Chapter XVI The Security Blanket Comes Back

The security blanket came back. 

It found Lucy sitting huddled in the corner of a dingy brown and dusty room with no windows or doors. She was dressed all in brown and had wrapped herself in an old dusty brown blanket she had found. Even after everything she had done still she felt like no one loved her. Her Cat was dead, her aunty who she had found to love her was dead, and the picnic rug had turned evil. He had taken the children away on a picnic and they had never come back. She asked the security blanket to go away and leave her alone. 

Lucy couldn't see the light through the window

First the security blanket had to find the way out of the room as there were no windows or doors. Fortunately the room was missing two walls and a ceiling - much like the set of a stage, but Lucy could only see the confined space because she was covered over in misery and despair.

The security blanket left her there and blew out through the missing wall. It flew up into the sky in its hot air balloon and went in search of Lucy's heart.

The security blanket in his hot-air balloon disguised as a dog

Lucy had once had a heart but it had been so hurt that she had had to let it go. It wasn't fair to make it stay with her because it was too injured, she let it die so it could go and have peace in heaven.  She left it up there where she knew they would take care of it, be kind to it and help it slowly mend its wounds. 

Being taken care of in heaven

The security blanket went all the way up to heaven find Lucy's old heart. She had replaced her old heart with a shiny new one that didn't have the stains of her suffering embedded in it. But the shock of the betrayal of her family had forced the new heart to see all Lucy's old memories. And it had taken her down to the dusty room and covered itself over with a dusty brown blanket in sympathy for what Lucy had gone through.

Lucy exchanged hearts in heaven

The security blanket found the good old heart and told it that Lucy was feeling sad and lonely. The good heart got into the hot-air balloon with the security blanket and they started on the journey back down to Lucy.  It was a very big basket with plenty of space so a couple of angels came too.
 
As they floated around the heavens in their hot air balloon they collected a few more characters to bring with them. They found Spider Cat and Mooney, Aunty Bernie and lots of white ducks. They told them that Lucy was sad; her heart was feeling empty without them. So they climbed into the basket to come for the ride. They found a peacock, a mermaid, a rabbit, some chickens and a goat, the goat could see as clearly as crystal because no one is blind in heaven.

The security blanket maneuvered the hot air balloon back down towards earth. And landed right inside Lucy's brown room, which was quite easy as it had no ceiling. It climbed out of the basket  and gently shook Lucy by the shoulder. It had a present for her. It was a fish in a bowl. A very special fish in a bowl full of potential.  If she couldn't have a family at least she could have a fish. Even if it is a very possessive fish who worries about her when she goes out. It is nice for her to know there is someone waiting for at home even if he is impatiently tapping his fin.

And then the security blanket got Spider cat and gave it to Lucy's new heart. Lucy squeezed the cat so tightly and patted its fur while it purred with happiness.  Then Mooney jumped out of the basket and put her head in Lucy's lap. She had lots of milk to give in heaven. She had been to the moon and back. The peacock came in, a symbol of new life. It spread its tail feathers wide to show off its myriad of peacock eyes, so many different ways to perceive the world.

The angels helped Aunty Bernie out of the balloon and all three of them went and hugged Lucy.
 
Because Lucy felt she couldn't move out of her brown dusty room because she was so oppressed by misery, the security blanket filled up the room around her with joy. It gathered up all the things that Lucy's old heart had loved and gave them to the new heart that had replaced it. The new heart filled up with love. 

 
The old heart waited in the balloon. It didn't want to give the new heart the burden of its old life. It wanted Lucy to be free and live with the freshness her new heart had given her. So it just sent its love and the things that had brought it joy from its old life.  
 
From the cover of the dusty brown blanket Lucy looked at the old heart. She knew now what it had gone through, all those old memories of a life that had treated the good heart so harshly. Lucy saw what a strong heart it was to have suffered through so much and still remain pure. Then she looked around her. The dusty brown room had filled up with colour. There was a blue fish swimming round in its bowl, its name was David. There was an iridescent peacock showing off its magnificent tail, its name was David. She looked back at the story, there was a birthday party for her first boyfriend, his name was David. The room was filled up with David.

 
But that wasn't all that was in the room. There were rainbows and angels and spider cats and a wonder snail and a large sized little boy called Wayland. There was a mermaid and chickens and ducks and a rabbit. The room was flooded with light that poured in through the window. She could see the door. And in through the door came her cat family. Dozens and dozens of cat friends and dog friends from all over the world filled up the room with love and chatter and laughter.

They all know what it feels like to be covered over by an old dusty rug. Lucy knew that they have all felt sad and lonely, like they were covered by an old dusty rug at times in their lives. Just like she. Now none of them were alone anymore because they all had each other.

Chapter XV A Sign

Lucy waited for a sign that her sorrow and misery would come to an end. She meditated on a stick. The stick didn't move but she knew that nothing stays the same forever and after a long time a breeze blew strong enough to cause the stick to roll away and down the path.

She waited. The sign arrived. It was heralded by the arrival of a peahen in her garden one afternoon. She was slavishly bringing in the washing for her ungrateful family when around the corner of the house came a strange, large bird. It walked around the yard with the chickens for the rest of the afternoon.

In the morning Lucy looked out and couldn't quite believe her eyes. There was a peacock standing on a mound in the paddock.

She knew it was the sign she had been waiting for. That very afternoon she sold the house and property to the next door neighbour. At last, after years of torture she was able to see some light beginning to shine.

When the picnic rug had turned evil Lucy had tried to run out the gate but he had slammed the gate as she had tried to run through and left her wedged between the post and the gate for years. As much as Lucy struggled to free herself, the gate seemed to be jammed, squeezing the life out of her.

The peacock arrived and untied the chain that was holding the rusted gate and set Lucy free.

For the next number of months while the sale of the house was arranged the Peacock, named David, stayed with Lucy, giving her courage. He would find her in the afternoons and they would sit together watching the sunset.

Lucy found homes for all the animals to go to, the evil picnic rug didn't care about them. She advertised for a kind lady who came to look after the blind goat, her name was Kathy, she said that it was important to take care of these special animals. Lucy knew Mamada was going to a good home.

The man from the pet shop came and helped Lucy catch David and his mate. He took them to a safe home at Hunter Valley Zoo. Lucy and Wayland visited him the other day. He was most surprised and pleased to see Lucy. He looked very well and happy.

Lucy was free of her hideous marriage but to get away she had had to give up her children. The evil picnic rug stole the house she was going to move into with the boys and left her with nowhere to go. She had to go and stay in a friend’s spare room until she could find a place of her own, but by the time that would happen she had had to agree to the boys living with the evil picnic rug.

This was what they wanted to do anyway because the evil picnic rug let them do whatever they wanted to do, they were allowed to drink poisonous coke and play computer games for all hours and watch bad movies and TV all day long. He even let them go for drives in the boots of friend’s cars. Travelling in the boot of a car is a very dangerous practice, and the eldest son learnt this the hard way when he was smashed in one. The evil picnic rug didn't even tell Lucy her son had nearly been killed and was in hospital. Poor Lucy was spending the day worrying about loosing her favourite purple cardigan, which you will be relieved to know a nice girl found and gave back to her. Wayland eventually rang one day and asked if she had heard the news, that William had been in bad car accident.

You might wonder how Lucy managed to become happy again after all her suffering. She sat on her big red cusion in the empty house that she no longer owned. she had nothing. She gave up her farm, she gave up her animals, she gave up her family, she had no home, no money, no possessions, everything was gone. And in giving everything up and owning nothing she made room for all the wonderful new things that would come into her life.

Peacocks are a symbol of renewal and resurrection.

Chapter XIV The Locked Draw

Chapter 14 is in replacement for chapter 13 which was deleted because of too much sorrow. It was not originally intended to become part of this story but I think it will serve the purpose of helping to describe the state of Lucy's heart.

The Locked Draw

It was locked in a drawer. At night I would hear it rattle, rattling, trying to get out. But the drawer was locked. I held the key but couldn't bring myself to let it out. I was scared, not of it, but what would become of it. It had been harmed before, I couldn't risk it again, and so it remained hidden from the eyes of the world.

Night after night I would lie in bed, staring through the blackness, listening to it knocking and shaking. Eventually sleep would come and I would forget, until the next night when again it would start thumping and pounding.

"IT" is my heart.

Once upon a time, when I was a little girl, I had a heart like any innocent little child's heart, it was unblemished as a gem stone, as pure as gold, and as quick as silver. Then I started to grow up and watch the world around me. I saw the rot, and the greed, and the cruelty. The gems in my heart started to shatter with every harsh unneeded word, just a chip, and a sliver when kindness would cry. Each little chip and tiny splinter I saved in my jewel box, and when the box was full (it did not take long) I put them in the Locked draw.

Then the gold began to melt. As I grew older I was taught about the world. People killed people. "Why?" I would ask. People destroyed trees and animals and the earth they lived from. I learnt about wars and violence and pain. "Why?" I could only ask, I did not understand. I discovered the answer was "Money" and the gold melted from my heart. When the last drop had fallen, I gathered them up and put them in the locked draw.

Now I only had the quicksilver left. Luckily it was able to slide and move with all the blows it was dealt, sadly, sometimes it would slip. My heart was shattered, battered and bruised. I had seen badness all around me, always trying to creep inside, and destroying the world I live in. Peoples' greed still craved for more shiny coins and more paper money and so they ignored the death and destruction, and the disasters that their greed was causing. The planet was dying and they didn't care.

Even the silver was slowly seeping out from my heart. I tried to run, to hide from what I saw. The evil managed well without me and trouble didn't go away. I caught the silver drops as I ran, and put them away in the heavy draw.

Now I lie each night, listening to my shattered and broken heart. I cannot bear to let it out.

Maybe one day they will mend the world and I will borrow the glue strong enough to mend my heart. Until them I must listen to it cry out for a greedy, dying world. As I sleep I dream I have a heart, as precious as a gem, as good as gold and as solid as silver.
And when I wake I live with one of cold metal and solid rock.

Chapter XIII Unlucky Sorrow

Chapter 13 is deleted because it was unlucky and too full of sorrow

XII The Death of the Cat

Warning: this chapter made me cry.

Lucy's aunt was the meanest person you could ever meet.

Three weeks before he fell off the roof and cracked his head open, Lucy had rung her Uncle John. They marveled to each other how someone as mean as Aunty Bernie, could turn out to be one of the loveliest people to know. He told her that when they were young and invited friends over, it could be a disaster. If she was there, they could count on her to behave like a demon, nasty and embarrassing. She was an epileptic and took the same medication for years and years and years. She was a hypochondriac; she could become ill at will. She spoiled so many family occasions, by vomiting at weddings or having migraines at birthdays, she was so terrible, Lucy was scared to death of her when she was a little girl. The worm just about ignored her.

One day, the worm got a phone call from one of Bernie's two friends. She was so concerned about her that she felt someone from the family needed to do something to help her, she didn't think Bernie would make it through the winter in the squalor she was living in. Uncle John had died, so the worm was obliged to step in. Lucy had grown up by now and they went over to see her; I'll describe what her flat was like in a moment...

They took her to a very good hospital. Her room had a view of Sydney Harbour and with some proper food and care, her senility disappeared, and her health got better. AND they changed the medication she had been taking for epilepsy. Her whole personality changed. For all those years, nearly her whole life, the medication for epilepsy had been poisoning her system, without it she became the sweetest, dearest little old lady. Lucy loved her.

It took six months, once or twice a week, to clean out her flat. She had an entire room devoted to paper, newspapers mostly, sixteen years' worth. It was obviously a new form of recycling, she never threw one away. Lucy waded knee deep through this sea of paper, she couldn't just bundle it up and chuck it; there were insurance papers and important letters that had to be gone though. Lucy found an old note, written when Bernie was a school girl; when she grew up she imagined a happy life as a wife and mother, like many little girls. But I tell you what, if anyone was destined to be an old maid, it was Aunty Bernie. Lucy asked her once during one of their weekly phone calls why she had never married? Bernie told her that when she was young, all the young men had gone to war (WWII), and so many never came home, there weren't enough men to go round. She never found one for herself. Wow, no one would have married such a mean person, and any child she might have had would have been a sorry one. When she got better she would sometimes come to help clean out the flat, she grew very fond of Lucy’s little monster, William (he had improved somewhat over the years).

Lucy had the job of cleaning out the bathroom. There were many plastic containers, with white socks and stockings that had been left to soak for I don't know how many months or years, and half empty containers of laundry bleach. The bathtub was the rubbish bin, and all the tiles had fallen off the wall, staining everything brown. Lucy found it amusing how many little pieces of soap were amongst the mess, you know how you never know what to do with a bar of soap when it gets too small to hold?  Well apparently, you save them all up in the bathtub for later use. Lucy wondered how she even fitted in the shower recess, with all the containers of soaking underwear.

The dingy kitchen (the worm’s job) was indescribable. That Bernie hadn't died of salmonella poisoning was a wonder. She used to feed a neighbouring cat that she had befriended; the bench was covered in old tin cans of cat food. She hadn't put them in the rubbish; she had filled them with water and left them all over the kitchen. I'm not sure that she would actually have been able to cook anything, it took a while to actually find the stove, and the grill was thick with grease. The washing up had never been done. The pantry was scary, I think she had bred a new species of spider in its bowels; they looked very similar to red backs, except they lacked the red stripe on their back. Lucy opened an old tin of sardines to the give to the cat, the sardines in the tin had turned green, the cat looked at Lucy to say, "you've got to be kidding?", turned tail and ran! I don't think it ever came back!

Lucy found the vacuum cleaner in the bottom of the linen cupboard but when she tried to introduce it to the dust that was a foot thick on the wall under the bed, it let out a shriek and carked it.

Lucy tidied up the lounge room, ducking for cover from the multitude of moths. She untangled all the balls of wool, (Bernie used to knit) and rewound old wooden cotton reels that were spun with pure silk. She threw away safety pins, old cough lollies and leaking pens. Lucy wanted her to know that they hadn't just chucked her stuff away, that they had done it respectfully. In a dust laden cupboard, Lucy found complete sets of leather-bound books, all the classic books that have ever been written, he blew the dust off them to keep, a life time's worth of reading.

Bernie didn't believe in putting clothes away, the garage was like one huge laundry pile, they took many, many bags to St Vincent De Paul. She was a great reader; they carted away cartons of paperbacks books. So many puzzle books went to the recycling center, along with all the newspapers, they had to hire a truck to cart it all away!

Bernie just could never throw anything away. Poor Aunty Bernie, to have been so sadly neglected all her life, because her medication made her into a person that other people couldn't bear to be around, what a sad tragedy.

Will you be able to believe that with new medication, she became a pleasure to know?

They found her a nice, sunny hostel near the sea, where she lived for another 10 years, Lucy enjoyed a long distance phone call from her every week. Aunty Bernie loved hearing all about the farm animals, especially when baby ducks hatched out, and the baby birds in their nests. Lucy even managed to persuade her to come and visit once, her only holiday in decades. She stayed in a Bed & Breakfast a few km's away, where she was very comfortable.

But there was something in her aura that seemed to cause chaos. During her holiday, Lucy had to suffer through the 2nd worst day of her life. When Aunty Bernie arrived, she showed her all over the farm, two of the cows came up the hill, but Lucy's milking cow, Mooney didn't follow. Lucy thought she wouldn't be far away. I can't help but feel if Aunty Bernie hadn't been there, Lucy would have gone across the hill to look for her, but it was Lucy’s job to take care of Bernie and couldn't walk off and leave her. They had a picnic down at the creek with all the little birds.

The next day, was very hot. Lucy’s Cat had fallen very ill. This was a real live cat, named Spider Cat, she had lived with Lucy for many years, since long before she had met the picnic rug. She needed to be taken to the vet, about an hour’s drive away. Spider Cat was in the car and they were just about to leave, when the picnic rug came over and said that Mooney was dead.

Lucy felt sick.

Mooney had somehow tangled her legs up in the barbed wire fence. I don't know why she had tried to jump over the fence, maybe she was trying to get to a bull on the other side, or protect her calf from a snake, Wayland thought a fox had chased her.

It's terrible to imagine how Lucy felt when she saw Mooney's bloated body strangled in the fence. But she couldn't stop, she had Spider Cat in the car with Aunty Bernie, they had to go to the vet. The vet was very kind, he gave Spider cat an intravenous fluid as she was badly dehydrated. He took a blood sample and gave Lucy some tablets to give to her. But he said things were not looking good.

Lucy had Spider Cat for 16 years, she had saved her life. When she was young with no one to love her, Spider Cat had come into her life and given her something to love. She was her familiar. They used to go for walks in the night together. When they lived in the city, she would trot along the footpath behind Lucy, and when they moved to the county, they went for rambling walks over hillsides, sometimes they just sat beside each out in the garden and at night they watched the stars together. Spider cat had her full nine lives, she been run over, been a city cat, a country cat, seen Lucy meet the picnic rug and have 3 children. She never liked any of them much. She only loved Lucy. Once she jumped up on to the bed, savagely bit the picnic rug on the big toe that protruding from the end of the covers and fled out of their flat. Lucy should have taken notice of her opinion; it would have saved her a lot of grief. The family always tried to get her like them, they would give her dinner, they loved her, they greatly respected her; but she was a one-person cat, she only wanted Lucy for herself, she never really appreciated Lucy having a family to love as well.

When Aunty Bernie and Lucy eventually got home (Lucy had to teach swimming in the afternoon) the vet had called to say Spider Cat had an advanced cancer and she was going to die.

Despite this horrible day, Lucy had to carry on with life and looking after Aunty Bernie on her little holiday, which she was glad to do, it didn't give time to dwell on her sadness. Plenty of sadness was to come as she nursed Spider Cat through her last weeks. Spider took up residence in the bathroom on the cool tiles. Lucy told her she was the best friend she ever had. Spider Cat eventually passed away as Lucy stroked her, lying outside in the shade under the trailer. She had a proper burial with all of Lucy’s family, the witch, the worm, her sister Polly, even her little sister was there. Spider is buried in the garden, under the roots of a purple hibiscus. She has a bulb of Bella Donna, Lucy’s favourite flower the deadly nightshade, her favourite scent, planted over her. The next day the hibiscus burst into flower for the very first time.

Aunty Bernie stayed for a few days, and had a very enjoyable time. The people who ran the guest house were very kind to her, and told Lucy how sweet Bernie was. They took her to muster cattle in their ute! The two of them also stayed for two nights in the vineyards; where they were spoilt and went on beautiful country drives. Then Lucy drove her home to Sydney.

Eventually, Aunty Bernie died as Lucy held her hand. Lucy felt her spirit leave her body and float away  over the sea to heaven.

XI Destruction and Dreams come true

Lucy was woken one morning by a terrible noise. She looked out the window and saw a convoy of trucks, graders and bulldozers trundling down the driveway into the bush. She tried to run out to stop them but Pignig wouldn't let her. She had to shudder helplessly inside, huddling under the security blanket with William and the cat while they mercilessly felled all the trees. The entire 25 acres of bush was totally decimated. Lucy wanted to save some of the flowers, she went outside and dug up some bulbs. The bulldozer was getting closer and closer. It wasn't going to stop. The trees came crashing down around her and she had to flee back inside with a handful of bulbs, all that remained of her idyllic world where trees had reached up to touch the sky. They demolished trees so old their girth was so wide the family couldn't hold hands and reach around. All completely flattened in just 6 days, the same amount of time it had taken God to create the world. On the seventh day they burnt it. They pushed all the fallen trunks and leaves into huge pyres and set them alight. For weeks the green wood smoldered, sending toxic smoke billowing high in to the atmosphere, choking Lucy and her family as Lucy choked on her tears.

Sunset of Destruction.
 At least now Lucy had a clear view of the sky

They left the grove of trees around the house (for then), though if you were to go there today you would find the house is an old shed full of junk, surrounded by no trees at all. From far in the distance when you looked back you would see a huge rectangle of bare land, a scar in the bush. Eventually they built a canopy of netting to keep birds off the apple trees that they planted. Poisonous apples, as it is the practice of the Tadrosse to spray the fruit with toxic chemicals before selling the apples to markets.

Her heart was broken, her beautiful fairy world was totally destroyed. All the homes for the animals, the holes in hollow trees, all the nests of the birds were all gone. Lucy’s home was gone, where was she to go to now? She had nearly saved up enough money to buy a cow, but she needed more money so she could buy a paddock to keep it in.

She got the family to help her cast a magic spell. Seven times clockwise they weaved round the glade, chanting a rhyme to bring them some money. Lucy scattered magic as they walked and talked, using a picture they had from an old poker machine as the catalyst*. They hit the jackpot! Within a week they received word that Ray had died and left Lucy a fortune. Do you remember Ray? He had given Lucy the ticket to see the Pirates of Penzance at the Opera house that day. Now he had saved her, she truly was blessed.

[Authors note: I need to interject to tell you that the wicked witch insisted that she gave Lucy this money because she used to do Ray's cooking and cleaning and she handed Lucy the cheque.]

This was not all Ray and his family gave to Lucy. His mother was tiny and frail and old, she was a saint. When Lucy was very small she made her two toys. One was a rabbit dressed in blue trousers with a carrot in his pocket for meal times. The other was a cat with an apron with a pocket with a fish (that sounds familiar, a little girl playing with her cat and a fish?). They were exquisitely made with needle and thread. Lucy loves them. She also left Lucy the OBE she had been presented with by the Queen during the silver jubilee. Lucy loved Mrs Fry with all her tiny might. She died many years ago.

They could buy the farm Lucy had always dreamed of. She made a wish. She wished for 16 acres of beautiful land. She wanted a view and a creek and a line of poplar trees. She wanted trees around her but not near her. The bush was lovely but she wanted to be able to see the sky. She added to her dream. She wanted to create a bird sanctuary. She wanted to replace all the little birds whose home had been destroyed by the bulldozers.

They searched far and wide for the most beautiful place to live. They found it at the foot of Mirannie Mountain in the beautiful Hunter Valley. 16 acres, a spring fed creek that never ran dry during the following seven year drought. Poplar trees and willows grew right along the winding creek. The house perched on top of a hill with a clear view of the sky but plenty of trees grew around. She planted native bushes to provide food for the birds.She made fountains for them to drink from. She watched trees grow from saplings into tall gums. Tiny thorn bills, fairy wrens, robins and finches happily nested in the trees and bushes around the home and down at the creek. She watched their population spread through her garden then up and down the road and eventually all the way to town.

She fulfilled her dream of milking a cow. She bought a poddy-calf from a neighbour up the road. Lucy hand reared it by feeding it powdered milk and pellets. She needed it to be tame. The name of the calf was Mooney, she grew into a fine black and white Friesian cow, just like Hendrika, the Cow who Fell in the Canal (that is someone else’s story). She made friends with a neighbouring bull and nine months later gave birth to a calf. Cows make a lot of milk. Lucy milked her in the morning, on a three legged stool a friend made for her before letting the calf have its breakfast.

It was the creamiest, freshest milk you could ever imagine. They made milkshakes and strawberry ice-cream (the most divine smell you could ever smell) and they had fabulous coffee with fresh cream on top. It didn't always go to plan; occasionally Mooney would kick over the bucket or put her great clod hopping hoof right in the bucket, totally spoiling the milk. Then Lucy would have to wash and sterilize it all over again. She made sure Matilda and William learned how to milk the cow, it wouldn't be much good if they had to grow up with the same ambition as Lucy.

There were plenty of farm animals for the children to play with. White ducks and a rabbit called Slothly, Geese and a guinea pig, chickens for eggs, and a blind goat who originally came with the name Matilda that was changed to Mamada so Matilda wouldn't get mixed up. Mamada was a whirling dervish in another life; she spent hours and hours walking round and round in circles.

Lucy had a new baby she named Wayland. Wayland means the path-way land; he arrived on her pathway through life. His second name was an old family name, Forrester. Together his name became the pathway through the forest.  He had a third name – Jack meaning healthy, strong & full of vital energy. Wayland was an ancient Celtic folk hero, a super black-smith in Lucy’s favourite book called Faeiry Tale. Lucy had him to become the protector of the forest.

Wayland's Smithy in Oxfordshire
 Some say that Wayland forged Excalibur at his forge near Uffington.
 If you leave an unshod horse there overnight, in the morning he will be found shoed!

Lucy’s life was complete. She had everything she had ever dreamed of. She had a loving family, a farm and a cow, she had a creek and birds and animals who loved her. She grew a beautiful garden with fruit trees, vegetables and flowers. They still didn't have much money but William said they were rich in flowers. She was quite content. 

She was quite content. She was quite content.

But what was she supposed to do now? She had completed doing everything she wanted to do. She lay in the sun in her hammock.

*catalyst - something that makes a change happen or brings about an event.

1236 Mirannie Rd Reedy Creek by Google maps 2010

Chapter X Lucy's Dream

When she was a very little girl, Lucy went to school. She took Puss with her to keep her company as the other little girls didn’t understand her need for a security blanket and teased her. One day they all went on a happy excursion to visit a farm. The farmer’s wife showed them how to milk a cow. Lucy really wanted to try but they chose a different little girl and Lucy missed out. When she grew up, Lucy still dreamed of milking a cow but she lived in the city & cows lived in the country. So she decided she would have to move to the country.

First she needed a husband to be the farmer so she could be the farmer’s wife. She was sitting in the pub one day reading about bushrangers when the evil Pignig Rug walked in. He was disguised as a man and Lucy fell for him. He looked like the perfect candidate to make her a farmer’s wife. His job was mopping-up on construction sites. But his friend was a thief and they considered Pignig guilty by association & he got the sack. Lucy had just had their first child, a beautiful little girl she named Matilda.

Now was the perfect time to start putting her plan into action. They leased a place in the country where they lived happily growing vegetables. Lucy learned about a new farming method called “the no dig garden” It worked brilliantly, and they grew enormous vegetables on top of the hard clay soil. They didn’t have much money but they had each other and that was all that mattered.  It was lucky that Lucy loved the picnic rug back then because they spent every day together for the next seven years before the picnic rug got another job. Their little girl Matilda grew up playing happily in her sandpit and playing make-believe.

They couldn’t afford a cow yet. They lived on a river with snakes and long grass. They borrowed the next door neighbour’s cows to eat it. They dug a hideout in the sandy river bank with some of the neighbour-hood kids. Lucy liked to watch the river flow. She got a job taking people out for coffee and cheering them up. She saved up every penny she could to put towards buying a cow of her own. But their landlord was a miser and he kept putting the rent up on their hovel till they could no longer afford to stay there. He even cheated them out of their bond money, he said they made the carpets dirty.

The little family found a beautiful big house high up in the mountains to move to. The new house was a palace compared to the cockroach infested hovel they used to live in. It was huge, roomy, comfortable and spacious with a back yard of yellow flowers and the ancient Wollemi Pine growing at their back gate. Matilda soon had a new baby brother which wasn't actually very good for her as he cried all the time leaving little time for Lucy to give Matilda attention. Sometimes Lucy’s father the worm would come up to help, to nurse and rock the screaming baby rocking in a rocking chair. Rocking was the only thing that kept him quiet. It was all quite miserable actually, but at least they had a nice home and Lucy cooked delicious meals. Until it got sold.

Then they moved down to the end of a road into a fairy house. The walls were askew and the doorways all crooked. It was heated by an old black furnace in the middle of the house and it had a room upstairs that to get into you had to go outside and climb up the stairs up the wall. At the top of the stairs Lucy’s head was high in the trees, the air filled with birds. Inside the room she could look down into the room below through a man hole cut in the ceiling. Sometimes she spotted their cute kitten, Vincent asleep in the bed with his head on the pillow and the covers tucked up to his chin or Postman Pat sitting up watching Postman Pat on TV.  It was her studio to write and paint; she could leave her stuff out without naughty children messing it up. She had precisely two hours a day to use it when William had his afternoon nap.

A fairy house

Matilda was a good little girl; she went to school on the bus and studied hard to be top of the class. William was terrible, he stayed home and smashed plates.

Magic red mushrooms with white spots grew in fairy rings and when they stood in them they were transported into other worlds where reindeers ate mushrooms and leapt high in the air, flying like Santa’s reindeer and Vikings ate toadstools before battle to transform themselves in mighty frothers with no fear of death. Or even further back, to the creation of civilization in ancient Egypt with Isis and Ra.

  

                     

The garden was strange. They raked up all the old fallen leaves, the home to black funnel webs, burned them all off and made a glade round the house. Tall, skinny turpentine trees grew round the house. The trees were homes to tiny birds and native animals, finches and fairy wrens. Tiny fairy gliders came onto the porch at night to eat morsels of food. They brought their friends; ring tailed possums and bandicoots, lizards and bush turkeys and animals that made weird noises at night. You’d be looking at a rock one day only to realize that it was looking back at you. The rocks were carved into faces and animals. They kept chooks in an old water tank turned on its side and the garden had a marvelous swing, a push-me-pull-you that could be loaded with kids.

Down a bushy track was a beautiful dam to swim in in summer; it had a punt to dive off into the strange green coloured spring. Their favourite mode of transport was a toboggan made from an old pram. It was a mad ride over the bumps and the sticks down the track to the dam, it was well sprung, past towering gums, through swaths of daffodils and sweet smelling jonquils. There were big red proteas and peach trees in blossom and apples and pears. At night the family went for torch-lit walks in the bush over hung with the branches of gum and wattle trees.  When they walked back the house glowed with a soft orange lights, like a dolls house, like magic, it was easy to see that fairies that lived there.

One day a huge rainbow filled the sky and Lucy set off to find the gold at its end. A grove of grevilleas all golden and glowing in the light of the sun, lit up in the seven colours of the rainbow.

Chapter IX A Miraculous Day

On a sunny day, Lucy woke up in her attic but couldn't find her glasses. She was very short sighted and couldn't see clearly enough to see where she had left them. She began tidying up the office in the hope that she would find them, but in vain, they were nowhere to be seen. 

"Oh well," she thought, "I'll just have to walk around blind." She was still in a cleaning mood and the footpath looked dusty so she took the broom up to street level to sweep. Some boys stopped and asked her why she was sweeping, she said, "because the path is dirty."

"Put that broom away," they said "and come with us for a beer. It's much too fine-a-day to spend it cleaning."

"I don't have any money," said Lucy. 

"Dont worry about that!" they said, "It's our shout." So Lucy left the broom leaning in the doorway and went with them up the road to the pub.

It was such a glorious day, there were hundreds of people milling around, it must have been a special occasion. The sun sparkled off the harbour, everyone looked happy. While she was drinking her beer she happened to look in her wallet in case she had hidden any money in there. She didn't find any money but she did find a ticket for a show. A friend of her mother & father named Ray, had given it to her as he was not going to be able to use it. She looked at the date. The date was today! A matinee performance of Pirates of Penzance at the Sydney Opera House. She went back down to her suitcase to put on her best pirate clothes but strangely enough emerged looking more like a bush-ranger. She wore her black Akubra hat, red spotted scarf tied bush-ranger style around her neck and cowboy boots and trendy jeans torn & tied up the side with ribbon (her own design). I don't know why, but her purse was a bright red tool box. There must be something special about that box because the author still keeps it full of tools.

The red tool box with tools in

On this day though, Lucy packed it with a sandwich and drink and strode around the quay to the Opera House. The show was in the Opera Theatre, the one with the foyer decorated with the amazing purple painting by John Olsen. She hadn't seen it since its opening night when the Witch and her family had been invited as friends of the artist. It is such a beautiful painting it's a shame that it is covered with a curtain, but they must protect it from the harsh sun that shines in through the sail. It was unveiled this day. But she was late and had to wait till intermission to be let in. When interval came and the audience came out she was standing at a table and some of the patrons joined her. They offered to buy her a drink as she seemed quite stiff. She thanked them gladly.

The Five Bells commissioned for the 1973 Opening of The Sydney Opera House

The case was that Lucy had scratched herself on a rusty nail a few days before and the doctor had given her a tetanus shot. In her 19 year old wisdom she thought it would be a good idea to wash it down with more shots; of ouzo. Maybe not the best medical advice. Lucy felt quite strange today.

She went in with the crowd to see the singing, but it wasn't really her style, them being pirates & her a bush-ranger and all. They sang on staged ships when she knew outside there were real boats sailing round on the sea and the sun was shining, it was too beautiful a day to spend it inside. She couldn't sit still; they seemed only a little put out when she left. She marched back to her trooping ground at the rocks, pausing in the park to unpack her tool box for lunch. 

She went back and changed her clothes into her brown-vinyl cowgirl skirt then for some reason she got it into her head to go for a walk up town. She hadn't gone much further than the Regent Hotel when a pretty young lady stopped her. Quite a few people had stopped to look at Lucy, she was wearing amazing socks. This particular young lady was wondering if Lucy could help her. She was on her way to an art exhibition that was being staged somewhere around but she didn't know where it was.  

                      

A light bulb went on in Lucy's head. "Ah," she said, "that must be why so many people are walking around the Rocks today"." Yes" she said, "I think I know where that might be. Come with me and we'll go and find it." So Lucy turned back and the two new companions set off on a delightful afternoon stroll all the way down to the wharves. Yes, it was there. The nice lady shouted Lucy in and they bid each other adieu. It was a crazy exhibition with an iron lady decorated in paint. The only other exhibit I can recall was a series of magic mushroom rings, papier-mache toadstools threaded onto hoops. The reason I remember these is because Puss swiped one. 

pier2/3 Hickson Rd

Authors interjection: I don’t know what’s going on but from the time that Puss walked out with that magic mushroom ring to the time when Lucy is at the end of the wharf, twice my screen has frozen and died, I’m going round in circles so for the third time tonight I will repeat myself.

Also I've looked up on the net what was going on that day. It was the 1986 Biennale and the first time Pier 2/3 was used as an art space. I have a funny feeling Lucy and Puss may have been a major exhibit that day. Coincidentally she wore a slight resemblance to Tom in the poster below except her hat was black. All baddies wear black hats.

The cover of the Biennale's catalogue 

                     

Puss and Lucy dodged out of the exhibition with the magic mushroom ring hidden under her jacket. The jacket was denim with silver plated buttons cast with an emblem of thistles sewed all along the bottom and on the shoulders. They went for a walk from pier 3 to pier 8 to where the ballet had its home. Lucy often hung out there, as her closest friends at the time were dancers. The one out of the closet had moved back up from Melbourne with their friends Billy, Gideon and Rachael. Lucy saw them much later for one last time, at the funeral of her gay friend, the one who took drugs. 

Lucy walked to the end of the pier. There was a limousine parked there. Lucy took off her boots but left on her socks because they had cats on and dangled her legs off the pier. Under her clothes she wore skins – skins to go diving and swimming in the sea. She folded her jacket and put her keys in her boots.

Author says: I've added in the bit about Todd, so I hope he is happy and will allow me to continue. Todd is the name of Lucy's best friend who died.

As I was saying before I was interrupted…

Lucy stood in her cat socks at the end of the pier looking down into the water so cool and inviting. She longed to dive in but didn't quite dare. It looked like a long way down.  A pleasure boat crowded with people sailed by. All the people on board waved and called out to her, “Go on! Do it!” they yelled.  Lucy looked up in surprise. She beamed at them, held her nose, took a big gulp of air and leapt into the sea. Down, down, down she went, then up, up, up, she floated, her head bursting through the surface. Everyone on board the boat clapped and cheered and waved her good bye. She waved back, flipped her tail and dived back under the surface.

Pier 8/9 Walsh Bay that Lucy dived off

You did read correctly, she flipped her tail – no not her pussy cat tail, cats have a great dislike for water, especially salt water and puss had stayed back on shore. No something strange had happened to Lucy when she sunk under the water. Can you guess?

She turned into a mermaid. (There is a photo of Lucy the mermaid but I keep it private. The world would be too stunned if it was revealed.)

She spent a magical hour swimming around the poles that held up the pier, they were encrusted with barnacles and shiny crystals. She swam around with little fish. She was a little freaked out when things brushed against her legs but nothing bad happened.

After an hour of cooling off on this hot autumn day, Lucy wasn't sure but she thought she may have heard the police boat calling in on their radio about a girl who had been swimming around in the sea. Lucy didn't want the indignity of being hauled aboard a police launch and she was actually getting quite tired. She needed to figure out a way to get back onto a wharf.  She looked up at the one she had dived off; it was up way too high, there was no way to get back up there. She swam around to the next one. On its piers it had tyres tied up by rope to act as buffers against boats. From Lucy’s perspective it looked like a ladder. She was pretty worn out and it was a long climb but she used the strength in her arms to climb back up. Her legs seemed to be back, changed back from a tail. She flopped over the top much to the surprise of the dark fisherman with his serrated fish knife who was fishing from the top.

Lucy paid him no heed and slop slopped away in her wet cat socks.

She walked back around to the end of pier 7/8 to get back her clothes, her boots and her keys. The limousine must have been keeping watch because he left as Lucy walked on her way.

She went back to the office. On the way she called in to visit the chemist who was a friend of theirs. Of course being a small town back then everyone knew everyone. She asked him if he would mind coming down to the cellar with her as she thought someone may have been there because it was all tidied up. He happily came with her and quickly saw her glasses on a window sill. Once she had her sight back she could clearly see that the place was tidy because she had been there.

Lucy rang her father and told him she had been swimming in the harbour.  He didn't quite believe her. But she told him her clothes were all wet. He asked if other people had seen her. If people had seen her?! The whole TOWN full of people had seen her! He mightn't have believed her but I swear every word is true. As seen through the eyes of a Cat.