Kuda Puti

Diamonds are forever...A tale of love, intrigue and lust!From the shadow she heard a booming voice.His lip curled spitting out the words with venom. 'He's dead; I'll take his share of the diamonds too.' A greedy look appeared in the tall shadow's eyes. Her own words echoed back to her. 'The diamonds are yours anyway...' 'Well, then...' the booming voice paused for effect, 'I'll take them now.'She passed him the envelope. Vaguely, she recalled saying, 'We had agreed on you having the pick of the stones.' The towering figure took the envelope, gave a crooked smile and slipped the stones into the pocket of his bush shirt. He gave a grunt and looked down. Her eyes followed. The tall shadow's feet were under water. Something was wrong. Inside the seaplane, there should not be any water... 'What have you done, Kuda, you little bitch?' The voice in her head boomed. 'Kuda, we're sinking; you pulled the plug.'She could see water bubbling in from a hole in the fuselage next to a lifeless body floating face down. 'You shot a hole in the plane,' she levelled accusingly. 'You sank the plane.' She wondered where the calm rationale came from, considering her situation, trapped in a flying boat on the high seas with a dead man and a homicidal maniac.The story, spanning seventy years, tells of despair and hope, and love won and lost. When World War II was finally over, migrants from all over the world arrived in Australia to escape the hardships they had endured. They made lives for themselves despite the prejudices levelled by the old Australians. Refugees was not the buzzword then - they were migrants, the new Australians.This is one of their stories...