Island of Dreams
By Harry Duffin
Publication Date: December 2022. Publisher: Cumulus Publishing. Page Length: 420 pages
Genre: Historical Family Saga
In May 1939, when Professor Carl Mueller, his wife, Esther, and their three children flee Nazi Germany, and find refuge on the paradise island of Cuba, they are all full of hopes and dreams for a safe and happy future.
But those dreams are shattered when Carl and Esther are confronted by a ghost from their past, and old betrayals return to haunt them.
The turbulent years of political corruption leading to Batista’s dictatorship, forces the older children to take very different paths to pursue their own dangerous dreams.
And - among the chaos and the conflict that finally leads to Castro’s revolution and victory in 1959, an unlikely love begins to grow - a love that threatens the whole family.
Having escaped a war-torn Europe, their Island of Dreams is to tear them apart forever.
Excerpt
As the wailing combined with the throb of the engines, Anna turned away from the crowd lining the rails. She felt her parents needed her and she needed to be with them. If they were to die, they would begin their final journey together as a family.
She had just reached the main stairway to go back inside the ship, when she heard a man cry out. Fearing another suicide attempt she turned to look.
‘Look!’ the man shouted again, excitedly.
All eyes followed his pointing finger. Anna went back to the agitated crowd and wormed her way through to see the cause of the excitement.
A small, stubby boat was racing through the water towards them. As the craft grew larger, approaching the cordon of police boats still surrounding the ship, the passengers started chattering excitedly. The helmsman of the boat was a plump black man. Beside him stood a young policeman and another man in a crumpled, cotton suit, his shock of straw-coloured hair flattened to his brow by the speed of the boat.
As the boat raced through a gap made by the police launches, the man looked up at the passengers crowding the rails. His handsome face looked tired, worn, but triumphant. Cupping his hands to his mouth, he shouted excitedly, 'The Mueller family! Professor Carl Mueller!’
The atmosphere in the Mueller’s cabin was electric.
‘He’s said he’s got visas for us to leave the ship!’ gasped Anna, breathless from dashing the news to her parents.
Carl and Esther looked at each other, a mixture of shock, joy and disbelief. But it was true. A steward, hurrying after Anna, confirmed the good news. They were to take their luggage to the ship’s ladder and disembark. All the Mueller family and Nanny Price too.
The next few minutes were a blur. Carl, Hans, Nanny and the steward stumbled up the companionway to the boat deck, hauling various brown leather cases. Bringing up the rear behind Esther, Anna and Klaus, two more stewards carried Esther’s trunk.
Having climbed the ladder to the ships deck, Freddie looked through the excited crowd. Carl was easy to see, being over six foot and wearing a silver-grey homburg, but the rest of the family were hidden in the milling throng. Anger was rising as the crowd grew, demanding to know why they weren’t allowed to leave too. Freddie had expected it. He glanced at Ramos, who smoothly slipped his gun from its holster and fired one deafening shot into the air. The effect at such close quarters was immediate. The crowd took a pace back, allowing Carl to shepherd his flock to the ladder where another policeman was waiting to help them down to Lardy’s boat.
Freddie only glimpsed Esther, tearful and near to panic, as she was jostled through into the arms of the policeman. Out of Freddie’s sight, Anna had wrestled her arm from her father’s grip.
‘No!’ he heard her shout angrily. ‘I’m not leaving without the others. It isn’t fair!’
Carl, occupied with the bemused Klaus, had become separated from his daughter, who was about to become submerged in the crowd.
‘Anna!’ he cried.
Esther’s cry of panic pierced the hubbub. Freddie forced himself into the scrum, grabbed the young girl firmly round the waist and carried her, kicking and screaming, to the top of the ladder where Ramos helped him carry her down the precarious steps. They were all in danger of falling as Anna struck out furiously, catching Freddie full in the face, and knocking Ramos’s cap into the water.
‘No, no!’ she cried. ‘We can’t leave them! They’re our friends!’
Somehow, they were all suddenly in the small swaying boat, the luggage was tumbled in after them and Lardy gunned the craft away from the sheer, black wall of the ship.
The family huddled towards the prow in silence, with Carl hugging the sobbing Anna to his chest and holding Esther in an embrace all the way. Freddie sat in the stern with Ramos and Lardy. No one spoke on the short journey.
Ramos, aware of the danger of the large, excitable crowd gathered at the quay, told Lardy to take the boat through the harbour channel and up the river leading through the Old City.
As they entered the mouth of the narrow river and the S.S. St Louis disappeared from view behind the dockside warehouses, Anna let out a little cry, ‘Papa!’
Carl hugged her closer. ‘Hush, Liebchen,’ he murmured. ‘There was nothing we could do.’
After Lardy had tied up at the small jetty, Freddie quickly found two taxis. He and Ramos crammed into the front seat of the first, with Anna and Nanny Price in the back.
‘Hotel Ingleterre,’ Freddie instructed the driver.
As the two cabs wound through the narrow shadowed Spanish style streets, that made up the ancient and most beautiful part of Havana, Freddie became aware for the first time that his nose was violently throbbing. Touching it he realised it had bled. He took out a handkerchief and dabbed it gently. The faint red smudge on the white cotton told him the blood had already dried.
The ship's klaxon sounded one final echoing blast. Glancing behind Freddie looked straight into the wide dark eyes of Anna, glaring hatred at him from the shadow of the rear seat.
‘You had no right to drag me from the ship!’ she said coldly. ‘I wanted to stay.’
‘I understand how you feel –,’ began Freddie, but Ramos, squashed at his side, snapped without turning his head.
‘You should be grateful! I would have left you there!’
Anna was about to respond, but felt Nanny Price’s hand gently squeeze her own. She contented herself with staring hard at the back of Ramos’ bare head, pleased that she’d knocked the man’s hat into the water.
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Harry Duffin
Harry Duffin is an award-winning British screenwriter, who was on the first writing team of the BBC’s ‘Eastenders’ and won the Writers’ Guild Award for Best TV serial for ‘Coronation Street’.
He was Head of Development at Cloud 9 Screen Entertainment Group, producing seven major television series, including ‘Swiss Family Robinson’ starring Richard ‘John Boy’ Thomas, and ‘Twist in the Tale’, featuring William Shatner.
He was the co-creator of the UK Channel Five teen-cult drama series ‘The Tribe’, which ran for five series.
He has written three novels, Chicago May, Birth of the Mall Rats [an intro to the TV series ‘The Tribe’], and Island of Dreams, which will be published in December 2022.
Chicago May is the first book of a two-part series: www.chicagomay.com
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