James puts a contented arm around Maya as they stroll along the riverbank. Paper lanterns rise like weightless pumpkins in the night sky from the edge of the Thu Bon River, glistening against their twinkling reflections as they leap into the air. Maya and James’ eyes take in the spectacle, their tummies full and satisfied.
‘Must be some kind of festival,’ he says.
Lenny’s eyes light up and his top lip beads with a sweat he had worked up eating his chicken noodles. ‘Wow, all this for us? You shouldn’t have!’ he says, with a mischievous grin.
‘Well, you know, Lenny, we wanted to send you off in style,’ Maya replies with a wink.
‘It looks magical. Doesn’t it look magical, Dee?’
Dee smiles and nestles into Lenny’s chest.
Jon walks ahead of them, hands in his pockets, as if the promenade is his stage; the artist’s swagger giving him a confident stride. He keeps his head up, taking in the lanterns, seeing if anyone recognises him.
Further up the flat walkway hugging the water’s edge, crowds converge, and more lanterns are lit and launched. Gasps rise as each one makes the daring jump, like popcorn popping in a pan, just hitting the right temperature. Children eat chicken from a stick and cotton candy from a bag. Some of the lanterns fail and plummet into the Thu Bon, where they are swept along and bob away like mystical and magical fish.
James releases his arm and takes his digital SLR out of the camera bag around his neck. This scene is too enchanting not to photograph.
‘I’m just going…’ James gestures, pointing to the river’s edge.
Maya smiles. She can already envisage the photographs he’s going to take. Children’s faces lit up by lanterns and glee. Old men and women with laughter lines so craggy they are impossible to date. They could be fifty-five, they could be one hundred and five. Lights twinkling on the river and the reflection of those paper lanterns that did make it.
Maya looks around in the crowd, remembering again that she thought she saw Manon Junot this afternoon, so she scans pockets of people all along the riverbank, hoping she might see her. The disbelief in James’ eyes hadn’t gone unnoticed, and Maya wants to prove she hadn’t walked off in pursuit of Jon. She surveys the throng, feverishly.
No, it couldn’t have been.
Jon stops strolling and looks back at Maya, to see if she’ll take his invitation to catch up with him, to enjoy some intimacy among the crowd. It’s what actors crave after all.
Maya doesn’t notice; she’s searching for Manon Junot.
What if she’s here now?
Maya looks around, watching people watch people; seeing James, with his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth while he politely takes photographs. She looks at other tourists, at families in their finery. She sees Jon’s hair above the Viet people. Blond and sun-kissed. She catches his eye, then looks back to James crouching by the river, trying to get his shot. She sees Lenny drop to one knee.
‘Dee! Oh Dee! I can’t help myself, Dee.’
‘What are you doing, ya eejit? Get up!’ she says, cackling with laughter.
‘I don’t have a ring, I was hoping to get some Haribo at the airport and propose with a sweet on the plane home. As we took off, you know…’
‘What?!’
‘But this is too special. These lights are too brilliant. It’s meant to be. Here and now.’ Lenny’s top lip gets sweatier the more he witters.
‘What?!’
‘Desiree O’Shea. You are the light of my life and I want to make you my wife, to be the mother of my little ones. My partner in crime. Will ya, Dee? Will ya marry me?’
Heads turn. Silence ensues. People freeze in anticipation. Lanterns almost seem to freeze in anticipation.
James looks up from his post, crouching down by the sparkling river, and catches Maya’s eye, before hiding swiftly behind his camera. He lifts the lens, poised and ready to catch Dee’s response.
‘G’wan then, you idiot. I’ll marry ya!’
Maya silences her sick feeling with a cheer and some whistles.
‘Yay!’ she claps.
Paper lanterns continue their journey skywards.
Maya cheers and whoops some more.
James lowers his camera but keeps his eyes firmly on the back of it, checking his shots on the little screen. His discomfort is eased by how pleased he is to have captured such expressions on faces he will miss.
Jon saunters back to Maya, warmly clapping and whistling for a couple he’s only just met.
Friendly strangers – locals and tourists – join in and cheer; some pat Lenny on the back.
In the chaos and the whirl of congratulations and launching lanterns, Jon leans in and whispers to Maya. She feels his warm breath on her neck and arches her ear to listen.
‘When the shoot finishes, when this craziness is all done, come home with me.’
‘What?’
‘Come home with me and have my babies. You know it’s what we both want.’