Friday, September 21, 2007

Coincidence Story

I'm inspired by lovely button to share a coincidence story, I'll try and keep it short. 1985: When I first came to Sydney I lived in a little worker's cottage in Redfern with my dear friend Brad. We had some friends living in a large share house in Surry Hills, Brad befriended a girl who had just moved in, and we both got to know her, I'll call her D for the purpose of this story. D came with a harrowing story, she had fled a house in Blank St Chippendale that she was sharing with a girlfriend, they had been badly bashed and raped by a group of rampaging men, the men had terrorised the whole st, starting at one end and just working their way down, they cut all the power and phone lines. Some people kind of doubted the severity of the story, but I knew she had been deeply traumatised, I just couldn't imagine the terror. We lost touch after a couple of years, her story had a profound effect on me and I never forgot it. 2000: I was working for a CIO of a large IT Dept in a big organisation, a bossy little man with a passion for property developing. One day we were driving out to Parramatta to over see things out there, I was staring out the window, wondering what to have for lunch, when he said "Did I ever tell you about my first investment property Claire" "I don't think you have" I said "it was in 1985, in Blank St Chippendale, and I rented it out at first unrenovated, one day I got a call from the Real Estate Agent to go down and meet the tenants as they wanted to end the lease. When I got there, the place had been ransacked, a total mess, no power, even the light globes were smashed, the 2 girls who had leased it were there, and they were all bruised up - awful, turns out the night before a gang of islanders had rampaged down the street, unbelievably they managed to ransack the place and cause so much havoc before the police had a chance to stop them". He had just told me D's story, and she was his tenant. I stared out he window, and thought, how bizarre to hear the story from the victim 15 years earlier, and to be hearing again from a Landlord's perspective, it gave me chills.

6 comments:

Victoria said...

Both of those stories are very chilling, the event and the 15 years later retelling of the event. That certainly is a conincidence.

Victoria said...

Excuse terrible spelling, youngest son is asking me for food.

Sherrin said...

whoah. that is a freaky coincidence. Did you tell him you knew one of the girls?

Anonymous said...

Wow that is quite creepy - i always think that when those kinds of things happen that there is a hidden message somewhere.....Those poor girls.

Cherryskin said...

Hmmm, that gave me chills to read about it. I wonder how D is now.

emma said...

Amazing story Claire. I should've remembered to credit Angela for inspiring me to post my coincidence story. Did you ever read the Celestine Prophecy? Wasn't that all about amazing coincidences? Obviously I can't exactly remember.