Jack Dann (ed) by Dreaming Again

Author:Dreaming Again [Again, Dreaming]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

‘And he kept his promise,’ Julia said to me over the scalloped rim of a delicately painted teacup. ‘We spent that night together, talking until sunrise, and he stayed with me until noon the next day. He said he was falling in love with me. Oh, but I miss him.’

‘I’m so sorry. Why did he leave you?’

‘Why?’ Julia smiled mirthlessly, picked up Daniel’s journal once more. ‘See for yourself!’ she said, pointing out the beginning of a paragraph.

‘For autumn,’ Daniel had written, ‘is approaching again. It is the last month of summer and the days are noticeably shorter. And once or twice, already, there has been a day when a hint, just a hint of that anticipatory delight has flavoured the air. Just for half an hour or so … As the time approaches it seems increasingly urgent to crack the code; to unravel the mysteries of the Lanes. Autumn, apple-time, leaf-time, golden tawny light time … That other place, I know, is lit with long rich light, its slanting rays of burnt gold.’

‘Did you suggest he seeks counselling?’ I asked.

‘Jenny, the man’s a genius. These are not the ravings of a lunatic, don’t you see? I think he struck on something, I really do. At first I was sceptical like you, but then I did some research.’ Brandishing a notebook of her own, Julia said, ‘I found this information in a library book when I looked up the etymology of “Camberwell”.’ Opening the book she read, ‘The original “Camberwell” is believed to have been named for a well lying within its boundaries, whose waters possessed extraordinary healing properties. In the Domesday Book the English parish is called “Ca’berwelle”. The author of A Short Historical and Topographical Account of St. Giles’s Church — the parish church of Camberwell — writes, “It has been conjectured that the well which gave part of the name to the village might have been famous for some medicinal virtues, and might have occasioned the dedication of the church to this patron saint of cripples and mendicants. Cam is a very crooked word, and is applied to anything out of square, or out of condition. Having regard, therefore, to the fact already noticed, that the church is dedicated to the patron saint of cripples, we are certainly justified in assuming the word cam to be in this instance descriptive of individual condition; and the well would then become the well of the crooked or crippled.’” Julia put down the notebook. ‘A place of miraculous magical water!’ she cried. ‘But here in the Australian Camberwell, most of the streams and springs have been diverted underground! They have become secret magics…’

‘Ironically, Camberwell is a “dry” area,’ I said, attempting levity. Julia gave me a look of pity. ‘Dry areas’, local areas free of licensed hotels, where alcohol could be bought at shops but not restaurants, were a legacy of the 1920s, when the temperance movement was strong. Only two pockets of Melbourne were ‘dry’, and the erstwhile City of Camberwell was one of them.

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