Journey to the River Sea

It was Maia’s turn to stare. Three months ago she hadn’t known that Miss Minton existed. When she’d first seen her, she thought she was a terrifying witch. But now . . .

There was a pause. Then:

‘And you’ve got me,’ said Finn.

Maia lifted her head and smiled at him. For a moment she felt completely happy. Then she looked at Finn’s hand resting on the tiller.

‘But you’re going away.’

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘That’s true. I’m going away.’

Later that night when Maia was back in the bungalow, and Finn was frying some eggs Furo had brought for their supper, Clovis said, ‘There’s something I want to ask you about. When I was looking for Maia the first time, I asked for a place called Tapherini, or the House of Rest. Maia told me that that was what it was called and that Mrs Carter had it on her notepaper. But no one had heard of it and they looked . . . sort of funny. And then the captain of the boat wouldn’t put me down on the Carters’ landing stage. He said it was a bad place. What did he mean?’

Finn sat back on his heels. He seemed to be wondering whether to speak or not. Then he said, ‘I’ll tell you but you must promise to say nothing to Maia.’ And he told Clovis what had happened when the Carters first came to the Amazon.

‘They found an Indian longhouse by the river and some thatched huts back in the forest. The land and the houses belonged to the Tapuri, which is the tribe to which Furo and Tapi belong, but many of the Indians had left to find work in the town, and the elders of the tribe agreed to sell the land and the houses on it to the Carters.

‘The price was agreed before witnesses. A proper ceremony took place and Mr Carter signed the document to which the old chief put his mark. The Tapuri asked that the House of Rest which was what the longhouse had been called, should be left standing, because a very wise medicine man had died there and his spirit still lived in the house and did not want to be disturbed.

‘Mr Carter agreed to everything. Good land by the river was hard to find since so many Europeans had come to Manaus to make their fortune, and the rubber trees in the surrounding forest were plentiful.

‘The money was to be paid to the Indians in three lots. Mr Carter paid the first lot promptly, in gold coins fetched from the bank, and the chief of the Tapuri thanked him and took his people to build themselves homes further up the river.

‘A month later the chief’s messenger came for the second lot of money and was sent away. Mr Carter, he was told, was waiting for more gold to come from the bank in England on a special ship.

‘The messenger went back into the forest and came again a month later. He was told that the ship with the gold on it had sunk in a storm.’

And so it went on. The Indians began by being polite, and ended up shaking their fists at the Carters. Those Europeans who knew what was happening went to the chief of police, who tried to force Carter to pay what he owed – but Carter always found an excuse not to do it. Not only that, but he broke his word to the Indians and pulled down not only the surrounding huts in the forest but the longhouse itself, and on the site he built his bungalow.

Mrs Carter had Tapherini, or House of Rest, put on her writing paper – she thought it sounded good – but no one in Manaus ever called it that, nor would the Indian traders land on the Carters’ landing stage but always, like the captain who had brought Clovis, stopped higher up. And the many decent Europeans who knew what had happened tried to have as little to do with the Carters as possible.

After this not many Indians would come to work for the family. Those that did, Furo and Tapi and old Lila, stayed for personal reasons – Lila because she wanted to be near Finn and his father; Furo because he was her nephew; Conchita because she had a crippled brother to support in Manaus. When they worked in the house, they were unforgiving and sullen, and secretly they believed that one day the old medicine man’s spirit, which had been disturbed and shamed, would rise up against the Carters, and the family would get what they deserved.

Clovis had been listening to Finn with a very worried face.

‘But that’s a sort of curse. Maia shouldn’t live in a house that’s been cursed.’

‘I know. But nobody has cursed Maia – nobody in the world would do that. And Furo and the others have promised to look after her. They absolutely promised.’

‘And you’re not going to tell Maia?’

‘No. Definitely not. She’s got enough to put up with, with those awful twins.’

Mrs Carter had at last arranged Maia’s piano lessons with Netta’s father, Mr Haltmann. Maia went to his house before the dancing class while the twins were shopping with their mother, so she could enjoy it and not have to pretend that learning the piano was boring. If there was one thing the twins really hated, it was if Maia seemed to enjoy anything.