Island in the Centre by Rex Shelley

Author:Rex Shelley
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789814677707
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish International

12/3/1925

I have sat here at the desk for nearly half an hour. I cannot get back into the swing of writing this diary. It’s been too long a break. I must read more.

I intended to write a detailed account of the awful evening when Mr. Evans invited me and my wife to his house soon after we arrived. I mean after she arrived in the Estate. I think it was the most embarrassing evening in my life and in Hanako’s life.

It was an experience that I felt I had to record when it happened but when I tried to write it all out the next night, the shame came down on me and I could not do it. In fact, I find it difficult to recall that evening in detail and to relive it again tonight.

Do we always find it difficult to remember the unpleasant things of our past?

It did bring out one thing. I saw which mems (madams, mistresses, a word that came from the Indian memsahib, Hardial Singh says) truly tried to make Hanako welcome and which mems tried to impress Mr. and Mrs. Evans with their social sympathy for the poor girl who couldn’t speak a word of English.

Mrs. McGreggor tried with actions to teach her some words in English but soon gave up. The surprise was that the snooty Mrs. Pinkerton, who sat next to Hanako at dinner, showed her what knives and forks to use and before the fish course (ikan kurau, sliced thin, deliciously grilled in butter, slightly burnt here and there as I like it, with a dash of lemon) was over I saw she had established a system of waving her finger sideways and moving her head vertically to give mute yes and no advice to my Hanako.

Hanako-san and I laughed about it a few months later.

Not that night.

Mrs. Evans had come to reside with her husband and reign like Queen Victoria over the Estate. I saw her smiling with royal approval and a graceful dip of her regal head in appreciation of Mrs. Pinkerton’s efforts.

It is past. Deo Gratis, as they used to say in my church.

I cannot write all the other embarrassments out.

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