‘Come on,’ I said. ‘Please. Come with me. I need you there.’

  ‘I don’t want to.’

  ‘Don’t want to do what?’ It was Michi, who had just stepped out the back door into Maria’s garden. With her was a tall blonde girl with an asymmetrical haircut.

  ‘Nothing,’ said Hiro. ‘Astrid, this is Cara. Cara, Astrid.’

  ‘Hey,’ said the blonde girl.

  Michi was looking at me. ‘What’s going on?’ she said.

  Hiro glared. ‘Astrid wants to go and be radical with a bunch of feral hippy activists.’

  Michi frowned. ‘Redheaded girl? Dreadlocks? Hemp? Calls herself Seagull or Breeze or something equally stupid?’

  ‘Storm,’ I said.

  ‘That’s her.’ She looked at Hiro and wagged a finger. ‘Stay away from those guys,’ she said. ‘They’re trouble.’

  Hiro snorted. ‘What, are you going to dob on me?’

  ‘You know what I mean,’ said Michi. ‘You don’t want to piss Mum off. Not this week, especially.’

  Maria called Michi and Cara inside, and Hiro scuffed his feet on the garden path, his face dark and unreadable.

  ‘Fine,’ he said at last. ‘I’ll come with you.’

  I knew it should have felt like a victory, but it didn’t. Something wasn’t quite right, but I had no idea what it was.

  Storm’s gathering was down by the creek a few suburbs over, in a derelict children’s playground. A few fires burned in rubbish bins to provide light and heat, which seemed overkill on an already muggy December night, and not exactly environmentally friendly. I started to feel uneasy, but swallowed it down. I had to be open to new ideas.

  There were about twenty people gathered in the park, all dressed in hemp or Thai fisherman’s pants. I could smell incense burning.* A guy was banging on an African spirit drum, while a waify blonde sang high, whispery nothings. Another woman wearing an orange skirt fringed with bells stomped around making the bells jingle.

  ‘I can’t believe you made me do this,’ Hiro muttered.

  I was starting to wish I hadn’t. I jumped as a huge jet of fire burst out of one guy. Fire twirlers? Weren’t these people supposed to be environmentalists?* Through the stomach-turning stench of kerosene and incense, I could smell something else that I was pretty sure was pot.**

  ‘I think we might have made a mistake,’ I said to Hiro, but it was too late to turn back.

  Like some kind of supernatural entity, Storm emerged from smoke and flame, wearing something that managed to be shapeless and revealing at the same time. Her red dreadlocks burned bright in the light of the flickering fire.

  ‘You came,’ she said in her low, throaty voice.

  ‘Here we are,’ I said, and my voice sounded chirpy and false.

  Storm ignored me, but gazed at Hiro, licking her lips. What was going on?

  She gestured to a tall man standing next to her. He wore an Indian-style tunic, and I couldn’t tell where his matted hair ended and his tangled beard began.

  ‘This is Revolution.’***

  ‘Namaste,’ said Revolution, gazing at us with heavy-lidded eyes.

  ‘Hi,’ I replied. ‘Um, when does the meeting start?’

  Storm smiled lazily. ‘It’s already started.’ She swept a hand to indicate the dancing, braiding and smoking.

  Right.

  ‘I don’t suppose there’s an agenda?’ I asked. ‘Actionable items from previous minutes?’

  Storm gave me a flat look. ‘We’re anarcho-primitivists,’ she said. ‘We don’t subscribe to the capitalist bullshit that’s poisoning the planet.’

  ‘Anarcho-what?’ I asked. ‘What even is that?’

  ‘Anarcho-primitivists.’ Storm smiled in a patronising way. ‘We acknowledge that the human race is over – we’re tumbling into ecological catastrophe. The only way for us to survive is by reverting to our natural hunter-gatherer state.’

  I blinked. That was obviously completely impractical. There were way too many humans on the earth to sustain a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Without structure and government and sanitation, the whole human race would die of dysentery and other infectious diseases. Not to mention the fact that without civilisation, we wouldn’t be able to maintain our (ideally renewable) power plants or process waste products to stop them polluting our air and water and soil. But Storm looked utterly serious.

  I glanced at Hiro, but he didn’t seem to be doubled over in laughter the way I would have expected.

  ‘There is no other option for humanity,’ said Storm. ‘We need to purge our bodies of all these chemicals.’

  I looked at Hiro again. Why wasn’t he taking her to task? Where was the speech about how everything is chemicals? But he didn’t blink an eyelid.

  ‘I know things are bad,’ I said. ‘But climate scientists have predicted that if the whole world commits to cut carbon emissions by—’

  ‘Climate scientists are all fascists,’ said Revolution. ‘They’re deep in the pockets of the oil industry.’

  Well, that made absolutely no sense. ‘I’m sure a quick google will find that—’

  ‘We don’t google,’ said Storm, her voice dripping with disgust. ‘Technology is the scourge of humanity.’

  Was she serious?

  ‘Technology is going to save humanity,’ I argued. ‘Technology is finding new ways to harness renewable energies. It’s bringing species back from the brink of extinction. Technology is the only way we can reverse some of the damage we’ve done to the planet.’

  Storm and Revolution exchanged a knowing look. ‘They’ve already got to you,’ she said with insincere sadness. ‘And so young.’

  I felt myself bristle. ‘You can’t claim that all scientists and all technology are evil. Science made that disgusting kerosene those fire twirlers are using. It made the vinyl that your vegan sandals are made from. And it made the hair dye that you use, although I’m sure you tell people it’s natural. Scientists are finding new ways to harness green energy, and they’re even developing nanotechnology that can clean up pollution, improve manufacturing efficiency and make alternative energy sources more effective.’

  ‘Nanotechnology?’ said Storm with a graceful shudder. ‘It won’t seem so wonderful when the self-replicating nanobots escape from science labs, enslave humanity and consume the earth.’

  She did not just say that. ‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Now you’re just being silly.’

  Storm scoffed. ‘You say that now,’ she said. ‘But wait until we’re being farmed for energy by an army of sentient computers.’

  I couldn’t help myself, I actually laughed aloud. ‘You know that the whole premise of The Matrix is ridiculous, right? It totally contradicts the laws of thermodynamics. The energy that humans generate is significantly less than the amount of food you have to put in them to keep them alive. The evil machines would have been better off just burning whatever they were feeding the humans. Or, you know, using nuclear power, which would be thousands of times more efficient.’

  Storm closed her eyes as if she were feeling genuinely nauseated. ‘I should have known you’d be pro-nuclear.’

  I wanted to hit someone. ‘I’m not pro-nuclear,’ I said, trying not to raise my voice. ‘I’m just saying that if I was an evil machine, that’s the power source I’d use. As I’m not an evil machine intent on destroying humanity, I’d obviously prefer wind or solar.’

  Hiro took a step forward and spread his hands in a peaceful gesture. ‘Maybe we should agree to disagree,’ he said. ‘After all, we have the same goals, don’t we?’

  I was pretty convinced we didn’t. I was so disappointed. I’d thought that Storm and her friends would be kindred souls. That we’d join forces and make the world a better place. But they didn’t want to fix anything. They were too busy being angry and negative.

  ‘Our goal is to save the planet,’ said Storm. ‘And we do it by fighting the planet’s enemies.’

  ‘So who are these enemies?’ I asked.

  ‘Anyone who destroys nature for personal gain and profit.’

  That seemed like a broad definition of enemy to me.

  My phone pinged, and I dug it out of my back pocket. Storm recoiled as if I’d produced a gun. I gave her a withering look.

  ‘I know you have a phone of your own,’ I said. ‘I texted you.’

  Storm narrowed her eyes at me, and I moved a few steps away from the group to look at my phone.

  Paige: Where are you? Dev made a medium-sized romantic gesture to his music teacher, and as expected it all went horribly wrong. He could really use some ice-cream and love.

  My thumb hovered over the screen. I didn’t have time to deal with whatever crisis Dev was having this week. I mean, when was he not having his heart broken? But still, he was my friend.

  ‘We should go,’ I murmured to Hiro. ‘You were right, I’m sorry.’

  Hiro shrugged. ‘We’re here now,’ he said. ‘May as well stay and see what they have to say.’

  What?

  Hiro and Storm were staring at each other, clearly sharing some kind of … moment.

  ‘You can go,’ said Hiro, without looking at me.

  There was no way I was leaving Hiro alone with Storm. I turned back to my phone.

  Me: Sorry. Promised Mum I’d have a quiet night in.

  The reply came immediately.

  Paige: That’s funny, because I called your home number earlier and your mum said you hadn’t been home all day.

  I felt a sick twisting in my gut. I’d been caught out lying to Paige. She was one of my best friends. But she wouldn’t understand what was going on. Clark Kent had to lie all the time. It didn’t make him a bad person.

  While I’d been busy with my phone, Hiro had somehow moved closer to Storm, and he was staring at her with what looked suspiciously like admiration.

  ‘So what are we going to do?’ he asked.

  We?

  ‘That’s up for discussion.’ Storm flicked a glance at me. ‘Maybe we’ll torch it,’ she said with a cold smile.

  ‘Torch what?’

  ‘The Green Valentine Display Centre,’ said Revolution. ‘The mayor unveiled it yesterday. It outlines her whole totalitarian vision.’

  I blinked. I couldn’t believe I’d missed the unveiling of the Green Valentine scheme!

  ‘But … isn’t the mayor’s scheme what we want?’ I asked. ‘The ten-point plan?’

  Storm chuckled. ‘You obviously haven’t seen it. It’s pure evil.’

  More hyperbole, I was sure. What would these hippies know anyway, with their pot-smoking and their carcinogenic incense?

  ‘And you’re planning to torch it?’ I said. ‘You think that setting a building on fire is going to save the planet? Really? Are you insane? Do you have any idea what kind of toxic gasses that will release into the atmosphere? Burning stuff to get what you want … isn’t that kind of like a coal plant?’

  ‘That’s a very simplistic take on it.’

  ‘You know they’ll just rebuild it, right? The mayor isn’t going to say oh, some anarcho-primitivists burnt down my display centre – well, now I see the light, I’m going to devote my life to rescuing the Southern Corroboree Frog and preserving native wetlands. This has never happened, ever, in the history of ever. The council will rebuild it, so not only will you have polluted the air with greenhouse gases, you will have doubled the building’s production carbon footprint. Nice work.’

  Storm looked smug. ‘I don’t expect you to understand,’ she said, with a patronising head-tilt.

  ‘What if someone’s there? What if they get hurt?’

  ‘There are casualties in any war.’

  I shook my head. Storm wasn’t the wild, elemental force of nature I’d first seen her as. She was a noxious weed, spreading poison and choking out everything that was green and good. Storm was the wrong name for her. She was Poison Ivy. I wanted to leave more than anything, but I couldn’t let Hiro stay without me, under the influence of these awful people.

  ‘How can you say that?’ I asked. ‘How can you just casually dismiss violence like that?’

  ‘I’ve been arrested eight times,’ she said, as if it was something to be proud of.

  ‘You think that being arrested gives you, what, credentials?’

  Poison Ivy shrugged. ‘I’ve earned my stripes.’

  ‘You’re supposed to be a hippy!’ I said. ‘What about peace? What about love? Where does that come into it?’

  ‘You really don’t get it, do you?’ said Poison Ivy. ‘This is a war. We are soldiers battling for the earth. We have to win the war, before we can start to heal the earth’s wounds.’

  I snorted, but Hiro was nodding.

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘This is stupid.’

  ‘And I suppose you have all the answers?’

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘I don’t have all the answers, but I know enough to be sure that nothing is going to be solved with violence and destruction. That’s the whole point of what Hiro and I have been doing. We’re making things, not destroying them. We’re showing people that they can be better, not making them angry and defensive by turning them into the enemy.’ I turned to Hiro. ‘Tell her,’ I demanded.

  I glanced at Hiro, who looked … unsure. He flashed me a quick smile, but his eyes were dragged back to Poison Ivy.

  ‘Your … efforts are commendable,’ said Poison Ivy in a tone that suggested they very much weren’t. ‘But you’re doing more damage than good. Planting all of these European plants – it’s just more pollution. You may as well be filling that vacant lot with used syringes or toxic sludge.’

  ‘What, so you think that we should pull up all our vegies and replace them with natives?’

  ‘That’d be a start,’ said Poison Ivy. ‘Everything you’re planting comes from Europe. It doesn’t belong here.’*

  ‘If we got rid of everything here that wasn’t native, we’d all have to go, too. We’re not native.’

  Poison Ivy looked at me coolly. ‘And you think that would be such a terrible thing?’

  ‘Now you’re being ridiculous. What are you suggesting, that we exterminate all the non-native humans?’

  ‘The world would be better off without any humans.’ Poison Ivy’s look of smug superiority made my teeth hurt. I wanted to scratch that smile off her stupid face.

  ‘That’s insane,’ I said. ‘And it’s pointless. Humans are here to stay. And anyway, it’s massively conceited to think that humans aren’t a part of nature.’

  ‘You think I’m conceited?’ Poison Ivy laughed a low, throaty laugh. ‘Says the little girl who thinks her lame gardening project is going to change the world.’

  ‘There’s a difference between conceited and optimistic.’

  ‘Well,’ said Poison Ivy, speaking only to Hiro and totally ignoring me. ‘If you’re interested, feel free to join us.’

  Hiro nodded. I could see how hard he was trying not to look eager, and it made me want to scream. Why couldn’t he see how ridiculous these people were? How impractical? They were all talk and no action, or at least no action that would actually make a difference.

  I had a sudden flashback to me, just a few months ago, standing in the shopping centre handing out fact sheets. Had I been making a difference then? My fact sheets had been full of guilt-inducing statistics about how humanity was spoiling the party for so many other species. I’d berated and badgered people, telling them off for buying four-ply printed, bleached and scented toilet paper. Had my message been as negative and alienating as Poison Ivy’s?

  As my expression faltered, Poison Ivy’s lip curled into a sly smile. ‘That’s the end of the official business,’ she said to the crowd. ‘But of course you should all feel free to stay for the spiritual component.’

  One of the dreadlocked hippies brought out his djembe and I cringed inwardly. He started to thump on it, and the wispy blonde girl raised her breathy, tuneless voice in something I could only assume was supposed to be song.

  ‘Come on,’ I muttered to Hiro. ‘Surely you don’t want to stay any longer.’

  Hiro nodded, but as we were turning to go, Poison Ivy dragged Revolution out into the centre of the circle. She shot Hiro an arch look, and then lightly drew her nails over Revolution’s bare chest. Revolution reached around under her mass of red dreadlocks and tugged at the ribbon tie on her top. The whole thing fell away, exposing her bare breasts. I looked away, embarrassed. Hiro, of course, stared openly. I couldn’t help looking back.

  Poison Ivy raised her hands up above her head and began a slow, swaying dance. Her Thai fisherman’s pants sat low on her hips, and she thrust them provocatively towards Revolution. She didn’t seem at all concerned about the fact she was half naked. Her eyes were closed and her face was turned up to the sky. Her breasts were … well, I didn’t have much experience in the breast area, but they looked like the kind of breasts that people paid significant amounts of money to obtain via surgery. Perfectly formed and just the right size.

  Hiro was mesmerised. I tugged on his arm.

  ‘You’re drooling,’ I said, through gritted teeth.

  ‘Hmm?’ He didn’t look away.

  Poison Ivy and Revolution were dancing, a close, grinding dance that seemed to be only a few thin layers of clothing away from actually having sex. It was gross, and made all the grosser by how obvious it was that Poison Ivy was doing it so people would watch. I thought about how low and husky Hiro’s voice had become when he told me about the flower sex. This was what he wanted. He was a teenage boy, of course that was what he wanted. And what had I done? I’d gotten nervous and stammery, and had been grateful when we’d been interrupted.

  I watched Poison Ivy writhe and gyrate, oozing sexuality. I couldn’t compete with that. I didn’t want to. If that’s the kind of thing Hiro wanted in a girlfriend, then he was going to have to look elsewhere.

  And he was. He was looking elsewhere with his mouth hanging open, like a hungry dog being offered a bone.

  I tried to maintain a dignified silence on the train home, but I couldn’t help myself.

  ‘Those people were the actual worst,’ I burst out.

  Hiro shrugged. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘Maybe you were right. Maybe they are the ones making a difference.’

 

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