Eva Ibbotson - Journey to the River Sea

Mr Murray patted a large folder on his knee. ‘As you know we have been searching for a long time for anyone related to your late father. We knew that there was a second cousin, a Mr Clifford Carter, but all efforts to trace him failed until two months ago, when we heard that he had emigrated six years earlier. He had left England with his family.’

‘So where is he now?’ Maia asked.

There was a moment of silence. It was as though the good news had now run out, and Mr Murray looked solemn and cleared his throat.

‘He is living — the Carters are living — on the Amazon.’

‘In South America. In Brazil,’ put in Miss Banks.

Maia lifted her head. ‘On the Amazon ?’ she said. ‘In the jungle, do you mean?’

‘Not exactly. Mr Carter is a rubber planter. He has a house on the river not far from the city of Manaus. It is a perfectly civilized place. I have, of course, arranged for the consul out there to visit it. He knows the family and they are very respectable.’ There was a pause. ‘I thought you would wish me to make a regular payment to the Carters for your keep and your schooling. As you know, your father left you well-provided for.’

‘Yes, of course; I would like that; I would like to pay my share.’ But Maia was not thinking of her money. She was thinking of the Amazon. Of rivers full of leeches, of dark forests with hostile Indians with blowpipes, and nameless insects which burrowed into flesh.

How could she live there? And to give herself courage, she said, ‘What are they called?’

‘Who?’ The old man was still wondering about the arrangements he had made with Mr Carter. Had he offered too much for Maia’s keep?

‘The twins? What are the names of the twins?’

‘Beatrice and Gwendolyn,’ said Emily. ‘They have written you a note.’

And she handed Maia a single sheet of paper.

Dear Maia, the girls had written, We hope you will come and live with us. We think it would be nice. Maia saw them as she read: fair and curly-haired and pretty; everything she longed to be and wasn’t. If they could live in the jungle, so could she!

‘When do I go?’ she asked.

‘At the end of next month. It has all worked out very well because the Carters have engaged a new governess and she will travel out with you.’

A governess… in the jungle… how strange it all sounded. But the letter from the girls had given her heart. They were looking forward to having her. They wanted her; surely it would be all right?

‘Well, let’s hope it’s for the best,’ said Miss Banks after Maia left the room.

They were more serious now. It was a long way to send a child to an unknown family — and there was Maia’s music to consider. She played the piano well, but what interested the staff was Maia’s voice. Her mother had been a singer; Maia’s own voice was sweet and true. Though she did not want to sing professionally, her eagerness to learn new songs, and understand them, was exceptional.

But what was that to set against the chance of a loving home? The Carters had seemed really pleased to take Maia, and she was an attractive child.

‘The consul has promised to keep me informed,’ said Mr Murray — and the meeting broke up.

Meanwhile, Maia’s return to the classroom meant the end of the tributaries of the Thames.

‘Tomorrow we will have our lesson on the Amazon and the rivers of South America,’ said Miss Carlisle. ‘I want you all to find out at least one interesting fact about it.’ She smiled at Maia. ‘And I shall expect you to tell us how you will travel, and for how long, so that we can all share your adventure.’

There was no doubt about it; Maia was a heroine, but not the kind that people envied; more the kind that got burnt at the stake. By the time her friends had clustered round her with ‘Oohs’ and ‘Aaahs’ and cries of distress, Maia wanted nothing except to run away and hide.

But she didn’t. She asked permission to go to the library after supper.

The library at the Academy was a good one. That night Maia sat alone on top of the mahogany library steps, and she read and she read and she read. She read about the great broad-leaved trees of the rainforest pierced by sudden rays of sun. She read about the travellers who had explored the maze of rivers and found a thousand plants and animals that had never been seen before. She read about brilliantly coloured birds flashing between the laden branches — macaws and humming birds and parakeets — and butterflies the size of saucers, and curtains of sweetly scented orchids trailing from the trees. She read about the wisdom of the Indians who could cure sickness and wounds that no one in Europe understood.

‘ Those who think of the Amazon as a Green Hell, ’ she read in an old book with a tattered spine, ‘bring only their own fears and prejudices to this amazing land. For whether a place is a hell or a heaven rests in yourself, and those who go with courage and an open mind may find themselves in Paradise.’

Maia looked up from the book. I can do it, she vowed. I can make it a heaven and I will!

Matron found her there long after bedtime, still perched on the ladder, but she did not scold her for there was a strange look on the girl’s face as though she was already in another country.

Everyone came well-prepared to the Geography lesson on the following day.

‘You start, Hermione,’ said Miss Carlisle. ‘What did you find out about the Amazon?’

Hermione looked anxiously at Maia.

‘There are huge crocodiles in the rivers that can snap your head off in one bite. Only they’re not called crocodiles, they’re called alligators because their snouts are fatter, but they’re just as fierce.’

‘And if you just put one hand in the water there are these piranhas that strip all the flesh off your bones. Every single bit. They look just like ordinary fish but their teeth are terrible,’ said Melanie.

Daisy offered a mosquito which bit you and gave you yellow fever. ‘You turn as yellow as a lemon and then you die,’ she said.

‘And it’s so hot the sweat absolutely runs off you in buckets.’

‘Not sweat, dear, perspiration,’ corrected Miss Carlisle.

Anna described the Indians, covered in terrifying swirls of paint, who shot you with poisoned arrows which paralysed you and made you mad; from Rose came jaguars, silent as shadows, which pounced on anyone who dared to go into the forest.

Miss Carlisle now raised a hand and looked worriedly at Maia. The girl was pale and silent, and she was very sorry now that she had told the class to find out what they could.

‘And you, Maia? What did you find out?’

Maia rose to her feet. She had written notes but she did not look at them, and when she began to speak she held her head high, for her time in the library had changed everything.

‘The Amazon is the largest river in the world. The Nile is a little bit longer but the Amazon has the most water. It used to be called The River Sea because of that, and all over Brazil there are rivers that run into it. Some of the rivers are black and some are brown and the ones that run in from the south are blue and this is because of what is under the water.

‘When I go I shall travel on a boat of the Booth Line and it will take four weeks to go across the Atlantic, and then when I get to Brazil I still have to travel a thousand miles along the river between trees that lean over the water, and there will be scarlet birds and sandbanks and creatures like big guinea pigs called capa… capybaras which you can tame.

‘And after another two weeks on the boat I shall reach the city of Manaus, which is a beautiful place with a theatre with a green and golden roof, and shops and hotels just like here because the people who grew rubber out there became very rich and so they could build such a place even in the middle of the jungle… And that is where I shall be met by Mr and Mrs Carter and by Beatrice and Gwendolyn—’ She broke off and grinned at her classmates. ‘And after that I don’t know, but it’s going to be all right. ’