Chris Beckett - Dark Eden

Harry’s dick, I thought, it could really happen. They really could spike John up like Jesus.

But Candy, the Fishcreek group leader, whispered: ‘Remember the Laws, remember the Laws on the trees. We mustn’t kill.’

Caroline nodded.

‘Who else that knows him wants to speak? He’s got no brothers or sisters, has he? How about his cousins?’

Gerry stood up. Poor kid. He was white white as anything but he wanted desperately to do right by his hero John.

‘John’s brave, don’t forget. He does stuff no one dares to do. Remember how he did for that leopard!’

Tears came from his eyes. How brilliant everything had seemed to him back then, when he’d been the one to witness John do for the leopard. How happy he’d been for John when whole Family praised him.

‘He’s braver than just about everyone in Family,’ Gerry said. ‘Maybe the bravest one of all.’

He looked round at his little brother, weird little clawfooted Jeff, who was younger than him, yet in a way much older. I think Gerry was hoping Jeff would think of better arguments than he could. And Jeff did speak, but all he would say was that weird phrase he came up with at the weirdest times, for no obvious reason at all.

‘We are here,’ he said. ‘We really are here.’

Some people laughed, some yelled out that if he wasn’t going to talk sense, he should shut up his bloody gob.

‘He means this isn’t a dream,’ Gerry tried to explain. ‘He means that this isn’t just some kind of story.’

‘You don’t say!’ someone called out sarcastically. ‘I never would have known that.’

But it was like a dream, in that gaping space, with the mist shutting us away from forest and from sky. It was like an evil dream. Either that, or everything else had turned out to be a dream and the only true thing in the world was this : Family, our miserable, bitter, lonely Family, full of stupid people, full of hateful, disappointed people, full of sour people, full of ignorant people who never thought anything through for themselves.

‘Why don’t you let John speak!’ I called out.

David turned on me. He was still out in front there, like he was another centre, separate and apart from Caroline and Council. Hateful hateful man, I’d often seen him secretly looking at me, longingly, knowing quite well that I’d never let him near me. But now he felt power on his side.

‘Oh-ho! I wondered when his little slippy girl would speak!’

‘Bella is right,’ I said. ‘He did it for a reason and you ought to hear what he has to say.’

Caroline frowned.

‘Why should we let him tell us his silly ideas, just because he’s done something wrong?’

But she was wavering and several people in the crowd called out.

‘Yeah, let him have his say.’

‘It’s only fair.’

Caroline nodded.

‘Alright then, John. You have two minutes.’

And she turned and looked at Secret Ree, who nodded and laid down the bark that she’d been scribbling on, and put her finger on her own wrist to count out one hundred and twenty pulses.

‘You said I’ve offended Mother Angela,’ John said. ‘But I don’t think I have. She wanted the best for all of us, it’s true. But we all know that she sometimes felt trapped and stifled here and longed to break out. Remember the story of Angela and the Ring? Remember how she cried for nine whole sleeps and nine whole wakings? Remember how she said she hated Eden, and even hated her own . . . ?’

‘You’re calling Angela to your defence?’ interrupted Caroline, furious. ‘How dare you? If Angela cried for nine wakings when she lost a ring, think how she’d be crying now!’

‘She is crying,’ wailed Lucy Lu, in that fake dreamy voice of hers. ‘She’s crying like she’s never cried before.’

‘You said you’d give him two minutes,’ I yelled.

‘What I mean is this,’ said John. ‘Angela told us to wait by the stones because she didn’t know how long it would be before Earth came back. But she wouldn’t have wanted Family to stay huddled up in this little place for all this time, using up all the food, getting tired and bored, starting to hate one another. She’d have wanted us to find new places, new air, spread out, explore, make the best of things. That’s why . . .’

‘Two minutes is up!’ snapped Caroline briskly, though I could see that Secret Ree was still counting. ‘You’ve had your say and Council has heard enough evidence. Council will consider its decision. Except you, Bella, you can go back to your people over there.’

So Bella had the shame of crossing the clearing to where the Redlantern people were, and squatting down among them as an ordinary person, while Council huddled together without her and conferred in whispers. It was like we were watching some kind of play, bunched up together under the trees. There was Council in the centre; there was John standing just out from the centre on his own, his face pale and blank, not looking at anyone; and then, to one side, and a bit further out, there was David, arms still crossed, legs still apart, scanning the crowd with hard hard eyes, as if he was checking each one of us out to see who was with him and who wasn’t.

Pretty soon the huddle broke up. Caroline stepped away from the rest of Council.

‘We’ve made our decision,’ she said. ‘We’re all agreed. John Redlantern can’t stay in Family. He must leave within two hours. After that he won’t be part of Family any more. The Laws won’t apply to him, and if he’s found near here, he can be treated as we’d treat a troublesome animal. Like a tree fox or a slinker.’

Then she looked around the crowd, searching for people that she knew had a connection with John — Gerry, Jeff, Bella, Jade, me.

‘And listen carefully to this. Redlantern group can give him whatever it wants to let him take with him, but after he’s left, no one is to give him anything any more — no food, no blackglass, no buckskins, nothing — and no one is to talk to him or look for him or spend time with him, or they too will be thrown out of Family.’

She gave a firm little nod and a little sideways glance at John.

‘That’s our decision about John Redlantern. And that’s the end of Strornry.’

We made our way back through the fug to Redlantern clearing. It was a dreadful time, a time that was neither waking nor sleeping, neither real nor a dream, and it seemed as if it could never reach an end, but only sink downwards deeper and deeper into itself, until it swallowed up all memory of happiness, or fun, or anything else except this fuggy nothingness. We were exhausted and hopeless. Sweat and rain ran down our faces and we were too tired to wipe it off. Out of all of Redlantern group, only David seemed untouched by the misery, just as he’d been untouched by fun and happiness in the past. While we crept back with our shoulders hunched, he strode along beside us with a satisfied look that was almost a smile. But even David knew to keep his mouth shut, and hardly anyone else spoke at all, though many wept silently, including me. Even the littlest of littles must have understood that our safe familiar world had been torn in two. And some of them cried, and some were beyond crying.

We had no leader to guide us. Bella normally got hold of any problem that faced our group and helped us see what we had to do — ‘This is the thing we need to concentrate on; this is what we need to do first; these are the questions we need to answer . . .’ — but now she walked silently among us, looking at no one. Old Roger wrung his hands together. Fox and the other young men and women trudged along in a little group of their own.