Attica (26 page)

‘Stupid creatures,’ she muttered, trying to step between them. ‘If they get squashed, it’s their fault.’

In the end the three travellers found it easier to sweep a path through the armies, brushing the soldiers into heaps either side. When they first did it they prepared to run, thinking they might anger the troops. But the toys were not interested in revenge. They just wanted to get back into the battle again. The objective appeared to be a line of forts and castles at each end of the boards and Chloe could foresee it ending in stalemate, with one lot of attacking soldiers occupying their enemy’s forts, and the other lot overrunning their foe’s castles. It was all pretty much a waste of time so far as she could tell. She wondered if Nelson came to this corner of the attic: he loved little moving things he could chase and bat about with his paw.

Jordy and Alex had started to take their newly learned navigational skills quite seriously. They lined up sunshafts sent down by skylights at a set hour of the day in order to keep to a straight line. This was much like
using a sextant to navigate a ship. And another aide which had been employed by early sailors: celestial bodies. The square stars embedded above lofty networks of beams and rafters were excellent direction-finders. Jordy had learned about the clusters of skylights and the star patterns they created.

The bortrekker had given them a route to follow and Jordy and Alex found their way across the boards with unerring accuracy now. Of course they made one or two mistakes but these were corrected by going back to a known point and beginning that section again. They were beginning to familiarise themselves with the constellations of the attic, with its changing landscapes.

Fortunately the weather remained mild. There was a heavy mist one morning, rising from a group of water tanks, but though this hid any likely dangers from the voyagers, they encountered no trouble. For the most part it was simply a long slog which had Chloe wondering if they would ever see home again. To make such a journey back again, across that vast and troubled land, would take an enormous amount of fortitude.

Still, she remained outwardly optimistic, being a girl with a naturally cheerful disposition.

‘Come on, you two, step it out,’ she cried, her shoes echoing on the hollow floor. ‘Let’s get to our destination.’

‘I’ll tell you what,’ said Jordy, going to the side pockets of his huge backpack, ‘I just remembered. I’ve got skateboards for you two as well. Here,’ he produced them, ‘I found them in a bunch of sports equipment. I always said skateboarding was a sport, didn’t I? Well, that sort of proves it.’

Alex was not the best skateboarder in the world, but he could still kick and run with the other two. Thus the three travellers were soon speeding on their
way, leaving any followers trailing far behind them.

CHAPTER 16

Atticans in Khaki Coats

‘The Removal Firm is very near.’

I know, I know. It’s those damn kids. They brought them by using fire.

‘It’s not the fault of the kids. You know
how relentless the Removal Firm is. They’ll hunt you all down in the end.’

Not me, says
the board-comber,
I’ve been here since the beginning of time.

‘Yes, yes, ancient fossils were real buttons and spoons when you came – but that won’t save you, any more than that carnival mask you wear will fool the Removal Firm. You’re an outsider and that’s that, fake friar or not. That’s all the Removal Firm cares about.’

The board-comber knows the bat is right. The Removal Firm aren’t interested in how long you’ve been in residence. You’re an outsider and therefore you have to be watched closely and ejected at the slightest suspicion of any wrongdoing.

‘If you had a board with wheels on, like those newcomers, you’d be able to out-distance the Removal Firm every time.’

Well, I don’t and I wouldn’t know how to use one if I did.

‘Don’t they just whizz along?’

Too fast, if you ask me.

‘All I’m saying is, if you had one, you’d be a flying board-comber.’

They let the subject drop. The board-comber is a little aggrieved by the boards with wheels. Although they assist the human children in racing ahead of the Removal Firm, they also put a lot of kilometres between the board-comber and his charges. How can he look
to their welfare if they are so far ahead of him? How can he watch over them if he can’t see them? It is all so frustrating. And to what end? What will
he
get out of it? Probably nothing.

‘They’re going in the right direction at last.’

For what?

‘For the Great Water Tank.’

And remind me what is it that they want there?

‘The map, of course. But in any case humans always head towards the shores of great waters, wherever they are.’

Is that true? I don’t.

‘You’re hardly human any more, but all the others do. They seem to need the sights and smells of wide open waters. It’s because they were once fish, I suppose, before they crawled out and used their legs.’

Look, the visitors have stopped. They’re camping for the night. Oh! Oh my, look what the girl creature is taking from her pack. Look. Look! A carving. A wonderful Inuit carving. I knew these young people would come up with something. New ones always do. Look what it is! It’s a walrus. I haven’t got a walrus. I
want
it.

‘Where do you think she got it?’

Down below, of course. When she went through the trapdoor and dropped into the house underneath. She must have stolen it.

‘Stolen goods,’ says the bat, sucking in its breath. ‘She could get arrested for that. And you. You could get arrested for coveting stolen goods. That’s against the law.’

No, it isn’t. You can’t be arrested for
wanting
things. Anyway, I have to have that carving. How do I get it?

‘Trade with the boy – you know what he wants.’

The board-comber is overjoyed at this suggestion.

Of course, bat – you’re a genius.

‘Oh, please,’ demurs the bat, fluttering
its wings, ‘just highly intelligent, nothing more.’

There’s one near here. I remember hiding it for just such a trade as this.

‘There you go then!’

Look, the children are resting for the night.

‘Ah, the night, the night. The children of the night.’

They could hear the howling of a thousand wolves above the shimmering metallic sound that seemed to run in waves. It was both frightening and fascinating. It didn’t sound menacing, exactly, but until he knew what it was, it was certainly worrying.

‘Listen,’ said Jordy.

‘I know, I can hear it,’ replied Chloe. ‘Weird, isn’t it?’

‘But what is it?’

‘Bottles,’ answered Alex. ‘Millions of bottles, all standing shoulder to shoulder. Trembling bottles, rattling against each other.’

Chloe asked, ‘But what about the howling?’

‘The attic draughts blowing over the necks.’

Indeed, now that the other two knew what that peculiar sound was, his words made sense. Jordy took off his backpack and went up a dome like aberration in the boards and stared towards the sound. From that vantage point he could see them: an ocean of bottles of all different coloured glass. Wine bottles, milk bottles, beer bottles, lemonade bottles, medicine bottles, and so on, and so forth. What a sight they made in all their hues, glinting in the fading light from the high windows. For some reason Jordy felt an urge to walk upon them, on that vast expanse of bottlenecks, just because they looked so inviting.

And Alex had been right again. It was the strong draughts making them tremble, chinking their shoulders. And the draught causing that howling from their necks. This truly was a sight one might travel miles to see, like a glacier in the real world, or a strange rock formation.

‘Look at that,’ said Chloe, coming up
alongside him.

‘I know. And in the sunset too. The best time.’

The sun leapt as dancing fire from bottleneck to bottle shoulder, sending glints and flashes back to the two watchers. Here it streaked over a hundred clear-glass stalwarts, there it jumped from green to red to blue. And all the while that tinkling sound which outdid waves on a stormy beach, or the rustling of reeds on a windy creek for volume. Quivering bottles, bottles, bottles, sweeping out and away, with nothing else in sight. They could have been alive out there, that gathered multitude of glass: a million empty vessels making the loudest noise you had ever heard in your life.

Jordy looked back at Alex, who was busy getting the camping stove going.

‘Clo …?’

‘You’re going to ask how he knew what was here before any of us even saw them.’

‘Yep, I was.’

She shrugged. ‘He’s different now. He seems instinctively to know things about Attica. If you ask him
how
he knows, he can’t tell you. I’m worried about Alex, Jordy. I’m worried he won’t want to go home when the time comes. He’s altered a lot.’

Jordy became the elder brother. ‘He’ll still do as he’s told.’

‘You can’t force him to obey you, Jordy. He’ll just run off. We can’t tie him up or anything.’

‘No – but he’ll surely listen to reason?’

‘Will he? I’m not so sure.’

Jordy walked back down the slope of the boards, to where Alex was quietly humming to himself. He looked like a rag-bag, Jordy thought, in that rotten old hat and now he was wearing yet
another
old coat on top of the first two. And all those scarves and things! Those sloppy oversized shoes! He was beginning
to smell too, despite the fact that Jordy grumbled at him. Why didn’t he wash himself and his clothes? Did he want his shirt and socks to stink to high heaven?

And there was another thing, too.

‘What’s that bat doing?’ asked Jordy, pointing to a creature hanging from a rafter not far from their camp. ‘It’s been following us.’

Alex looked innocent. ‘Why ask me?’

‘Because I think it’s following you, not me or Chloe.’

‘Why do you think that?’

‘When you go down to drink at the water tanks, it follows you. It doesn’t do that with us.’

Alex shrugged and put on Makishi. ‘Well?’ To Jordy he seemed to be hiding behind that weird African mask.

‘Well what?’ said Jordy in more of an accusing tone than he actually intended. ‘Well I’m right?’

‘You could be. I don’t know.’

Jordy said, ‘I think I’ll kill that bat.’

Alex immediately flared up, leaping in front of Jordy and pushing his Makishi face close to his step-brother’s.

‘You leave it alone,’ he shouted with venom. ‘Who do you think you are?’

Jordy was shocked. Alex had never spoken to him in that way before. He had never been so threatening in his tone. Jordy backed away, saying, ‘All right, all right, it was a joke …’

Chloe came down from the slope. Normally she would have sided with her younger brother, but there was something dangerous about Alex now. Instead she told him, ‘There’s no need for that, Alex. Jordy is just trying to find out what’s happening to you.’

‘Nothing’s happening to me. I’m just me, that’s all.’

‘You’ve changed,’ accused Chloe. ‘You’re not like the Alex who came up here with
us. You’re different.’

‘I’m just the me I always wanted to be,’ explained Alex. ‘That’s all. You just leave me be. You just leave me to what I am and who I am. Find another brother. You’ve got Jordy now. Isn’t one brother enough for you?’

It was Chloe’s turn to be shocked.

She stood there, stunned and hurt.
Find another brother
. What was Alex saying?

‘Alex, are you jealous of Jordy? Is that it?’

Alex sighed and shook his head vigorously.

‘No, of course not. I just don’t want you fussing over me any more. I’m not worried that Jordy’s part of our family. It’s just that
I
don’t want to be part of the family. I want to be on my own. I don’t want a sister. I don’t want parents. I don’t want anybody. I’ve got me and Makishi and that’s all I need. We don’t need anyone else, do we, Makishi?’

‘No one but ourselves, Alex,’ replied the mask.

It was the first time Jordy had heard Makishi speak and he paled and took a step backwards. Wisely he decided not to make a big thing of this mask of Alex’s, even though it appeared to be alive. Clearly Chloe was used to the fact.

Instead he spoke to Chloe. ‘There’s a bat that keeps stalking us,’ he said to his step-sister. ‘Clo, Alex has gone loopy.’ Chloe ignored Jordy for the moment.

‘Alex, you can’t just opt out of a family. I’m your sister. Jordy’s your step-brother. You can’t change that, whatever you do. You might not want our company any more, but you’ll still be our brother. Please, try to understand how we feel. We’re concerned for you.’

‘That’s what I mean,’ said Alex simply. ‘I don’t want you to be. I’m all right. Nothing’s wrong with me. I just don’t want fussing.’

‘OK, we won’t fuss. But don’t do anything silly, will you? Promise? Don’t run away or hide or anything.’

This speech, short and simple as
it was, seemed to touch something of the old Alex deep inside. He stared at his sister with big, brown, untroubled eyes through the holes in the mask. It was true, there was no turbulence in Alex, only calmness and tranquillity. He was all right. It was them who weren’t.

‘Fine,’ he said. ‘I promise, sis.’

‘Thank you.’

She turned away and began busying herself with something, anything, to stop the tears from welling up and flowing. She was losing her brother. Of course they couldn’t remain as children all their lives. She would leave for university or a job somewhere, or perhaps to get married. He would remain behind for a time, but then leave himself, perhaps finding work that would take him halfway around the world. Who knew how the separation might come about, but it was a natural process, which would leave no scars and no regrets. They would always think fondly of one another, wherever they were, however distant from each other.

This? This was too soon. And he seemed not to care that he was hurting her. All he seemed to care about was his freedom and solitude.