NOVEL

This is the first chapter of my new novel. It's a dramatic retelling of the flooding of the subway. I hope you enjoy it!


The day Melbourne was struck by the Storm of the Century, I was innocently sitting in Corky Saint Clair with my work experience girl - an 'at risk youth' from Frankston South. I was teaching her how to make jewellery. We were having so much fun that we weren't really paying attention to anyone who came into the shop.


As we pieced together top quality Corky Brand necklaces I caught her staring at me for a second too long, I held her gaze but wasn't going to play that game. Later as I bent over to put away some silver chains I heard her emit a sequence of short, sharp intakes of breath. It was becoming clear that soon I would have to talk to her about my Secret: a secret that I could barely acknowledge within myself - there was so much inside of me, like a dam waiting to burst forth. But more about that in Chapter Two.


Anyway, without warning icy water came rushing in to the arcade. There were hail stones the size of tennis balls floating in the water.


The subway had been flooded a fortnight before, but this time the water was coming faster. Roger from the weird Rockerbilly shop next door pulled down one of the roller doors at the entrance to the subway down. There was so much water it exploded through the door sending ribbons of steel everywhere.


more here