Five Faces of Felicia Clarke (eBOOK)

INTRODUCTION

Here in Australia, we don’t have a Thanksgiving day per se.

Except for Norfolk Island, where half the population are descended from the Bounty Mutineers (this is, of course, a gross exaggeration for the sake of a good story. The actual figure is more like a third.) And goodness knows they’ve a lot to be thankful for.

The islanders celebrate their arrival on Anniversary Day (June 8th), sixty-six years after the mutineers first burned the Bounty at Pitcairn Island.

Norfolk Island was settled by the British shortly after the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet as a commercial development come penal colony.

But by 1855 they’d abandoned it in favour of imprisoning people at home. It became an Australian territory in 1914.

But I digress.

Thanksgiving.

I generally do it around New Years.

As I half-heartedly do my Hogmanay cleaning.

And if you’ve read my blog at all you’ll know how much I detest cleaning. Especially now my new dog (Clever Girl), the black double-coated lab has come to stay with us.

I was the one who wrote Ms Blaelock’s Book of Minimally Viable Housekeeping after all.

Though in my defence, it is Summer here, and there are way better things to do.

So minimally viable housekeeping done, we have a barbecue and sit on the deck with a few beers.

Sweating gently in the heat.

There’s a sacrificial sausage up the other end for the hornets and magpies to fight over, and a citronella candle under the table repelling the legions of mosquitoes.

And we talk about those who’ve left us; the good and the bad, some taken too soon and some too late, the ones we miss and the ones we don’t.

As the Rabbie Burns poem goes:

“Should Old Acquaintance be forgot,
and never thought upon;
The flames of Love extinguished,
and fully past and gone:
Is thy sweet Heart now grown so cold,
that loving Breast of thine;
That thou canst never once reflect
On old long syne.”

Over time, one of my bookshelves has become a memorial.

Photos of all my past dogs, cats, friends and relatives are lined up where I can see them.

And here and there amongst them, their significant gifts; an angel clock, an old teddy bear, a beer stein, and many more.

Some of these artefacts have appeared in my other stories.

Among the artefacts are photos of those we’ve lost in other ways; through divorce, the passage of time or never having the chance to become close friends.

They’re all right there, exactly where I can look up from my computer to see them.

So maybe it’s more the beers than my memories that make me maudlin as I reminisce. Though I suspect that’s part of my cultural heritage too.

Or course, we never really know other people, only the faces they choose to show us.

The stories in this collection are about Felicia Clarke, but they’re based, in some way, on the people enshrined in my bookshelf.

• For Love of Felicia – Tom goes to secretarial college, falls in love, and… well… doesn’t get married.
• The Secretarial Shelter – Charles hires a new secretary and sees his business grow.
• My Lucky Customer – Erol opens a shop, and believes his first customer brings him luck.
• Stranger Danger – a girl meets a stranger who encourages her to follow her dreams.
• Best Friends Forever – Etta takes a trip down memory lane when she runs into the woman who was once her best friend.

So I hope you enjoy this collection, and make some time over the next few weeks to keep the memories of those you’ve lost alive.

Alexandria Blaelock
Melbourne, Australia
December, 2021