“Am I allowed sugar?” she smiled through her tear-stained face.
“Look, I’ll do you a deal. If I get bossy, you tell me, and if you get bossy, I’ll tell you!”
“Done!” said Jalli, “So I can have sugar?”
“Would it make any difference if I said you couldn’t?”
“None at all!” she laughed. Jack always made her feel better.
They spent an hour or so relaxing and getting used to just being on their own together again. Finally Jalli declared, “Time to brave Planet Raika!”
“Andromeda here we come! I can’t wait to tell Mum just how far away from Earth she is!”
“Earth One, to be precise!” added Jalli. “At least we know we’re in the same universe!”
20
“Jalli, you know in my opinion it’s not safe.” Momori was more anxious than Jalli had seen her for a long time. She and Matilda had got on very well indeed, but as the days their children were on the MEV increased they had both become agitated. Now they were behaving especially protective.
“But Grandma, I know there have been attacks, but there have been thousands and thousands of people in the park over the past three years and nothing has happened in the last two. The chances of anything happening to me are very unlikely.”
“There would be no likelihood at all if you didn’t go.”
“But you know I have taken a special interest in the parmanda hives. This is my chance of seeing them and studying them for myself.”
“But sitting there for hours hidden among the trees all by yourself is inviting trouble.”
“Lots of people do it, Grandma. You have to be patient, and be alone, or you disturb the insects. You have to become part of the environment. They have to accept you. It takes at least fifteen minutes before they start to behave normally when they are disturbed.”
“Well if you must go, you should take Jack.”
“I’d like to. But two people in one place is too much for parmandas. They don’t act normally.” Jalli could be determined when she wanted to be. And she felt they were all making too much of the Parmanda Park predator. The police had been hunting a man who had attacked women in the park for years. He had struck three times but the last attack was over two years ago.
Mr. Bandi was especially keen on her going. He had urged her to follow up her interest. He had often been himself, he had explained, and found the parmanda hives very rewarding. The whole experience was tremendously satisfying, he had declared. If Jalli was serious about her biology, she really ought to stalk the hives. He had pointed out the best place to be from his experience, and described how to get there. Certainly it was a long way off the track, but that made it all the more rewarding because the insects were not as often disturbed. Jalli decided not to share this last piece of information with her grandmother as it would have alarmed her even more.
“… and Mr. Bandi said that if I were seriously wanting to study biology at university, I really ought to go stalking in the park,” concluded Jalli.
“And what if Mr. Bandi is the predator?” retaliated Momori.
“Oh Grandma! Poor Mr. Bandi. So wrapped up in his biology and studies, he couldn’t possibly be a pervert that attacked young women. You don’t know Mr. Bandi!”
“Oh. And how well do you know him?”
Jalli knew she was not going to win this battle of words and fell silent. At the same time, Momori knew that she was not going to change her granddaughter’s mind.
*
A few days later Jack said, “I’ve been thinking about this proposed outing to Parmanda Park.” They were in the cottage garden behind the house and he had become aware of the gentle buzzing of the bees as they went from flower to flower, “Are you really sure it is safe?”
“Perfectly safe,” grunted Jalli, “the insects never go for anyone unless you actually physically disturb the hive.”
“I wasn’t thinking of the insects.”
“Oh not you too!” glared Jalli. “No one would ever do anything or go anywhere if you think about every possibility. Look at the adventures we’ve had!”
“This just feels different.”
“That’s because I am going without you, and you want to look after me all the time. He is with me even when you’re not.” She spread her arms to indicate the God who constantly provided for them and loved them so much.
“You’re probably right. But, all the same I’ll be relieved when you get back safe and sound,” smiled Jack.
“It’s nice to be loved,” said Jalli. “I’m a lucky girl having someone to watch over me and care for me!” and she put a grass stained finger on his nose and kissed him. “But I do want to go!”
“And far be it for the person who absolutely adores you, and loves you, and admires you and thinks the world of you to stop you!” blurted Jack. “But you just look after yourself, that’s all I ask.”
That same evening they were all together beside a log fire. Grandma was crocheting a bag in the way that Matilda had shown her. She had taken to it very quickly. Matilda was engaged in knitting a chunky cream sweater with some giant-sized knitting needles.
Looking up at Jack she said, “What are you doing, letting Jalli go to this dangerous park all by herself?”
“It is not dangerous!” interjected Jalli. “You all know I really want to go. This is a conspiracy. You’ve all been talking and plotting to stop me!”
“Not me,” protested Matilda. “It is just that even I have heard talk of the Parmanda Park predator. He’s infamous!”
“I am not going looking for the Parmanda Park predator. I am going to stalk the hives that’s all!”
“I think,” sighed Momori, “we will all have to accept that Jalli has made up her mind, and none of us will change it.” She was right. Nothing was going to deter Jalli now. It was just a matter of deciding the day she was going to go. “I do think, though, that we all ought to be in Wanulka when you go. And you must take your fancy mobile phone thing to use in an emergency.”
“Oh, alright,” Jalli conceded, “but I won’t have it turned on.”
“I didn’t expect you would,” said Momori.
*
The very next day Jalli went up to the school. She waited until the students emerged at the end of the day and went to the biology labs. Sure enough Mr. Bandi was there feeding the worms some of the leftovers from lunch. He greeted her with a smile. When the worms had eaten that, he explained, he would have some lovely worm manure to plant his seeds in. He was pleased to see Jalli and asked how things were in her gap year.
“Oh, just here and there,” she replied.
“Well, make sure you don’t waste your time. A bright girl like you should be having some proper adventures.” If only he had known, thought Jalli.
“It’s about doing something really special that I’ve come.”
“And what might that be?”
“I’ve decided to stalk the hives in Parmanda Park.”
“Good. You should… but you will be careful?”
“I promise I won’t disturb them,” she assured him, “I’ll go exactly where you said, and I’ll not approach too near.”
“I’m sure you won’t,” observed Mr. Bandi as he replaced the lid on the worms, “but it isn’t the hives that bother me. I know you will do all the right things.”
“What, then?”
“A young woman sitting alone in a secluded part of Parmanda Park needs to take special care these days.”
“You’re just as bad as my grandma!”
“She’s a wise woman. You cannot be too careful. But personally, I would never let anyone stop me enjoying the wonders of nature. Just be aware. That’s all.”
“OK, Mr. Bandi, I will.”
“When are you planning to go?”
“This Saturday.”
“The weather should be good. Come back and tell me about it. Take my love to the insects!”
Jalli left the biology teacher straightening the desks in the l
ab and sighing over the mess his students had made. “It never improves,” he mumbled. Jalli smiled. She had always liked Mr. Bandi. He loved his creatures, and his students. One of the best things about being a teacher, he said, is seeing his charges grow to be accomplished young men and women. Not all did, but some like Jalli had been special from the beginning. She took her leave with a smile.
“You look after yourself,” he shouted after her. “I haven’t put all that work into marking your essays for you to come to grief!” For a fleeting moment Jalli almost gave up the idea of going to the park. So even Mr. Bandi would be relieved when she got back safe, no matter how devoted he was to watching the parmandas himself. But then her determined nature took over. How dare this man, this predator, whoever he was, stop her and others enjoying God’s world! She had made up her mind she was going on Saturday, the weather forecast was perfect and the hives would be at their best.
*
Saturday soon arrived. Jalli was up at dawn, packing food for the whole day. She would definitely be back before dark she promised. She refused to let them even see her to the bus-stop. They were all disciplined and restrained, doing their best to hide their anxiety, and the sooner they parted the happier she would be. The traffic wasn’t too dense and she arrived at the park, some three yukets on the other side of town from her grandmother’s house, in good time.
Parmanda Park had been especially preserved because of the parmanda hives the area contained. It was essential to register for permission to stalk the hives, but otherwise people could just walk around so long as they kept to the paths. Dogs were not allowed.
Those who wanted to run or exercise were encouraged to do it elsewhere. (There were many interesting places to ramble in the countryside not far from the park.) Just inside the entrance was a visitor centre with an exhibition about the parmandas, a little about the history of the park, and toilets. On the wall there were maps of the tracks and the park rules. You had to be allowed, of course, to leave the tracks but only to stalk the hives as single people. If you were stalking a hive you had to place a marker, supplied by the visitors’ centre, on the spot you left the track. If you caught sight of anyone else you had to leave the vicinity immediately and as quietly as possible. It was known that parmandas were not easily harmed, but if they were disturbed then they would not display. Describing the unique behaviour of a hive in words is difficult. Photographs and movie pictures were no alternative to seeing the display first hand surrounded by the scents and atmosphere of the park. Wanulka was the place in the whole country for parmandas. But many people had spent hours in the park and had never witnessed a full display.
A display happens when the vast majority of the insects belonging to a particular hive return from wherever they have been foraging at some kind of signal that isn’t wholly understood, and converge on the hive at the same time. At first they do not attempt to enter the hive, but make circles and spirals overhead and around the hive and then, suddenly, when they are ready, cork-screw into the hive’s three entrances one after another with a sound that can only be described as a slurp with a pop at the end of it – but that description is very approximate. A person has to hear it for him or herself to really know what it sounds like. The hive is a conical structure made of mud and leaf-litter mixed with secretions from the insects themselves. Each entrance is directed at the spot each of the planet’s three suns rise in the morning. There is twenty minutes between the first, Jallaxa and Skhlaia, and ten more before Suuf. But each rises in a slightly different part of the sky, and the parmandas welcome each with a special entrance. It doesn’t seem to matter whether the rising sun is actually hidden behind trees, the insects still knew which direction to look. The stalker’s trick is to approach from an easterly direction (the Raika’s orbit being the opposite of Earth’s) from where you could see all three entrances.
Jalli had listened carefully to Mr. Bandi’s instructions and stalked the hive he had had most success with. She found it fairly easily. Previous stalkers had installed a log to sit on and so she had no difficulty in knowing how near she could approach. The buzzing quieted as she sat herself down. The insects were going to take some time to get used to her, so she made herself comfortable and sat as quietly as she could.
Jalli was, of course, successful because she was patient. She waited three and a half hours but was rewarded with a superb display. When all the insects had entered the hive, she began to feel stiff and hungry. She also needed the toilet. She quietly withdrew promising the parmandas she would be back in the afternoon. As she neared the path she saw someone quickly get up from a sitting position and run off. This struck her as strange, but if it had been “the predator” he wouldn’t have run off, would he? It was probably someone not wishing to approach the same hive.
As Jalli emerged from a wooded part of the path her heart stopped. There on the path in front of her was the bane of her life, Maik Musula. Oh, no! How was she going to get rid of him out here. A shiver went up her spine. He couldn’t be the Parmanda Park predator could he? He had been weird and had freaked out, but she never felt he was actually dangerous before. Strange as it sounded, she was quite relieved that when he saw her he approached and started to talk in his usual way. He explained he had seen her on her way to the park and followed her. He loved her and wanted to make sure she was safe.
“Of course I am safe! Look you’re really bugging me. Can’t you see that if you felt anything for me you would just leave me alone!”
“No-one loves you like I do,” he whined. Well, thought Jalli, as least that bit was true. She went to walk on but he just stood in front of her in the same way he had done before, but he made no attempt to touch her.
“Just go away!” she shouted at him. Shouting seemed to do the trick with Maik. But this time it worked wonders in a way she had not anticipated. Suddenly, running up behind her as fast as his little legs could carry him was Mr. Bandi.
“Mr. Bandi! What are you going here?”
“Is this man bothering you, Jalli?” he breathed heavily as he came up close.
“He’s always bothering me. And he knows that he has to leave. Right now!” Jalli glared at Musula. His expression was one of resignation, and deep sadness. He seemed at last to have got the message, and good, kind Jalli began to feel sorry for him. But before he could turn and go back towards the park entrance, Jack and his mother suddenly emerged from a thicket off to the right. Matilda was brandishing her large knitting needles and was yelling terrifying oaths. Jack swooped and sent Mr. Bandi sprawling. Maik was quickly pounced on by Matilda who sat on him and stared into his shocked and terrified face. “How dare you assault my daughter-in-law!” she yelled.
Jalli pleaded: “Jack! Get off Mr. Bandi. He was only here to protect me! You, all of you, you have gone too far!”
Mr. Bandi slowly regained his feet. “I think we have all made mistakes.” Mr. Bandi grunted as he rubbed his hip. “In truth I have always under-estimated this young lady. I hadn’t the courage to suggest I stood guard. I believed she would have refused.” Mr. Bandi rubbed his hip some more, but it seemed to have survived Jack’s assault.
“What about this guy?” hissed Jack, ignoring the flustered biology teacher and staring at the terrified Maik Musula.
“He’s just a stupid man who can’t take no for an answer,” stated Jalli. “He’s not going to hurt anyone – and, from now on, I think he will give me a huge wide berth.”
“The police are on their way,” stated Matilda, “I phoned them when I saw that man.”
She indicated Mr. Bandi who was now expressing his regret at his lack of courage once again.
“Your grandma lent her a mobile so we could keep her reassured,” added Jack by way of explanation.
“Oh, Matilda! What an absolute farce. Now we’re all going to look stupid!” sighed Jalli. “Come on, let’s all get back to the visitors’ centre and clean up.”
They dragged Musula back to his feet. He walked quickly ahead of them, but Matilda
was making sure he didn’t get away. She was going to report him whatever anyone said. As they approached the centre there was clearly something afoot. Half a dozen police officers were manhandling a man into the back of a police vehicle. Sirens on the road indicated more police were arriving. A senior policeman approached them and inquired if they had been the people who sent for them.
“I certainly did!” stated Matilda. “I confess I thought at first it was this man,” pointing out an alarmed and dishevelled Mr. Bandi, “but it turns out that this one is the one you want!”
Maik looked terrified.
“I don’t think so, Mrs…?”
“Smith, Matilda Smith”
“Mrs. Smitt. I know this man. His name is Maik and he is stupid. He knows he must take his medication or he will find himself back in hospital where he has been for many months.” Turning to Musula, “You are only a fool, you know, if you ignore your doctors! If you promise me you will take your medication, I will let you go home now.”
“Oh, I will Inspector, I will!”
“Just make sure you do because if I get any more trouble then I’ll have you sectioned again!”
“I promise, I promise,” said Maik. And turning to Jalli he said, “I’m sorry. I really am. You have such interesting eyes…”
“Maik!” interjected the inspector, “Home! Take that medicine!”
“Thank you,” were the last words Maik Musula spoke as he hurried towards the park gates.
“I don’t think you will be bothered by him any more, young lady,” continued the inspector. “You see, Mr. Musula has been in hospital for a long time. He could not have been responsible for the attacks in this park. When you called, Mrs. Smitt, we soon discovered a man lurking on the other side of the park. Someone had seen him acting very suspiciously and when he saw us he ran towards the perimeter over there. Apparently he had discovered a gap in the fence. He didn’t think we had seen him, but we have caught him and he is now sitting in that vehicle. Thanks to your call we may well have caught the person we have been looking for all the time.”
The Kicking Tree Page 25
