“I get that. Mornings suck. Before you go to sleep, you’d better tell me where you’re headed,” Ed said.
His voice was loud above the whirr of the heater. Where was it he had said he was going? “Ah, Retribution Bay.”
“Holiday?”
She nodded. Was it a holiday destination? She vaguely knew where it was on the coastline, but her interest in Western Australia revolved around the pearling industry in Cossack and then Broome, which was further north.
“My sister works on a whale shark tour boat,” he said. “I might be able to get you a discount if you haven’t already booked.”
A kind offer, but she couldn’t swim, and she wasn’t getting into the water far from shore where tiger sharks also roamed. “Thanks. I’m not sure what my plans are yet.” She grimaced. Who went on holiday without at least some plans? “I, ah, am meeting friends. They’re organising something.”
A street sign pointed to the highway she’d crossed only a few hours earlier. She hunched down and turned her face away from the window, almost expecting the glass to explode with a bullet. She trembled. Was Tan still looking for her? If not him, then he’d have others still searching the streets. She was too much of a threat, and Tan didn’t like threats.
“I’m going to stop for coffee and something to eat at the service station up ahead,” Ed said.
“No!” Fear gripped her. What if Tan was filling up his Mustang?
“I’ll only be a minute.”
Not here, not somewhere Tan or any of his friends might see her. She cleared her throat. What was a reasonable argument? “Can you wait until… ah… we get out of the city?” she asked. “So we don’t get caught in rush hour?” Everyone always complained about the traffic congestion.
Ed sighed. “Yeah, all right. Good point.”
She sighed and relaxed her hold on the arm rest, studying the man. Mid-twenties, maybe twenty centimetres taller than her, lean but not overly muscled. His light brown hair was almost blond, and it was his easy smile and the concern in his brown eyes which had convinced her to go with him. He hadn’t been angry when she’d run in front of his car, he’d been worried. He reminded her of the guys in her Australian history class, easy-going and friendly. The type of person she’d hoped to meet coming here. The type of guy her parents would like if he was Singaporean. Her mother had warned her not to date Australian men. She didn’t want Tess to stay in Australia.
“So have you migrated here?” he asked. “I heard the guy at the counter say you had a Singapore driver’s licence.”
Right. “I’m studying at the University of Western Australia.”
“Cool. That’s where I went. It’s a great campus. What are you studying?”
He was making conversation. She could manage this. It would be an awkward drive if they didn’t speak. They were out of the built-up area and bushland lined the road. Some of the tension left her. “A bachelor of science, majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology,” she said. “With an extra unit of Australian history.”
“That’s an interesting combination.”
And one her parents didn’t know about. “I discovered one of my ancestors worked in Australia as a pearl diver in the late nineteenth century. I thought while I was here, I could search for more information about her.” Da had been a rebel, and someone the rest of the family didn’t talk about, but she’d found reference to her while going through the family history, desperate to find anyone who had felt as suffocated by duty as she did. Da Lim had given her hope.
“I thought most of the pearl divers of that era were male.”
A burst of energy swept through Tess at a chance to discuss her favourite topic. “There were some female divers, but Da pretended to be male to protect herself.” She couldn’t imagine the strength Da must have had. The secret would have weighed on her every second of the day.
“That’s brave,” Ed said. “My family can trace its ancestors back to England. They arrived on the Retribution, the ship which gave Retribution Bay its name. It crashed on a reef in the gulf during a cyclone, and my family set up a sheep station in the area.”
Tess straightened, excitement simmering. These were the stories she loved, people overcoming obstacles to make something of themselves. “When was that?”
“Ah, sometime in the 1870s. My great, great-whatever grandfather, Reginald had just married and was taking his bride, Lilian, north to start their life together. I don’t envy Lilian. By all reports she was one of the few women on board, and the journey was tough.”
Da was in Australia around then as well. “Were they coming from Fremantle or from England?”
Ed pursed his lips. “I don’t know. There were convicts on board, but I assumed they came from Freo.”
How could he not be interested in such a fascinating story? Her family was filled with ancestors obeying the rules, except for Da.
“If it interests you so much, you can always come out to the Ridge and look through the old trunks we’ve got in the shed.”
She gaped at him. “You have trunks from that period?”
He shrugged. “I’m not sure when they’re from, just that they’ve been there forever. Mum was starting to go through them before…” Grief crossed his face.
