She felt a warm surge of love mixed with a liberating relief. It was good that she’d come. Pappou’s love was open and without conditions. She was desperately in need of some of that unqualified attention at the moment. She had a big decision to make and she would appreciate his advice.

Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Keely looked out over the beautiful parklands to the dark water of the Swan River and let out a long slow breath. She was here, Perth, the place of happy childhood memories. She wanted to find that feeling again, that perfect happiness, and this was the starting point.

From the age of seven she had come nearly every year, either alone or with the rest of her family, to spend holidays with her grandparents. Her grandfather would take her on expeditions along the Swan in his little wooden boat. They would fish and swim and picnic, and he would tell her tales of his travels to the northern areas of Australia. She could hear him now, his Irish brogue strengthening as his stories stretched a wee bit beyond the truth. In her mind, she pictured his twinkling green eyes and his cheeky grin. Gran had always called him her little Irish leprechaun.

Keely wished they were here now as she looked out across the river. Perhaps she would have been able to tell them the things she couldn’t discuss with her parents. Grandpa would have known the words to help her and Gran would have cooked an impossible amount of food to cheer her up. But that wasn’t going to happen. Her grandfather had died when she was eighteen and Gran had become more and more frail and eventually moved back to South Australia, and into a residential home close to the family. Keely had visited the home before she left but these days her grandmother hardly remembered who she was let alone anything about her life in the west.

The vista in front of Keely didn’t allow for sadness. The memorial to those who’d died in war was laid out before her. She didn’t know anyone who had been killed in a war, but she appreciated the careful design that allowed people to sit peacefully and reflect like several were doing now. The perpetual flame rose out of a calm pool of water with the words Let silent contemplation be your offering engraved underneath.