登陆注册
15468300000168

第168章 FIVE 1938-1953 FEE(31)

"The year before last the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization started an experimental program in Victoria, infecting rabbits with this virus thing they'd bred. I'm not sure what a virus is, except I think it's a sort of germ. Anyway, they called theirs the myxomatosis virus. At first it didn't seem to spread too well, though what bunnies caught it all died. But about a year after the experimental infection it began to spread like wildfire, they think mosquito-borne, but something to do with saffron thistle as well. And the bunnies have died in millions and millions ever since, it's just wiped them out. You'll sometimes see a few sickies around with huge lumps all over their faces, very ugly-looking things. But it's a marvelous piece of work, Ralph, it really is. Nothing else can catch myxomatosis, even close relatives. So thanks to the blokes at the CSIRO, the rabbit plague is no more."

Cardinal Ralph stared at Frank. "Do you realize what it is, Frank? Do you?" Poor Frank shook his head, wishing everyone would let him retreat into anonymity.

"Mass-scale biological warfare. I wonder does the rest of the world know that right here in Australia be tween 1949 and 1952 a virus war was waged against a population of trillions upon trillions, and succeeded in obliterating it? Well! It's feasible, isn't it? Not simply yellow journalism at all, but scientific fact. They may as well bury their atom bombs and hydrogen bombs. I know it had to be done, it was absolutely necessary, and it's probably the world's most unsung major scientific achievement. But it's terrifying, too."

Dane had been following the conversation closely. "Biological warfare? I've never heard of it. What is it exactly, Ralph?"

"The words are new, Dane, but I'm a papal diplomat and the pity of it is that I must keep abreast of words like "biological warfare." In a nutshell, the term means myxomatosis. Breeding a germ capable of specifically killing and maiming only one kind of living being."

Quite unselfconsciously Dane made the Sign of the Cross, and leaned back against Ralph de Bricassart's knees. "We had better pray, hadn't we?" The Cardinal looked down on his fair head, smiling.

That eventually Frank managed to fit into Drogheda life at all was thanks to Fee, who in the face of stiff male Cleary opposition continued to act as if her oldest son had been gone but a short while, and had never brought disgrace on his family or bitterly hurt his mother. Quietly and inconspicuously she slipped him into the niche he seemed to want to occupy, removed from her other sons; nor did she encourage him to regain some of the vitality of other days. For it had all gone; she had known it the moment he looked at her on the Gilly station platform. Swallowed up by an existence the nature of which he refused to discuss with her. The most she could do for him was to make him as happy as possible, and surely the way to do that was to accept the now Frank as the always Frank.

There was no question of his working the paddocks, for his brothers didn't want him, nor did he want a kind of life he had always hated. The sight of growing things pleased him, so Fee put him to potter in the homestead gardens, left him in peace. And gradually the Cleary men grew used to having Frank back in the family bosom, began to understand that the threat Frank used to represent to their own welfare was quite empty.

Nothing would ever change what their mother felt for him, it didn't matter whether he was in jail or on Drogheda, she would still feel it. The important thing was that to have him on Drogheda made her happy. He didn't intrude upon their lives, he was no more or no less than always. Yet for Fee it wasn't a joy to have Frank home again; how could it be? Seeing him every day was simply a different kind of sorrow from not being able to see him at all. The terrible grief of having to witness a ruined life, a ruined man. Who was her most beloved son, and must have endured agonies beyond her imagination.

One day after Frank had been home about six months, Meggie came into the drawing room to find her mother sitting looking through the big windows to where Frank was clipping the great bank of roses alongside the drive. She turned away, and something in her calmly arranged face sent Meggie's hands up to her heart.

"Oh, Mum!" she said helplessly.

Fee looked at her, shook her head and smiled. "It doesn't matter, Meggie," she said.

"If only there was something I could do!"

"There is. Just carry on the way you have been. I'm very grateful. You've become an ally."

同类推荐
  • 冥报记

    冥报记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 大乘稻芉经随听疏决

    大乘稻芉经随听疏决

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 瑶溪集

    瑶溪集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 沙弥十戒威仪录要

    沙弥十戒威仪录要

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 如意轮菩萨观门义注秘诀

    如意轮菩萨观门义注秘诀

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 万界霸皇

    万界霸皇

    武者一怒山河震,王者一怒天地惊,皇者一怒苍生灭。玄幻界主女婿,第一青年高手林逸,骤然陨落。莫欺少年穷,莫道少年傻,林逸一朝重生,天赋冠绝天下,得无上道统,修逆天神通,万界无敌。斩强者,灭王者,诛皇者,敢将岳父拉下马!
  • 表现出众的能力(青少年励志成长丛书)

    表现出众的能力(青少年励志成长丛书)

    毛泽东在《赠父诗》中写道:“孩儿立志出乡关,学不成名誓不还。埋骨何须桑梓地,人生无处不青山。”这首诗可以说是少年毛泽东走出乡关、走向外面世界的宣言书,表明了他胸怀天下、志在四方的远大抱负。十三岁后,知识渐开,物欲既染,烦恼增多,心逸情泳,故真性渐隐,记性渐泯,然性向显发,崇效楷范,悟性转强。少年启养心志,正宜此时。志向和理想是我们生活中的导航塔和航标灯,指引我们通往想要去的地方,避免迷失自我,迷失方向。
  • 妖姬乱世

    妖姬乱世

    她曾经傻傻地对自己多年的患难之交暗生情愫,长大后才知晓爱情是可遇不可求。当他可以为了自己想要的东西亲手将匕首刺入她的心口,她带着遗憾,带着恨意,决然地跳下了万丈深崖,只望若能重来,能够找到一个对自己真正好的人。可能上天怜悯她,如她所愿,她来到了异世,当废材被隐藏起来的潜能瞬间激发,这原本所谓的“太平盛世”,又会因为她的崛起而激起怎样的轩然大波呢?曾经,她将自己的爱许错了人,然今生,她愿意再去相信一次,她前方的旅途,会有一个人在等待着她,同样也值得她心甘情愿地去等待,去付出……
  • 屠魔编年史

    屠魔编年史

    幽灵、残魂、兽族、魔族纵横,古世纪人类的生存并非上天的眷顾;牧师,守护者,猎魔人,甚至是古籍预言书中所描绘到的屠魔后裔,种种的存在也是这个平衡世界的一种制衡手段……
  • 凶神鬼煞

    凶神鬼煞

    行走在夜幕世界,人间江湖,以剑术与夜游人的力量,成就无上霸主
  • 极道修仙传

    极道修仙传

    逍遥一世,是一剑一琴的牵绊。转魂入世,是重归巅峰的开始。这一次,他不会再对任何人为情所痴。这一世,他将站在世界之巅睥睨天下。这一生,他要守住所有思念参悟极道。他用时光的年轮来度量自己的脚步。他只手一剑划破势力的虚伪和贪婪。他仰天一啸命运之门为之撼动打开。他是沐风,是你精神的向导者。他将唤醒,唤醒你曾经的炙热。你也是他,一样是世界的王者。独步乾坤,览猎凌云之志。笑问苍穹,何时尊我众生?不畏白练遮目,不念旧情荒芜。
  • 无限地狱轮回

    无限地狱轮回

    此账号与要你命三千为同一人拥有,如《无限志》签约立即删除本小说。这里是如地狱般深沉的轮回世界,只有强者才能站立的轮回世界。这里也是满足一切欲望的天堂,只要你有足够的支线任务和奖励点。一切的一切都从一念之间,点击电脑屏幕前的“YES”开始,后悔?懊恼?在恐惧中死亡?还是拼命挣扎,变强,存活在轮回世界中?《魔戒》五军之战,如神一般强大的崔尔女王......《地狱神探2》如何将死神之子赶回地狱?.......一切的一切尽在无限地狱轮回之中......
  • 字符师

    字符师

    我不在乎那天命,也不在乎生死轮回,我只知道若我在乎的人受到了伤害,我便让那天地,便让那众生六道,都来陪葬!!我没有信仰,如果有,那这就是我所背负的正义!
  • 英雄联盟之最强冠军

    英雄联盟之最强冠军

    身为高分段路人玩家的叶琛因为年龄过大,无缘职业梦想。可上天突然给了他一次重新再来的机会。叶琛本来只是想要一圆职业梦想而已。可他却发现自己好像不是简单的重生而已,于是,叶琛无意中就成了英雄联盟史上的一个神话……
  • 青鸟记

    青鸟记

    青丘有奇鸟,自言独见尔。上古时期,一场屠仙之战沉落了蓬莱古山,从此仙境难寻,蓬莱无路。多少年后,一位神秘少年踏出祖地,追随青鸟只为寻找那虚无缥缈的真相。回首凡尘,一忘梦千年。一曲离殇,叹繁华落尽,浮生终究被造物弄了人。雾里寻青鸟,这是梦开始的地方,也是梦结束的地方。这是一本全新的玄幻小说,一段热血沸腾的逆天传奇,望支持!