The Opal Dragon
The Dragon starts his life in the Philippines
About The Book
Book Shorts
The Opal Dragon
The Dragon starts his life in the Philippines on one of the smaller islands. Ali is the son of one of the town’s local prostitutes Zeena. He works the markets looking for customers for his mother, who is starting to lose her looks due to her age and the volatile lifestyle she has lead over the years. Drugs in her early years did not help. Zeena’s lifestyle has not helped Ali in his upbringing. He has been beaten by her customers on many occasions as he has tried to stop his mother being beaten by violent customers. Ali launches into a life of crime after robbing and stabbing an elderly jewellery trader on his way home from work one night. The police are looking for Ali who slips out of town to stay with his aunt Sasha in the mountains. He is with Sasha for a long time and has met a nice girl in the village. For the first time in his life the eighteen year old Ali is happy. Gentle Sasha is murdered by a young terrorist. Ali catches him and stabs him. Ali and Zeena leave their island town for Manilla. A sense of normality finds its way into their life only to be shattered by a chance meeting with a violent customer from her past. Ali and Zeena contrive a plan to murder this violent man. He is garroted with a length of wire as he is having sex with Zeena. Ali is then involved in the drug trade and is warned about a hit on his life arranged by Emelio Sanchez one of Manilla’s head drug dealers and brothel owners. Emilio has threatened to toss Zeena off the local wharf bound with chains if Ali does not show up. Ali devises a cunning plan to murder Emilio on the way home from church one Sunday. Ali burns Emilio in his car after he causes it to crash. He and Zeena leave the Philippines and catch a small ship for Australia. In Cairns Australia Ali sees his first beautiful opal. He decides on buying opals and having other people steal them for him in his new base At Coober Pedy. Ali has now conscience when it comes to pay backs to and threat to his new business. People just go missing. He now has others to do these jobs. A sense of normality enters his life. All of this is shattered when a chain of disastrous events occur over a short time. There is an intertwining of different characters that are also on a quest to find the beautiful Australian black opal.
🧐What readers say about the book
I feel as if I've just been taken on the most amazing journey with author James A. Calderwood's "The Opal Dragon". The book was not what I expected at all and I was pleasantly surprised by an epic tale of a man who defies the odds over and over again to make a better life for himself and his mother. The story of Zeena and Ali, a mother and son who live in the Philippines and are not of wealthy means. Ali has a difficult childhood and an even tougher coming of age as he fights to protect his mother and stay out of the way of those who would harm them. They do eventually escape to Australia and I found this story to be an amazing tale of adventure, heartbreak, intrigue and redemption. Very well written with fascinating characters..
Messages For The Soul
About The Author
James A Calderwood
I grew up on a farm near Port Lincoln, South Australia. I attended the White River School which was at the end of our farm.Three miles away from home. There were twelve students. I was sent to Adelaide at year seven to a boarding school Prince Alfred College.
I was a bit of a miss-fit as I had never been away from home before. I was bullied, but as the boy in the ‘Power of One’, I learned to fight.
When i came home the farm house was a madhouse in the morning. Bacon and eggs and a argument. Father used to pick, mum, then my brother, then me.
After a couple of jobs I bought a farm. this farm was very stony. In the first year the price of wool dropped by 50%, every time we sowed crops on the rough land we were beset upon by Kangaroos and emus, who rolled in and ate most of the crop.
We sold up and bought a better farm. Glenys, my wife and I developed a lot of large gum country to farm. We trebled the production of this farm.I altered a lot of farm machinery to handle the development as it broke down in the rough work.
After 20 years farming, I broke my leg on the farm. It was set wrongly. We moved to Port Lincoln and developed some properties.
I bought a bulldozer at Coober Pedy, we went opal mining on a part time basis. Glenys walked behind the bulldozer turning big rocks over and checking for opal, while I drove the dozer. We had been looking for opals before. the rock above the opal was very tough.
I invented a tungsten tipped ripping tool which we patented .We almost had the tool on the market with a large multinational firm when the Global Finance Crisis hit. The tool has the ability to save 40% in costs, and rip tough rock which we would have had to drill and blast.
The book was started as I sat around with bolts through my broken leg. I had a vivid dream, just like seeing a movie .I started to write it all down. One problem was the alarm went before the dream finished.