text: > Go downwards
  You leave the log and scramble back down the path.
  
  Wooden deck (near the waterfall)
  You stand on a wooden deck at the base of a waterfall. A walking track heads east to the car park. A narrower track leads north towards the top of the falls. Melanie is no longer here.
  
  > go east
  As you start back along the path towards the car park you hear a rustle in the undergrowth nearby, and catch a quick glimpse of something moving away. You're out of breath by the time you catch up to Melanie, part way back along the track. She is crouched on one knee, examining the other, which seems to have been grazed.
  
  "Hey, Melanie! What's happened? What have you done to yourself?" There is little sympathy in your voice.
  
  Melanie looks up, startled. "What do you care, you bastard? Look at this," she gestures at her knee. "This is your fault. I was ready to go, Jack. And if you'd listened, I wouldn't have been scared half out of my wits. There was some creature back there, near the waterfall - in the bush. It charged out at me."
  
  "It was a pademelon, Mel. I saw it."
  
  "A what?"
  
  "A pademelon. A wallaby."
  
  "Look Jack, I don't care what it was. I'm a city girl, remember. At least in town if something jumps at me I've a fair idea what it is and what it's after. I've had enough of this bush shit for one day. Let's get back to the cottage, ok?"
  
  You are on a walking track that leads east to the car park. Melanie is here, crouched on one knee. The day pack is on the ground beside her.
  
  > examine the knee
  The knee has a nasty graze.
  
  > look in it
  In the day pack is your camera.
  
  > kiss knee
  "Ouch! That hurts." Melanie winces. "Just help me up will you?"
  
  > look at the fire
  It's a pot-bellied wood stove. A fire blazes within and there is a supply of firewood beside it.
  
  > examine the shadows
  They are eerie.
  
  > stand
  You are already standing.
  
  > go to the west
  Living Room (West)
  This area of your living room doubles as a kitchen. There is a small sink here, a gas stove, refrigerator and a cupboard. Your bathroom is to the north and a door to the west leads outside.
  
  > Sleep
  You can keep awake no longer.
  But you know you can't go to bed until you've seen to the fire. So you drag yourself up from the bed, walk wearily to the wood stove and build up the fire before heading back to your bedroom. After climbing into bed you toss and turn for a while then settle into an uneasy sleep...
  And in this sleep, you dream...
  In your dream you are Akhnaten, the pharaoh of Nadia's fancy, standing on a sandy shore gazing out over dark waters. You are dressed in white robes, in your right hand is a flail, and in your left is a shepherd's crook. The night sky is a terrible serpent that slithers and uncoils above you, blood leaching from its foul skin into the waters of the East. There are four sealed jars laid out on the sand before you, and from your side come the guttural sounds, the snufflings and snarls, of some kind of animal, or worse. Reeds grow about you, wrapping themselves around your feet, tugging at your ankles.
  
  But you know that you must not shift your gaze from the horizon, not at any cost.
  
  You stand on a sandy shore, gazing out through darkness to the horizon in the East. There are four sealed jars set on the sand before you. Something is growling beside you, and reeds grow about your feet, wrapping themselves around your ankles.
  
  > watch the horizon
  You are watching the eastern horizon for Matet, the boat of Ra the sun god, that will take you to the afterlife. And not without some trepidation. With the benefit of hindsight you wonder at the wisdom, during your reign, of banning the worship of Ra and the rest of the panoply of Egyptian gods in favour of Aten, a single god of your own invention.
  
  Then again, even pharaohs make mistakes.
  
  How long must you wait? Surely, it can't be long now.
  
  > About yourself
  You are wearing white robes and carrying a shepherd's crook and a flail.
  
  You are becoming aware of a burning sensation in your chest.
  
  > touch the chest
  You drop the flail and reach beneath your robes with your right hand. You can feel the jagged edges of the flesh of your chest-wall, and beneath that, nothing, an empty cavity. This doesn't auger well for your meeting with Osiris (the weigher of hearts).
  
  > touch the heart
  Surely, morning must come soon...
  
  You awake before dawn and lie in your bed in the dim half-light of early morning listening to the gentle spattering of sleet or snow against the windowpane. You are lying on your back with your arms folded across your chest. Normally, you sleep curled on your side, or sprawled on your stomach. You are also bathed in sweat.
  
  Bedroom (on the bed)
  This is your bedroom. The only furnishings are a wardrobe and your bed. There is a window facing north and the living room is to the south.
  
  > About yourself
  You are 55 years old, but look (and feel) much older. You are wearing your coat.
  
  Your stomach rumbles. There's no food in the house. Like it or not, you know you'll have to brave the cold today and go to the store to buy some supplies.
  
  > feel yourself
  If you think that'll help.
  
  > pull the box
  (the cardboard carton)
  Nothing obvious happens.
  
  > look under the bed
  There is a metal box under your bed.
  
  > take the roll
  You take a roll of fifties.
  
  > Close box
  (the metal box)
  You close the metal box.
  
  > put the roll in the pocket
  You put the roll of $50 notes in your coat pocket.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying a cardboard carton, an ankh, a possum skin hat and the picture-frame.
  In a coat pocket you have a roll of $50 notes.
  
  > PUT ANKH, HAT, FRAME IN CARTON
  ankh: Done.
  possum skin hat: Done.
  photograph: The photograph belongs on the mantel.
  
  > drop the carton
  You place the picture back on the mantel.
  Dropped.
  
  > go west
  With barely a backwards glance at the photograph on the mantel, you step out of the door and onto the path. Fresh snow is beginning to settle on the gravel. It crunches under your feet as you walk, and dark clouds billow up over the mountain, obscuring the stars.
  
  You are on the gravel path near your front door, which is to the east. The path leads north to your driveway and continues south to your yard. The trees of the surrounding forest come nearly to the edge of the path.
  
  > Go north
  You are standing at the bottom of your driveway. The drive heads up to the northwest. Leading off the driveway to the south is a path that takes you around to the front of the house. Your old Landcruiser is parked here, near the house.
  
  > enter the car
  (the Landcruiser)
  You get into the Landcruiser.
  
  > examine the car
  (the Landcruiser)
  The inside of your Landcruiser is as tatty as the outside. The front seats are torn and dirty, and those of the rear have long since been removed altogether to give you more carrying capacity.
  
  > drive
  You'll have to say which compass direction to go in.
  
  > Go northwest
  The Landcruiser coughs into life and in a shower of gravel, rattles on up towards the road, windscreen wipers waving noisily. At the top of your drive you turn and start the winding descent towards the store. As you drive you sit forward, hunched over the steering wheel, pot-holes jarring your craned neck as you struggle to make out the line of the road. The snow is falling more heavily now, making visibility poor.
  
  Mountain road (in the Landcruiser)
  You're heading south along a narrow stretch of the mountain summit road. This part of the road has been cut from the mountain-side. It has rocky cliffs rising on its western edge and drops away sharply into the forest to the east. The road here is badly corrugated, making driving difficult.
  
  > Go south
  Suddenly, out of nowhere, a wallaby jumps onto the road in front of you, is caught briefly in the headlights and then is gone, in one bound, back into the bush. As you swerve to avoid it the Landcruiser leaves the road, coming to rest heavily in a ditch. You gun the engine and press the accelerator to the floor, a spray of yellow mud erupting from the wheel-arches as the vehicle slues further from the road.
  
  For a while you sit rigid and unmoving in the cabin of the Toyota, then with a deep sigh, you kill the engine and relax your white-knuckled grip on the wheel. With resignation you begin to feel all tension and panic drain away, and with them, all resolve and sense of purpose. "Bloody wallaby," you mutter to yourself. You gaze absently at the criss-crossed patterns of ice forming in the arcs of the still screeching wiper-blades, and at the sleet and snow hitting the windscreen like glass bugs.
  
  > examine the tree
  It's a tall white gum tree.
  
  > go outside
  As you step from the Landcruiser you find yourself thankful for the fact that it is equipped with a winch.
  
  You are standing near your Landcruiser. The vehicle rests precariously with one rear wheel in a ditch and the opposing front wheel high in the air. Near the Landcruiser, to the west, rises a cliff and on the opposite side of the road is a dirt verge. The gravel road heads back to the north, and leads on around the bend to the southwest. There is a tall white gum eucalypt growing on the verge.
  
  > Go southwest
  It is too far to walk to the store from here.
  
  > get the cable
  You take the end of the winch cable.
  
  > attach winch to the tree
  Having attached the winch to the tree, you pull the four-wheel-drive free of the ditch. Then in a flurry of gravel and snow you continue down the road towards Timpson's store. You drive carefully, but still have to fight for grip on the ice and snow. By the time you swing into the small parking bay at the front of the store you're sweating profusely and your fingers ache from gripping the wheel. It would be well into the morning by now, but the weather has closed right in and it is still quite dark. The mountain slopes above you are completely obscured by clouds.
  
  Outside Timpson's store (in the Landcruiser)
  You are sitting in your Landcruiser parked at the front of Timpson's store which is to the west. The store is a somewhat dilapidated double-storey weatherboard building with a veranda, and an old advertising hoarding out the front. The shop itself is on the ground floor. Bill Timpson lives above it. The summit road heads back to the northeast and continues as a sealed road towards the small local township to the south.
  
  > enter shop
  (the store)
  I don't think Bill Timpson would appreciate a ram-raid on his store. Perhaps you should get out of the four-wheel-drive first.
  
  > Go outside
  You turn off the engine, jump from the Landcruiser, and quickly climb the two steps up to the front veranda of the shop. It's only when you get to the door that you notice the rough cardboard sign tacked to it.
  
  > read the sign
  The sign says, "CLOSED".
  
  The wind whistles through the uprights of the veranda, whipping the falling snow into circles that dance at your feet as you stand staring at the sign. You feel your temper rising.
  
  > look at the sign
  The sign says, "CLOSED".
  
  > knock on the door
  (the front door)
  You pound at the door, perhaps more vigorously than was necessary. Several moments later you hear the sound of a window being opened above you.
  
  "Go, away! It's Sunday. We're closed." It's Timpson. In frustration, you pound the door again.
  
  "Look, I mean it, whoever you are. Get lost. Now!...or I call the police."
  
  You step back from the veranda and look up to the second-storey window where you see, glaring down at you, a tiny wisp of a man, dressed in pyjamas.
  
  "Oh, it's you, Downer y'mad bugger. Well, we're closed. So you'd better go back to that mud hut of yours."
  
  > tell him about the hunger
  "I can't help you, Jack. It's Sunday. Go home."
  
  > ask him about the grandpa
  At the mention of your grandfather Timpson softens noticeably. He hesitates for a moment, then glances skywards, before saying, "Yeah okay, Jack. Just this once, for your granddad's sake. I owe him. But if you've damaged my door with all that banging, I'll take it outta ya hide. I'll be down in a minute." He steps back from the window, pulls it shut and draws the curtain. A short time later you hear the front door being unlocked and opened.
  
  > go to the west
  Timpson keeps a musty, old-style, general store. The place hasn't changed much since you first came here with your grandparents all those years ago. Then, he used to keep a sweet jar on the counter, and you wondered whether one day he might offer you one. But, of course, he never did. You somehow still feel like that child whenever you come here. The old man doesn't keep a lot of stock, but he generally has most of the basic food and hardware items you need. Timpson is standing behind the counter, still in his pyjamas.
  
  "Well?" he asks.
  
  > buy the food
  You quickly select the supplies you need, pay for them with a couple of the fifties from the roll you carry in your coat pocket and turn to leave the store. As you reach the veranda with your bag of purchases you suddenly become disoriented, and falter in your step. For an instant your vision blurs and a wave of nausea sweeps over you. Beads of sweat form on your brow. Timpson comes out from behind his counter.
  
  "You alright, Downer? You look as though you seen a ghost."
  
  The feeling passes.
  
  "Yeah, Bill. I'm fine. See you, Timpson." You step down from the veranda as Bill Timpson shakes his head, then closes and locks the door to his store.
  
  You are at the front of Timpson's store which is to the west. The store is a somewhat dilapidated double-storey weatherboard building with a veranda, and an old advertising hoarding out the front. The shop itself is on the ground floor. Bill Timpson lives above it. There is a sign tacked to the front door (which is closed). The summit road heads back to the northeast and continues as a sealed road towards the small local township to the south. Your Landcruiser is parked nearby.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying a large paper bag.
  In a coat pocket you have a roll of $50 notes.
  
  > eat the food
  You think about getting something out of the bag and eating it on the spot, but then decide you should wait until you get into your house at least.
  
  > enter car
  (the Landcruiser)
  You climb into the Landcruiser and put your supplies on the passenger's seat beside you.
  
  > drive
  You'll have to say which compass direction to go in.
  
  > drive ne
  The drive home is not going to be easy. You drive cautiously, at a crawl. Your progress is not only threatened by the weather, but by something else as well - you are having trouble maintaining your concentration, sweat from your palms loosens your grip on the wheel and there is a pounding in your head. You wonder if you might be going mad. Eventually you make it safely back to your driveway.
  
  Bottom of driveway (in the Landcruiser)
  You are sitting in your Landcruiser parked at the bottom of your driveway. The drive heads up to the northwest. Leading off the driveway to the south is a path that takes you round to the front of the house. Your bag of supplies is on the passenger's seat beside you.
  
  > get the food
  Taken.
  
  > Leave
  You step from the vehicle with your bag of supplies. You are feeling very unwell.
  
  You are standing at the bottom of your driveway. The drive heads up to the northwest. Leading off the driveway to the south is a path that takes you around to the front of the house. Your old Landcruiser is parked here, near the house.
  
  > enter the house
  The front door to the house is to the south.
  
  > go south
  You are on the gravel path near your front door, which is to the east. The path leads north to your driveway and continues south to your yard. The trees of the surrounding forest come nearly to the edge of the path.
  
  > go east
  As you enter the house you find yourself breathing heavily and fighting back fatigue. You put the bag of supplies down on the kitchen floor, then look towards the mantel and feel some composure return at the sight of the photograph sitting there. But you quickly begin to feel uneasy. Something about the photograph isn't right.
  
  Living Room (West)
  This area of your living room doubles as a kitchen. There is a small sink here, a gas stove, refrigerator and a cupboard. Your bathroom is to the north and a door to the west leads outside.
  
  There's a bag of supplies on the floor near the door.
  
  > go to the east
  Living Room (East)
  Your living room is full of clutter. Your armchair is here in front of the wood stove. A doorway to the north leads to your bedroom and the living area continues west. The back door is to the east.
  
  There is a cardboard carton here.
  
  An old pine mantel leans against the wall near the window. On the mantel you see a photograph.
  
  > look at the picture
  You take the frame in both hands, then as you stand there your hands begin to tremble, sweat pours into your eyes and your mind is numbed by the clamour of your racing heart and the rattle in your chest. You stare in disbelief at the photograph, rub the sweat and tears from your eyes with your sleeve, then look again - at the smile.
  
  With a grimy, callused finger you prod the picture trying to wipe away the smile on Melanie's face, that small nervous smile of relief so often recalled in your memory, the smile that you know can not be there, because it happened after the picture was taken. But the smile is not the only change in the photograph. You can also see your own arm reaching towards the camera.
  
  > look at the arm
  In horror, you drop the photograph, the frame smashing on contact with the floor, then you back away towards the bedroom. Lying in a foetal position, your body heaving, you fall into a long, deep dreamless sleep - the sleep of the dead...
  
  > press the space
  The discovery of the photograph had been largely fortuitous. Some time after the onset of your depression, you had been sitting in your armchair feeling choked by the clutter that surrounded you and had resolved to do something about it. Your clean up began with a dust covered cardboard box of old possessions from before your return to the mountain, and that was as far as you got. As you went through the contents of the box you came across a number of photographs scattered loose, among them the photo of Melanie and yourself at the waterfall. For a moment you had trouble recalling the photograph, where it had been taken, and even who the girl was that you were with. Then you remembered, and were instantly overwhelmed by feelings of melancholy and nostalgia. It was an almost palpable experience, like breaking open an exotic fruit and being immersed in the smell of its rich fleshy pulp - sickly sweet, but turning at the core. The scene in the photograph, which you had barely given a thought for years, was instantly transformed into a pivotal moment; while only one point in the millions that had made up your life, for you it became the critical one, the point where your life had started to go wrong.
  You made a frame for the photograph, and set it in a prominent position on the mantel. Over the following months you became more and more drawn to the picture, spent increasing amounts of time looking at it, running the frame through your hands, and running the events of that day and evening through your mind, thinking about how they might have been different. In time, you came to reinterpret everything that had happened before the day of the photograph as preparation for that moment and everything after as a mistake. Your waking hours were spent striving to regain the moment, and set it to rights in your mind. The world and your needs within it paled into insignificance, were merely inconvenient distractions from your true focus. And you became increasingly frustrated by the fact that with each passing hour you were a little further from the only junction in your life that had mattered, the only point where you could have put your life back on track...
  
  You open your eyes to find that you are once more lying on your back, feet together with arms folded across your chest. It is daylight and bright. You can hear the calls of birds outside. You feel strangely calm and rested, your breath coming easily and without pain. Even your hunger has abated. You have not forgotten the photograph lying in its shattered frame in the next room, but you don't feel pressed to do anything about it. There is no rush.
  
  A huntsman spider crawls along the beam above your head, towards a fly at the opposite end. The fly is caught in the strand of another spider's web, and it spins noisily and stupidly, like a fish on a hook. You are resigned to the fly's fate well before it is, and look away no longer interested before the spider reaches it.
  
  Bedroom (on the bed)
  This is your bedroom. The only furnishings are a wardrobe and your bed. There is a window facing north and the living room is to the south.
  
  > check what you're carrying
  You are carrying nothing, but in a coat pocket you have a roll of $50 notes.
  
  > get up
  As you climb out of bed, you feel well in yourself but your movements seem impeded, as though the air around you had taken on a viscous quality - not requiring any extra effort to move through but somehow slowing your progress nonetheless.
  
  This is your bedroom. The only furnishings are a wardrobe and your bed. There is a window facing north and the living room is to the south.
  
  > go to the south
  Living Room (East)
  Your living room is full of clutter. Your armchair is here in front of the wood stove. A doorway to the north leads to your bedroom and the living area continues west. The back door is to the east.
  
  An old pine mantel leans against the wall near the window.
  
  The picture-frame is lying broken on the floor.
  
  There is a cardboard carton here.
  
  > look at the photo
  Taking care to avoid the broken glass you bend down to look at the photograph. You brace yourself for what you might see, anticipating that your heart may skip a beat. The smile is still there, although it is different, the angle of Melanie's head having altered. And there in your right hand is your camera that the German tourist used to take the shot.
  
  > take the photo
  Carefully avoiding the broken glass you bend down and pick up the picture-frame. While the glass has shattered and the frame itself is broken, you realise that they would be repairable.
  
  > examine melanie
  Melanie is smiling.
  
  > examine Jack
  A fool, clearly.