Siggy and Amber

‘She’s about fourteen and her name is Amber.’
‘I’ll need a little more information.’
‘She has tentacles.’

Siggy is wrong about Amber. She doesn’t have tentacles. Neither does she shrink heads. But Amber is still the most unusual girl that Siggy has ever met. He wants to be with her until the stars turn into fruit salad. But first he must make amends for doing something horrible to her shoes. Siggy must introduce Amber to a ghost.

Like I’m Being Stalked by a Moonshadow, this book is based on my own life. It’s set in a small seaside town on Westernport Bay, Victoria, where my family had a beach house. Here we are playing as kids. That big red thing washed up on the beach one day. It then washed out. Fortunately we weren’t standing on it at the time.

Siggy and Amber was hard to write because I conked out in the middle. I hadn’t done enough work on making up a good plot, so I put it aside and did something else. A few years later, I rewrote it from scratch. Then I wrote it yet again. My editor Dmetri said it should be in the present tense, not the past tense, and I think he was right. There is a lot of dialogue in Siggy and Amber, because Siggy is a talker. Here’s a typical conversation with his best friend Fergus, who is Scottish, and insists that Pippa, a girl who has told him to jump on his head, is actually in love with him.

‘How’s it going with Pippa?’ I ask.
‘Extremely well. She’s started to impersonate my accent.’
‘I thought you hated it when people do that?’
‘Only when they do it badly. Pippa’s pretty good at it. She’s obviously been paying close attention. It won’t be long before she’s my girlfriend.’
Fergus seems so utterly convinced about his future romance with Pippa Nutting that even I am beginning to believe it will happen.
‘I admire you, Fergus,’ I say. ‘You never give up.’
‘It’s a Scottish thing. Have you ever heard of Robert the Bruce?’
‘No. I’m sure I’d remember a name like that.’
‘He was this King of Scotland in the olden days. He once hid in a cave.’
‘Who was he hiding from?’
‘The enemy.’
‘Which enemy?’
‘I’m not sure, it’s not important.’
‘Zombies?’
‘I told you, it’s not important.’
‘It’s just that kings are usually quite powerful. They have armies and stuff. So if he was a king and he was hiding in a cave –‘
‘He wasn’t a king back then. Can I finish the story?’
‘Sorry.’
‘Robert the Bruce saw this spider making a web. And the spider kept failing but it didn’t give up. It went on like this for hours. Over and over.’
‘This is a really great story, Fergus.’
‘Shut up. Finally the spider managed to spin a web. And this taught Robert the Bruce that you must never give up too easily.’
‘And that’s how Robert the Bruce got a girlfriend?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘Then what’s the point of the story?’
‘The point is, he went on to win a whole lot of battles because he wasn’t a quitter.’
‘Did he keep in touch with the spider?’
‘I think they remained close personal friends.’

When Siggy meets the girl of his dreams at a party, he makes a very bad first impression and asks Fergus for advice, even though Fergus is in no fit state to give it. Both boys got drunk the night before, and Fergus is lying in bed, wishing he hadn’t.

‘I may not be as Scottish as I thought,’ moans Fergus. ‘I can’t drink whisky.’
‘Maybe Scottish people drink a different type of whisky from what we had?’
‘No, I stole it from Dad. He’s furious. I’m not allowed to go to Highland dancing for two weeks.’
Most people wouldn’t regard this as a punishment, but it’s a bitter blow for Fergus.
‘I feel like I’m going to die,’ he says.
‘Could we talk for a few minutes before you die?’
‘Only if you do it quietly.’
‘I met this girl last night. I need your advice.’
‘Come back later.’
‘No. You might be dead.’
Fergus moans again.
‘She had black hair and black jeans and a tee-shirt with Scooby Doo on it. And she had tentacles.’
‘What?’
‘She had these star things around her neck. She said they were called tentacles.’
‘Pentacles. Siggy, you are my best friend in the whole world but I may have to murder you if you don’t go away.’
‘This girl – I think she’s interesting. She might be the one. She asked me to take my shirt off.’
Fergus rouses briefly. ‘She did?’
I nod. ‘We were going to swap shirts. I think she liked me. Only then something terrible happened.’
‘She saw you without your shirt and realised you look hideous.’
‘Worse. I vomited on her.’
‘You did what?’
‘Just on her shoes. They were shiny black. Then she ran away. I think she was upset. Or grossed out. Maybe both.’
Fergus sighs. ‘What do you want to know?’
‘Well, I can’t stop thinking about this girl’s neck.’
‘Just her neck?’
‘Other parts of her as well. But she has a great neck. Are you sure you didn’t see her at the dance?’
‘I don’t remember much. I was unconscious for a while. I actually wish I was unconscious now.’
‘Fergus, do you think I might have a chance with her?’
‘This girl you vomited on?’
‘Yes.’
‘Do you have her phone number?’
‘No.’
‘Do you know her last name?’
‘No.’
‘Did you give her your phone number?’
‘I think so.’
‘What do you mean you think so?’
‘Well, I might have got it wrong.’
‘You gave her a wrong number?’
‘Not deliberately. It was the whisky.’
‘Do you have any idea where she lives?’
‘Flanders.’
‘Is that all?’
‘She didn’t give me an address. Although she did say that her house is full of dead bodies.’
‘She was probably lying about that.’
‘Yes, probably.’
Fergus closes his eyes and groans. The poor guy is really suffering.
‘Siggy, you have to accept the fact that you may never see the girl again.’
‘But suppose I do see her again – how the hell am I going to make her like me after I vomited on her shoes?’
‘Sorry, I can’t talk anymore. Close the door softly on your way out. If I never wake up, I leave all my stuff to you.’
I leave Fergus to die quietly in the darkened room.

Siggy does manage to locate Amber. But how can he make her forgive him for what he did to her shoes? Amber suggests a trip to a haunted house. I like this part of the story because it gets quite creepy:

Plywood is hanging askew over one of the empty windows of the house. Amber and I yank at the board and it comes away.
‘Are you sure this is a good idea?’ I ask.
‘No,’ says Amber. ‘Let’s do it.’
We climb over the window ledge and drop into what would have been the sitting room. The fireplace has been ripped out. There’s a hole in the ceiling where the plaster has broken away. Thin rays of sunlight fall through, but the room smells damp.
‘Where did you see the ghost?’ whispers Amber.
‘Through here.’ I try to keep my voice steady. We walk though a doorway - with its door missing. Most of the doors have been taken. But there’s one that remains. I know exactly where it is. I grit my teeth.

The sitting room leads into the dining room. It’s perfectly square, with a small hatch in the wall, linking to the kitchen. Some of the floorboards have been removed. Amber claps her hands and there is an echo. There is also a scuttling animal sound.
‘That was probably a rat,’ I say, when my heartbeat returns to normal.
‘Probably,’ says Amber.
We leave the dining room and walk via the kitchen to a small room off the side. It might have been servants’ quarters. Like the dining room, there are floorboards missing but otherwise the room is in good repair. This is the room with the door, which is closed. There’s a small hole where a doorknob used to be.
‘What should we do?’ Amber whispers.
‘What do you want to do?’
‘I want to see what’s behind the door.’
‘Amber, maybe we should leave.’
‘We can’t back out now.’
‘You haven’t seen the ghost. I have. It’s very disturbing.’
‘But you’re still alive.’
Amber reaches for the door, then stops.
‘Do you hear it?’ she says.
‘Hear what?’
‘That noise?’
The air rings with one perfect note. I feel the hairs rise on the back of my neck.
‘I think we should go,’ says Amber.
We turn away from the door. There is another animal sound. When I hear it a second time, I realise it isn’t an animal at all.
In front of us, a man appears.

Here’s an early version of the cover. I’m glad they decided to make it red.

And here’s where I got the idea for the Scottish character. Thanks, Dad.