four

– the tank stream-

When he was a child, Jake’s mother often told him that if he dug a hole deep enough in the ground, he would come out in China. As with most young children who are told this story, Jake wondered if that meant that people in China walk upside down. In fact, he wondered if their whole world was upside down- if their water flowed backwards, if their time ticks in reverse, if people are born as adults and dies as babies.

Now when Jake walks down the street he doesn’t think about China, but of the real underground Sydny- the labrynthine metropolis that lies tangles in sewers, drains and the tank stream. Of the caves and passageways that bulge like catacombs with the buried memories of the convicts that excavated them.

Jake is sure, that when the sun stops shining the whole city will move underground to inhabit the dark maze that exists beneath them. Just like Londoners during the blitz the population will flee below. Where it is safe, where energy emenates from the core of the earth. Finally cities will not grow upwards towards the sky, but expand inwards, towards the centre.

Leave a Reply