Rick’s a good mate. He’s not sure what he’s going to do now that Antarctica’s over for him. He saved up a lot of money in his years down there. I tell him to go overseas but I’m glad when he says he wants to stick around Alice for a while. He tells me he’s never been inside Australia before. He likes it. We make an odd pair. He gets cross when I forget and call him Dip. He says we’re in the real world now and it’s different. He doesn’t dare read his porn mags around me. And I’m trying not to swear in front of him. It was strange to see him in a T-shirt and shorts for the first time. When he first saw me again, he said I’d grown taller.

I drive through the rain and the creeks back to Alice. A small white rock is in the cassette tray by the gears. I think of this morning. The red dust like cinnamon in my cup, the splinter in my finger and the heat. Heat soaked into the sheets of my swag and heat in my toothpaste and heat in the blood that has finally come from between my legs.

The windscreen wipers swish furiously, pushing aside the strong splats.

‘It’s fantastic to see the rain again,’ says Rick. ‘Washing everything away.’

‘Yeah.’

Acknowledgements

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thank you to the people of the Antarctic Division who made possible my fifty-day voyage, which gave me the idea to write a novel set in Antarctica.

Thanks also to Jane Palfreyman at Random House, and to Alison Angles, Chris Doran, Craig James, Lizzie Foschia, Alison Ray, Andrew Sholl and my family for their love and support and wisdom.

And finally, thank you to Alison French for her encouragement right from the start, her editorial energy, and the loan of her house.

About the Author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

NIKKI GEMMELL writes novels, memoir, essays and columns. She is the bestselling author of some twenty books, including Cleave, The Bride Stripped Bare, Why You Are Australian and The Ripping Tree. Her books have been translated into twenty-two languages. She was born in Wollongong, New South Wales.

Also by Nikki Gemmell

ALSO BY NIKKI GEMMELL

Cleave

Love Song

The Bride Stripped Bare

Pleasure: An Almanac for the Heart

The Book of Rapture

Why You Are Australian

With My Body

I Take You

Honestly: Notes on Life

Personally: Further Notes on Life

After

On Quiet

The Ripping Tree

As N.J. Gemmell

The Kensington Reptilarium

The Icicle Illuminarium

The Luna Laboratorium

Coco Banjo is Having a Yay Day

Coco Banjo Has Been Unfriended

Coco Banjo and the Super Wow Surprise