Meandering about the broad-paved mall, they found it composed of ultra-modern department stores, souvenir shops, restaurants and arcades. The area was partly canopied, both by artificial awnings and by the trees that were dotted about, though there seemed little danger of rain on this bright blue day.
‘I could live here,’ said Nina, giving a nod of approval for the salubrious ambience.
To Nell, her daughter had never seemed so carefree, laughing at her companions, who had failed to bring any sunglasses and were being intermittently dazzled. But there was no shortage of places to buy these, and in fact at bargain price, for there were sales at every turn, this being the end of the season.
‘Can we go in here?’ Though an air of misery lay behind the smile, Romy was doing her best not to spoil anyone’s holiday, and indicated a glitzy hall of glass and chrome, about which they were to browse before taking an escalator down to where they had come in. At least, they assumed this to be the case, but they did not recognise any of the landmarks. After much confusion they realised they had emerged on a different street level.
‘I don’t think I can face going back in,’ said Nell. ‘Can we just mosey over and see what the Grecian-looking building is?’
It turned out to be the Shrine of Remembrance, a haven of chequered stone amidst lawns and trees with bottle-shaped trunks and exotic palms. Atop a flight of granite was a circular colonnade of sandstone pillars. Making their way up the steps, the three women stood for a while in reverence of the eternal flame, and ran their gaze around the sphere, reading the names of battles.
‘I’ll stay here for a while if you want to go back to your shopping,’ said Nell eventually, and whilst they were gone she was to enjoy the aura of calmness, wandering back down the steps and into the crypt beneath to peruse a roll of honour.
There were two more elderly women here. Nell cast a smile at them as she drifted around, and later she was to see them again when she had moved back to stand in daylight, the sun glinting on the bronze statue of a soldier on horseback. How beautifully this land venerated its fallen heroes. Nell turned to murmur this to the women, and, as usual, engaged these strangers in conversation for a moment or two, asking if any of their menfolk were commemorated here. No, they said, but one of them had lost a son in Vietnam. They might have physically abused her, such was Nell’s shock.
In her ignorance, she had always presumed it to be an American war, but here was an Australian mother who had lost her son, along with a good many besides, so she was informed now. Had William been amongst those who died?
Nina and Romy were to find her looking dazed when they finally came back. Nell pretended it was the heat of the sun, and tried to jolly herself for another bout of shopping. By the time they had toured more shops, bought some T-shirts with an Aboriginal design, and examined the architecture old and new, it was almost midday, and then it really was the sun that was responsible.
Whilst Nina still looked pristine in her linen top and trousers, Romy too as fresh, Nell had taken to wafting her perspiring face. ‘I’d hate to be here in summer.’
‘Well, you would put that jacket on,’ they both told her.
‘I know, but I couldn’t believe autumn could be so hot.’
‘I absolutely love it. Nina scrunched her shoulders in happiness, Romy offering total accord.
Over her shock about Vietnam, Nell was happy too that they were having such a good time, and not there merely for her sake.
After a leisurely lunch in a restaurant, they continued their explorations, looking for the State Library, and stumbling across some botanical gardens in the process. Adjacent to a river that glittered in the sunshine with a flotilla of pristine yachts, were sweeping lawns, palms, clumps of bamboo, and giant fig trees with trunks so massive that a dozen people could have stood shoulder to shoulder around their circumference. Above the tree line could still be glimpsed the high-rise offices and hotels, yet they failed to intrude.
Whilst other individuals were to be seen dotted around the lawns, reading a book or eating a sandwich, Nell professed she would never get up. So she and her companions wandered through the gardens until they came to a bench overlooking a stretch of lake, where ducks sat on an island beneath a palm, and leggy moorhens strode upon the blanket of water lilies. Sitting to enjoy the view, Nell wondered if her son could be sitting in this same park …
Eventually leaving by a different route, they found the State Library, though Nell declared it unnecessary to go all the way there. ‘As long as we know where to come tomorrow, I think I’ve had enough,’ she said, arching her back. ‘I feel as if I’ve suddenly hit a brick wall.’
‘I’m buggered as well,’ confessed Nina. ‘Must be jetlag.’
‘What a couple of old crocks,’ mocked Romy, but led the way back to the hotel, consulting her map as they went.
Relieved at last to see the clock tower resembling a pineapple, which told they were almost back to their hotel, there was a final slope up which to battle before they reached the air-conditioned foyer.
Before anything else, Nell switched on the kettle, whilst Nina removed her sandals from blistered feet, and Romy collapsed on a bed. ‘I’m gasping for this.’ Nell sat on the sofa and had a cup of tea with them, before going to her own room. ‘Just to shut my eyes for five minutes. I can’t keep them open.’
The next time she lifted her lashes it was dark. She came round fully clothed, and the clock said it was ten. No, it couldn’t be! A strip of light shone under the door of the adjoining room. Dragging herself from the bed, Nell tottered and groped her way to join the others, who had not been long awake themselves if their bleary eyes were anything to go by. Too late to acquire an evening meal, Romy suggested they ordered a pizza. But, looking distinctly unappetised, her grandmother said she would make do with biscuits and tea, and withdrew to her room. Whilst she drank her tea. Nell stood and gazed out at the nocturnal panorama, wondering if her son was somewhere down amongst those glittering lights. Then, she ran a bath, tipping in some deliciously perfumed bubble bath and luxuriating in the thick towels, before going to bed.
With the next day being similarly ruined by jetlag, Nell said, ‘I don’t know whether it’s worth going to this library, my brain feels as if it belongs to Cissie Flowerdew. But anyway, we might as well go and have a gander.’
So back they went, braving the Grand Prix traffic and taking one of the streets down toward the river and the vast library. After finding the correct department, and making further enquiry at the desk, they were given instruction by a librarian.
Nell made a tentative approach. ‘I don’t know if we’re in the right place, even, but maybe you’ll be able to help us.’
The amiable girl flicked back her blonde hair, and said, ‘I’ll try.’
‘My son …’ Nell broke off, and looked to her daughter for assistance.
Nina stepped in. ‘My mother’s trying to trace her son, who emigrated from England in the nineteen fifties. We’re not sure when exactly.’ She explained he had been adopted and put into an orphanage, giving the girl what information she could. ‘I’m sorry, that’s all we know.’
The librarian tapped her lips and said a lot of records were restricted. Walking ahead of them and gathering leaflets along her way, she took them to a public search room. She indicated a large card index and said perhaps they might find a William Morgan in there, though on second thoughts it wouldn’t go up to the date they wanted – but there were electoral rolls, and also birth, marriage and death indexes.
‘That’s for the whole of Australia, not just Queensland, so if you’re not sure if he entered the country in this state then you might just get a lead there.’ There were more obscure sources, too, she pointed out, such as an index of people called before government committees. ‘It’s a long shot, but you never know.’
Nell, who had been looking confused, now appeared to buck up as the girl handed over the wad of leaflets she had collected. ‘Thank you very much for all your help,’
she told the librarian, though in truth, with far too much information to take in, she felt totally out of her depth.
‘Not a problem,’ replied the very pleasant girl, adding as she left them to it, ‘If there’s anything you need, just ask.’
The three set about their daunting task. Everyone else in the search room seemed to know what they were doing, marching purposely back and forth between shelves of files – and even tapping away at computers – whilst Nell and her co-searchers just dithered for now.
Once they began, it became clear that without a specific date it was obviously futile. After going through ream after ream of microfiche, studying electoral rolls, death and marriage, and the more obscure indexes, all they acquired was sore eyes and splitting headaches.
They broke for lunch, then went back in the afternoon. To no avail. It was all a mass of meaningless statistics.
‘We can come back for another look tomorrow,’ said Nina to her disappointed mother at the end of a very testing day. ‘I’m willing if you are. After a good night’s kip you’ll feel more up to it.’
‘It’s hopeless.’ Nell put her head in her hands, then rubbed her eyes and looked over the tips of her fingers in despair at the banks of extraneous information that surrounded them. ‘We could spend a month of Sundays trawling through that blasted lot and still never find him.’
Romy stretched, and tried to sound cheerful, though it was obvious to Nell her mind was elsewhere. ‘What about the archive place then? It’s mad to come thousands of miles then give up after just one day.’
A blank expression in her eyes, Nell had begun to toy with her diamond eternity ring, when she heard Joe commanding her to pull herself together, and so she did. ‘All right, we’ll ask that girl if there’s anything we might not have looked at.’ And all three of them approached the desk.
This being the end of the day, the librarian had been asked countless questions and could not think what to suggest. ‘Other than the insanity files, but you’d need permission to look in those, as it would be under seventy-five years old.’
‘If he is in them I’d rather not know,’ said Nell with an air of finality. And, thanking the girl, they went back to their hotel.
On the way, Nina tried to coax her mother from despondency. ‘You never know, we might have missed something. He could have gone back to that other name you said. We can extend our stay –’
‘No, I can’t face another day of squinting into one of those bloody machines,’ said her mother. ‘We should be out enjoying the lovely weather.’ She could not bear the idea that Nina, having spent a fortune, would gain no benefit herself. ‘I might have another go when we’ve got Mary’s sister out of the way.’
So, back to the hotel they trudged, to have a cup of tea, and to sit three on a bed with their feet up, like schoolgirls in a dorm, as they discussed their trip to the small coastal town where Mary’s sister lived.
Nell told them, ‘It might be an idea to arrange somewhere to stay before we set off. From the sound of it it’s in the middle of nowhere, and we might find ourselves stranded. There’s nothing much there, Mary said – well, only a few hundred inhabitants. No police station, no doctor, no dentist, no shops other than a general store and post office – what possesses somebody to go and live in the middle of nowhere with thousands of acres of wilderness between them and the nearest town?’ It fascinated Nell. ‘Anyway, I don’t know how much room Millie’s got, but we can’t expect her to put us all up.’
Romy grabbed the RAC road book from the pile on the table, and began to thumb through it. ‘There seems to be heaps of motels and caravan parks, even in the tiniest places.’
‘I suppose it’s in their culture,’ said Nina. ‘The place being so big. See if you can find us somewhere cheap, Rome.’ It had been costly enough for the three of them at the hotel for three days. ‘I don’t mean a backpacker hotel,’ she laughed. ‘Just a nice self-catering cottage or something.’
Romy continued searching. ‘But what about food, washing powder, all that crap? It’s only a little car I’ve hired, you know.’
‘We won’t be carting food all the way up there,’ said her mother. ‘There’s bound to be a supermarket nearer to where we’ll be, or how would Millie cope? I think I’ll nip out later and buy a cool box, though, to put some drinks in.’
Romy suggested, ‘It might be an idea to get a phone card as well.’
‘All this expense because of Mary,’ grumbled Nell.
‘It’s only a few dollars, Mam.’
‘I don’t mean the phone card, I mean the car and everything!’
‘There’s a limit to where you can go on public transport,’ said Nina. ‘We’ll be able to take diversions if we have a car.’
‘Yes, I suppose so,’ agreed Nell. ‘And it means we can buy all our food so we’ll save on eating out.’
‘This sounds good.’ Romy read out a description of a holiday villa.
Nina agreed. ‘Let’s give them a ring now and book it.’
This being their final evening at the hotel, they decided to eat in the restaurant. Spirits were pretty low over the total lack of information. To exacerbate this, they were served by the waiter who had taken a dislike to Nina on that very first morning, and she to him.
The meal of salmon with a caper sauce was good, though a little rich for Nell, who finished eating first.
Nina took a few more mouthfuls, then set down her cutlery, dabbed her lips, and reached over the linen cloth to take her mother’s hand. ‘It’ll be all right, Mam,’ she vowed softly. ‘We’ve got over a fortnight left to find him. We don’t have to waste all that time at Millie’s, we can stay here and go to the library every day till we do find something.’
‘Ooh no, I couldn’t let Mary down!’ Nell sounded aghast at the very idea.
‘We haven’t come for her benefit, we came here for yours. For Christ’s sake, we can post the bloody knickers.’
‘It’s not just a case of knickers! Don’t you see? I’m the only human link she has with her sister. Apart from her daughter, who never ever comes to see her, it’s the only other relative I’ve heard Mary mention. No, I can empathise with having someone you love being out of reach – anyway, we’ve booked that holiday apartment now,’ finished Nell.
‘We can unbook it. Your son’s more important …’ Concentrated though she was on this intimate exchange, Nina felt someone hovering, and turned in annoyance to find the waiter looking decidedly peeved.
‘Are you going to eat that?’
‘What are you, the bloody dinner lady?’ Nina gave him a waspish glare and he gave her one back, then she turned her back on him and focused on her mother. The disgruntled waiter tossed his mane of black hair and minced off.
Nell was laughing now, saying to Romy, ‘She talks about not being able to take me anywhere!’
‘Well! He’s an annoying little shit.’ But Nina was smiling too as she tried a last attempt at persuasion. ‘Are you absolutely certain you want to check out?’
‘Well, we could stay here till you’ve insulted all the staff, I suppose,’ mused Nell with a twinkle in her eye for Romy. ‘I hope he isn’t on at breakfast tomorrow. He’ll probably spit in it.’ Then she patted her daughter’s hand. ‘No, thanks, love, but I need a break from the city as much as anybody. I’m looking forward to it actually.’
So, in the morning, straight after breakfast, they packed up and went by taxi to pick up the hire car: then, with Nina giving directions, headed north. Leaving behind the sprawling suburbs and finally open countryside, they followed the motorway, across a wide, brown river, past open fields. There came splendid views of a far-off mountain range, one of which took on the shape of a colossal gorilla. There were to be more enormous specimens along the roadside, though manmade ones this time, which Nell delighted in pointing out en route – a giant pineapple, and a huge black and white cow – and further incongruity in the swathes of densely planted pine trees, more fitted to Grimm’s Fairytales than this land of su
nshine. At times cut through rock, the road was ever undulating, the views often spectacular, the hillsides so densely wooded they seemed as if clad in velour and always in the background another purple range.
Having eaten quite early, after a few hundred kilometres they were ready for a snack, and pulled into a remote petrol station, to which was attached a café called Smiley’s. It was a tiny place with basic facilities and four tables, two of them occupied by truckers. They gave their order, and sat down. But within minutes of being seated close to the water heater, sweat was dripping from their brows.
Nell fanned herself, and said she would have to move, calling to the young man who was making their sandwiches, ‘We’ll just move to that table by the door, love!’
But, ‘Now we’re by the bloody dustbins!’ complained Nina.
All chuckling at the irony of this, her mother said, ‘Well, there’s nowhere else to move to. Behave now, the boy’s here with our lunch.’
Each sandwich bore a perfect imprint of the young man’s fingers, where he had pressed down in order to dissect them into daintier blocks. The tea was served in industrial-sized mugs, but had been placed on saucers with a paper doily to add a touch of finesse.
Taking in these, and the odorous dustbins, Nina muttered, ‘I don’t know about Smiley’s – more like Slimey’s.’
This set her mother laughing, and in doing so she was to inhale a crumb, so that the tears ran down her cheeks and a period of coughing was to ensue before she recovered.
Obviously related to the boy, if looks were to go by, a woman appeared from the kitchen behind the counter and eyed them. ‘Everything okay?’
An Unsuitable Mother Page 57