He was sitting on the bench just inside the front doors of the Community Health Centre. His left arm was in a sling and his sweater looked like it was heavily padded at the shoulder. Propped beside him was a gnarled, polished walking stick. He looked straight at me as I passed so I nodded and said, 'Gooday.'
'Morning, mate,' he said.
The automatic doors began to slide smoothly open as I approached, but just as I was about to step through he called out, 'You wouldn't be going to Queenscliff, mate, would you?'
'Sorry, no. I'm going the other way.'
'No worries,' he said. We smiled at each other.
As I walked across the car park I reflected on my instant reply. Why couldn't I go to Queenscliff? It was about a ten-minute drive and I had plenty of time.
I went back into the foyer. 'Look, I could take you to Queenscliff if you ...'
His face lit up. He wasn't waiting for anyone in particular, just hoping for a lift.
'Can't drive, mate, y'see. The quack won't let me. Buggered the shoulder, broke the arm as well.'
He struggled to his feet, leaning his good arm on the stick. He was tall and lean, an old man, but a maverick mop of white hair and a lively ironic look to him made it very difficult to guess just how old.
'I reckon I'd manage to drive actually, but the coppers might take a dim view. So I just sit here each time, after I've seen the man, until I can cadge a ride. He reckons I've only got to come twice more.'
My ute was full of tools and assorted junk. When I had cleared the front seat for him, he folded his long frame in and we combined our efforts to arrange his seat belt around the sling.
'Name's Alan,' he said.
'Brian.' We shook hands and then we were off to Queenscliff.
'Well, it was a strange business,' he said in answer to my inevitable question about how he had come by his injuries. 'I'm a professional fisherman,' he said. 'Couta. I've fished the entire South Australian and Victorian coast line for barracouta for 70 years. I turn 90 next week.'
The 'strange business' happened on his boat, the Harriet. 'We weren't even at sea. Me and Albie were just cutting up some bait when — from what he tells me — my eyes just went up into me head