The Man From Coral Bay

by Jan Anderson

  Rossi flushed.

  Almost immediately she got out of the car Rossi sensed that the gay, apparently carefree and easygoing Barney she had met so far took on a different disguise up here. It was quite obvious that he ran everything on this estate with smooth-running efficiency. The bungalow was speckless and filled with flowers. The servants who came to greet him were in starched white uniforms and had no need to be told what to do.

  Two rooms had been prepared for Rossi and the children, with a slip room at the side for Nanny. There was a large, nicely old-fashioned bathroom and the windows of both rooms looked out on to the garden—in particular the rose bed that followed the length of the lawn.

  There was no need for air-conditioning up here. It was just like a warm summer day in England. For all her excitement at being here Sue was tired and she went to bed without protest, having understood that if she did that now she would probably be able to join in some of their activities tomorrow. Nanny would bring her lunch on a tray.

  When Rossi and Terry walked to the dining room, Crackers was waiting for them, a huge friendly golden labrador, who licked their hands and obviously adored all the attention that was lavished on him.

  Lunch was an impeccably served meal of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. It was impossible for

  Rossi to believe first that she was in a bachelor establishment and then that she was in the centre of Ceylon.

  Is it always like this?' Rossi asked in amazement when the trifle was put in front of her, ' or is this specially to remind me of home?'

  Barney shook his head ruefully. ' I'd like to say it was specially for you, but we tend to eat in a very English fashion up here. It's a kind of tradition in planters' circles, and though I'm on my own I find it hard to break with tradition. Not only that, but the boys have done it this way for years and they don't need telling any longer, so I prefer to leave things as they are. That way the house runs like clockwork.'

  I thought,' Rossi said mischievously, I'd read somewhere that all planters were wild, their reputation was terrible and when they came into town, well .. . anything could happen.'

  It's true, I'm afraid, at least up to a point. You see, it's a rather lonely restricted life here. We have to work hard and at the end of the day there's comparatively little social life, so when we come into town we tend to let our hair down.'

  Well, you certainly seem to have behaved very circumspectly while I've seen you,' Rossi said.

  That's because I want to make a good impression.' He grinned. I'm saving my worst moments up for when you know me better!'

  Terry was looking from one to the other, obviously dying to join in the conversation. Finally he said to Barney, wide-eyed, Have you ever been very drunk, Uncle Barney? I've heard Dad say about planters. . .

  Barney held up his hand in mock dismay. I think we'd better not hear what your dad says about

  planters. It might not be very flattering.'

  Oh. Oh . . . all right, then. But could I ask you just one question?'

  As long as it's a fairly respectable one, suitable for the ears of your aunt.'

  I just wanted to know if you've ever tasted the toddy they tap from the coconut trees. Dad says it's a killer, but,' he added innocently, none of the men seem to die, so he must be wrong, mustn't he?'

  I think it's pretty vile stuff,' Barney answered gravely. One of my " friends " once gave me some as a joke, and I can assure you I was very ill indeed afterwards.' He turned to Rossi. I expect you've heard of toddy tapping. They come down at night and take the juice from the bark of the tree. It doesn't do your crop much good.'

  He glanced at his watch. Now for some plans. I think it would do you both good to have a rest this afternoon. I have some rather tricky labour problems on my hands that I want to deal with today so that I can leave tomorrow absolutely free for you. But if you don't want to rest for long there's the garden and the swimming pool at your disposal and of course you can walk anywhere you want. I'm sorry about this, Rossi, but a planter is a little like a doctor. When he's here he's never off duty. Unfortunately, I have no other European here, only the factory manager, who's excellent, but when it comes to final matters of arbitration, the men won't deal with anyone but me.'

  Please don't apologise,' Rossi said, you're working and I'm the one who's on holiday. Besides, I think I feel like a restful day. I hadn't realised that all the problems down on the bay had knocked some of the stuffing out of me.'

  Right, then I'll be off. Make yourself completely

  at home, won't you, and if there's anything at all you want, shout for John. He's been here twenty years longer than I have.'

  Is he really called John?' Terry asked.

  Well, not exactly, but his name is so long and unpronounceable that the people before me called him John, and he's been John ever since.' With a brief wave and a kiss blown across the room he was gone.

  For a moment there was silence while Rossi collected her thoughts, then Terry said in his direct child's way, You like Uncle Barney, don't you?'

  Yes, I do.'

  So do I. In fact I think I would call him my second best friend.'

  Rossi laughed. That sounds quite a compliment! But tell me, who is your best friend?'

  He hesitated. You won't tell, will you, because I have to keep it a secret.'

  Cross my heart,' Rossi promised.

  He dropped his voice to a whisper. ' It's Uncle Matt. I don't think there's anyone nicer in the whole world—except for Dad, of course,' he added hastily.

  Rossi did not know what to say. She knew Terry liked Matt Lincoln, but that his opinion should be quite so high stunned her. It was certainly a secret she would keep.

  It was then that she remembered what her mother used to say—one of those odd theories that mothers have throughout the world that somehow stick with one all one's life. If a person is liked by both children and animals, then he must be all right.' It was a maxim she had stuck to through thick or thin and, come to think of it, it had more or less worked up to now.

  Rossi thought about Matt Lincoln and wondered if he was the exception to the rule. She hoped not. She sincerely hoped not, for the last thing in the world she wanted was for Terry's illusions to be shattered.

  ' You don't mind, do you, Rossi?' Terry was saying anxiously, about Uncle Matt, I mean. You see, when Mummy was here at first we all used to be such good friends, and he taught us so many things. It's only since he and Dad. . . .' his voice tailed away.

  ' Of course I don't mind,' Rossi said staunchly. We all have a perfect right to choose our own friends. Mr Lincoln has been very helpful to me, so I have nothing against him at all, but you see I can't be really best friends with him like you are because it would seem disloyal to your father. After all, I haven't known him a long time like you have.'

  No, I suppose you're right. But it would be super if somehow you could patch up the quarrel between him and Dad. Would you try, Rossi,' he pleaded, for my sake, and for Sue's. She likes him too, only she's a girl so she can't do all the things I can do, like fish and go looking at the animals and things.'

  Well,' said Rossi, ' I'll try, but I'm afraid it won't be very easy, especially now after there has been this trouble over the men. I don't know what it's about, but I don't think Mr Lincoln has altogether played fair with your father. So let's not rush things, shall we? We'll see what happens in the next week or two. The best thing now is to enjoy your stay at High Rocks with Uncle Barney.'

  Rossi insisted they both followed Bamey's advice and went to bed for an hour. Surprisingly she slept and woke much refreshed to find Nanny had already

  got the children up and they were pleading to go into the garden to see the pool.

  It was Crackers who provided the afternoon's entertainment. The pool was at the end of the garden, a natural pool scooped out of the rock and earth, fed from a stream that came down from the hills and continued on through the estate. As soon as Crackers came in sight of it he leapt forward with a huge bark of delight
and landed in the water with all legs extended, flat on his belly, and then proceeded to swim round and round uttering little cries of joy. The process was repeated over and over again as each time he got out and shook himself he looked towards one of the children, who would throw a piece of wood into the centre of the pool and Crackers would be in there after it. It was like a marvellously recurring pantomime. Rossi even managed to photograph him in full flight just before he landed ' slap ' into the water.

  Sue seemed a lot better today, but her energy had not returned, so she was content to sit there on a rug in the sun and play with Crackers. Rossi dipped her finger into the water and decided she was not brave enough today, after swimming in the warm sea and lagoon. This was more like the temperature of a Scottish lake. Even Terry, although he pretended to be brave, said he would have a swim tomorrow morning. Perhaps Uncle Barney would come too.

  At four o'clock exactly John brought out a tray of tea and a plate of cucumber sandwiches and a large sponge cake iced with chocolate. It really was too ridiculously like England.

  All round the lawn where they sat were the rose bushes, the massed scarlet hibiscus, banks of purple fuchsia and magnolia, jasmine and oleander. Colour was everywhere and the green of the lawn was like

  a sheet of emerald. Perhaps the strangest thing of all to Rossi was to see, tucked under the colourful and exotic blooms of the shrubs, tiny clumps of carefully reared buttercups, bright clusters of lobelias, the gently purple harebell and even a small variety of sweet pea.

  She wondered what her mother, who was a skilful and enthusiastic gardener, would think of all this. It would certainly take her breath away. In a strange sort of way, it might have been better all round had Mrs Finch been the one to come out here instead of Rossi. She would have coped better with the domestic side of things. She might even have kept the balance in neighbouring relationships Still, it was too late to think of that, and besides, Rossi would not have wanted to miss the experience. And she would not have met Barney.

  Barney came home when Sue had been tucked into bed and Terry was grumbling about having his bath. He looked tired and a little strained, something she had not seen before.

  ' I'm going to have a bath and change,' he told her, and then maybe I can be a little more civilised.'

  As he came through to the large comfortable sitting room about an hour later John was there with a whisky and soda ready for him and a drink for Rossi too. Then, to Rossi's even greater amazement, he bent over the log fire that she thought was just for decoration and lit it. Within a few minutes there was the crackle of burning twigs and the distinctive scent of burning wood.

  When John had gone Barney turned to Rossi and smiled All right, don't say it, now you think it's like an English winter's evening. Don't forget it gets quite chilly at five thousand feet when the 'sun goes down. The log fire isn't strictly necessary, but . . . well, it's very nice to look at.'

  It's wonderful,' Rossi agreed, sinking back into her chair.

  And you like where I live?' asked Barney, at least what you've seen of it—the house and garden, which after all is most important to a woman.'

  I think it's all perfect,' she said truthfully. There was a little imp of mischief inside her that added silently that it was a little too perfect. How on earth could she hope to live up to a place like this?

  As if he half guessed the way her thoughts were going Barney added eagerly, If you did come to live here, Rossi darling, and I'm going to persuade you eventually—you know that—you could run it all just as you want, and you needn't lift a finger if you don't want to. In fact, it would be marvellous to think you wouldn't have to work, that you could take a real rest.'

  She was not sure that she wanted to take a real rest at the age of twenty-two; a few days perhaps, even a few weeks, but more than that . . . the thought was a little daunting for someone who loved new experiences and who had worked hard at jobs she liked and whose life had been full in every way.

  Still, perhaps she was not being quite fair. After all, if you loved someone enough everyone else would fit in. They would probably both have to change a little.

  They had dinner later by candlelight, another marvellously cooked and served meal of baby lobster and a fresh fruit flan. The wine mellowed her and brushed away some of her foolish fears, so that afterwards when coffee had been brought and John dismissed for the night she and Barney sat on the

  sofa in front of the fire with his arms about her, and her head resting on his shoulder. It could be like this every day, she thought dreamily, to be loved and protected; no worries, no big decisions to take. It was all that most girls wanted.

  The next day Rossi was aroused early to go on a tour of the estate. In the end Terry decided not to come, preferring to stay behind and play with Crackers. They went by Land Rover, for there were about twenty miles of road to cover. Barney took her first to the ' nursery ' where the young bushes were cultivated, then up to the main fields where the pluckers were at work. They were nearly all women colourfully dressed with thick bright bandanas round their head so they could the baskets on their backs. Their fingers seemed to move with lightning speed over the bushes, seeking only the best and youngest of the leaves. If they picked old or poor quality leaves, Barney explained, it would count against them when they mustered to have their baskets weighed. Each bush, he went on, could be plucked every eight to ten days.

  Rossi looked about her. For miles there was nothing to be seen except tea, thousands of stubby bushes, with surfaces plucked as flat as table tops. The leaves were indeed a little like privet at home. Impossible to think that by tomorrow this would be small dark specks of tea, fit to drink.

  Again and again Barney would stop the truck and talk to an overseer. The women, without stopping their plucking, would watch Rossi shyly from under lowered eyelids. Some of them were incredibly beautiful, but it seemed as they grew older that beauty gradually left them.

  They drove to the highest point of the estate, where it seemed to Rossi, they could see half way

  across the island, mountains, rocky peaks and plunging chasms, and on the far side of the hill a high waterfall.

  Before they turned for home Barney took her to his favourite part of the estate where, he told her, he went when he wanted to get away from the sight and smell of tea. Here were a few acres of hard turf running alongside a wooded slope—trees grown specially from the workers' cooking fires—up to a small area where orchids grew in abundance.

  Oh, I can't believe it ! ' Rossi cried as she bent to touch the purple waxy flowers. Why, at home, I don't suppose you could grow these in a greenhouse, yet here they are growing wild. It's truly like a little corner of paradise.'

  I hoped you would think that,' Barney said as they turned to walk back to the truck.

  And yet, unwillingly, as they drove back along the neatly edged roads, with not a weed in sight, with not a bush out of place, she could not help comparing it with that other corner of paradise, down on the coast, where everything grew in disorderly profusion, where somehow the utter wildness of everything was its real beauty.

  Then she shook herself mentally. It was a foolish sort of comparison, because in the space of a day she had moved from one world to another.

  They dropped down to the village where, Barney explained, some three thousand people lived, all the workers and their dependants. There was a school, churches, shops and the lines '—rows of small neat houses all joined to each other, where the families lived. Barney was responsible for all of this. No wonder a planter could be called a king.

  ' And,' he added, ' many of them never leave the estate during the whole of their lives. Everything

  they could possibly want is here. Of course it won't be the same for the young ones growing up, but it's probably just as well for the older ones. I don't honestly think they would be able to cope with the outside world.'

  Finally, proudly, he showed her over the tea factory where she saw the leaves withered and rolled, looking like nasty w
et grass cuttings before they were dried and sorted, and coming out of the end after a mere four hours just like the tea she bought at the supermarket at home.

  Throughout the huge, airy building was the warm, scented smell of fresh tea, but when she saw its final moment—in huge mounds on the floor, ready to be scooped into packing cases and shipped all over the world—the whole thing became vaguely unreal.

  And now,' said Barney, taking her by the arm, ' we're going home for a nice cup of tea.'

  She laughed, but when John produced a cup of tea back at the bungalow brewed specially for her and Barney told her that the leaf had still been on the bush yesterday it took on quite a different flavour, fresh and strong.

  Terry demanded to know all they had seen, but as Rossi gave him a brief explanation he said importantly, I know what you haven't seen that I have at Dad's old office.'

  What's that?' she asked.

  Where they taste the tea. There are long lines of little cups and they go along taking a mouthful from each, making a disgusting noise as they suck it up. Then, do you know, they spit it all out into a big dustbin!'

  Rossi could not hide her smile. She turned to Barney. Is it really like that?'

  I'm afraid his description is all too accurate.'

  That day and the next slipped away all too quickly. In the evening Barney had invited several other planters round to meet her. All had travelled a distance of five miles or more and all were delighted to see a new face, demanding all the news from England. Rossi found them charming people, but all much older than herself. Once again she wondered how she would fit in to this strange, almost artificial kind of life. But she did gather, as Barney took her proudly round, introducing her to his friends, that she was the first girl for whom he had actually given a party. She felt very touched by this knowledge.