheek close to the child's face, conscious of a sense of comfort in the touch of the small soft body.
"May I come in?" David stood framed in the opening of the hut. It must be the shadows of the thatch that lent his face that odd expression as his eyes rested on her ... almost ... tenderness.
"It's Mr. Kinnear!" Selani, smiling broadly, was running eagerly forward.
"Hello, Selani. I heard you were over here, and Robyn too." In the dim interior he glanced from one to the other. "It's far too hot for walking, so I brought the car to take you both back. But I can see," he added pleasantly as the older boy set up a soft crying, "that you're a bit tied up at the moment."
Selani was glancing past him towards the opening and a moment later they were joined by a plump smiling Fijian woman. Smiling broadly, she said something in her own language.
"She tell you she pleased to see you," Selani translated. "She says you must have something to eat, drink —"
"Tell her thanks very much," David said smilingly, "but I've got to get these two back to the house. It's bad for business. Someone's got to be on duty at the craft shop, so shall we —"
The mother extended wide arms and Robyn transferred the small boy to the welcoming grasp. Then the three, waving farewells, moved out into the still tropical heat. David saw Robyn and the native girl seated in the car, then he thumbed the starter and soon they were turning into the rough road shaded by tall trees and thickly-growing bamboo.
Robyn swallowed. "Did you see Maria?"
He nodded, swerving to avoid an Indian youth riding a bicycle over the rough metal. "She told me there'd been a spot of bother and you'd taken off to fetch Selani back."
Maria would of course put it like that, giving him the impression of Robyn, foolish and unthinking as ever, rushing wildly away in the heat of midday instead of waiting to get someone to drive her to the village.
"She has no idea of how to treat the native girls, especially Selani," Robyn said hotly.
"Don't be too hard on her, Rob. She's new to the game here and she'll learn
Without warning the bitter anguish swept over her once again. Oh, she might have known he would take Maria's part! She steadied her trembling lips. "She hurt Selani's feelings terribly ! "
"It won't happen again." He flung a glance towards the island girl in the back seat. "You don't mind giving it another go, do you, Selani? You see Maria, she doesn't understand, but she's promised me that things will be different from now on. There won't be any more trouble of this sort."
Oh, she would promise anything for you! For one horrifying moment Robyn imagined she had spoken the words aloud.
When they reached the motel Maria smiled towards Robyn and spoke quietly and matter-of-factly to Selani, but Robyn had caught the secret glance that passed between Maria and David. It had all been arranged between them, just as they worked in together with everything. Apparently the island girl with her childlike capacity for happiness was prepared to forget the unpleasantness of the morning. It was only with Robyn that the incident still rankled. "I'd better get back to the shop," she said abruptly.
She had reached the door of the craft shop when David caught up with her. "On your way, Robyn ! Selani's taking over this afternoon. I've just had a word with her and she's quite agreeable. Later on," he was regarding her with the smile that did things to her, made her immediately forget all her resolutions to put him out of her life, "we're taking off for Suva, remember?"
Her heart began its crazy thud-thud. So he had remembered ! She turned a radiant face towards him. "You mean that party for Noeline and Johnny?"
"I mean," his tone was enigmatic, "the party for Noeline. You still want to go, do you?"
"Oh yes, yes, I do! It was just that I thought you had forgotten —" There, she had done it again, said the stupid words that were such a complete give-away as to her feelings. What was the use of ever trying to be offhand and careless? When she was with him things just didn't work out that way.
"I don't forget things like that, Rob." His tone lightened as he sent her his familiar bantering grin. "So why don't we take off right after dinner?"
"That would be nice." Nice! It would be heaven!
"It's a date, then."
Robyn still couldn't believe what was happening. David escorting her to a function, an invitation that had come from Noeline and Johnny. She couldn't fathom his object in going to this party and, Robyn-like, the words came thoughtlessly to her lips. "You know something, David?" She raised clear enquiring eyes. "I would have thought that this outing would have been just about the last place in the world you would want to take me to, or even to go yourself. I mean," suddenly she was confused, fumbling for words, "with Johnny there —"
For a moment he was silent, the dark eyes regarding her with a cryptic expression. "That's just why I'm taking you."
"But I don't get it —"
"You don't need to. Just come along with me, Rob, and we'll work it all out later."
She decided to take his advice. She was going with him to Suva. Just the two of them — no Maria. Tonight she would put everything from her mind except the joy of the moment. To him the ensuing evening would be merely an outing, but to her ... A chance flung by fate to snatch a fleeting happiness, something to remember later when he had gone out of her life forever.
Today her art work would be put aside in favour of more important matters. She washed her hair, thankful that the warm air would dry the long strands long before it was time for her to leave the motel. Later, meeting her reflection in the mirror, she was aware of a thrill of pleasure. Her hair, clean and shining with a patina of gold where the sun had touched it, fell around her shoulders. The cool white peasant blouse contrasted with the translucent tan of throat and arms. On an impulse she looped around her neck the long necklace of tiny shells that David had given her on their first visit to the native village. How long ago it all seemed now.
A knock and she opened the door to him. A dark man in a white turtleneck sweater, dark reefer jacket, grey slacks — and a look in his eyes that left no doubt whatever as to his approval of her appearance.
"Ready, Rob ?"
"Ready and waiting !" Funny how the moment she caught sight of him nothing registered but the subtle sense of excitement, the brittle transitory happiness. Together they moved along the passage and out into the warm star-pricked darkness of a Pacific night.
In the car a cool breeze from the ocean tossed Robyn's hair across her face. She pushed back the long strands and stole a glance towards David, his profile outlined in the dim glow of the dashboard. He intercepted her look.
"Happy?"
Happy! I'm always happy when I'm with you. "A bit." As always when she was with him, excitement stirred in her. They swept around the wide drive and turned into Queens Road, the main highway that followed the Coral Coast to Suva. Robyn put a hand to a switch, then immediately regretted the action as around them fell the haunting strains of "Isa Lei", the traditional Fijian song of farewell.
"Isa Lei, the purple shadows fall
Sad tomorrow will dawn upon my sorrow, Don't forget me
When you are far away,
Precious moments beside dear Suva Bay."
The refrain pierced her with a poignancy that brought a mist to her eyes.
As the native guitars faded into silence David flung her a teasing grin. "You like that song, don't you?"
"I guess," she said over the pain in her heart, "it's because it's more than just a song." The haunting melody threaded its way through the warm air, drifted on the breeze from ships and outriggers, echoed along the coast. "To me it's the essence of Fiji. It always will be."
"I know what you mean." He guided the vehicle around a sharp bend. "That song weaves its way through everything here, it's part of a way of life. Is it like you expected it to be, living out here in the islands, Rob?
"
"Far more beautiful than I ever dreamed ... so colourful and unspoiled, only . . ." She broke off.
"Only?"
She found herself regretting having qualified the statement. For how could she admit to him her disillusionment? All those bright hopes of herself and Johnny working together, making a success of their venture, where were they now? But she mustn't mention Johnny, not if she wanted to keep the thoughtful soft note in his tones. "It's just —"
"Things haven't worked out quite as you thought?" "Not really."
"But you're still pinning your hopes on Brother John?" There, he had brought the subject up himself! "Don't call him that ! " she cried sharply.
"Okay, okay."
"I don't want to talk about him." Immediately she was conscious of sounding childish and pettish and belying her own statement said, "If Johnny and Noeline get engaged tonight, and I've got an awful suspicion that's the reason they want us to be there —"
"Let's worry over that when it happens, shall we?"
Pop music flooded around them as they left the coast and entered the wild darkness of the rain forests. Then they were descending a steep slope and soon Robyn caught the dull boom of breakers out at the reef. But the moment of intimacy had fled and she knew that once again mention of Johnny's name had spoiled everything.
Nervously, quickly, she began to talk of trivialities — the earnings of the gift shop during the period it had been in operation, the influx of guests at the Islander from all parts of the world.
When they came in sight of Suva, lights pricked the jagged hills and coloured steamers snaked their way down in the water and twinkled from the rigging of yachts and catamarans. The hotel was only a short distance along the main street and David found a parking spot amidst a cluster of cars outside the entrance of the high building that was ablaze with lights.