Helen Womack
Contributions
Udjerlah’s Song (continued)
Written and illustrated by Nelen Li-Lo plunged into her work once more. She was always out and about, meeting people, persuading them to get involved with the dream magazine. Sooner or later, she knew, she was bound to run into Bobby. She dreaded the meeting, fearing that he would still be furious with her, fearing that she might still be attracted to him. And then one day it happened. She saw him first. She had a moment to study him before he saw her. He was standing by the backpackers’ hoste...Read more
Udjerlah’s Song (continued)
Written and illustrated by Nelen It was stinking hot when she finally arrived back in the desert. Li-Lo had a strong sense of dйjа vu. What on earth was she doing here? She missed Slava terribly. She missed Constantine, for he had remained a friend. She pined for her black cat, Blackjack. All her loved ones were in Moscowville while here she was in the wilderness again. Work was the only cure. She began networking immediately, gathering around her the people who would collaborate with her on t...Read more
Udjerlah’s Song (continued)
Written and illustrated by Nelen It was the eve of Li-Lo’s departure on her second voyage to the Upside Down Country. Before parting, she and Slava had made a definite agreement that this time they would be faithful to each other until they were reunited. They had also decided not to send each other any faxes, since Li-Lo had discredited that form of communication and caused Slava so much pain. Instead, they would trust each other and think of one another. If they had something really importan...Read more
Udjerlah’s Song (continued)
Written and illustrated by Nelen Li-Lo began cleaning her home from top to bottom. She dusted and hoovered and sang as she worked. And all the time, her energy was becoming higher and lighter. She was sweeping the kitchen floor when these words sounded in her head: “God sees the fall of a sparrow.” She heard the words before opening the back door to empty her dustpan into the wheelie bin in the yard. On the outside step she was shocked to see the brown body of a sparrow, its stiff little leg...Read more
Udjerlah’s Song (continued)
Written and illustrated by Nelen They went for a walk by the sea. In a wordless trance, they wandered among the roses in the promenade gardens, watched the squirrels on the lawn by the boating lake and meandered down to the beach, resplendent in the evening light of full summer. “What are we going to do now?” asked Slava, finally breaking the spell when they returned to the house. Of course, he wanted her to catch the next plane back to Moscowville with him. “You know I am going to have to...Read more
Udjerlah’s Song (continued)
Written and illustrated by Nelen When Li-Lo had taken possession of the house, she had of course been keen to invite Slava and show him her seaside realm. His visa to visit the Rainy Island was still valid and miraculously, he had the money to pay for the airfare. But as the date of his arrival approached, she had felt an increasing dread. He said he had felt the same. Li-Lo had dragged herself to the airport to meet him as if to her own execution. In the back of the taxi going home, they had sa...Read more
Udjerlah’s Song (continued)
Written and illustrated by Nelen. Li-Lo and Slava lay wrapped together in the double bed in the master bedroom of her new home by the sea. The afternoon sun poured in through the half-open curtains and glinted off the gilt dйcor that Li-Lo had inherited from the house’s previous owner. The walls were yellow. “My lioness,” whispered Slava to his sated lover. They called this golden room where they had rediscovered Eden the “Lion Room” and decided that the dйcor was perfect. “Fit for...Read more
Udjerlah’s Song (continued)
Written and illustrated by Nelen. “Tidy your room first,” said her Dad. He was referring to the boxes of her belongings that had blocked up her parents’ cottage for years. “Oh God, if you’re going to push me, I’ll just throw everything away,” Li-Lo said and stormed upstairs. She dragged her boxes out onto the lawn and started chucking papers and other possessions indiscriminately into black bin liners. Strangely, the moment she began doing this, a call came through from the estate ...Read more
Udjerlah’s Song (continued)
Written and illustrated by Nelen Li-Lo dreaded the prospect of going back to live with her parents. She was 47 years old and about to be demoted to the position of a child. Perhaps she deserved it, she thought. Had she so lost her true self that she needed to start again at square one? But in fact she had a surprisingly nice time in the three months she spent with the old king and queen in their well-ordered realm. They fell into a companionable rhythm and Li-Lo was not trapped, as she had feare...Read more
Udjerlah’s Song (continued)
Written and illustrated by Nelen So it happened that on a windy day in March, Slava and Li-Lo flew together to the Rainy Island. The gale buffeted their tiny aircraft as it crossed over the Chilly Sea. A red, dying moon sank into the black waters on the night they arrived. The next morning, a spring tide with foaming white horses was roaring up the beach. “Don’t chuck me,” Slava begged as they leaned on the rails, looking out to sea. “I’m not planning to.” But five minutes later, the...Read more
Udjerlah’s Song (continued)
Written and illustrated by Nelen. Slava was not at the airport to meet her. That duty fell to the Emperor Constantine, whom Li-Lo was seeing for the first time since their divorce. They had a friendly reunion and Li-Lo spent the first night back in Moscowville in her old flat, with old friends, and Blackjack the cat, who purred like a tractor to see her after such a long absence. Meanwhile, Slava was in bed with the Snow Maiden. The next day, Li-Lo phoned Slava to arrange a meeting. “Will you ...Read more
Udjerlah’s Song (continued)
Written and Illustrated by Nelen Li-Lo returned to the Northern Hemisphere as the first snowdrops were pushing up through the cold earth. She had been so tired of her old life in the north that she had wanted to die and start a new one on the Other Side of the World. But she had left too many loose ends, too many unresolved questions, too much unfinished business to be allowed to do this. She had not been dying, she now saw, but running away. She had to face her old life again. Li-Lo had been up...Read more
Recent Features
- The hospital they didn't want
- The secret life of white-plumed honeyeaters
- Crime levels not new: police commissioner
- Mandatory treatment plan would cost hundreds of millions
- Misbehavers "not welcome": police commissioner
- That famous Whitegate mob again
- CASA and the zen of tourism
- Return of the man from Oodnadatta
- The memories are always there
- More truancy officers
Tags
alice desert festival alice springs alice springs desert festival alison anderson angela-pamela arid lands environment centre bess price budgies Bush Christmas Cake bush food recipes bush foods bush foods recipe bush law bush law documentary bush tomatoes bush tucker central australia central australian history Dick Kimber environment explorers fiction heritage alice springs high rise History housing indigenous indigenous affairs john mcdouall stuart justice Nelen race relations rain riots Todd River town planning traditional law traditional punishment Udjerlah's Song uluru violence water wildflowers wild foods yuendumu
Alice Springs Weather
 19°C |
| Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | Mon | ||
 |  | | | | |  | |
| 20° | 21° | 23° | 24° | 24° | 24° | ||
| 6° | 8° | 9° | 10° | 10° | 10° | ||
| Data powered by |  |