A novella in 21 chapters
The Plot: Chapter 5
Things That Go Bump
Dima
He drew up outside the locked gates. What was he was doing here, at half ten on a Friday night? He really wasn’t sure.
It had been a sudden impulse. Instead of following the tail lights up the Eastern Freeway — home to a warm bed and sleepy wife — he’d taken the Donvale exit. Now here he was at Orchard Vale estate, outside the chainlink fence of what would soon be another ConStruct boutique housing development.
It had been a frustrating meeting in the City, and had run late. The UAE consortium for the Altona redevelopment was turning out to be a pain in the arse.
Perhaps that was it: a need for self-validation. Here was a project he could be proud of, one of those rare ones where everything had gone right.
Orchard Vale was personal for him. Erasing the hated memory of Unity Textiles, the mill which had blighted his family and brought Tată to an early grave. Providing quality housing for the up-and-coming residents of the City of Corymbia.
Melbourne’s newest metro council encompassed a patchwork of industrial estates, sleepy outer suburbs and greenfield developments on the northeast urban fringe. It was a council with a progressive attitude, an eye to…
