Walking the Tree (46 page)

  He is weakening himself.

  Discuss her dilemma; does she risk civilisation to save one child? Does she disbelieve the plague myth? Does someone talk to her about this, convince her that fear of plague is misguided now?

  mention how carefully Lillah looks out for Morace never lets him get cold. Always has honey or something for his throat, so he never has to cough.

  Is it, though? I think that's too contrived. I think he lives, survives. Enough. Shows that all illness is not plague.

  Maybe the plague killed so many their evolution was set back 1000 years. So they don't travel over the ocean. They don't have the big boats to do it.

  One community; knows the names of those who died in the plague.

  Plague kills ¾ of the population a hundreds years of more in the past. This is when the school started, this killing of sick people and the swapping of women. Her grandma tells her this.

  The plague was a deforming one. First sign was lumps growing out of the shoulder blades. Spurs (Spikes) mark II.

 

Bonsai (or miniature tree? Need to decide what the language will be; her terminology from our place and time remaining in theirs?). Clear?

  Research. Complete in more detail once researched a little about bonsai:

  How they are grown?

  What soil works best?

 

Community

Are there other communities which have an adversarial relationship with the tree?

  Communities close by, the next door neighbours, have some effect on Lillah's birth community. Mention them.

  Life on the Amazon is a little like tree world. Maybe some research for details.

  Family. I'm wondering if there would be monogamy or not. With the transient life of some of them, maybe there would be more moving around, not the traditional family we think of??? Lillah discusses this with hubby.

  Organiser lives in the community next to the one which knows about the morning after bark. Therefore she knows about it and tells the girls.

  People. The people are not unhappy. It is utopian, really, with a system which is acceptable to make it work.

  Markets – amongst the roots of the tree.

 

Fire

Fire is cleansing.

  Need a scene earlier before 15, where Lillah burns herself, or is deliberately burnt by the organiser. We think its an act of malice, but realise she is laying scar tissue for her mother to read.

  Not so much a fear of fire. More a caution. Respect. They need fire, the need the burning of wood to survive.

  Check at end. Use this in description of house. In words.

  Respect of fire here: they listen, perhaps. They know the sound a fire makes at ever level. This would be similar around the tree.

  Like the Inuit have dozens of names for snow, these people have dozens of names for fire, all the variations;

  Warmth of fire (hot, warm, too hot)

  Cooking fire (bake, slow back, fast grill, variations in between)

  Fire going out, needs attending

  Fire too hot

  Dangerous fire

Fire gone, too late

Fire left to go out, done with

Names for all these.

  Fire/respect a few more times throughout. Insert later if needed.

  Maybe the cookhouses are made of tin, so they can use fire.

  They would be fearful of fire because everything is made of wood. So how would they heat their houses? Heavily insulated. Perhaps hot coals in a pit below the house.

  Not so much a fear of fire. More a caution. Respect. They need fire, the need the burning of wood to survive

  Check at end. Use this in description of house. In words.

 

Ask: Who would know this stuff, be able to figure it out? An astromer, perhaps.

  When would it be dark?

  When would it be light?

  How often would the sun reach each place?

 

Food

Alcohol. Any or none? Alcohol produced from wood products. Methanol is wood alcohol, wood spirit. Drinking or inhaling it can cause blindness or death. This could be a feature.

Research. It would be fairly barren ground. All

sustenance would go to the tree. Or does the tree help the ground? Research this? And would the air be highly oxygenated?

  Disgust at the thought of eating spiders. Clear?

  Every part of tree edible if you work hard enough. Clear?

  Have they connected food with life? Clear?

  I guess they would eat insects – certainly the insiders would.

  Giant spiders from Venezuela taste like crab. Outsider/insider, sea/tree, crab/spider.

  Spiders have more protein than beef does.

  Think about the food. Research. Describe some of the dishes. Research.

  Usually would surround the house of a newborn and have a shared feast, food passed around the circle/metaphor for the tree/community, so don't disturb but do display support, etc. Covered?

  What happens when stormy? Long house.

  Uses for leaves; plates, already mentioned. Clear?

  Usually would surround the house of a newborn and have a shared feast, food passed around the circle/metaphor for the tree/community, so don't disturb but do display support etc. Covered?

  Wheat flour? What sort of flour? What would grow in this environment? I need a botanist! Check.

  Would wheat grow?

  How could they grow it?

  Most things would have to by hydroponic.

Research hydroponics. Answer this by the end.

 

Bad smells buried.

  They know a bad smell means something unhealthy to the human body. Enough?

  They trust their noses. Are trained to follow nasal instinct. Enough?

 

Dickson is making a necklace for his bride in A, and asks Lillah to spread the word. DOES SHE SEND A TEACHER HIS WAY? ONE WHO SHE THINKS COULD LOVE HIM.

  NEWS COMES OF DICKSON. Done?

  In this society, males crying is accepted, expected. Check and add.

  Lillah was curious to know what his cave looked like. Melia never cared about the walls, the pictures. "I'm too busy for that," but to Lillah it was part of the seduction. To see the images the men found sexual gave her an understanding of them. Already she felt like an expert. She had seen a cry for help (SOMETHING DRAWN INTO THE TRUNK THAT FRIGHTENS HER in community 9) and she had seen things which made her back out of the cave and choose somebody else. (This is community 4.) Done?

  Lillah has moments of resentment towards Morace – what she's given up for him. What she's risking. But sees him innocently wandering and knows she could never survive the guilt if she let him be killed. Clear?

  So while women have the power because of their experience and knowledge, men have the steady jobs. Women have husbands and kids and freedom eventually, men have their jobs and security. They have to stay still forever.

 

 

 

After finishing
Walking the Tree
, Kaaron took the unusual step of revisiting the story through the eyes of Morace, in the form of a whole new novella, which we present in its entirety, exclusive to this eBook.

 
 
Morace
 

 

I hope Mother lets me go to school this year. I'm bored being home with her. School may be hard, and it may be scary and tiring, but at least it will be different. I can't think of what to do to convince her to let me. I don't want to be too useful or kind in case she can't bear to part with me. I don't want to be bad because she might punish me.

  I'll have to talk to Dad. He might be on my side, see that I have to go to school and he might be able to think of what to do.

  School takes five years. We leave our village and we walk around Botanica. Around the Tree, the island. We walk quickly, and we stay in other villages and we will walk back into Ombu five years from now.

  The other children have no doubt they are going. They don't have crazy people deciding for them.

  Every time a school comes through here, I am jealous. I want to disguise myself and go with them. They are tired, often, but they are so confident, so full of knowledge and information, so easy with each other and with all of us. I want that. I really want that.

 

Rham came by to ask me to go swimming. She's younger than me but taller. With her, it doesn't matter. The others tease me because I'm skinny and short, but she doesn't care.

  "Mother won't let me go." I kicked a rock as I spoke and hurt my toe.

  "She won't know if you dry off before you get home." Rham bounced around me. She always had good arguments.

  "She knows everything, and if she finds out she won't let me go to school," I said.

  "Come and watch then." I let her drag me along. I could collect shells along the shore at least, to trade with the older boys for sweet berries or for small carved tools. If I save enough shells, I might get a fish spear. Then I'll be popular on the school walk. I'll be useful.

  Once I go to school, I'll swim so far, so hard. The teachers will let me. I will follow my mother's rules until I am out of her sight, then no longer.

  I collected two scoops of shells, piling them onto

a smooth, flat piece of drift-in wood. Carrying them back home, I planned what I would say to Dad when I found him alone.

 

He was readying his things in a basket and I knew what that meant. I tried, anyhow.

  "Dad?" I said.

  "Morace, I can't talk. Magnolia's started to have her baby."

  Mum hates it when another woman has a baby. She doesn't like to share Dad yet she has to. He's Birthman and the women want him with them.

  Mum's awful when Dad's away. Shouts at me, as if it's my fault, until I want to hide under my bed and pretend her voice is the Tree screaming in the wind.

  I walked with him to Magnolia's house, knowing I could get a few points in while he was distracted.

  "So, Dad, you know Rham is going to school this year? She's so smart, don't you think?"

  "Yes, yes she is."

  "And it would be a shame if I wasn't around that cleverness for five years, don't you think?"

  "You're very clever yourself, Morace. So you don't need to convince me about school. I know you should go. But it's hard for your mother to let go."

  "Every other mother does it."

  He stopped walking and put down his basket. "You know your mother is not like others. I can't talk about this now, Morace. Magnolia needs me. Come along and help. We'll think of a way to convince your mother."

  When we got to Magnolia's, he was greeted with great welcome. I waited for a while, but it took too long for the baby to come and I felt useless. I went to the trunk and explored the caves there. Some people are scared of ghosts inside the Tree but I know what to say if I ever met one. I'll say, "Can you show me what's inside?" I went back to Magnolia's a few hours later with some coconut and fish for Dad to eat, because sometimes he forgets and he comes home so hungry he can't swallow. When I got there the baby had arrived and there were all sorts of people crowded around. Logan, Magnolia's husband, looked very tired but happy. Dad looked okay; I think they must have fed him.

  A crabby girl shoved us out of the room. Lillah. She's Logan's sister. She wants to be a teacher but she seems very mean. I hope she doesn't get picked. I hope Melia does. She is very funny and likes to talk to us.

  I didn't want to go home and see Mother because all I could think about was school and I didn't want to say the wrong thing. So I went back and sat by the Tree Trunk, at the place where stories are told, and I dreamt of people telling stories about me and my adventures. I waited for Dad there and when he walked past, tired but happy, I ran to take his hand. Mum doesn't like him happy, but I do.

  Sometimes Mum moves stiffly, as if her bones hurt. But sometimes she forgets, and moves like the rest of us.

  When Dad came home she did this thing where she moves, but smiles bravely as if she is hiding her pain. I can't stand it when she does it, trying to make us do what she wants, but Dad doesn't seem to mind. He sat down and drew me onto his lap, held me tight and said, "You are my precious son. There is no question of how much I love you." That started to get embarrassing. Mum yelped with pain and he put me aside. He was exhausted. He said, "I'll rest for a short time, but I still need to get back to Magnolia. Her baby is glorious, Rhizo. What a beautiful child."

  She nodded, my mother did, but with her eyes closed.

  "Are you feeling pain?"

  "Just a little," she said, but so quiet, as if she couldn't bear to talk. So instead of resting, he looked after Mum. I don't know if I will be so kind when I'm grown-up.

  Children love my Dad. He's big as a bush and strong. Other men get annoyed with kids, but not my Dad. He thinks we're funny and says adults can learn a lot from children. Smart man!

  He rubbed Mum's legs and gave her a drink of warm lemon. He stroked her head and murmured to her. I hoped he was saying, "Let Morace go to school. Let him go."

 

• • •

 

The noise rose outside. "Baby celebration!" Dad said, and he and I grasped hands and smiled at each other. The community is so happy at a baby celebration. We have a lot of fun, once the boring talking is over.

  Mother squeezed her fingers to the side of her head. "I'll come. I should come," she said, but she stood up and let her knees wobble. "You go on. I'll come soon," she said, holding my arm so tight it hurt. I went, even though I knew she wanted me to stay with her. Dad wanted me to go.