Please do not impersonate the actor’s representation of the below character in the film or television version.
THE DARKSIDE
Original Story Written By Naomi Hicks
NAOMI
When I was around about 28 years of age, um.. I lived just around the corner from where I’m living now at O’Sullivan’s Beach. And um… uh a friend of mine rang me up and wanted me to come over and see her. And I started driving over there, and um.. I think, with this story, like I was stoned. I was actually stoned, and cruising from there to my mate’s house. And on my way to my mate’s house, I just…the whole car just went really cold, and I just felt really in an anxiety sort of space. And… I dunno, all of a sudden, I just like, I looked in the rear vision of the mirror, and she’d showed herself. And I just started freaking out. Cause I’m thinking… I’m stoned – this is bullshit. I’m hallucinating, like this isn’t something – like…this is crap, you know. So um.. I pulled into a friend’s house halfway through, um… cause I was freaking out. And I just stayed there, and I just told her what I’d witnessed. And I was like, ‘nah it’s probably cause I’m stoned’. And she was like, ‘These things happen when you’re stoned, and when you’re not stoned’, and things like that. And um… I sat there for a good couple of hours until I, til I was right, until I was straight and stuff. And then I jumped back in the car and I went to drive off to the other person’s house, and she revealed herself again. And I was like, ‘what the hell’s going on? Like…is this real? Like – what the hell’. And she um… Nanna just turned around and said, ‘You know, you don’t need to be doing this’, cause like, I was on a really bad road. So she said to me, you know, ‘I’m always here for you’, cause when she was gone it was really…really hard to deal with my life, because she was my rock. And my foundation. And um… she was always there to help me sort things out with my parents and stuff like that. So um…so within that moment, it was just like, ‘I’m always here for you. If you ever need me, and you need a… all you need to do is ask and I’ll support you. And sometimes you’ll see me, and sometimes you won’t’. So that was my road to healing, I guess. It was my door open. It was my way of understanding that they do exist on the other space. And um… that I’m never alone and that they always with me. That they actually helped me understand death and the greater space… Specially for Aboriginal communities – like loss and grief.