Every afternoon at 4pm, at the St Lucia and Taringa roundabout, a man sits on his balcony and waves at everyone who passes by.
asserted
who → sit → everyone
His name is Franky, and the restaurant beneath him, Franky’s, has been closed for as long as I’ve lived here.
asserted
I → live → him
I’m not quite sure it ever opened.
asserted
it → ’m → ?
Franky is one of St Lucia’s colourful local celebrities, and the sight of him up on his porch with his afternoon drink is one I got to know well while living at Union College at the University of Queensland.
asserted
I → get → Queensland
Like most at college, I was not from Brisbane, and I picked St Lucia as my base camp for four years without knowing how grateful I’d be that I did.
asserted
I → pick → years
Living and studying at UQ meant my whole world existed inside a one-kilometre radius.
asserted
world → live → radius
Everyone talks about the European walkable city as if it only exists in Paris or Berlin or Amsterdam.
asserted
it → talk → Paris
But I found it in a suburb built on hills, where the only thing standing between me and the gym was a steep walk home.
asserted
thing → find → me
St Lucia’s two halves are easy to map.
asserted
halves → map → ?
On the other, the St Lucia Golf Links and the leafy green streets around it, where people golf, marry and settle into middle age.
asserted
people → golf → age
But even the fairways weren’t off limits to us: we held college balls at The Hillstone, ran along its paths, and took our first dates on picnics on its grass.
asserted
we → hold → grass
If St Lucia is a suburb consisting of two generations then Hawken Drive Village is where the two intersect.
asserted
two → consist → generations
You have college kids buying cartons of Great Northern from Liquorland, and Ironside State School parents buying steak and macadamia milk from the IGA.
asserted
parents → have → IGA
My first-ever job was at A Salt & Battery Fish & Chips, located in the “Ville”, as everyone called it.
asserted
everyone → locate → it
And one of my housemates had the shortest commute in Brisbane: a three-minute walk down the road where she opened Yonder Espresso at 5am.
asserted
she → have → am
Then the college kids go home for summer, and the suburb finally exhales.
asserted
suburb → go → summer
For three years I served coffee to students who couldn’t really afford a triple-shot coffee but needed one, then lecturers at lunch who could.
uncertain
who → serve → lunch
By then, most of my social circle worked and lived in St Lucia.
asserted
most → work → Lucia
I knew the bartenders at the uni bar, The Redroom, and the baristas at If You Say So and Saint Lucy.
asserted
You → know → Say
I don’t think I ever paid full price for an oat cappuccino or a pint of Stone & Wood in those four years of my degree.
asserted
I → think → degree
My suburb is a bubble you never had to leave.
asserted
you → have → ?
Then the 2022 floods made it an island.
asserted
it → make → ?
At first, it felt like a snow day: classes were cancelled, and most of us stayed in, watching movies, playing games and drinking, waiting it out.
asserted
most → feel → it
The Munro Soccer Fields became a mini-lake with kayakers and stand-up paddleboarders floating gracefully over the goalposts.
asserted
kayakers → become → goalposts
With catering staff cut off by the floods, students stepped up to cook and serve dinner for all 300 of us.
asserted
students → cut → us
The menu was the same comforting college classic: frozen veggies steamed in bulk, and tray after tray of chicken parmis popped into the oven.
asserted
menu → steam → oven
But the bubble popped on Coleridge Street when we saw cars sitting underwater, and ground-floor neighbours who had lost everything.
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who → pop → everything
We joined the community clean-up, hosing out garages and salvaging belongings.
asserted
We → join → belongings
I recall one elderly man whose garage was full of random memorabilia.
asserted
garage → recall → memorabilia
His eyes went misty as we played with his old cowboy bullwhip; I think it had been years since anyone had.
asserted
anyone → go → bullwhip
Moving from Union College into my first sharehouse was a hungover blur.
asserted
Moving → move → sharehouse
My three friends and I hauled our things onto Hawken Drive and into a spacious house with front and backyards, and a sunroom that became the centre of our lives.
asserted
that → haul → lives
We ate, cooked and hosted parties, always coming and going through our weird blue and off-yellow kitchen.
asserted
We → eat → blue
The grotty sharehouses of 19 and 20-year-olds are only a few streets from people who’ve owned their homes for decades.
asserted
who → own → decades
We walked dogs, house-sat and cleaned for the wealthy families nearby.
asserted
We → walk → families
One mansion paid so well that all three of us went shoe shopping the next day.
asserted
three → pay → shopping
Two years into living in our sharehouse, we learnt our landlord was the family in the mansion next door.
asserted
landlord → live → door
The two sides of the suburb that never seemed to meet had been neighbours the whole time.
asserted
that → seem → suburb
He’s still at the roundabout, every day at 4pm, with seemingly all the time in the world.
asserted
He → ’ → world
Families on the after-school pick-up wave to him.
asserted
Families → wave → him
…and 2 more, not listed.
The Aporia
