Epilogue and Chapter 1

MANGROVE DREAMING
By Kerrie Bygrave


Epilogue:

She stared out across the creek as the water gently lapped at her feet. She’d already packed up to go, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave just yet. The soft wind played with the loose ringlets that framed her face. No matter how hard she tried to tame them into a ponytail or a bun, they always managed to work themselves free. Her hair used to be a natural vivid red, but now, there were some grey hairs sneaking in, that gave her a soft look. Not that she needed to soften her look. Anyone that knew her knew she was a woman of passion and compassion.

In the distance, there was a strong ripple across the water. She knew it meant that the fish would be biting, but it really was almost time to go. This place held so many memories for her. She let out a long, slow sigh. ‘People tell me I shouldn’t come down here, but I just can’t stay away from you’ she murmured.

Just then, a large loggerhead turtle floated past heading upstream with the incoming tide. Many years ago, they were very common in these parts. They were a much rarer sight now days. But even though she had been coming here for a long time, she still got a thrill to see the turtles when she did happen to spot one

Out in the distance past the entrance of the creek, were the stunning blue waters of Roebuck Bay. The colour of the water was so hard to describe to someone who’d never seen it. It wasn’t the normal dark blue hue of the rest of the Indian Ocean coastline. Instead it was a brilliant aqua blue, which gave the appearance that it was illuminated from underneath.

She glanced one more time around her. She could never grow tired of this scenery, no matter how many times she came here. It was so peaceful, and rarely was anyone else down here. Not that she minded if there was. She wouldn’t ever begrudge someone sharing these beautiful surrounds.

She picked up her backpack and turned to go. She knew she’d be back in a few days, but it was always hard to leave. Slowly but sure-footed, she headed back out through the pathway between the mangled mangrove trees.


Chapter 1:

January 11, 1992

Caitlyn pressed her forehead against the window of the plane and looked down at the scenery beneath her. She was fascinated by the colour of the earth. It was a vivid red colour, not at all like the subdued browns or the sandy yellows of the summer scenery she had seen as she left Perth. Someone had told her that it was the wet season up north, but it only rained in some areas, unless there was a cyclone brewing off the coast somewhere. And sure enough, whilst sometimes she could see large rivers coursing through the desert, other times she could make out dry river beds that branched off occasionally in odd directions. They looked like giant spindly veins exploring the desert landscape.
She was lost in her own thoughts and the wonder of the spectacular landscape below her when the voice of the captain announcing their decent into Broome brought her back to attention, so that she could put her seat back in the upright position. She was both nervous and excited. Broome was meant to be quite a tourist destination, but she was going up there to live. But Caitlyn also realised that living and working in a town would be quite different to taking a holiday there.
When Caitlyn stepped off the plane in the mid afternoon, she felt like she was walking into an oven. The heat hit her as soon as she left the cabin, before she even got to the base of the stairs onto the tarmac. It was definitely a shock to the system. She was used to Perth summers, which have their fair share of hot days sometimes as high as forty degrees, but in general are quite bearable. But this heat was totally different. There was a stifling quality to it. And the humidity was unbelievably high. It was almost as if you could drink the air, it felt that moist.
The principal of Broome Christian Primary School, where Caitlyn was about to start her teaching career, met her in the terminal. He was a piece of paper with name Caitlyn Jackson on it, so Caitlyn knew who he was straight away. Although it wouldn’t have been hard to guess that he was a school principal. He had that stereotypical look of a school principal about him. He looked to be about forty five years old. He had a large frame, and even though it was a Saturday, he wore grey slacks and a white button up shirt. He had large wet marks under his arms that were obviously perspiration. Normally that would have dismayed Caitlyn to see someone like this, but she quickly realised that in this heat it would be hard to avoid. Deodorant can only do so much.
‘Good afternoon Miss Jackson.’ He said with a gruff voice, when he realised who Caitlyn was, ‘I’m Mr Basil, the school principal at Broome Primary School’. He tended to use formalities amongst school staff, even when there were no students present. ‘How was your flight?’ he asked.
‘Long. Nice to meet you Mr Basil’ she replied keeping her response to a minimum. Caitlyn got the feeling that Mr Basil wasn’t the sort to make small talk. ‘Thank you for coming to the airport.’
‘That’s fine.’ He said somewhat abruptly. ‘I do this for all my new teachers. Come on, let’s get your bags.’ Caitlyn was soon to learn that her new boss was always gruff and abrupt. It was his way of keeping his ‘tough principal’ image in tact.

Mr Basil helped Caitlyn collect my bags and take them to his car. If Caitlyn thought the heat was bad outside, it was ten times worse in his troupe carrier. She went to sit in the passenger seat but quickly jumped out again. The vinyl seat was searingly hot through her thin cotton skirt.
‘Sorry,’ apologised Mr Basil. He reached over into the back and grabbed an old towel to put on the seat. He already had a towel spread over the driver’s seat. Arranging the towel he’d given her as best as she could, and sat down once more before doing my seat belt up. It was a relief for Caitlyn when the car engine finally started and the air conditioning blasted to life.
Before he took Caitlyn back to her allocated unit, Mr Basil took her for a quick drive around the town. She was surprised to see that there was nothing but scrub out Cable Beach way. Caitlyn instantly fell in love with the quaint little shop on the beach front that sold drinks and ice creams. Mr Basil pointed to the hotel complex across the road. “That’s Cable Beach Club. Every second Friday, we have drinks after work there for sundowners. The bar over looking the beach is called Sundowners, so it’s quite fitting really.” Caitlyn was amazed. Mr Basil had managed to crack a joke, but he still didn’t crack a smile.
The next place Mr Basil took Caitlyn was down to Town Beach. That was where the town’s only supermarket was at the Seaview Shopping Centre. Mr Basil warned that the price of food was quite expensive due to the slowly increasing tourism and the fact that they were the only supermarket in town.
Next stop was Town Beach itself, where the local kids frolicking in the edge of the water. There was also a small cemetery on the top of the nearby hill and from the car park, you could see the old headstones.
The final part of the ‘town tour’ was China Town, and the main sights included the Sun Pictures Outdoor Cinema, the town jetty, and the Roebuck Hotel. Mr Basil didn’t actually tell Caitlyn not to go to the Roebuck Hotel, but he let it be known in not so many words that it was frowned upon for teachers to be seen frequenting the premises too often. That didn’t bother Caitlyn though. She’d never been the type to ‘hang out’ at a pub.
After that, Mr Basil took Caitlyn back to the unit that she was going to be living in. As a single female, who didn’t have her own car yet, she’d been allocated a small two bedroom unit a couple of blocks from the school. Mr Basil handed her the front door key and she let them both in. The unit was made from a reddish brick. It had a patio out the back which overlooked the little court yard which happened to be over grown with weeds. There was some very basic furniture including a bed, a table and chairs, an old cane lounge, a fridge, a washing machine, and an outdoor table with two plastic chairs. All of these were rather aged, but Mr Basil assured Caitlyn that all the white goods were in working order.
The inside was painted a bland cream colour throughout, and there was old worn vinyl throughout for flooring. Caitlyn found it a bit depressing at first. But she knew that once her own furniture and personal effects were delivered, she would be able to brighten the place up. That wasn’t going to be for another three weeks though. The road south of Broome was still flooded from the last cyclone that had gone down the coast, and there was going to be a lengthy delay in getting furniture deliveries, especially at this time of year when there was an influx of teachers moving north to start in new jobs.
Mr Basil pointed out that his wife had stocked the fridge with some basic food to see Caitlyn through until tomorrow when she would be able to go shopping at Seaview. With that, he went to walk out the door. Before he left, he told her ‘Don’t worry about coming into school tomorrow. Just get yourself settled in, but I’ll see you at school on Tuesday. We have a staff meeting at eight o’clock.’ He had shut the front door and was gone before Caitlyn even had the chance to say goodbye.
The first thing Caitlyn did was reopen the front door, open the back door, and turn on the fan in the small lounge room. But it was still very stuffy, so she opened the windows as well. She saw the ducted air conditioning, but as the unit had been locked up for probably a few months, she wanted to air the unit out first.
She went and looked in the fridge. As Mr Basil had promised, there was some basic food in my fridge, including some milk bread, butter, ham slices and some fruit. Despite being in the fridge, the fruit looked somewhat questionable. There was also an old plastic jug filled with water. She was grateful for the thought, but normally preferred water at room temperature.
Resisting the temptation to stand in the doorway of the fridge, Caitlyn shut the fridge door, went and grabbed the book she’d been reading on the plane and wandered out to the back patio. She sat on one of the plastic chairs in the shade of the back veranda and tried to relax whilst reading her book, but the sweat continued to pour down her face.
After about twenty minutes, she had the thought that she could go and take a cold bath. Caitlyn put her book on the old plastic table, and wandered inside. It was only a small bathroom, and the shower was in the bath. She reached in, put the plug in the bath, and turned on the cold water. As the bath filled, she got undressed and looked forward to sitting in the cool, refreshing water. But Caitlyn was in for a huge shock, as she went to put my foot in the water, not only did she find that it wasn’t room temperature, but it was actually quite warm. She double checked the taps and found the hot tap water was hotter, but only slightly. It was then that it occurred to her why Mrs Basil had put drinking water in the fridge.
Caitlyn decided against the bath for obvious reasons, so she let the water out and got dressed again. By this stage, the sun was starting to get lower, so she contemplated going for a walk to look around her new neighbourhood. But the weather seemed to have sapped all her energy. On a brighter note, a late afternoon breeze had come in. It wasn’t strong, but it was enough to bring some relief, so she went back to reading her book on the back patio, taking a glass of water from the fridge outside as well. This time she was able to read for another forty minutes. But what drove her inside next wasn’t the heat, but instead, it was the mosquitoes which had come out as soon as dusk set in. Caitlyn hurriedly closed the book, grabbed her water glass, and went inside.
Now that the unit had been airing for a while, Caitlyn decided to shut the door and turn on the air conditioning. But when she flicked what she was sure was the air conditioning switch, she heard a large clunk, and then nothing. She tried again, but to know avail. Her first thought was to try and contact Mr Basil, but she realised she had no contact number, and even if she had, the home phone wasn’t connected yet. Caitlyn convinced herself that for one night she would be able to handle it. She would find a public phone and contact Mr Basil at the school in the morning and get it sorted then.
It was then that she had the thought that she would also try and ring her auntie who lived in Broome. Caitlyn had only met her once at a cousin’s wedding about five years ago, but she had instantly warmed to her auntie’s friendly personality and had felt a bond with her over the evening. They had stayed in touch with the occasional letter and Christmas cards. Her auntie didn’t even know she was in Broome now as she had only had two weeks notice that she had got the job, and Caitlyn had been so busy organising to move, that she hadn’t really had a chance to call her. Caitlyn was looking forward to surprising her.
So resigning herself to a ‘warm’ night, Caitlyn made herself a ham sandwich for dinner, and sat in the lounge room. There was no TV, so she couldn’t even watch that.
Caitlyn thought she’d try to get an early night. She left the doors and windows open and snipped the wire screen doors shut.
Even though it had cooled down slightly outside, inside that brick unit was still unbearably warm and muggy. Caitlyn lay on her bed all night tossing and turning. The ceiling fan was on as high as it would go, but apart from not cooling the air very much, it was also very noisy. Caitlyn finally managed to fall into a restless sleep about three o’clock in the morning, but the sun rose just before six, and the unit started to heat up again incredibly quickly. Mrs Basil had left some breakfast cereal on the kitchen bench along with some tea and coffee, so Caitlyn made herself a bowl of cereal, a cup of coffee and went and sat on the back veranda again.
After breakfast, she had a ‘warm’ shower, since it wasn’t possible to have a cold one, then headed out for a walk. Caitlyn walked up to town beach, with the intention of doing some shopping on the way home.
She walked at a leisurely pace, not wanting to exert herself too much. Even though it was only just after eight in the morning, there was already a strong bite in the sun. Walking back towards Hamersley Street, then down onto the sand, she followed the shore line along. Suddenly, Caitlyn noticed all the trees growing on the waters edge, which surprised her. She had no idea that any vegetation could grow in salt water. She followed these strange water side trees along to Town Beach. But when the mangroves cleared away, and Caitlyn was able to see the bay, but could barely see any water. The water line was over one kilometre further out than it had been yesterday when she’d seen it. Caitlyn came across an aboriginal family sitting under a tree up on the grassy banks of Town Beach.
They were seated in a semi circle facing the bay, and looked very relaxed and they were talking animatedly amongst themselves. There were a couple of young children, a boy and a girl. The young slender girl had a long cotton dress on that looked about two sizes too big on her. But despite this, she was a very pretty girl, and when she laughed, her white teeth contrasted with her dark skin. Her hair, like her mother’s, (Caitlyn assumed that the women nursing the sleeping infant was her mother) was long and jet black with a slight wave in it. This was in sharp contrast to the few indigenous people Caitlyn had seen down in Perth who had the more wiry, tight, afro style hair. She came to learn later that this was due to a lot of indigenous people in the Broome area having Japanese heritage in their blood as well, a left over culture from Broome's pearling days.
The young boy had obviously been playing in the sandy mud where the water had disappeared.
Caitlyn went over to them and excused herself.
‘Pardon me’, she started. ‘But can you tell me what happened to the water.’
They laughed in a good natured manner at Caitlyn’s naïveté. ‘That there is the king tide, Misses’, said the mother in the group. ‘The water will come back in about five hours, then it will be way up high on the beach, and almost to the grass here’. She smiled. ‘You new in town, aah, Misses?’ she asked.
‘Yes I am’, Caitlyn replied with a laugh of her own. ‘Is it that obvious?’
‘Sure is, misses. Everyone in Broome knows about the king tides. What you doin’ in Broome then, hey?’
Caitlyn told her how she was going to be teaching year seven at Broome Christian Primary School.
‘This here is Sissy.’ she indicated to the young girl. ‘She’ll be in year seven this year. You be having her in your class probably, misses’.
‘I dare say I will.’ Caitlyn turned to Sissy ‘Hello, Sissy. Nice to meet you. I’m Miss Johnson.’
‘Hello Misses’ Sissy said in a barely audible tone, then she giggled to her younger brother standing next to her and they both ran down to the sandy flats that were now void of water.’
Caitlyn said goodbye to the family and wandered a bit further up the beach before deciding to walk out towards the water. As she walked along, she became fascinated by the myriad of things to be found upon the sandy flats. Not only was there an assortment of shells, and small crabs scuttling along, there were also pools of water left behind by the receding water. In these pools, were tiny fish swimming around. Caitlyn reached into one of the pools and watched the fish dart towards her fingers then out again. She wandered a bit further and found another pool of water. This time there was a small octopus in it with a beautiful bluey purple colouring on it. Once again she went to reach into the water, but unbeknownst to her, Sissy had come up beside me with her brother, and she quickly said in a quite voice ‘I wouldn’t do that Misses. That there’s a blue ring octopus. You get true sick if he stings ya.’ Caitlyn quickly withdrew her hand again.
‘Thankyou Sissy’ she replied and Sissy smiled again shyly.
‘We’ll show you something Misses’ and they ran off out towards the shore line. Caitlyn proceeded to follow them. They stopped about forty metres away over what appeared to be another pool of water. As she started to get closer to where they were, Caitlyn noticed that she was no longer walking on just sand, but rather a more muddy type of consistency, and the sandy yellow had become a greyer looking colour.
When Caitlyn caught up with the children, Sissy’s brother had a small rock, and was banging it against the rocks in another rock pool. Before she could see what he was doing properly, he stopped banging and lifted up a large black shell towards her face. In the shell was a greyish meat.
‘Oyster, Misses. It’s yum. Want it?’ he said, grinning sheepishly. As Caitlyn tried to decide whether she would be brave enough to taste his offering, he dug the meat out of the shell and popped it into his mouth. ‘Too late Misses” he laughed, “but I’ll get ya another one.’ And with that, he picked up another rock and started banging again.
This time, when he held up another shell, she decided to be brave and dug the meat out with my fingers like she had seen Sissy’s brother do. She placed the meat in her mouth and had to steel herself to prevent spitting it straight out again. Caitlyn had never tried oysters before, and the slimy consistency was not one she was accustomed too. Despite not spitting it out, she pulled a face that showed her surprise, because both children burst out into hysterical laughing fits watching Caitlyn swallow the salty morsel.
When Caitlyn finished swallowing, she thanked Sissy’s brother for his ‘gift’, and told the children that she would be going now, as the sun was getting a bit hot for her. After telling them goodbye, she headed back the way she had come. She could still hear their laughter half way back, but she knew that they were good kids, so she didn’t take offence.
The sun was now high in the sky, and Caitlyn could feel the beads of sweat running down her face. She decided to head for the supermarket at Seaview shopping centre, and do some shopping.
When she got back to the grassed area at Town Beach, my feet and sandals were covered in a layer of grey mud. She found a tap and proceeded to rinse my feet. It took quite a bit of water, and rubbing to get her feet and sandals clean.
The shopping centre itself was large stone building, which provided some insulation from the heat. Caitlyn headed towards the supermarket with a mental list of the items she wanted to buy. She realised that she needed a fair bit of shopping and that she wouldn’t be able to carry it all home with her while she was walking. As she entered the supermarket, Caitlyn spotted a young woman about her own age standing at a checkout with no customers, looking bored and filing her nails. She went up to her and waited a few seconds for the checkout operator, whose name badge said Jolene to realise she was standing there. ‘Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there. Can I help you?’
‘Ah yes’ Caitlyn said. ‘My name’s Caitlyn. I’m new in town, and I have a lot of shopping to do. The problem is I don’t have a car…’
Caitlyn was about to ask if they did home deliveries, but Jolene pre-empted her ‘Yeah, no worries’ she said. ‘We have lots of people round these parts that need home deliveries. Just do your shopping and I’ll ring it through for you, then I’ll organise someone to deliver it for you.’
‘Thanks, Jolene’ Caitlyn replied pointing towards her name tag and before heading towards the supermarket entrance, where she grabbed a rickety old trolley and started shopping.
Caitlyn didn’t actually have a shopping list, not even in her head, so she just started at one end and went up and down the aisles grabbing what she thought she would need. Before she knew it, she had come to the end of the last aisle and the shopping trolley was very full. There was everything from food to bed sheets and a plastic bin for the kitchen.
Caitlyn made her way over to Jolene’s checkout and waited behind the person she was now serving.
When Jolene started ringing through Caitlyn’s shopping, they got talking. Jolene was a happy-go-lucky sort of character, who loved to chat. Because she was aware that Caitlyn was new in town, she decided that Caitlyn needed to know what there was for young people their age to do and commenced talking about how she personally liked to go to Cable Beach on her days off, catch a movie at the Outdoor picture theatre, and how best of all she liked to go to Pearlers Bar at the Roebuck Hotel on a Friday night.
When Caitlyn told her that she wasn’t really the type to go out that much, and she wasn’t particularly into hanging out at pubs, Jolene gave what seemed like a horrified look. ‘Oh, Caitlyn, honey.’ she exclaimed. ‘You’re going to get bored mighty quick in this town if you lock yourself away and never having any fun.’
‘It’s not that I don’t like to have fun. It’s just that as a teacher, I’ll probably be flat out with my school work. Besides that, I’ve already met my new principal, and in not so many words, he told me that it’s frowned upon for teachers to be seen frequenting the wrong sorts of establishments, if you get my drift. I think he sees it as falling into a christian ethos issue. And I’ve also got an aunt in town, so I’m sure I won’t get too lonely.’
‘If you say so’ said Jolene, then added in a conspiratorial tone, ‘But, Pearlers on a Friday night, really is the best place to meet the cute boys.’
Caitlyn just laughed and let Jolene talk a bit longer while she finished ringing up her order. Then without really meaning too, Caitlyn yawned at her. She was instantly mortified to think Jolene may think she was rude yawning while she was talking, so she quickly said ‘I’m so sorry. I wasn’t yawning at your conversation. It’s just that I was barely able to sleep last night. I just moved into my unit that the school gave me to live in, and I discovered late in the day that my air conditioner wasn’t working, and the fan in my bedroom didn’t make much difference. I couldn’t even take a cold bath to cool down as the water in the taps seem to be warm all the time.’
Jolene gave an understanding smile and went on to give Caitlyn some useful advice. She explained that if you ran a bath and let it sit for a few hours, it would cool down sufficiently to provide a relaxing cold bath. The other tip she gave was that by buying a sarong which they sold for tourist in the supermarket, wetting it at night, and wringing it out and using it as a sheet, that together with the fan that would make it easier to sleep. Jolene explained that she lived in a housing commission unit, where there was no air conditioning provided, and that was what she did. Caitlyn was a bit doubtful about the sarong idea, but never the less, added one to her shopping.
On the way home, Caitlyn spotted a public phone and called the school. The school secretary that took the call promised to contact an electrician as soon as possible. But she warned Caitlyn that there was no guarantee that a tradesman could go around that day to fix it, but she would try. She also offered to organise for Caitlyn to stay in a hotel for a night or two. But Caitlyn felt that if it was only going to be a day or two, she would tough it out. She wasn’t much in the mood for packing up for the sake of a night or two. And besides, she’d already done all that shopping.
Next Caitlyn rang her auntie. There was no answer, so Caitlyn left a brief message on the answering machine. She informed her auntie that she had moved to Broome at short notice, left her address and said that she looked forward to catching up.
When Caitlyn got home, she immediately ran a bath and left it as Jolene had suggested, then waited for her shopping to arrive.
That night, before bed, she went back into the bathroom, and discover a refreshingly cool bath waiting. Afterwards she went to bed with just the wet sarong as a sheet. It felt strange at first, and she doubted whether she would be able to sleep with the sensation of feeling ‘wet’, but sure enough, within twenty minutes, she was fast asleep.