FILE_ID2
TIMESTAMPNOV 14, 2016 (AGE 15)
SUBJECTEthel
The Drop Pt.1
Outback childhood · perception · testing reality
Decoded Story
The world, for Ethel, was three colors. The deep blue of the sky, the impossible red of the desert and the living green of the forest. Home was the border between them all. Home was Gran, who was "fast in all directions," Pop, who was "grounded silence" and Ethel could just be Ethel.
It was a life of unspoken understanding. In her lab, Gran would mutter about "polymer decay" and forget her tea, goggles perched on her head. She wasn't "crazy", she just saw connections from all directions at once.
The "stock kids" wanted the moment, the film, the proof. Ethel just wanted to test their perspectives.
Audio Transcript — Lyrics
[START_TRANSCRIPT]
Where the desert meets the forest
Red
Blue
Home
Gran left the gate open
She always does
Bike's warm
Pop moved it
Didn't say anything
Tyre's rotated
Chain cleaned
I didn't do it
No need to say thanks
They know
I know
Gran will be in her lab by now
Window open
Goggles on her head
Talking to herself
About polymer decay
And forgetting her tea again
She's not crazy
Just fast in all directions
I ride the fence line straight
They're ahead
Three of them
Stock kids
Big boots Big bikes
Bigger land
They ride gates and fences
I ride
Just because
Fifteen K out
Five K in
No tracks marked
Just a weird pixel on satellite
where there shouldn't have been
Didn't even look like a fall
But it was
Canopy snaps shut
Track tightens
Ferns stretch over the trail
Air shifts heavy now
One more turn
And we'll see it
I found it last year
Kept it to myself for a while
It's not a cliff
not exactly
It's a bend in the earth
where the stone curves out
drops twenty meters
into a basin wrapped in green
Water falls like glass
If the light's right
One wrong step
And you won't land straight
But if you do
They're filming
They want the dive
They want the moment
I don't say where from
I just stop!
They know what that means
Here we go!