Dark Eden

cave. Even John looked scared.
    It must have been scary scary that first time for those five kids, all those wombs and wombs ago, watching their mum fall apart like that and turn on them, when she and Tommy were all they had in the world. It must have been scary scary. Otherwise that story would never have kept going for so long, would it? Not when so many other things have been forgotten and lost, spreading out and out over the generations like the ripples from a stone chucked into a pool, getting smaller and fading away. And the weird weird thing about this story of
Angela’s Ring
was that it didn’t even have a point to it, no happy ending, no lesson to be learnt. It was like one person’s cry of pain, echoing out on and on and on through the generations, even after that person was long long dead.
    So why
did
we keep doing it? I’d wondered that sometimes, but now I found out. It was because doing it felt
great
!
    ‘As for you, Tommy,’ I said, turning on John. ‘As for you, you selfish arrogant bastard. You took me from my mum and dad, you took me from my friends, you took me from my lovely Earth, without letting me in on your plans, without giving me a choice, without thinking about my feelings. And now you can’t even find my ring. I hate you, I hate you, I hate you and I always always will.’
    But John just knelt down, picked up the ring and held it out to me.
    ‘Here it is, Gela, I’ve found it. I’ve found your ring for you after all this time.’
    That threw me, I must admit. I wasn’t expecting that move at all.
    ‘What do you mean? You never found the ring, Tommy. You never did anything that useful in your whole life.’
    ‘No,’ said John. ‘I’m not Tommy. I’m John. I’m John Redlantern. I’m your great-great-grandson and these are your great-great-grandchildren, trying to make our home in dark Eden, just like you did. I’ve found your ring, Gela. I’ve ended that story. You don’t need to tell that story any more.’
    ‘Give it back then. Give it back to me now.’
    But he had his answer to that as well.
    ‘No, Gela. You’re dead now. You’re dead and buried under a pile of stones, remember? The ring’s no good to you any more, is it? But I’ll look after it. We’ll look after it. We’ll take it with us over Dark and right to the other side, just where you want us to go.’
    And he put the ring back in the pocket in his wrap and came and put his arms round me. Tom’s dick and Harry’s, you’d got to hand it to him! He knew how to stay in control.
    My eyes were full of tears and I didn’t know if they were my tears really or Angela’s, just like I didn’t know if I felt comfort in his arms in spite of everything, or whether I hated him more than ever.
    And then the story was over, and the decision was made and we were all busying about getting things ready to go up Cold Path into Dark and leave this place for good.

30

John Redlantern

    People tried to have things every which way, even smart honest people like Tina. They wanted the good bits and then they complained about the bad bits that had to go with the good bits. Well, the good bit about me was that I could make things happen, and that I stuck to a thing and didn’t ever give up or let go. That was the good thing that people got from me, along with all those other things people didn’t like.
    When we had that meeting, I’d just done for a man. I’d killed a man I’d seen around Family ever since I was a little kid. I didn’t feel guilty about it exactly because I knew he’d happily have done the same to me, and to Tina and probably to the others too. But, Gela’s eyes, I was shaken
shaken
by it. All that meeting it was running through my mind over and over, my spear sticking out of Dixon’s back, my spear stabbing back again into his belly, the squelch of it going in, the hiss of air, the blood bubbling out of his mouth. I hadn’t stopped to look at him longer than the time it took to pull my spear out of him, and for him to roll over to look up at me, and for me to shove the spear in again to finish him off – his two friends were still running from us, and Gerry and Harry might have needed my help – but those couple of seconds were so fixed in my mind that it was like they kept happening – really happening – over and over again.
    So I had that in my head, and I had all the practical things to remember, and at the same time I somehow had to make people
believe
in me, so that they’d accept