The Extraordinary Colors of Auden Dare
Page 23
I turned toward the dozens and dozens of soldiers that had started to make their way toward me. Some of them had thrown their weapons to the ground and were dancing in the cloudburst. Others had dug their water canisters out and were holding them up to the sky, hoping to refill them.
In the middle of the soldiers I could see General Woolf, holding his head up to the rain and feeling it running down over his face.
And next to him—each of them handcuffed—stood Mum, then Treble, Immaculata, and Vivi. All of them drenched to the skin.
I smiled at Vivi and she gave an awkward handcuffed wave back.
Woolf noticed and barked an order at a soldier who quickly removed the cuffs from all four of them. Woolf turned to me and nodded—a nod of appreciation and of understanding—before putting his face back up to the sky.
I held my hands out in front of me, the water collecting in my palms, my fingers cold and white.
Dr. Jonah Bloom—Uncle Jonah—my uncle—had made something that was going to change the world. A machine that could make rain.
He had also made something that had changed me.
I looked at Paragon, silent and still, his arms in the air like he was feeling the rain for the very first time.
EPILOGUE
THE RAINBOW
It took another year for the wars to stop. The world seems to work so slowly sometimes. Nothing important is ever rushed. So by the time the rain machine was accepted by the authorities, followed by the months and months of mass production and distribution, some of the more remote parts of the world were not getting water until about a year and a half after the incidents on the Wandlebury Ring.
Eventually, though, the machines were everywhere. From the tops of mountains to dry, flat plains. From tiny, isolated farming villages to the centers of sprawling, bustling cities.
“Phenomenal,” Treble had said after being involved with the initial inspections of the machine. “Silver oxide particles and an intense negative ion generator coupled with what I’ve termed the Cumulative Cumulus Device.” He shuffled. “As difficult as it is to admit, I have to say that Bloom was an utter genius.”
That was confirmed the following year when Uncle Jonah posthumously won the Geneva Prize for Scientific Advancement.
* * *
After it had all happened, Dr. Milo Treble started spending an awful lot of time around at Vivi and Immaculata’s rooms in Trinity.
“He keeps bringing Mum flowers,” Vivi said, giving her head a little shake. “The thing is, she’s started making dresses for herself. And she washes her hair more.” Vivi fiddled with the ponytail in her own dark hair. “If you ask me, it’s weird.”
We made our way up the stone steps and Vivi pushed the big wooden door open.
“Ah, Auden.”
It was Treble.
He was sitting on the sofa alongside Immaculata, Migishoo perched on the mantelpiece.
“Dr. Treble. Mrs. Rookmini.” I nodded.
“Hello, Auden.” Immaculata smiled.
“Am I pleased to see you,” Treble said, and leaped up off the sofa. “I’ve got something that I want to show you.”
He dug into the back pocket of his jeans and fished out a little wooden box.
“Here.”
I took it from him.
“What is it?”
“Open it and see.”
I clicked the tiny latch on the box and flicked it open. Inside was a curved piece of plastic a few centimeters long.
I still didn’t know what it was.
“I call it the Optiborg. It’s my latest invention and—with a bit of skill and luck—my entry for next year’s Geneva Prize.”
“What does it do?”
“Clip it behind your right ear and see.”
I took the thing from out of the box and pushed it behind my ear.
“Now. Look at…” He leaned over and picked up an apple from a bowl on Immaculata’s sewing table. “This.”
I looked at the apple. Suddenly a really high-pitched noise screeched into my head.
“Ow!”
“That’s a red apple.” He put the apple back onto the table and picked up a pear. “Now look at this.”
I stared and the Optiborg screeched again, this time with a slightly lower note.
“That’s a green pear.” He tossed the pear back into the bowl and picked up another apple. “Right. You ready, Auden? Tell me what color this apple is.”
I looked at the apple. The thing behind my ear squealed, again with a lower note.
“Green,” I said.
“Correct!” Treble laughed, picking up the first apple again. “You can tell the difference. Green apple.” He held it up and the sound was low. “Red apple.” He held that one up and the sound was high. “Green, red, green, red.”
“That’s … that’s…” I didn’t know what to say.
“Genius I think is the word you are looking for!” Treble cried. “Try a different color. Here—” He picked up a piece of fabric from the table. “This is blue.”
I stared at the fabric and an even lower note sounded.
“And this…” Treble was excited by his own invention. “This is also blue but … tell me … is it a lighter blue or a darker blue than the first piece?” He lifted another section of cloth. The Optiborg whined with a slightly higher note.
“Lighter,” I said. “It’s lighter.”
“Ha!” Treble jumped up in delight.
“This is incredible.” I moved around listening to the different pitches of the objects in the room. “Absolutely incredible.”
“With practice,” Treble chattered on as Immaculata went and prepared some sandwiches in the sectioned-off kitchen. “By experimenting, anybody with achromatopsia would be able to distinguish the subtleties of color within a matter of weeks.”
“It’s amazing,” I said, pulling the Optiborg from behind my ear. “You deserve to win the Geneva Prize with it.” I held it out to Treble, who shook his head.
“No, Auden. It’s yours.”
“Mine?”
“To keep. Don’t worry, I’ve made a couple of them.”
“Really?” I didn’t know what to say. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me.” He suddenly looked sad. “You know, I wasn’t the greatest of friends to your uncle in the months before he died. There were so many things I should have done and said, but I didn’t because of my stupid professional pride. If I hadn’t been so self-absorbed … well … I might not have been able to prevent Jonah Bloom’s death, but I’d certainly feel a lot better about things knowing that he’d died as a friend.”
And in that moment I could see all the pain that had burrowed away at him. All the wondering “what if” and “why.” Here was somebody else for whom life had changed due to Uncle Jonah’s death.
“I think he would be pleased,” I said, clutching the Optiborg. “I think it would have made him happy to know that you were trying to help me.” I smiled. “Thank you, Dr. Treble.”
Treble seemed to straighten up, and his shoulders puffed.
“That’s quite all right, Auden. My pleasure. Unfortunately, it is absolutely impossible for you to ever see color. But at least now you can hear it.”
* * *
“It is said that the stars are different colors.”
Vivi was on her bed staring through the skyspace at the clear night sky. I was back on the floor, turning the Optiborg over in my fingers. It was a tiny thing, yet so powerful.
“Hmm? What did you say?”
Vivi sighed. “Do you ever listen, Auden?”
“To you? Only when I’m forced to.”
She threw a pillow down and hit me directly in the face.
“Hey!” I laughed.
“Then listen!” She pretended to be annoyed. “I said that people think the stars are different colors. That they’re not all silvery—they just appear that way. They might actually be blue or green or red.”
I sat
up.
“We could find out,” I said.
“How?”
I wiggled the Optiborg around in the air. “With this.”
Vivi scrambled from her bed and quickly popped the lens cover off the telescope. Her excitement had a similar feel to Treble’s excitement as he showed me the Optiborg for the first time.
“Come on. Let’s see.”
I slipped the small device behind my ear and waited for Vivi to point the telescope in the right direction and twiddle with the focusing.
“There!” She stood back and I stooped to look.
What I heard made my breath stop.
It was like an orchestra in my head. Big booming bass notes resounded and fell beneath midrange melodies that swept up and down like violins. Piccolo-type squeaks and the pulsing notes of flutes rolled in and out of the beautiful, elegant noise that the heavens above were making.
“Wow” was all I could say.
I stayed there for what seemed like ages, just staring and listening.
When I did eventually pull myself away from the telescope, Vivi raised her eyebrows at me. “Well?”
“It’s … unbelievable.”
“You’re crying,” she said.
* * *
The rain eased off as the Bot Job shuddered to a stop just outside the prison gates.
“Any chance it’ll ever start up again and get us home?” I asked as we both got out of the car.
“This car is held together with nothing more than wishful thinking,” Mum replied. “So just keep your fingers crossed and, perhaps, pray a bit.”
We went over the road and waited directly opposite the gates.
“What’s the time?” Mum asked nervously.
I glanced at my QWERTY. “Couple of minutes to ten.”
“Nearly ten,” she told herself, pulling her coat tighter. “Oh, look.” She pointed to somewhere above the tall, solid stone Victorian walls of the prison. “A rainbow.”
I looked up. I could see the dull, gray arc in the sky, slightly darker at the bottom than at the top.
It was tempting to reach into my jacket pocket to pull out the Optiborg. But I didn’t. Not today. Today there was something I wanted to see so much more than a rainbow.
“He’s coming!” Mum reached over and grasped my arm.
The smaller door, built into the massive arch-shaped metal one, swung open and out stepped a blond-haired man carrying a rucksack—a man who had recently been granted a pardon by the government, no less. He reached back and shook the hand of someone inside.
“‘Hope is the thing with feathers,’” I sang to myself.
“What’s that?” Mum asked, never taking her eyes off the man at the door.
“Emily Dickinson,” I answered.
“A new friend of yours?”
I smiled. “You could say that, yeah.”
The door to the prison closed as my dad—my hero dad—turned toward us and sprinted across the road, his strong, warm arms outstretched.
* * *
Vivi and I visited Paragon regularly. We would walk out from the city into the green fields and make our way to Wandlebury, where we would follow the winding path up to the Wandlebury Ring.
When the authorities threatened to take Paragon away, I shouted and screamed and made a magnificent fuss. Dr. Treble pulled strings within the scientific community, and Mum and Immaculata went to the newspapers. Even General Woolf himself made the case for Paragon staying where he was as a monument to the bravery of children. So, after a while, the Water Allocation Board relented.
“Hello, Paragon,” I would say when I stepped out of the clearing. Of course, he wouldn’t answer. He would remain in exactly the same position as ever—arms held out to the sky, his face turned to where I once stood, the grass now thick and luscious at his feet.
And I couldn’t ever touch him. To protect Paragon, the WAB had placed an electric fence around him with razor wire at the top. Which sounds like a bad thing, but it wasn’t really. It meant that the family of sparrows that had nested within his chest were safe and free to feel warm and wanted.
Paragon would have been delighted.
Sometimes I would stand roughly where I stood the moment the lights in his eyes died, and it would seem like he was looking straight at me. Other times Vivi and I would run around, or kick a ball, or sketch the trees, or read some thick, tedious book that Vivi found fascinating. And it would be like he was there. Watching over us.
Protecting us.
At night I would sleep deeply with Sandwich on my bed. Soundly and peacefully like Paragon promised. Safe and warm like the sparrows undoubtedly were. And I know that they say nobody ever dreams in color, but sometimes—just sometimes—I swear I do.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Zillah Bethell was born in a leprosy hospital in Papua New Guinea, spent her childhood barefoot playing in the jungle, and didn’t own a pair of shoes until she came to the United Kingdom when she was eight years old. She was educated at Oxford University and lives in Wales with her family. A Whisper of Horses is her first children’s book. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Epigraph
Part One: Green
Chapter 1: A Difficult Word to Pronounce
Chapter 2: The Bot Job
Chapter 3: Unicorn Cottage
Chapter 4: Trinity
Chapter 5: Snowflake 843A
Chapter 6: Vivi Rookmini
Chapter 7: History
Chapter 8: The Seamstress
Part Two: Blue
Chapter 9: Trampoline
Chapter 10: Invisible Ink
Part Three: Red
Chapter 11: Paragon
Chapter 12: Purpose
Part Four: Pink
Chapter 13: Boyle
Chapter 14: The Truth
Part Five: Purple
Chapter 15: Stars and Sparrows
Chapter 16: The 726
Chapter 17: The Wellspring Science and Innovation Center, Dartford Road, Huntingdon
Chapter 18: Milo Treble
Part Six: Yellow
Chapter 19: The Water Allocation Board
Chapter 20: The Brilliant Vivi Rookmini
Chapter 21: The Truth About the Truth
Chapter 22: Everything
Chapter 23: Return to Unicorn Cottage
Part Seven: White
Chapter 24: The Power Source
Epilogue: The Rainbow
About the Author
Copyright
A FEIWEL AND FRIENDS BOOK
An imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
THE EXTRAORDINARY COLORS O
F AUDEN DARE. Copyright © 2018 by Zillah Bethell. All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-1-250-09404-9 (hardcover) / ISBN 978-1-250-09405-6 (ebook)
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First US edition, 2018
First published in Great Britain in 2017 by Piccadilly Press
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eISBN: 9781250094056