Swallow the Air: 13. Mapping Waterglass Summary & Analysis

May buys hot chips at a dusty rest stop before setting out to hitchhike; she can see a summer storm in the distance. Soon, a man in a pickup truck named Gary offers her a ride toward Lake Cowal, the lake she’s always heard about from Mum. He tells her about his pregnant wife and plays Van Morrison tapes; May loves the song “Brown Eyed Girl,” which reminds her of sitting in the car and watching her mother drive on the road along the sea. Mum always took her to the ocean so that she could “show” her stories about the animals, instead of just telling them.

As they drive through the flat land, dotted with small towns, Gary complains that people never leave places like these. Soon, they’re approaching Lake Cowal and Gary gives May his number, telling her that he and his wife would be happy to have her if she ever needs a place to stay. May thanks him but says she wants to stay by the water; she’s full of “daydreams of Windradyne.”

As they draw near to the town, Gary offhandedly asks May if she knows about the mining compound. Soon, she sees that a large area is enclosed in barbed-wire fence with a mining company banner strung along it. Gary says that there’s a lot of money to be made here and no one can stop it, not even “the black fellas out there at the blockade.” May asks why there’s no water in the lake, and Gary laughs, saying it’s been dry since he was a child.

May gets out of the car and walks to the dusty edge of the lake. All the stories Mum told her centered around this place, “where all Wiradjuri would stop to drink.” The lake represents the “footprints of your ancestors,” Mum said. May touches the banner and then watches it fade away in the twilight, thinking of the Van Morrison song she heard in the car.