2011 - Theses - Flinders University

White Lives in a Black Community: The lives of Jim Page and Rebecca Forbes in the Adnyamathanha communityTracy SpencerVolume One Creative Writing Component: Excerpted Chapters from Volume Three Appendix Onecould only have come from Mr Wyld, vindictive, cruel man that he was. And so he was castout, again, from England. He laughs, a wry sound that sticks in his throat. You cannot be castout when your exile has become your home, he thinks. Or is he kidding himself? He takes thefresh pages covered with his flowing writing that he has not yet folded into their envelopemarked for the UAM, and deliberately goes about setting his fire with them, hanging a pot ofwater above where the thin tissue takes flame. He takes down a basin and lays it on the table,beside a cake of soap and his razor strop. He feels anger rising in him. She may have rejectedhim, but he would show her. He dresses quickly in a clean white shirt, trousers and boots, andcommences to shave.His face washed and dried, Jim is moving with purpose. He buckles the neck of the mailbag, and lifts it onto the table, ready. He takes up the keys for the storeroom, and is about toleave the hut when he sees his box of letters and papers still pulled out from under his cot. Heknows what he will do. It’s what they all do, letting it burn away. ‘Keep the home firesburning’, he thinks, but does not smile. He arranges them in the grate and then closes the doorbehind him as they take up the flames.Rebecca is surprised to hear a knock on her closed door. She finishes packing away herSunday clothes, draws the rough curtain across her bedroom space, and opens the door. MrPage is standing there, flushed.‘Mrs Forbes, I am going away this morning and I want you to take charge of themission.’ 187 He is speaking quickly, and Rebecca has scarcely registered his request before hecontinues. ‘Also, I want you to issue the people here with the ‘Christmas Shout’ of rations126