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July 22, 2005
And then she was gone
There was some cheap local gin, cashew nuts, flying cockroaches and Party of Five playing in the background. I used to think Party of Five was kind of cool in my stoopid teenage years, but watching it this night confirmed what I had though every Friday night that I had managed to be at home to watch it - it was full of annoying overacting American child actor wankers. Just before that resolutiony bit at the end where they all let down their guard and reveal the emotional impact that the night’s episode has had on them, the end of an era came. The cab honked its horn, we had another gin and then she got in the cab.
I’ve shared more than a house with these two girls for the last year, we have been through everything together from a tsunami to men wanking on the street in front of us. I wake up and they’re there - all of us in our jocks, a look championed by me but loved by the household at large, we’ve discovered new places in Sri Lanka together, we’re inbuilt social, private and work counsellors for one another. There has not been more than a day gone past that I have not seen at least one of them. It’s a sheltered existence, we all know that, but here in amidst the drugged children used for begging, a raging class system that tolerates no gentle nudging in the direction of egalitarianism, the fall out of a tsunami that none of us could have prepared ourselves for and days that can be as annoying and persistent as the cockroaches and ants and geckos themselves - we’re all we’ve got. And now it’s the beginning of the end. Clara skipped town tonight in the back of a taxi as we ran along beside her stumbling over our gin feet and rubber thongs… But that’s just the start. In a few weeks Jill and I will execute a copycat escape to Perth via Thailand and the end of an era will be confirmed. There’s no going back.
I love that I always have new horizons in front of me, endless possibilities - I’m lucky like that. Australia lets you have that freedom. But deep down, secretly, all hush-hush, I wish she didn’t go. I liked it when she was here.
Posted by catherine at July 22, 2005 7:38 PM