2011 - Theses - Flinders University

eturns to her hut to mourn in her dry silence and lose herself in the latest serial thrillers thatshe cuts out from the newspapers and clips together into books, keeping them with her othertreasures in the trunk that has travelled around the world with her. Her eyes are sharp as ever.In the trunk also are all Mrs Forbes letters, bundled together. She has a fat packet fromJoyce now, with a trail of postmarks that makes a map in Mrs Forbes’s imagination of herboy’s travels and the trail of small impressions where her grandchildren learn to walk, andrun, and go to school. The letters still come weekly, although she cannot recall the last timeshe saw the family. She knows he got the Exemption, and is not surprised, with so manyleaving the mission now for proper school, and work, and maybe a beer at the pub. Itdistressed Mr Eaton – she could see that when he looked out over his dwindling congregation– but he had himself to blame, too. Fancy making such a fuss over young Rita Buckskinwearing slacks. 219 Talk was he had banned her from the store, and that would not go downwell. That girl could stand up for herself, and didn’t mind letting whoever came by knowabout it, too.Nepabunna, September 1950From part way down the slope towards the Store, Mrs Forbes can see it is the new assistant,Brother Hathaway, on duty today. She decides to turn back. She will eke out what she hasuntil the next day, when she hopes Mr Eaton will be there. She is uncomfortable with thisnew couple, who call one another ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ although they have been married foryears, and watch Mr Eaton with some kind of concern, as the old man struggles betweenadmonition and love for the people he has known for twenty years.151