Aitken - 50 Ways of Saying Fabulous: Book 2 20th Anniversary Edition

This novel is set in Central Otago, New Zealand, an area where I grew up and know very well. However, when this novel was first published, I decided in consultation with my Australian editor to fictionalise some of the place names. This was done out of respect to friends and family who still lived in this district and to lessen the impact of people reading the novel and concluding that the mother character Reebie was based on my mother etc.

So for those readers who know this region and perhaps found this curious, I just wanted to explain why some place names are made up, while others (Dunedin, Palmerston etc) are not.

The fictionalised setting names are as follows:

Mawera the farming community where Billys family lives

Crayburn a small village with a shop and a pub, located some 15 miles from Mawera

Glenora the major town in the district, located some 30 miles from Mawera

Serpentine county the district which encompasses all of these locations

It was a typical Sunday afternoon. Yet it turned out to be the day when everything changed.

I was in the lounge reading while my father watched the sport on television. My mother was on the balcony in some complicated position. A car tore up the drive, a black Torana, stirring up a fury of dust, sending the farm dogs into a frenzy, barking and darting out to bite the cars tyres. The commotion was enough to provoke my fathers attention away from the rugby match.

That boy drives too fast, he said. Ill have to have a word with him about that before I let him loose in my vehicles.

Who is it? I asked.

Id forgotten about the farm boy arriving. I hadnt paid much attention when my father announced hed hired someone to help through the busy spring and summer period. There had been other farm boys in the past. Lou, Babe and I had always found reasons to criticise them. We disliked them as a matter of principle. We were the bosss family and that endowed us with a haughty superiority. We scrutinised everything they did, eager to find faults, which we would then discuss in front of my father.

Its the new farm boy. Now run down, Billy-Boy, and show him the hut and help him carry in his gear.

I reluctantly abandoned my book and the beanbag.

Hurry up, snapped my father, before he wanders round and finds your mother on the balcony in one of her weird moments.

I was sliding my feet into my gumboots when I glanced up to see him for the first time, on the other side of the glass door. David Cassidy. I knew it was impossible but it looked so much like him the hair, the smile I couldnt help but believe what my eyes were insisting was true.

His hair was exactly like Davids. Long and dark. Centre parted. It hung glossily round his jaw with a fringe that swept down to his eyes. And his smile. He had David Cassidys exact smile. Dazzling. Dreamy. So full of joy. It simply transformed his face and made you feel transformed too, just from basking in its radiance a while. I was helpless in the face of that smile. All l could do was grin inanely back. If hed been wearing a skintight satin jumpsuit the resemblance would have been absolutely undeniable. He was dressed casually. Cowboy boots, jeans and a checked cotton shirt, only half-buttoned up. It afforded a glimpse of his chest, which was as tanned as his face, even though it was only September.

I forgot to open the door. All I could do was stare and smile.

Jamie had to open the door himself. Hi there, he said. You must be Billy. They told me Id have a young helper and wouldnt have to be doing everything by myself. I like having company.