Date: Sat, 06 Apr 2002 19:03:02 +1200 From: prime wordsmith Subject: Swansea-Bridge-02 I'd never hesitated getting involved before. Unless I was not needed or not wanted. Even when I could have been placing myself in danger, I'd never hesitated before. So why was I hesitating now? The depth of anguish he was expressing was tearing me up worse than at any graveside. And some of them had been pretty lively. Especially that time when the boyfriend jumped into the grave on top of the freshly lowered coffin. So I found myself squatting down beside him, distracting him, by asking if he had lost his fishing rod. Well, talk about incredulous. But it did stop the rocking for a moment. So if not the rod, was it the fish you lost, I asked him. Um, you know, back into the water. Or did you decide to let it go. Even if you jagged it, it might still live. It won't necessarily die. He said it wasn't any fish about to die. It was him. He wanted to die. I asked him if I could have the body. There was that rather incredulous look again as he said, I spose. Oh goody. I've been given the body. So I scooped it up and sort of bounced it up so I could catch it into a more comfortable position. He asked me what I was doing. I said I didn't really want to wait around getting more cold and wet so I thought I'd take the body now. And I smiled widely. Um, was the only response. Fair enough I thought. I had probably acted strangely enough for him to be so bamboozled he did not have time to dwell on his earlier problems. I love young people. It's so hard to get their attention sometimes. But when you do something so completely out of the ordinary, you can often get their undivided attention. Especially if they have already decided you are no threat. So I'm wandering along the footpath with this wet slippery lump in my arms wondering how I can get him to help me not drop him. I told him Santa Claus has a weak knee from all the kids sitting on it all the time. Santa Claus can't really complain about it because then the kids won't feel comfortable sitting on his knee. And the whole purpose of Santa Claus is for kids to sit on his knee while he listens to what they want and promises to help them if they are really, really good. Isn't it? Yes. Well of course it would be easier on Santa Claus if the kids shifted some of their weight a little so it wasn't so heavy on Santa Claus, wouldn't it? Yes. Well what's one way of helping Santa? Don't know. Well they could always put their arm around Santa's neck, couldn't they? Yes. Well this Santa Claus happens to have a weak knee too. How about you put an arm around Santa's neck, hey? I don't know why. Was it the actual words? Was it the way I said it? Was it the wacky story? Or was it just another human being at the right moment. I don't know why. But I do know that he decided to put both arms around my neck and hold tight. Real tight. Not that I could complain. I had asked for it. We wandered past the Returned Services club and headed up the road towards my place. He never asked where we were going or what we were doing. There was still a fair bit of sniffling and snuffling going on. And I did get a cold wet nose brushed against my neck at one stage. But with the rain still coming down and the trickles running along the inside of my raincoat sleeves, well, hey, what's one more little bit of moisture. The hardest thing of all was trying to pretend that his weight did not affect me at all. I wished it didn't. But I was never an athletic type and since my recent sojourn in hospital I was even more out of condition than before. But, ah well, the price we pay for doing the right thing. Doing the right thing very rarely comes cheaply. Or not for me anyway. Thank goodness we arrived at my place by then. I carried him around the side because it saved unlocking a door. Opening the screen door was a bit of a problem I had my hands full of boy. He had his hands full of neck. But I pushed the screen fully closed and let it spring out that little bit which was enough for me to get my foot behind it. The best pirouette en chamade I'd ever done. The only one I could think of, come to that. The body got carried over the threshold. It had been a long time since I had last done that. Still no questions from the body. A fair bit of shivering though. And still some sniffling, but no moaning for the moment. I told him I wanted to warm the body up but didn't have a fire. Hot water would have to do. I got a slight squeeze around the neck and headed off to the water room. My place is quite unusual. It is six-sided with a central courtyard. The courtyard is covered over like a big top circus tent with light bronze tinted polycarbonate roofing. The street entry is a U-shaped carriageway with an in and an out to the street. The bottom part of the U is a porte-cochere abutting the house. The porte-cochere is six cars wide and on each side of it are separate roller shutters for each car space. A total of twelve roller shutters. I can drive the boat under cover, detach the 4WD, drive further along the exit drive and then back into the adjoining bay next to the boat. I can then pull the four shutters down on the boat and truck. The next two bays are for my local runabout and my limousine. The two bays closest to the house are usually left open for visitors and driving right through. >From the porte-cochere one walks through the front doors into the entrance vestibule. This takes up all of one of the six sides. Kids can run around here in wet weather. Wet weather gear and boots can be changed here for house clothes. Larger parties can be held in here in wet or colder weather. It is an excellent place to set out the food and drink for parties held in the front gardens. It also tends to keep those receptions separate from the private parts of the house. The other five sides are the electronics and entertainment side, the food preparation and dining side, a sleeping side, a family lounge and library side with views over Black Neds Bay and Lake Entrance, and the water side. The centre courtyard, or atrium as I call it, has a formal garden laid out and maintained according to my cultural traditions. The water side was where I took the body. I tend to call it the water room although it has a number of divisions in it. There is a long narrow lap pool, a spa, a sauna, a 16 foot square cold pool, a same size warm pool, a couple of disabled style toilets with showers, a warm air drying room, and a bathing room. I carried him into the bathing room and placed him on a slatted bench. The floor of the bathing room is also slatted. Any water in any part of the room flows through the slats and along the graded concrete below into the central drain. It's a wonderful place for water fights. There are a collection of wooden buckets towards the centre of the room with a number of wooden stools of various styles and sizes all on wooden runners. I filled four buckets respectively with cool, tepid, warm and hot water. The body was fascinated especially with the glass wall opposite looking into the enclosed fernery. He still hadn't said anything further, had not really expressed any more emotion other than amazement, had shown no fearlessness, and had done nothing physical apart from shiver with cold. I set out various soaps, scrubbers and wash cloths on two of the stools, a fruit dish on another, and went over to the wall pegs. My raincoat got hung up, my sandals came off, my shirt and pants came off, and I put on a long soft bathing robe. I usually don't need to wear underwear. Turning around I found the body was no longer fascinated with the fernery but seemed more fascinated with something a little more lively. I didn't bat an eyelid but serenely continued over to him. He was still wide-eyed with amazement as I lifted off his tee shirt and then stood him up. He allowed me to take his shorts and briefs off and to set them beside where he had been sitting on the bench. I picked him up again and went to adjust his weight. He pre- empted me by placing both arms around my neck and lifting himself somewhat, while I re-arranged him in my arms. [ If you would like this story to continue please email me, Yoshi, at primewordsmith@hotmail.com Positive comments are always welcome. Many thanks to David Spencer for editorial assistance and advice on English usage.]