Chris Beckett - Dark Eden

‘This sky-boat is so busted up,’ yells down Mehmet as Defiant moves out of the clearing, ‘that they’ll probably need to build a whole new sky-boat to come and fetch you.’

‘Yeah,’ says Dixon. ‘It could take a long time getting together all that metal and plastic from under the ground. You’re going to have to be patient patient.’

‘But we won’t forget you,’ calls out Michael as they disappear into the trees. ‘And Earth won’t forget you either.’

‘I wish you’d never brought me here,’ says plump red-headed Suzie Brooklyn.

She knows this is an important moment, and she tries her best to put Angela’s anger and sadness into her voice.

‘I wish I hadn’t too,’ says John Brooklyn.

‘I wish I could go home to Earth,’ she says.

‘A waking will come sooner or later when they come back for us,’ he says, saying the words all in a rush, without any feeling at all. ‘Or someone else will come in their place. You’ll see. We belong on Earth. Our eyes nod . . .’

He pulls a face at his mistake, and corrects himself.

‘Our eyes need the bright light. So do our hearts. We won’t be . . . We won’t be here forever. If they could make Hole-in-Sky once, they can do it again.’

Suzie Brooklyn nods.

‘We’ll make a Circle of Stones here to show where Landing Veekle stood,’ she says. ‘That way we’ll always remember the place and know to stay here. And we’ll hunt in forest round it and fish in the pools. And we’ll tell our children, and our children’s children, they must always stay here, and wait, and be patient, and one waking Earth will come.’

‘Yes, Gela, my dear,’ says John Brooklyn. ‘But don’t you worry. Earth will come, it really will. One waking they’ll come and take us home.’

One waking they’ll come and take us home.

Tom’s dick and Harry’s, there were tears all round the clearing.

So that was another Any Virsry done. While everyone left Clearing to go and eat and sleep, I made sure Oldest were alright, and said thankyou to the group leaders: Liz, Flower, Candy, Susan, Tom, Mary, Julie, Bella. (There was something weird going on with Bella but that was for another waking.) A few of the older people in Family came over to say thankyou for my work, but most people just hurried away as quick as they could back to their group fires and their shelters. They’d had more than enough of me these last few wakings: me and the Laws and everything.

Well, I didn’t mind that. I’d had enough of them too, to be honest. I felt tired tired. The characters in the Show had to play a part for less than an hour, but I’d had to play a part for three whole wakings, and play it like it was really me. No giggling, no winking, no forgetting my words. Rest of Family had no idea how tiring that was, except maybe some of the group leaders, the really good ones I mean, the ones who understood there was more to it than just enjoying the feeling of being someone big. Not that I minded playing the part of Family Head, of course I didn’t. I’d played it so long that in a way it seemed more real than ordinary Caroline Brooklyn. After all, even to be an ordinary person you have to play parts. It’s just that you don’t have to stick to one; you can be a strong person one minute, and the next be weak. I liked the discipline of sticking to one thing. And I liked being the centre of things too, and that always kept me going when Any Virsry was happening, knowing that I was at the centre of it all, but afterwards the tiredness always hit me.

‘Yes, you go back to group, Tom,’ I told Tom Brooklyn. ‘I’ll be along shortly when Clearing has emptied out. That was a pretty good Show that Brooklyn group put on there. No boats dropped like last time, no one forgetting what they were supposed to say. I felt proud of you all.’

‘Shame Suzie didn’t put herself into being Angela a bit more. She was better in practice.’

‘Don’t worry, Tom, she did alright. You off now too, Mary? Good Any Virsry, I thought, though it’s left us with a lot of work to do. You going too, Susan? Sorry you didn’t get what you wanted about the London move, but I’ll make sure sure they do the work they promised to do to get you lot sorted out again.’

‘We said ten yards in Council meeting. Not twelve like Secret Ree wrote down.’

‘She was right there with us when she wrote it down, Susan. I’m sure she wouldn’t have made a mistake. But don’t worry, like I say, we’ll make sure London helps you get sorted. A few wakings and you’ll be fine.’

It was a hard hard job too, keeping Family together. There was always someone that wasn’t happy, always someone that needed soothing down. That was what that silly kid John Redlantern didn’t understand. Any fool can break a thing. In two minutes, you could take one of Jeffo’s boats out on Greatpool, knock the ends off it with a stone and let it sink, but building a new one took wakings and wakings, and keeping one going meant work every time it was used: greasing it, checking the skins are tight, making sure the glue isn’t getting wet or coming loose.

Of course sometimes you’ve got to make changes. Did the Redlantern boy really think he was the only one who’d even noticed that? Of course you have. We had to give London a bit more space, didn’t we? We had to change the fishing rules out on Greatpool. But what he didn’t understand was the work work work that goes into just keeping things going waking after waking after waking. Silly little slinker.

‘Yes, you head back to Batwing now, Flower. I’m going in just a minute myself. Good Any Virsry, I thought, though we’ll need to talk more about that Redlantern boy.’

He was still in Clearing, I noticed. All of Redlantern was filing out, but John Redlantern was standing there by himself, like he was another Family Head who had to wait, like me, for everyone else to go first. I thought of going to talk to him, or maybe of telling him to leave, but I reckoned that would just make him feel even more important than he already did. He’d go in his own time. I’d think about how to manage him when I’d had some sleep; how to manage him, and how to manage Redlantern group. I noticed that Bella had slipped off without even saying goodbye.

‘Think I’ll head off now, Caroline,’ said Liz Spiketree, ‘get back to group and make sure they’re all settled.’

‘Yes, you go, Liz. Thanks for your work in Council. I’ll follow you in just a minute.’

‘Okay if I put the barks away now?’ asked little Jane London.

‘Yes, go on, Jane. I’m done with them now. You go back to London and get some rest.’

Jane got on my nerves to tell the truth, with the way she kept correcting me and pointing to the bark all the time, and I was sure that she sometimes wrote down what she thought we ought to have said, and not what we actually said at all. Susan Blueside was right, it was ten yards Blueway that we said London could move, and not twelve like Jane wrote down. I’d need to speak to her about that. She could not be allowed to use her position as Secret Ree to help her own London group. One more problem for another waking.

‘I’m off, Caroline,’ said Tom Brooklyn. ‘See you back in group in a minute?’

‘Yes, I’ll be along soon.’

I looked up and saw that John Redlantern was still standing there. A couple of his friends had stopped to talk to him, but now they headed off and left him on his own again, stretching and scratching and looking round, like he was in no hurry at all.

I had a bad feeling. I always felt tired after an Any Virsry, and I always felt a bit sad too. (Like the people in Show feel sad, I suppose, when they have to stop being Michael Name-Giver or Tommy Schneider and have to go back to being themselves.) But I had a different feeling this time, like something new had crept into the world that wouldn’t ever go away again.