We needed to get
changed for dinner. Alex and Mim were waiting there when we arrived. But I took
longer this time. I answered differently when asked where I had been. Astro was
with me. Mim had had her dress made. She had many more dresses. She said she was a
princess of sorts and she said I must be feeling great to walk beside her. She
had been putting on my dresses and looking better in them. Brown, taller and
lean. Each month. I wanted a tutu. I didn’t want to be compared, I didn’t want
to compare myself. She kept swooping in like I had lined it all up, and came in
and took it. She changed the story and my story and she took all my friends and
contacts.
But she was nice
as I arrived. They could overhear us talking.
The closer it
came to the time, the more likely it was you would disappear. I stepped
into the drain and it was your mind.
I was with two
women, they knew my Gran. Going around maze that was Astro’s mind, I kept finding
his black and white drawings. The women were looking for somewhere to change, but it
kept getting darker and more filled with people. We were trying to move faster,
but every time we took a step, we stepped down onto more
steps or rocks and I would be thankful I didn’t just jump. Though I wondered if
I had of just jumped if it would have been flat. The maze was forming as we
moved, the ground creating itself to meet us. Was I creating the steps by not leaping with faith onto a flat landing? Or was that just because it was
dark and it was all that we could do to see in front of us and the rest was
already there, so it just seemed it was being created as we went. More and more people were arriving and the
types of people were changing. They were angry, frustrated many of them.
And then we saw
her, in agony. And the blood. On the ground. But some coming from her chest and
then in a line down. The old ladies left to go and get help, even though they
had already called the ambulance. They didn’t speak to her. Her name was
Sophie. She didn’t want to tell me her surname. She had a phone. She didn’t
want me to call her husband or anyone yet. Her husband’s name was Peter Green.
She had been three months pregnant. She lived in Bairnsdale. She whispered
this. Even though she could talk.
The ambulance
came. I still had her phone. I needed to get it to her. Everyone was on their
way to her room. They wanted to examine her quickly so they could get out of there and collect their Easter
chocolate and exam marks. They wanted to quickly get the story about how
the hospital was negligent. It wasn’t. Had to get her phone to her and warn her
before they got there. A man with a ginger beard was leading me in different directions, up
different stairwells. No short-cuts, but it was designed to confuse the
chasers.
Made it to the
top. Tried to call Peter Green.
The dressmaker
only just noticed. The grass green shimmer on the fabric, did not match the
flat forest green. I didn’t know anything about sewing. Not really. But I
couldn’t help but step in. Like the lady looking for the native animal brooches
– I knew I’d seen them somewhere before and it would have been remiss of me not
to mention it. It was an hour before our conversation finished. The dressmaker was worried what the princess Mim would say. I showed her how the bright grass green popped more when bordered by
the forest green. It could definitely work.
I showed him how
to play volleyball. He was only small. I wanted to get him a softer ball. The
other girl in the class recounted her dream – a similar story. And in both, the
balls became axes or other weapons. And the children knew how to use them. They
were scared. And needed to defend themselves. They had seen too much. I don’t like volleyball.
No comments:
Post a Comment