Far away from the ocean, Gerald finds a dead water bird that reminds him of his childhood town. His strange magnetic imbalance means that he has difficulty navigating, and magnetic instruments such as watches stop working around him, leaving him adrift in space and time and unable to hold down a job.
Feeling a kinship with the lost bird, he preserves its corpse and brings it to first a vet, then a university ornithologist to identify it. It turns out to be an Arctic tern. Gerald decides to have it preserved, and finds himself appreciating his life outside the clutches of space and time for the first time.
Writing Disability in Australia:
Type of disability | Unknown magnetic imbalance that causes him to have poor sense of direction and be unable to use magnetic objects. |
Type of character | Primary. |
Point of view | Third person. |
Note: This work uses disability as a metaphorical note or literary device. A character has a strange magnetic imbalance that poses significant difficulties to his daily life.