The Trivia Man

by Deborah O'Brien

  But he wasn’t listening, he was deep in thought. The frown on his face made her wonder if he was already regretting the invitation to form their own team. She was about to suggest they drop the idea altogether, when he said with uncharacteristic enthusiasm, ‘What about Double Entry? It’s an old accounting term, where you list a piece of data twice so that one supports the other.’

  ‘Double Entry. It sounds slightly obscene.’

  ‘I didn’t think of that,’ he replied, with the embarrassed look she found so endearing.

  ‘Double Act?’ he asked. ‘Does that have a double meaning?’ Then he realised he’d made a pun and sought approval in her face.

  ‘Double Trouble, more like it,’ she replied. ‘Let’s just call ourselves “To Be Announced”. We’ve got four weeks to come up with a real name.’

  When they went up to Miss Kitty to register for the forthcoming competition, she had the wisdom not to ask questions about the disappearance of Teddy and the other three Dreamers. Afterwards, Maggie and Kevin took the stairs to the cobalt-blue carpeted foyer.

  ‘We have a weak spot, Maggie,’ he said as he opened the heavy glass door that led outside to the car park.

  For a moment Maggie was puzzled. Then she grasped that he was talking about their trivia skills and not their friendship. ‘I know,’ she answered. ‘Music post-1990.’

  ‘We’ll need to swot up on that.’

  ‘I’m not sure how.’

  ‘Studying the Top Forty lists. Learning the titles and performers. Listening to music clips online. We could allocate the decades between us.’

  Maggie sighed. ‘I don’t have the time, Kevin. Or the motivation.’

  ‘We could have study sessions. For the next four Tuesdays.’

  ‘Here?’

  ‘No, we’d need a place where we could concentrate. You could come to my flat. I could even show you my notebooks.’

  Sometimes Kevin Dwyer was so funny she had to use all her willpower not to laugh out loud.

  ‘Okay. What about next Tuesday?’

  ‘Good. We can’t afford to miss a week. I’ll write down my address for you.’

  Although she’d known him for three months, Maggie still had no idea where Kevin lived. He removed a pen and a small notepad from his pocket and printed the details in block letters.

  ‘Do you want me to bring takeaway?’ she asked, placing the piece of paper in the zip pocket of her handbag.

  ‘No, thanks. I can organise that.’

  It might have been the dim light of the car park, but Maggie thought he looked pleased. She didn’t often see Kevin smile, yet the corners of his mouth seemed to be curling upwards. And if she wasn’t mistaken, those beguiling dimples had made an appearance as well.

  ‘See you next Tuesday,’ she said as she reached her car.

  ‘Six o’clock,’ he replied.

  ‘I’ll be there,’ Maggie responded. Kevin’s penchant for punctuality was not something she would ever challenge. ‘And I’ll bring dessert.’

  ‘And your laptop,’ he added.

  Maggie concealed a smile. Was he reminding her it was business rather than a social occasion? Just as she was about to unlock her car door, she remembered something – the trophy tucked under her arm.

  ‘Kevin, this is for you. You deserve it more than any one else.’

  He accepted it as if she were presenting him with an Academy Award. She almost expected to hear an acceptance speech. In a way, his reply was just that – Kevin-style: ‘Thanks.’

  Clutching the trophy, he took a few steps in the direction of his own car, stopped abruptly and turned back.

  ‘Maggie?’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘A week is a long time to wait for our study session.’

  There was an awkward pause in which Maggie smiled encouragingly, silently urging him to continue. But he didn’t, so she said, ‘Were you contemplating two sessions a week?’

  ‘Kind of. Would you be free this Sunday?’

  ‘I have some marking to do over the weekend, but I could get it done on Saturday.’

  Another pause, then, so softly she could barely hear him, ‘Does the idea of a picnic sound weird to you?’

  ‘No, Kevin, it sounds lovely.’

  ‘So you’d come?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘It’s just that I’ve been remembering a day I spent at Avonley when I was a boy. It was school holidays and my mum took Beth and me for a picnic. We hired a rowing boat and went up the river. The water was so clear you could see the bottom. I wasn’t very good at rowing on my own, I just kept going round in circles, but Mum took the other oar and we managed to steer a straight course. It was one of the happiest days of my life. Do you think we could go to Avonley on Sunday and hire a boat for the day?’

  Maggie was so touched by his story she could barely answer. Other than his remarks about Eliot Ness’s accountant, she’d never heard him produce such a lengthy discourse, and certainly not something so deeply personal. She cleared her throat. ‘Of course we could. I’ll bring a picnic basket.’

  But what kind of study session would it be where you spent the day rowing up the river? And if this picnic wasn’t a study session, what exactly was it? It almost sounded like a … date. A hot blush shot up her face like mercury rising in a thermometer. She hoped the low lighting in the car park would conceal it. As she glanced across at Kevin, she knew instantly there was no concealing a blush. His face looked as red as hers felt.

  ‘Could I bring Rufus?’ she asked.

  The hint of a frown crossed his brow. ‘Rufus?’

  ‘My dog.’

  ‘Of course you can.’ He sounded relieved. ‘But would he be okay in a rowing boat?’

  ‘He’s happy wherever I am.’

  ‘I’ll text you to arrange the time,’ said Kevin. ‘And I’ll come and pick you up. Is that appropriate?’

  ‘Very appropriate.’

  ‘I’ll be in touch.’

  ‘Okay,’ she gulped, in the manner of an adolescent being asked on her first date. Already she was visualising their day on the river. Like a scene from a romantic movie, it was unfolding in soft focus.

  Under a cloudless winter sky, a river meanders through a sun-dappled eucalypt forest. A woman with dark hair and a figure that some might call curvy is seated in the stern of an old wooden rowing boat. Her face is shaded by a broad straw hat. One hand is trailing languidly in the water, the other stroking a tricolour sheepdog. Opposite her, a man in shirtsleeves, his blond hair tousled by the breeze, is pulling on the oars, propelling them upstream. But wait, they’re not moving forward. They’re going round in circles. Tactfully she offers to share the job. She stands upright and for a moment it seems she will lose her balance, but he reaches across and steadies her with his outstretched hand. As she turns to sit down beside him, she holds onto his shoulders so that she doesn’t fall. My goodness, he’s strong, she thinks to herself, her heart pounding …

  Kevin broke into her reverie. ‘Good night, Maggie.’

  ‘Good night, Kevin,’ she replied, feeling light-headed.

  As he opened her car door for her, not a word was spoken, but for a moment they made eye contact and he didn’t look away. She settled herself behind the steering wheel. Then he closed the door gently, giving her a little wave before heading off to his own car. She watched him through the side window. It might have been her imagination, but there appeared to be a spring in his step she hadn’t detected before, and his shoulders looked straighter, less slumped. Before she knew it, he was starting up the engine, reversing out of his parking spot and driving towards the exit.

  She sat there for some time, calming her rapidly beating heart and trying to make sense of what had just happened. Kevin Dwyer and Maggie Taylor going on a date! Three months ago the idea would have seemed ridiculous. Now it made absolute sense. After all, Kevin Dwyer was her Trivia Man but there was nothing about him she considered trivial. They were a team, a partnership, an alliance. Not that
they were a pigeon pair. Far from it. More like the odd couple. Wildly contrasting yet strangely harmonious. A pair of complementary colours, like yellow and purple – so different you assumed they couldn’t possibly work in tandem … until you saw the combination and then you knew, without a doubt, that they were meant to be together.

  Maggie started the ignition and turned on the headlights. There was one thing bothering her – the lie about her age. Should she tell him the truth? Maybe … or maybe not. A girl could keep at least one secret, couldn’t she? After all, Kevin himself was a man of mystery, of hidden depths and layers, and she wouldn’t change him for quids.

  It seemed to Maggie that people had always tried to change Kevin, to impose their own set of behaviours onto his, to modify and dismantle him. His sister had labelled him with a syndrome named after an Austrian doctor, and not long afterwards an expert had unlabelled him. Like peeling off a sticker marked ‘Damaged goods’. Hey presto! He wasn’t a syndrome anymore. But he still longed to be normal – whatever ‘normal’ meant. As if a complex personality could be encapsulated in a single word, ‘normal’ or otherwise. Maggie needed many words to describe Kevin: chronically punctual, unintentionally funny, annoyingly self-absorbed, unfailingly literal, refreshingly honest, socially awkward, incredibly clever, and intrinsically loveable.

  So, instead of putting him in a pigeonhole, you could try something different. You could pay a visit to his world and take a look around. It mightn’t be such a bad place after all. Admittedly, there would be timetables and charts, lists and indices, but there would also be clean, shining areas, free from hypocrisy and dissembling. And even though his state of being might be based on the precepts of routine, predictability and a tendency to look inwards, Maggie was certain you could tease out the possibilities without demolishing the world altogether.

  If you only perceived his behaviour as being pedantic and uncaring, then you hadn’t looked closely enough. If you accepted him for who he was, seeking out the strengths rather than the flaws, you might uncover worlds and wonders you had never found in anybody else.

  And what an intriguing prospect that would be.

  Acknowledgements

  Considering that I began writing The Trivia Man in early 2011, this book has had a very long gestation indeed. Why so long? I had to put the manuscript aside many times in order to work on other projects, including Mr Chen’s Emporium. For a while Charles Chen and Kevin Dwyer co-existed in my writing life, causing me to have divided loyalties as I alternated between them. Eventually I consigned my ‘trivia man’ to a digital side room so that I could focus on Charles, but I visited Kevin whenever I could. Now, after all those years of our on-again, off-again relationship, I’ve finally given him the ending he deserves.

  Thank you to the friends from near and far who have offered words of encouragement along the way, especially Judy Allen, Pelagia Billiris, Gilly Burke, Sandy Coleman, Michelle Endersby, Robyn Goodwin, Jo and Mark Hill, Kerrie James, Suzanne Kelly, Judy MacGraw, Marilyn McCann, Jan Norris, Margareta Osborn, Joyce Spencer, Mary Stevenson and Chrissie Whipper.

  Special thanks to Carrolline Rhodes, who provided an early critique which gave me the courage and motivation to keep on going, even though I wasn’t sure where the story was heading. I’m also indebted to Sean Doyle for his wisdom and generosity of spirit, Chris McGuigan for her friendship and support, and Mary Anne Bunn, who offered excellent ideas for adding psychological depth to the story and reminded me that poor Maggie had earned a happy denouement.

  I’m extremely grateful to Richard and Angelika Roper, avid readers and longstanding trivia exponents, for their comprehensive and insightful feedback about my fictional trivia competition – in fact, it was a conversation we had about trivia contests that triggered the idea for this book in the first place. A big thank you to Alan Staples, former LOTE colleague and Latin teacher, who kindly checked the authenticity of my fictional Latin lessons, and many thanks to my dear friend, Jan Dawkins, for her honest feedback and unswerving belief in this book.

  Heartfelt thanks to my lovely literary agent, Sheila Drummond, for championing my books, particularly this quirky one, with such dedication and enthusiasm, and to my wonderful publisher, Beverley Cousins, who is such an inspiration to work with. I am fortunate indeed to have a fabulous publicist in Kirsty Noffke, outstanding editors in Elena Gomez and Tricia Dearborn and a meticulous proofreader in Sarah Fletcher. Thanks also to everyone in sales and marketing at Random House for their excellent work behind the scenes. As a longtime fan of Cheryl Orsini’s artwork, I am thrilled to have her as my cover illustrator, and I can always rely on the talented Christa Moffitt to come up with great design ideas.

  Many thanks to those kind readers who have dropped me a line via my website or Facebook and shared their thoughts about my novels. You are my partners in this writing business, bringing your own perspective to the story and adding a unique dimension that wasn’t there before you opened the book.

  And finally, to my fantastic family, thank you once again for your love and patience. I couldn’t have done this without you.

  Author’s Note

  Just as this isn’t really a novel about trivia, it’s not about specific disorders or syndromes either. If anything, the book explores the need to belong in a world which values conformity and can be intolerant of idiosyncrasy. For those like Kevin who are a little different, there is always a sense of being on the outside, looking in. Finding a niche for themselves is difficult but not impossible. We can all help by looking beneath the labels and stereotypes and seeking the individual person, with all their gifts and weaknesses.

  In my teaching career I tried very hard not to define a ‘special needs’ student by their ‘condition’. So often I’ve heard someone say ‘He’s ADHD’ or ‘She’s OCD’, and I’ve longed to retort, ‘No, they’re not! They happen to be someone diagnosed with that disorder. There’s a big difference.’ Phillip is a composite of many such interesting and special young people whom I’ve taught over the years, and the scenes in which he appears are very much inspired by my own real experiences.

  The internet is full of information about developmental and other disorders in both children and adults. Although some of it is excellent, you will also find a lot of simplistic material, including an array of quick questionnaires which supposedly offer an instant diagnosis. Questionnaires and interviews are used by professionals to make a diagnosis, in conjunction with a range of other diagnostic tools.

  The material in this book involves fictional characters and is purely subjective. You should always seek advice specific to your situation from an appropriate health professional/s.

  In compiling the trivia questions and answers within the novel, I would particularly like to acknowledge the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), my favourite resource for checking all things relating to film, and I couldn’t get by without that font of general knowledge, Wikipedia. In many cases, however, I have relied on my own memory; therefore any inaccuracies are my fault alone.

  Please bear in mind that the answers chosen by the team may not necessarily be the correct ones! If you are intending to use any of these questions in your own trivia competition, do verify the answers for yourself.

  Reading Group Questions

  WARNING: These questions may contain spoilers. We recommend reading them after you have finished the book.

  Maggie finds Kevin quirky and endearing, Patrick considers him his best friend, Danni labels him a weirdo, Edward dubs him ‘Mr Smarty-pants’, while Elizabeth finds him nerdy and annoying. What do you think of Kevin?

  Discuss the difficulties for someone who is ‘different’ in finding a place for him or herself in a society which is so often intolerant of eccentricity.

  There are a number of characters in the book with ‘issues’. Which do you consider to be the most flawed? Why?

  Maggie has predicated her life on winning back a man who has rejected her twice before. What is your opinion of her and the choice
s she makes?

  Kevin has a tentative relationship with Danni, which ends badly. Discuss Danni’s initial impressions of Kevin. Why does she misjudge him? Which women in his life have accepted him for who he is?

  Do you think Patrick’s life will mirror Kevin’s, or will it be different? Why?

  What do you imagine the future might hold for Kevin and Maggie?

  Each chapter ends with a weekly round of the trivia competition. What do you think the author is trying to achieve by using this device?

  What is the purpose of the dialogues between Kevin and Maggie that take place during interval each week?

  Four different perspectives are used in the book: those of Kevin, Maggie, Elizabeth and Patrick. Discuss the impact of this technique, together with the use of time shifts.

  About the Author

  Born and educated in Australia, Deborah O’Brien studied modern languages and psychology at the University of Sydney, where she also completed a graduate Diploma of Education. For many years she worked as a high school teacher, before writing a series of non-fiction books and contributing articles to magazines. Together with her family, she divides her time between Sydney and a country cottage. She is also the author of Mr Chen’s Emporium, The Jade Widow and A Place of Her Own.

  www.deborahobrien.com.au

  ALSO BY DEBORAH O’BRIEN

  MR CHEN’S EMPORIUM

  Mr Chen’s Emporium is an enchanting tale of forbidden love and following one’s heart …

  In 1872, seventeen-year-old Amy Duncan arrives in the Gold Rush town of Millbrooke, having spent the coach journey daydreaming about glittering pavilions and gilded steeples. What she finds is a dusty main street lined with ramshackle buildings.

  That is until she walks through the doors of Mr Chen’s Emporium, a veritable Aladdin’s cave, and her life changes forever. Though banned from the store by her dour clergyman father, Amy is entranced by its handsome owner, Charles Chen …