ARCHERS ACROSS THE SKY

Oak Flats, NSW, Australia

These times, with the archers spread out across the sky. Their departure had been a hurried storm. There was a pit in his stomach as he raced towards the end. Things would not be the same. He would not be the same. The death of one was the death of many. These things were a distant future, housed in a creature with a short lifespan. The places fled were everywhere, but he was becoming more familiar with them. He crossed the roads he used to travel to work on five days a week, and was barely familiar with them. A feeling like a dejavu playing difficult to get. Then he could feel the beach nearby; where he had lived a couple of passing times. Nothing stayed here. Some people did. There was no street life. After Asia it was quiet, too quiet, as the saying went. But there was beauty everywhere, everywhere.

So he walked and thought stupid thoughts, under a bright blue skly, across glinting sand, the sun from the surf semi-blinding. These periods were always intense. Things coming full circle in some psychic offering. He saw Equus at the theatre downstairs in the Italian Forum, everything full circle. They went to dinner after, and to the caste party. "Youth is wasted on the young," Piers commented, standing in the kitchen as Martin took court. All fell into place. Great performance, good performance, you were really excellent. Bottles of red wine had built up on the kitchen table. There wasn't any urgency. Decades had passed. He was caught in some terrible flight/fright phenomenon that was difficult to escape. "The boy, the boy was excellent," an inebriated Martin mimicked in high self mocking camp, referring to the young male star of the show. "Thank God it wasn't you taking your clothes off."

Yes, well once there hadn't been much else he wanted to do. Martin had been with the same boyfriend now for 20 years, Martin and Martyn,  He had always dismissed the friend as some simpering hairdresser, but it turned out to be makeup, with clients like Gucci and Lansome. And he was shrewd and funny, friendly and amused at an appearance from Martin's past. All time had passed. There was no going back. They had said goodbye at the front door the next day, as the RBT, the Random Breathalyser Test which had destroyed so much of Australia's social life, for the sake of a few lives. This sort of lament over the deadening effects of the RBT met with little sympathy. The RBT was here to say; and he had got out of the cab quicly, letting Martin fuss over coins with the taxi driver  Some things never changed. In the morning he talked for hours with Martyn, sympathised with their elderly labrador, envied them their stability, their enduring time.

"You're quite the bourgeoise now," he had said as they sat out the back of the large house after returning at 3a.m. from the cast party.  The party had gone for an hour to long with decreasing numbers, he was transfixed sometimes by their personability, their natural, clever charisma. Just like other cast parties, none of them knew what they were doing next. A flash, or an ephemeral art form, so it seemed at times. The bourgeoise comment had been provoked by news of the holiday house they had acquired down South  a spectacular piece of coastline with pristine waters. "They used to call you the provincial hieress," he said. "Who?" he demanded to know. "Bitches, they were all bitches," he said. And most of them were dead by now anyway. They talked and they talked, he and the boyfriend; and laughed. "Your ex is still here," Martyn said when Martin finally emerged. They had coffee and he left, into the great world, or a permanent state of fright and flight.

THE BIGGER STORY:

Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd cut a lonely figure on the streets of New York on Friday – while just a few blocks away his old rival Julie Bishop stood confidently, addressing world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly.

A forlorn-looking Mr Rudd, who only a month ago enjoyed the privileges of an enormous entourage, was spotted strolling alone in Manhattan – no security personnel, no chief of staff and no friends.

It was in stark contrast to Australia's freshly minted Foreign Minister who spent Friday meeting the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, and also the United Nation's Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/kevin-rudd-out-in-the-cold-in-new-york-20130928-2ukqf.html#ixzz2gJy1BLQm