The Power of Five Oblivion

because if you had days of the week you had weekends, and since the work never stopped that wasn’t exactly helpful. Of course, everyone had a rough idea of the date. For example, I knew my birthday was coming up. But most of the time, things were kept deliberately vague.
    Anyway, we had to wait four days until the next Assembly, which was different from the Council because everyone was expected to be there – and that was when Jamie would be presented to the entire village. Until then, he couldn’t leave the house, which, for the rest of us, meant there was going to be no avoiding him. George and John reacted to the new guest in different ways. As usual, John said very little but I saw him glance at Rita once or twice and knew that he was questioning her judgement and that he was nervous about what might happen next, having a stranger living with us. As for George … he disappointed me. When I first told him about Jamie, he seemed to be on my side but now that Jamie was living with us, he completely changed his opinion.
    “The house isn’t big enough.”
    “George – he won’t be here for ever. As soon as the village has got used to him, he’ll be given his own place to live. Anyway, he’s sleeping in the bathroom! I thought you were glad I’d helped him.”
    “I was glad you didn’t just walk away when he was hurt. And you were right not to turn him in to Mike Dolan and Simon Reade. I hate those two. But that didn’t mean you had to bring him here.”
    “That wasn’t me. That was Rita.”
    “Well, I’m surprised. Living in a place like this, you just have to keep your head down and get on with it. You don’t want to do anything that upsets anyone. Everyone’s going to be talking about us now and – you’ll see – no good will come of it.”
    George was right, of course. For the next few days everything went on as sort of normal. George left for the bakery as soon as the sun was rising and I headed for the orchard. We had breakfast together but we never talked very much as we were too tired and the room was too cold. Winter wasn’t that far away and the general feeling was that it was going to be a bad one. Meanwhile, Jamie stayed indoors, not doing very much as far as I could tell, mainly resting and regaining his strength.
    I really wanted to talk to him, to find out more about him. I even went back to the church and walked through the door a couple of times to see what that had been all about. But it was impossible to have a proper conversation. The two of us were hardly ever on our own and Jamie was still sticking to his amnesia story, even though I was certain it wasn’t true.
    And then came the village Assembly. Practically everyone was there. Attendance was compulsory unless you were sick or on duty at the perimeter, but nobody would want to miss an Assembly. We were alone in a world that was dangerous and difficult to understand. Everyone was afraid more or less all the time. At the end of the day, we needed each other. We needed to be reassured.
    The meeting began with the usual stuff. All the crops – from the wheat to the apples and even the wild blackberries on the hedgerows – were down and once again there would have to be cutbacks, although we’d still be able to survive. Old Mrs Brooke had finally died and nobody was going to miss her. She’d been suffering from dementia for some time, wandering in and out of The Queen and swearing at the top of her voice. Applications were now open for those wanting to move into her house. More volunteers were needed for the collection of winter firewood. It looked as if the snow was going to be worse than ever this year and stocks were low.
    At last Reverend Johnstone climbed into the pulpit.
    “My friends,” he began. That was what he always called us, although at the end of one of his dreary sermons there were plenty of us who were anything but. “I do have one remarkable piece of news for you. Many of you will remember that it has been seven years since the Traveller arrived in the village and was welcomed by us. Well, another visitor has turned up out of the blue and presented himself to us, this time a young man of about fifteen. His name is Jamie Tyler and he came here through the wood after being badly injured. He has no memory and cannot tell us where he came from, but having taken account of his age and the fact that he is unarmed and alone, the Council has decided to let him stay.”
    That was the cue for Jamie to step out