Chapter 48 - Laying the Ghosts to Rest
On a cool breezy day in late June over fifty people gathered at a headland called East Arm. It looked out over Darwin Harbour on one side and on the other looked out across a vast flat ocean called the Timor Sea to a distant land below the horizon called Indonesia. Occasional sail boats moved slowly across the distant sea sky horizon.
A rock, a big square slab of natural sandstone, taller than any of the people assembled, had been erected, set amongst other natural earth coloured rocks of the headland. It faced four ways with each flat side bearing a name at the top.
There was Elin’s side facing directly to the northern ocean and across the world to a Nordic sea, a place from where a warrior queen may choose to sail in search of distant lands.
There was Isabelle’s side which faced towards a less distant Kimberly coast where some fragments of a former life still lay hidden.
There was Josie’s side which pointed south towards a distant desert grave covered, a grave once covered in dead flowers which held the last remains of an unknown girl.
And pointing back across the city of Darwin and out to the east, was Amanda’s side, the city girl who had come to the bush, the girl from the land far across the Pacific Ocean, the girl who came to an unfamiliar land where she did not belong and was now lost somewhere to the far east or south east of this place. If Amanda’s spirit could choose Anne knew she would have chosen it to reside in a city of buildings not an empty desert.
Each rock face was inscribed, carved into it, with a short story of the life and loss of a girl, simple things like date and place of birth, home town, favourite things. The final part was a short story of what brought them to this land and of where and when they died.
Below these inscriptions were other plaques telling the stories of other missing “lost” girls and some missing men too. Half a dozen adorned each face but there were many more to follow.
For Cathy and Susan there was no inscribed rock faces, that was too permanent, an abandonment of hope. All who knew these two girls were determined to still find hope. But still they were lost to those who loved them most.
A simple bronze plaque told for both of them the story of what had brought them to here. Susan’s faced east, on Amanda’s side, pointing to the place of the river of crocodiles where she had left her lover and may have returned. Cathy’s faced south, to somewhere between Coober Pedy and Alice Springs where she was last seen. On her plaque was written the poem from Mark’s diary. It seemed a fitting way to remember her.
Anne walked around the stone and came to a stop facing out to the sea, searching for the warrior queen of a distant horizon. Somewhere over the glittering sea of waves sparkling in the breeze she imagined she could glimpse her, Mark’s first loved Elin, forever travelling away to unknown lands. Anne could see her clearly now, the girl with the golden hair, the Elfin Queen, sailing a proud ship further and further out to sea. She really wished Mark was standing beside his Elin, sailing to a better place. Then this world of loss and heartache, for so many, would have never been.
But if she could have one wish and only one wish it would be to see her friend Susan again, home safe, no longer another lost girl.
Vic walked up beside her and took her hand. “We will find her; I know, deep down, we will find her when the time is right.”
Lost Girl Diary Page 52