Teranesia Read Free Page A

Jakarta!’
    His father responded, quite reasonably, ‘How else should I measure it? If you add in the time it takes to travel from here,
     anywhere on Earth will sound too far away!’
    Prabir felt a disorientating mixture of homesickness and fear.
Calcutta
. Fifty Ambons’ worth of people and traffic, squeezed into five times as much land. Even if he could grow used to the crowds
     again, the prospect of being ‘home’ without his parents and Madhusree seemed worse than being abandoned almost anywhere else
     – as surreal and disturbing as waking up one morning to find that they’d all simply vanished.
    ‘Well, Jakarta’s out of the question.’ There was no reply; maybe his father was nodding agreement. They’d discussed this before:
     throughout Indonesia, violence kept flaring up against the ethnic Chinese ‘merchant class’ – and though the Indian minority
     was tiny and invisible in comparison, his parents seemed to think he’d be at risk of being beaten up every time there was
     a price rise. Prabir had trouble believing in such bizarre behaviour, but the sight of uniformed, regimented children singing
     patriotic songs on excursions around Ambon had made him grateful for anything that kept him out of Indonesian schools.
    His father adopted a conciliatory tone. ‘What about Darwin?’ Prabir remembered Darwin clearly; they’d spenttwo months there when Madhusree was born. It was a clean, calm, prosperous city – and since his English was much better than
     his Indonesian, he’d found it easier to talk to people there than in Ambon. But he still didn’t want to be exiled there.
    ‘Perhaps.’ There was silence, then suddenly his mother said enthusiastically, ‘What about
Toronto?
We could send him to live with my cousin!’
    ‘Now you’re being absurd. That woman is deranged.’
    ‘Oh, she’s harmless! And I’m not suggesting that we put his education in her hands; we’ll just come to some arrangement for
     food and board. Then at least he wouldn’t be living in a dormitory full of strangers.’
    His father spluttered. ‘He’s never met her!’
    ‘Amita’s still family. And since she’s the only one of my relatives who’ll speak to me—’
    The conversation shifted abruptly to the topic of his mother’s parents. Prabir had heard this all before; after a few minutes
     he walked away into the forest.
    He’d have to find a way to raise the subject and make his feelings plain, without betraying the fact that he’d been eavesdropping.
     And he’d have to do it quickly; his parents had an almost limitless capacity to convince themselves that they were acting
     in his best interest, and once they made up their minds he’d be powerless to stop them. It was like an
ad hoc
religion: The Church of We’re Only Doing It For Your Own Good. They got to write all the sacred commandments themselves,
     and then protested that they had no choice but to follow them.
    ‘Traitors,’ he muttered. This was his island; they were only here on his sufferance. If he left, they’d be dead within a week:
     the creatures would take them. Madhusree might try to protect them, but you could never be sure what side she was on. Prabir
     pictured the crew of a ferry or supply ship, marching warily into the kampung after a missed rendezvous and days of radio
     silence, to find no one but Madhusree. Waddlingaround with a greasy smile on her face, surrounded by unwashed bowls bearing the remnants of meals of fried butterflies, seasoned
     with a mysterious sweet-smelling meat.
    Prabir trudged along, mouthing silent curses, gradually becoming aware of the increasing gradient and the dark rocks poking
     through the soil. Without even thinking about it, he’d ended up on the trail that led to the centre of the island. Unlike
     the path from the beach to the kampung – cut by the Kai labourers, and Prabir’s job now to maintain – this was the product
     of nothing but chance, of rocky outcrops and the natural spacing