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What's happening on NPR Podcast? More neighborhoods?

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0:18

Not many people talk about

0:21

this town. there's

0:23

nobody here and nothing to do,

0:25

which is of course why nobody

0:27

mentions Adelaide, but it's

0:29

precisely why I loved it

0:31

here.

0:59

The cobblers flu hit South Australia

1:01

incredibly hard. And to this day, no

1:03

one really knows why. The flu

1:06

spreads in crowded populations, it thrives

1:08

in cold weather, and yet somehow in this

1:10

spacious warm city, it ran rampant

1:12

for months. Hundreds

1:14

of thousands of people died, and hundreds

1:17

of thousands more fled until the city

1:19

was all but abandoned.

1:21

The strange thing is it was

1:24

just this one state that was

1:26

so dramatically impacted. Even

1:28

as people fled to neighboring New South

1:30

Wales and Queensland, they

1:32

didn't seem to bring the flu with them

1:35

or at least not in the numbers you would

1:37

expect. There

1:39

have been theories over the years, of course, an

1:41

inept local government failing to respond

1:44

properly the spread of false information

1:46

about the disease, but there were

1:48

other places that didn't respond. Other cities

1:51

flooded with lies yet the numbers from

1:53

Adelaide eclipsed them all.

1:56

There

1:56

may be a completely straightforward explanation,

1:59

of course.

1:59

but record keeping was never

2:02

reliable

2:02

during the reckoning, so we'll never

2:04

know what it was. The

2:07

Ghana people began moving back into the

2:09

area in the sixties, reclaiming the

2:11

land that had been taken from them by the British

2:13

empire. they started to

2:15

rebuild and others soon joined them,

2:18

but the population is still a fraction

2:20

of what it was. I mean, it's

2:22

not unique in that way. Even

2:25

today, most of the city center is still

2:27

in ruins, but the way the wildflowers

2:30

have overgrown old

2:31

pavement and broken streets I

2:34

found quite beautiful, haunting,

2:36

really, but I've

2:38

always liked feeling haunted. a

2:41

little bit haunted, not

2:44

haunted like, scary shadows

2:46

in the night or unsettling whispers when

2:48

you think you're alone. I

2:51

I like the kind of haunting that feels like

2:53

a like a footprint of a

2:55

bygone era. There

2:57

aren't ghosts per se, not

2:59

no white sheets with i whole sort of way,

3:02

more like more

3:05

like faint impressions of humanity.

3:08

It's

3:08

in the crumbling walls and

3:09

the shards of artifacts.

3:12

You feel and even see their presence,

3:14

but not in a way that threatens

3:16

just just in a way

3:19

that haunts.

3:22

We tend to rebuild

3:23

what was destroyed or we bury it

3:26

or we burn it.

3:28

We respect what we have lost, but

3:30

we don't want it hanging around. And

3:32

yet, Adelaide,

3:35

until about ten years ago, remained

3:37

mostly empty. And even

3:39

today, there's no real center just

3:41

a series of beach huts and suburban

3:43

lean twos. There

3:46

are a few stretches of track homes too.

3:48

They're much nicer, seeming, but

3:51

they've remained mostly uninhabited, say

3:54

for a few squatters. The

3:57

neighborhood's always made me feel unsafe because

3:59

you didn't know who

3:59

was in those homes. But

4:02

the weather here is gorgeous

4:05

most of the time and the water The

4:07

water is warm enough. Oh.

4:09

Have you ever seen a pelican? I'm

4:11

close. They're

4:13

incredible. You

4:14

might see one here. I certainly

4:17

did.

4:17

It scared the shit out

4:19

of me.

4:22

This was one of the rare places

4:25

Rose didn't come to write about.

4:27

It was a vacation, a

4:29

really long vacation. After

4:32

you were born, she had a couple of months in

4:34

the recovery protocols. After

4:37

passing those, she was itching to get

4:39

back to work. to get back to traveling and

4:41

writing.

4:42

Sahara, Anna and I were doing some renovations on

4:45

our shop, so I stayed home for the next

4:47

year or so. as your

4:48

mother went to Liverpool and Busan

4:50

and Jerusalem, I can't remember

4:52

where all she was off to. She was

4:54

working nonstop. we

4:57

would talk on the phone occasionally, and she'd

4:59

send adorable postcards, sometimes

5:01

just short little wish you were here, sentiments,

5:03

sometimes a little more racy stuff.

5:06

It

5:06

was fine. We

5:08

were both so comfortable with each other

5:10

and presence and absence alike.

5:14

I didn't realize it at the time though,

5:17

but

5:17

about

5:18

eleven months into that flurry of

5:20

travel for work,

5:22

Rose was having panic attacks alone

5:25

in her hotels. She

5:27

wasn't sleeping well. She was missing

5:29

deadlines. and I didn't

5:31

know until she got back home.

5:34

She was a wreck. I was

5:37

worried sick

5:37

about her health, and she agreed to

5:39

take a break from work for a few

5:41

months. I

5:43

went to the shop every day and came

5:45

home to a dinner she'd cooked for me.

5:47

She started

5:48

experimenting using ingredients

5:50

I never heard of, looking for

5:52

new and weird dishes she could try.

5:55

She always did get bored easily. And

5:58

then after only a month,

5:59

Rose sprung a new idea on me.

6:03

What if we went to Adelaide for

6:05

a long break? Just the

6:07

two of us. So Hara

6:09

and Anna could run the shop, We'd

6:11

finished our renovations and built out the

6:13

little gardens, so why not take this

6:15

time to boat just vacation

6:17

together?

6:20

And by vacation, she meant

6:22

three months. So

6:25

before we met, Rose had once

6:27

written about Cartagena for

6:29

some magazine and in the process

6:31

got to visit Adelaide on the Australian

6:33

continent. She'd taken a

6:35

ton of pictures and showed them to me.

6:39

While you're all the way down here Anita, you

6:41

should get a boat by the way to

6:43

Carta Pintinga. There's

6:45

incredible wildlife out

6:47

there. I don't know if you like animals.

6:49

I hope you do. I mean, you

6:51

should.

6:54

Rose worked up this whole

6:56

big speech to try to sell me on Adelaide.

6:58

She knew that I knew there wasn't

7:00

anything to do there, like there was in Jakarta.

7:04

And the natural beauty of Adelaide wouldn't

7:06

match that of Tekopoe. Not

7:08

because the beaches aren't pretty, but

7:10

because of the ruins. I

7:13

sat and listened patiently to

7:15

Rose's determined pitch She

7:17

was desperate to win me over.

7:21

And

7:21

I know it doesn't have any nightlife. She

7:23

said there aren't any theaters or

7:25

dance clubs or fancy restaurants,

7:28

there's hardly even any electricity.

7:30

She said. She

7:31

knew she might lose me on

7:34

this point. so she doubled down on the

7:36

quaintness of it all. These little

7:38

villages of Shacks are full of artists,

7:40

full of people who perform traveling

7:43

shows and cook food for each other.

7:45

It's like a block party every single

7:47

weekend.

7:50

I stayed quiet, letting her talk

7:52

about the peaceful nights, the lack of

7:54

street noise, the absence of

7:56

cops, the art and nature, the

7:58

community, And

8:00

finally, she said, Elena,

8:02

please don't tell me you hate it.

8:06

I

8:06

stretched it out

8:07

as much as I could. Really

8:09

made her uncomfortable with my long

8:11

pause. I rubbed my

8:13

chin side all

8:15

the little gestures of indecision until

8:18

I finally laughed and said, are

8:20

you

8:20

kidding, Rose? Of course,

8:22

I love it. When can we go?

8:26

Two weeks later, we were staying in a

8:28

makeshift house built of repurposed wood

8:30

and and corrugated tin

8:32

It was painted orange, but a

8:35

vibrant orange, like more

8:37

like tangerine. with

8:40

a purple door?

8:41

No, not purple, lilac.

8:44

The whole thing couldn't

8:46

have been bigger than your

8:47

dormitory room

8:48

at the development center, but our

8:51

entire front yard was

8:53

a beach. This beach,

8:57

Grange beach. where you

8:59

found the bean bar and Patricia.

9:01

It's a lot different now

9:03

than it was twenty years ago, so

9:05

many homes and shops,

9:06

The

9:07

city is mostly rebuilt. When

9:10

Rose

9:10

and I stayed here, the downtown area was

9:12

piles of rubble. We sometimes

9:14

walk to the city to scavenge,

9:17

You can't do it anymore. But back in the eighties,

9:19

there was still a lot left to find

9:22

remnants of life before.

9:25

Sometimes you'd find useful things like

9:27

unbroken mirrors or unrusted

9:29

scissors. Sometimes

9:31

you'd find something beautiful like

9:33

swatches of embroidery. or

9:35

books. If you were lucky,

9:38

you'd find a handwritten journal.

9:41

Rose always wanted

9:44

the novels but I never found them that

9:46

interesting.

9:47

There's a predictability to literature,

9:50

you know, a sense that things

9:52

will get worse and then they'll get better

9:54

or at least dramatize the hope that

9:56

they will. And at the end, it'll

9:58

all be wrecking up happier sad

9:59

with a tiny little ribbon. But

10:02

diaries, diaries are

10:04

different, unpredictable even

10:06

in their modernity. I

10:10

loved finding journals that were kept even as

10:12

the reckoning raged. There's

10:14

this huge global upheaval and

10:16

yet people still felt the need to record

10:18

the minutia of their lives. A

10:21

girl writing it about an

10:23

argument with her mother. A wife writing

10:25

about her fears for her husband.

10:27

A boy resenting how much better

10:29

his brother is traded It's

10:32

always interesting in a voyeur sort

10:34

of way to read about how

10:36

families used to operate. so

10:39

much rage, bitterness, and

10:41

betrayal. I love

10:43

it. I love the the

10:45

sudden changes. One day,

10:47

someone will be obsessing about a fight with a

10:49

sibling, and then the next will be a long

10:51

story about a nice meal or

10:53

finishing knitting a scar for a new

10:55

neighbor or a garden or a pretty

10:57

sunset.

10:58

They never

11:00

resolve anything. There's no

11:02

climax, no narrative, just

11:04

a glimpse into life. Stimulation

11:07

without achievement. I

11:08

love it

11:09

because the possibilities are endless.

11:15

Hey, it's Jeffrey Krayner. This holiday

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14:09

Anyway, Rose and I went to the

14:11

city ruins looking for

14:13

objects, books, croquarie,

14:16

clothes, and along a little

14:18

creek coming off the bay in the tall

14:20

grass, I saw what I

14:22

thought was a

14:23

statue.

14:24

about four feet tall, thin,

14:26

dark brown. I

14:27

don't know why I thought there would be a

14:30

bronze sculpture here in this ghost

14:32

town. Not that it couldn't have survived

14:34

decades of neglect, but it was

14:36

positioned along a swampy

14:38

slope into this dirty little creek.

14:41

dill,

14:41

I

14:41

approached it. As I

14:43

neared, I tried to understand what

14:46

exactly it was, It

14:48

seemed

14:48

human shaped from a distance, but

14:51

from

14:51

about twenty five feet, it seemed like

14:53

something more abstract.

14:56

A

14:56

bulbous obelisk, I couldn't

14:59

tell.

15:00

Closer still, I could see vertical

15:03

lines along the side where the

15:05

shape bulged And when

15:07

I was only two long steps

15:09

away, I saw a

15:11

single large eye

15:14

open on the statue. It

15:17

wasn't a statue at all.

15:19

It was alive and

15:21

it was looking right at

15:23

me. I

15:25

didn't move. I couldn't move.

15:28

I

15:28

was silent and petrified.

15:32

then the entire form

15:34

before me peeled itself

15:36

open. Its face

15:38

was long and orange, not bright like

15:40

a tangerine, but gold like

15:42

a spoiled persimmon. And

15:45

two great wings extended

15:48

from either side and its

15:50

tremendous beak turned

15:52

up to the sky. It it looked

15:54

like a dinosaur. It

15:56

probably is a kind of dinosaur, and

15:58

my brain whispered

15:59

Pelican to itself as

16:02

great throbs of its wings, pulls

16:04

through my body, like standing next

16:06

to a subwoofer in a nightclub.

16:09

Rose ran to me and said, you could have been heard

16:11

and lay up. Pelicans are dangerous,

16:13

but I just

16:14

waved at the bird. Like,

16:16

buy bird. Nice to meet

16:18

you. I

16:21

didn't know why I did that.

16:23

I still don't.

16:24

Trauma response, I don't know.

16:26

It was that moment that I knew

16:29

Adelaide was going to be a place of

16:31

change. Change of

16:33

what? I didn't know. but a

16:35

great change was on the

16:37

horizon. And it

16:39

was or it felt like it was.

16:41

It felt like a place of epiphany.

16:45

It wasn't

16:45

really. I didn't actually figure anything

16:47

out. I didn't have some grand revelation.

16:50

Maybe I just went in

16:52

search of epiphany. I

16:54

don't

16:54

know that I ever actually

16:55

found it, but honestly, I think

16:58

that's kind of the point.

17:01

If you find the grand meaning of

17:03

life, you're probably

17:04

doing it wrong.

17:06

In the moment of confusion

17:08

between understanding that the pelican was

17:10

just a pelican and thinking it was something else

17:13

entirely, I had

17:15

a

17:15

flash of clarity. felt

17:18

that everything was connected,

17:20

that there was

17:21

some greater thing,

17:23

power, force, whatever, holding

17:25

it all together, that

17:27

if I could find whatever that was, a

17:30

god, gods, a

17:32

collective unconscious, that

17:34

I could better understand why I was given life,

17:37

given sentence, why

17:39

pain,

17:39

why pleasure, why is

17:41

it also short? and so

17:43

long too. I thought

17:45

about this constantly in

17:46

Adelaide. We had a lot of

17:49

downtime. We didn't need money.

17:51

We didn't need jobs. We

17:53

had our little beach hut community,

17:55

and we had

17:55

a life together. We had

17:57

a family of sorts on that beach.

18:00

There was

18:00

Tim who regularly cooked stew for

18:02

everyone and Marina who who

18:04

helped Rose and I build our tent.

18:08

Everyone in that beach community was there to

18:10

support each other. Even

18:12

though

18:12

Rose and I were temporary, they

18:15

didn't care. We

18:16

were there, weren't we?

18:18

Marina once said to me,

18:20

Elena, we are all temporary.

18:23

And I

18:24

guess

18:25

she was

18:27

right. But all that extra

18:30

time, all that space to

18:32

contemplate existence, sent

18:34

me reeling for reason. Were the

18:37

stars to blame? Was there a

18:39

god? Lots of gods? What could

18:41

I divine from what I

18:43

saw? Everything was a taro

18:45

card, the rotten tree, the

18:47

noisy bird, the eight of sea

18:50

shells. It's a sort of thing

18:52

that leaves you and comes back.

18:55

Have you found this? Sometimes

18:57

life is practical and simple and everything

19:00

makes sense. And then sometimes it feels

19:02

messy and nonsensical and you look for

19:04

anything that will help you organize the

19:06

nonsense into some kind of

19:08

pattern. Sometimes

19:09

it feels like

19:10

there's reason in our lives,

19:13

and sometimes it feels like everything is

19:15

just chaos we're trying to survive.

19:19

and I don't

19:21

know which is true. Fifty

19:25

years later, Rose would leave her career

19:27

as a writer because she was

19:29

tired. Or as she would tell

19:31

me a few years after that, she

19:33

was sick. I

19:36

don't think she knew when it all started,

19:38

but

19:38

maybe she did. We

19:40

didn't keep secrets, not on

19:43

purpose anyway. Not everything is important

19:45

enough to share, and sometimes the

19:47

importance of something sneaks up on

19:49

you. A headache

19:51

isn't A painful bowel

19:53

movement isn't either. If they

19:55

only happen every so often,

19:56

also possibly not important.

20:00

You don't

20:00

notice that there's an increasing pattern

20:02

until well, until they're

20:04

happening every day. but to

20:06

swat away the thoughts like there are so many bottle

20:09

flies, it's nothing.

20:10

I'm fine. And years and years

20:13

go by, And

20:14

you are fine. And then one

20:17

day, you're not. And you

20:19

realize, oh, this

20:21

was all so

20:22

important. How

20:24

did I not realize it was so important?

20:26

I should have

20:28

said something.

20:31

Maybe

20:31

that's how it was for rose.

20:36

Anyway, before all of that,

20:39

When we were in Adelaide,

20:42

I

20:42

was getting a little

20:44

into astrology and taro

20:46

and thinking about my connection to

20:49

the land and to the universe.

20:50

And it was

20:51

fine. Rose didn't take an

20:54

interest in any of it. She didn't take

20:56

offense to it either. but

20:58

it was something we couldn't share.

21:00

It didn't drive a wedge between us.

21:02

It was simply part of my

21:04

life that didn't enter hers.

21:07

Looking for

21:09

the supernatural never interested

21:10

rose, she didn't need a reason

21:13

for existence. She existed.

21:15

So what? We opened

21:17

a little pop

21:17

up coffee shop along the beach. Nothing

21:20

as nice as the bean bar. It was a

21:22

table and some old mugs

21:24

we found. It was surprisingly

21:26

popular, though there was no money

21:28

there. We did it because it was something to

21:30

do, and it was fun

21:32

because we were contributing. Rose

21:35

found meaning in making things.

21:37

She found meaning in sharing things.

21:40

She found meaning in waking up,

21:42

living, and going to sleep.

21:44

She found meaning and being around

21:46

other people. It wasn't enough

21:48

for me though. Why?

21:51

Nagged me. It

21:53

kept me up at night. Why clouds?

21:55

Why tents? Why coffee? Why

21:58

love? Why? And

22:01

this was a topic we had no common

22:03

ground in. In my search

22:05

for

22:05

meaning, I had to leave

22:07

rows behind. in

22:10

spirit anyway.

22:12

We found our

22:14

way back or

22:16

I found my way back.

22:18

It was just a spiritual phase at that

22:20

time for me.

22:23

Why still nags

22:25

me. But I'm

22:27

at peace with never knowing.

22:29

I searched for the name of god

22:31

in the ruins of Adelaide,

22:34

Sometimes I found an unbroken mirror. Sometimes I

22:36

found a book with all the pages intact.

22:39

Sometimes I found a pelican

22:41

disguised as a statue. None

22:43

of it answered the question why, but

22:46

it all made me feel like I

22:48

was a step closer.

22:49

the search Truth

22:52

be known though? It's all just

22:54

shouting at clouds, sometimes

22:57

literally.

22:59

You're going west

23:02

now

23:02

Anita to East Africa. Can

23:05

you hike? You look

23:06

like you're in decent shape, You

23:09

don't need to climb

23:10

Kilimanjaro, but I think

23:12

you should. I

23:15

left

23:15

a package for you at the Uzonguni

23:18

Inn in Arusha. It's

23:20

a really cute resort town in the

23:22

Savannah. You

23:23

think telecons are scary? Wait

23:26

till you see a hippo.

23:28

You won't see a hippo, hopefully

23:31

not anyway.

23:32

Within the wires is

23:34

written by Genina Mathiesen and me,

23:36

Jeffrey Kramer, with original music by

23:38

Mary Eppworth, find more of

23:40

Mary's music at mary eppworth dot com. This show

23:42

was produced by me and directed this

23:45

season by Janina. The voice

23:47

of Elena Jimenez is

23:49

April Ortiz. Support

23:51

our Patreon and get exclusive episodes and

23:53

video chats with me and Janina at

23:55

patreon dot com slash within the wires.

23:58

Also, read our novels set in the within the

24:00

wire's universe. It's called you

24:02

feel it just below the ribs.

24:04

It is available wherever you get your

24:06

books within the wires as part of

24:08

Night Vale presents. Listen to other

24:10

amazing shows at night Vale

24:12

presents dot com. Okay. Our

24:14

time is done. It's

24:16

you time now. Time to

24:18

take a trip. Hit your ride

24:21

on a route to the

24:23

city of Athens commonly

24:25

referred to by locals as Land

24:28

of enchantment. and

24:30

go see their famous landmark,

24:32

the ice cube factory.

24:35

One

24:38

of the most common questions my writing partner Joseph and I

24:40

get asked is, how do you write

24:43

together? My response is usually, you know, that

24:45

scene in ghost where Demi Moore is

24:47

spinning pottery, and then ghost, Patrick

24:49

Swazzy, comes up behind her and guides her

24:51

hands as she closes her eyes and rolls her head

24:53

back onto his shoulder. It's like that

24:55

book the MacBook. That was

24:57

me. Jeffrey Kramer talking about collaboration

24:59

with Joseph Fink on our new podcast to start

25:01

with this. Give it a listen to hear our thoughts

25:03

on the creative process and then we'll help

25:05

you do some creating of your own.

25:07

Fine start with this wherever you

25:09

get your podcast.

25:19

From PRX?