Chris Beckett - Dark Eden

I glanced at Gerry. His face was pale in the light of the starflowers, but he kept still and didn’t look back at me.

‘Nope. Can’t see anything round here,’ said Harry Blueside.

‘Let’s go on then,’ Dixon grunted. ‘There won’t be much hunting where a fire’s been.’

We lay in the flowers until we couldn’t hear their voices at all, and we heard the thud , thud , thud of the hoppers coming back. Then we lifted our heads cautiously, and stood up.

Peep peep! went the hoppers.

Hmmph , hmmph , hmmph , went the trees all around us, pumping up hot sap from Underworld, like they always do, whether we’re laughing or crying or slipping or dying or what. And whether we love or hate each other.

‘So there you are!’ growled Dixon Blueside.

They were just a little way off, squatted down and waiting for us to emerge, Dixon, Harry and a couple of other young Blueside men. Tom’s dick! They’d tricked us. Dixon must have been signing to them with his hands when he talked about moving on.

We ran and ran, jumping over streams, diving under low branches. Hoppers scattered out of our way. PEEP! PEEP! Two tree foxes, tearing at a rotten old buck corpse, darted up a tree with a screech.

I reckon that Harry could have run as fast as me and Gerry, and probably the other young blokes could too. But maybe they weren’t sure what they’d do if they did catch up with us, and maybe they didn’t want to find out, because they stayed close to big fat Dixon and he soon got out of breath. We left them behind us pretty quickly, but we kept on running a bit longer to be sure. We were just running past Rat Rocks when — blam! — we were face to face with a bunch of women.

‘Gerry!’

They were all from Redlantern. It was Gerry’s mum Sue, and John’s mum Jade, and their sister Angie, and two Redlantern newhair girls, Janny and Candice.

Well, Sue Redlantern just burst into tears. She didn’t know whether to scold Gerry or hug him and she ended up doing both.

‘Are you alright, my darling?’ she asked when she’d finally managed to control her sobs and speak. ‘Where’s Jeff? Is he alright? What about his poor feet? I’ve been so worried about you. How could you do this to me? How could you hurt me like this, you selfish boy? Are you sure you’re alright, baby? How could you go without even saying goodbye . . . ?’

On and on. Angie stood back smiling, and Jade stood further back looking uncomfortable, and me and the two newhairs sort of backed away. I liked Janny Redlantern. She was a cheerful, funny, short little batfaced kid, who knew she couldn’t get by on looks, so got by on being fun and nice instead. Candice was sort of alright but she expected everyone to run around her and attend to her all the time and got grumpy if they didn’t. And when it came to keeping things going between people, keeping things happy, she didn’t do her share at all. She left it to the likes of Janny to do that work.

‘I hope you’re proud of yourself, Tina,’ she now said, ‘because you’ve really messed things up for us. You know that? You’ve made our lives a bloody misery!’

Janny nodded.

‘I don’t know why I’m even talking to you,’ she said. ‘It’s bloody terrible back in Family now thanks to John and you three. They still don’t let newhairs out on their own, only with grownups. They’re watching us all the time, in case we run off too. And you’d better be careful careful. David — our David Redlantern, I mean — he’s going round all the groups saying we should be much harder on you four than we’ve been up to now, we should come after John and you three and teach you a lesson so that no one else will ever dare copy you.’

Candice had sort of drifted away from us while Janny was talking, and moved towards Angie and Jade.

‘What kind of a lesson?’ I scoffed. ‘What can David do? Spike us up to a tree like Jesus, like he said at Strornry? I don’t really think so, do you?’

I didn’t really mean that as a serious question, but Janny took it as one.

‘I don’t know,’ she said, after a bit of thought. ‘He doesn’t say exactly. He’s careful what he says. Caroline said John would be outside of the Laws, didn’t she, but she hasn’t said that about you three yet. And even John, well, a lot of people still say he’s barely more than a kid, and he did well to do for that leopard, and if he asked to come back, we ought to let him. So I’m not sure, but . . .’

She looked round at the others. Gerry was crying now. Sue was begging him to fetch Jeff and come back to her. Angie was backing her up. Jade was sort of half-heartedly chipping in. Candice was standing near Jade and looking bored.

Janny came a bit closer to me.

‘But it’s horrible in Family, Tina, it’s horrible. I never thought of it before as a place where I was stuck . I never thought of it as a place I was only in because I wasn’t allowed to go. But now that’s exactly what it feels like, and the funny thing is, I don’t really blame John and you for it — Candice does, but deep down I don’t — because I reckon it’s always been like that. We just didn’t notice it. We just didn’t know anything else. Do you know what I mean?’

She glanced back again. Candice was watching us, but she was far enough away so as not to be able to hear.

‘David Redlantern is all over Family now,’ Janny said. ‘And so’s bloody Lucy Lu with the Shadow People whispering in her ear, and Father Tommy and Mother Gela themselves telling her what’s right and what’s wrong. Funny how they always tell her we should do whatever David says!’

‘Come and join us,’ I said. ‘Don’t tell anyone this unless you really trust them, but we’re just by Neck of Cold Path Valley, just up the slope on the left side as you go in. Come and find us. Bring more people if you can. Not clawfeet, though, if you can help it. It’s going to be hard enough with bloody Jeff . . .’

Behind us Sue started to shout at Gerry.

‘You’re a silly selfish boy! If you want to go and kill yourself up on Snowy Dark that’s your look out, but not my Jeff. How could he manage up there with his feet? How could he? You can’t let him go! You can’t! I want to see my little boy. I want to see him!’

Gerry’s hands were pressed against his face. He was shaking and sobbing. It was too much for him. He loved his mum, he loved John, he loved Jeff. Those were the three big things in his life, and now they were all clashing with each other and he couldn’t be true to one of them without betraying the others.

‘Come on, Gerry,’ I told him firmly, starting to move back into forest. ‘We’ve got to go.’

That’s how he is. He needs someone to take charge of him.

He turned towards me. He turned back towards his mum. She grabbed his arm. Gerry looked at me imploringly, but I wouldn’t release him from my command. So at last he pulled free of his mum, and we started running off through forest.

‘Gerry!’ Sue screamed. ‘Gerry! You piss off if you want to, but make sure you bring my little boy back to me!’

‘Don’t, mum,’ murmured Gerry, not loud enough for her to hear, but just for himself. ‘Please don’t.’

‘Gerry!’ Sue yelled again. ‘Please come back! You’re my boy! I love you! Please come back to us!’

‘I love you too, mum,’ muttered Gerry, slowing down and half-turning towards her, like he was thinking of going back.

‘Gela’s sake, just keep going, Gerry!’ I told him. ‘Don’t even think about going back.’

I might sound harsh, but after all I had a mum too that I was fond of, and sisters and aunties and brothers, and I’d left them all behind as well.