When Grace finished the call, she sat for a moment, deep in thought. She felt completely torn. After what she’d seen and heard today, she wanted this job very badly. It had been a while since she’d worked on a project of this scale, but she’d run large campaigns before, and she could already see how she’d manage this one. If things at home were different, it would be a no-brainer. But as it was . . . Grace shook her head to clear it. She would just have to cross that bridge when she came to it.

The dinner at Johnny Pangisar’s favourite five-star restaurant, Mejekawi, on the beach in Seminyak, was tasty, elegant and up-market, but Grace had the feeling she could have been anywhere in the tropics. When the others left, Andy took her on a tour of some of the most popular entertainment venues in the area. As they made their way along the busy streets, she started to see a more local side of Balinese nightlife.

‘Aren’t we going to anywhere in Kuta or Sanur?’ Grace asked.

‘Boofheads and bogans in one, and the other is the “elephants’ graveyard”, y’know, only for the ancients,’ Andy replied. ‘The night scene is pretty wild in some places,’ he added. ‘Bali’s always been a place to let your hair down.’ He grinned.

‘So tell me more about what Bali was like when you first came. There wasn’t much tourism here in the seventies, was there?’ asked Grace.

‘Nah. I was a teenager then, and a mad surfer. It was that film Albe Falzon did, Morning of the Earth. I just had to come here and see it for myself.’

‘My mother talks about that film too!’ exclaimed Grace. ‘She came here in the seventies herself.’

‘Yeah, the film and the music turned a lot of us on to surfing places like Bali. I came up here with mates and just surfed. We found some magic places no one had been to, so we kept them quiet.’

‘How come you never went home?’

‘Oh, I did, but just to see the folks and pick up my gear. I married a local girl. We started a little warung that grew into a café and then a bar. I started a band here, too. My wife and I stayed in hospitality for years, until she died. I closed the bar down after that – too many memories. Now I’m busy setting up the deal here for Johnny’s family.’

‘And your band? What happened to that?’

‘Ah, I gave it away. Our main guitarist did pretty well, though. Sang with a group in the States.’

‘And do you ever get back to Australia these days?’

‘I go back every year. I still have family there, though they’re getting on now, and my son has just moved to Sydney. But this is my home.’

‘I haven’t stayed out this late in years,’ Grace said, laughing. ‘Thanks, Andy, it’s been fun, but now I need some sleep. Tomorrow I’ll have to start talking to film people to see who would be available if this project comes off for me.’