So, in the autumn of Bandy’s victory in the Macleay Cup and the British victory of Mafeking, a conviction of civilisation restored ran in the veins of all the citizens of the Shire of the Macleay. The white thwarts of the bridge stood as high as Lucy’s Angelus tower. Blackbutt planking was broad enough for any herd crossing to the markets in West, and the pathway had been fitted with bays to allow citizens to shelter as the herds came over.
The opening of the bridge was marked by a regatta to which Captain Reid of the Burrawong had been invited to contribute that now rarely seen vessel. Burrawong, however, despite its new rat-proof hawsers and its weekly fumigation at Darling Harbour, was not allowed to moor at Central wharf after honouring the bridge. It was required to retreat to its accustomed quarantine station inside the New Entrance. Captain Reid nonetheless ingratiated himself with the populace by carrying every flag in Burrawong’s lockers. The high colour could not be allowed to obscure the reality that plague still sought a landfall everywhere, and that cases were still occurring around the shores of Sydney Harbour.
The regatta and the opening of the bridge were observed from their own segment of river bank by Mr. and Mrs. Tim Shea, their children Johnny and Annie and the new-born infant, Maude. Mamie Kenna and Joe O’Neill were also in the group. They sat apart, although a friendliness was growing between them.
Some of the conversation at the bridge opening concerned the life sentence Mr. and Mrs. Mulroney received for the manslaughter of the young English actress Flo Meades. Amongst the notables, Ernie Malcolm made a brief reappearance. People were cheered to see him, though noticed that these days he stood back a bit.
But Bandy Habash was not at all visible in Kempsey for the civic event linking Central with East. Tim Shea knew he had already gone to Sydney to see Ellen Burke, and now lay low in town, wearing a scapular provided him by Mrs. Kitty Shea, who still secretly spoke to him.
He had left a letter for Mamie, which she read, retained, but did not reply to.
Dearest Woman,
I appeal to you as one who has only recently seen Salvation’s light. I was guilty of extreme sins within your own family, but they were the sins of a man unredeemed, a man in darkness, an infidel who thought those who dwelt in Light were infidels. I have now drunk at the Fountainhead, I now dwell in Radiance, and my past crimes have no bearing on my present life or intentions.
My life is turned utterly, like the face of a flower, to the Divine light of your face. I have tried to expiate my sin with Ellen Burke and will speak to her and will of course forever support her child. It is she who has chosen not to take me as a husband and will now seek her independent fortune in Sydney. To that fortune, I shall make appropriate contributions.
You are my lodestone, and if you would only, dear woman, return to our former arrangement, you will never have cause to doubt my devotion.
Many small craft speckled the river for the bridge opening, including one rowed by two ten-year-olds, Eddie and Ronald Sage. This rowboat, through too much shy-acking on the part of the children on board, capsized. The Sage boys’ younger sister Doris was thrown into the tide and gave Johnny Shea, who had already been playing in the shallows, wavering towards the depths but strangely obedient to his parents’ edict that he should not swim out amongst the boats, a pretext to go out into the depths to save her. Eventually, on the recommendation of Mr. Ernie Malcolm, Secretary of the Humane Society, Macleay branch, Johnny Shea was awarded the Silver Medal of the Society for saving the Sage child. It was acknowledged by his parents that this award was very good for the child.
From the day after the bridge opening, one of the busiest transitters was Tim Shea, transporting his household goods to the newly purchased store in East by dray. The signwriter did the place out in blue and gold, and the lettering said K. SHEA—GENERAL STORE. No one seemed to refer much to this change, or persecute Tim about it. For by then it was generally acknowledged that Tim Shea wasn’t the dangerous fellow some had earlier claimed him to be.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Thomas Keneally reached a new level of renown as one of Australia’s—and the world’s—leading literary figures with the release of Stephen Spielberg’s Academy Award-winning film adaptation of Schindler’s List, for which Thomas Keneally had won the prestigious Booker Prize upon its original publication. Among Thomas Keneally’s most well-known novels are The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Confederates, Gossip from the Forest, and, most recently, Woman of the Inner Sea. Actively involved in Australia’s republican movement, he has served on numerous government councils and commissions in his native country and has taught at universities there and in the United States. Currently he is a Distinguished Professor in the English Department at the University of California, Irvine. Married, with two daughters, he divides his time between California and Sydney.
BY THOMAS KENEALLY
The Place at Whitton
The Fear
Bring Larks and Heroes
Three Cheers for the Paraclete
The Survivor
A Dutiful Daughter
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
Blood Red, Sister Rose
Gossip from the Forest
Season in Purgatory
A Victim of the Aurora
Passenger
Confederates
The Cut-Rate Kingdom
Schindler’s List
A Family Madness
The Playmaker
To Asmara
Flying Hero Class
Woman of the Inner Sea
A River Town
Outback
Now and in Time to Come
The Place Where Souls Are Born:
A Journey to the Southwest
Ned Kelly and the City of Bees
Copyright
PUBLISHED BY NAN A. TALESE
an imprint of Doubleday
a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036
DOUBLEDAY is a trademark of Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
All of the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
First published in Great Britain by Hodder and Stoughton.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Keneally, Thomas.
A river town / Thomas Keneally.—1st ed. in the U.S.A.
p. cm.
1. City and town life—Australia—Fiction. 2. Social classes—Australia—Fiction. 3. Immigrants—Australia—Fiction. 4. Irish—Australia—Fiction. I. Title.
PR9619.3.K46R58 1995
823—dc20 94-48664
eISBN: 978-0-307-80063-3
Copyright © 1995 by Serpentine Publishing Co. Pty. Ltd.
All Rights Reserved
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