The Year Nick McGowan Came to Stay

by Rebecca Sparrow

  ‘Who was that? He was totally hot.’ I turn and see Vivian Woo emptying the restaurant bin. ‘And why’d he give you washing-up gloves?’

  I look at the gloves, smile to myself and say, ‘It’s a private joke between Nick and me. You wouldn’t understand.’

  Rumours started going around again about Nick McGowan pretty much as soon as he left our school that March. Rumours that my parents had found drugs in his room. Rumours that Nick and I had been caught having sex by the pool. Rumours that he was on ‘suicide-watch’ in a funny farm in Rockhampton.

  The truth is that Nick left Brisbane that day and started the following week as a weekly boarder at St Brendan’s in Yeppoon. Close enough so that he could go home to Middlemount on weekends, far enough away that he didn’t have to sit through Sam’s daily ballet concerts in her backyard.

  He never did change his mind about not wanting to be a doctor. Nick McGowan decided he wanted to be a chef instead and maybe open his own restaurant one day. A restaurant that specialises in lasagne and never puts less than three slices of beetroot on a hamburger. So these days, while I’m still battling first-year uni nerves and trying to navigate my way around campus, Nick’s training as an apprentice chef for a guy called Mario in a little Italian café on Merthyr Road in New Farm. Which is all well and good, but just yesterday I met him at Dooleys Hotel and had to take the pool cue out of his hand, reminding him that he’d promised to make me dinner. After he shouted me a beer. We still debate the role of beetroot on a hamburger.

  Nick McGowan only came to stay with my family for a few weeks in 1989, but it was enough time for me to realise that sometimes change is a good thing. That when you’re looking for the truth it’s always better to go to the source. That life isn’t always better with a Party Hostess crown on your head.

  And that the best free feeling in the world is when you find a new friend who you know you’ll have with you for the rest of your life.

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks to Mum, Dad, Rob, Sonja, Benjamin, Emily and Buster, Nic, Kat, Katie, Steph, AB, Shaun, Senta and Jason, Mandy, Marty and Leanne, Tads, Melissa and Damo, Judy, Joshua Littler and Emma Littler, Sharon Marsh and David Camplin, Anthea and Miranda, Keith Stanley and Flight Centre for assisting with my trip to New York, and Arts Queensland who provided me with a grant to write this novel, Frances Whiting, Kim Wilkins, Nick Earls, Catherine Drayton and ‘The Sharons’ (who provided unintentional comic relief on the netball court each week).

  Three cheers for my UQP family: Greg Bain, Taressa Brennan, Eliza Kennedy, Rob Cullinan, Simone Bird, Leonie Tyle, Christina Pagliaro, Kate Barry (for another outstanding cover) and – most of all – my publisher, the fabulous (and patient) Madonna Duffy, who cared just as much about my happiness and well-being as she did about deadlines. Eternal gratitude to my editor Rachel Scully who shone the torch when I was stumbling around in the dark. Rachel, this is a better story because of you.

  And finally, thanks to Brad – for the consistently fabulous Sang Choy Bow, for telling me how to beat his serve on the tennis court after that fourth ace and for always telling me how much he believes in me and my writing. Couldn’t have done it without you.

  The Year Nick McGowan Came to Stay is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real people or events is a complete coincidence. And while Rachel (like me) attended St Peters at Indooroopilly – Rachel’s teachers, classmates and the events that take place at the school are one hundred per cent fictitious.

  This book is unofficially dedicated to the staff and students of Middlemount Community School who welcomed me with open arms in the summer of 2004. And to Mrs Hedley, with love.

  First published 2006 by University of Queensland Press

  PO Box 6042, St Lucia, Queensland 4067 Australia

  www.uqp.uq.edu.au

  © Rebeccca Sparrow 2006

  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 by Post Pre-press Group, Brisbane

  Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group

  Published with assistance from the Queensland

  Office of Arts and Cultural Development

  Cataloguing in Publication Data

  National Library of Australia

  Sparrow, Rebecca.

  The year Nick McGowan came to stay.

  ISBN 978 0 7022 3551 2 (pbk)

  ISBN 978 0 7022 5228 0 (epdf)

  ISBN 978 0 7022 5229 7 (epub)

  ISBN 978 0 7022 5230 3 (kindle)

  I. Title.

  A823.4