Beauty Sadness Revenge

Jazzman's mum isn't sleeping. She is reading a Japanese novel.

What time is it? Two thirty. When will Jazzman come home?

She goes back to reading the novel. It's called Beauty and Sadness. She would have called it Revenge.

The strangely beautiful Keiko is planning the death of the son of the man who once had an affair with her lover and ruined her life.

There are descriptions of pine-clad mountains, stone steps and old temples. Raindrops trembling from pine needle tips......

Not like the Wallaroo landscape.

She wonders how long Jazzman will stay.

.........

Arthur has not got up carelessly and wandered off in the dark for no reason. He just needs a pee.

He even looks down once or twice, remembering the warning. What was it? Snakes? Wombats? Or both?

What's that rustling noise?

It's a wombat, being nocturnal.

Get away, says the wombat. Don't pee here.

Arthur turns and pees in the other direction. Another wombat comes out to complain.

We're protected, says the wombat.

What's the problem then? says Arthur. I'm not protected.

You don't have sarcoptic mange, says the wombat.

I'm sorry, says Arthur.

Arthur makes his way back to Magazine Rock.

Did he just say sorry? says the first wombat. That's a bit rich.

Depends, says the second wombat, an apologist.

.........

Gaius has finished his cocoa and biscuits. Now what? Beverley has offered him a bed.

And the loan of her husband's pyjamas.

Won't he need them? says Gaius.

Ha ha, laughs Beverley. No, he's got more than one pair of pyjamas.

I prefer to sleep in my clothes, says Gaius.

Suit yourself, says Beverley, showing him into a  bedroom. If you need anything, give me a hoy. The bathroom is just down the passage.

Gaius is feeling uncomfortable, he isn't sure why.

Perhaps the cocoa.

And that Janice. Why had she broken his biscuit and thrown it away?

It was unnatural.

A normal young person would have .....what? Eaten the biscuit?

Unless it was for the seagulls.....

Yes the seagulls......

Gaius opens the window. The clinking sounds of the marina, the lapping of water, a night bird .........

He lies down on the bed, closes his eyes and drifts off.

A shadow falls across the sill of the open window.