synopsis of
Butterfly Dreaming
(yet to be published)

Jesus Christ, there’s this lad, ALBERT his name is, he wants to kill his father. An Indian fortune teller foretells he will. Albert’s 17, English, living in Kuala Lumpur (KL) in 1957.

Then there's this true-crime writer, HAYNES, his publisher sends him from London to write Albert’s story. He interviews Albert and also HONG, Albert's Chinese mate, and CATHERINE, his Aussie girlfriend. Albert’s friends deny he's told them he wants to kill his father. Hong insists he and Albert never met an Indian seer. Their accounts contradict Albert’s at every turn. The more Haynes digs into the affair, the more baffling things get. In the end he finds out much of what Hong and Catherine tell him have been lies. He can’t rely on their testimonies. Who the hell’s telling the truth and who the hell isn’t, he wonders.

After the carry-on with the soothsayer, you know what, Albert comes down with the dreaded lurgy. He has nightmares of his mother being burnt alive, his younger brother dead in his coffin and an old geezer called JUDGE BAO, dead for over four hundred years, chasing him. This old fart also appears to him when he’s awake. The WHITE RABBIT from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland leads him into the jungle to watch fish falling from the sky. He meets K (KAFKA). He’s been dead for yonks, this K, for goodness sake. He also sees and talks to a childhood imaginary friend, COLONEL GARRANEMO. To top it all off, he hears a voice (THE VOICE), for crying out loud.

When JACK, Albert’s father, finds out Albert’s disobeyed him by going into the jungle, he belts him and rubs raw chilli on his lips. That night, fed-up with his father’s constant physical abuse, sexual too (when he was little) and his father’s broken promises, Albert sets out to shoot his dad. At the last minute he changes his mind.

Guilt, it chews Albert up. Aged five, he causes the fire that kills his mother. He gets his wish that his two-year-old brother croak. With his mum dead, his dad, now remarried, takes him to live with his gran and pops in London. When twelve, Albert rejoins his father in KL. His dad promises him Christmas with his grandparents in ’57 and he can’t wait, the impatient git.

His father’s murdered. Albert’s accused of the killing. He’s brought to trial. Judge Bao’s the judge. The White Rabbit’s the court clerk. K’s the defence counsel. Albert’s set free. A local lad’s claimed responsibility. It’s only a dream but it’s so real that next day Albert's shocked to see his dad alive. They quarrel. His father welshes on his Christmas promise. Jesus Christ, does this make Albert mad! The Voice eggs him on. That night he kills his drunken father. With an axe.

Haynes can’t figure out what drives Albert. Maybe the lad’s mad. He finds it awfully difficult to swallow Albert’s story especially the supernatural bits. Christ, if there’s one thing Haynes can’t stomach, it’s all this paranormal hocus-pocus.

On his last day in KL, Haynes smells his father's aftershave. He’s been feeling guilty for being rotten to his dad when growing up. Then his dead father appears. Haynes's certain it’s a dream. In London, at his father’s grave, he smells the scent again. Damn it, his father did appear to him in KL. He ponders on the distinction between reality and dreams, literal truth and fictional truth, history and myths. But there’s one thing he’s bloody sure of though: never in a million years will he believe Albert sees and talks to dead people, I can tell you that.