by Amy Witting
Where could she buy an exercise book at this time on Sunday? She would have to walk to the main street, unless there was a corner shop still open. It was wonderful to have a problem just that size, something to walk up a street for, instead of drifting like an escaped balloon.
She was so absorbed in her thoughts she nearly walked past the dim light that combed through the bead curtain at the open door of the little shop. The man behind the counter gave her a funny look—no wonder, she thought, looking into the spotted mirror that advertised Fulton’s Orangeade. Behind the lettering she saw herself, wild-haired, blubbered, red-eyed, and thought, This is the happiest moment of my life.
The shopkeeper brought her the exercise book; she groped for her purse and touched the book. That was a moment, when she exchanged one talisman for another.
She said, ‘Don’t bother to wrap it,’ dropped the exercise book into her bag beside the book and went out.
In the garden opposite, an untidy palm tree stood clumped against the fading pastels of the sky, and that was all right, too.
Back in her room at last, she opened the exercise book (this moment will never come again) and wrote at the top of the first page:
The Book is Gone
‘Now see this. I open my eyes and there’s a girl—naked, not a stitch on her—’
‘Half your luck.’
‘Oh well. I’d had my luck, if you call it that. She was a left-over from last night, but what was she doing? Sitting with her bum on her heels in front of my bookcase reading Plato.’
‘So you said…’
‘What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this? No, I didn’t. Though I suppose it was what she was waiting for.’
‘Mean bastard, aren’t you?’
‘I could have been meaner, could have asked her for a few words on philosophy. Instead, I made light of it, tried to jolly her into putting her clothes on—damn it, she’d had plenty of time to get dressed—what the hell are you grinning at?’
‘Your sense of sin. Reading Plato with no clothes on.’
‘Well, now you come to mention it, I did think it was cheek.’
‘The Greeks weren’t so fussy.’
‘Well, this is what’s funny. I went and had a shower, and when I came back, she was gone and—this is it—so was the book.’
‘And her clothes? Do tell!’
‘Of course her clothes.’
‘Oh blast. You just ruined a beautiful image.’
No, not Plato. Plato was too obvious. Something to get the second young man guessing, building up a whole skeleton from a toebone, nagging the first one about it. You can see he’s haunted by the image of a naked girl reading…Turgenev?
She put down her pen and bit at her thumbnail, not for the last time.
The book must go, of course, back to Michael. She would wrap it and leave it in his letter box. She was sad to think of parting with it, but she could live without it. There were words to carry as talismans.
‘Did you have a good weekend, Isobel?’
Christ, was that just a weekend?
I met the ghosts of two murderers when I was out for a walk, found the semi-strangled body of an infant learning to talk…
For a moment she felt threatened, seeing the walls of the word factory coming in on her, but she rallied. Take it down, consider it later. The boy who had chased her and then couldn’t hit her, make a note.
‘Very nice, thanks.’
She smiled so happily that Rita said, ‘I do believe our Isobel has met someone.’
Oh, yes.
Uncovering her typewriter, Isobel greeted it with a warm private smile.
Oh, yes, she thought joyfully. I met someone.
Dancing on Coral
Glenda Adams
Introduced by Susan Wyndham
The Commandant
Jessica Anderson
Introduced by Carmen Callil
Homesickness
Murray Bail
Introduced by Peter Conrad
Sydney Bridge Upside Down
David Ballantyne
Introduced by Kate De Goldi
Bush Studies
Barbara Baynton
Introduced by Helen Garner
The Cardboard Crown
Martin Boyd
Introduced by Brenda Niall
A Difficult Young Man
Martin Boyd
Introduced by Sonya Hartnett
Outbreak of Love
Martin Boyd
Introduced by Chris Womersley
The Australian Ugliness
Robin Boyd
Introduced by Christos Tsiolkas
All the Green Year
Don Charlwood
Introduced by Michael McGirr
They Found a Cave
Nan Chauncy
Introduced by John Marsden
The Even More Complete
Book of Australian Verse
John Clarke
Diary of a Bad Year
J. M. Coetzee
Introduced by Peter Goldsworthy
Wake in Fright
Kenneth Cook
Introduced by Peter Temple
The Dying Trade
Peter Corris
Introduced by Charles Waterstreet
They’re a Weird Mob
Nino Culotta
Introduced by Jacinta Tynan
The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke
C. J. Dennis
Introduced by Jack Thompson
Careful, He Might Hear You
Sumner Locke Elliott
Introduced by Robyn Nevin
Fairyland
Sumner Locke Elliott
Introduced by Dennis Altman
The Explorers
Edited and introduced by
Tim Flannery
Terra Australis
Matthew Flinders
Introduced by Tim Flannery
My Brilliant Career
Miles Franklin
Introduced by Jennifer Byrne
Such is Life
Joseph Furphy
Introduced by David Malouf
The Fringe Dwellers
Nene Gare
Introduced by Melissa Lucashenko
Cosmo Cosmolino
Helen Garner
Introduced by Ramona Koval
Wish
Peter Goldsworthy
Introduced by James Bradley
Dark Places
Kate Grenville
Introduced by Louise Adler
The Quiet Earth
Craig Harrison
Introduced by Bernard Beckett
Down in the City
Elizabeth Harrower
Introduced by Delia Falconer
The Long Prospect
Elizabeth Harrower
Introduced by Fiona McGregor
The Watch Tower
Elizabeth Harrower
Introduced by Joan London
The Mystery of a Hansom Cab
Fergus Hume
Introduced by Simon Caterson
The Unknown Industrial Prisoner
David Ireland
Introduced by Peter Pierce
The Glass Canoe
David Ireland
Introduced by Nicolas Rothwell
A Woman of the Future
David Ireland
Introduced by Kate Jennings
Eat Me
Linda Jaivin
Introduced by Krissy Kneen
Julia Paradise
Rod Jones
Introduced by Emily Maguire
The Jerilderie Letter
Ned Kelly
Introduced by Alex McDermott
Bring Larks and Heroes
Thomas Keneally
Introduced by Geordie Williamson
Strine
Afferbeck Lauder
Introduced by John Clarke
The Young Desire It
Kenneth Mackenzie
Introduced by David Ma
louf
Stiff
Shane Maloney
Introduced by Lindsay Tanner
The Middle Parts of Fortune
Frederic Manning
Introduced by Simon Caterson
Selected Stories
Katherine Mansfield
Introduced by Emily Perkins
The Home Girls
Olga Masters
Introduced by Geordie Williamson
Amy’s Children
Olga Masters
Introduced by Eva Hornung
The Scarecrow
Ronald Hugh Morrieson
Introduced by Craig Sherborne
The Dig Tree
Sarah Murgatroyd
Introduced by Geoffrey Blainey
A Lifetime on Clouds
Gerald Murnane
Introduced by Andy Griffiths
The Plains
Gerald Murnane
Introduced by Wayne Macauley
The Odd Angry Shot
William Nagle
Introduced by Paul Ham
Life and Adventures 1776–1801
John Nicol
Introduced by Tim Flannery
Death in Brunswick
Boyd Oxlade
Introduced by Shane Maloney
Swords and Crowns and Rings
Ruth Park
Introduced by Alice Pung
The Watcher in the Garden
Joan Phipson
Introduced by Margo Lanagan
Maurice Guest
Henry Handel Richardson
Introduced by Carmen Callil
The Getting of Wisdom
Henry Handel Richardson
Introduced by Germaine Greer
The Fortunes of Richard Mahony
Henry Handel Richardson
Introduced by Peter Craven
Rose Boys
Peter Rose
Introduced by Brian Matthews
Hills End
Ivan Southall
Introduced by James Moloney
Ash Road
Ivan Southall
Introduced by Maurice Saxby
Lillipilly Hill
Eleanor Spence
Introduced by Ursula Dubosarsky
The Women in Black
Madeleine St John
Introduced by Bruce Beresford
The Essence of the Thing
Madeleine St John
Introduced by Helen Trinca
Jonah
Louis Stone
Introduced by Frank Moorhouse
An Iron Rose
Peter Temple
Introduced by Les Carlyon
1788
Watkin Tench
Introduced by Tim Flannery
The House that Was Eureka
Nadia Wheatley
Introduced by Toni Jordan
Happy Valley
Patrick White
Introduced by Peter Craven
I for Isobel
Amy Witting
Introduced by Charlotte Wood
I Own the Racecourse!
Patricia Wrightson
Introduced by Kate Constable
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