Clara in Washington

by Penny Tangey

  ‘You’ve got the instructions on how to get to Sarah’s apartment?’

  ‘Yes, of course.’ But then I have to check. I feel in the front pocket of my backpack again and the papers are all still there, just like they were the last time I checked.

  I hug Mum and then get on the train. To my surprise, Mum doesn’t wave and walk away. She stands waiting for the train to leave. I wonder if she’ll run along the platform waving a hanky.

  Since I was mugged, Mum has lost some of her confidence that everything will be okay as long as you have a whistle. When I said I wanted to go to New York and might stay in a youth hostel, Mum insisted that I stay with her friend Sarah instead. I don’t mind; I like Sarah and, to be honest, I didn’t really want to stay on my own. I’m still seeing more danger signals than safe ones, and it will be nice to have somewhere to go where I can relax.

  The train starts to pull out of the station. Mum waves and I wave back. She mouths, ‘Have a good time.’

  I say, ‘I will.’

  And then I can’t see her any more. I’m on my own.

  I take out the New York guidebook and look at the map of the subway again. I know which train I need to catch to Sarah’s apartment. On paper it seems quite straightforward, and I’m hoping it will turn out that way.

  I take the envelope from my bag. I had planned to open it at the top of the Empire State Building. That seemed dramatic and momentous. But maybe not everything needs to be full of symbolism. After all, if I don’t get in now I can always apply to transfer after first year. That’s what I told Bethany.

  I rip open the envelope and pull out the sheets of paper. The number jumps out at me straight away.

  I get my iPhone, which Mum bought me to replace my mobile that was stolen. I log on to Facebook. My status is still: Attending my first Anarchist Collective meeting!

  I update it to: I’m going to law school.

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to thank Sophie Hamley, Ali Lavau and everyone at UQP, in particular Kristina Schulz and Meredene Hill, for their support, hard work and excellent suggestions.

  Thanks to Vaya Pashos for reading the manuscript in its early stages and for discussing the plot so enthusiastically with me. Thanks to my family members for their willingness to read my manuscript, attention to detail and knowledgeable insights. I would also like to acknowledge instructive conversations with Melinda Viksne. Finally, thank you to Lincoln Turner who sponsored the gin-well and otherwise supported me while I visited every tourist attraction in Washington, DC.

  First published 2011 by University of Queensland Press

  PO Box 6042, St Lucia, Queensland 4067 Australia

  www.uqp.com.au

  © Penny Tangey 2011

  This book is copyright. Except for private study, research, criticism or reviews, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.

  Typeset in 11/15 pt Bembo by Post Pre-press Group, Brisbane

  Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group

  Ebook produced by Post Pre-press Group, Brisbane

  Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

  National Library of Australia

  Tangey, Penny, 1981-

  Clara in Washington / Penny Tangey.

  1st ed.

  978 0 7022 3887 1 (pbk.)

  978 0 7022 4703 3 (ePub)

  978 0 7022 4702 6 (PDF)

  978 0 7022 4704 0 (Kindle)

  For young adults.

  A823.4

  University of Queensland Press uses papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The logging and manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

  LOVING RICHARD FEYNMAN

  Penny Tangey

  Shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year Award for Older Readers

  Shortlisted for the Western Australian Premier’s Book Award for Young Adults

  Richard Feynman was a Nobel Prize–winning physicist. Catherine is a science-loving fifteen-year-old. Richard helped build the atom bomb. Catherine’s just trying to survive school.

  When your life is falling apart around you, is talking to a dead physicist normal? Catherine thinks so, but it isn’t until her life begins unravelling that she learns who she can really trust.

  I’ve been looking at you while I sit at my desk, and imagining what you were like as a person. In the poster you look like you’re concentrating hard on the machine you’re working on but having fun at the same time. I get that feeling when I’m working on a difficult Maths problem. In the picture your hair is a bit mad, really curly and there’s lots of it. I like it though. In fact, you were pretty cute in 1943. Of course, even then you were far too old for me, probably in your 20s.

  ‘A moving and funny story . . . Richard Feynman is one of my heroes!’ Dr Karl Kruszelnicki

  ‘A delight to read.’ Magpies

  ‘A lot of fun.’ Fiction Focus

  ISBN 978 0 7022 3725 64