Taking A Break In The Dandenongs

ATTIC HOUSE

Alas ... I Knew Him, Horatio

I have been in Bob Carr's house more often than Bob Ellis, Richard Hall and Gore Vidal combined. It's true. Stairs sweep up from the front room, where American officers danced to a program of swing music on the ABC. I've been up there, and on up a kind of ship's ladder to the attic. From that secret space I have fired a high-powered air gun down into the night-time bowl of Maroubra, sighting along an army signal lamp.