The Hungarian Uprising..

A chest of drawers in the lounge room where we keep good tablecloths and cutlery is also the place where a Time-Life magazine is stored. It contains photographs taken after the Russians invaded Hungary in 1956. Dad has brought the magazine home from the Office and told us we’re not to look at it. Only Mum can see it. He turns the pages over for her as though she were a child needing supervision. I hear him say "Eileen, this is what Communism is." Her face changes colour and she looks as if she’s going to cry.

A week later I open the drawer, find the magazine and take it to my room. In Hungary there are streets full of tanks, broken buildings and rubble. Soldiers with guns. Dead people lying on doorsteps. Bodies with arms and legs missing. Children wandering by themselves. Some pictures show mothers trying to climb into graves and fathers wiping their eyes. The men are in coarse jackets and the women are wrapped in shawls.

In Hungary the sun doesn’t shine.

These pictures show me what will happen if the Chinese or the Russians take over Australia. The Commos are the shadowy enemies looking for the opportunity to invade the country somewhere up North. Dad and the others in the Movement work hard each day to keep them out.

I put the magazine back under the white tablecloths and shut the drawer as tightly as I can.