Clara Street, Newtown on Wednesday, 13 May 2020

There are new posters everywhere in Newtown and surrounding areas listing telephone numbers to ring for health advice, mental health and domestic violence. They are from the Newtown Green MP Jenny Leong. Next to those on the pole at the beginning of Clara Street is another lost cat notice. I think it’s about the same cat as from the poster in Eve Street. Clara Street has a few colourful murals and graffiti. On one end are big question marks painted on the wall. I interpret these as symbolic of our times, though they probably were there before.

At the end of the street, a slim, elegant cat tiptoes across the pavement. It has a collar with a bell that jingles at every step. I decide it must be female and wonder if she is the lost one, but she is already gone. After a moment, she reappears, racing, almost flying at high speed, chased by an ordinary-looking house and garden variety cat.

Clinging to a wooden fence, a tangle of strings, torn fabric, and dry branches of a vine remind me of the network of streets I am walking through on my discoveries. Nearby I read “Welcome home, Milly” on a garden gate. An odd pair of graffiti creatures look disapprovingly at a red piece of cloth dangling in a tree.