The Long Earth

him—’
    ‘How many people do you know have this talent?’
    She shrugged. ‘Not even all of my own family. But I know that there are others out there; occasionally I meet people. All I can really say is that I know a soft place when I find one, and then I generally have a good idea of how far it will go and in which direction. My granddad on my mother’s side, he was a
real
stepper, he could sense a soft place two miles off. Granddad called them the fairy ways. He was Irish by birth, and he said that if you stepped into a soft place you could
step lively
, as he called it. Mom said that when you stepped lively you were building up a debt which would one day have to be repaid.’
    Joshua asked, ‘So what about Happy Landings? How come people come unstuck and drift here, like the mayor says? … Maybe it’s something to do with the network of soft places. People drift and gather, like snowflakes collecting in a hollow, maybe.’
    ‘Yes, perhaps it’s something like that,’ Lobsang said. ‘We know that stability is somehow a key to the Long Earth. Maybe Happy Landings is something like a potential well. And it’s clearly been operating long before Step Day, deep into the past.’
    ‘Yeah,’ Sally said sceptically. ‘Look, all this isn’t the point.
The trolls are nervous
– even here; I can tell if you can’t. That’s what we need to focus on. That’s why I’m sticking with you two clowns and your ridiculous aerial barge. Because in your dim way you’ve seen what I’ve seen. That all across the Long Earth something is scaring the trolls and the other humanoids. And that scares me. And, like you, I need to figure out what’s going on.’
    Joshua asked, ‘But what concerns you most, Sally? The threat to people, or to the trolls?’
    ‘What do you think?’ she snapped back.
    At twilight there was evensong, courtesy of the trolls. Troll song
was
the trolls; they lived in a world of constant chatter.
    But then so did the people of Happy Landings. Even at dusk they were still out and about, strolling, waving, laughing, generally finding pleasure in one another’s company. Fires were lit everywhere; in the Pacific North-west on most worlds there was no shortage of firewood. And, Joshua noticed, as evening drew in more people were pouring in from neighbouring communities, on foot, some drawing small carts bearing children and old folk. The Humptulips core of Happy Landings wasn’t isolated, then.
    Some, they learned, came from as far away as this world’s footprint of Seattle. And that district on this Earth had been called Seattle since 1954, when a lady called Kitty Hartman, minding her own business on her way home from Pike Place Market, stepped without knowing, and was amazed by the disappearance of the buildings around her. The travellers from the
Mark Twain
were introduced to Mrs Montecute, as she was now known: white-haired, exceptionally spry, very happy to talk.
    ‘Of course, it was rather a shock, you know, and I remember thinking, I don’t even know what
state
I’m in! I’m not in Washington any more, that’s for sure. I wondered if I should have brought a little dog and a pair of red shoes! And then the first person I met here was François Montecute, who really was kind of cute like his name, who really did turn my head, and who really was an artist between the sheets if you get my drift.’ She told them this with the cheerful directness of an elderly lady who is determined to make young people aware that she has had sex, too, and by the sound of it quite a considerable amount.
    There was a certain contented aura about Mrs Montecute, and it seemed to Joshua that everyone in Happy Landings shared it, to some extent. It was hard to pin down.
    Sally said when he tried to express this, ‘I know what you mean. Everybody seems so, well, sensible. I have come here many times and it’s always the same. You never get complaints, or competitiveness. They don’t need government, not really. You could say that Mayor Spencer is the first among equals. When there is any big project to be undertaken, they just knuckle down and get on with it.’
    Joshua said, ‘It all feels a bit Stepford Wives to me.’
    Sally laughed. ‘It bothers you, does it? A happy human community
bothers
Joshua Valienté, the great loner who’s barely human himself. Well, it is – odd. But in a positive way. I am not talking about telepathy or any of that kind of shit.’
    Joshua grinned. ‘As opposed to the