Attica (15 page)

Ow! Ow! Ow!

‘I’ll get him.’

The bat flies into the face of the voodoo effigy, unbalancing
it. The doll drops backwards off the rafter. Its snarling face is visible all the way down. It hits the boards and breaks into several bits, an arm going one way, its head going another, a foot flying into the face of a fellow doll. The other dolls kick the bits away into a dark area. The victim was only a warrior: no one of any importance. They now stand at the bottom staring up. Their faces are twisted in fury but they do not seem to be able to reason how to get up there. One or two of them try to launch their needles like spears, but the needles fall short and drop down among them again.

That hurts
.

The board-comber pulls two needles out of its foot, left there by the last doll to attack him.

‘Don’t I get any thanks?’

What for? Oh, that last doll. All right, thanks
.

‘I should think so. Hey, they’re going away.’

The voodoo dolls are indeed leaving. The whole swarm of them, some in tattered little dresses or smocks, others with nothing on at all, move in a wave across the attic floor. They’re going in the same direction taken by the human children. Several of the waxy figures are now hunched: those who hit the floor with force and dislocated themselves. They look even more sinister than they did when they were straight-backed. Many needles are bent. The board-comber feels he has come off best in the attack, but he knows if he ever runs into the voodoo dolls again it will be his last encounter. He adjusts his mask with its jolly puffed cheeks and bulbous nose.

‘We must warn the visitors.’

Why? They should look out for themselves
.

‘You know they can’t. They’ve got no idea how to survive up here.’

They’ve survived so far
.

‘By luck only.’

Well, they tricked me with that list thing – they told me it was a map. I don’t owe them anything. I don’t want any more to do with them
.

‘Then why leave the traction engine for the boy to find? Why send me out with messages for the older boy? You still think they might lead you to some carvings, don’t you? Newcomers often discover old hoards, don’t they? Why? Because they’re not looking as hard as you old timers do. They stumble across ’em without realising it. You want them on your side if they come across a trove, don’t you? A box full of stuff you’ve never noticed before – maybe with a carving among the junk?’

The board-comber acknowledges this fact. But climbing down from his safe perch is not an easy thing to do. As he attempts it he hears a sniggering from above. Alarmed, he looks up to see a pair of bright blue eyes with long eyelashes. One of the eyes winks at him. It belongs to a pink-faced china doll moving like a monkey through the canopy, her chubby little arms swinging her from spar to spar. Blonde-haired, baby-faced china dolls in rose-and-violet dresses with frilly lace hems are almost as vicious as voodoo dolls. Some of them are wearing mob caps with colourful ribbons. Others are bare-headed, with painted curls. All wear terrible smiles.

The bat says, ‘This just isn’t your day.’

The board-comber gives a yell and leaps through space to the floor. Fortunately he lands square on his feet. Above him the china doll calls to her clan and a whole nurseryful of even-toothed dolls with chubby-cheeked smiles come chattering through the canopy of rafters in their pretty dresses, white socks and button-strapped shoes. These are roof dwellers and never come down to the attic floor, so the board-comber knows he is safe.

You bugger off,
he says, shaking his fist at them.

‘Hurry, hurry, hurry,’ says the bat.

I’m going as fast as I can. Is that my boot? Oh no, that broken voodoo doll’s head is hanging from it – it’s buried its teeth in the tongue. How am I going to get that off, without losing a finger? I’ll have to prise the mouth open with a knife or something
.

‘Leave it there. A ghastly head decoration. You’ll start a new fashion among board-combers.’

You really think so?

‘No.’

‘It’s all green and
tangled,’ said Alex. ‘Lots of vines and ferns. Oh, look at that tall tree! Soaring like a cathedral spire. Over there’s a pool with reddish water in – iron oxide in the soil does that. I learned that in science. Oh, and here’s a cave, all mossy and covered in plants and stuff …’

‘Don’t go in!’ ordered Chloe. ‘You don’t know what’s in there.’

The pair were on a bare-boards plain. There was an Attican village not far away, similar to those they had already encountered. This one had sewing-machine cars and wardrobes, so they were probably kin to the first village they had stayed at. The people were much the same: short in stature, lumpy, with plaster dust on their heads and shoulders. They seemed a busy lot, collecting clothes which they kept in a warehouse made of book-bricks. That is, they used books like bricks to build it. It was quite a sight and full of old clothes, folded neatly, kept in rows. There were also shoes in there, those too in neat rows. These villagers were obviously traders.

This time the children didn’t stay in the village or try to steal any food. They had learned their lesson. Instead they camped well away from it, behind one of those thickets of fishing rods with dozens of vicious hooks like thorns, and tangled nets of lines. Once or twice a villager in a sewing-machine car had surprised them, but they had skilfully avoided being caught. Chloe could tell by the expression on the faces of those Atticans that she and Alex scared as well as angered them.

Above the children – high, high above – was a
small skylight which sent down a sunbeam shaft to illuminate them. They both sat cross-legged in the ray, enjoying its brightness. Chloe was stroking Nelson’s tummy and he was purring. Nelson had joined them a short time ago, bringing with him a large freshly dead rat which to the amazement and horror of his sister Alex skinned and cooked. He ate the meat, feeding himself through the hole in the mask. Chloe refused to touch it and was most damning in her criticism of her younger brother, who said he couldn’t care less.

‘If you could see this jungle, you’d be excited too,’ Alex told her. ‘Have a go now, if you want,’ he added generously, removing the mask. ‘You simply have to put it on and look hard. You have to
think
about jungles though. If you just sit there and don’t try, you end up seeing only the attic.’

Chloe recoiled from the offer, shuddering. ‘You don’t know
who’s
had that thing on,’ she said.

The mask said: ‘Who are you calling a
thing
?’

‘You,’ said Chloe emphatically. ‘I bet there’ve been all sorts of people slobbering inside you.’

The mask declined to argue further, having made its point.

Alex returned the mask to his face. He was having great fun, having crossed the world through the mask’s eyes. All around him was lush jungle with tall buttress-rooted trees covered in parasitic creepers and ferns. Below the level of the first canopy there was a second canopy composed of smaller trees, though in Alex’s eyes these too were quite tall. Then came the undergrowth, steamy, with moist, slick or hairy leaves, some of them large and thick enough to make a sunbed. There was wildlife there too, in the form of monkeys and birds and lots of insects. The smell, through the mask’s nostrils, was of damp vegetation and animal droppings.

A beautiful swallowtail butterfly
flew past Alex’s head.

‘Clo, you don’t know what you’re missing.’

‘I’ll do without it, thank you,’ she replied primly. ‘Just don’t go inside that cave, you don’t know what’s in there.’

Alex of course ignored her and went inside. It was dark so he delved into his pack for the matches. He struck one and held it up, right in front of his sister’s face. She tightened her mouth.

‘You’re in there, aren’t you?’ accused Chloe. ‘Don’t you ever listen to anything I say?’

‘Pictures,’ murmured Alex in a disappointed tone. ‘In charcoal I think. A little rhino. And a fish. And some birds. Just Stone Age people’s drawings on the walls. I could do better than them.’

‘I should think so. Art has developed since they were drawn.’

‘Oh, Clo – there’s a snake. White one.’

‘Drawing or real?’

‘Real.’

Chloe said, ‘Cave racer. They’re blind. They catch bats and eat them.’

‘Yup – I just saw it get one. Talk about fast. Bats look nice and crunchy. Oh, it’s not a bat, it’s a bird. There are
thousands
of them in here, Clo. There are nests on the ceiling and all up the walls. Yuk, what am I treading in?’

‘I can guess. Alex, come out of that cave. How do you know there’s not something dangerous in the back? Caves are full of scorpions, you know.’

‘I’m only
looking
, sis.’

Alex took off the mask. His face was sweaty and he wiped it on his sleeve. ‘I don’t know why you’re so awkward, Clo.’

‘I just am, that’s all.’

Nelson had had enough of being stroked. He went up
on his three legs and trotted away with that peculiar gait of his.

‘Good old Nelson,’ said Alex, picking up a cold drumstick of rat’s leg. ‘He’s a great hunter, isn’t he?’

Chloe stared at her brother. ‘You don’t have to eat that, you know. I found some boxes of apples, and some bottled plums. The people below must have stored them up here. Would you like some?’

‘Nope,’ replied Alex, tossing away the bone. ‘I like rat meat. I was going to keep it from you, ’cause I knew you’d be upset. I like pigeons too. I like them better than rats.’

‘Pigeons?’

‘Nelson brought me a pigeon. It was delicious.’

‘Oh, Alex.’

At that moment there was a sound, out on the fringes of the attic. Both children peered into the gloom, but could see nothing. What was it, an Attican villager? Something else? There were always small noises present: the attic woodwork creaking its joints like a galleon under sail; the birds in the eaves, especially the pigeons cooing in their boring fashion; mice and rats scuttling around, looking for water and food, and each other; the draughts lifting the edges of plastic bags; the steady drip of water in water tanks. Noises of all kinds, some identifiable, others more puzzling. This noise came under the puzzling heading. Soon it stopped, however, and the two children were able to relax again. If there was anything out there, it had halted.

‘I’ll get some water,’ said Alex, standing up. ‘We passed a tank a little way back.’

‘No – no, don’t, Alex.’

‘We need water, Clo. I’ll be all right.’

‘You always disappear.’

Alex said, ‘I won’t this time. I promise.’

He took some bottles and marched back to the water
tank he’d seen earlier. When he inspected the surface of the tank it was much as he’d expected, a bit insecty and with a film of scum. But he dunked the bottles deep under the water and allowed them to fill, watching the bubbles come up to pop on the surface. Once both bottles had been filled, he turned to go back.

‘Oh, good grief!’ he cried. ‘Another one.’

It was a single treasure. It stood there as if patiently waiting to be seized. A model steam car. Not quite as magical and entrancing as his showman’s engine, but at one time Alex would have sold his soul for such an engine. And here it was, for the taking. How many more were there in the attic? It was a land of treasures.

He rolled it around for a while with his hand, again wishing he had some methylated spirit handy, but eventually put it carefully under his shirt. For some reason he didn’t want Chloe to see it. He didn’t know why, because there was no reason why she should disapprove of him gathering steam engines to his bosom. But he decided to hide it. On the way back he came across an old army overcoat, man-sized, and put it on. He found it hid the bump under his shirt very well in its many folds.

Chloe was waiting anxiously for his return.

Predictably she cried, ‘What are you wearing that thing for?’

‘I just feel like it.’

‘Take it off, Alex, it’s dirty.’

‘No.’

‘But look at it. It’s
filthy
. And it
doesn’t fit anyway. Get something that fits if you feel cold. You look lost in that musty old coat.’

‘I like it,’ he replied stubbornly. ‘I’m keeping this one.’

‘Honestly, you make me so mad.’

‘I don’t care, Clo. I like it. I like the coat, I like the mask and I’m keeping them both, whatever you say. They’re
me
.’

She looked weary and gave up on him.

‘Oh, have it your own way. Who cares? Let’s stay here for a while,’ suggested Chloe. ‘I’m tired. There’s nothing to hurry for. We don’t know where Jordy is and we might be heading in completely the wrong direction. We might be going in circles for all I know.’

Alex looked at his compass. They were heading directly west.

‘Nope – we’re still going in a straight line,’ he said. ‘I’ve been checking my compass every so often.’

Chloe was impressed. ‘That’s clever of you. At least we’re going
somewhere
then, and not just where we’ve been.’

‘Exactly.’ Alex put down the compass and went to pick up his mask, but Chloe said, ‘Would you mind not putting that on?’

‘Why?’

‘Because he scares me.’ She whispered, ‘I think he wants to take you over.’

‘I heard that.’

‘What, you mean like aliens invading the earth?’ said Alex. ‘Nah, he’s not going to harm me.’

‘How do you know?’

‘I can feel it when I put him on.’

Chloe said, ‘How do you know that’s not him
making
you feel safe and secure, so that it’s all the easier to control you?’

‘I wouldn’t do that. I am Makishi, Most Sacred, Most Feared, but those who tremble before me are my enemies, not my friends. Alex is my wearer and he I would never hurt. Do you not understand the laws of
becoming
? When Alex puts me on he
becomes
me. Therefore he is me and I would never hurt myself. That would be foolish.’

Chloe didn’t know what to say to this, but
she still couldn’t trust the mask.