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Date Posted: 06:48:33 07/21/00 Fri
Author: Diamond Rose
Subject: Incident on Sydney Harbour

Incident On Sydney Harbour

It was like coming out of a dream. The sudden transition. The warm, friendly Sun sprinking on the water, would-be artists painting the hanging arch... colourful ballons, adding to the aroma of freshly caught fish drifting in the summer breeze, a setting of dreamlike wonder. All had now passed back into reality as I walked into the overhanging dock. The screams of small children were now amplified. The smell of seafood now heavied the atmoshpere. People rushed and gazed in mechanical fashion at all who walked by.

Salvation! I saw the blue whale returning to anchorage about to off-load its reluctant inhabitants. They wandered off slowly as the rusted gangplank shuddered the idyllic silence. The people of the dock huddled around the gangplank in a polite, expectant rush. They streamed aboard: T-shirted accountants taking the family for a weekend respite... middle-aged mothers dragging their unimaginative little darlings up the gangplank (and their kids too!)... reminiscent pensioners dawdling their way through their final years of existence... giggling schoolgirls prancing their vitality conservatively in an unspoken respect for their age-stricken predecessors. All and sundry expectant. The dream was about to begin.

The railing vibrated with the echoes of fellow travellers as I clutched on to the whale's lifeline. Slowly I made my way into the whale's belly. As I did a tall brooding man with a dark beard, supplementing an equally dark complexion, gazed at me with a stare that shook the last remnants of my quivering sense of reality. He looked all the world like Rasputin. His eyes pierced through the other passengers as he bid me welcome, 'Glad you could make it onboard, Sir.' His eyes followed me like a laden cloak as I drifted back into the sunshine of the whale's open-lit bow, my purpose for being onboard as far from my thoughts as was my identity. I closed my eyes.

'Anything I can do for you, Sir?', said Rasputin, who had now exchanged his heavy black coat for the white jacket of a drink waiter. 'Vodka and orange on the rocks, my good man.', I replied as I gazed out into the forever of a blue horizon.

The sea and the sky were now one... ferries and hydrofoils sailed past clouds as they waltzed to the symphony of their own rhythms... ripplets of sun rays trickled and danced over the boiling water... in the distance a lone water skier skated her way in pirouettes round the armoured colossus... looking towards the city, huge skyscrapers were held captive by the mountainous reflections of the hanging arch.

The reflections drew larger, they cris-crossed ferries, clouds, even the Sun had to submit to their binding totality. All moved in a systematic and rhythmic harmony. All was choreographed and immaculate. All that was not perfect was eradicated in an instant of piteous self-resignation. Meanwhile the pageantry continued unabated as the symphony thundered on remorselessly. The crescendo was soaring to a tumultuous finale, carrying all its players to an unseen extremity of unsurpassed splendour. It broke off!

It was not apparent in my mind; what it was that eradicated the vision. It was obviously connected with the giggling fillies on my right. Whether it was the blast from the radio, or perhaps one too many exaggerated neigh's, it didn't matter anymore. Nothing at all except for the dull blue sky... the morbidly monotonous Sun... the dull, lifeless, wall to wall passengers. I closed my eyes.

'Your drink, Sir', said the russian accent behind me. I turned around to see a tall bearded man dressed impeccably in a naval uniform. 'I am Captain Rasputin of the luxurious Sydney ferry "Lady Aurora". We have a few trouble makers onboard. I want you to keep an eye on them.'

'I will', I replied hesitatingly.

My mind screehed with tredidation as I witnessed the seascape melt in a reddish haze. Slowly figures emerged: Great blue whales splashed and crashed to the rhythms of their own wake. Sleek white sharks, their shiny blue fins held high out of the water, speeded pass leaving behind them waves of white foam. The hanging arch watched impassively as it carefully orchestrated every last movement. Where once music dicated the choreography, now it was a perfect ideal. The ideal that all that is not in perfect harmony must be eradicated. I was one with the harmony. I splashed and crashed through the water to the rhythm of my own wake. I speeded high through the water holding my blue fins proudly out of the water. I sat on the spout of the blue whale surrounded by apathetic beings, their minds turned internally, and totally oblivious to the commands of the rhythm.

A tall black-cloaked bearded man appeared before me. He addressed me, 'I am Rasputin of the court of Tsar Nicholas II. You have been commanded to eradicate the trouble makers!'

I reached for the large red bag which represented my last grasp on what I took to be real. Opening it I found the implement of eradication. It breathed in the air, circulating fresh blood to all of its interiors. Finally, its senses aroused, it sniffed at the air searching out for its quarry. It hunted. T-shirted accountants, middle aged mothers, reminiscent pensioners, and giggling schoolgirls were now nothing but a bad memory as I reclined back with the harmony washing over me. But the refreshment was unfulfilling.

Rasputin, his beard and cloak turned white, and surrounded by a glaring glowing light, appeared once more, 'All is not harmonious. You are imperfect. Eradicate!' The implement of eradication immediately jumped into my lap. For an instant it gazed at me in piteous self resignation. All was quiet.

An off duty police officer pensively crawled out into the open-lit bow. Ten bodies lay lifeless, a shotgun lay warm, a rookie cop crouched sullenly.

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