Ask No Questions

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Murals, Redfern.

"Before confronting him, I wanted to try and lull him into a sense of security and so I did everything according to his instructions, careful not to upset or antagonise him in any way. I ignored his occasional bursts of rudeness, his impolite dismissal of questions and enquiries, and endured his pathetic attempts to flirt with me. When
he 'accidentally' brushed against me as he tried to squeeze by me in a corner of the kitchen, I closed my eyes and imagined that I was somewhere else... I would catch him looking in my direction, a dream-like expression on his face, living out some fragment of memory from the past."
Andrew Wilson, The Lying Tongue.


These were uncertain times, and he couldn't get the image out of his mind as made the 20 minute drive home; travelling at exactly the right speed to hit every green light. But the things he really wanted to know, they weren't there anymore. We were profoundly grateful, and absolutely remiss. He saw thousands of lives and envied them all, an abstraction of other loves. Their warmth, their all-of-a-piece good looks, carried everything with them. He was simply astonished. He couldn't believe the domestic scene he was about to walk in on.

The woman, Karen, had resisted all his remonstrations that he could not remember their allegedly long and apparently, until recently, rather happy life, mostly together. He had to admit she had the house organised. Dinner was cooking; and smelled good. She asked him, solicitously, how his day had been. That was it, they didn't make 'em like that anymore. But the more he remonstrated with her to stop acting, the more solicitous she became. He wanted to yell; but he liked having her around, and it wasn't fair. If the network had provided her because they knew his needs, then in the end he couldn't argue.

He woke up in the night, drowning in contradictory evidence, saw the woman at work, heard the words it's not right it's not right, and she settled him back down almost as if he had been a child. Cloying and familiar, the twin anxieties. He could see what he wanted to see in the surrounding district. There were a few knots of people on street corners, commuters walking to their trains. They still had trains, he thought. They had been there in his childhood and for some reason he thought by now they would be glistening things riding on a blanket of air; with cars in the air. Ah la Jetsons. It hadn't happened.



Murals, Redfern.

THE BIGGER STORY:

Google search on 2020 Summit:

Distant goals out of focus
The Australian, Australia - 16 hours ago
THE 2020 Summit is over, the marker pens and butcher's paper have been put aside, a touch of post-summit disappointment has set in here and there. ...
Touch of indigestion after 2020 excesses The Age
Rudd picks brains for a creative Australia guardian.co.uk
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Summiteers treated to mix of showbiz and serious performance
ABC Online, Australia - 2 hours ago
By John Warhurst Around 1000 delegates gather in the Great Hall of Parliament House in Canberra for the start of the 2020 summit on April 19, 2008. ...
Here's what 2020 needed to be about The Age
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Young Witness, Australia - 13 hours ago
Delegates from rural NSW and Australia took part in the weekend’s 2020 Summit, as part of a ‘Rural Stream’ considering the future direction of rural ...
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Kevin, we need to talk about the kids
The Australian, Australia - 17 hours ago
The 2020 Summit interim statement acknowledges: "Family violence levels (while difficult to accurately quantify) impact on children." Indeed. ...
David Dahm, Cris Kerr: 2020 ideas 6minutes
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Forget a treaty, say Pearson, Yunupingu
NEWS.com.au, Australia - 14 hours ago
The lines of division between indigenous leaders over the constitutional question were drawn at the Prime Minister's 2020 Summit last weekend, ...
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'Future summit' criticised
Independent Online, South Africa - 23 Apr 2008
The Australia 2020 Summit, tasked with presenting Rudd with "big ideas" for the future, recommended the nation work towards becoming a republic. ...
Australian business would welcome tax reform
Radio Australia, Australia - 23 Apr 2008
Australian business groups have welcomed comments by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd suggesting he will take up one of the ideas from last weekend's 2020 Summit ...
Down from the Summit Mercury
Tax: The 2020 vision The Age
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Brimbank Leader
Why did rural human rights fail to scale summit?
The Age, Australia - 22 Apr 2008
As the youth delegate, I shared our vision to the 100 members of the rural Australia topic at the 2020 Summit on the weekend. Remote, rural and regional ...
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Banyule students pitch bright ideas Diamond Valley Leader
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2020 Summit a 'Festival of Kevin'
NEWS.com.au, Australia - 21 Apr 2008
By Malcolm Farr SENIOR Liberals yesterday ended their truce over the 2020 Summit by calling it a stage-managed "Festival of Kevin". ...
The 2020 Summit - will Rudd’s children forgive him?
On Line opinion, Australia - 22 Apr 2008
By Michael Lardelli - posted Wednesday, 23 April 2008 Kevin Rudd’s 2020 Summit is over. The tone of the affair that outsiders (most of us) could discern was ...
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Sue's idea gains support Manning River Times
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Murals, Redfern.