Empire's Children

by Patricia Weerakoon

  The moment froze. Shiro’s breath caught in her throat. Anthony was Daniel’s father. Anthony had raped Lakshmi, and not knowing that she was pregnant – or knowing and not caring – continued on to romance her by the stream. Now he had come back from England to marry Lakshmi and adopt his son. She held her breath.

  She was only partly aware of Jega’s hands on her shoulders. His voice, as always, was caring, concerned, ‘Shiromi, are you all right?’

  Daniel, sensing the tension, scuttled away to his mother. Lakshmi picked him up and stood up.

  Anthony’s voice. ‘Shiro?’

  No. She was no longer a little girl. She was not the Tea-maker’s naïve daughter. She was a professional with a future. Yet the betrayal tore at her soul, ripped out that part of her that had hoped, dreamed, that maybe Anthony would come to her.

  She leapt to her feet and bridged the gap between them. She raised her hand and brought her open palm down across Anthony’s cheek. ‘You bastard!’

  Anthony caught her wrists. ‘Shiro please, let me explain.’

  ‘Explain? You raped Lakshmi. You got her pregnant and then said you loved me. How could you? How could you, Anthony?’ She ripped her hands away from him and pummelled Anthony on his chest with her closed fists.

  She could hear Lakshmi’s voice in the background. ‘Shiro Chinnamma, aiyoo – it is not like that.’

  Anthony wrapped his arms around her. He held her tight against him. ‘Please, Shiro, darling, I can explain.’

  Little Daniel started wailing. Lakshmi picked him up and ran into the house.

  Sobs rent Shiro’s body. ‘How could you? I loved you! You said –’

  Jega’s hands drew her away from Anthony. ‘Anthony,’ Jega’s voice held a controlled fury. ‘Haven’t you and the rest of your Ashley-Cooper empire done enough to hurt Shiromi? She’s doing fine without you. Let her live her life.’

  Anthony dropped his arms. Shiro felt bereft, cold. She shivered.

  Anthony stared at Jega. ‘Who are you?’

  ‘I’m Jega Jayaseelen’

  Anthony’s pupils dilated. ‘Dr Jega Jayaseelen? You are –’

  Shiro tried to move towards Anthony. Jega tightened his hands on her shoulders. ‘Yes, Anthony. I am your father’s son by his sex slave. I guess you’ve heard about me.’ He glanced at the house. ‘At least you are willing to accept legitimate fatherhood of your son!’

  Shiro trembled. ‘Jega.’

  His hands tightened on her shoulders. He turned her away from Anthony into his arms. ‘Shiro, I’m taking you back to the hospital quarters. You’re trembling – going into shock. I think you’ve had enough for today.’

  Shiro shut her eyes. Then nodded. She had been strong all day. She was now close to breaking point. Jega understood.

  Jega looked at Anthony. ‘We need to leave. I’ll come back tomorrow morning.’

  ‘No.’ Anthony stepped towards them. ‘I need to talk to her. I need to explain.’

  Keeping an arm around her, Jega held out his other to stop Anthony. ‘Not now, Anthony. Dammit, can’t you see what this has done to her?’

  He guided Shiro to the car. She went with him.

  Lakshmi came running down the drive. ‘Shiro Chinnamma. Wait, don’t go.’

  Jega shut the door of the car.

  Shiro didn’t look back.

  ***

  Anthony stood on the veranda staring down the drive where Jega and Shiro had driven away the day before.

  He had seen Shiro. She had grown up. Her dress, her demeanour, all spoke of the woman she was, not the girl he had held in his arms two years ago.

  And just by being here, he had hurt her – again.

  Jega had said he would be back. He would explain it all to him, ask him to talk to Shiro.

  Lakshmi came out of the house. She placed Daniel in his arms. ‘Dr Jega Jayaseelen, he is your brother?’

  Anthony nodded, ‘Our brother, Lakshmi.’

  ‘He will be back today. I am sure he will help you.’

  Anthony stayed silent. What was there to say? His brother – Professor Jega Jayaseelen. He would be good for Shiro. He loved her – it was obvious. Maybe she would marry him. Anthony winced. It was good that he would be in Australia.

  ‘Anthony,’ Lakshmi continued. ‘I’d like to see Shiro Chinnamma again.’

  He put his hand on Lakshmi’s shoulder. ‘Yes, I think she would like that. Once we explain everything to Jega.’

  They turned at the sound of footsteps. Jega stood before them, Hands on hips, lips turned in a sneer.

  ‘You make a pretty picture with your Indian woman and son, Anthony. Following in your father’s footsteps and keeping her? Planning to get a British lass over soon? Maybe you’ve selected a little cottage for your mistress already?’

  Anthony gasped. ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘Don’t play the innocent with me, Anthony! How could you do it? Have a child with a woman, a coolie woman, and then romance Shiromi? Seeing you has hurt her again.’

  ‘Dear God, Jega. You’ve got it all wrong –’

  Lakshmi took Daniel from Anthony. She put him down and pointed into the house. ‘Go to Aunty Grace, Daniel.’

  She turned to face Jega. ‘Aiya, you don’t understand. I am not Anthony’s lover or keep and definitely not his wife.’

  Jega swung round to her. ‘Then who the hell are you to him?’

  ‘Dr Jega, Anthony’s brother raped me when I was in the estate, and –’

  ‘William? The child is William’s?’

  Anthony stepped between Jega and Lakshmi. ‘You know my brother, William?’

  Lakshmi put a hand on Anthony’s arm. ‘Wait.’ She turned back to Jega. ‘Anthony adopted the baby. He said that Daniel deserved to grow up with the name Ashley-Cooper.’

  Grey eyes and blue met and held. ‘You are a better man than your father.’

  Anthony smiled. ‘You have father’s eyes, just like –’ He glanced at the woman standing by him.

  Jega followed Anthony’s gaze. ‘You – you are another – God almighty! How many women did James Ashley-Cooper bed?’

  Lakshmi took Jega’s hand. ‘I am Lakshmi. And I guess this means that I am your sister.’

  A cough at the door leading into the house, made them all turn. Anthony turned. ‘Bob, this is Dr Jega Jayaseelen.’ He put his hand on Bob’s shoulder. ‘This is my best friend and mentor, the Reverend Robert Kirkland.’

  Jega held out his hand. ‘Glad to meet you, Robert. Although I must say I have heard about you from Shiro as Bobsy.’

  Bob nodded and smiled. ‘I’m so glad to hear that Shiro is doing so well at medical school. Her father Rajan was so proud when she got accepted. Yesterday was a real shock to her. Is she all right?’

  Jega nodded. ‘I made her have an early night. She’s back in the wards today.’

  The harsh ring of the telephone interrupted their conversation.

  Grace came out onto the veranda. ‘Anthony, Janet called. She couldn’t talk for long – but left a message. William has had a heart attack or stroke. She wasn’t clear about which. He’s in hospital. She sounded distressed.’

  Anthony gasped. ‘Poor Janet. Did she leave a number to call back?’

  Grace shook her head. ‘I don’t think I heard her right. She said something about Shiromi going there yesterday. Apparently William went into a rage afterwards. Accused Appu and even Janet of betraying him.’

  ‘We were there yesterday morning. Before we came here.’

  Anthony, Lakshmi and Bob turned to Jega.

  Jega shrugged. ‘Shiromi insisted on doing it. She had it all planned out.’ He plunged his hand into his trouser pocket and produced a small tape recorder. ‘I have a confession from the Tea-maker, Mr Wright, saying that he and William framed Shiromi’s father. And Willi
am saying that he fixed the brakes on the car.’

  Anthony frowned. ‘But William wouldn’t care that you know. Why was he so furious?’

  ‘I told him I would send a copy to your father. I couriered it. It will be in Father’s hands today.’

  Jega turned to Grace. ‘Is William in Kandy Hospital? You better get a start if you want to get there before nightfall.’

  ‘No,’ Grace shook her head. ‘He was in too much pain. They rushed him to Nuwara-Eliya Base Hospital.’

  Jega swung round. ‘Damn! Shiromi’s covering for the medical registrar there today. I need to get to her.’ He raced away from them and leapt in his car. They heard the skid of tires as he screeched down the drive.

  Chapter 39

  September 1969 Nuwara-Eliya

  Shiro put an old kettle on the stove in the hospital staff room. She spooned four teaspoons of tea into the teapot. Picking up the kettle on the first boil she filled the teapot, waited the mandatory five minutes, and poured the brew into three cups.

  She turned to her two fellow medical students, Nandan and Krishna. ‘Guys, get off your bottoms and drink your tea. We promised to cover the afternoon wards for the registrar, remember?’ She added milk and sugar to the cups of tea and handed it to the boys.

  ‘The one good thing about this clinical placement,’ Nandan mused, ‘is the fact that we get to drink the best tea in the country.’

  Shiro sipped and sniffed the cup. ‘True. I think this is BOP fanning.’

  ‘Top of the class, sexy and a tea taster. No wonder old brachial plexus is mad about you.’

  ‘He is a friend.’ Shiro swiped Krishna with her stethoscope. ‘Come on, boys. Let’s get to the wards.’

  Nandan stretched and yawned. ‘Why bother? Nothing exciting happens in surgery. I’ve sutured a couple of coolies and cleaned a million abscesses. Can’t wait to get back to Colombo General.’

  Shiro slipped on her white ward coat. ‘I like it here in the medical ward. The nurses treat me almost like I’m a doctor already.’

  The door to the staff tea room swung open. ‘Doctor, come quickl!’ The nurse gestured to Shiro. Shiro rolled her eyes to the boys and followed the nurse. ‘What is it, nurse?

  The nurse ran down the corridor, forcing Shiro to follow.

  A man was slumped over in the wheelchair, his right hand gripping the shirt over his heart. He groaned and retched into the pan the attendant held. The profuse sweating, the pallor, the rapid staccato breath – Shiro didn’t need an ECG for the diagnosis. This was a cardiac, probably a big one.

  She turned to the nurse. ‘Where’s Dr Nirmalan?’

  ‘He said he would be at home. To call him if we need.’

  ‘Ring him. And get this man on a bed. Set up an ECG and get me a morphine. Also an intravenous.’ Shiro picked up the admission form, then looked at the patient’s face.

  The hoarse whisper was a miserable echo of the arrogant tone that had ordered her and Jega off the veranda of the Watakälé superintendent’s bungalow yesterday. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’

  Shiro took a deep breath. This was a patient. Who he was should not matter. ‘I believe you are having a heart attack, Mr Ashley-Cooper.’ She struggled to keep her voice calm. ‘The doctor will be here shortly, but meanwhile I will give you something for the pain and set up a drip to keep you from going into shock.’

  Shiro gestured to the nurse and attendant. ‘One – two – three.’ They shifted William on to the hospital bed. The nurse set up the ECG leads. The attendant held William’s hand down. Shiro slipped on a pair of surgical gloves and picked up the intravenous needle.

  ‘I don’t want you touching me. How the hell do I know you are qualified?’ William stammered.

  The nurse connecting the ECG leads reached over William. ‘Sir, miss is a medical student. She knows what she is doing. She is trained.’

  ‘And,’ the attendant snarled at William, ‘you better be thankful that she is here to help you.’

  The attendant held William’s writhing body down on the bed. ‘Madam, let him die,’ he grumbled in guttural Indian Tamil ‘He is a real devil. I know what he does on the estate.’ Shiro bit her lip to keep from laughing. William would understand every word.

  She concentrated on inserting the intravenous lead and injecting the morphine. She set up the saline drip, then stood up to study the ECG recording spitting out of the machine. She picked it up. A chill ran through her at the sight. A bizarre, irregular, random waveform with no clearly identifiable QRS complexes or P waves. William was in ventricular fibrillation. She picked up her stethoscope and placed it on her chest. No heart sounds.

  ‘Nurse,’ she said, ‘do you have a defibrillator?’

  She pulled the curtains to isolate the bed from the rest of the ward.

  Ripping off William’s shirt, Shiro brought her palms together over his chest. She had to try manual resuscitation. She repeated the compression.

  The nurse wheeled in the defibrillator.

  Shiromi glanced at the attendant. ‘Look what I am doing. Can you do this while I set up the machine?’

  ‘Madam –’ he said.

  ‘Do it,’ Shiro commanded. ‘Here, put your hands like this. Now push. Then release. Then push. Good. Keep doing it. ’

  Shiro slipped her hands into the plastic handles of the metal paddles. ‘The anterior electrode is placed on the right, below the clavicle,’ she said to herself. Go on, girl. You can do this. She threw her mind back to the demonstration she had seen. She placed the paddle in her left hand just below William’s right shoulder. ‘The apex electrode is applied to the left side of the patient, just below and to the left of the pectoral muscle.’ Her right hand moved over to the left of his body. She pressed down on the paddles.

  ‘Move,’ she said to the attendant. ‘Nurse, switch the machine on.’

  The current zipped through William’s body. His body jerked, then went still.

  Shiromi looked at the ECG print. They were losing him.

  ‘Damn. No change. Still fibrillating. Nurse, again.’

  The jerk again.

  The pointer on the ECG machine moved up, then down. Sinus rhythm. Dropping the paddles, she grabbed the stethoscope and listened to William’s heart. There was a slow, laboured but normal, beat.

  A sob. Janet’s voice outside the curtain. ‘Please can I see him? Is he dying?’

  Shiro stepped away from the bed. ‘Let her see him.’

  Janet stepped through the curtain. ‘Doctor, is he dead?’

  ‘No Janet, he isn’t dead. You can have him back, for whatever good that does you!’

  ‘Shiro! But –’

  ‘Save me the hysterics, Janet.’ Shiro walked away and picked up the admission record. ‘Nurse, stay with the patient.’ She sat down at the ward desk and wrote down what she had done.

  Dr Nirmalan bustled into the ward, still in casual jeans and t-shirt. ‘Shiromi, I am so sorry. I was so sure nothing would happen today.’

  Shiro handed him the patient notes. ‘It’s all right. It was an interesting challenge.’

  Dr Nirmalan glanced down at her notes. ‘You did manual resuscitation and defibrillation? That’s impressive.’

  Exhaustion caught up with her. She felt empty and drained right to the soles of her feet. ‘I’m really tired, Dr Nirmalan. Would you mind if I left now?’

  He nodded. ‘I’ll take over. Go get some rest.’ He turned and walked through the curtain. ‘Hello, you must be Mrs Ashley-Cooper. I am Dr Nirmalan. Sorry I was out when your husband was brought in, but Miss Rasiah has done an amazing job. Her quick thinking and action saved your husband’s life.’ He glanced at Janet’s face. ‘You should go across to surgery and get a dressing.’

  Shiro slipped off the white coat and leaned on the wall outside the ward. She turned at the sound of footsteps. ‘Shiromi, plea
se, I want to thank you,’

  Shiro studied Janet’s face. ‘Are you sure, Janet? Did you really want his life saved?’ She stared at the dark shadow around Janet’s bloodshot right eye, then slipped her gaze down to the cut and swollen lip. ‘We should get you to emergency and get your face seen to.’

  ‘He was upset after you and his – brother, the doctor, left. He threatened Appu, accused him of gossiping. He assaulted Appu. Appu wouldn’t defend himself. I tried to stop William.’ She raised her hand to her face and winced.

  Shiro took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. ‘Wife abuse and battery, just another link in the tale of the Ashley-Cooper Empire. Come on, let’s get your face seen to.’

  Leaving Janet in the hands of Nandan in Emergency, Shiro stepped out into the hospital gardens just as Jega’s car screeched to a stop in the car park. He jogged across the car park to her.

  ‘Shiromi, I went back to the manse. There was a call from William’s wife. She said that William has had a heart attack and was being brought here.’

  Shiro smiled at him. ‘You were worried for me, Jega?’

  ‘Of course.’

  Shiro placed her hand on his arm. ‘You know what I did, Jega? I saved his life! He was in ventricular fibrillation. I should have left it. Let him die. No. I couldn’t, could I? Hippocratic Oath and all that. I did manual and then defib. The man who destroyed my happiness and killed my father. I saved his life!’

  Jega put his hand around her shoulder.

  They turned and walked towards the staff quarters.

  Chapter 40

  Ten days later ... September 1969 Nuwara-Eliya

  ‘So James Ashley-Cooper is father to you, Lakshmi and Anthony? But not to William?’

  Jega nodded. ‘And William and Anthony are the children of his wife, Elise.’

  ‘Then Anthony is the only child they both share?’

  ‘Correct.’

  ‘You, William, Anthony and Lakshmi, all children of the Ashley-Cooper Empire.’

  They sat in the café next to Nuwara-Eliya Hospital. A pot of tea and a plate of cupcakes lay on the wrought iron table between them. Shiro poured out two cups of tea. She handed one to Jega.