by Elizabeth Fearon

Created on: January 18, 2010

Extract from 'Changing Lives'

November 2005

South of Sydney, Australia

The hire car, the trip south from Sydney, both had been on the spur of a moment, propelled by memories.  She drove as though on automatic pilot, knowing the route so well, even now.  The foaming surf, the timber houses surrounded by gum trees, all of it so familiar.  She swung the car past the marker for Tuckerman’s Point then crawled along the main street; nothing had changed, even the cheesecakes were still made by Charlene if the shop sign was to be believed.  Memories drove her on, winding back the years as she followed the track and drew up outside the house where Helen and Susie had stayed.  Surf boards still leaned against the garage but they were kiddie size, no longer the streamlined boards that were the lifeblood of Zack and Dan.  She wound down the window and welcomed the warmth of the breeze after the chill of the air-con.  Rosellas still populated the surrounding branches but the front yard now belonged to two scruffy, golden-haired toddlers who rode Barbie bikes around the parked 4x4 and giggled with excitement as they battled each other for pole position.  How many other people had lived and played over the years in that same front yard where Conor had once carried her over his shoulder and tipped her into a battered Ute? 

Claire saw him as if it was yesterday, sunglasses holding back his tousled hair, the muscles in his arms flexing as he supported her much slimmer frame.  She could even smell the distinctive fragrance of Radiant, the washing powder he always used, on the white T-shirt he was wearing that day, the one with the aboriginal motif that he’d bought in Alice Springs.  She heard Susie and Helen’s laughter and felt the mix of sadness and excitement as they’d driven away, waving until she could no longer see them.  It seemed incredible now that she could have let those friendships slip over time but her reasons had been clear back then; to preserve her sanity she had to distance herself from all links with Australia, cut herself off from anyone who reminded her how her life had been.  How ironic then that she’d forfeited those relationships but had still never known the peace she craved.  She wondered how the years had treated them, whether Susie and Helen had stayed in touch.

As Claire reminisced, a woman in a bikini top and tassled sarong opened the gauze flyscreen

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