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for a long time i was a sleep walker. i remember this. we were in the mining town of kambalda. we were new and it was my first day of school. My mother took me to the school and dropped me off and the girl who was my buddy for the day said she was in grade 1 too and that she would bring me home when her mum picked her up. the thing was that after my mother had left, i realised there were two grade 1s. i had a good day until after school when i went to find my new friend. i couldn’t find her anywhere so i started walking. i headed up a big hill and kept walking, nothing seemed familiar. this memory is a vivid one for me, the smell of the gum trees and the crows cawing. on top of the hill i found an adventure playground. i stayed and played for a while, climbing on the logs and swinging through the tyre swings. after a while it was getting late and i kept walking. i came down the other side of the hill, and saw our new house. i kept this exploration to myself.

in this town i would walk in my sleep at night time. my parents would find me in strange places. at the foot of their bed. in the middle of their dinner parties i would make entrances gibbering and gesturing, sleep talking. One night i was missing from my bed and in a panic my mother threw open to front door to find me, curled up asleep on the front verandah. the neighbour said i’d been knocking on doors but they thought nothing of it.

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