Читать книгу War/Peace - Matthew Vandenberg - Страница 21

I turn to face the university. Night has fallen and a pathway I once knew so well, one which served as the isle down which I have led so many young ladies during my trips west, is now all but invisible. But I'm so glad that it's dark. I'm so glad no one can see me. And I'm so glad I know exactly where I'm headed: a small office in the social sciences department.

This is the only way I can move about now, under the cover of darkness just as though I'm the vampire most south-siders will have you believe I am, just as though I'm a creep, a rapist, a completely immoral individual. Just because I am from the north, just because I am a nightwalker. Should a south-sider see me as I cross this bare-breasted field of grass, dotted by the odd wooden bench, and the odd squirrel or wombat, should one smell me, or hear the rusting of the grass beneath my feet, then I have no idea what he or she will do. In fact, the reason why I'm here, right here right now, is because I need to know just this: I need to know just who I am, just who I now represent, and why others from this side of Sydney believe I am nothing like them. I need to know what makes me so different, what makes a Protestant, and specifically a Presbyterian, so different to a Catholic. I need to know why we're fighting, for whether I like it or not I am now a fighter by virtue of my prior residency in the north of Sydney. I have never picked up a sword and never shall but to them, to the entire choir who sing the holy vowels of Catholicism, I am a ninja who could strike at any time, a devil in disguise should I enter the south as I have, a heathen, a demon, an animal, and essentially an inferior human being: the Moslem to the Catholic, the Catholic to the Moslem, the Christian to the Jew, the Morman to the Atheist, the Jehovah's Witness to the Agnostic, the Buddhist to the . . . and a silence hangs in the air as we anticipate peace, freedom, and happiness, and a world without boundaries . . .

I remove a cell from my pocket as I stroll across the grass, towards the large building that marks the center of the University of Western Sydney's Bankstown campus. I key in a number and wait anxiously for a woman to answer, a woman I have known for some time, one of my most brilliant, talented and respectable clients. Before the south was severed brutally from the north I would visit this woman regularly, making special trips to Bankstown, Campsie, or Liverpool just for her sake. She would wait for me in a hotel room after a busy day at the university, wait for me with baited breath, keen, eager and ready. I would satisfy her every need. In the way a shot of V stimulates the mind I would carefully stimulate that single, secret spot without even taking a shot into her V. On some nights we popped pills, on others we smoked joints, but every single morning after she was born again, returning to her job more refreshed and focused than ever: her job as peace-maker.

'Stephanie? Is that you? Stephanie Anderson?' I ask.

'Jackson?'

'I'm here. I'm on campus. Can I drop by . . .?'

'Yeah. Certainly! Of course you can. What are you doing here? You're a north-sider! How did you make it here? You have to be so careful. Please.'

'It's ok,' I say. 'Look. I'll tell you when I get there. Are you in the office?'

'I'm here. I can only work at night now. If the south-siders catch me I might be in deep trouble. I can't tell you how much I need you here right now Jackson. Please hurry. Thank you so much for coming.'

'Is anyone else on campus.'

'I don't think so but I can't be sure.'

'Ok. I'm hanging up. I'll be there soon. Hold tight.'

******

References

1 Rated X – The White Stripes

2 It's Like That – Run DMC Vs Jason Nevins

3 Stop The Music – P Money and Scribe

4 Black Fingernails, Red Wine – Eskimo Joe

5 2012 – Jay Sean

6 Imagine – John Lennon