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 Onebeyond sorrow. She is just spending time with her memories, when she hears a car door slamshut. Mrs Forbes is on her feet, dusting down her skirt and tucking stray hairs under her hat.Young Mary Woods, the new cook at Wertaloona station, walks smiling up to the hut, withher three-year-old daughter trailing beside her and lugging a long kangaroo tail that leaves afaltering line in the dirt where it drags.‘Afternoon!’ she calls. ‘Just stopped by for some business on our way in to Copley. Myhusband wants to pick up that son of yours. We’ve got some work on at the station for him.Anyway, I said give us few minutes for me to have a cup of tea with me old friend. You gotthe billy on there, Mrs Forbes?’Mrs Forbes regards the young woman a moment, and her face creases into a smile. She takesthe hard brown furred tail the child is pressing into her, and lets go the breath she has beenholding. She is glad for Mary’s conversation today.‘I certainly have, Mrs Woods. Now come in and tell me all your news.’The child is drawing happily at the table with a pencil and paper that Mrs Forbes has broughtout for her. The enamel cups in front of the two women are empty, and they have pushedtheir chairs back from the table and gesture towards each other as they speak. Theirconversation is animated. Mrs Forbes is enjoying the younger woman’s strong and openopinions, and matches them with her own. It is so different to the quiet and circumspectconversation she has with her neighbours, knowing so well what each other will think and sayafter all these years. It is so different to the stern tone she keeps for the children who visit. Itis so different to the crisp and curt answers she gives to the missionaries’ enquiries, not154