Red heart, red ship

Dreams of land and sea

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  • Published 20220503
  • ISBN: 978-1-922212-74-0
  • Extent: 264pp
  • Paperback (234 x 153mm), eBook

IN 2012, THE universe gave me one of the greatest gifts of my life. I won the Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship and the prize was something no amount of money could buy – a bunk on the Australian Antarctic resupply vessel, Aurora Australis, and a voyage to Casey Station in Antarctica.

An old dream come true.

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Across the Bass Strait

FictionMum was sitting by herself on a bench attached to the wall of the ship under a Perspex roof. We sat next to her holding on to the bottom of the bench. I told Mum that I had been sick and she wiped my forehead and cheek and said, 'I'm sorry. I'm so sorry,' and it looked like she was crying. She said it was just the sea spray and the cold. And it was cold. It was freezing and the wind cut into my back like I had no skin at all. I could hear the water crack against the ship, feel it hit then hear the spray shoot up. Only I couldn't see it. I couldn't see anything past the light cast out on the deck. Out there the world was raging in the blackness.

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