A suitcase of dreams
On a blue-sky February morning, two days after Avril’s twenty-sixth birthday, the Harmony Prince docked at Station Pier in Melbourne. The passengers were dressed in their best clothes, saved especially for this auspicious moment. Men in their dark suits and white shirts. Some wore ties, others an open-neck shirt. Women in jackets over straight skirts or fitted dresses. Children in polished black shoes.
Avril had pulled her dark wavy hair into a loose bun at the back of her neck.
Her face had the glow of sea and sunshine and she’d applied a red lipstick which intensified her deep green eyes. Before leaving France, she’d changed the colour of her court shoes from beige to navy, to match her crepe dress. Her silk stockings, a farewell gift from Remi, a friend she had worked with in Paris, she’d kept for this very moment. The long panel lines of her dress flattered her slim figure as the hem swayed freely above her ankles. Her only jewellery was her gold watch and a pair of pearl earrings. The tan leather bag slung across her body held her passport, immigration papers and a collection of photos, while everything else she owned was in the
