Sydney was big and loud and crowded. People swarmed like ants through the streets of the central business district. Trying to get a taxi was a challenge that sorely tested Alexander’s patience. Had he known where he was going he’d have taken a bus, but even they were jam-packed.
The publisher’s office was modern and minimalist. The floors were white tiles. The walls were another shade of white. Palms with luxuriant foliage stood in white pots. New age music, pipes accompanied by the wind, played unobtrusively in the background. He approached the dark girl sitting at the white reception desk.
“Lucky you’re not white or I mightn’t have found you,” he said before instantly wanting to take a pair of scissors and cut his tongue out.
The receptionist, not Aboriginal, probably African, looked
