Chapter 21

Visiting Perth - I

Two weeks later we were in the air to Perth. Rachel had spent several days at the Gallery with Winnie and was very excited about her future work. I was still troubled by my experience on Flinders Lane and even more about my studies. I hadn't really spoken to Rachel yet. I wanted to talk to my parents – they had greater experience with these things. But I was both unhappy and uneasy. Seeing Korngold's Die tote Stadt, with its theme of overcoming loss, didn't help. I saw myself as having similar hallucinations to Paul's. And Rachel was aware of my mood. I was hoping that being back in Perth might normalize things.

We had a large welcoming committee when we arrived: four parents plus both Al and Sarah. After the hellos, sorted ourselves into two groups: the fathers and the sibs in one vehicle; we and the mothers in the other. They headed "home," we headed for the B&B. I sat in front with Weena, Rachel sat in the rear with Michiko.

"Want to tell me something?" I shook my head 'no.' Mum always knew me best. She could sense the disquiet. I could hear Rachel telling her mother about Melbourne, beginning with the penguins and moving to the earrings before talking about the museums. That got her on to her working for Winnie in Sydney. Mum asked me what I'd liked best.

"A Turner and a Fred Williams show. A large grey kangaroo. The restaurants. We found a really fine cheese store in Sydney. I'll take you there when you blokes visit."

"Here's the B&B!"

We went in, greeted our host, were shown our room and bath and were given a key. We set up our bags and I asked about parking. That set up, we left. Ten minutes later we were home.

It was familiar and foreign. It was home, but no longer mine. Everything seemed ambiguous. Five months had brought about major change. Even stranger was meeting Steve, Sarah's current beau, and Alicia, Al's date. Steve was only a bit taller than Sarah and decidedly unathletic. Alicia was an American Amazon. Nearly two meters tall and about 80 kilos with maroon and blue hair and six or eight ear piercings. (I later found out her father was a visiting lecturer in US literature and they would be in Perth for about 14 months before returning to Stanford in California.)

Steve was completely different. He was a boarder at Aquinas, south of the Swan. His dad was some sort of academic administrator at the Curtin VTEC in Kalgoorlie. As he was near graduation, he was permitted a vehicle, which explained the unfamiliar ute on the verge. He'd already applied to UNSW where he wanted to study maths.

The dads had already fired up the grille. I wasn't certain which was in charge. It looked as though there was lamb, chicken and prawns awaiting the ritual of becoming a burnt offering. I could see there were also two enormous bowls of salads.

Sarah was telling me how she'd met Steve. He'd been visiting our dad at Western as part of a school project and she'd stopped by en route College to home. I said she was too pretty to be a geek and she punched me in the biceps. I could hear Al tell Rachel that he'd been exercising in the hope that someday he'd be able to lift Alicia. Alicia just patted him on the head like an indulgent mother.

We sat around eating too much and chatting. I asked my dad whether we could borrow a car or his Land Rover for ten days. He shrugged and said to take the Land Rover, he wasn't planning on doing any fieldwork during our visit.

Rachel thanked him for introducing us to Winnie and told everyone about her (future) employment. All of a sudden a light-bulb went on, like in a cartoon. "How will you arrange your courses?"

"No problem. Winnie spoke to the head of Fine Arts. The Department will permit me to do two course-equivalents of directed study at the Gallery each term. We just have to make certain that we don't duplicate things over the next five terms."