Dark Eden

their littles, but most just wanted to crawl under the bark roofs of their shelters and sleep. I wouldn’t have minded sleeping myself. I was so tired and felt so battered. And I was
dreading
dreading the things that might soon be coming my way if I stayed awake,
really
awake I mean, like I was awake when I stood and faced that leopard.
    ‘Hey John? What you doing?’ Gerry asked.
    Little Jeff stood behind him, watching me with his big clever eyes, as if he already knew what was in my mind.
    I looked round for David, but he had already gone. I guessed he thought I couldn’t do much harm now Any Virsry was over. That made me smile. There was a
lot
of harm I could still do.
    ‘Go on back,’ I said to them. ‘I might go see Tina for a bit. I’ll join you later.’
    Then Tina herself came over.
    ‘Tom’s dick, John, you don’t let go, do you?’ she said, and laughed. It seemed she’d enjoyed my boldness earlier that waking. ‘Shall we go up Deep Pool for a bit before we sleep? Swim in the water. Clear our heads of all this?’
    I nodded.
    ‘Good idea,’ I said, ‘but I’ve got something I need to do first, though. I’ll come to Deep Pool a bit later, if you’re willing to wait for me.’
    ‘What have you got to do?’
    ‘I’ll . . . I’ll tell you later.’
    ‘Does it involve Bella by any chance, or Martha London?’
    ‘No, no. Nothing like that. You’ll understand when I tell you.’
    She examined me closely with her eyes narrowed. Then, reluctantly, she shrugged and nodded and headed off.
    I noticed Caroline looking at me again. All of Council had gone, and nearly all of Family, but she was still standing there. I made a pretence of leaving myself, heading in the general direction of Stream’s Join, but walking slowly and letting people pass me. When there was no one left behind me, I doubled back to Circle Clearing.
    Sure enough, Caroline had gone, and so had everyone else. There was no one there but me.

    Nothing looks more lovely than something that’s about to end, and that’s true even if you yourself are going to be the cause of its ending.
    That clearing was beautiful
beautiful
with the bright whitelanterns all round, extra bright and shiny as they were from being pruned for all those wombtimes since the beginning, and with shiny bright Main Stream running past one edge of it. But of course there were other pretty clearings in forest, and what made Circle Clearing special were the white stones in middle. They were what made it different from every single one of all the other gaps and openings in forest between Alps and Rockies, and between Blue Mountains and Peckham Hills. That white Circle gave it a mystery and a story. And they made it ours.
    So I hesitated, feeling in the little pocket at the edge of my waistwrap for Angela’s ring, as if I thought she might help me decide what to do. But she was silent. All I heard was, far off in the future, voices calling back to me across time.
    ‘No, no, don’t do it!’ some of them were saying. ‘Angela said we must stay together by Circle, John. You know she did. She made Circle herself! Her and Tommy. They made it to show us where we must wait until Earth comes back for us at last!’
    ‘Do it, John, do it!’ other voices were saying. ‘Angela wanted us to make a life on Eden. If she hadn’t wanted that she’d never have stayed and never have laid down with Tommy.’
    They couldn’t settle it for me. They were no use at all. I’d have to make up my own mind. My mouth was dry, my hands clammy with sweat, but I looked around one more time to make sure no one was watching, then walked over to one of the stones and picked it up.
    No one had ever picked up one of those stones before, not that I’d heard of, not since they were first laid there by Tommy and Angela themselves. It was just a stone, cold to the touch like other stones, heavy like other stones, but I felt like the thing might burst into flames in my hand and sear off my skin. I feared it would shriek out loud, like a living creature, screaming for Oldest and Council and Family to come and save it. I even feared, a little tiny bit, that I would simply drop down dead.
    But of course none of that happened. It was just a stone, wasn’t it? It wasn’t alive. It wasn’t even dead. It was just a stone. And once I’d taken it over to Main Stream and chucked it in, I couldn’t even tell it apart from the other stones that lay on the bottom there, lit by the shining weed. It