The girl with nine toes by Ray Wilkins (best summer books .TXT) 📕

As I drove down
the main road, I felt somehow as if I was coming home
,and at the same time had the feeling of being a stranger
in a strange land. It was almost as if I had left something
here and had to come back and take it away with me so
as to complete a circle - something that would help me in
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the future. Soon we came to a large flat plain stretching
out to the horizon, dotted here and there with those
typical conical hills of the opal mines . I turned off the
motor and all we could hear was silence, a perfect silence,
deep and profound the silence of Kupa Piti the aboriginal
name meaning white man in a hole. “This takes my breath
away, I can vaguely remember how quiet it was here,
nothing distracts you from your thinking, its like the bush
is teaching you to go inside and listen, do you know what
I mean?„
“What?.... what did you say darling? Sorry I was just
so deeply taken away by the landscape and stillness, I
didn’t hear everything you said.It’s amazing, look how the
land touches the sky at the horizon, red on red, I can't
tell where the land ends and the sky begins. I can smell
the dust and something else that smells almost like Sage .
This silence is like being inside an immense cathedral ,a
spirit place, yes that’s what I'd call it - The place of the
spirits.„
We climbed out of the camper and started looking
around for wood to make a fire.Everything was so dry
and still, warm to the touch, even though the sun was
melting into the Earth on a line thousands of miles away.
We soon had a good fire going and sitting on a blanket
we looked toward the sunset, watching the orange, red
and yellow curtains of fading light fall down to the
burning soil.
“You know when we sit here, I can't help thinking
about the past, its not all quite clear in my mind, there
were so many influences from so many different sides.
0n one side working on the farm together with my father
and brothers, my father was very strict and our daily lives
were full of rules, duties and responsibilities, and on the
other side the old people and Waraala, sitting down on
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the warm earth listening to his voice and the stories and
metaphors about the Dreamtime, the songlines , and not
forgetting the girl with nine toes. You remember I told
you when I was twelve I almost died of an infectious
heart disease and how Waraala came to our house feeding
me obnoxious tea and leading me into trance states to
meet the spirit healers ? And then after three weeks, I
opened my eyes to a new day, where the sun was shining
and I wasn’t burning with fever. All these memories are
somehow confusing, flowing into each other like a
tapestry of the past woven together with threads of reality
and imagination. I can see the whole picture , but there
are a lot of holes where I sometimes go swimming. Its
like becoming a part of the Earth - I feel this strong
connection to a power that I can't describe, but a power
that gives me strength and clarity , teaching me to trust
my emotions and intuition, to believe in myself and the
love within my heart. But being in Canberra somehow
has drawn me away from this state of being. Now I
seldom go swimming within the songlines, and everyday
life is filled with lectures, exams and reality. Then I notice
how I'm changing, I become restless and lazy and start
feeling guilty , or start blaming, rationalising everything
with my brain instead of my heart. Coming back here has
reminded me about my home and where my roots are ,
and being here with you is like introducing you to my
parents, to the place where I grew up, wondering if you
also love this place , whether or not you also feel the
connection , and at the same time afraid that you might
think that I'm crazy or suffering from sunstroke.„
“No John I know what this place means to you.
This is your place of birth and I feel that you learnt much
wisdom and knowledge here .Some of what you say I
understand , and the rest is like…like looking inside a
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mirror trying to find out what's behind the glass - I can
see the reflections but I am still standing outside. And
about you being crazy? I know you are- that’s why I love
you so much.„ She smiled her magic smile and I threw
another piece of wood onto the fire. “I also sense a kind
of power radiating from the Earth. Something like
vibrations that you can feel in the air, but you know me, I
react from the mind, I have to actually hold something
in my hand before I can say that I know what it is – I'm a
realist and you're a dreamer, but that's probably why we
get on so well with each other.„ She leaned her head on
my shoulder and I could smell the smoke mingled with
the scent of shampoo in her hair.We kept talking,
watching the red sun disappear, talking about our
realationship, about love and expressing our emotions
even if it could hurt each other. Soon we sat only in
silence enjoying each other in the stillness. I was looking
through the fire and could see what looked like white
dust gathering up into a form that appeared almost like a
human, sitting cross legged arms akimbo. A voice floated
through the flames .“Welcome home John it has been a
long time since these old and tired eyes saw you last.„
“Waraala!„ I shouted, looking quickly at Mary to
make sure she hadn't fainted. I went over to my old
friend, I hugged him quickly feeling his frail pointy bones
sticking through the baggy shirt he was wearing he patted
me lightly on the back.
“John - my son I am hear for a reason. There is
something that I must teach you, it is something that you
will forget in the future, but it will come back to you like
the Boomerang ,at that time in your life when you stand
at the crossroads of failure or success.„ He called Mary
over to sit next to him.
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“You my daughter are also a part of this tapestry,
without you we would have no thread and with no thread
we would not know in which direction to weave our
story. We knew that you were coming back today and we
have waited for many years to give you what I will give
you tonight. A man is born in three parts - the body, the
heart, and the spirit. The body moves him through the
world and protects and nourishes him. The spirit guides
him to the Lizard and Snake man in the sky and the earth
, and the heart teaches him to live in love. Love means to
have the courage to show all feelings and emotions
wherever you are and whoever is with you. The old way is
by many forgotten but when you were a boy I saw that
your heart was very strong and the song within your
heartstrings told of your future. It is not allowed that I
tell you exactly what will happen in your life, my mission
is only to give you one helping hand to show you which
direction to take. I am your past, and the past reflects
onto the future. Walking our life path we may come to
situations and crises where we fail to see the sun. Instead
we tend to bask in the shadows of despair and failure.
Standing in the dark you cannot see the path back into
the sun, here you have to turn around and look back at
where your footsteps have led you to. In your future both
of you will meet the girl with nine toes and she will be
your guide, listen to her and you will change, just as the
colours of the giant rock change from dawn to sundown.
John, this is the gift that the circle of the wise asked me
to give you.” He reached into the dilly bag hanging on
his shoulder and pulled out a white feather. “This is the
feather that connects you to your home . It used to
belong to a spirit man who, a long time ago, led his
people to peace, teaching them to live a life where an
open heart opened doors. This feather will open the
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doors that you will need to walk through into the future.„
He laid the feather in my hand, lifting his arms up
towards the fading light

. A wind blew across the desert turning everything to
dust. I felt my body slowly turning around and around
in circles, I had a sensation of being lifted up off the
warm earth, and opening my eyes I could see the the
weak sun shining into my bedroom window I opened my
hand and saw a white feather fluttering in the breeze that
was whispering through the open window. I closed my
hand around it and laid it down in the top drawer of my
dresser knowing that some day soon I would be needing
it.


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Follow your dreams and they
will follow you


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Chapter 21


“Mr Prime minister you cannot be serious, this
is a joke. How can you possibly believe that our
indigenous population can survive if we don’t provide
shelters, homes and places for them where they can live
in houses like every other human being? Now you are
saying that you want to give them back there land so that
they can live as they lived in the past. Not only that, you
also want to give them money so that they can start there
own businesses making and selling their spears and
boomerangs and giving didgeridoo lessons. Up till now
you were quiet happy with