10/01/2011
I arrive home from work with half a BBQ chicken. Maureen is in Bendigo visiting her mum. I flick open a beer look at the table. There is a package there, and a post card from my brother Peter; Colonel Chamberlain who saved the Union at Gettysburg, what a man, Maine professor of Humanities or some such, Medal of Honour, four times Governor, good bloke. I pick up the package, I put it down again. Bogie sniffs the chicken, I sniff apprehension. I go out to the garden seats, turn on the radio listen to a talking book on ABC National. (.Douglas Copeland -Player One)
Why do BBQ chickens all taste the same, are they clones, or do they have a factory somewhere putting together BBQ chickens. Bogie likes it. The package sits there, looking at me I look at it. Seven years of work comes down to this, so small.
I feed the fish in the wine barrel pond. Think of the ones that were here before, grand kids fed them dog food when we were away.
Bogie doesn't like the stuffing, bloody fussy buggar I tell him. He wags his tail, bloody dogs they only have the present, lucky bastard. I read the postcard from Peter. Twins are the same, he writes like me or me like him. I came first so he writes like me! Clones like the same things; old battle fields, progressive politics, thin girls with long hair...
I look at the package on the table, such an innocent package. Bogie has a bird bailed up in the chook pen, it has a chance of dying if it comes out the wrong way. Another avian body to pick up off the lawn. Bogie does not have a sense of humour with Sparrows, Blackbirds and Indian Minors. The chooks ignore him, they have mastered the art of survival through indifference. (like some people)
I finish my beer, bloody nice, the wind stirs in the trees, there is a storm coming. I pick up the package, balance it in my hands. Put it down again. The characters swarm through my head, I love them people, even the ones I don't like, I love. Is that crazy, Bogie thinks so, but then the bird has got away.
I open it, I love it, I cry...
I go in and watch the news, a show on twins, phone Peter, watch the battle of Gettysburg video and read my book until after twelve that night.
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