The Year Nick McGowan Came to Stay by Rebecca Sparrow

Author:Rebecca Sparrow
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: University of Queensland Press
Published: 2013-07-04T04:00:00+00:00

‘Hello?’ I walk out of the kitchen and into the lounge. ‘Anyone home?’

It’s one-thirty p.m. and the house is completely empty.

I kick off my school shoes and pad barefoot into the kitchen, on the hunt for some food. There’s a jar of almond bread on the kitchen bench, with a note from my mother sticky-taped to the lid. I pull it off. She wants me to bring the washing in off the line. I sigh. The fact that I’m in Year 12 and have an extraordinary amount of work to do seems to be lost on everyone these days. I grab three pieces of almond bread and wonder where Nick McGowan is right now. Wonder what he’s doing. And that’s when I spot him. Through the kitchen window. Barefoot in his grey school shorts, with his blue-and-maroon school shirt unbuttoned and hanging out, Nick McGowan is cleaning our pool. I watch him deftly manoeuvre the long, metallic pole of the scoop through the water, like some kind of Venetian gondolier.

‘What are you doing?’

He looks up, over the top of his sunglasses and sees me standing now at the top of the steps, which lead down to the pool. I notice that his blond curls look almost white in the summer heat.

‘The pool was dirty.’

‘So?’

‘So I decided to clean it.’

‘Where were you today?’

‘At school.’

‘No you weren’t.’

‘Okay, Rachel, so I wasn’t. Big deal.’ He goes back to concentrating on netting more leaves and twigs from the water’s surface, not looking at me when he speaks. ‘I was out enjoying this beautiful, sunny day while you and everyone else . . .’ He pauses as he lifts the scoop out of the water, shakes the captured leaves and twigs onto the grass and then returns the net to the water ‘. . . were stuck indoors at desks learning stuff that you’ll most likely never use again. You’ll never get this day back. It’s another day you’ve wasted.’

‘I’ve wasted? You’re on drugs. So is this what you’re gonna do now? Tiptoe through the tulips instead of going to school?’

He pauses, and looks into the distance. ‘Maybe.’

I make a snorting sound in disgust.

‘Why do you even care?’ He looks directly at me, eyebrows raised.

‘I don’t. I don’t care what you do. What I care about is when Mrs Ramsay comes and finds me to ask where you are. “Is Nick home sick today, Rachel? It’s just that he hasn’t shown up to any of his classes.”’

‘Ahhh.’ He continues to skim the water’s surface with the pool scoop, taking a few small steps to the left as his negotiates the far back corner.

‘Yes, ahhh. Apparently, idiot-head, you had an appointment to see her today. If you’re going to start wagging class, try not to make it on days when the school counsellor is expecting to see you in her office.’

I turn to walk back up to the house.

He calls out, ‘What did you tell her?’

But I keep walking.

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