The Drunk, The Smile & The Song

Time out there is spent trying to keep it together. The three of them stuck together, just mates in a different world. You could spend all day trying to analyze them, but one could smile, one drunk to much and dreamed of a little sea side cottage and one sang 'Lemon Tree'.

Time, a lost cause in a place like that, though most can see the end. Drinking provided a means to an end, for the boredom at least, and some of the shit they got up to! Mate...

I only met them once, I was just a traveller, making my way to the mines, like most people who'd heard of WA, a bit like a modern day gold rush. They were drinking to a friend, an American who'd left the day before. "It's just the way it is out here cobber", said the one who drank to much. He opened another beer, offered one to me then walked out the door for a smoke. The other two followed him, two German girls, one with the smile, one with the song.

The drunk one was comfortable were he was, 'resting' he said. More like hiding i thought, but then there was not much point getting involved in a serious discussion, anyway, I had a suspicion the girls had said similar things to him before.

We drank till three in the morning, though the three were still going, i could hardly see in front of me. As we cleaned the table of empty stubbies and overflowing ashtrays, we sang Lemon Tree.

'I wonder how,
I wonder why,
Yesterday you told me 'bout the blue, blue sky,
And all that I can see is just a yellow lemon tree...'

*For Julia & Elli*