The Midnight Pianist
‘This is a highly realised evocation of Australian country life in the innocent early 1960s, where even the title emanates the true emotional register of a young woman’s coming-of-age in the manner of My Brilliant Career. There are so many beautiful passages, lovingly felt moments and deft touches that will strike the reader back to the purity of their own childhood, first love and love of the land that make for inescapable reading. I can thoroughly recommend it.’
Tom Thompson
ABC Radio 702
Julia Osborne was born in Sydney, but for many years lived in rural New South Wales before returning to the city in 1990. Those years in the bush provided inspiration for numerous short stories published in national magazines, literary journals and anthologies.
ABC Radio National has broadcast several of her stories and one-act plays which she adapted from her fiction for radio and stage performances.
In 1991 she was awarded a writer’s grant by the Australia Council for the Arts and self-published her novel Falling Glass in 2002.
Julia now lives on the NSW mid-north coast.
www.juliamaryosborne.com
ETT Imprint
in association with
Paper Horse Design & Publishing
The Midnight Pianist is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
First published by Paper Horse Design & Publishing 2013
This edition published in association with ETT Imprint 2015
Copyright © 2013, 2015 Julia Osborne All rights reserved.
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Osborne, Julia, author
The midnight pianist / by Julia Osborne.
ISBN 9781875892952 (pbk.)
ISBN 978?????????? (ebk.)
Country life—Australia—Fiction,
Pianists—Fiction,
Love stories, Bildungsromans
A823.4
Set in Adobe Garamond Pro 11.5/15pt by Rosie Sutherland for Paper Horse
Titling: Wednesday Sutherland — Musical motifs: Julia Osborne www.paperhorsedesign.com.au
Digital edition distributed by Port Campbell Press www.portcampbellpress.com.au
eBook conversion by eDilettante
To all the girls ~
Rosemary, Elizabeth, Wednesday,
Alex, Matilda, Joanne, Carole,
Christine, Ann, Josephine,
& Miss Brooks
Three minutes to bell time.
Several girls crowded into the toilet block. Last cigarettes were puffed, stubbed and flushed. Voices echoed:
– Who took my comb?
– Move over ... give us some room!
– The bell’s gunna go ...
– Hurry up!
Sandra waited until the door banging water rushing noises ceased, tidying her long fair hair in slow motion. As the last girl hurried out, she leaned across the basin to the mirror, wet one finger and smoothly arched her eyebrows. She looked critically at her reflection, then breathed Hah on the cold glass surface. Her finger traced his name in looping letters ~ Nick ~ then she palmed it away and left the room to its silence.
The weatherboard school buildings bordered a quadrangle edged with shelter-sheds and a struggling garden where bits of rubbish, crumpled sweet bags and discarded drink bottles hid beneath fallen leaves and marigolds.
Sandra soft-shoed along the path as the bell finished ringing. Better hurry, she thought, swinging her case in time with her black lace-ups. Nick Nick Nicholas Nick. There was Emilia, always late, always arriving at exactly nine o’clock, looking rather like she’d dressed in a hurry.
‘Hey, Em, wait up.’
She caught up with her best friend and they joined the Second Year girls and boys going into English with Miss Pearce. Sandra and Emilia were last to be seated, finding desks closer to the front than they liked. Too much under the teacher’s eye. But Sandra didn’t mind English, and didn’t have to work very hard to be good at it. She often wove her fantasies into the lessons, especially free topic compositions. If she finished ahead of the others, she pretended to keep working as she doodled endless arabesques and treble clefs – filigrees of hearts and flowers that disguised her initials intertwined with Nick’s: SA~NM. It was her secret.
Teachers wrote on their reports: A conscientious, quiet student. Good Work. But sometimes they wrote: Concentration in class would achieve higher results. Or worse: Not achieving her potential. That dreadful word everyone used! Achieving, underachieving, like the story of the terrible bed that fitted all who lay on it. Those who were too tall had their feet cut off; those who were too short were stretched on the rack.
But Maths was another story. You couldn’t dream in Maths! Last week, for instance ...
‘Sandra Abbott!’ The Maths teacher had suddenly pinned her down with his beady stare. He wasn’t called ‘Crow’ for nothing. ‘What’s the cubed root of eight?’
‘Two?’ Sandra blurted, hiding her drawing under the desk and hoping she’d heard his question correctly.
‘Right. Pay more attention, girl, you were lucky this time.’
Miss Pearce rustled her papers on the desk. Young and pretty, she was a target for smart remarks from some of the boys so that she tried to keep a stern expression. A hard worker, she expected the same from her students.
‘This week we’ve studied the poetry of Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson. We’ve read The Man from Snowy River and concentrated on the first five verses of Faces in the Street. We’ve discussed the differences in structure and content and we’ve found quotes to support those opinions. Now ...’ she looked around the room at the faces turned towards her, the lack of attention here and there. ‘I want you to write an essay based on those poems, describe the differences between country and city life and which you prefer. Those of you who haven’t been to a big city will have to make do with what you know from books and television. Use your imagination.’
Her gaze rested on Emilia, glossy black curls bent over her page. She knew the Ferrari family had migrated from Italy after the War, and ran a grocery shop. Enterprising people, the Italians ... all those vegetables in their back garden. She made a mental note to call at the shop on her way home for some of those funny new zucchinis.
Miss Pearce’s attention switched to Emilia’s slender companion. ‘This should suit you, Sandy,’ she smiled. ‘You’ll be able to stretch that mind