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    Romance of the Three Rivers
    Romance of the Three Rivers
    Romance of the Three Rivers
    Ebook39 pages36 minutes

    Romance of the Three Rivers

    By Justin Cahill

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    About this ebook

    A big city lawyer, Mark seems to have it all. But the money and prestige can no longer hide his disillusion with practice. With Kate, his new love interest, he escapes to New Zealand’s famous Routeburn Track. There, he sets out on a new life - with help from some unexpected friends.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJustin Cahill
    Release dateOct 21, 2013
    ISBN9781311365347
    Romance of the Three Rivers
    Author

    Justin Cahill

    Welcome to my Smashwords profile.I am a New Zealand-born writer, based in Sydney. My main interests are nature and history.My thesis was on the negotiations between the British and Chinese governments over the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997. It was used as a source in Dr John Wong’s Deadly Dreams: Opium, Imperialism and the Arrow War (1856-1860) in China, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1998, the standard work on that conflict.I wrote a column on the natural history of the Wolli Creek Valley for the Earlwood News (sadly, now defunct) between 1992 and 1998.My short biography of the leading Australian ornithologist, Alfred North (1855-1917), was published in 1998.I write regular reviews on books about history for my blog,’ Justin Cahill Reviews’ and Booktopia. I’m also a regular contributor to the Sydney Morning Herald's 'Heckler' column.My current projects include completing the first history of European settlement in Australia and New Zealand told from the perspective of ordinary people and a study of the extinction of Sydney’s native birds.After much thought, I decided to make my work available on Smashwords. Australia and New Zealand both have reasonably healthy print publishing industries. But, like it or not, the future lies with digital publishing.So I’m grateful to Mark Coker for having the vision to establish Smashwords and for the opportunity to distribute my work on it.

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      Book preview

      Romance of the Three Rivers - Justin Cahill

      Part One

      I

      They begin in Australia. Vast currents of air rise from the land and glide off over the Tasman. Most dissipate. But some hit the cold rock of New Zealand’s Alps. They condense, forming clouds. The clouds burst and the rains freeze into snow. Spring comes. The snows melt and water pours down into the valleys below.

      Things transform. Air becomes rain. Rain becomes snow. Snow becomes water. Water becomes rivers. But what of us ? How is a man transformed ?

      II

      ‘Click - click - click.’ ‘Click - click - click.’ Mark walked from darkness into light, out of St James Station to Elizabeth Street. The well-dressed, well-groomed crowd paused at the crossing before surging across towards Centrepoint Tower.

      The sharp ‘click’ of high-heels echoed off the footpath. Many slowed as they passed the mirrored walls near David Jones - checking out, touching up, flicking back, smoothing over, tightening up. ‘Click - click - click.’

      Mark turned into Castlereagh Street. Piccadilly Tower loomed ahead. A monument to someone’s obsession with pink marble, it was loud and tasteless - as Sydney often is. The lift opened at Bassington Smyth Lawyers. More mirrors. Mark looked in. Time for a haircut, it was getting messy.

      He walked past reception to his office. A low, ghostly whistle echoed down the corridor. Barbara, the managing partner, was already hunched over her computer, typing away. ‘Hey Barb, how’re you going ?’

      It was an empty question - Mark already knew the answer. Barbara was 33, but looked 45. Years of grim determination and stress had etched deep lines into her face . She barely looked up. ‘I’m good’ she muttered.

      ‘Yes, I’m fine too, thanks’ Mark said to himself. He switched on the computer. Twelve e-mails already, including one from Amanda sent at 5.30 am. Subtlety was not Amanda’s many strengths. It had never dawned on her everyone saw through with her daily game of ‘guess who got into the office first’. But the world is often kind to poseurs. Mark pressed ‘delete’ and Amanda’s anxiety to impress disappeared into the ether.

      ‘What have you got on today ?’ rasped Barbara from the doorway of Mark’s office. Polite inquiries about what one’s weekend was not Barbara’s style. She’d probably spent it at work.

      Mark looked up, flashing a humorless grin ‘I’ve got a conference with Phil about Goldbeaches. Frank’s calling me daily ‘cause he thinks the place is going to fall down. Bloody Phil ! I bet he hasn’t even looked at the brief. Why do we use fuckwits like him ?’ Barbara’s eyes glazed over. ‘You know how it goes. See me when you get back.’

      ‘No worries. You want a coffee ?’

      ‘No. Just less angst.’ Barbara grunted, striding off.

      III

      Coffee, for Mark, was a chance for reflection. He had to be honest. Five years of wandering around the sandstone-edged lawns of Sydney University, then up and down the Law School stairs was no preparation for the utter blandness of practicing law. All

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