The Importance Of Silence

Terence can't sleep. He never can.

But it's worse in the Coorong.

Things buzz past his ears.

What are you DOING? asks Saint Roley.

Listening, says Terence.

Go to sleep, says Saint Roley.

My eyes don't shut, says Terence. Let's play a game.

Be quiet, says Gaius. We'll be woken up early in the morning.

A game, says Terence. Or a story.

I'll tell you a story, says Saint Roley. It was night time in the Coorong. Saint Roley, the oystercatcher from Saint Malo, whose brother had floated away, leaving him an orphan, wanted to sleep, but he couldn't. That was because there was a buzzing sound in his ears. He thought he was dreaming about the Breton monks, Maclou and Méen, who wore woollen beanies over their haloes.

Yes! says Terence. I remember. What was the buzzing sound?

We never knew, says Saint Roley, but it gave me the power of speech. Now that I have it I realise the importance of silence.

What's the importance of silence? asks Terence.

I makes you smarter, says Saint Roley.

Indeed it does, agrees Gaius. Are we all agreed?

NO! says Terence. All right, YES! And that shows you're all stupid.

Why so? asks Gaius.

Because it's always noisy, says Terence. The sea is noisy. The air is noisy. The plants are noisy.

Gaius slaps a mosquito.

Saint Roley listens. He picks up the sound of the sea.

I'll just wander down to the shoreline, says Saint Roley. We shorebirds like to sleep with our feet in the water.

Are you sure? asks Gaius.

O yes, says Saint Roley.

He goes down to the water. He listens. He believes he can hear the sound of his brother's makeshift cardboard vessel, flapping and flurping.......

It calms him. He sleeps.

That was a good story, says Terence. Tell me another.

Not a story, says Gaius. A list. Hopefully it will lull you into sleep-mode. It's a list of native vegetation found in the Coorong. Of course it's by no means exhaustive.

A list. Terence yawns. It's already exhaustive.

Sea spurge, billy buttons, says Gaius, dwarf sea lavender, red parrot-pea, twiggy stinkweed, native sorrel, apple of sodom, austral seablite, scrub wattle, sand fescue, biddy biddy, sea box, native celery, onion weed, wild turnip......these are their common names......are you asleep yet?

No, but Terence has fallen into a red parrot-pea reverie which is just as effective.