An excerpt from Michele Lee’s play ‘Going Down’. The play was developed during Michele’s participation in the China residency in 2016.

NATALIE: Friday arvo. Abbottsford Centrelink. Me outside its sliding doors. One finger scrolling through my phone. Not for cock. My publisher. Marta Pacek.

Marta’s great. A real feminist. After she first read my manuscript for Banana Girl, she took me to lunch at Mr Tulk. She said I was changing the narrative for Australian women.

Should I call her? Pitch my second book? Gods of Melbourne, gimme a sign.

And then…. Next to the Centrelink, a guy with a spray can and a hoodie is tagging a wall and everyone is loving it, everyone is watching him make Melbourne more like Melbourne in one fell arc of hot-pink spray paint. The he fucks it up. Or we’ve fucked it up. His tag reads: Urban Outfitters. Landing in 2017. His hoodie reads: Gus’s Guerrilla Marketing.

[On the phone.] Marta! Hi! Hey! It’s Natalie here. Can you call me back when you get a chance? Just wondering how everything is going with Transit Lounge? How are the Banana Girl sales going? Broken the 1000 barrier yet?

Also, I actually have a new book idea. It’s called… well, the title is TBC. I guess it’s like a… documentary experiment thingy. With me in it. But not simply another Banana Girl! It’ll be more… just more… urgent. Look, I’m going to flesh it out more over the weekend.

I think it’ll totally be suitable for Transit Lounge.

Um.

Ok.

Call me?