Sweeney and the Bicycles by Philip Salom

Author:Philip Salom
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Transit Lounge
Published: 2022-07-21T00:00:00+00:00

Clifton stopped using the last-century Beat vernacular. She hasn’t asked why. But he told her recently there was a graphic novel character who gained special powers if and only if he dressed in women’s clothing. She asked him what he meant. He said it was a game. Then he said he might write something, maybe even a book about it. Was this another of his fantasies? Or something else?

She had once suggested an away-from-home ‘hobby’. Not writing. Not taking on roles. Away-from-home in real terms, meaning developing independence, self-respect. It might also lead to … employment. Before her knee op she would pace across the floor like a patient. And berate the furniture. And worry about him.

Now that he’s home and free his symptoms show bipolar tendencies, the low risk, low esteem type. His up-moods manifest as talking-without-listening and presumptions of achievement, leading to flights of delusion. Harmless enough if you discount the loss of potential.

His face is grey, his hair is lank, his weight goes sideways. Endomorph. He imagines he is a charmer but when he talks he effects a superior tone as if other people are fools. He won’t contact Centrelink, he won’t look for work, he won’t see a GP because why should he, there is nothing wrong with him, he won’t make small talk, except to complain. Now that he is free to.

One day his harmless tag slipped.

The backyard boasts only the single fruit tree Leach was left clinging to (having his Biblical moment, the same neighbour said) because the space is occupied by the granny flat Clifton hibernates in. Made of agreeably un-rendered brick and featuring a neat Colorbond roof, this dwelling is outside the public view. With a door leading onto the back lane, he is independent, he can wander in and out of his own free will.

But he loves cats and cats love him. The Universe holds strange surprises. Cats gather at his granny flat and entertain him with their idiosyncratic ways.

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