Memoirist Idol 2022
On a Day in Melbourne Long Ago I Left a Little Girl to Her Fate
Pitiless memory torments me with my sins and sorrows.
Flashes and glimpses of the life I have led haunt me; a relentless, revolving carousel in my head.
I am at the mercy of my strange cognitions. And today, for reasons unknown, I remembered a day in Melbourne, long ago.
It was 20 years past, or thereabouts. At a shopping centre in Melbourne, whose name currently eludes me, I was browsing the wares of a chemist shop. How placid and peaceful was my life then, upon reflection; the reality of my marriage buried under knowledge I had not yet acquired. I had two beautiful little babes, and I was loved. Or so I thought.
If we knew the miseries hunting us down the years, we’d stay in bed.
What happened that day was nothing, and it was everything.
I’d taken my little ones by bus from Beaumaris, where we were visiting relatives. My beloved babes. They were and are my heart’s delight.
As I pushed my little girl around the store, chatting amicably to my boy, a woman nearby started asking a member of staff for help.
She had long dark hair. Her makeup was just a little off. She looked as though she was trying to…
