The Persimmon Tree by Bryce Courtenay Read Free Book Online Page B

remarried. I guess I’d been short of my share of female kisses, even of the maternal kind. Women, even the feel of them, were a complete mystery to me.
    ‘Anna, I’ve made a decision, I’ll sail the Vleermuis to Australia. But I don’t want your father to give it to me, only to sign the papers over to you. Put them in your name. If I get through the war, well, then it will be ours anyway. But I want him to grant me just one favour.’
    ‘Nicholas, I don’t want you to sail Vleermuis without me,’ she said, alarmed. ‘It is too dangerous! Mijn papa say, if you want, you can have that boat. It is only to say he is sorry. You know, what happens last night. It’s okay. You do not have to take it!’
    I took both her hands in mine, our faces close. ‘No, listen, Anna, it’s a good idea. I’ve been down to the harbour today. It’s going to be difficult to get a working passage to Australia or home. Papua is expecting the Japanese to invade at any moment. It’s a mad panic down at the docks, the cost of a deck space is now twenty-five pounds.’
    ‘I will ask my father, he will lend —’
    ‘No, no, I don’t want that!’ I cried in alarm, not wishing under any circumstances to be in the Dutchman’s debt. It hadn’t yet occurred to me that he was to be my future father-in-law. On the last occasion we’d been together he’d threatened to shoot me. ‘It’s a good boat and rigged for the open sea.’ I smiled. ‘I’ll enjoy the adventure.’
    ‘What favour? If you sail Vleermuis , already that is doing mijn papa a favour.’
    ‘No, this is different, when I get back to Australia I want to change the name of the boat.’
    ‘You don’t like Vleermuis ? In English it hard to say, ja ?’
    ‘Yes, true, but that’s not it. I want to call her Madam Butterfly . It’s your boat and it will be a sort of… like a promise between us.’
    ‘Oh, Nicholas!’ She pulled her hands from mine and clapped them happily. ‘Mr Butterfly and Madam Butterfly .’
    ‘Yeah,’ I said, a little embarrassed, suddenly conscious that to anyone else it might sound pretty corny, but nonetheless still liking the idea a whole lot.
    ‘Wonderful! It is beautiful idea. We will do it, ja .’ She suddenly gave a little squeal. ‘It is a sign, that butterfly I caught!’
    ‘The Clipper?’
    ‘ Ja , Nicholas, it’s so beautiful! When I am catching it you say to me, “See, the wings they look like a sailing boat.” It is a sign! A good sign!’ she repeated emphatically.
    ‘Your father may not like the name change,’ I ventured.
    Anna pouted prettily. ‘So? Now it is mijn boat. He cannot say.’
    ‘We’ll do it when we get back to Australia and the boat is registered in your name. You can mention it to your father then.’
    The Dutchman came to the restaurant the next day and expressed his delight, and even if he didn’t offer his apologies for the insulting manner in which he’d propositioned me in his home, his manner indicated that he wanted things to remain cordial between us. His voice had recovered and was at its booming best so that the whole bar could hear him. ‘After the war, when Anna is older, by me, I am happy she is with you, Nick. You will marry, ja !’ It wasn’t a question and he stuck out his huge paw. ‘ Ja , also mijn boat, Vleermuis , now it is hers.’ He laughed. ‘A goed marriage present, ja, I think so!’
    ‘Madam Butterfly,’ I said under my breath, both your daughter and your boat.
    I resigned from my afternoon job at De Kost Kamer and went to live on the Vleermuis as it needed a fair bit of maintenance. The gaff-rigged cutter hadn’t been out sailing for nearly five months and I spent the next few days doing all I could to be sure she was seaworthy. The bilge pump wasn’t working properly and I spent a fair bit of time getting it right. Anna spent as long as she could working beside me. The Dutchman was right, she certainly knew her way around a boat and didn’t mind getting her hands