1
The days passed slowly and painfully. Work became drudgery. Adam’s cheerfulness was gone and nothing that Michelle could do or say could bring it back.
He organised Nancy’s funeral. About a dozen people showed up. Although he disliked himself for it, he secretly resented their presence. Even now, especially now, he wanted to be alone with her and live in the privacy of their shared memories. He chose cremation for her and dreamed up a plan, a parting gift.
‘Nancy, I’m going to take you to the most beautiful place I know and release you there.’
He kept her ashes with him until the right day. He rose before dawn on Christmas Day, 1976, put Sweet Thing on the turntable and stepped onto his balcony to watch the sunrise.
‘Look at the perfect sunrise, Nancy. I know that God made it just for you. And feel the wind, beautiful girl, it’s from the east. It’s going to be a perfect day today. Someone is going to get the best birthday present today, sweetheart … you. You are my sweet thing, darling, and you will walk and talk in gardens all wet with rain, my sweet thing, and I will raise my hand up into the night-time sky and count the stars that shine in your eyes … oh God, when am I going to stop crying?’
He ate his breakfast, organised his things and took the lift down eight floors into the garages. He strapped his hang glider to the roof of his Charger and drove away.
‘It’s about time you got out of this city, Nancy. Wait till you see how beautiful it is down south. You won’t believe it.’
He took the turnoff into the National Park.
‘This is the prettiest road ever, darling, and wait till you see what happens at the end of it. It’ll blow your mind, kiddo. Hey, I’m just going to pull over in this clearing. I think we should celebrate this trip with a juicy little joint, what do you reckon? I think so. For you, Nancy. To you, sweetheart. Nothing will ever compare to being high with you.’
As he blasted out of the southern end of the Park,
‘Wow, Nancy, what did I tell you. It’s like the south coast literally explodes in your face, see? We’re nearly there now. Looks like we’re going to be the first ones there. There’s
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no one up, and look at the wind. It’s a perfect easterly. The whole coast is going off, Nancy, for you, just for you, darling, from God, from Jesus. It’s His gift on His birthday. Oh God …’
He pulled into the car park on Bald Hill.
‘There’s no one here, just us. Just like always, Nancy. I’m going to set up, you wait.
You’ve never seen me fly. That’ll be a first and you’re coming with me.’
As he set up his hang glider on the point of the hill,
‘It’s going to be a huge day, Nancy. The wind is nearly twenty knots. We’re going to get so high. I’m going to fly the whole coast with you. Oh, Nancy, you were the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen. Did I ever mention that? I could talk to you forever. I miss you so badly.
I don’t know what I’m going to do. Yes, I do. I’m going to go flying with you.’
He taped the urn, containing Nancy’s ashes, to the left upright of the A-frame of his glider. He then dressed warmly for high altitude, climbed into his harness, put on his helmet, took a long look around the empty car park and clipped into his hang glider. Even though the wind was strong, and there was no one there to assist him with his launch, Adam had no trouble ground handling his wing. He was now one of the regulars, confident and accomplished, carrying within him a wealth of flying experience. There was no fear in his heart, only sorrow.
He launched into the powerful wind with just one push of his legs. His glider shot skyward, swiftly rising vertically from the point of Bald Hill as he calmly transferred his body into prone position. No human saw him take the elevator ride, straight up through the powerful lift, gaining a thousand feet within five minutes. As he continued to climb in the huge lift band, he looked down his left wing.
‘Look, Nancy, it looks like we’ve got some company.’
He spotted the resident sea eagle cruising up the ridge from Garie Beach. The majestic bird soared up to Adam’s left wingtip and parked itself there, flying in formation.
As Adam flew south, high over the Stanwell valley, past Mitchell’s Mountain, something very unusual happened. He was joined by another sea eagle, the one from the south. It took up position on Adam’s right wingtip.
‘Look, Nancy, it’s like a flying convention up here. Isn’t it all so amazing? It’s a wonder the birds aren’t having a go at each other. Look how effortlessly they live. Who wouldn’t want to be an eagle? Maybe you’re an eagle now, Nancy? You’d only be a baby still, screaming for your food in your nest on some hidden cliff somewhere. If I was God, I would give you a life as an eagle … for your spirit, darling … your beautiful spirit.’
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As he flew south, riding the lift high above the escarpment, he marvelled at the charm of the small beach towns dotting the coast south of Stanwell Park, all colourfully bathed in warm, morning sunlight.
‘This must be how God sees everything, Nancy. He must be above it all. Arguments, wars and disagreements must just be tiny specs way below Him as He soars high above His creation. Why would He want to hassle with the stupid people when He can just spread His wings and come up here? If I was God, I’d want to be separate from them all.
It makes so much sense. He didn’t want to be separate from you though. That must be why He took you. Maybe He wanted to be with you. I would. God is no fool.’
Adam flew as far south, along the Illawarra escarpment, as the mountain called Broker’s Nose. This represented the very heart of the eagle from the south’s dominion.
The eagle from the north had never flown so far south before, nor would he had ever been allowed to under normal circumstances. About two hours later in the flight, they were all soaring high above Garie Beach, the heart of the eagle from the north’s dominion. The eagle from the south had never flown so far north in his life, nor would he have normally ever been allowed to.
The easterly wind picked up in strength as the hours passed. As he flew high above the world, Adam watched the sky gradually fill with other hang gliders. From time to time, a friend flew up to him, not too closely in order not to disturb the eagles in their formation, and say something like,
‘Whose ya mates, Adam?’
Adam just smiled and typically said something like,
‘I know, it’s incredible, isn’t it? They just showed up and they’ve been flying with me all day.’
By early afternoon, he was into his fifth hour in the air. By this time, small groups of pilots, having marvelled at the behaviour of the two eagles, flew along with them for a while, then they banked away, often putting on a big show by executing a series of spectacular wingovers and chandelles.
By the late afternoon, all the pilots that were there that day had a turn at flying in formation with Adam. All the talk on the hill was about him and his eagles, which had by then been flying with him for nearly eight hours.
‘It’s starting to get late, Nancy, and I don’t want to let you go, but I’m going to have to. I love you and I’ll always love you … and … and … I’ll never forget you … and …’
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He flew high and far out to sea, directly into the easterly wind, due east of the pretty Stanwell valley. The two majestic eagles still followed him like they were his pets. He looked back and made sure that he was in the right position and then, when he thought that he had the spot, he untaped the urn, opened it, spilled out the fine, grey dust and released the empty container, allowing it to fall two thousand feet into the ocean.
‘Good-bye, Nancy, I’ll never forget you. I’ll always love you.’
Incredibly, just at this very moment, the eagles peeled off and flew away, one to the north and the other to the south. Adam watched as Nancy’s body dispersed in the wind and was carried with it to fall to the ground all over the Stanwell Park valley, where it would, one day, once again, find life as part of the Earth.
It was not until this moment that Adam actually felt that Nancy had completely left him. He finally felt, deep within his heart, while still two thousand feet above the ocean, a positive closure to one of the most enriching chapters of his life. She was gone and he was left alone. He thought to himself,
‘Will I continue the journey alone? Will I keep searching? How will I do it without Nancy?’
He gracefully circled his glider into the sunlit valley, drifting westward with the wind, finally touching down in the midst of all his flying friends who all gathered around him, all totally oblivious to his recent personal tragedy, but all very animated in their amazement at the behaviour of the wild eagles.
Later, as he was packing up his glider, Zeke came over to him.
‘I saw those eagles today, Adam. They were one of the most amazin things I’ve ever seen. You know, there’s an old legend about eagles, about how they can carry someone’s spirit. You ever heard that one, mate?’
Adam looked deeper into Zeke’s fiery-blue eyes than ever before and replied,
‘Can’t say that I have, Zeke, but I sure appreciate you telling me.’
‘Hey, you comin round for a Christmas puff? I finally finished the supership.
Wouldn’t mind showin it to you.’
‘That might be nice, Zeke, I could use an unwind. It’s been an emotional day. Can I ring my mum and dad from your place? They’ll be wondering what’s happened to me. I have to wish them a Merry Christmas.’
‘Sure, mate, an I got some good tucker on. We’ll have a real feast, a real bloody feast.’
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That night they had a time. They ate, smoked, listened to music and philosophised to their hearts content. Hidden within Zeke’s coarse exterior was a kind, compassionate heart. He knew when a friend needed special attention, a special kind of company, the kind of company as might make a good first page in a new story that a writer might be sitting down to write.
2
As time rolled on, news trickled out about Robbie. The policeman, who witnessed the accident, testified in court that Robbie killed Nancy on purpose. Apparently one of the best barristers in the country got him off the murder charge in exchange for manslaughter. Robbie got eight years in jail but he got out in five for good behaviour.
Adam never saw him again but years later he found out, through an acquaintance, about Robbie’s addiction to heroin, which he picked up in prison where he got spiked against his will. The story was that his parents tried desperately to save him. They sent him to a special clinic and spared no expense in trying to help their son. But they couldn’t give him what he really needed, and that was themselves. Their business affairs and their social commitments seemed to always get in the way.
The trauma of Nancy’s death, the prison and the withdrawn existence he led after his release, was ultimately too much to bear for him. In the end, perhaps tragically, perhaps mercifully, he passed out of this world, blown out of his mind, stuck to the end of a needle in a dark alley, just behind all the bright lights and constant traffic of bustling King’s Cross.
3
Adam, although never speaking about the subject again, thought he understood the meaning of Zeke’s statement about the eagles carrying Nancy’s spirit. But he didn’t. The only people who knew the truth about the strange behaviour of the two wild birds was an attractive young girl, who lived two-million light years away, and her older brother.
…….
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