Show and Tell
Tonight on my way home from Dubbo we drove through a particularly poor area of town. As we slowed to turn a corner i spotted a diper clad toddler staring out from a bare window.The interior of the room behind him appeared empty and the garden out front unmaintained.
It took me back to where i was standing not that long ago.
My father was a drug dealer who did his own dirty work, a drug addict, an alcoholic, and percieved by all who knew him as 'a good man'.
I grew up with a very skewed perception of what exactly good and bad was as a result of this.
Steal, but only with good cause.
Hurt, but only out of vengeance.
Love, but never express it.
Fortunately, things became clearer to me as i grew older and was more influenced by my mother.
Back to the story. It reminded me of where i was not so long ago...
A dark dingy flat with a doorway situated beneath a stair case which led to the level above it.
A scarcely furnished interior. One bedroom, one lounge, small kitchen.
The neighbour our babysitter, a man of 50 odd years was a gentle soul. He gave my sister and i gifts of chocolate and other treats - one easter i recall getting a giant easter bunny clad in brightly colored tin foil.
My father took them back before Easter came, i didn't know why.
It was later made known to him and to us eventually that Kens intent was not as pure as we'd percieved it to be, and the convicted pedophile was reported missing some time after my father had discovered the many locations visited by his well travelled hands.
Once we went to see my dad in prison, and i was so naive.
While other kids would get up and tell of how they'd made paper planes from colored card board with their dad on the weekend, i would tell of how i went to visit my father at the farm.
"What animals did you see there?" the teacher would enquire.
"There were no animals" i would reply.
I thought it quite a silly question at first, until i came of age to realise that prison farms do harbour animals, just of a different kind.
posted by Ali @ 11:42 PM
