Refuge by Merilyn Simonds

Author:Merilyn Simonds
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2018-08-23T16:00:00+00:00

“Where did you get that picture?”

I hear the old-woman tremor in my voice, but I don’t care. The image from the gallery is the same as the picture in Nang’s beaten-up wallet: my son standing on the dock with May.

Sean is beside himself. “Oh my god, they’re identical! Doesn’t that prove something, Cass?”

I ignore him and look straight at the girl. I jab my finger at one side of the wallet. “I said, where did you get that picture?”

“Grand mother Mya.” She points to the picture on the other side. A young woman, younger than Nang, but with the same round face, sharp eyes.

“Daw Mya give picture to daughter, Jadanar. Daw Jadanar, my mother, give to me. I hide, soldier no find. Take in shoe when leave Burma.”

“You could have stolen it.”

“That’s a bit harsh, Cass.”

Harsh, perhaps, but a distinct possibility. I’m just being honest.

“I no steal.”

Sean intercedes. “Cass, who took this picture?”

“I did. But that doesn’t prove anything.”

“Can you think of any way this picture would get to Burma, other than being carried there by your son, or maybe mailed to him?”

This boy should join the foreign service. Or run for election. Or give up the viola and take up the law.

I look down at my hands, at the silvery scars that flame up my palms onto my arms, all that’s left of those pictures I stuffed into the burning barrel. Wanting to claim him, only hurting myself.

“Yes. He must have taken it with him.”

The words are stuck somewhere deep inside me, but I force them out.

“He was in the air force, stationed in India. Just over the border from Burma. The Canadians flew supplies to the Brits and Americans fighting to get Burma back from the Japanese. After the war was over, the Canadians stayed. They flew rice to people in remote areas. Missions of mercy. His plane was lost on a rice run into Burma.”

I close my eyes, drawing strength from the darkness. Even Sean has gone quiet, waiting. They will take meaning from what comes next. Wrong meaning. But I have no choice: it is the truth.

“His plane went down over the Shan Hills. He must have had the picture with him. Soldiers did that. A picture in their pocket, to keep the bullets from their heart.”

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