Dark Eden

and when we do restore that Circle, no way will this wicked boy have the honour of coming anywhere near it.’
    ‘Do like David said,’ called a big dark gloomy Starflower man called Harry. ‘Spike him up. Like Hitler did to Jesus. That will repay Mother Angela for the hurt that’s been done her. Otherwise we’ll all bear the burden of it, on and on and on.’
    ‘Yeah, that’s right,’ called out a sharp little woman called Lucy Fishcreek. ‘If he doesn’t pay the price for it, we all will. Us and our children and our children’s children too.’
    ‘That’s true,’ said Julie the London leader, with the authority of Council in her voice, ‘that’s
true
true. He’s shamed all of us, not just himself.’
    ‘Angela is crying,’ wailed that horrible wet-eyed Lucy Lu from Redlantern. ‘Angela is
crying out
for our help.’
    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