YOU LEARN TO READ one word at a time, just
as you learn to walk one step at a time. But walking is easier, once you get
the hang of it. You just lean forward and put one foot in front of the other. While
learning to read is a constantly evolving challenge. Words change, as do meanings.
The trick is to read between the lines, to go beyond the words and immerse
yourself in the story.
I’m Ben, by the way. At fifteen, I’m already hooked
on words and the strange hold they have over people. Take my family—please
someone, anyone. Sorry, that’s an old joke and not a very good one. Maybe I
should just tell the story and let you decide what to do with them.
It all began about a year ago when Dad started
talking Italian.
Dad is not Italian. He’s as Aussie as Vegemite …
er, Blundstone boots … I mean, Bundaberg Rum. I know those aren’t good
examples, but you get what I mean. At the footy, Dad could balance a stubby and
a meat pie in one hand, while tearing out his hair with the other and hurled
obscenities at the umpire at the same time. Dad is the only person I know who
could say, ‘fair dinkum’, ‘struth’ and ‘bugger me’, all in the one sentence.
Everything changed one day, when he sat down to
breakfast.
He turned to me, winked and said, ‘Buon giorno.’
I almost choked on my Cornflakes. I might have thought
he was joking, if it hadn’t rolled off his tongue like he was the Pope.
Mum was on another of her religious charades—full
on Catholic, I think—so she just rolled out a Hail Mary and went back to
scraping the burnt bits off the toast.
My younger brother, who is thirteen, has ADHD and
OCD—doctors seem quite fond of acronyms—along with Tourette’s syndrome. Mum
reasons it is God’s will that Joey was born with these afflictions and only the
will of God can take them away. And that is Mum’s great dilemma, since being
denied a miracle by her own Lutheran God.
Rather than lose her faith, Mum decided she must be
barking up the wrong tree. She converted to Buddhism, Hinduism and Masochism,
before doing the rounds of the other Christian faiths; the Seventh Day Adventists,
Mormons, Presbyterians and finally the Catholics.
But Buddha, Ganesha, and Jesus, Joseph and Mary had
failed to deliver the goods, and Mum was ripe to test the waters of less
mainstream religions. I guess Dad’s ‘renaissance period’ pushed her closer to
those Gods who occupied the fringes of the religious pecking order. She started
doing voluntary work at the library just to get out of the house, I think.
With Joey and Mum caught up in their own worlds, I
suppose I was the only one that noticed Dad’s slide into an ethnicity that
didn’t belong to him. My older sister, Melanie, had turned goth two years ago
and was seldom seen during daylight. Mum had given up trying to save Mel’s
soul. I think it was the tongue piercing that finally threw her, or perhaps
Mel’s I do it with the devil tattoo.
Either way, it was up to me to work out what was
happening to Dad and, more worryingly, just what the hell he was talking about.
I tried the library first, only to find all the Italian phrasebooks had been
checked out, along with the How to Learn
Italian CDs. I should have put two and two together right then, but hey,
I’m fifteen and there’s a lot going on in my life. Since we didn’t own a
computer, I had to book internet time at the library after school and trawl
through sites searching for translations to Dad’s latest utterings.
To begin with, Dad spoke a mixture of English and
Italian, with the odd colloquialism thrown in. His native tongue gradually
slipped away, though, sliding into pigeon English and then full blown Italian.
By then Mum had taken up Hare Krishna, so our house resembled a backpacker’s
lodge.
Dad would walk into the lounge after work—and God
knows (sorry Mum) what language he spoke at the council depot—saying, ‘Ciao,
Angelo. Ciao, Beniamino. Ciao, Elena.’
‘Buon giorno,’ I’d reply, the only Italian I
knew at that stage.
From the kitchen would come Mum’s mantra, breathed
over the latest variation of lentil soup. ‘Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna
Krishna, Hare, Hare.’
Joey was busy killing aliens on the PlayStation,
muttering a ceaseless line of obscenities, head jerking to one side and his
body twitched in time.
‘Non piu,’ no more, Dad would say. ‘Di niente,’ not at
all. But Joey just kept ploughing those two-headed freaks into the ground…
About
the Author
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Check back tomorrow for an
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and Time Again.
Thanks for visiting,
Emanuel
Below, in no particular order, are links to the major Australian literary journals and magazines currently accepting submissions, and a little information on each. I've only included those that are reasonably well-known and feature at least two pieces of unsolicited fiction per issue.
"Known primarily as a literary magazine, Meanjin reflect[s] the breadth of contemporary thinking, be it on literature, other art forms, or the broader issues of the times."
Description: "Overland, the most radical of Australia’s long-standing literary and cultural magazines, celebrated its 50th year in 2004. Publishing features, fiction, poetry, reviews, comment, artwork and opinion pieces. Overland is committed to engaging with important literary, cultural and political issues in contemporary Australia. It has a tradition of publishing dissenting articles with a political and cultural focus." 
Description: "Wet Ink is put together by a passionate team of writers and a designer who decided to do something about the lack of opportunities for writers to publish their short works and readers to access them. Inside each issue you’ll find fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction, interviews, photography, book reviews and more. It’s the place to discover some of today’s best up-and-coming talent, as well as new works by established authors." 
Description: "Griffith REVIEW has a proud tradition of creating space for new and emerging writers. [It] is written with intelligent, well-informed and curious readers in mind."
Description: "The Lifted Brow is a bimonthly magazine based in Melbourne. Every two months, the Brow publishes fiction, art, comics, and commentary on everything from maths to celebrity to design. It’s just meant to be fun and smart."
Description: "A bi-annual literary journal ... particularly interested in the work of contemporary Asian, Australian and Indigenous writers."
