The Peacock Cloak

an old canal (now simply a somewhat deeper than usual channel running along the edge of the great Thames Marsh that stretched all the way to what was left of London).
    “Suzanne! Something amazing has happened!”
    I realised that I’d got into the habit of cringing in her presence. Even now, when I had good news for her, I was cringing as if I expected a blow. Annoyed with myself, I straightened up. After all I didn’t even need to tell Suzanne about losing the job at Magdalen College. That didn’t matter any more.
    “Something amazing, Suzanne!”
    She had been pacing the room with Maria on her hip.
    “Shhhhh, you idiot, Juan, Maria is almost asleep. What are you doing here at this time of day? I hope you haven’t lost your…”
    “Suzanne, I’ve been offered five thousand dollars for one day’s work. Five thousand . Plus Greenland resident visas for all three of us.”
    “You’ve been drinking haven’t you? I can smell it on your breath. How can you even think of drinking when we’re…”
    A slowly pulsing engine noise passed above us as the armed airship made its way from St Giles to the low hills on the far side of the Marsh. It was carrying away the corpses for cremation.
    “Five thousand dollars, Suzanne,” I bellowed over the throbbing of the blades. “Five thousand. Look here is a five hundred advance already!”
    I held a wad of fifties in front of her that Pham had put into my hands as a token that he really meant what he said.

    Looking back, Dr Brennan, it’s horrible to remember the low, desperate gleam that came into Suzanne’s eyes. In a single instant, here was the evidence of how much poverty and fear and hopelessness had coarsened and corrupted her.
    But I was coarsened and corrupted too. I didn’t care how far she’d fallen from what she’d once been. I was just relieved that she wasn’t angry with me, relieved that she wasn’t going to hit me and scream at me as she sometimes did – me with my head lowered, my cheek bleeding, holding her at arm’s length until the rage passed and the hopeless tears began to flow – relieved that I wouldn’t have to tell her that I’d lost my job.
    She hurried to lay Maria down on the bed so that she could snatch the money from me.
    “What did you have to do to earn this?” she asked as she flicked through it with urgent fingers.
    I told her about the matter replication experiments and how I would have to be temporarily paralysed and scanned for forty-five minutes.
    “…which won’t be easy of course,” I said, “going under the anaesthetic, and knowing that I could quite possibly never wake again.”
    As I’d approached the house I’d allowed myself a little fantasy that Suzanne would balk a little at the risk to my life.
    “I need money for Maria, Juan,” I’d imagined her saying, “but not at the price of losing you.”
    And then, realising that, even as a plausible fantasy, this was too much to ask, I’d revised my daydream somewhat.
    “Dear Juan,” my imaginary Suzanne had said to me instead. “I’ve been so hard on you, and yet you’re prepared to risk your life for me and our child. How lucky I am to have you!”
    The heroism and selflessness of it all had almost brought tears to my eyes, and I’d quite forgotten that, not much more than an hour previously, I’d seriously contemplated abandoning them both.
    What she actually said was a little different.
    “So when do you get the rest of the money?”
    “When I turn up for the scan. You can come with me. You can take the money in advance. And then, even if I…”
    “And Greenland visas too?”
    “Yes, in advance as well.”
    “Oh God, oh God, oh God, please let this be real. Please don’t let this be some kind of hoax.”
    “I don’t see how it can be. If they don’t give us the money, we just walk.”
    “I’ll definitely come there with you, because…”
    “Well, thanks, I’d certainly be glad of the…”
    “…because you’re much too willing to think the best of people. I need to be sure there’s not some kind of con going on.”
    Suzanne was cleverer than me. That was one of the things that had gradually become apparent to both of us after that time of daily lovemaking and meals eaten together off a single plate. She was cleverer and more strong-willed.
    “Well, yes, of course,” I said humbly.
    I felt very hurt now, and Suzanne finally sensed it. With a huge effort she turned her thoughts reluctantly away from her fears and her