The first three true stories in a series of childhood experiences by the author of true crime series "Underbelly", Kidstuff I, II and III begin at the beginning, with earliest memories of a dysfunctional family life on the road with a violent alcoholic driven by his own demons.
"I sit awkwardly upon the parkland lawn, leaning first this way, then that; a postnatal drunkard. The air crackles with dry, crisp clarity. There is singing – no – it’s birdsong. Dewdrops slither along grass-blade edges, irreducible, refracting light and memory.
In this moment, below me all is green, above me all is blue, and around me a widening ocean of white is artfully animated by my mother’s hands as she teases calico cloth over coarse kikuyu grass. I hear her laughter, and I am content. She orbits me as does the moon, gazing upon me, pale radiant face always facing mine until she disappears from sight behind me, lost to my dark side.
And a stranger appears in her place."
