Instead of having the broken window mended, I lifted the glass out, piece by piece to preserve the shape and, with Mick’s help and much swearing, I’ve remade the window, frame and all. It is to swing against the scene of the blighted forest as it is now with the orchids proliferating and as it will be, real and changing through the restaurant windows. Money? Oh well…Cost? Well, I can’t put a price on it, I can only put my life into it.
‘’Sgreat, Mum,’ says someone at my elbow, his mouth full of sandwich. He’s talking of the triptych. God knows what he’ll get up to next, but he’s stayed around since the old girl’s funeral, playing with his littlest relations. He came out with us this morning and has been up helping Lexie and seeing the painting for the first time. Now he has joined us on our orchid hunt, bringing a champagne lunch. He holds a bottle aloft and calls out to Mick and Lance and Suzanne, who come on over as the cork pops and the liquid fizzes into plastic glasses that George Green wouldn’t have drunk from had his life depended on it.
Acknowledgements
I have written this book, as I always do, for my family and friends and this time also in hope for peace and prosperity in Afghanistan following their first democratic elections. I was in Afghanistan in 2013 with the Afghan Australian Development Organisation and its redoubtable inspiration and leader, Dr Nouria Salehi. I thank her from the depths of my heart and also her sister, Gulalai, who made our meeting such a special and pleasant occasion.
I also thank, with much love, my husband, Robert Hind, who supported my efforts during the three years of writing. Robert also read for me, as did my friend, Jenni Pearcy, and my brother, John Morrison.
Many thanks also to my editor, Bruce Sims, and my publisher, Rose Michael at Hardie Grant.
I write in memory of those who are gone: my parents Laura and Charles, my many aunts and uncles and other friends and companions.
I dedicate the book to Robert, Jane, Jonathan, Rachel and James, all of whom were in my thoughts as I wrote.
About the author
Born in Sydney, raised and educated in Canberra, and now living in Melbourne, Sally Morrison originally trained as a molecular biologist before beginning her writing career in the 1970s. Her work includes the play Hag, short story collection I Am a Boat, and novels Who’s Taking You to the Dance, Against Gravity, The Insatiable Desire of Injured Love and the award-winning Mad Meg, which is set in the same world as Window Gods. Her last book was a biography of Clifton Pugh, After Fire.
www.sallymorrison.com
www.facebook.com/SallyMorrisonWriter
Published in 2014 by Hardie Grant Books
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.
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Copyright text © Sally Morrison 2014
A Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available from the catalogue of the National Library of Australia at www.nla.gov.au
Window Gods
eISBN: 9781743582848
Cover and text design by Nada Backovic
Cover watercolour by Samuel Holden © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Author photograph by Jacqueline Mitelman
Window Gods Page 41