kce

I continued my ‘retreat’ for another three weeks. When I finally
surfaced, it was because Andrew and I were due to go to Melbourne, to my
friend Eva’s house, for her daughter Sarah’s eighteenth birthday. Eva and I
knew each other before I met Andrew, so we’ve been friends for over ten
years.
Eva lives near the Dandenongs, and the usual route we take is
through the outer Melbourne suburb of Fountain Gate, through Belgrave,
then up to Monbulk. Andrew and I planned to set out in the afternoon, and
to spend the evening with her and her family. The kids were in Melbourne
that weekend with their grandmother, Andrew’s mother.
It was August, when it can get very cold, but that day was an
exception. I was wearing a green and black patterned synthetic knit jumper
— it was reasonably thick, but for insurance I threw my heavy winter coat
on the back seat of our car. We left more or less on schedule. It takes an
hour and a half to two hours to get there, going through Narre Warren
North on the Belgrave-Hallam Road.
We used to go up and down that road fairly frequently, and nothing
unusual had ever happened to us. At the particular time I’m coming to, we
were heading up into the mountains from Cranbourne. It was just getting
on dusk and we could still see trees and the long shadows they cast on the
fields. Andrew was driving, doing maybe 110 or 120 kilometres an hour,
the usual speed in that area.
He and I were getting along alright that day, but we weren’t doing a
lot of talking. I was mostly just thinking my own thoughts and looking at
the scenery, because the drive is long and boring. We didn’t have the radio
on because the reception isn’t great along those roads, and I also didn’t
want the intrusion on my thoughts.
It was very quiet in the car — we had both settled into that timeless
long-drive state, where you feel like you’re in a bubble and it’s the world
that’s moving past, not the other way around. All of a sudden, I saw
something out of the corner of my eye, through the passenger window,
that snapped me into alertness. There was a break in the trees that lined the
road, and through the break I could see a big paddock, going right back to
some low hills. The paddock was cleared, there were no obstructions, and
no buildings in the vicinity. We were just on the outskirts of Belgrave
South, before you get into the township.