Otto, isn’t it? And anyway, where did you all disappear to without word or warning?’
They did not reply but went on the attack again.
‘You’re waiting for a signal for the right moment to destroy us, you want to put an end to the last spark of civilisation, the last hope for mankind.’
*
‘You are part of a conspiracy. You were waiting for the right moment to stage a coup.’
‘We have stated that there is no conspiracy. We were not planning a coup.’
‘Why else would you defy the state?’
‘For the sake of our daughter.’
‘Who is now a prisoner. You must have realised that you would be discovered. You were using her as a hostage for your own dark purposes.’
‘No!’
Susie can hear the anger and despair in her father’s voice and tries turning towards him but firm hands hold her back.
‘It was my fault!’ she shouts. ‘I asked them.’
A hand over her mouth silences her.
‘Leave her alone!’ her mother cries. ‘ She is only a child. only a child.’
*
Joe was beyond understanding, foundering in a welter of misconceptions that bore no relation to anything he recognised as reality. He felt as though he had become a character in someone else’s fantasy, that his own individuality had ceased to exist, he felt that some essential part of him had gone missing. He felt that he had lost his being.
‘If,’ he said in a voice of utter resignation, ‘if you think I’m here to destroy you, why don’t you kill me? It’d be easy enough. There’s five of you and only one of me. Go on, do it. There’s nothing here for me anyway, just growing old and dying without having achieved anything, experienced anything....’
A murmur went through the room.
What had he said now?
‘Look,’ Joe said with controlled calm, ‘I was coming home from school...’
‘There’s been no school here for four hundred years,’ Meredith said
‘There is where I come from. Hundreds of schools. People learn to read and write. Can you read and write?’ he asked accusingly.
‘Of course. But writing’s been banned. And we have learnt to do without it.’
‘Well, lucky you,’ he said sarcastically.
‘Go on,’ Otto ordered.
‘It was an ordinary day like any other. Same old routine, breakfast, school, home. Mum always leaves tea out for me, she has to earn you see....’
He faltered, seeing the incredulous looks on their faces.
‘She has to earn a living with my father gone and never contacting us or sending money.’
Money. How were they to understand money? Joe saw that he was digging an ever deeper hole for himself.
‘There’s just the two of us. She’s in an office. Not a very exciting job, she doesn’t like it much.’ He was talking to himself now. ‘I’ve promised myself that as soon as I have my ‘A’ levels I’ll train in some skill, don’t know what at the moment. Don’t think I’ll manage university on account of the cost, though I would have liked to. We don’t have an ancestral home, not like yours with family roots reaching back four hundred years. Ours is a three up, two down, rather poky....’
How could he possibly explain?.
‘It’s so different from the life you lead. Children live with their parents.’
Another murmur round the table.
‘Everything is different. In my Bantage people live ordinary lives, in ordinary houses without bells on the roofs; and there are people in the countryside, there are farms and houses and villages, cars, lorries, tractors and no one wants to kill anyone else. Not as far as I know anyway. Here is like a foreign country even though we speak the same language and even though the houses in Bantage haven’t changed. Or at least don’t look different from the outside.’
He noted their disbelieving faces but once started on his tale could not stop.
‘I was walking back from school and I had an accident. I fell. And when I got up to go home everything had gone quiet. There was no one about though I wasn’t taking too much notice.
They did not reply but went on the attack again.
‘You’re waiting for a signal for the right moment to destroy us, you want to put an end to the last spark of civilisation, the last hope for mankind.’
*
‘You are part of a conspiracy. You were waiting for the right moment to stage a coup.’
‘We have stated that there is no conspiracy. We were not planning a coup.’
‘Why else would you defy the state?’
‘For the sake of our daughter.’
‘Who is now a prisoner. You must have realised that you would be discovered. You were using her as a hostage for your own dark purposes.’
‘No!’
Susie can hear the anger and despair in her father’s voice and tries turning towards him but firm hands hold her back.
‘It was my fault!’ she shouts. ‘I asked them.’
A hand over her mouth silences her.
‘Leave her alone!’ her mother cries. ‘ She is only a child. only a child.’
*
Joe was beyond understanding, foundering in a welter of misconceptions that bore no relation to anything he recognised as reality. He felt as though he had become a character in someone else’s fantasy, that his own individuality had ceased to exist, he felt that some essential part of him had gone missing. He felt that he had lost his being.
‘If,’ he said in a voice of utter resignation, ‘if you think I’m here to destroy you, why don’t you kill me? It’d be easy enough. There’s five of you and only one of me. Go on, do it. There’s nothing here for me anyway, just growing old and dying without having achieved anything, experienced anything....’
A murmur went through the room.
What had he said now?
‘Look,’ Joe said with controlled calm, ‘I was coming home from school...’
‘There’s been no school here for four hundred years,’ Meredith said
‘There is where I come from. Hundreds of schools. People learn to read and write. Can you read and write?’ he asked accusingly.
‘Of course. But writing’s been banned. And we have learnt to do without it.’
‘Well, lucky you,’ he said sarcastically.
‘Go on,’ Otto ordered.
‘It was an ordinary day like any other. Same old routine, breakfast, school, home. Mum always leaves tea out for me, she has to earn you see....’
He faltered, seeing the incredulous looks on their faces.
‘She has to earn a living with my father gone and never contacting us or sending money.’
Money. How were they to understand money? Joe saw that he was digging an ever deeper hole for himself.
‘There’s just the two of us. She’s in an office. Not a very exciting job, she doesn’t like it much.’ He was talking to himself now. ‘I’ve promised myself that as soon as I have my ‘A’ levels I’ll train in some skill, don’t know what at the moment. Don’t think I’ll manage university on account of the cost, though I would have liked to. We don’t have an ancestral home, not like yours with family roots reaching back four hundred years. Ours is a three up, two down, rather poky....’
How could he possibly explain?.
‘It’s so different from the life you lead. Children live with their parents.’
Another murmur round the table.
‘Everything is different. In my Bantage people live ordinary lives, in ordinary houses without bells on the roofs; and there are people in the countryside, there are farms and houses and villages, cars, lorries, tractors and no one wants to kill anyone else. Not as far as I know anyway. Here is like a foreign country even though we speak the same language and even though the houses in Bantage haven’t changed. Or at least don’t look different from the outside.’
He noted their disbelieving faces but once started on his tale could not stop.
‘I was walking back from school and I had an accident. I fell. And when I got up to go home everything had gone quiet. There was no one about though I wasn’t taking too much notice.
Similar Books
