Page 111 of Sisters Under The Rising Sun

‘Do you want me to go?’ Ena says. ‘Unless you want the walk.’

‘I could do with the walk before sitting in front of the fire all day. And anyway, you need to check on June; she was very quiet this morning, I’m worried she may have a temperature.’

Picking up a bucket, Norah heads down to the water. Several women are bathing downstream, others filling buckets, kerosene tins, whatever they have on hand to use as a vessel.

Stepping cautiously into the middle of the stream to fill her bucket, from the corner of her eye Norah spies movement on the hill beyond. A woman is staggering up the slope. She stumbles, hits the ground. Crawling towards her hut, she gets to her feet and pushes open the door, collapsing on the threshold. Norah recognises her as Tante Peuk, the woman she brought food for Ena from.

Norah crosses the stream and makes her way up the hill. Tante Peuk is lying in the doorway. Norah drops down beside her.

‘Water, water,’ Tante mumbles.

Norah remembers her bucketful of water and brings a palmful of the cool liquid to the girl’s lips, before helping her to her bed.

Once Tante is settled, Norah checks that she has food: she has far more than Norah, June and Ena eat in a week. She pours the last of her water into a jug, which she places with a cup beside Tante’s bed.

‘I’ll come back tomorrow to check on you,’ Norah says before leaving. Tante looks like she’s fallen asleep. ‘And I’ll bring more water.’

Chapter 22

Camp IV

April 1945

‘We cannot, we will not, move again, do you hear me?’ Mrs Hinch insists to Captain Seki. Norah insisted on accompanying her for moral support. Surely Mrs Hinch is tired of confronting the captain on her own.

‘Captain says you will do as you are told,’ Ah Fat tells her, bluntly, after a lengthy monologue from Seki.

‘Let’s start again, shall we?’ Mrs Hinch will not leave before she says everything she wants to say. ‘We have heard rumours from the soldiers that we are to move camp once more; please can you reassure me that this is not the case. The next time we leave this place is when the Allies storm in here to liberate us.’

Ah Fat looks at Mrs Hinch and then at Norah, who smiles at him. Seki grunts, prompting Ah Fat to saysomething, but even Mrs Hinch knows he won’t tell the captain of her firm belief that the prisoners will be liberated.

‘Captain says he is sorry, but you will be leaving camp in four days’ time. You should tell the women to get ready.’

‘Get ready? You can’t be serious!’ Norah explodes. ‘What about the sick? The starving. We’redying.How do you expect us to move when so many can’t even stand up? And where are we going?’

‘Captain says you will carry the sick, but you are going. He cannot tell you where. That is all.’

Placing her hands on her hips, Mrs Hinch takes a step closer to Seki’s desk, glaring down at him. Slowly, he rises to meet her glare. She turns and storms out of the office, Norah running to keep up with her.

Ah Fat catches the door before it slams behind them.

Norah takes some time out of the following few days to visit Tante Peuk, bringing her water, cutting up her fruit, pleased to see that she is improving. Norah has said nothing to the others of these visits; to do so would mean explaining how she knew her in the first place. She has no desire to confess to Ena she sold her wedding ring for food.

‘This is the last time I can visit,’ Norah tells the young woman. ‘We’re moving camp tomorrow.’

‘I’m sorry to hear that. Where are you going?’

‘We don’t know. But I can’t come again, too many of us are sick.’

‘Come and sit beside me, Norah.’ Tante Peuk pats her bed.

Norah takes Tante Peuk’s hand. ‘I’ll never forget you. You saved my sister’s life.’

‘And you’ve saved mine. I think we’re even. Please go and be with your family,’ Tante says, hugging her friend.

‘Nesta, can you come here a moment, please?’ Sister Catherina calls.

The women were ready at 6 a.m. as ordered. They waited in the heat and intermittent rain for the trucks to arrive. Five hours later, they pulled into the camp. Once the stretchers had been loaded on board, the women climbed in. Once more, they sped towards Muntok pier, where this nightmare began. A small launch was moored there, ready to whisk them away to the awaiting ship.