by Fleur Beale
How would Willem handle this? I tried firmness again. ‘You will see him, but not just yet.’
‘Now!’ she shrieked.
I shoved my plate at Silvern. ‘Take this a second, will you?’ I grabbed Hera by her shoulders and held her still. ‘Not now, Hera.’ When? Somehow I had the feeling later wouldn’t go down too well. ‘His name is Wilfred and he’s asleep. I’ll take you to see him after we’ve listened to Willem.’
She scowled and drew in a breath.
I beat her to it. ‘And if you yell, I won’t take you at all. Now go back to Mother and Dad, and let me eat my food.’
For a moment we stared at each other, then she patted my face. ‘Okay, Juno. Hera happy now.’
My learning stratum stopped eating and watched her go. ‘A child with a mind like hers,’ Marba mused. ‘Interesting.’
Yeah, for him. He wasn’t the one who had to do the discipline. Life with Hera was shaping up to be quite a battle.
Marba tapped his plate to command our attention, and as we had always done, we gave it to him. ‘Let’s all say one thing we think Outside will be like, then we’ll see if Willem confirms it.’
An easy instruction for once.
Paz stabbed the air with his knife. ‘We’ll go to school for the whole day. There will be hundreds of other kids and when we get home we won’t have to work in gardens, kill chickens or harvest food.’
‘Well, I’m hoping they give us more clothes,’ Silvern said. ‘And I want my hair styled. By somebody who knows what they’re doing.’
Marba snorted. ‘That’s not important. Who cares what we look like?’
We girls yelled at him and Dreeda said, ‘You’ll stand out all by yourself then. Taris tunic. Hair tied back with a flax thread. A bad shave.’
Paz rubbed his own chin. ‘You know, I reckon I’m going to ask Fergus to borrow whatever he uses to shave.’
Marba rapped his knife on his plate. ‘Keep to the topic please. What will Outside be like?’
We were silent until Pel said, ‘There will be movies, concerts and stuff.’
‘But we’ll need money to go to them,’ Biddo said.
We threw around enough ideas to keep Marba happy – technology that would amaze us, different sorts of food.
I asked another question, one that had been preying on my mind. ‘But do you think we’ll stay together? Will we remake Taris on the Outside?’
‘Vima won’t stay with us,’ Fortun remarked, ‘and if she does, then Sina and Jov will go.’
Marba looked at me. ‘What do you want, Juno? Taris all over again, or something different?’
The thirteen of them waited for my reply. What did I want? I scarcely knew myself. ‘I think,’ I said slowly, ‘we have to have something different, but what I wonder is whether we can keep the good bits.’
Silvern snorted. ‘Like there were good bits to Taris? Secrecy, murder, control – yeah, fantastic!’
I set my plate on the floor and wrapped my arms around my knees. ‘We all helped each other. Nobody had more than anybody else. Not after the crisis. D’you think that’ll be the same Outside? Will we look after each other? Will we all work together?’
Paz leaned back on his elbows. ‘Nope. Nothing’s going to be the same. I’m going to have heaps of money and servants to do all the work.’
We laughed, but then Brex said, ‘Maybe that’s what we’ll all be – servants to the people who have money.’
That sobered us. ‘You know,’ Jidda said, ‘if that happens, I vote we run away and find a place to live by ourselves. I’d rather work like I did on Taris than work for somebody who didn’t even know me and just for money.’
‘But you could get money to buy a car, or … I dunno, whatever the latest techno stuff is,’ Wenda pointed out.
‘Yeah, there is that.’ Jidda looked thoughtful.
Marba sat back and watched us, his own pet lab rats.
Have you heard? Jov hasn’t seen his son yet.
Have you heard? Sina’s dad says Jov’s got no right to see the baby.
Have you heard? Galla talked to Jov’s parents.
www.bobbingontheocean.blogspot.com Big News
05
LESSONS
AFTER THE MEAL WE RETURNED to the big room to wait for Willem to talk to us.
‘Why Willem?’ Paz asked. ‘Is he the big boss of Aotearoa?’
‘Nah,’ said Wenda, ‘he’s the king. He’s captured us and we’re going to be his slaves.’
Silvern kicked a cushion, then sprawled out on it. ‘Well, good luck to him if he tries to make a slave out of me.’
Shallym clapped her hands over her ears. ‘Stop it! That’s too horrible to joke about.’
Marba watched us, his eyes bright as they always were when he watched his lab rats performing.
‘What do you think?’ I jabbed him with my foot. ‘Come on, tell us what you reckon our fate’s going to be.’
But instead of answering, he said, ‘Look, there’s Vima.’
People smiled at her and one or two spoke. Nobody withdrew. I managed not to glance at Sina and Jov as Inva came to meet his sister and lead her to where their family waited in their place in the alcove. Then the door opened again as Willem, Fergus, Malia and Leng came in.
Suddenly I felt tension in the air. The room seemed full of worries. What will happen? Where will we live?
I slammed my mind shut. I would not let the thoughts of others get into my head. Pel touched my hand. You okay? she mouthed.
I pulled my hands away from my face. I sketched a brief gesture at where our parents sat. ‘They’re worried. It’s like a …’ I shook my head, frustrated. How could I explain? ‘They’re sending worry out into the room. It’s a kind of grey fog with words in it.’
There wasn’t time to say more as the room fell quiet, as we waited to hear our future. I wondered if Marba had caught any of the thoughts, but when I glanced at him his face was impassive. Then Willem began speaking. He was brisk and businesslike. We would live, he told us, for six weeks in a refugee centre.
Grif raised her hand. ‘Willem, with your permission I’ll explain what a refugee is.’
Willem nodded, his face expressionless as he listened to her, but it looked as if our ignorance about refugees was another nugget of information he was storing in his brain – and what it proved was that there was a shipload of learning ahead for these refugees of his.
Fergus was quick to reassure us. ‘Don’t worry. We’re used to helping people in your situation.’ He glanced around with his easy smile. ‘It’ll be hard for you to start with, but in a week or two you’ll be feeling much more at home.’
‘I’ll feel better when I don’t look so different,’ Wenda whispered.
Leng showed us pictures of the building where we were to live. It was a high rise in the city, surrounded by other buildings. We could see no gardens, no animals.
Nixie, who had lived Outside before Taris was developed, asked, ‘I am guessing New Zealand still has a money economy, so who pays for our support? And how will we keep ourselves once the six weeks are up?’
‘Yes, it is still a money economy,’ Willem said, ‘but very different from when you lived here.’ He gave Nixie a brief smile. ‘Banks are now simply clearing houses for the exchange of money. They charge and pay minimum interest. Businesses are run as cooperatives and everything has to be environmentally sound.’
He explained the system at some length but for those of us who’d never really understood the concept of money, it didn’t mean much. He didn’t say where the money for our support was coming from.
Aspa put up his hand. ‘Willem, it doesn’t feel right for us to sit around doing nothing except use up money others have worked hard to get. Can’t we work and learn at the same time?’
Willem looked around the room, assessing the reaction to Aspa’s request. ‘Who feels the same way?’
Every single adult raised a hand, as did all those in Inva’s stratum, the one above ours in age
. None of us did. We didn’t want to work. We wanted to explore, go places, be free to do what we wanted.
Silvern muttered, ‘I want some fun first.’
‘We’re bad!’ Paz whispered, but he didn’t look worried about it.
Brex said, ‘Willem’s noticed us.’
He’d done no more than glance at us, but I was sure he’d noted our lack of compliance.
He said, ‘We’ll take your wishes into consideration. But I suggest you wait a few days before you make decisions such as trying to work while you learn. To be blunt …’
‘When is he anything else?’ Silvern whispered.
‘… you’re going to be a lot more use to society if you fully understand how everything works.’
Rofan raised her hand. ‘Willem, please tell us about the governance of Aotearoa.’
He glanced in our direction again, as if he expected we wouldn’t be interested. But he hadn’t lived under a corrupt and evil governance as we had done. Well, maybe he had. Maybe he still did. We wanted to hear every word about the regime we would now be living under.
‘It’s much the same as it’s always been,’ he said. ‘We have a prime minister who is head of government, and representatives of the people who make up a parliament, and they all have to stand for re-election every four years.’
‘Well, that’s different,’ Nixie said. ‘It used to be every three years.’
Willem nodded. ‘That’s right. But elections cost money, so the country voted to extend the term of office. The Enviro Party is in power at the moment. They were voted in after the ’78 pandemic.’
Marba raised his hand. ‘With respect, Willem – what are the problems in your country right now?’ An excellent question. Would Willem answer it? And would he speak the truth? But it seemed that sheltering us wasn’t part of his plan.
‘Well asked,’ he said. ‘Yes, there are problems. Big ones. Our population is now only about one million.’ He waited for the shocked cries of the older generation to subside. ‘The more remote rural areas are now very small and often quite cut off from the rest of the population. Some of these groups have formed their own societies and they don’t abide by the laws of the land.’
Leng showed us a series of photographs of a group of houses surrounded by farms. The houses looked unkempt and the farms raggedy. Another shot showed a gathering of people practising with firearms.
‘As you see,’ Willem said, ‘this group is armed. They shoot, they don’t ask questions. There are others like them. Some groups seem to be reverting to superstition and witchcraft.’ He paused as if making a decision. ‘Which brings me to a very important item. Most of these groups are very much against the use of any sixth sense and will seek to destroy any person who appears to exhibit such tendencies. But there is at least one group who believe such people are the way of the future. They have kidnapped children and some adults who are said to have these abilities.’
We were taking Hera into danger.
‘And so,’ he continued in his even, uninflected voice, ‘I urge all of you to be careful not to speak of the child Hera’s prediction that this boat was coming and that Taris was breaking.’
Mother jumped to her feet, Hera hugged tight in her arms. ‘Promise!’ Her voice was high and urgent. ‘Please, my people! Please give us your promise.’
‘We do. We promise. We will protect her.’ The reassurances came from every part of the room.
Mother sat down again and burst into tears. Hera patted her face. Dad put his arms around them both. All four of my grandparents sat shocked and motionless, until Grif stretched out a hand to my parents and said something to them.
Justa, who had been my stratum’s teacher all our lives, raised a hand. ‘How many days before we arrive?’
Four, they told us – and we would have meetings each day at this time to continue learning about our new home.
Chatter broke out as the Outsiders left. Marba leaned forward to speak to us without the others hearing. ‘Juno – teach us to read.’
‘And write,’ Silvern added.
‘Sure, but we’ll need things to write on, stuff to read.’
Marba jumped up, stretching out his hand to me. ‘Come on. We’ll go and ask Fergus.’
Okay, I didn’t mind asking Fergus. He was kind. But when we found him in his cubbyhole labelled Purser’s Office, he looked at us for a moment then said, ‘I’ll take you to Willem.’
What sort of society was this? Couldn’t anyone do anything without asking Willem? Marba touched my arm, and sent me a swift grin. It was all right for him. He loved all the cloak and dagger stuff.
Fergus led us to the room where we’d received our first grilling from Willem, and told him of our request. Willem’s steely gaze drilled into us. ‘You can’t read or write?’
‘I can,’ I said. ‘My grandmother broke the rules and taught me.’
‘Hmm. Your grandmother’s name? Her Outside name?’
‘Ann,’ I told him. ‘We call her Grif, and I don’t know the rest of her Outside name.’ She had chosen the name Grif because it was as close to grief as she could get – grief for all the things they had lost.
‘Very well.’ He didn’t mess around once he’d made a decision. ‘Fergus will give you the materials you need.’ He turned back to the computer he was working at, and Fergus ushered us out with a sweeping bow towards the door.
‘Why did you have to ask Willem?’ Marba asked Fergus as we followed him down one of the interminable corridors.
‘I didn’t have to,’ Fergus said, ‘but I knew he’d want to know that most of you can’t read. We’re building up a picture of life on Taris. Everything is important.’
Lab rats again. Marba should be delighted.
Fergus showed us a small room with display boards and computerised writing pads. ‘You can work here,’ he said. ‘This room’s free most of the day, but take care with the equipment. The pads are very easy to use – look …’
And so, for the remainder of the voyage, I began to teach my learning stratum how to read and write. Hera demanded to be there too. ‘All right,’ I said, ‘but you have to play quietly or you go back to Mother and Dad.’
‘Hera good,’ she said – and she was, more or less.
News of the reading lessons spread through the rest of our people, so Grif began teaching others who wanted to learn, using a computer which projected images onto the big screen. There were no writing materials but she had the whole room in fits of laughter, making them draw letters in the air, on each other’s backs, on the floor. From where we worked in our room down the corridor we could hear them laughing and chanting words.
‘They’re having more fun,’ Brex said, ‘but I reckon we’re learning more.’
The thirteen of them were very focused, determined to learn as much as they could. They stretched my own knowledge so that I often had to ask Grif for help.
Halfway through the second day, Danyat came and sat in with us. I was surprised when he offered to help with the lessons. I hadn’t imagined he’d be able to read and write, but of course he could – and so could everyone who had lived outside Taris in their youth.
By the time the voyage neared its end, everyone had mastered the basics. Now there was an air of excitement among us, of looking forward and of wanting to know more about our new home.
‘Tomorrow,’ Leng told us, ‘we’ll be there. We’ll drop anchor around mid-afternoon. People are impatient to meet you. There will be television crews, and radio. You’ll be much in demand for a while.’
Silvern called out, ‘Is there any way we can wash our clothes before we land? We’re a bit grubby.’
Leng looked startled. ‘You just wear them in the shower.’ Then she laughed. ‘I’m sorry – we should have explained. The fabric dries quickly. All you need to do is jump up and down a couple of times.’
Silvern sat back. ‘Excellent. I’m liking the sound of Outside the more I find out about it.’
And we would be there tomorr
ow. A shiver of anticipation went through me. What would it be like to wander around in a place big enough to get lost in? A place where others didn’t know you?
Have you heard? Galla says Wilfred has to know his father.
Have you heard? Justa told Jov the baby’s gorgeous and Jov nearly cried. Sina won’t talk about the baby at all.
Have you heard? Little Beta can now read everything Grif puts up. Her grandmother says she’s a prodigy, which Grif says means she’s especially talented.
www.bobbingontheocean.blogspot.com Hair and There
06
ARRIVAL
THE SHIP CAME WITHIN SIGHT of land with the coming of dawn, not at mid-afternoon as Leng had told us would happen. We braved the cold wind to stand at the rails and watch our new home slide past, all of us shivering in our thin clothing.
‘It doesn’t look welcoming,’ Mother said. ‘How will we live in a landscape like this?’
The hills appeared bony, their surfaces only lightly clad in stunted bushes, the slopes too steep to live on, too exposed to farm, and we saw no sign of people or their dwellings.
Dad pulled Mother in close, wrapping an arm around her and transferring Hera to his other shoulder. Before he could reply, Bazin said, ‘Don’t fret, Sheen. This isn’t Wellington yet. The wind would blow you off these hills. It’s different once you get into the harbour.’
‘Let’s go inside,’ Mother said. ‘We’ll have breakfast, warm up and give our new land a chance to show a more kindly face.’
I wished the ship had windows for us to look out of. I hated not being allowed to see every single detail of the land as we approached. Luckily, my grandparents were feeling the same way, and soon we were back at the rails. All my stratum were there, but Mother was jittery and kept me glued to her side. I rolled my eyes at Silvern but didn’t try to join her, Paz and the others.
