Fiction

Returning to Carthage

It is a warm, slightly overcast Saturday on the foreshore of Narrabeen Lagoon in Sydney’s Northern Beaches. A mother and her two-year-old son are standing at the water’s edge, feeding pieces of stale Tip-Top bread to the throng of ducks gathered around them. A lone pelican floats at a safe distance, apparently undecided whether to join in the fray. Atop a tropical tree whose name I do not know, three rainbow lorikeets screech, feeding on the bright red berry-like fruit that is now in season. On the footpath a ten-year-old girl proceeds gingerly on her brand-new roller blades, trying not…

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