Waltzing the Magpies: A Year in Australia

January

January ~ Along with hot summer January brought a second blooming to Mosman Park. Plumbago hung from walls thick as macrame. Flowers on the lemon tree sweetened the back yard, and grevillea burst into a string section ofred violins. Nubs offrangipani clawed upward then opened, blossoms whirling clockwise, petals curling, white rolling over yellow. In front of lona Presentation College, figs fermented and spilled seeds on the sidewalk. In January I, too, enjoyed a second blooming and saw things I hadn't seen before. On the bluff overlooking Mosman Bay, wattle grew in scouring thickets. In January tips of branches dried into cindered spirals. Earlier insects bored into the wattle, transforming ends of branches into hospitable galls and spreading fungus. I opened several galls. Fluid oozed yellow and brown from them, resembling humic acid. Clusters of minute eggs floated on the liquid. On dry twigs small beetles hurried about, and cocoons and frass lurked in elbows of wood. In Fremantle I noticed that six swans decorated the roof of the railway station. Three birds clustered above the right of the entrance and three, the left. In each group the middle bird was white, the other two black. The black swans craned their necks up while the white bent their necks into intimidating loops, heads low as feet. At home I looked at Eliza's room for the first time, this despite having spent hours sitting on her bed. Four stuffed animals leaned against her pillowcase: Pogo flat on his belly, a small hound five and a half inches in length; Fuzzy, a 117 panda five inches tall, his head three and a half inches thick, ears pouches, body slender, almost an afterthought; and Nanny, a large panda, ten inches tall and eight inches wide at the hips, into whose arms Fuzzy had originally been sewn. Pogo had belonged to Vicki's father, Eliza appropriating him for memory's sake when her grandfather died. ''I'll take good care ofhim like Grandpa Dudley did," she said. The fourth animal was Kitty, a small gray kitten, Eliza's companion even when she was too young to recognize animals as animals. Kitty's nose had vanished and been replaced by stitches. Her blue plastic eyes were so scratched they seemed cloudy with glaucoma. Affection had rubbed off Kitty's fur and flattened her to one and three-quarter inches, thin as a pad of paper. Around Kitty's waist Eliza sewed brown shorts. Someday somebody will wander into an attic and find Kitty in a trunk. For a moment the person will wonder what child loved Kitty. Wonder will be brief, however, and Kitty will become garbage-a thought that makes me unspeakably sad. Kitty has traveled with us to Nova Scotia. She has gone to camp in Maine. She has been lost and found in three countries. She has endured sand and salt water on beaches. Clothes dryers have tumbled her, and stormy nights have pounded her. Seven years ago she came to Australia with us. I associate Kitty with the early days of childhood, that long-ago time when the children didn't judge but loved unconditionally, when they wanted to accompany Vicki and me on our little doings, when ice cream cones made their days, and mine, sparkle-before they grew into certainty, before they realized they would be superior to their parents, in short those years when we were a family bound to each other by need and affection. In a well built into the wall in Eliza's room stands a wood stove. Eliza transformed the stove into an altar, celebrating being fifteen years old. From the back ofthe stove rises a gray pipe. Taped to the pipe were two postcards Francis sent Eliza from Germany. On one card appeared cartoon characters from South Park, a television show. While Death sliced Kenny in half with a chainsaw, Carmen stood to the side, bemused indifference marking his face, a green 118 SAM PICKERING cap on his head, ear flaps purses. Pasted to the wall bracketing the pipe were two eight- by six-inch pictures of animals. Both were advertisements for Optus Telephone. To the left of the pipe, a thorny devil perched on hot laterite, legs extended and toes stilts, the caption below reading, "I Want To Surf." On the right a raccoon ate a watermelon, the melon sliced, and the caption declaring , "I Choose to Have My...