River of Roses

Rex Shelley

Description

Meet Philippa Rosario. She's 56 and feisty, a junior college teacher who dabbles in the Chinese zodiac, confident that she has all human nature taped. Enter once again, Vicky Viera, mellowed by a tragic past. Together, they weave the threads of a spell-binding odyssey spanning four generations of the Rosario family-from the raging Alfonso and clairvoyant Antonio, to Ignatius, a spirited hormone-driven teenager. In this novel, Rex Shelley introduces a host of memorable multi-hued characters: the cheroot-smoking, wine-swigging padre, the contractor unlucky in love yet ending up with all the aces, the clarinet player whose religion and passions are at odds with each other. The Eurasians of his other novels are also present-every one of them firmly bound by the fate that history and the Chinese zodiac have reserved for them.

Informations

• Publié par: Marshall Cavendish International
• Date de parution: 16 avril 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789814677714
• Langue: English

Extrait

2011 Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited
1998 Rex Shelley, published under Times Books International, an imprint of Times Edition Pte Ltd.
Cover by Opalworks Co. Ltd
Published by Marshall Cavendish Editions
An imprint of Marshall Cavendish International
1 New Industrial Road, Singapore 536196
All rights reserved
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National Library Board Singapore Cataloguing in Publication Data
Shelley, Rex, 1930-2009.
A river of roses / Rex Shelley. - Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Editions, c2011.
p. cm.
ISBN : 978-981-4346-26-9 (pbk.)
eISBN : 978 981 4677 71 4
1. Eurasians - Singapore - Fiction. I. Title.
PR9570.S53
S823 - dc22 OCN698304680
Printed in Singapore by Fabulous Printers Pte Ltd
A Note from the Author
THIS BOOK is fiction woven into a web of facts, like the pre-World War II communist activities, the unruly demonstration on the old St. Joseph s Institution playing field, the exhibition of photographs of Belsen and all the little details of living in Malaya and Singapore. The U.P. Junior College, however, is a fictitious institution set up five years before the first junior college in Singapore was opened.
I have combined Eurasian surnames, popular Eurasian Christian names and nicknames at random. Given the limited number of names, it is probable that a few of these random combinations are the names of real persons, dead or alive. There is no attempt to refer to any real person. I have deliberately misspelt some surnames whose pronunciation is not obvious from the English spelling.

Contents
PART UM
1 The Wedding Party
2 Six Decades
3 Leao
4 Signs of the East and West
5 The Saltfish
6 The Waif, Reborn
7 Philippa s Mnemonics
8 The Regidor
9 1915, 1919
10 The Embryo in the Womb
PART YEE
11 Antonio Rosario
12 Antonio, Inside Right
13 Ipoh 1938
14 Mimi
15 The New Road
16 The First of March 1940
17 Gunshots
18 War
19 New Year s Eve 1970
PART TIGA
20 Vicky Viera
21 Vicky s Man
22 Liberation and Chaos
23 The White Y
24 Daud bin Ibrahim
25 Duncan Gudgeon
26 On the Beach
27 Gut Strings
28 Three Women
29 Vicky, Duncan, Daud, Keh
30 The Ides of February
31 Doubts
32 Mrs Sunha
33 Curries and Conversations
34 Clouds
35 A Trust Broken
36 Crime and Punishment
37 Electric Shock
38 Another New Year s Eve
PART FOUR
39 Up, Up and Away
40 U.P.J.C. 1965
41 Siti
42 Party Time
43 Pre-U Two, 1966
44 Sei-sup-sei
45 National Service
46 M-16s
Part Um *
Chapter One
The Wedding Party
AREN T THEY a lovely couple?
Yes. She s got such a wonderful pink skin, hasn t she?
Yah. Like one of those porcelain statues.
She s really beautiful, isn t she, Phil?
Yah. Like her mother.
Not just her mother. Takanashi s got that clear fair skin too, Phil.
Yah
Pity about that scar on his face, isn t it?
He s lucky to be alive, Vicky.
Yeah, I know. You ve told me that story umpteen times.
And you ve forgotten it umpteen times.
The perfect bride! God, she would be a perfect Virgin Mary in a Nativity play. That beautiful white face of pure innocence.
For Chrissake, Vicky, you get so bloody carried away. This is bloody nineteen seventy. Don t go on about all that virginity stuff. They ve probably been
Yah, Phil. I cry at weddings.
Oh, Vicky!
Philippa lifted her chin, threw her grey head back and laughed a loud uncouth laugh.
Philippa didn t care a damn.
At 56, single, stamped spinster by her society, she was absolutely sure, piggishly cocksure of herself, certain that she had all human nature taped - and they could all get stuffed if they objected to her ways. She used the new expressions. She would have said it with a four-letter word if Vicky could have taken it.
Vicky, who in her youth was the wild one, the rebel!
She put her hand on Vicky s dried, wrinkled forearm, and laughed on.
Vicky
Vicky smiled at Philippa and was about to say something when a gruff voice cut in from behind them.
If it s a dirty one, I ve heard it.
Vicky and Philippa turned their necks round uncomfortably to look, although both had guessed who he might be.
Uncle Ramalho. Hi, Philippa said.
Good evening, Uncle, Vicky wished him with a smile.
For heaven s sake, don t uncle me. Not at your age, Vicky.
He growled a soft laugh.
Doctor Rosario Vicky mumbled.
That s better. When two old maids call me uncle, I know I m getting on.
Not old maids, please. Dignified mature ladies, if you don t mind, Philippa interrupted.
Ramalho growled his soft laugh again. A wide grin all over his puffy face, his mouth pink against his shiny black-brown complexion. His hair gleaming white. He shifted his flabby body, clutching his cane. At seventy-three he was fat, wobbly, grey, but still with a thick shock of hair, and bursting with life, flamboyant, eating like a horse, though not drinking as much as he used to, and always laughing, the twinkle of a lusty young buck in his eyes. Philippa had said to him at Antonio s birthday party five years ago, with the whisky wild in her, Uncle Rama, you re really a fire rooster by the Chinese birth signs! and he had snapped back with a body-quaking laugh, Don t be crude, girl. I m not a hot cock.
Isn t she beautiful? Ramalho said.
Sit down, Uncle, Philippa said.
Thank you. I won t. It s such a job getting up, you know.
Yah, I was jus sayin to Phil how lovely she is
And so is he, Philippa cut in sharply.
Yes, yes, yes. Of course. He s a Rosario, Ramalho grunted.
Oh God! Vicky responded at once with her head thrown back in mock disgust. All sticking together
Blood, my dear, is thicker than alcohol.
You re talking of the Rosarios.
Ramalho laughed again.
Philippa switched to a sentimental, serious tone.
I never ever thought that I would be at my nephew s wedding, Uncle.
Your nephew! My grand nephew! Or whatever you call the blighter. It s medical science, girl. Keeps us old fogies going.
And monkey glands, Vicky added, giggling.
Watch your mouth, sweetheart, Ramalho said.
Yeah, Philippa added without a moment s hesitation. You shouldn t say things like that in front of Uncle Ramalho. The fellow s still
Flabby but virile. Ramalho laughed at his own interruption.
Ready, willing Vicky started with the words of the old song but Philippa broke in with and doubtfully able.
Hey. This is all too much for me. I d better be off before I get seduced.
Philippa laughed, By a woman in her late sixties.
Phil! How could you
Philippa, Ramalho said as he adjusted his body position to move away, come round sometime and see my new tiger skin.
New? Surely you re not still
No. No. Do you remember I gave the Yang di-Pertuan Besar a skin many years ago?
Yah. The one you shot near Rembau, right?
That s the bugger. Well, the old bloke s son remembered that it was I who gave it to his father and when he died he whispered to me at the funeral the lying-in-state, I mean I mean Mahmud, the son well, he said he d send it to the house. Return it to me. The palace was jam-packed with hunting trophies anyway. So he sent it to me. Real beauty, she is.
Yah. I will, someday.
Cheerio, girls!
Girls Vicky giggled softly.
They were silent for a minute after he walked away.
They re a lovely couple, aren t they? Vicky said, to break the silence.
You said that already, Vicky, Philippa mumbled without expression.
Vicky looked at her. She was not going to let Philippa upset her tonight. Let it lie.
The thing is, they fit each other, Philippa said.
Yah
I mean, personality-wise. He s a Virgo and she s a Gemini.
What about the Chinese signs?
He s a rat. She s a tiger.
Hoi, Tessie! Vicky called out to a middle-aged woman walking past them.
Vicky! Haven t seen you for ages and ages, Tessie said as she came up to Vicky and Philippa. Hello, Philippa.
Tessie Perera stood in front of them, radiant, flushed with alcohol, smiling, her pale blue dress clinging to her body.
Gee, you look good, Vicky said.
Stunning, girl. Quite geravishing, as one of my students once wrote in his composition. Probably mixed it with geram . She didn t have to explain it meant sexy, desirable in Malay.
Tessie grinned and opened her mouth to say something, but Vicky started, What s the secret?
Good clean living, Tessie smiled impishly.
And lots of good sex, Philippa added.
Shush! Vicky turned to Philippa.
Tessie grinned. Vegetables and cooling foods.
Poppycock! Philippa snapped.
How s Gus? Vicky asked, trying to change the subject.
Fighting fit. Didn t you see the