The Turning Page #3

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they are the remains of a child.

At the third stroke,

it will be 8:
22 and 20 seconds.

At the third stroke,

it will be 8:
22 and 30 seconds.

Hey, look.

Hey! Wait up!

Hey, guys, look at that.

Oh, sweet!

Wicked!

Not bad!

Oh, look at this!

Think it could float?

OK!

Yes, this is perfect.

Reckon it'll float'?

- Oh, give it a crack.

- Yeah? Sweet.

Hey, help me

get around this log.

Oi, just over there

near the bushes.

Where do you think you're goin'?

What have you got there?

Tadpoles?

Stay down.

Here we go again.

I've had enough of this!

I'm getting outta here.

Come on.

Help me with this thing.

Gotta go to school.

- Oi! Where are you going?!

- School!

My husband

had a thing about this girl

with a birthmark.

It began when he was 16

and went on and on.

Like a fever

that wouldn't break.

It's a story he used to

tell against himself.

His crush on Strawberry Alison.

It was one of the things that

charmed me about him.

Eh, Vic?

See the new form-six chick?

What do you reckon? Spunk?

Yeah. Pretty good.

One, two - Pigeons!

Sucked in!

Oh, my God. What a shocker.

Oi, she's got a face

like a half-sucked Redskin.

Strawberry Alison wasn't

the only damaged specimen

to capture his imagination.

His first love was a farm girl

whose ring finger

ended at the first joint,

ripped off in a hay baler.

That was over in a night.

A teenage kiss.

Not like Alison.

Alison!

I always assumed

the whole thing

was just a mortifying memory.

Later, I started

thinking about that.

You know I've been

trying to get more poetry

into the school paper.

Yeah, but I didn't really

mean for everyone to see this.

OK.

Well, I just think it'd be great

experience for you as a writer,

baring your soul.

Well...

...you think about it, OK?

What you doing, d*ckhead?

OK.

Let's go.

"Incandescent.

"They say that

when you're there, you'll know.

"That when it's happening,

you'll see.

"And it'll all be right.

"But it's not that way, is it?

"You say it's not

what they think.

"You say to show them

your face...

"..to not be afraid

of the burning girl.

"It's something else

folded within itself.

"My burning girl."

Alison.

I loved your poem.

I thought...

I thought it was really great.

$0?

I think you're great.

Oh! Where do you think

you're going?

I was just gonna...

Why don't you just

leave her the f*** alone?

Time heals all wounds, right?

And a lot of time's passed.

Alright.

But then just last week,

I caught him

poring over something.

This damn box.

Crying.

Oh, he didn't want to

talk about it, he said.

So we didn't.

Hi, guys.

Hey.

- Hi.

- Hi.

You alright?

Good. Just... you know.

Watching the fire.

I'm starting uni in a few weeks.

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