another address to locate in an unfamiliar city i can now find my way to the Autistic Centre but accommodation has been offered in an unused nursing home close to the CBD a young woman social worker offers to pilot me across town ‘city drivers’ i almost lose her at the first set of lights and how will i find my way back it isn’t as simple as retracing my steps because many of the streets are one way exhausted but one more effort is needed to get up the steep drive-way to the home i unload the car as Tony runs from room to room exploring the place which is to be our home for the next week at the school the others laugh telling ghost stories of how those who have passed away in the home still wander the hallways at night the kitchen is bleak with windows which look out to a block retaining wall holding a cut-away bank in the hillside most of the nursing home is closed off from use by the fire doors half-way down the long hallway Tony and i the only occupants feeling enclosed i walk towards the glass doors and the main entrance beyond as i walk a ghostly figure in a long night gown approaches from the opposite direction for a moment i feel the panic then i realise as i stand in front of the wide glass doors that my reflection is looking anxiously back at me
by Janice M. Bostok
Murwillumbah, New South Wales, Australia
first published in Stepping Stones, 2007
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