by Julie Sykes
‘I was scared. Dan was comforting me. Imagine how you’d feel if you were about to meet up with someone you couldn’t remember, but they knew you. Dan even offered to come with me, for moral support.’
‘Thank Pietra you didn’t let him.’
‘Yes, well…’ I didn’t add that the only reason I hadn’t was because Nardo’s texts had almost convinced me that I was a criminal.
‘You’re an ambizia, Amara,’ Nardo smiled indulgently. ‘That’s why you were picked to come to Earth when you’re still so young.’
‘Ambizia?’
‘A high flyer. Just as well. I’ve got to refresh the months of intensive training you undertook in the next sixty Earth minutes.’
‘Una andia,’ I answered. Bring it on.
Almost two hours later, when Nardo was still firing information at me, my head was reeling with overload.
‘We’re nearly done,’ he said at last. ‘Tell me the plan for tomorrow and then you can have the rest of the day off.’
Not that there was much of the day left. My stomach kept protesting that it was long past dinner time.
‘I’ll take the first train back to Edinburgh, then the bus from Edinburgh to Kirkgreen. I’ll tell anyone who asks that I spent the night in a hotel with Claudia and her family.’
‘Good. You won’t have to stay at Waterside for long, a night at the most. By then I’ll have contacted your social worker and claimed you as my missing sister.’
‘Nicky will want documents to prove it,’ I said.
‘No problem,’ said Nardo. ‘I’m in the process of creating them. Your Italian passport was destroyed in the car accident, obviously, but I’ll make sure there are computer records to prove your existence. This is our legend – we are Italians. The Pietran accent is similar and I’ve got personal knowledge of Italy. I spent a month there when I was training. There’s a verbole not far from a place called Florence. I’ll pose as an undergraduate, about to start at Edinburgh University in the autumn term. You and mamma came with me from Italy to see me settled in my student digs. You’d planned to tour Scotland before you returned home. We don’t have a father and hardly any other relations either. That’s why it’s taken so long for anyone to realise that you were both missing. When I arrive at Waterside it will be easier if you don’t remember me, so treat me like a stranger.’
That shouldn’t be too difficult. Nardo still was a stranger. It struck me that I should have asked him for paperwork, to prove that he had told me the truth. He could be anyone! There might not even be a Pietra. I looked around the modern kitchen, with its sleek lines and shiny gadgets. Nardo didn’t need to prove himself. The technology here was far too advanced to be a product of Earth. This kitchen wouldn’t have looked out of place on the bridge of a spaceship.
‘So you come to Waterside, I pack up my things and we leave?’
‘Yes, said Nardo. ‘Take everything that you possess with you. We’ll leave the Earth items here at the portacasa. You can’t take anything back to Pietra unless it originally came from there. It’s against the rules. We leave nothing on Earth but our footprints, we take nothing away with us but memories and, of course, our findings.’
Except in my case, the memories of my previous life would be left behind too. I swallowed back a wave of sadness. I liked it here. I’d made friends. It felt too soon to start again somewhere new, especially somewhere as regimented as Pietra sounded. Nardo noticed my distress. He reached across the counter and squeezed my hand. ‘It’ll be easier this time. At least in Pietra you’ll be with people who know and love you.’
I could never let on that there were people who cared for me here. ‘Tell me about my life in Pietra.’
Nardo looked pleased. ‘I hoped you’d ask me that. Tor warned me not to give you too much information about your past. He said to let you set the pace. It’s just a shame that I don’t have the graphoria with me. We’re not allowed to bring any personal stuff with us from Pietra, in case we’re compromised.’
‘Graphoria, is that like a camera?’
‘It’s much more realistic that an ordinary Earth camera. A graphoria projects moving images in three dimensions. It also recalls smell and temperature. It makes you feel like you’re witnessing the recorded event at first hand. So what do you want to know about?’
Where to start? I had more questions than stars in the night sky. ‘Tell me about Amara. What do I do in my spare time?’
‘You’re very sporty, you love swimming and sailing and you play tennita. You’re on the junior team at the local club. You’re also musical. You play fluetto for the Rosso Youth Orchestra. Rosso Tiree, Red Three is the region where we live.’
I played fluetto. Suddenly my favourite song, the one that I couldn’t get out of my head, was running through my head. ‘I can play this, can’t I? What’s it called?’ I hummed some of the tune.
Nardo’s eyes grew large, ‘“Amorra Mi” !’ he exclaimed. ‘You remembered!’
‘“My Love”,’ I translated. I was childishly pleased that I’d known the tune was a love song. It gave me hope that more of my memory would return. ‘I can play it on the fluetto, or flute, an Earth instrument that’s similar.’
Nardo was watching me as if he was hoping for more. I risked a guess. ‘Did I compose it?’
He answered my question with a sad smile. ‘Marn composed it. Do you remember him?’
I shook my head.
‘He’s a very good friend. He’s the same age as me. I’ve known him since we were bambinetts. He plays fluetto with the Rosso Youth Orchestra, like you do. Marn had hoped to become a professional musician but he wasn’t allowed, he was too intelligent, so instead he chose to become a Guard.’
I was shocked and disappointed for Marn, who clearly had a great musical talent. ‘Musicians are intelligent too. Who wouldn’t let him become one? Was it his parents?’
‘It’s the way we live. Our constitution decrees that every citizen must work, unless they are too old or too infirm. It’s vital, for the good of Pietra, that people are channelled into the right career. Many intelligent people are creative, but not all creative people are intelligent. Think of the waste to our society if a highly intelligent person was allowed to do a creative or menial job. It’s Marn’s duty to pick a career that only clever people can do. He didn’t have to be a Guard. He could have trained for other jobs, such as a doctor or a scientist. Marn’s adventurous and he loves to travel. When he was told that he couldn’t become a musician he knew, immediately, that he wanted to train as a Guard. He passed the entry requirements at the same time as me. We trained together.’
‘Guards are highly intelligent?’ I didn’t doubt either Marn or Nardo’s credentials, I was just surprised that being a Guard was considered as prestigious as becoming a doctor.
Nardo sat taller. ‘Yes, we have to be. We have great responsibility. The security of Pietra is in our hands.’
Pietrans were paranoid if you asked me. They’d got humans totally wrong. Yes, there were bad ones, like Johnny and Robert, but there were far more good ones like Dan, Mia and Jeff. I wasn’t going to argue with Nardo. I didn’t want him to question my loyalty when I was unsure of it myself. I changed the subject quickly. ‘It’s a beautiful song.’
‘Yes.’ Nardo’s eyes misted over. ‘It came from the heart. Marn wrote it as a gift for his amoretta. He gave it to her on her sixteenth birthday.’
‘Wow! That’s some present. She must be a very special girl.’
‘She is,’ said Nardo softly. ‘I wish you could remember her.’ A cloud seemed to pass over his face, as if he was struggling to tell me something. It left me wondering. Had Nardo loved Marn’s girlfriend too? My suspicion was strengthened when Nardo said abruptly, ‘Let’s have a drink.’ He hopped off the stool. ‘I’ll make some limonge. Hot or cold?’
‘Hot, please.’ I was dying to see some of the ki
tchen gadgets in action.
Nardo opened a cupboard and brought out mugs. He removed two round stones from a drawer and placed one inside each mug. He carried the mugs across to the stainless steel sink and swiped his hand across the single tap, twice. Water poured from the tap into the first mug. When it was full the tap automatically directed the jet into the second mug, then stopped when it was full. Nardo added thick slices of a green fruit. He cut them with a thin wire that he controlled with his mind. A minute later steam curled from the mugs. He used his mind to remove the stones and left them on the worktop, where they continued to hiss and steam. There was no damage to the worktop though. The whole process took less than a minute. I hid my amazement as Nardo passed me the drink.
‘I’ll prepare dinner soon,’ he said. ‘It’s not from scratch, I’m afraid. When we’re in the field we rely heavily on Earth cubes. They’re easier to transport and to store. They’re not bad though. They’re nutritious and they satisfy.’
‘How does all this stuff get here?’ I waved my hand around the room. ‘Is it easy to transport through the wormhole, I mean verbole?’
‘It’s transported in capsules. They’re egg-shaped and they have landing legs, or stabilisers, that eject on impact. They stand about a metre high. We’re working on a design that carries people, but it’s not proving very comfortable and, unfortunately, it doubles the travelling time.’ Nardo took a long swig of his drink. As he put his mug down my stomach grumbled with hunger.
I felt my face colour up, but Nardo thought it was funny.
‘Hungry?’ he asked.
‘Starving. I had a grilled chicken sandwich for lunch, but I was too nervous to eat much of it.’
‘Chicken?’ Nardo’s face darkened. ‘Have you been eating meat?’
‘Yes. Why, am I a vegetarian?’
‘By the love of Pietra! Have you learned nothing this afternoon? We went through the rules several times. Rule dua, we will not intentionally kill. That means everything. We’re vegetarians. The only animal products we consume are those that can be taken without harming the animal. Food such as unfertilised eggs and milk. We also use wool. Once an animal dies, we’re allowed to use its skin. But we never eat flesh.’
My stomach curled and tightened into a knot. I clutched my mug and wished Nardo would stop staring at me like I was some kind of puppy-eating monster. I hadn’t eaten meat intentionally. At first I hadn’t even known what it was. Nardo stood up. ‘The sooner we get you home the better. Earth is ruining you.’
He moved around the kitchen, putting together strange, coloured cubes for our meal. It was too late for me. I’d lost my appetite again. Darkness fell outside but the room remained bathed in a soft white glow. I looked about me until I sourced the light to a number of small transparent balls, positioned around the room. I hadn’t seen anything like them before.
‘What are they?’ I asked, before I could stop myself.
‘Illuminetta. They’re solar-powered lamps,’ Nardo explained. ‘They’re totally renewable and non-polluting.’
I thought of my mobile phone and how that glowed in the daylight. It had to be solar powered too. A million questions buzzed in my head like honey-drunk bees, but I didn’t know where to start so ate in silence. Nardo seemed thoughtful and occasionally I’d catch him watching me. We finished the meal with a dark brown cube that had a rich chocolaty taste. I was so full I couldn’t be bothered to move. Nardo began to clear up. He filled the sink with water, several large heat stones and a clear, purple-coloured liquid that I guessed was a cleaning agent. I reached for his plate to carry it with mine to the sink, but somehow it slipped out of my grasp.
‘Oops!’ My heart skipped, but instead of smashing on the floor the plate rose up and hovered in front of me. I glanced at Nardo, nonchalantly leaning up against the counter. His eyes travelled to the plate and then back to me. I smiled my thanks and reached out with my mind to take it from him. Nardo blocked me. I nudged his mind again, a friendly enquiry, but still Nardo refused to let go of the plate. Then all at once something clicked into place. I seized my plate and sent it flying into the air. Nardo pulled himself up straight. With a wicked grin he sent his plate across the room to the washing up bowl. I was determined not to be beaten and spun my plate to make it go faster. Adrenalin surged through me as I overtook Nardo then held the plate in front of his, to deliberately slow him down.
Nardo laughed and retaliated by making his plate side-step mine. When he’d overtaken me he stopped his plate abruptly. It hovered in the air and mine almost ran into the back of it. I spluttered with laughter. I took evasive action, by sending my plate down to dive under his. In the lead now, I spun my plate towards the washing up bowl and dropped it into the water with a satisfying splash.
‘Beat you!’ I couldn’t resist saying.
Nardo was laughing so hard he could hardly stand up. Somehow he managed to guide his plate into the washing up bowl. He made an even bigger splash than I had. ‘You remember?’ he choked out.
‘Yes, no, I …’ Did I remember? Something hovered on the edge of my consciousness. ‘It’s a game we play?’
‘Right! It was something we did to…’ Suddenly Nardo was serious again. ‘Do you remember Mariel?’
I shook my head. Her name meant nothing, except that earlier Nardo had mentioned that I needed her permission to come on this mission to Earth.
‘Who is she?’
His eyes hardened. ‘Our stepmother.’
‘Oh!’ I was surprised by his change of mood. ‘Don’t we like her?’
‘Not much.’
‘So the plate thing, that has something to do with her?’
‘We do it to wind her up.’ Nardo smiled bitterly. ‘It drives her mad.’
As he spoke a picture was forming in my head of a tall, beautiful woman in a deep blue dress that clung to her curvaceous figure. Her long blonde hair was piled on top of her head and laced through with glittering jewels. She was on a riverbank and smiling at someone I couldn’t quite see. The image was so strong that I could feel the sun burning my face and smell the cool blue water. A crowd had gathered behind me and as I turned I was greeted with a sea of smiling faces. All I could feel though, was an acute sadness that gnawed away at my insides. The image died and it was several minutes before the ache left me.
‘Mariel… has she got long blonde hair? Was there a time down by the river, with a crowd of people?’ My voice petered out as I struggled to control my emotions.
Nardo stared at me. I knew he was hoping that I’d remember more. As the silence lengthened he said, ‘That was the day she married our father.’
Our father. His tone was so formal. ‘Don’t we get on with him either?’ I asked.
‘Of course we do. He loves us more than anything, except her of course.’
I waited for Nardo to tell me more about our father but he seemed lost in his own thoughts. Eventually, he said in a matter-of-fact way, ‘Things changed when father met Mariel, but at least she makes him happy.’
Not us though! The implication was clear. Was that the reason I’d become a Watcher? To escape from my home?
‘You remembered plate racing!’ said Nardo, changing the subject. ‘Now I know you’re my Amara and not an imposter.’
He leaned forward and flicked me playfully on the nose with his finger.
‘Get off,’ I retaliated, smacking his hand away.
‘Yep!’ said Nardo smugly. ‘It’s you.’
We laughed together and suddenly a small part of the blackness snuffing out my past dissolved. It wasn’t much but it felt good. Unfortunately, Nardo went and spoiled the moment. ‘You’ll need more of these,’ he said. He pulled a slim, cylindrical object from his pocket.
‘What is it?’ I put out my hand curiously, then recoiled as he answered, ‘Memory reassembly patches. It’s okay! This is just the applicator.’
Nardo mistook my revulsion for fear. He rolled the device in his hand. ‘It works like a stamp. You put the end against a bare patch of skin – the neck works best – then press down once to release a patch. The patches are clear and they dissolve. There’s no trace of chemicals, or anything. Clever, isn’t it?’
‘Hmm,’ I said non-committally.
‘See the gauge on the bottom?’ Nardo turned the applicator upside down. ‘It shows how many patches are left. You get 50 per applicator. This one’s full. Here, you can have it.’
‘Don’t you need it?’ I asked, reluctant to take it from him.
‘I’ve got two and there are plenty more here in the store. Don’t be shy about using it. Remember, the safety of our world…’
‘Is in my hands,’ I finished.
‘That’s it!’ The hollow ring to my words were lost in Nardo’s delight. ‘You’re going to be fine! You had me worried earlier over the meat. You didn’t seem to have grasped the underlying principles of our life. I seriously considered asking Tor to send you home immediately. It would have been complicated, but we can perform mass memory reassembly by releasing an airborne chemical. We don’t like doing it, as it’s not as safe as using the patches. In trials, one in a hundred people ends up losing all their memories. But you can do this, can’t you Amara? You’ll manage the exit plan without compromising us?’
‘Yes, of course.’ It wasn’t a lie. I wouldn’t compromise anyone, especially Dan and my Waterside friends.
As the evening wore on and Tor didn’t return I grew more anxious. What if something had gone wrong? Had Tor and the Guards ended up dealing with more people than they’d intended to? What if they’d been forced to perform a mass memory reassembly? What if it had failed, leaving Dan with his memories wiped? The thought left me breathless.
Nineteen
I asked Nardo if I could hide away just before the Guards changed shifts. I didn’t want the ordeal of meeting a bunch of people who knew me but whom I couldn’t remember. Nardo took me upstairs to a large walk-in store cupboard.
