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.