The White Amah (17 page)

Mei Li acted instantly. She swung the rake, hard and fast. The heavy metal head smashed into the side of the dog’s head. Enraged, the dog lunged at the handle of the rake, close to the head. Enormous jaws locked powerfully and he yanked the weapon out of her hands. An aggressive low-pitched growl came from Alpha’s throat as he rushed at her, foaming jaws wide open, wolf-like teeth ready to rip and tear. The weight of his heavy body slammed into her and she went flying. The dog was on her before she hit the ground and she was fighting for her life.
Instinctively she raised her arms and the snapping teeth clamped round her upper arm, just missing her throat.

For a moment Adele watched Mei Li wrestling with the savage beast, and then she turned and ran shrieking towards the bridge. It was a mistake. Alpha raised his huge head. Excited by the terrified screams, his attention was now focused on the fleeing girl and he took off in pursuit.

With a groan Mei Li got to her feet, blood streaming from the vicious bites, and limped after them. Her terror increased with every step. Feeling like she could run no more, she cried out for help, but her weak cry was lost, absorbed by the tumult of wild noise coming from the direction of the aviaries.

Adele took refuge in the eagles’ cage and stood behind the door, desperately trying to hold it shut. Alarmed by the wild barking, the great birds flew dementedly round their prison as the dog used his bulk as a battering ram, slamming into the wire bars so hard that the metal twisted and buckled. From her vantage point on the bridge, Mei Li saw there was no way the door could withstand such punishment. And if it should give way, there was no escape for the young child.

‘Here, dog,’ she cried woozily, waving her arms over her head despite a pain so intense she felt as though she would pass out. ‘Come and get me. I’m over here, yahoo.’

But the demented animal ignored the annoying voice; he was totally focused on reaching the quaking girl behind the door. Rearing up on his hind legs, he clawed at the door, banging it with his head. The cage gave way and like a monstrous dragon from Adele’s worst dream, Alpha charged through the shattered door, scaring the birds, which flew up to their highest perch. The dominant male screeched and dived like a bomber, talons
extended, at the dog’s head. Alpha whirled round, agilely for a mastiff that weighed more than seventy kilos, and snapped furiously at the eagle, which fluttered out of reach. From the lofty perch at the top of the aviary, its mate screeched, taunting the maddened dog, the high-pitched shrieks obliterating rifle fire, a death cry and the heavy thud as the body fell on the concrete floor.

Panting from exertion, the alarmed guard had sprinted to the aviary, overtaking Mei Li, who was still staggering down the path. Now he squatted beside the dog, the high-powered rifle in his right hand. He turned the dog over and grunted with satisfaction when he found the entry wound. A perfect shot: the bullet had smashed the dog’s skull, ploughed through his brain and shot out the side of his head behind his right ear.

Damn it, the marksman thought, getting to his feet and aiming a vicious kick at the body. How did the bastard get out? Talib must not have checked that the dog was securely locked in. Thanks be to Allah I came out to see what was causing the racket, he thought. He wouldn’t like to be in Talib’s shoes when the boss got home. The guard backed out of the cage, dragging the animal with him and dumped the body on the compost heap.

‘He’s dead,’ he said to Mei Li, his voice rising with pride. ‘I got the bastard with the first shot.’

Trembling, hardly able to believe the nightmare was over, Mei Li looked right past him. Adele was sitting in the far corner against the bars, short legs stretched out on the dirty floor of the cage, face shrouded by her bloodstained hands. She was talking to herself and didn’t respond when Mei Li knelt down beside her.

‘Hush.’ and she put her arms around the frightened child and
clasped her tightly. ‘It’s all right. You can open your eyes. He can’t hurt you anymore,’ she whispered, tenderly rocking the ten year old like a baby, the blood from their wounds mingling and turning Adele’s pink satin tunic bright scarlet.

T
HE ROOM WAS INTENSELY HOT AND NOT A BREATH OF AIR
was moving. The combination of heat and humidity was stifling and the patients in the hospital ward slumped on the hard, narrow hospital beds, drained of energy. In the hushed ward the raised voice was amplified, drawing an angry look from the ward sister.

‘But
why
can’t you come and see me?’ Mei Li asked, hot tears of frustration on her burning cheeks, mobile phone pressed up against her painful infected ear. She was lying, soaked from her fever, on a wet sheet; the moisture had gone right through to the mattress.

‘How many times do I have to tell you? I don’t want Joe to find out you’re my daughter,’ snapped Rubiah.

‘But I never see you … and I don’t like living at his place. Can’t I stay with you?’

‘You ungrateful girl! You don’t know how lucky you are to live in that great mansion. How do you think you’d support yourself if I hadn’t persuaded Joe to give you a job? Well, if you leave don’t expect any more help from me.’ Without waiting for a reply, she slammed down the phone.

Mei Li lay back forlornly on the narrow stretcher, her face pale as death, her tangled hair lying limply across the brick-like pillow. For two days she’d tossed and turned on the thin mattress, drenched in sweat, calling out for her grandmother. The busy
nurses barely spoke to her except to scold when her nightmares disturbed the quiet ward.

Hot and feverish, she reached for the water jug and knocked it over.

‘You’ll catch it,’ croaked the sickly old woman in the next

bed.

Mei Li looked at the pool of water in despair, but her depression faded like morning mist when she saw her grandmother’s familiar figure shuffling down the ward, back bent double under the weight of her overladen basket.

‘Place these leaves on your wounds twice a day,’ said Lada, undoing the tight bandage around Mei Li’s arm and gently laying a leaf on the gash.

‘Who told you I was sick? How did you know where to find me?’

‘I dream-sang my way to you.’

Throwing back the wet sheet, Mei Li sat up, her heart pounding wildly. She knew about the dream-song, the trance-inducing ritual chant that freed the soul from the body. Intuitively, she understood that the figure before her was only her grandmother’s shade: a wandering wraith, ethereal and otherworldly. But supernatural forces were at work that she didn’t properly understand. Had her grandmother projected her spirit while her body lay motionless, waiting, or had she passed over? Was this apparition her ghost, come to bid farewell before joining the spirits of her ancestors? It was too much too bear. She loved her grandmother so much.

‘You look like you’ve seen a ghost,’ said Lada, and the bright eyes in the wrinkled face shone with laughter. ‘I hope to see many more years before I cross the log bridge over the River of the Dead.
Do not be afraid, Little Lotus. I come from a long line of wise women on whom the spirits have bestowed the gift to break through the dimensions of time and space. Long ago I learnt the secret from my mother, as she learnt it from her mother. Throughout history, the women of our family have possessed the knowledge.’

‘Does Mother know the secret too?’

A shadow darkened Lada’s face. ‘She’d like to, but the power to defy the bounds of this mortal world is dependent on consent from the realm of the spirits. It grieves me to admit my daughter was found unworthy and that is why I gave the collar of the matriarch to you; you are the chosen one.’

Mei Li’s heart soared at her grandmother’s words, but it plummeted just as quickly when she remembered that she no longer had the precious amulet.

Her grandmother saw the look of shame on her face. ‘She took it from you, didn’t she?’

‘I’m sorry,’ she muttered, looking down, too ashamed to look her grandmother in the eye.

‘My daughter is the one who should be sorry. She has transgressed the order of succession sanctioned by the spirits of our ancestors and she will be punished.’ Lada spoke the words flatly. Her eyes were blank and not a muscle moved in her face.

Every woman in her tribe feared and dreaded antagonising the spirits. Mei Li knew that all who did fell into a state of lifelessness, and the only release was death. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and tried to stand.

‘Oh, Grandma, my poor mother, you’ve got to save her, you’ve got to.’

Lada put her arms around her granddaughter and held her close. ‘I will try to intercede on her behalf,’ she said, disguising her
own fear with an assumed air of confidence. Prayers and sacrifice might not be enough to save her ambitious daughter from the wrath of the spirits.

Mei Li’s lips formed a shaky smile. ‘Thank you, Grandma. They’ll listen to you. I know they will. I’m so glad you came. How long can you stay with me?’

‘For a little while only. I have to go back before your grandfather awakes.’ Tenderly she smoothed the damp hair off Mei Li’s forehead.

‘Mother hasn’t been to see me. I don’t think she loves me.’

‘Your mother doesn’t love anyone. She’s an expert at feigning affection. Don’t trust her; she has the power to harm you.’

‘I wish I could go home with you and Granddad. Just the three of us, together, like before.’

‘You weren’t born to bloom unseen in the jungle, Little Lotus. No, don’t argue with me. Close your eyes and rest. These are the words of my dream song. When your time comes, you will sing your own song.’

And Lada sang:

‘Release me from the grasp of clutching earth

To wheel and soar betwixt the sky and sea,

Free from carnal cell, to girth

The never-ending void, to seek and search for thee.’

David instructed the driver to wait outside in the limousine while he walked into the hospital and asked to speak to the duty nurse. ‘How’s our patient doing today, sister?’

‘She had a very restless night, feverish and confused,’ the Malaysian nurse complained. ‘She kept the whole ward awake with her unintelligible ramblings. I’ll be glad when she’s released.
These uncivilised natives don’t know how to behave in hospitals. She’ll get better sooner with her own kind.’

David glared at her. From the first moment he’d set eyes on Mei Li he’d been fascinated, both by her enchanting beauty and her natural charm. He was appalled by the meanness of her existence and infuriated by the way everyone looked down on her.

‘Has the doctor seen her yet?’ he asked curtly.

‘Indeed.’

‘In that case I shall take her home with me if you’d be so good as to find me a wheelchair.’

The general ward reminded him of a picture of an army hospital he’d seen in a history book. Florence Nightingale wouldn’t look out of place here, he thought. There were a dozen stretcherlike beds in rows facing each other. Both men and women in the unisex ward were dressed in nightgowns that looked suspiciously like cheap cotton shrouds. Most of the old, sickly patients were being looked after by relatives who brought in food for their meals. He wondered what happened to those who didn’t have any relatives, and was concerned that friendless Mei Li was going hungry.

He found her lying on top of the last bed with her face turned to the wall, shivering despite the heat, the greyish shroud plastered to her damp body. He felt the sheet under her. It was wet through and cold. David clenched his teeth and muttered under his breath. He crossed the ward and yanked a blanket off an empty bed, then he gently helped the sick girl sit up and wrapped the thin rug around her shoulders.

‘Damn,’ he said impatiently, looking for the nurse with the wheelchair.

Stunned, Mei Li stared at the ivory-skinned Goliath leaning
over her. Tawny, sun-streaked hair flopped across his forehead as he bent down and picked her up, and she gasped when she looked into the first blue eyes she’d ever seen. They’re like a jungle sky when the sun has chased the mists away, she thought, unable to look away.

Tourists were welcomed into longhouses and most Dayak girls had seen Westerners, but Mei Li’s village was on the banks of the Pangup, isolated and remote, far from the tourist routes. All she knew of
orang puti
she’d learned from the outlandish tales spread by the young men who worked on the oil rigs and returned to the jungle village for Gawai. Of course she’d noticed the young white man – he was often in the garden playing with the children or simply reading – but she’d only ever seen him from a distance. Up close he was a giant. Till now the willowy girl had believed she was a freak, a gawky giantess in a world of dainty Lilliputians. Now fate had brought Gulliver to her bedside.

‘Don’t worry, there’s nothing to be scared of. I’m taking you home,’ he said, and he strode out of the ward with the sick girl cradled in his arms.

‘Is everything all right, sir?’ asked the Sikh doctor, running to catch up with him.

David didn’t stop. ‘I’m taking this young lady home.’