Walking the Tree (48 page)

  The market was so good. I really liked it. It made me want to stay there and help. It made me think I wanted to be a market holder.

  The teachers were happy to spend time at the market, touching things they hadn't seen before. We ate a lot of fruit.

  I could feel a cool breeze and wondered where it was coming from. The rest of the market was so hot, we didn't even want to cross the sand to get into the water.

  Thea tried to make us swim out with her but none of us will do that. We told the local children not to, either. She plays bad games in the water. Grabs your ankles and pulls you under for too long. Only lets go if someone else tells her to.

  We never go swimming with Thea. Well, I never go swimming anyway. Not yet. I like to paddle. I like the feel of the water up to my ankles. I have even walked in until it reaches my thighs. But I will swim one day. Before too long.

  Before we get back to Ombu.

 

I walked along the Trunk, the cool breeze sometimes disappearing, then it would come back. It smelled a bit like the leaves which are not cleared away in the alcoves of the Tree.

  Then I found where the breeze was coming from; a dark, deep ghost cave. I stared into it. I could smell inside the Tree. No one else can smell it, only me. It smells cool, and like some kind of food cooking. Wood at night time. I like it. It freaks them out though; they're so scared of ghosts.

  I actually do not believe that ghosts will harm us. I think they are the same as us, only ghosts.

  When I put my head in, the cave was like my eyes were shut, it was so dark. But I could feel air on my eyeballs. I would have stayed like that but the others found me and pulled me back.

  "You can't go in there!" Borag said. She looked like she was about to cry.

  Zygo sneered. "He's blood different. That's why he looks in. He was swapped as a child. He is really a ghost."

  "Quiet, Zygo," Melia said. "You don't call anyone a ghost."

  Everyone is scared of the ghost caves but I like them because they are so enclosed. You can feel the walls so you know where the ending is. Inside might be a person you once knew or loved. How can that be bad?

  They always stop me from stepping inside, though. As if I'll disappear forever. I'd like to know what's inside. It might be better than outside.

 

It was peaceful and nice around the market. Lillah thought so too. But the others were bored and wanted to move on. Always moving. I wish we could stay still, just for a little while.

  Borag wanted to get moving because she'd heard they were good cooks in Ailanthus and she wanted to watch them. She gets bored with the food the teachers cook. "You don't care about us," she told the teachers. "You only do what you want to do, not what we want to do."

  "Do you think that's true?" Melia said. "Really?" She chased Borag along the sand and tickled her till she squealed.

  Then we moved along. I guess we had to.

 

We reached Ailanthus fifteen mornings later. We'd camped out the night before we got there, thinking we had a long way to go, then realised how close we were. Luckily they are early risers in Ailanthus, so we were greeted kindly.

 

They do this good thing with fish at Ailanthus. Catch a fish and keep it in a pool of fresh water until it puffs out all the salty water.

  Rham couldn't get enough of watching that fish. She talked about it, watched it. I kept her company for a while, but got bored. Every time I came back she'd smile. It's nice when someone is happy to see you.

  She came running to find me and Borag when it happened.

  "You should have seen it! I don't know why it waited so long, or why that breath was the one, but the salt came out in a soft cloud. It was beautiful. It seems a shame to eat the fish."

  "They're going to cook it now?" Borag said, jumping up. "I want to watch."

  These girls get so excited.

  Thea screwed up her face. "I can't stand the smell of food cooking," she said. She walked along up the beach. She won't cook, ever, because she says the smell makes her sick. She will be lucky to find a community who lets her get away without cooking.

 

I really didn't like the fish. It was covered with nuts. What is it with nuts? How can anyone eat those things? They taste like hard bark. They stick in your throat and make you cough to vomiting. I really don't like them.

  Corma, the pregnant one, and her husband Hippocast were nervous. He told me that they felt like outsiders, that they couldn't remember all the rules.

  They do have all sorts of odd rules here. Difficult ones to remember. The people who live here seem to understand them. Like they didn't want to show us their smoothstones even though we are told in Ombu this is how to form a friendship. These people say it is bad luck to show your stone. A lot of what they say is about bad luck or good luck. They say that's for all the babies who come to them to be born, that babies need a lot of good luck to stay alive. If I had to worry about bad luck all the time, I would hate it. These are some of the rules:

  Seeds of the Tree are always counted when they fall and can be read by the right person.

  Sleep with leaves under pillow.

Don't let flying spider webs touch you. Close your eyes if a spider crosses your path.

 

  Rham and I invented a game where we had to memorise all the rules and act them out in a funny way. None of the other children could play it. They couldn't remember things well enough. Not like we could. Most of the teachers were bad at it, but Agara was the champion. I don't think a thought ever leaves her head.

 

Corma and her husband were sad to see us getting ready to leave. I didn't care about her, but I really liked him. He was a good person to walk with.

  She looked so fat I didn't know how she could walk. She complained a lot.

  I told Hippocast to come and play games with us and he was happy to get away from her.

  "It will be different when the baby comes," he said. "She is just too fat and she feels uncomfortable. She is my lovely girl when she doesn't feel that way."

  He is such a good man to be so patient. I will never be patient like that.

  Rham wanted to see the baby being born but it was time for us to go.

  Hippocast waved us off and I waved to him till he was no bigger than a seed.

  Here's an odd thing: I lost my hat that Aracuauri gave me, and it took me ages to realise it was gone. My head felt lighter and hotter, but for some reason I didn't think this meant I had no hat on. When I noticed, I wanted to dig a hole in the sand and bury myself. I could see too far, too wide, I wanted my hat. I didn't care if the school waited for me; I would walk alone.

  But Lillah; dear sister. She had it in her bag and there it was. She notices everything. No one could love me as much as she does. There will never be a wife who can match her.

 
 
 

I felt my legs growing much stronger on the walk to Cedrelas. They say that the school gives you strength for life. I like that. It makes each step worthwhile. Zygo kept asking, "How long, how long, how long," until we were tired of it.

  Lillah and Thea went back to Ailanthus, which I didn't think we were supposed to do. But Corma was having her baby and people were scared she was going to die, and she wanted Lillah with her. She must have felt lonely even with Hippocrast. Sometimes women want other women around them even if there is a man there.

  Thea went too. We were glad to see her go. But I didn't want Lillah gone. What if she didn't come back? What if a giant bird took her as she was walking?

 

We walked on and in a few days they caught up

with us. We'd been walking slowly, and that was easy for us.

  Lillah said that Corma and her baby had both died.

  The teachers tried to be sad about Corma and her baby, but I could tell they didn't really care. I didn't care; she had been bad-tempered, that one. She didn't help me to like her. Hippocast though; it had been good to have a man on the walk for a while. Men do not see the future, they only see exactly the moment they live in and that can be relaxing. I felt bad for him not having his baby. And he would miss Corma. But he can find another wife.

 

The people of Cedrelas seemed very odd at first. Too happy, or something. There was no ceremony and they said we were Spikes-bringers but they were joking. Still, I reached up and felt my shoulder blades. Some nights I felt like they were growing out of my body, out of proportion.

  Lillah said my bones are supposed to grow but she couldn't feel the bits which stick out the wrong way.

 

It was fun, this community. At night they like to watch funny plays. On the third night Rham and I teamed up with one of the local children and we made a small show. The adults made crude and rough jokes so we thought we'd try.

  You never know with adults which way they're going to turn. I called Rham a moss-muncher in the show and she responded by moss-munching, telling as many lies as she could make up in a row. Zygo did a good job, acting as if he believed everything; that's what was so funny. I gave him all the laughs.

  The adults didn't like us to say that lying was funny, but they couldn't help laughing. It must be hard being an adult and trying to do the right thing all the time.

  Our teacher Agara told us she will stay here. She's our first teacher to stay in a new community, so we are proud and happy. Nothing more boring than a wedding, though, so the other children and I stole some fruit wine to help us through all the talking there would be.

  It was Zygo's idea, and Zygo who snuck into the storehouse to bring some out.

  It tasted awful, like fruit on the ground when you're too hungry or lazy to keep searching.

  After a few sips you didn't notice the taste. Your mouth was numb and your head dizzy. It felt so horrible. Zygo kept drinking more and more then he tried to be funny. That didn't work. You can't suddenly become funny. Not if you don't know how. I helped him out by asking him questions he could answer in a funny way. He's funny when I tell him what to say.

  The children here laugh a lot. You forget you don't know someone when you laugh together.

  The teachers let us play late tonight. Sometimes

they forget us, if we are very quiet and leave them alone, and we can play in the moonlight until we are really tired, not until they think we are.

  The children living here made us play Stickman. We had never heard of it, but they told us the Tree grew from a stick thrust in the belly of a giant, and that I should be the giant.

  They danced around me as I lay there. It was not very exciting for me, but I liked looking at the stars.

  One of the children, a boy smaller than me, but much, much stronger, took up a stick. It looked as sharp as a fisherman's spear, and I didn't like that. I tried to sit up but they held me down. I tried to yell for Lillah because it hurt.

  They pulled my shoulders back too far into the ground and they covered my mouth. I felt the stick against my stomach like an ache after too much fruit.

  My friends watched. Not helping. I wriggled my fingers at Rham, hoping she would tell them to stop.

  The short boy lifted the stick with a great roar. At the last minute, the other children let me go and I rolled aside as he thrust the stick into the ground. It went doing from side to side.

  "I wouldn't have got you," he said. But he would. He really would.

  None of us felt well the next day. There was something wrong with the fruit wine. It made us all feel sick.

  The teachers were not very well, either. Lillah and Melia laughed a lot, still. They'd made a new friend, a man called Phyto. He's really funny and Lillah and Melia spend a lot of time with him.

  Luckily we didn't have to leave until the next day. I couldn't have walked very far.

 

We have a new teacher called Gingko, taking the place of Agara. I hope she's okay. People in Cedralas make me laugh so I hope she is the same.

 

Phyto and Lillah talked quietly as we were leaving. The next thing I knew, he had a bag with him and he was coming with us. "I hope you don't mind, children," he said. "But I'm going to walk with you for a while. There are people I need to be with in another community. We'll be able to learn a lot from each other."

  Zygo seemed the happiest about it. I'm happy, too. Lillah seems to like Phyto. At least she talks more when he's around.

 
 
 

How many days did we walk? How long? Every day seems like the last.

 

Lillah finally spoke to me. I thought she forgot I was there. But then, because we were heading into the village her mother came from, she wanted me to listen to her.

  She was really nervous. I felt sorry for her. I didn't know if she liked her Mum much or what, but she would still want her Mum to like her. "Is your Mum really going to be here?" I asked her.

  "I don't know. I hope she's safe, wherever she is."

  "Why did she leave Ombu? Didn't she love you anymore?"

  Lillah looked at me and I felt bad for saying that. I didn't want her to feel sad because of something I'd said.

  "Is it because of me? Because your dad is my dad too?" I said. Lillah's mother… I didn't know her. I only knew the women who were friendly with my mother.

  "I don't think there was any reason. Some women just decide they want to return to their home communities."