Mother of Eden (2 page)

Starlight Brooking

My sister was different different from me. Soon as she heard Johnny tell that story about the metal and the people from across the Pool, you could see the dread in her face. Soon as Uncle Dixon said it wasn’t true, you could see her relax. Me, I was the other way round. When Johnny told the story it was like a way out opening up. I felt excited, and my head filled up at once with thoughts about new possibilities. And when Dixon laughed it all off, it was like that way out had been closed off and I was trapped once more in boring boring Knee Tree Grounds.

Uncle Dixon knocked carefully with his round stone, pausing after every few taps to wipe his hands on his buckskin waistwrap. Cut off from the hot sap that flows through the bark, the oval had shrunk away from the harder wood beneath and from the live bark around it. If we’d left it long enough, it should just come away.

“Shifting yet?” I called up to him.

“Nearly there, I reckon.” The sweat on his face glistened in the treeshine. “Let’s give it a go. Ready to catch?”

I cupped my hands to receive the heavy stone and placed it carefully in the boat. Stones were valuable things on sandy Knee Tree Grounds.

Dixon put his fingers into the crack in the bark and began to pull gently.

“Easy,” he muttered to himself under his breath. “Easy. Ah, here we go! You lot ready? It’s coming down.”

With a slow rasping sound, the long oval pulled away from the trunk: a whole new boat, or at least it would be once it had been scraped and rubbed smooth, and layers of sap and fatbuck oil spread over it to fill up the tiny holes.

“There we go,” Uncle Dixon said.

He had the same satisfied tone he used every single time a bark came cleanly away from a tree. However many times he did it, the pleasure was just the same.

“Okay, get ready for it.”

Panting with the effort and heat, he lowered the bark, carefully carefully, until the three of us could reach the bottom edge and hold it up out of the water. Then he clambered quickly down the tree.

“Jeff’s sharp eyes,” he sighed gratefully as he slipped back into the coolness, “that feels
good
good.”

He splashed his face and his pudgy body while we placed the hot piece of bark carefully into the spare boat. He must have said the same thing a thousand times.

“Came away nice and clean, that one. And there’s not one blemish on it. It’ll be a good good runner. Take it to Nob Head and it should get us five six glass knives at least.”

“I reckon we’ve been getting more trade lately than anyone else on Grounds,” Johnny said.

Uncle Dixon nodded comfortably as we all got back into the boat.

“Yeah. Well, that’s down to experience, isn’t it? I’ve been doing this since I was a little kid. I know a good knee, and I know when bark’s ready. These youngsters try to pull bark too early, thinking it’ll save them time, but of course it never does. What time have you saved if you rip a hole in your boat and have to start again? I’ve seen good trees ruined that way, too. Bark never grows back as cleanly, and
 
.
.
.”

This was our whole life, I suddenly thought. This was what we did, these were our pleasures: bark that came away cleanly, a boat that was good runner, a trip once in a while to just one other little place, only a few miles across the water.

“Why don’t we go down to Veeklehouse?” I said as we finally paddled back toward the Sand. Behind us, in the spare boat, we were pulling four bark ovals. “We could trade boats there just like we do at Nob Head. And we could find out if Johnny’s story is true or not.”

Of course Glitterfish was completely against it.

“That’s a
stupid
idea, Starlight. It’s ten wakings of paddling each way, and it’s dangerous. And what would be the point? We can get all the things we need in Nob Head.”

Around us, and above and below, the greeny-
yellow lanterns shone.

“Well, you don’t have to go, Glits,” I told her. “I mean, I know you’re
way
too sensible and grown-
up, but why can’t the rest of us?”

She shook her head. “You need to get a kid of your own, Starlight: something to think about other than just having fun. Then you’d settle down and realize what’s really important.”

“You’ve
always
been settled down, Glits. You were an oldmum before you even had tits, and now all you ever think about is Mikey Mikey Mikey.”

“Tom’s dick, Star, that’s a bit harsh!” protested Johnny.

Glits pulled a face. “Don’t worry, Johnny, I’m used to it.”

We dug and dug and dug into the water.
Hmmmph hmmmph hmmmph hmmmph
went the trees.

“What’s the point of life,” I asked, “if as soon as we stop
being
kids all we think about is
having
kids? That’s like going round and round in a circle, and never getting anywhere at all.”

“Why do we
need
to get anywhere, Star?” Uncle Dixon asked. “Like Jeff Redlantern always used to say:
We’re here
. People always want to be
there,
but wherever you go, however far you travel, you can only ever be here. We might as well get used to it.”

“Jeff may have
said
that, but I notice he didn’t stay there in Circle Valley. And then he crossed over here from Mainground as well, didn’t he?”

That, after all, was the reason we were all here. Jeff brought a bunch of people over to Knee Tree Grounds to get away from the fighting over the ring that happened after Breakup, and they were our own great-
great grandparents.

Johnny laughed. “Star’s got a point, actually. Whatever Jeff
said,
he wasn’t really one for staying in the same place.”

“He was once he got here,” said Glits.

Four five yards away, a little claw-
bat swooped down to snatch up a fish from the surface of the water.

“I suppose if John and his people didn’t drown, then they’d probably still have Gela’s ring,” Dixon said after a while. “Odd to think, isn’t it? That ring from the old story, still out there somewhere in the world.”

“I’d
love
to see it!” I said. “Imagine seeing a ring that came from Earth itself, right there in front of you, as real as these trees or this water.”

Uncle Dixon gave a grown-
up laugh. “I don’t think there’s much chance of
that.
”

“I’d
hate
to see it,” my big sister said quietly. “Think of all the grief it caused! Think of all the killing! I hope it’s down there on the bottom under Deep Darkness, out of the way for good.”

We paddled on for a bit without talking. I hadn’t forgotten about Veeklehouse, and I wasn’t planning on letting it go—
I never let go of anything once I made up my mind—
but I knew it was best to give Uncle Dixon a little time. He was the kindest of men, but no one would claim he was the quickest.

Sure enough, in due time, a new thought came to him.

“There
is
the Veekle, though!” he said in a surprised-
sounding voice. “If we went down to Veeklehouse, we’d see that. That comes from Earth, and it’s made of metal, and it’s a bloody great big thing as well. Not just some little ring.”

“Yes, and it’s a bloody long way away, too,” Glitterfish said. “Old Candy went there once, and she nearly drowned.”

Here it was again: the difference between her and me.

“Come on, let’s go there!” I cried. “Please. Just once. Even if it
is
a long way. Please, Uncle,
please
!”

Dixon thought about it for a few seconds.

“We could get there in nine ten wakings, from what I’ve heard,” he said slowly, “if we went the straight way, right across the Tongue.”

“But that would be stupid,” said Glitterfish. “It’d only take one of those giant waves to come along and you’d be done for, just like—”

“It’d be a risk, certainly,” agreed Uncle Dixon. “But big waves like that are pretty rare.” He went quiet, frowning to himself as he paddled steadily along. “I suppose when we’ve got enough boats to trade,” he finally said, “we
could
take them down to Veeklehouse one time instead of across to Nob Head.”

The boat nudged through some low-
hanging branches, and we ducked to avoid the shining globes.

“It wouldn’t be easy,” Dixon said. “Ten wakings alpway of hard paddling. And the same back, of course. It wouldn’t be easy at all. And we’d lose a lot of boat-
making time as well.”

“Exactly!” exclaimed Glitterfish. “Twenty whole wakings of hard hard work, half of it in the bloody dark. And, like you say, that would all be time when you could have been making new boats. It makes no sense. And it wouldn’t really be fair on the rest of us, either, when you think about it. Everyone else on Grounds would be getting on with useful work, while you’d just be paddling for no purpose at all.”

I ignored her. “You’d go, wouldn’t you, Johnny?” I said.

Johnny glanced guiltily at Glitterfish. “Yeah, I guess so. Why not? Just once.”

Our sister snorted scornfully. “She only has to talk to you in that cute baby voice, doesn’t she?”

“Go on Uncle, let’s do it,” I said. “
Please
. Eden is
big
big, and none of us has ever been anywhere apart from here and bloody old Nob Head.”

Tom’s dick, whole of our little water forest was only two miles across, and even Nob Head was only ten miles away.

“I
would
like to see that Veekle before I die,” Dixon said after a while. “I mean, Jeff’s eyes, that’s the boat that first brought people down from sky! It’s the sort of thing a person
ought
to see. Specially if you’re a boatmaker, like me.”

He seemed to think the Veekle from Earth wasn’t so different from his bits of greased bark!

“Might even learn a trick or two,” he said.

The Sand where we lived was little dry patch in middle of our water forest of Knee Tree Grounds. The trees just continued right over it and back in on the other side, as if they saw no difference between dry ground and ground that was three feet below the water. And why would they, if their roots reached a mile down, as people said they did, to the fiery rock of Underworld?

“So we’re going, then?” I pressed Uncle Dixon as we pulled the boats up onto the beach. “So we’re definitely going once we’ve made enough boats?”

He said nothing as we took out the newly cut barks and carried them to his boat shelters, and he said nothing as we laid them carefully in a pile. It was only when we were making our way across to the Meeting Place that he finally made up his mind.

“Yeah, let’s do it. Why not?”

I threw my arms round him. “Oh,
thanks,
Uncle Dixon. Oh, thanks, thanks, thanks! You’re the best uncle on Grounds.”

He laughed and kissed me. “I’ll see if I can talk Julie into coming with us. It’s not for nothing she’s called Deepwater. She’s good out there, and I’d feel safer if she came along.”

Glitterfish burst into tears. “Please don’t go, Uncle! Please!”

Dixon laughed uncomfortably and tried to hug her, too, but she wouldn’t let him.

“We’ll be careful Glits, I promise you.”

“Please don’t go! Apart from the danger and the waste of time, why draw attention to us? We want Mainground to leave us alone, don’t we?”

“People on Mainground already know we’re here, Glits,” Johnny pointed out.

“Some do, yes, but why tell more of them? Why can’t you lot be happy with what you’ve got?”

“It’s just for a visit,” Uncle Dixon said, trying again to reach out to her.

She pushed him away. She was
not
going to help him feel okay about this.

“All I want is for my little boy to have a peaceful life. We don’t
need
anything else. Why risk unsettling things for our kids?”

Dixon and Johnny both hated upsetting people, and their instinct was always to try and smooth things over. But me, I was angry with my sister.

“Tom’s dick, Glits,” I said. “Mikey’s not the only thing in the world.”

“No, of course not, but I love him, and it’s my job to care for him. I know
you
don’t care about anyone like that, but I do.”

As she walked quickly away from us, still crying, to find her darling boy, I told myself how boring she was for settling so readily for being a mum and nothing else. And I tried not to notice how jealous I felt of the love she gave that child.

Julie Deepwater

There were about seventy of us living in Knee Tree Grounds. We shared pretty much everything and, unlike over on Mainground, where there was always someone asleep and someone awake, we all kept the same sleeps so that we’d be able to come together at the end of every waking in the Meeting Place in middle of the Sand.

I was already sitting there when my cousin Dixon came over to me. About half the Kneefolk had already arrived, and the others were coming in.

“Me and Johnny and Starlight are thinking of taking a boat down to Veeklehouse,” Dixon said. “I was wondering if you’d be interested in coming along, too? You’ve been over to Mainground more than pretty much anyone, and you’ve been further out in Darkness, too. It would be interesting to go there just once, don’t you think? Plus, Johnny’s heard some story at Nob Head about the Johnfolk coming back across the water, and we could find out if it’s true.”

I laughed. “Where did that idea come from, I wonder? Let me see if I can guess.”

“It was Starlight.”

“Well, what a surprise!”

“Glits
hates
the idea,” Dixon said. “She’s
angry
angry with all of us.”

I nodded. Glitterfish had her own reasons for wanting everything to stay the same, but she certainly wouldn’t be on her own. Most Kneefolk, including me, thought we should keep quietly to ourselves as much as possible. You could even say that was whole
point
of Knee Tree Grounds. There’d been no killing among us since our great grandparents came to Knee Tree Grounds, no one speared or beaten or tied to scalding trees. It wasn’t just Glitterfish who remembered that.

“Maybe,” I said to Dixon. “I’ll think it over.”

I sat back and watched the people coming in. Some had been out in the forest, like Dixon. Some had been fishing or hunting fatbucks in the open water beyond the trees. Some had spent the waking on the Sand itself, washing wraps, looking after kids, or working on boats, like me.

I saw Starlight arrive and find some friends to sit with. She was a strange girl. She didn’t quite know where she belonged, or who she belonged to, but her cleverness and her beauty and her uncle’s love had taught her to believe that, whatever she wanted, she could get: so different from her sister, Glitterfish, who was as smart and beautiful as Starlight, but settled so easily and so gratefully for the simplest and most ordinary things.

“My uncle and my brother and me are going down to Veeklehouse,” I heard Starlight telling her friends in a loud voice. “Any of you want to come with me?”

And then I saw Glitterfish arrive with her little baby, and the baby’s dad, Met. They settled down as far away from Starlight as they could, and I could see that Glits had been crying.

She and Starlight shared the same mother—
her name was Dream—
but they had different dads. Glits’s dad was a boatmaker, like Dixon; Star’s was a guard from Mainground who Dream met in Nob Head. His name was Blackglass and I remembered him as a foolish, vain man who thought only about himself. He’d lied and boasted and strutted about the Grounds for a little while, then got bored and went back to Mainground before Starlight was even born. We heard later that he’d died in some kind of fight. Dream grieved horribly, and, for the rest of her life, she always insisted that he’d been the perfect man for her, and that the rest of us had driven him away to his death. And she’d always told Starlight that she was special, that she had Blackglass’s spark inside her.

“Uncle Dixon!” called Starlight, looking toward us with her beautiful, sharp, restless eyes. “Angie says she wants to come, too!”

Someone nearby told her to hush. The last people were arriving now—
the last who would make it, anyway; there were always a few who were too far away—
and we all settled down to be still and quiet. Later we’d eat the fatbuck that was roasting over a fire in middle of the Meeting Place. While we ate, we’d sort out worries or problems—
Did we need more blackglass for tools? Who would do the next buck hunt?—
but, ever since the time of First Jeff, we’d always started with silence.

“We’re really here,” said a woman called Caroline, as someone always did.

It was what First Jeff used to say, and his words were carved on the bark of a big knee tree on one side of the Meeting Place.

we are reely hear,
the letters said, though only a few of us could read them. Most people preferred their kids to learn more useful skills.

The quietness deepened. People stopped looking at one another and let their eyes rest on their hands, their feet, the sand. They listened to the pulsing trees, the crackling fire, the waves breaking in the distance on the outer edge of forest.

“I’m really here,” we were supposed to repeat to ourselves inside our heads, and I guess we all knew from experience, at least to some degree, that if we did, and really paid attention, then our worries and squabbles would fade, and we wouldn’t feel the
lack
of things anymore. And sometimes, if we managed to find that hard balancing point between concentrating properly and straining too hard, our eyes would cease to seem like our own, and become instead the eyes of the Watcher, the world looking out at itself, wanting for nothing, quietly observing itself unfold.

But that wasn’t really Starlight’s thing at the best of times, and now she was in no mood for it at all. Her eyes were darting around, her fingers drumming on the ground.

I thought about the stories at Nob Head about the Johnfolk coming back across the water. I’d heard a few myself, but I’d put them out of my mind. The Nob people were always trying to wind us Kneefolk up with stories like that, knowing how much we relied on them for news about the rest of Eden. I remember one time a bunch of Kneefolk came back from there all excited because they’d been told that people from Earth had arrived in Circle Valley!

But maybe it
was
true that the Johnfolk had come back? They’d crossed the Dark of the mountains, after all, when no one else thought it was possible. Who was to say they couldn’t have crossed the Darkness in the Pool as well? And if they’d survived the crossing, I found myself thinking, then presumably they must still have the ring as well, the ring that so many had died for, that belonged to the mother of us all.

We speak of a mother’s love, but we forget her power. Power over life. Power to give and to withhold. The Johnfolk and Davidfolk had fought over that ring like brothers and sisters vying for their mother’s favor, bitterly, desperately, and without any regard for the blood they spilled.

But the ring had never held any power over our Jeff, whose own mother loved him with all her heart.

“It’s just a ring,” he said. “Okay, it came from Earth, okay, it belonged to Gela, but it’s still just a ring.”