ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
Before heading into battle today, an ageing Betoota Heights father stole a minute to sun himself on his back deck while he enjoyed a warming cup of tea and a Rothman Red.
In that moment, he says, he feels completely free.
Nothing can bring him down.
Looking on from the relative safety of inside, Allan Stevenson’s wife Wanda said that he often does this type of ritual of a morning time.
“He just stands there in the sun,” he said.
“Sunning himself. He doesn’t look at anything in particular, he doesn’t even do anything. He just stares off into the distance, sips his tea, draws on his durrie,”
“Completely at peace. It’s something I’ll never understand.”
And with that, Allan whip the cold tea out of his mug and off the deck. He took one last suck on the Rothman and stubbed it out on the bottom of his shoe and put it in his hand.
He let out an earth-shattering cough and spat the by-product off the deck before sliding through the screen door and into the kitchen.
“You’re like a big gorilla out there in the sun,” said Wanda.
“Sunning yourself. You could be in a zoo!”
Allan let out a type of force- smile only someone who’s been married for 40 years can.
“I like being out in the sun, it’s good for you,” he said in a low voice.
“You know, those silverbacks don’t get where they are for being dumb. They know what’s good and what’s bad,”
“And sunning yourself on a clear morning in July is unbeatable.”
They smiled at each other and Allan picked his keys up off the kitchen island.
“See ya later.”
More to come.
