My name is Laura Harrison. I’m a former Manhattan fashion designer. I set aside my career and moved to Indonesia with my banker husband Jack to save my marriage. I expected to live in a romantic tropical hideaway like something out of a Bogart movie. Instead I walked into a house of horrors. White sheets covered Gothic furnishings. And black garments hung in the closets. It seemed as if the former occupants fled from some danger. I’m a superstitious person. I knock on wood; avoid black cats and walking under ladders. Here my fears have risen to the surface. I have a premonition something bad is going to happen. Yet I’m determined to stick it out.

There’s a reception at the Hotel Kediri welcoming Jack as bank president. Large floral displays with banners greet us at the entry. Selamat Datang, Welcome Jack and Laura. I hadn’t expected to see my name there, too. About 500 hundred persons attend. We stand in a receiving line greeting guests. I strain to catch and remember the unusual names. An exotic woman wearing expensive jewelry flirts with my husband. I sense trouble. I’m concerned I might unwittingly do something to offend the local culture. At the buffet I take a bite of shrimp, and choke. Blobs of spicy red sauce drip onto my white dress.

As an expat woman, I’m not allowed to work. Some women lie by the pool, play tennis or mahjong. Others have affairs, succumb to alcohol or return home. That’s not going to happen to me. I buy a book on Bahasa the local language. It’s easy to learn. There’s no tense or gender differentiation. For plural you just say the word twice. Anak means child, anak anak means children. I venture to the local market to practice my language skills. There I spot an orphaned orangutan for sale, its mother killed by loggers. My heart goes out to the poor creature. The next day I return with food, but the orangutans gone, purchased by a military general as a present for his young daughter. I blame myself for leaving the baby ape alone.

I love animals and find my passion— saving the endangered orangutan and its rainforest habitat. Wearing orangutan costumes, my friend Doreen and I protest outside a Southeast Asian forestry ministers meeting. We wear masks so no one will know who we are. Still I have to be careful. I don’t want to embarrass Jack’s bank. Even worse, I don’t want to get thrown in jail. Grunting like forest apes we wave our signs. When the press corps surrounds us, we flee. Driving away I look back and see a reporter jotting down the car’s license plate number. Jack finds out and we quarrel. I go away for a few days to elude the press and let Jack cool down. When I return, he seems different; and so does the pretty, sultry maid.

Indonesia is one of the world’s most corrupt countries. It’s a difficult place for Americans to do business. Jack’s bank gets involved in a court case and the judge asks for a bribe. He becomes involved with the powerful, corrupt first family. Jack’s ambitious yet naïve. Still I don’t think he’d do anything wrong. But then he becomes secretive. We hardly talk anymore. I’m concerned the marriage I came to save is falling apart.

You can read more about Laura in Ashes in a Coconut, a tale of corruption, betrayal and redemption, released May 15, 2019.

In 1983, after a successful first fashion show in New York City, Laura sets aside her professional aspirations to follow her husband to Indonesia to support his banking career. She hopes her effort will revive their flagging marriage. But when they arrive they come across a funeral ceremony that sets the tone for much of their welcome to the country. Laura experiences a wave of unease and haunting premonitions.

Jack’s ambitious and eager to make his mark but doesn’t know how to handle the corrupt world of Indonesian business. Laura, however, settles in. When she discovers an orphaned baby orangutan at the market, her heart breaks and she discovers her new passion. Together with local seamstresses, she forms a co-op making batik clothing to sell in the U’S, proceeds from which will help save the endangered orangutans.

When Jack decides to finance a logging project in the rainforest, the two clash. More concerning, Jack may have misjudged how to handle his Indonesian business associates, and suddenly Laura’s premonitions don’t seem so far-fetched.

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Meet the author
Bo Kearns, journalist and writer of fiction, is the author of Ashes in a Coconut, a novel set in Indonesia, where he lived for three years. He’s a feature writer with NorthBay biz magazine and the Sonoma Index-Tribune newspaper. His short stories have won awards—First Prize, Napa Valley College writing contest, Honorable Mention-Glimmer Train Fiction Open competition, and Finalist- Redwood Writers On the Edge genre competition. Other works have been published in the annual California Writers Club Literary Review, Napa Valley Writers First Press, The Red Wheelbarrow Literary Magazine and Sonoma: Stories of a Region and Its People. He’s a UC Naturalist, beekeeper, avid hiker and active supporter of conservation causes. He lives in the wine country of Sonoma with his wife and their rescue dog, Jake.

You can learn more about Bo on his website www.bokearns.com and his Author Facebook page.

All comments are welcomed.

Thanks to Bo Kearns for donating a print copy of Ashes in a Coconut. Contest ends May 21, 2019 and is limited to U.S. residents. Please leave comment in box below. The winner will be notified by email (so check your spam folder). Good luck everyone!