1 - Eureka Street

and laugh with his strutting aboutlike a peacock and his wonderful,preposterous guffaw, like a crossbetween the King of Siam and OilcanHarry. He could alternate betweena fa ce like a sunbeam andthat dreadful, belligerent look heu sed t o give m e, but I alwaysthought I understood his act. Still,around that time I began to wonderif h e'd crossed the line som e­how. One day when he launchedinto one of h is tirades, I said 'Whothe helJ are you talking to now? Isthis o ne of your per fo rmancesyo u've had sa ved up since we lastm et ?' For th first and last time,to my astonishment, he apologisedto m e, and said, in a quiet, puzzledtone 'You were right to pullme up like that. SometimesI just forget'.0NE DAY IN 1978, when I wassitting in m y office, Jenny rang totell m e that Leon was dead. Somemental trouble, it had been goingon for some time, he'd lost hi s job,pu t himself into care a couple oftim es, then gone into decline, takenan overdose of som ething mixedwith alcohol and been found dea dat hom e one afternoon. We wentto the fun eral. I was horrified towalk into the Ukrainian OrthodoxC hurch in the Port Road and findan open coffin, and Leon in a suit,staring at the ceiling. His foreheadwas swollen and square-looking,his nose m ore aquiline than I remembered, and sallow skin wasstretched taut over the bones of hisface, like a canvas. Somehow I hadnot really believed that h e wasdead. For the last time, h e hadforced m e to an irrevocable admission.His m other was crazy withher unutterable pain and grief, anchoredin the world only by theweight of two women who heldher by the arms and wept for her.She would not let them close thecoffin lid when it was time to goto the cemetery, but propped itopen again and again to m oa n andbabble over Leon, and fuss with hissuit. As I stared at this spectacle,bruised and shocked in a way I ca nn ever describe, a man standingnext to m e, an 'Aussie' who hadapparently ju st wandered into thechurch out of respectful curiosity,addressed m e very softly. I supposehe assumed I was a fellow outsider.'Eh, n1ate,' he said, 'excuse 1nc,but was this church built by, youknow ... out of funds coll ected bythe N ew Australians, like?'I was a pall-bearer. As we carri ce! the coffin out- m e, Babovich,Ka spersky and Pukhala-Leon'sdad caught m y eye with the saddest,most eloquen t look I haveever seen . At first there was a m o­m entary glimmer of the old mischief,of recognition, of all thosenights at the h ouse in CroydonPark, of his pride in Leon and hiseducated Aussie friendi then thecast of grief as his mind returnedto the dread present, and fin all y ahelpless, pleading look, as if to say'You have com e back. Can't he?'At the cem etery , I tried to bethe last to withdraw my hand fromthe coffin, to bea t out a little signalfor Leon on the lid with my fi n­gers, but Babovich, Kaspersky andPukhala all had the sam e idea. Weall let go awkwardly, together.Lurie gave m e a letter beforewe left the Cheltenham cem etery.He'd written just before he died,but the letter hadn' t been posted.He said he'd wanted to talk to meabout som e problem s, and tried toring, but h e must h ave had thewrong number and 'an irate lady'had insisted she had never beardof m e. In the letter h e called m ehis 'dear friend' and added 'dicl youever think you'd hea r me say that?'I often hear him say it. •Trevor Hay is a freelance writer.ReadingsJESUS OF THE APOCALYPSEby Barbara ThieringA FURTHER HISTORY OF JESUS THE MANUNLOCKED IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION.In a work of remarkable research and scholarship.Barbara Thiering has set out in her latest book tounravel the mysteries that have long surroundedthe elaborate and elusive complexities of the Bookof Revelation. 'It was not'. she writes. 'about visionand apocalypse. but about the profoundlyimportant history of the Christian movement fromAD 1 to AD 114.'338 Lygon StreetCarlton 3053Tel (03) 9347 6633Fax (03) 9347 1641ISBN : 0 86824 5569RRP: $39.95710 Glenferrie RoadHawthorn 3122Tel (03) 98191917Fax (03) 9818 4060153 T oorak RoadSouth Yarra 3141Tel (03) 9867 1885Fax (03) 9820 1809Limite d Offer:offer ends 31/10/95269 Glenferrie RoadMalvern 3144Tel (03) 9509 1952Fax (03) 9509 4957MAIL ORDERS WELCOME. PLEASE ADD $4.00 FOR POSTAGE AND PACKAGING.44EUREKA STREET • O CTOBER 1995