The Timor Man by Kerry B. Collison Page B

summer he had the good fortune to spend his holidays in the country at the invitation of another boarding student. He had enjoyed every moment. The host family had gone out of their way to treat him as they would one of their own and in the first week he had already mastered the basics of horse riding and sheep mustering. He had not known until some years later that the two-month holiday had been arranged by his parents. Apparently they had been invited to Banff Springs for the fabulous New Year’s Eve formal celebrations and his mother had insisted that she and her husband attend without their child.
    Stephen believed that his mother, having never been pregnant prior to his own conception, decided to become so just once for the experience and, once he was born, had decided also that it was not something one should repeat.
    He had completed his secondary education without being able to remember even one occasion when either parent attended a prize award evening held by the school. Perhaps, he determined, that was one of the reasons he was not really motivated enough to win, or compete, as there was nobody to encourage his success or applaud his efforts.
    University had, at first, been just as unstimulating as school but before the end of his first year he discovered that easy sexual conquests were available to all and he was determined to have his share. This new found confidence with the opposite sex nearly brought about an early end to his tertiary studies.
    During the second semester of the following year he was caught in a scandal and his father was obliged to intercede on his behalf in what could have resulted in his premature and permanent departure from the campus. Fortunately the Dean of Students’ over endowed and flirtatious wife admitted encouraging his advances and, in the interests of the college and with a little outside pressure, the matter was dropped. Stephen did, however, move from Melbourne to a Sydney campus.
    Having completed his formal education at one of the state’s finest colleges he felt there was not a great deal left for him to do in the academic sector. His life became directionless. He drifted through the long hot summer holidays surfing, reading and generally just lazily filling in the days alone. His parents, when their complicated schedules permitted, arranged never ending eating and drinking marathons around their pool with stockbrokers, lawyers and what seemed to be an endless list of interstate associates. Stephen should find something to do, they urged.
    It was towards the end of February, the summer heat having reached its zenith, when his mother hosted one such reception in their home. Stephen had attempted to avoid attending the party but his mother’s insistence obliged him to do so.
    It was at this gathering that he first met Mr John Anderson. During the course of the afternoon, as he strolled around the pool stopping occasionally to speak to his parents’ guests, he had observed his mother standing close to this charismatic and handsome man. She had called Stephen over to introduce them. He wondered had his father been present, would he have been concerned with the obvious attention his mother lavished on the popular guest, or would his reaction have been one of customary complacency.
    Twice Coleman had the opportunity to engage the tall suntanned man in intelligent non-party conversation and to his pleasant surprise, Anderson did not patronise him nor did he avoid conversing with the younger man. They had also discussed the ski slopes of the Snowy Mountains. Stephen had developed his winter skills as a teenager whilst visiting Smiggins and Perisher and both men related their own stories of how they’d had near disasters on those runs, and the exhilaration of speeding down the snow covered slopes alone, challenging the mountain and the elements.
    When Anderson had politely inquired as to Stephen’s future plans and had discovered that the young man was not