Review of Australian Fiction, Volume 4, Issue 2 by Paddy O'Reilly

Author:Paddy O'Reilly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Review of Australian Fiction
Published: 2013-06-30T04:00:00+00:00

A Thousand Miles

Laurence Steed

The Departure

* * *

The last thing you hear is the plane taking off.

You wish you had found a way to stay grounded. Coming home means girls in short shorts, dirty white tanks, with Southern Cross tattoos etched into their ankles. Commodores going fifty, forty, slowing to a stop on side streets, turning at roundabouts just as you think they’re about to accelerate. It’s tracing circles, knowing straight lines will only lead back to the desert. It’s nights spilling out of pubs, broken dreams and a stained shirt, and you thought she liked you, but really she liked your friend, and you had to leave because his hand was reaching up her thigh and you thought you were going to be sick.

It means a long walk up the gravel driveway with your wife Hannah, your childhood echoing around you until you’re deafened by the memories. Your mother leaving messages on Dad’s answering machine, at first soft and forgiving, then stretching out into cries and curse words until long after the beeps close out the call. Postal packets signed by your father, Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, and the gifts are great, the presents are positively spectacular but your Dad’s not there.

It means you get two Christmases, Mother Christmas and Father Christmas, and it sucks, but who are you to make the rules?

Who are you to tell them how to live their lives?

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