Maddigan's Fantasia, page 20
Yves might have detected her caution, because after a while he stopped trying to talk to her and simply drove, looking ahead. Then suddenly he seemed to see something in the far distance … something he had been hoping to see.
‘Look!’ he shouted. ‘Newton! Newton at last.’
Garland looked eagerly, but at first she could not make out any sign of the city. The horizon was smudged as if huge, dark thumbs had somehow rubbed along the edge of things, blurring them forever. Determined to see what Yves was claiming to see Garland screwed up her eyes, squinting at the horizon and then suddenly she recognized a different sort of smudging … a darker mark against the clear sky. Newton! It wasn’t the biggest city in the world – not as big as Solis, anyway – but it was supposed to be the cleverest. It had inherited the wisdom of the men who founded the city and and enclosed it – wisdom which included a way of drawing the power of the sun out of sunshine, a way of imprisoning that power, a way of compressing it and locking it into cells, which other cities with the right technology could then use to turn wheels and drive pistons. Men and women who understood such things, or who longed to understand them, all made for Newton, and often found work there. However they had to swear oaths of secrecy, so that Newton could stay ahead of other cities. Once you became a citizen of Newton you had to be loyal to Newton alone.
‘Will they actually trade a converter?’ asked Garland suddenly doubtful. ‘I mean will Fantasia’s performances be enough to buy one?’
‘Oh, a performance wouldn’t buy the fraction of a converter,’ said Yves. ‘We’d have to perform for years, and even then they’d probably shrug us off. But Ferdy brought stuff from Solis … some old discs – ancient, really – that contain records from the past, and a few clues about the way things fit together. Newton doesn’t know everything when all’s said and done. People want to know their histories and Solis has a thousand histories. And then there’s the whole question of how parents pass things on to children. Ferdy had red hair and you’ve got red hair. Boomer’s dad used to be a great drummer and Boomer can beat out a good rhythm too. The wise men of Solis know how things like that are passed on and we think Newton might be glad of the knowledge. They’ve always been fascinated with their children in Newton. So we’re hoping to trade wisdom for wisdom … history for mystery.’
Garland began to grin a little, then hesitated halfway through her grinning. In spite of herself she was enjoying her gossip with Yves. Quickly she pinched the corners of her mouth back into seriousness, determined not to be entertained by anything he might have to say.
‘Of course Newton’s got its own dangers,’ Yves went on. ‘It’s bang on the top of a fault line.’
‘A fault line?’ Garland asked curiously.
‘It has a lot of earthquakes,’ Yves explained. ‘That’s why their buildings are so close to the ground. Apart from their old tower of course. Goodness knows how that has survived the quakes and shakes.’
‘Are there any sweet shops?’ asked Garland. ‘We’ll have to watch Lilith all over again if there are.’
Perhaps Yves thought she was criticizing Lilith.
‘Well, make sure you do watch her,’ he said. ‘She’s an impulsive little thing.’
So the Fantasia jolted forward, along one of those roads that kept dissolving and disappearing, and then struggling out of nothing once more, but even when the road vanished it did not much matter. Now they were able to see their goal … and, as they travelled on, ever on, Newton slowly took shape before them … a city of tall glassy buildings … stretching up out of the wild country around it, but spreading out too, as if determined to make certain it was in charge of the world.
KNOWLEDGE IS STRENGTH said the great words over the city’s old arching gate.
‘Just bear in mind,’ Maddie was saying to Timon and Eden, ‘that this city is devoted to the pursuit of learning.’
‘Bear in mind that they are as mad as cut snakes,’ said Yves, but in a quieter voice.
‘As we go through that gate, they’ll have us checked out,’ said Maddie. ‘They’ll turn the lights on us and they reckon they can read our minds, so – pure thoughts everyone.’
They were there at last – ready to enter the city. The band assembled and the performers put on their costumes, as Newton’s own sounds came flowing towards them … the sound of many voices shouting, arguing, it seemed. Rather an anxious sound.
‘Some crisis!’ said Maddie sounding dubious. ‘Some huge argument! Shall we wait?’
‘March on!’ said Yves. ‘It’s our job to make people forget their arguments!’ And the rest of the Fantasia agreed with him.
So they began their great Fantastic March, and came in through the gate. Suddenly long arrows of light appeared, aiming themselves at the band … the vans … the horses. Garland blinked as the lights passed across her face, imagining the light soaking into her through her eyes and reading all her secrets. She tried to keep her thoughts as pure as possible.
They moved on between the first houses and sheds, dancing and spinning, then moved triumphantly up the main road only to find themselves dancing and spinning between lines of children, who suddenly treated them as no other children Garland had ever treated the Fantasia before. Usually it was children who welcomed them with the greatest excitement, the strongest happiness, but the children of Newton seemed challenging – even hostile. They shouted, pointed derisively, made aggressive darts at the jugglers and acrobats and even threw rotting fruit at them. One girl ran at Garland, grabbed her arm and tried to swing her out of the Fantasia line.
‘Join us!’ she shouted. ‘Don’t be a traitor! Don’t let the Biggies boss you around!’
But Garland was strong. She twitched her arm free quite easily, then pushed the girl back into the crowd she had come from. Something struck Lilith, who screamed, putting her hand to her head. She stared unbelievingly at fingers stained red.
‘I’m dying,’ she called. ‘They’ve killed me.’
‘You’ve just been hit by a rotting tomato,’ Garland said, but she sympathized with Lilith, thinking that she too would have been terrified at finding her fingers stained scarlet like that.
‘I haven’t been here for ages,’ Garland heard Maddie saying. ‘I don’t remember children – certainly not children like this.’
The Fantasia persisted. And then, quite suddenly, it seemed they had worked their way through the mocking hostile crowd behind them. The children peeled away into side streets and Garland heard one of them, a tall boy, shouting ‘To the Fort!’ ‘To the Fort!’ as if he were the one in charge of this wild band.
A few minutes later the Fantasia found themselves marching towards the offices of the ruling council. Knowledge is Strength! said the words over the door, which opened cautiously, and then was flung wide. At last they were being welcomed, greeted by white-robed adults, quiet and courteous. Bowing a little, they walked alongside them, escorting them to the centre of the town which spread out like a great green lawn edged with tall buildings, some of them very old.
‘Scrimshaw!’ announced their leader holding out one hand to Yves while patting his own chest with the other.
‘Maddigan’s Fantasia,’ said Yves, shaking the held-out hand.
‘Of course,’ said Scrimshaw. ‘You were here some years ago. I loved the juggling … the arcs through the air. And I loved the way you whirled and danced on the trapezes … like strange irregular planets. We’re so glad to see you.’
Almost at once they were being offered food and drink. ‘We need distraction. We need a lure,’ Scrimshaw was telling Yves. ‘Come through into the Cortex – our centre of government, that is. I am sure our elders will welcome distraction every bit as much as the children will.’
‘Oh we’re not just a distraction on this occasion,’ Maddie said, determined not to be left out, ‘we’re traders as well. We’ve got something to trade … our treasure for yours …’
Garland tried to hear what was going on, but she was interrupted.
‘What are you doing?’ Boomer asked coming up, drum and all, on one side of her. ‘Look! They’re giving us a party.’
‘You and your mother don’t have to do the deals any more,’ Lilith said, bouncing up on the other side. ‘My father will work it out. We can just eat stuff and leave it to him.’
‘But something’s happening,’ said Garland impatiently. She could see Eden and Timon drifting towards them. ‘Why did all those children attack us as we came in? That’s never happened before.’
‘Hey!’ said Timon, almost like Garland’s echo. ‘Why did all those children throw things and shout at us? You’d think they’d be thrilled to see a show like ours.’
‘Ours’ he had said as if he were part of the Fantasia. Garland found herself looking at him with a kind of soft longing though she did not quite know what she was longing for. Company perhaps. The company of someone her own age or maybe a little older … someone who was certainly older than Boomer and Lilith, those jiggling irritating children dancing around her.
‘They must be jealous of our cleverness,’ Lilith was saying, while Garland, sternly shaking herself out the unexpectedly soft mood that had sneaked out of nowhere and taken her over, tried to listen past Lilith’s bouncing cries to hear what Yves and Maddie were saying. She edged towards the adult group, working out who was who. She knew the Fantasia people of course and she knew Scrimshaw by now, but there was also a thin serious-faced man called Doppler and Doppler’s wife, Rosalind, listening gravely to Maddie.
‘… these records we’re bringing you are unique,’ Maddie’s voice came drifting across to her, sounding rather taken aback. ‘They’re treasures.’
‘I well remember your past visit,’ Doppler said, totally ignoring Maddie’s offer of records. ‘I remember your clowns. I imagine children must love the clowns. That is a fact, is it not?’
‘Oh yes, children love clowns,’ agreed Yves. ‘Adults do too. But if you don’t mind we’d like to discuss the possibility of buying a solar converter from you. Trading knowledge for knowledge, because, as you know, knowledge is power …’
‘But we are already committed,’ said the deeper voice of one of the Newton officials. ‘We have sold the only available converter.’
‘And the prices we have already agreed to may be even better than anything you have to offer,’ said another, and then there was a mixed-up mumble of talk, the voices weaving backwards and forwards. The deep voice suddenly emerged again.
‘… besides we also have problems at the present. We are having to cope with a curious chaos of our own. Our children are in revolt. They say they are tired of being told what to do by their parents. They say they want to run their own lives.’
‘It seems they are desperate to have their own way,’ said another official.
Boomer and Lilith were arguing about just where a drummer should march in a Fantasia band. Garland turned towards them in astonishment.
‘Did you hear that? Shut up you two. Did you hear it?’
They stood staring at her, their mouths hanging open.
‘Hear what?’ asked Lilith.
‘I heard,’ said Eden. ‘The children are revolting.’
‘They are not! They’re just kids like us,’ said Boomer indignantly.
‘No! He means they’re having a revolution,’ said Timon. ‘There’s a mutiny against parents. The children want to take the world over.’
Behind them Maddie’s vice rose, sounding both astonished and indignant.
‘Well, make them! Make them do as they’re told. I mean children should have a lot of freedom … I agree to that … but they shouldn’t be in charge.’
‘You don’t understand,’ said Doppler. ‘These children – our children – are our treasures. You know that back before the Remaking the people who lived in Newton couldn’t have children … the war had poisoned the land … poisoned the water. Of course the earthquakes didn’t help. But then the trace element was sourced.’
‘The helix was unravelled,’ put in Rosalind. ‘The contamination was contained.’
‘Nature was allowed to be natural,’ Doppler said rather smugly. ‘The first child born here – well, it was a blessing – an occasion for celebration. Huge celebration! And slowly, slowly we worked our way back to a time when children could be born here. We treasure them.’
‘We don’t oppose them,’ said another voice. ‘Opposition might damage their certainty of self. All the same …’
‘Well, as we came in they met us, and self was the only thing they seemed to be certain of,’ said Maddie. ‘And any self has to fit in with other selves … the selves of friends and neighbours and visitors … even parents. Now, did you say you have only the one solar converter that you are free to trade?’
‘… and that you have just sold it to someone else?’ finished Yves.
‘There is another delegation in town you see. A small delegation from Solis,’ explained Rosalind. ‘Their offer is not perhaps as elegant as yours but they were here first and we agreed …’
‘They can’t come from Solis,’ Maddie cried. ‘We represent Solis. Where are these traders?’
‘They did tell us you would be here,’ said Scrimshaw, ‘and they did say you would put on a show for us. We do need something to distract us. Our minds have not been focused on manufacture …’
As she tried to listen in to the words of this debate, Garland suddenly became aware of other voices and turned to find a group of children had moved in around their edges and that Lilith had started talking to the boy who seemed to be at the head of the group.
‘Kaanaana?’ she was saying, screwing up her face as if she couldn’t quite work out what he was saying. ‘Bol-ek-kana! Is that your name?’
‘Everyone calls me Kaana. Well, that’s what I call myself, and what I say goes,’ the boy replied, strutting a little. ‘What were you doing marching along like prisoners, letting the Biggies go first?’
Careful thought Garland. Lilith’s going to be in trouble again if we don’t watch out. She’d love the thought of being in charge of herself.
‘Kaana!’ exclaimed Eden as if it were a name he recognized.
‘We always let the Biggies go first,’ said Boomer. ‘People can see them – the Biggies that is – from way off. And if there’s a crowd they can make out the Biggies over the heads of other people. They can hear my drum of course, but they want to actually see things as well.’
‘Don’t you ever do what grown-ups tell you to do?’ asked Lilith. There was a dangerous note of admiration creeping into her voice.
‘No! Never!’ said a girl at Kaana’s elbow. ‘We don’t eat what we’re told. We don’t go to bed when we’re told. We’ve broken off from that lot. We live a free life.’
‘I am Kaana,’ declared Kaana once more, thumping his chest in a boastful way, ‘and what I say goes. Anyhow, what are you doing in my city?’
‘Your city?’ exclaimed Garland.
Timon and Eden were staring at Kaana as if he utterly fascinated them.
‘They do whatever we tell them to,’ said Kaana grandly.
‘But with us the Fantasia works because our parents work it,’ protested Garland. ‘We’re part of the Fantasia … we’re right in it … but it just wouldn’t work without Maddie … or Yves,’ she added reluctantly glancing over at Lilith. ‘If your father wasn’t there to be ringmaster and to help with shifting the heavy stuff …’
‘We could probably do most of it by now,’ Boomer interrupted her, obviously impressed with the ideas of the Newton children, and Lilith leapt in to agree.
‘These kids are right,’ she said. ‘We could do the Fantasia on our own.’
‘Hey! Look!’ Garland exclaimed. ‘You! You for example. When you hurt yourself you run straight to Yves, wanting a hug. When the weather’s bad, he’s the one who stands out in the wind and rain, tightening the ropes and making sure things don’t fall off the roof-racks. You’re just going along with this lot because you’re a brat – and they’re brats too.’
‘And you just say that because you think you’re the boss of the Fantasia,’ yelled Lilith. ‘You’re always on about how you’re a Maddigan as if just having that name makes you so wonderful.’
‘Forget her,’ Kaana cried to Lilith. ‘Leave her to be a slave. Come with us!’
And, suddenly, as if they had exchanged a secret signal, Kaana and Lilith and the three other children took off, Lilith waving her arms in the air as if she were indeed shrugging herself free from secret and invisible bonds. The ribbons on her looped, brown braids flapped like butterflies keeping pace with her.
‘Lilith! Don’t be stupid!’ yelled Garland. ‘Come back!’ But Lilith did not so much as turn her head. ‘Lilith! Don’t get lost!’ She did not want Lilith getting lost for a second time … it had been so complicated … such a problem … back in Greentown. Not only that Garland was suddenly filled with concern, for, though Lilith really annoyed her, she certainly did not want her lost out there in the unknown streets of a city that was seeming almost hostile. Lilith was part of her own life … she could just remember when Lilith had been born, could remember the death of Lilith’s mother, something Lilith could not remember herself. Memories like that grew into you and became part of what you were.
‘Are you just going to let her run off like that?’ asked Eden, looking suddenly concerned.
‘It’s what she wanted to do,’ said Garland uncertainly. ‘Anyhow she’ll be back.’
‘But she can’t zoom away with a lot of aliens,’ said Boomer.
‘Oh, all right!’ said Garland, a little impatiently. She looked around and saw the grown-ups were talking with one another … wheeling and dealing, Maddie would say. Garland sighed. ‘It looks like we’ve got a bit of time. Let’s find out where they were taking her.’
