But I definitely don’t want us to break up right at this point.
Jarrod and I sit on the train station platform with the tracks running off into the distance each way and the symbolism isn’t lost on me. The sun is going down and I’m thinking about The Outsiders and how perfect a sunset is – though, to be honest, this sunset is a little lacklustre outside of the company and the conversation. We hold hands.
‘So my passport arrived before Christmas,’ he said.
‘What? I didn’t know you even applied!’
‘You can’t just stay in one place forever, can you? I’ll be the first in my family to go overseas.’
I almost burst with smiling, but I try to hide it and my face does a squishy thing but I don’t care. And he’s right of course. We’ve got to get going. Got to do something, we can’t stagnate.
‘I’d better apply for mine, too,’ I say.
So we’re sitting there on the platform, not waiting for a train but the possibility of a train. Something to get us from here to there, wherever that might be.
I’m hanging out to take a plane. It was always something the girls at school found staggering and hilarious – that I’d never been on a plane.
Mrs Dobbs came to Australia by boat when she was five. It took six weeks and everybody got seasick.
Here at this soon-to-be-trainless train station we sit on the bench and I can picture us on other benches, at other train stations. In Berlin. In London. In Paris, New York, Toronto, Buenos Aires. In Athens. I want us to go so badly.
‘We could work hard here for a few months and go for the northern summer. Second summer!’ I say. ‘We could busk to earn extra money if we run out. I know at least four songs now.’
‘People would only ever pay for us to stop.’
‘We’d figure it out.’
He doesn’t say anything, but it isn’t a bad silence, just a thoughtful one. It’s taken me a while to interpret his silences. Our legs are pressed against each other’s and I am glad for the evening breeze.
‘We could always get a round-the-world ticket thingo,’ I say. ‘Stop on every continent.’
‘Wouldn’t we get tired?’
‘We’d sleep.’
‘Where would we sleep?’
‘I’m not sure. In beds?’
‘How long would we go for?’
I shrug. ‘How long have you got?’
Mahalia, Joanne Horniman
Little Wing, Joanne Horniman
Howl, Allen Ginsberg
The Pursuit of Love, Nancy Mitford
Love in a Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford
The Slightly True Story of Cedar B Hartley (who planned to live an unusual life), Martine Murray
My Brilliant Career, Miles Franklin
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
For Esmé – with Love and Squalor, J D Salinger
The Watch Tower, Elizabeth Harrower
Seven Little Australians, Ethel Turner
Tomorrow, When the War Began, John Marsden
The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
The Beautiful and Damned, F Scott Fitzgerald
Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude Get a Life, Maureen McCarthy
Circle of Friends, Maeve Binchy
The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
My Family and Other Animals, Gerald Durrell
The Outsiders, S E Hinton
The War Poems, Wilfred Owen
Europe on a Shoestring, Lonely Planet
On the Road, Jack Kerouac
My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante
The Simple Gift, Steven Herrick
Under Milk Wood, Dylan Thomas
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
Words in Deep Blue, Cath Crowley
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman (for Jarrod)
Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell
Songs That Sound Like Blood, Jared Thomas
Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
The Good People, Hannah Kent
Du Iz Tak?, Carson Ellis
Cloudstreet, Tim Winton
The Beach, Alex Garland
Kindred, Octavia E Butler
The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas
The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
The Knife of Never Letting Go, Patrick Ness
PopCo, Scarlett Thomas
Stasiland, Anna Funder
My entire wonderful family and particularly my mum, Jane Parsons, for the never-ending supply of Australian children’s literature when I was growing up
Cath Crowley and the Writers’ Group Extraordinaire (Cordelia Rice, Anna Cowan, Marisa Nathar, Nelika McDonald and Else Fitzgerald) for being there right at the start
Everyone at UQP, but especially Kristina Schulz, Kristy Bushnell, Jody Lee, Cathy Vallance, Astred Hicks and Sally Belford for being such kind midwives and cheerleaders
All the women of Casa Donaldo (live-in and honorary) for reading drafts and making me dinner and gin and tonics
The NCDC for never doubting me (at least not to my face)
Deb Force and the Sun Bookshoppers, especially Eadie Allen for being the bolshiest year twelve I will ever tutor
Hilary McPhee for reassurances on the first draft
Hannah Cartmel and Emma Osborne for the last-minute reassurances
Fiona Wood and Vikki Wakefield for their years of encouragement and incredibly kind words about Adelaide
The South Yarra Breakfast Writing Club
Writers Retreat Daylesford 2016
John Marsden and the Tye Estate Writers Course cohort circa 2000
A Minor Place for all the coffee and meals
The Lucksmiths for always being the soundtrack (to writing and life)
Joanne Horniman, Steven Herrick and Nick Earls for all your stories and for showing the way
#LoveOzYA for being A FORCE
BECAUSE OF YOU
Pip Harry
‘Books can save anyone. If they’re the right ones.’
Tiny is an eighteen-year-old girl living on the streets in Sydney, running from her small-town past. She finds short-term accommodation at Hope Lane – a shelter for the homeless – where she meets Nola, a high school student on volunteer placement.
Both girls share their love of words through the Hope Lane writing group. Can they share their secrets, too?
‘This story speaks for those who are voiceless; its message one of empathy and hope. I loved it.’ Kirsty Eagar, author of Summer Skin
‘Compelling and tough, Because of You is a powerful coming-of-age story filled with beautiful and heartbreaking moments. Pip Harry’s exploration of teen homelessness, mental health, self-acceptance and friendship left me fighting back tears.’ Gabrielle Tozer, author of Remind Me How This Ends
ISBN 978 0 7022 5977 7
EVERYTHING IS CHANGED
Nova Weetman
Shortlisted for the 2017 Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards: Best Young Adult Novel
Notable Book in CBCA’s Book of the Year Awards: Older Readers
If only we could all go back to the way it was before …
Jake and Alex. Best mates. One terrible mistake. Two lives that will never be the same.
Told in reverse, this powerful and gritty novel moves through the wreckage of a broken friendship, back to the moment when everything changed.
; ‘Utterly compelling and moving, Everything Is Changed redefines story. A beautifully crafted novel … I found myself desperately hoping things could be different for them.’ Kirsty Eagar, author of Summer Skin
‘With her insightful, clear writing and thoughtful characterisation, Nova Weetman is carving an influential place for herself as an Australian YA author.’ Magpies
‘Nova Weetman established her ability to portray complex friendships with Frankie and Joely, and with Everything Is Changed, she takes it to the next level.’ Books + Publishing
ISBN 978 0 7022 5416 1
First published 2017 by University of Queensland Press
PO Box 6042, St Lucia, Queensland 4067 Australia
www.uqp.com.au
uqp@uqp.uq.edu.au
© Kate O’Donnell 2017
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.
Cover design by Astred Hicks, Design Cherry
Cover photograph by Daniel Kim/Stocksy
Author photograph by Victoria Scott Photography
Typeset in 11/15 pt Bembo Std by Post Pre-press Group, Brisbane
Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
National Library of Australia
http://catalogue.nla.gov.au
O’Donnell, Kate, author.
Untidy towns / Kate O’Donnell.
ISBN 978 0 7022 5982 1 (pbk)
ISBN 978 0 7022 6070 4 (pdf)
ISBN 978 0 7022 6071 1 (epub)
ISBN 978 0 7022 6072 8 (kindle)
For adolescents.
Teenage girls—Juvenile fiction
Friendship—Juvenile fiction.
Interpersonal relations in adolescence—Juvenile fiction.
Country life—Juvenile fiction.
Bildungsromans.