Silver

Chapter 32 - then

I was almost dead with boredom by the time the plane landed. Alistair wouldn't let me watch any of the films on my TV screen in case I saw the map of where we were going. All I'd been able to do was read the in-flight magazine and eat. I read every story in the in-flight magazine, so I knew all about the flight attendant of the year and where to eat when visiting Byron Bay. I probably could've talked to Alistair more, and 'gotten to know him', but I was feeling tired and cranky.

We exited the plane via stairs straight onto the tarmac. It was warm and humid and a bit stinky. I was worried we'd landed somewhere povo. On the bus to the terminal, as I was hanging like a monkey onto a pole, I said to him, 'at which point are you going to tell me where we are?'

'You don't know already?'

'Ah, no.'

'We're in Sabah.'

'Where?'

'Sabah, like in Borneo ... Malaysia.'

'I've never heard of it.' I was disappointed. The least I could have gotten out of this marriage thing was a good holiday. Why couldn't we have gone somewhere cool like Japan?

'You're going to love it,' he said, as he swung down to give me a peck on the cheek. I got a whiff of his underarm, it smelt like sausage rolls, and made me feel queasy.

At the baggage collection, Alistair got agitated waiting for our bags to arrive on the carousel.

'Bags can go missing, you know. It's happened to me before. I lost everything once when I got home from a trip to the States. It's impossible to get things back. You have to lodge a claim with the insurance company and it can take weeks before you get your money. I was lucky I was home in Australia. If I'd just started my trip it would have been terrible.'

He kept walking back and forth to the carousel.

'I'd bought the GT4 that was only ever available in the States, and it was in the bag that got lost. It was superseded by the GT5 after six months, as there was a bug with the GT4, so they're like collector's items now. Imagine if I still had it.'

I didn't know what he was talking about.

'I've got the GT8 in my bag,' he whispered, as if it was a state secret. 'I can't wait to show you a new game my brother gave me as a gift for our wedding. I won't tell you how much it cost.'

Good, I thought. I can't stand anyone talking about how much anything costs. It's tacky.

'There they are,' he shrieked excitedly, pointing at our bags like a child who has just spotted an elephant at the zoo for the first time. The bags were coming around the carousel towards us, but he couldn't wait. He barged past people to our left, trying to get to his bag sooner. I watched as he attempted to pull my bag off the carousel, but then something happened and he just collected his bag.

He wheeled his bag back from the carousel and took a key out of his wallet and unlocked the padlock from the side pocket of the bag. He put his hand deep into the pocket and felt around. There was a look of relief on his face when he found whatever it was he was looking for.

I tried to hoist my bag off the carousel by myself, but it was heavy and awkward and I was too late to manage it properly.

'Sorry, I just...' he said, breathlessly, returning to my side. We watched as my bag sashayed away. 'We'll have to wait until it comes around again.'

We stood there silently, tiredly waiting for my bag to come around again. My bag was filled with lies, a last-minute re-pack at home, where I shoved in two old pairs of jeans, a skirt, a mainstream dress my mother had bought me, a few t-shirts and sweaters.

In the taxi, he explained how he'd booked us in for a night at an exclusive hotel, 'which cost the earth', and then tomorrow we'd be going to our next destination. Very special. By ferry. Also Very Expensive.