Seed (12 page)

“You can do it next time,” I suggest.

“There won’t be a next time,” Ellis mumbles.

When we’ve gathered enough frames, we walk back to the bee shed. Ellis keeps his hat on until he’s safely inside. His hair is sticky with sweat.

“Can I go and play with Sophie?” Ruby asks.

“Of course,” I tell her and she runs from the shed, the door closing behind her, shutting the heat in.

I scrape the top layer of honeycomb from the frames and slot them into the machine to spin them.

“You won’t be frightened of this too?” I turn to Ellis.

“I don’t like bees,” he says. “It’s no big deal.” He watches me as I turn the handle faster and faster and the honey begins to drip into the glass jar below.

“That’s pretty cool, though,” he says.

Slowly, the jar fills. The flow of honey stems to a drip, so I reach for a lid on the shelf behind me and screw it on tight. When I hold the jar up to the window, the sunlight catches on it. I know that Ellis is impressed and I beam at him.

“Can I try some?” he asks.

“Of course not,” I reply. “You haven’t got the drops, have you?”

“What drops?”

“For the honey,” I say. Ellis is looking at me, as though he doesn’t know what to say. Maybe he’s never had honey before. Maybe he doesn’t know.

“You can’t eat the honey like this,” I explain. “If you do, the eggs will hatch inside you and bees will fill your stomach.” Ellis looks shocked. So he didn’t know. “They crawl up your breathing pipes. They sting you on the way up, and they sting inside your mouth before they swarm out.”

“That’s not true,” Ellis says. His face is blank. He’s just staring at me.

“The people on the Outside have the drops,” I carry on. “They put it in the honey and it kills the eggs. But we can’t use them because we know that they’re poisonous.”

“The drops?”

“Yes.”

“It’s a lie, Pearl,” Ellis says. His eyes suddenly look angry. “There’s no such thing as the drops. It’s rubbish.”

“You just don’t know about them,” I say. “Have you never tasted honey?”

“Of course I have.” He laughs, but it’s a nasty sound. And I don’t want it here. I have never felt anything but happiness in the bee shed. “Many times. Without any stupid drops.” Ellis reaches over and takes the jar from me. “Watch.”

Roughly, he unscrews the lid. Before I can stop him, he dips his finger into the honey and puts it, dripping, into his mouth. My stomach clenches.

“See?” Ellis says. “It’s delicious. And not an egg in sight. Here.” He puts his finger into the jar again. The honey is thick on his skin and he lifts it toward my lips. “Try it.”

I step away from him, my back against the wood of the shed wall. “Stop it,” I say, looking out of the window. I don’t think there’s anyone watching us.

Suddenly, Ellis hunches over. He’s clutching his stomach and moaning. I want to go to him, but I dare not. A strange noise comes from his mouth.

“Ellis?” I whisper. He should have believed me. And now it’s happening so quickly, the eggs are already hatching. The horror of it crashes into me. Ellis is going to die.

I reach for him, but he’s standing up and laughing, his eyes
sparkling. He must see terror on my face and he stops.

“I was only joking, Pearl,” he says gently. “I’m fine. There are no eggs. I won’t have bees crawling inside me.”

My hand is shaking as I snatch the jar from him. “It won’t be that quick,” I tell him. “But soon you’ll have bees in your mouth.”

Ellis passes me the lid. I turn away from him as I put it back onto the jar. And I ignore the drops of honey clinging to the glass.

I wake, sweating, from my nightmare. The same one. The one that mingles the days with the darkness of night.

They are there, the men with the burning rods that they press into my skin. My skin hisses and melts and blinds me with pain. And I scream, but they won’t stop. The smell of my burning flesh claws at my nose, begging me to make them stop. I scream.

Then blackness. Always at the top of the pain, on the spike that takes my brain away, the blackness happens.

And then I wake, my sheet soaked with sweat. Just me and my breathing and the hard beating in my chest, alone in this room. But when I look down at my arms, the skin there is shriveled, like wax.

And I know.

I know.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“S
hall we sleep in the dip tonight?” I ask Kate. “We haven’t been for ages.” The sky is clear and I know the night will be beautiful.

“What’s the dip?” Ellis asks. “Put that card down, Soph,” he adds, pointing to one in her hand. She picks it carefully from the ones she holds and puts it on the pile.

“It’s the best place in the world for seeing the stars.” I haven’t really spoken to Ellis since we were in the bee shed, but now I can’t help being excited to show him somewhere new.

“Will we really sleep there?” Sophie asks as Ellis picks a card from the pile.

“If you’d like to,” Kate answers.

“Sounds good,” Ellis says. “There we go, full house.” He takes the cards from Sophie and lays them in a fan shape on the floor. Jack leans over to look.

“Will you play the piano again?” Kate asks. She stretches out her legs and nudges the cards with her bare toes.

“Yes,” Sophie answers for Ellis, and she jumps from his lap
and is pulling him up.

Jack and I go over to the piano to listen. Kate stays on the floor, lying back and closing her eyes. Before Ellis even begins, the feeling is in my belly again. Every time he plays, it’s there. And as soon as his fingers move on the notes, the room comes alive. The air dances. The music breathes on me, licks my skin and fills my mind until everything else disappears.

It’s just Ellis and his music.

The door opens and Kindred John walks in. Without a word he closes the piano lid, so Ellis has to pull his hands away. Instantly, the magic is gone.

“Papa S. needs quiet,” Kindred John says.

For a second, Ellis just sits. It’s as though he’s still with the music somewhere. Then he stands up. “Sorry,” Ellis says. “No problem.”

Kindred John looks over at Kate, where she lies on the floor, her eyes still closed. “Get up, Kate,” he says.

She doesn’t move. Has she heard him? There is a slight smile on her lips.
Kate?

Kindred John stands, looking at her. An anger spreads from him. He seems unsure what to do. Then he looks sharply at Ellis before he walks out of the room. Kate opens her eyes, stretches her arms above her head.

“I loved that, Ellis,” she says. She turns onto her side, rests
her head in her palm. “How did you learn to do it?”

Ellis shrugs his shoulders. “Practice,” he says.

“Let’s go to the dip,” Bobby shouts, and he’s pulling blankets from the sofa.

“Will we need more blankets?” Jack asks.

“I reckon so, if we’re staying all night.”

“Really, all night?” Sophie asks, and I laugh.

“You’ll love it,” I tell her. “I promise.”

We are ready by the kitchen door when Elizabeth comes in.

“Come in if you get cold,” she fusses.

“Sure you don’t want to come?” Kate asks her.

Elizabeth sweeps a hand over her stomach. “I need the comfort of a bed,” she laughs.

Linda stops Ellis by the arm. “Will you be OK?”

“Of course,” he says.

“Look after Sophie,” she tells him.

Ellis grins. “Mom, we’re only in the field.”

“Don’t worry, she’ll have a good time,” I reassure her. Sophie is standing with Ruby and Bobby and already they are looking sleepy, their eyes wide as they try to keep awake.

The moon is glowing, the sky almost black. The blankets I am carrying are awkward to hold, but they keep my arms warm. Jack and Kate are in front and we all follow them toward the forest, curving around the edge of the trees until we get to the West
field. We walk carefully; it’s difficult to see where the dip starts.

It is here. In this light it looks like a dark hole. Sophie hesitates, looks at Ellis.

“Is this it?” he asks as Bobby and Ruby hurry down it.

“Trust me,” I say. “It feels like a black blanket when you’re down there.” I reach my hand out to Sophie and she takes it. Together we step down the sides of the dip, closer to the darkness. I can see the shapes of the others already sitting down and we curl up with them. There isn’t much space for Ellis.

“Here,” Kate says and she moves closer to Jack. Ellis sits next to her and she reaches the blanket over him. I must push the flicker of jealousy away.

Kate lies back, and we copy her. Sophie gasps. “Are they the stars?” she whispers. Above us, the dark sky is sprinkled with the brightest white.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” Ellis says.

I hear Kate move. Maybe she’s looking at him. “Don’t they have stars on the Outside?” she asks.

Ellis laughs. “Of course they do. I’ve just never seen them like this. In the city, the sky is mostly just a bit of gray at night.”

“They are the brightest at Seed,” I say.

“That must be it,” Ellis says.

“Do you know how they make the stars?” I ask Sophie.

“No,” she says.

“They are holes made from Nature’s tears. And every time someone does something bad on the Outside, another hole burns through the sky.”

“Don’t be filling her head with nonsense,” Ellis says.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“You don’t really think that’s what stars are?” Ellis asks.

“What else are they?” Jack asks.

“Ellis thinks that on the Outside there are men who walk on the moon,” I say.

Jack laughs so loudly that I feel guilty. “How do they get up there, then?” he asks.

“A rocket,” Sophie says.

“Is that possible?” Kate asks quietly. Does she believe him?

“Yes,” Ellis says.

“Have you been there?” Kate asks him.

Ellis laughs. “No.”

“I’m going one day,” Sophie says.

“Me too,” says Bobby.

We let the silence in. It creeps down the side of the dip and sits on our mouths. It holds my arms so I don’t even move. And it brings doubt with it. Could Ellis be right? Is there someone looking from the moon now? Can they see a black hole in the middle of a field, with seven silent figures looking up? Surely it can’t be possible. The thought spins my mind into a million
different directions.

A cry comes from the forest.

“What’s that?” Sophie asks. She sits upright, grabs Ellis’s arms.

“It’s just a fox,” I say. The scream echoes from the trees.

“No, it’s a baby,” Sophie says. She sounds scared, as though she might cry.

“That’s just the noise foxes make,” Jack says. “They won’t hurt you.”

The cry again.

“Are you sure?” Ellis asks.

“Of course,” Kate says.

“I don’t want to stay here,” Sophie says. “I want to go back to the house.” She looks at Ellis. The moonlight shows the fear in her eyes.