by Debra Oswald
Marion was completely focused on the video of the band, smiling her head off. She asked questions about the people, the event, who wrote the songs. She said all the things you’d want to hear: they were great, she was so proud, all that.
Then Ash realised his mother was crying as she watched the footage.
‘Are we that bad?’ he joked.
Marion Corrigan wiped her eyes on her sleeve. ‘No, no, this is good crying.’
‘Okay,’ said Ash warily, worried that he’d managed to upset his mother.
‘Really,’ she insisted. ‘It’s good crying. Anyway, this is blues music. It’s meant to make you feel things, isn’t it. So it’s working.’
Later, she asked Ash to load the band’s songs onto her mp3 player. That way she would be able to listen to Blue Noise through her headphones sometimes.
But just then, as Ash stood behind his mum watching the Ignition concert on the screen, flashbacks from that day flew through his head, more sharply real and intense than the video. He remembered the thoughts that had been humming in the back of his brain while he was up on that stage. He wished Charlie had been there. He wished he still had his Butterscotch Blonde guitar. He wished Ben could get his life together. He wished his mother was a happier person. He wished he had a better family. He wished he could be adopted by the Novaks. But things don’t always work out a certain way.
And at the same time, he was on that stage with Blue Noise: the drums were pumping up through Ash’s feet, the guitar felt good in his hands. That amazingly talented, brave, beautiful, certified mental case Erin Landers was there beside him and the band was pounding out ‘Help Me’, perfectly in sync. Ash looked out over the six hundred people moving to the music and it felt fantastic. At that moment, nothing else mattered.
About the author
Debra Oswald is the author of five novels for young readers – Getting Air, The Redback Leftovers, Me and Barry Terrific, The Return of the Baked Bean, The Fifth Quest – and three Aussie Bites including Nathan and the Ice Rockets.
Debra’s stage plays have been produced around Australia. Gary’s House, The Peach Season and Sweet Road were all shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Award. Her play Dags has had many Australian productions and has been published and performed in Britain and the United States. Gary’s House has been on the senior high school syllabus and has been performed in Denmark and Japan in translation. Mr Bailey’s Minder broke the Griffin Theatre’s box office record in 2004, toured nationally and was produced in Philadelphia in 2008.
Debra has written two plays for the Australian Theatre for Young People. Skate was performed in Sydney, on a country tour and at the Belfast Theatre Festival. Stories in the Dark, which premiered at Riverside Theatre Parramatta in 2007, won the 2008 NSW Premier’s Literary Play Award.
Among Debra’s television credits are Bananas in Pyjamas, Sweet and Sour, The Secret Life of Us and award-winning episodes of Police Rescue.
Debra has two sons and lives in Sydney.
Acknowledgements
Debra would like to thank Richard Glover, Zoe Walton, Joe Glover, Ben Laurence-Chenu, Claudia Skinner, Daniel Hirsch, Tom Purcell, Annabelle Sheehan, Kimberley Bennett, Vanessa Mickan-Gramazio and everyone at Random House. This book has been inspired by the live performances of wonderful musicians including Chris Wilson, Kristina Olsen, The Hands, Jim Conway’s Big Wheel, Jackie Orszaczky, Chase The Sun and Charlie Musselwhite.
Getting Air
Debra Oswald
Zac and Corey are best mates. They skate in deserted carparks, along the streets, wherever they can. It’s so unfair that they’re always getting in trouble for it. It’s not as if there’s anywhere else to skate. Good girl Lauren Saxelby’s been hanging around, filming the skaters for some competition she wants to enter. Suddenly everyone’s keen to use the video to convince the council to build a skate park. As if that would work! But Corey’s been sucked into the campaign, and he’s hanging around Lauren far too much for Zac’s liking. She’ll never go out with Corey. He’s a Matthews, so he’s automatically a criminal – at least according to the gossips.
Zac’s not ready for what’s about to happen. Sometimes you just have to let things wallop you in the guts, then find a way to get up again.
‘This book has it all – action, skating, drama and even a touch of romance … Gritty and real, this book will have you hooked!’
DMAG
‘Getting Air is one of the best young adult novels I’ve read this year.’
Rosemary Neill, Weekend Australian
‘A highly polished piece of work with a strong first-person narrative voice that captures precisely the language and attitude of today’s youth. It includes fantastic characters who leap from the page and are as vibrant and exciting as a skateboard manoeuvre.’ Good Reading
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