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David’s eyes crinkled as he looked
intently into Beatrice’s ’eyes ‘ideas worth thinking about.
No?’
     
    David had been
born in Scotland, but he had moved to Australia with his parents
when he was ten years old. Now, he was a student at the university
in Newcastle, but he felt uncertain and stressed by this choice
since the Hawke government had brought back university fees.
     
    David, also,
played guitar and sang in pubs like the Lass O Gowrie and the Great
Northern Hotel. Sometimes, just sometimes, he could be found at
Uptown Circus, late at night, long after The ‘Hipslingers’ or the
‘The Crying Suns’ had appeased the tumbling crowds. Late at night
when moods had switched toward contemplation and reverie.
     
    It became a
habit for David and Beatrice, to meet at the beach whenever they
were able. But, as the summer wheeled in, soaking the world in its
orange glow and piles of people massed and swarmed smelling of Reef
oil and Juicy Fruit gum, Beatrice would catch a bus to Tighes Hill,
where David shared a house. Once there, the pair would smooch and
gaze into each other’s eyes and David would teach Beatrice, whom he
always called ‘Bea’, the guitar, for which she found she had an
aptitude. Then, one day, he enticed her to sing and -just like that
- suddenly, she found her voice.

     
    Come along and
see how our dear Sue Brown’s life is moving along, now that we have
moved into 1992 and serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer has been sent to
prison to die. But, first, let me ask you this: are such people
born? Or, are they made?
     
    Yes. I know.
It’s a false dilemma.
     
    Sue turned
eighteen: still being courted by her knight, Scott Smith. She is
still a maiden: of course. Sue assures her mother ‘I am saving
myself for marriage’. She never stops to consider what she means.
If Sue had been American, she may have taken a pledge and worn a
purity ring. But here, as yet, such shabby rituals have not hit our
shores.
     
    Sue and David
go to the Tower Cinema most Saturday nights: ‘Groundhog Day’, one
of their favourite movies. Afterwards, they would wander over to
the Pancake Factory hand in hand, and reminisce about eating
sandwiches in the booths at Big Al’s or having dinner at The
Beefeater. They thought a lot about these memories in later years.
Nothing else seemed to stand out.
     
    ‘I am content
to live it all again
And yet again…’
Yeats
     
    ‘Groundhog Day’
was also one of David’s favourite movies too. He explained his
reasons to Beatrice…. ‘because it demonstrates Nietzsche’s concept
of eternal recurrence. And Bill Murray,’ he said, ‘is also like
Sisyphus, from Greek mythology, who must roll a huge bolder up a
hill, day after day, as punishment and then watch it roll down to
the bottom. Only to perform the same grinding exertions yet
again.
     
    He
continued
     
    “Nietzsche,
sees time as a circle and so the same events will recur again and
again. But within our ‘loneliest loneliness’, in moments of private
reflection, we may see this continual ‘succession and sequence’ as
an opportunity to reflect upon the way we live our lives and the
choices we make.”
     

     
    Whilst Sue and
David were genteelly waiting, Lisa had moved on from Chook (Gary)
long ago. Men and sex were like the coming and going of a goods
train for Lisa.
     
    Lisa was still
working inside the air-conditioned womb of Garden City, but she had
managed to travel to a few places with the available perk of
discounted plane fares. Recently, she had spent a week sloshed and
sexed out with a big group of guys and gals on Great Keppel Island.
What a time they had had! How they had partied. Hard. Lisa believed
that she looked stunning in her teensy, weeny pink bikini. She did,
but already she is developing fine lines around the eyes from the
sun damage and carousing. Meow!
     
    School was
suddenly behind Beatrice at the end of 1992. Now, she wasn’t sure
what she would do with her life. University was an