First Preferences (Trisomie Alliance)

FIRST PREFERENCES

(Trisomie Alliance)

Adelaide Eleanor Dupont

© 2010 Adelaide Dupont 1

First Preferences (Trisomie Alliance)

Roche sat on the beach. It was a time of peace.

She was wearing her purple dress. It was a deep yet subtle lavender.

The waves lapped quietly at high tide.

She liked to sit on the rocks, looking at the stars, dreaming dreams.

Every day was a dream, when it wasn’t a drama.

Her heart and mind were full of … everything.

The stars were far apart, not making any special constellations in the sky. There was a

crescent moon in the sky.

Roche looked at the moon. She thought it was like a boat.

When the tide came in she would have to go to bed.

She hoped that there was no sand in her purple dress, or anywhere near it.

She went over the sand dunes, her sandals going over the grass.

She found her way to the car. It was maroon, and it had everything ready for her.

She had known this beach in some form for most of her twenty years of life.

She wondered across the sea, if her true love would come from there.

Or whether they would be … right where she was.

Oran wandered the streets. He went to the convenience store.

This year he had been nominated as “the most friendly worker” for July.

He had luscious olive skin with hair that stood up in a cock strut.

He liked to get up early in the morning, and work deep into the night.

Sometimes in the night people would beat up others of his kind.

© 2010 Adelaide Dupont 2

First Preferences (Trisomie Alliance)

So he would go towards the lights to his accommodation. It was a tall weatherboard

building.

He too dreamed of his love, like the stories he had read about.

Every day felt like an exotic journey.

Challenges added spice and spur.

They strengthened his gut for a tomorrow of opportunity.

Oran’s land is a land of floods.

Roche’s land is a land of deserts.

In Oran’s land grows banyan.

In Roche’s land grows dates.

On another island they would grow close to one another.

Several continents of experience separated them, their backgrounds, their families.

Their lives covered the gamut from loneliness to understanding.

From understanding to joy.

© 2010 Adelaide Dupont 3

First Preferences (Trisomie Alliance)

The next morning, Roche got up and looked out the window.

She saw that the light shone high on the leaves of the trees.

On her bed, she did a long stretch, and got to her shoelaces.

She checked her bag. Her purse gave a satisfying jingle.

She went to the kitchen and picked out a poppy seed roll.

She ate the roll mindfully, savouring every moment.

For right now, there was nobody to notice that it wasn’t hers.

There was a gleam in her almond-shaped eyes.

If there had been a mirror, they would have shone like the sun on the trees.

The birds began to sing.

Some of the tunes melded in, others were discordant within the landscape.

And because birds are group creatures, they can be cruel, one to another.

The baby bird looked as if it were struggling.

Roche took the bus and found her ticket.

She was going off to work, in a concrete building.

It has terracotta displays around it, which the people have made.

It was an artist in residence, who has gone off to a walled city now.

Oran likes to ride his bicycle to the length of the beach.

It has been a quiet day. The laughing children have been at school for about three

hours now, and it is a different atmosphere.

There is a man in a suit who likes pretzels: the salty ones.

He wears sunglasses.

© 2010 Adelaide Dupont 4

First Preferences (Trisomie Alliance)

Oran goes to the back of his store to open some boxes and unload the products.

© 2010 Adelaide Dupont 5