Pepsi Bears and Other Stories (22 page)

Serial feels good having done this for Maureen. And it's no skin off his nose. He feels rich, having mistaken himself for a force rather than a fashion in music. As he eases out the drive he drops the window of the Aston Martin and breathes in the Australian bush. Ahh. Bathroom fresh. And the sounds. He can hear bellbirds tolling, a kookaburra laughing and … and … oh yeah, you old scallywag, Maureen. You old borrower of ideas. You old pickpocket.

Lyrebirds love a new tune. Whether it be a chain-saw felling a mountain ash or a Harley gunning up the Olinda–Dandenong road or a piece of Gilbert and Sullivan leaked from a Subaru window, pretty soon every one's singing it.

And Barry has, these past weeks, perched atop the stone wall of the Wyndamere Private Nursing Home and warbled his new song until even the more limited cover-artists in his family have it down pat. It has become the hit of the summer, spreading bird-to-bird through the Dandenongs and up to the Alps, heading for New South Wales, whence Muriel said it came. Serial, with his head out the window of the car, can hear it sung near and far. For nature is the most adept plagiarist never to be accused of the crime, and knows a pretty tune when she hears one.

A
nson Cameron has written five critically acclaimed novels,
Silences Long Gone
,
Tin Toys
,
Confessing the Blues
,
Lies I Told About a Girl
, and
Stealing Picasso
, as well as a collection of short stories,
Nice Shootin' Cowboy
. He was born in Shepparton, Victoria in 1961 and lives in Melbourne.