Читать книгу Elevation 2: The Rising Tide - Helen Brain - Страница 11

When I return to the kitchen, Jasmine has already left for the coach house, taking two plates of food with her.

“I’ll go and talk to her,” Aunty Figgy says, and follows her down the path.

“What’s her problem?” I sigh. “She never used to be so horrible when we lived in the colony. She’s so mean to me all the time. I made a genuine mistake.”

Letti stops eating, and looks at me from behind the spectacles Aunty Figgy has found for her. They make her eyes look huge and round and … guarded? Why is she guarded? What is she holding back?

“What, Letti? Just say it.”

“It’s … it’s …” Her eyes are pleading.

My stomach is knotting. “Come on, Letti,” I snap. “Just tell me, damn it.”

She purses her lips. “It’s that. The way you shout at people. At us. The way you keep showing us that you’re the boss.”

I stare at her. “I don’t. I don’t do that.”

“You do,” she says, and Fez is nodding.

“You do, Ebba,” he says. “And Jas doesn’t like it. She always used to be the leader, when we were sabenzis. She doesn’t like being ordered around.”

“So what am I supposed to do? I am the boss. I didn’t ask to be. I didn’t ask for any of this.” It’s all I can do not to slump down on the table in a miserable heap.

Fez shrugs. “That’s for you to work out.”

Letti’s voice is gentle. “Maybe tone it down a little? Be a little more sensitive to how she . . . how we all are feeling.”

I get up and dump my plate in the sink. Tears are stinging my eyes but I’m not going to cry in front of them.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” Letti says, rubbing my shoulder.

Fez brings me a kettle of hot water from the stove. “I can wash up,” he says. “It’s no trouble.”

I wipe my nose with the side of my hand. “It’s fine, I’ll do it. I want to be by myself anyway. You three go. You’ve had a long day – you don’t have to do housework as well.”

And still nobody has asked me why I’m so upset. They’ll fight with me over which bedroom they get, and they’ll watch every little thing I do so they can pick on me about it. But they don’t care that today I was forced to watch twenty-two people mowed down by rifles, and that a tiny baby died because I didn’t save her

They don’t even care that the boy I love is probably lying dead somewhere with half his head blown away.

I stand at the sink watching the water swirl in the bowl. When the sea rose and covered most of the world almost seventeen years ago, did it do it all at once, in a massive tsunami? Or did the rising tide creep higher and higher until it smothered almost everything alive? I feel like the tide of despair is about to wash me away. I’m only just holding on. If only it would all just end now.

I wish the second Calamity would arrive and obliterate us all.

*

I AM STILL BUSY scrubbing the dirty dishes when Isi starts to whine and runs to the door. I look up, and a wave of joy hits me, the surge of relief nearly knocking me to the floor.

Micah is standing in the doorway, holding out his arms, and I fall into them.

“You’re back. You’re back.” I burst into tears, letting out the anguish that has been building all day.

“Shhhh,” he murmurs, “don’t cry, babe.”

But I sob and sob. All the fear, the pain, the hopelessness pours out of me as he holds me tight and rubs my back. His body pressing against me is warm and strong. I relax into him, letting everything wash over me as I concentrate on his breath on my neck, the touch of his lips. After a while he lets me go and gives me his handkerchief to blow my nose.

“I love you, Ebba,” he says as he strokes my hair. I look up into his face, drinking in the features I love – his straight nose, those brown eyes that sparkle in the lamp light, his high cheekbones and the lock of black hair that always falls over his forehead. I thought I’d never see him again, and now that he’s back I’m flooded with feelings I can’t even name.

When at last I’ve calmed down enough to talk coherently, he wants to know everything. I tell him about the Poladion family, about Hal and Cassie. About Lucas and the baby.

“That tiny baby didn’t have a chance without its mother,” he says, placing me in a chair. He fills the kettle and puts it on the stove. “Even if you had saved it, it would probably have died. You haven’t got any way of feeding it, for one thing.”

“I could have sent her to Boat Bay. I’m sure there’s someone there who is breastfeeding a baby. I could have paid someone to look after her.”

“Babe, I know the Boat Bayers. They’re proud. They’re not going to accept a Poladion, no matter how young.” He rinses out the tea pot and spoons fresh tea leaves into it. “You did the right thing choosing Lucas. He saved you – saved all of us by giving you the keys to the prison. It’s right that you repaid him.”

I drop my face into my hands. “I’m not sure he agrees. He’s gone off into the forest. Everybody started to fight about …” I stop, realising Micah doesn’t yet know he’s a citizen. I’m not sure how he’ll take the news. “But where have you been? I thought you were dead. I really thought you were dead.”

“They didn’t catch me. I found another cave higher up and watched the soldiers go into the cave where you were hiding. I seriously thought it was the end for you four, especially when I heard the gunshots. But then they came out again looking pissed off. They were poking around between the rocks, arguing with each other, and then they gave up and went back to the base. That’s when I knew you’d found a way to escape. But with the coup, there was no way back into the city. I’ve been hiding in the hills above Boat Bay, waiting for a chance to get back here. Back to you, my love.”

He leans over and kisses me, and all the weeks of fear disappear from my mind. I’m safe again. I can face anything with him by my side.

The kettle starts to whistle. I take it off the stove and reach for the teapot. I’d better bite the bullet and tell him about the citizenships before Aunty Figgy comes back and mentions them.

“Um …” I begin. “I have other news.”

He’s rinsing mugs in the sink but he turns around quickly and his eyes bore into me. “News?”

“We’re legal. We don’t have to hide our relationship any more. I got your papers – you’re a legal citizen of Table Island now, like me.”

For a second he goes rigid, then he breathes out … and smiles. Thank the Goddess.

“How did you manage that?”

“The general made me part of the council. He wants me to grow more food. I told him I would only do it if he made you and the sabenzis and Shorty legal. But I forgot about Leonid and Aunty Figgy.” I bite my lip. “I thought I’d done the right thing but I really messed up. They’re so upset.”

“You’re on the council?” His eyes are alive with something I can’t read.

I tense, waiting for his scolding. But instead he breaks into a smile.

“That’s very clever. We need to know what they’re up to. Well done.”

“But Jasmine and Leonid are furious with me. They think I left out Leonid on purpose. Will you talk to them?”

Micah is still smiling as he looks away from me towards the darkness beyond the window. “Of course. I’ll go down there now. You should stay here, I think. Let me talk to them on my own. ”

With one last kiss, one last “I love you”, he leaves, carrying his mug of tea, and I settle down to finish cleaning the kitchen.

Aunty Figgy comes in as I’m wiping down the surfaces.

“So he’s back safe and sound.” Her voice is dry. She begins to stack the soup bowls on the dresser. “But time is running out, Ebba. You need to focus on your sacred task. It’s not long till the equinox. Find the amulets, save the planet and then you can have all the romance you want.” She turns me around to face her. “It’s important that, until then, you don’t …” She pauses. “That you don’t …”

“Ag, Aunty Figgy,” I snap, throwing the washing-up cloth into the sink. “I’m sorry, but what I do with Micah is none of your business.”

Her lips are squeezed tight as she picks up the pile of plates and bangs it onto the dresser shelf. I’m not going to hang around here with her in one of her moods. She has no right to tell me what I can and can’t do with Micah.

“I’m going to shower,” I say.

Later, as I’m closing the bedroom shutters, I hear the rush of water and run out onto the stoep. It’s raining, pelting down. We’ve needed rain for so long and it’s here at last. The earthy fragrance rises up from the ground and mixes with the smell of wet thatch, and it’s just wonderful. Micah is back and my position on the council is going to help the resistance. It’s a new beginning for Greenhaven, and for us.

I DON’T KNOW what Micah has said to the others, but everyone has calmed down the next morning. I’m collecting the eggs in the hen house when Jasmine arrives to help.

“It’s okay,” I say, a little awkwardly. “I can manage.”

She digs in the nesting boxes and brings out a pair of brown-speckled eggs. “I want to apologise for what I said last night,” she says, not looking at me. She’s turning and turning the eggs in her hands. “And I know Leonid is sorry too. Thank you for making Letti and Fez legal. It’s a big relief.”

“I seriously didn’t leave Leonid out on purpose. I’m really sorry. I’ll get him papers at the next council meeting.” If I can, I add in my head. And if the general is in a good mood.

“That’s okay. We all make mistakes. Micah is back safe and sound, and that’s what really matters. And you saved Lucas.” She hugs me, and I hug her back, grateful that we’re friends again.

“Look at this fat brown hen,” Jasmine says searching under the hedge. “She’s such a pain. She could be laying her eggs in the hen house, but no, she has to crawl in here where no one can find them.”

I hope Lucas has found a safe place to hide like the brown hen. He didn’t come back to the house last night and I’m worried. I’ll find some blankets and pillows and leave them by the holy well later, in case he decides to stay hiding in the forest for a while.

“It’s the Festival of the Boats today,” Jasmine says as we walk back to the house for breakfast. “It’s twenty years today since everyone decided to join their rafts together to form Boat Island. There’ll be music and food and dancing. We stop at the water barrel for a drink and she does a little twirl around the bucket, laughing. “Remember in the colony how we used to dream of going to a party? It would be such fun to go.”

Her excitement infects me. Imagine hearing real music in the open air, and dancing in the sunshine.

Everyone’s in the kitchen already, and I grab Micah’s hand. “Shall we go to the festival today? Shall we go and dance the day away?”

He puts his arm around my waist and waltzes me around the kitchen table. “Why not? Let’s celebrate. I can’t wait to see the guards’ faces when they have to let us through the border post.”

Suddenly I realise what this means. Leonid’s sister – my half-sister, Alexia – lives in Boat City with her mother, Natasja. I can finally meet my only other living relative.

If she wants to meet me. I stop dancing mid-step.

“Leonid,” I ask, my throat suddenly dry, “can we visit your family?”

“I want to meet your family too,” Jasmine laughs, punching him playfully on the shoulder. “Or is it too soon?”

“It’s not too soon. My mom’s been asking to meet you,” Leonid says, as serious as always.

She hasn’t been asking to see me, I think and my heart drops. The daughter of her husband’s lover. She probably hates me even more than Leonid does.

“I think I’ll stay at Greenhaven,” Letti says, glancing at Shorty. “You go, Aunty Figgy. You deserve some fun. Shorty and I can look after the farm.”

Aunty Figgy pats Letti’s cheek. “You two children be good now,” she says.

“That’s sorted then,” Micah says. “We should leave soon.”

Suddenly I’m having doubts.

What if the Boat Bayers find out that I’m on the council? Maybe I should stay at home.

But Micah will protect me, I know. I don’t want to spend another moment away from him, so after breakfast I climb into the carriage with the others and we begin the long journey to the Longkloof.

“AND THERE IT IS,” Aunty Figgy calls as we round the top of the pass and begin the descent through the Longkloof. The road clings to the mountainside like a creeper. Ruined houses litter the slope, doors and windows long stripped away for firewood. Looking over the edge, I see the top of the wall, as thick as the road we’re driving on, and below that flashes of blue sea in a narrow valley with mountains on the far side.

Fez leans out the window, absorbing the new information. “So this strip of sea is – what did they call them again in the old world – a fjord?”

“Yes, but it used to be land,” Aunty Figgy says. “Before the Calamity, this was a lush valley with beautiful houses but, as the sea rose, the valley filled with water.”

“So there are actual houses under the sea?” Fez exclaims. “With furniture and cars and computers and stuff?”

“People took what they could, but yes, they left a lot behind,” Aunty Figgy explains. “Remember, back then Cape Town was part of the mainland. But as the sea started rising and the storms got fiercer, they had to find new places to live. And then the High Priest built the wall and threw everyone out who wasn’t a citizen. Some people built houses on rafts, but if they weren’t in a sheltered place, they couldn’t survive. Leonid’s father – Leonid and Ebba’s father – came up with the idea of lashing all the rafts together to create an island. Then they negotiated with the fisher folk who had lived here for centuries to bring the floating island into the Longkloof, where it would be sheltered by the mountain. Our people contributed the inventions like the water harvesters and the fisher folk knew how to catch food, so they made an alliance, and Boat Bay was created.”

We’ve reached the border post. The guards see me inside and wave us through. Word must have got out that I’m on the council.

Leonid drives the carriage past the harbour, and around the mountainside to the entrance to the fjord. This is the port where the boats berth. Some are dhows, which the fishermen use when they go to sea. We watch a longboat coming into the harbour, rowed by ten men on each side. As it approaches the jetty, six or seven people emerge from a shed. They are carrying brown sacks on their backs.

“Hey, those sacks come from the colony.” Jasmine is sitting up front with Leonid, but she turns and taps on the window. “See that?” She points to a man heaving a sack into the longboat.

“Sacks of dehydrated vegetables,” Fez confirms, leaning out of the window. “They’ve got PTIC on the side: Property of Table Island City. I wonder how long they’ll be able to keep that up. They were running out of growing medium last time I looked.”

“Then it will be up to Greenhaven to grow enough food for everyone,” I say, my stomach tightening into a knot. It seems an impossible task.

Aunty Figgy is sitting opposite me, and she leans over and pats my hand. “Ebba, the Goddess controls everything that grows and flourishes. Greenhaven is abundant, and since you arrived, the crops have been growing even faster. You’ve got the gift, so just trust her, and it will be alright.”

“But I don’t have my amulet,” I say. “I’ve lost my powers. I’ve lost Clementine.”

“There are other amulets. You must find them.”

I never thought I’d miss Clementine, but without her I’m like a little bird that’s fallen out of its nest. She protected me – I just had to rub my birthmark against the amulet and she’d be there with her little boy, smiling, speaking in my head. Since the amulet disappeared, she’s gone.

Leonid stops the carriage under a tree near the entrance to the port. “We’ll have to walk from here,” he says, helping Jasmine down.

A boy comes running up and takes the reins. He pats the horses and ties them to a hitching post. Leonid and Jasmine walk off hand in hand before the rest of us are even out of the carriage. I know what it is. He’s embarrassed to be seen with me. But then a girl comes dancing over to him. She’s got short, curly hair, a turned-up nose and a wide smile. She gives him a big hug, and then runs up to us, throwing her arms around me while I’m still climbing down from the carriage.

“Ebba,” she laughs, hugging me tight. “My big sister Ebba. I’m Alexia.”

She lets go and looks up into my face. I see myself in her, in the shape of her eyes, but hers are hazel and sparkling, and her hair is a pretty brown. She takes both my hands in hers and squeezes them. “I have been dying to meet you.”

She’s the sort of person you like instantly. She’s so sunny and warm, it’s hard to imagine she’s related to Leonid.

“Come on,” she says, taking my hand. “Let me show you everything.”

I look back to check with Micah, who smiles and waves. “Off you go,” he says. “I’ll find you later.”

Alexia leads me up a path, and past the houses that are built into the mountainside. The ugly grey wall looms over us, cutting off Table Island City from everyone who lives in Boat Bay. The houses here have been built out of anything and everything: scraps of wood, shipping containers, old boats.

“How huge is this house!” I exclaim, as Alexia takes me around a corner.

“It’s a luxury yacht,” she says. “It must have belonged to one of the super-rich in the old world. My uncle and aunt found it washed up further along the coast. It took them weeks to get it up the hillside and wedged safely here.”

We peer through one of the windows. It looks so cosy inside, with bunk beds and wooden lockers against the sides. It reminds me of our sleeping cell in the colony.

“What are these for?” I ask, pointing at the nets that hang between the yacht and the wooden house next door.

“It’s foggy here in the mornings. The nets trap water in the mist and it runs into rain barrels for storage. Come on,” she says, jumping down onto one of the boardwalks that lead onto the island. “Let’s cross over to the other side.”

I follow her curiously. Is this island really made out of thousands of plastic barrels lashed together? It doesn’t look like it. A thick layer of soil covers the floating island. Fynbos has sprouted in patches – I can see geraniums and wild rosemary, and there’s even some grass. I bend down at the end of the boardwalk and peer into the water. There they are below us: blue barrels bound together into rows with ropes. “Come on,” Alexia says, pulling me off the walkway and onto the island.

People are milling around laughing, eating, dancing to the music of a band. The beat and the pounding of feet makes a vibration that rocks the island gently, despite it’s tethering posts. It feels like the island itself is dancing.

I feel shy, but Alexia is so happy that it’s impossible not to be drawn in. She takes my hand and we weave across the island with the laughing crowd, which is dancing in a huge circle.

“Come on,” she says as we reach the opposite side. “I’ll take you to meet my mother, Natasja.”

I take a step back. “Your mother? Surely she doesn’t want to see me. She must hate me.”

She laughs. “Of course she doesn’t. My mom’s not like that.”

I’m not so sure. I’m filled with apprehension as she leads me across a walkway and up a steep path to a white-painted house set into the cliff face. I pause to get my breath, looking down over the hundreds of people dancing and singing below me. Maybe I should go back and find Micah. I can meet Alexia’s mom another day.

But Alexia takes my hand. “Come in,” she says, opening the red front door to a tiny cottage made from two shipping containers.

The first room is the kitchen. There’s a table and four chairs. Pots and pans hang on hooks on the wall above the wood stove. Through the doorway, I can see a double bed and a small cupboard.

An older woman drops the clothing she’s washing in a bucket and comes over to greet me, drying her hands on her apron.

“Ebba,” she says formally, holding out her hand. “I’m pleased to meet you. I am Natasja.”

I can see Leonid in her – she has the same serious face, the same strong eyebrows. I draw back a little, expecting her to be as critical as he is, but she takes my hand and squeezes it.

“I can’t thank you enough for employing my son,” she says. “Work is scarce here at the harbour, and it’s such a relief to know he’s got a good job.”

I feel myself blushing. It’s awkward having her thank me. “Th-thank you,” I stutter, wishing Leonid saw it that way.

“And Jasmine too,” she says. “They were just here. Such a lovely girl. I’m sure she’s so grateful that you got her out of the colony. It can’t have been easy for you.”

Tears prick my eyes. Natasja is the first person to appreciate how hard it’s been.

Alexia tugs my sleeve. “Next time you’re looking for staff, will you consider me? I’m only sixteen, but I can cook and sew, and I can make things out of just about anything.”

“Alexia, you’re my half-sister – you can’t come to the farm as my servant. Leonid was already working there when I arrived, but you’re different.” Heat is rising in my face and I turn away from her, trying to hide it.

“It’s the only way I can leave Boat Bay,” she says. “Please. Leonid says Greenhaven is awesome. And it means one less mouth for my mom to feed.”

Her mother is looking at me expectantly. I glance around the cottage again, at the sparse possessions, her mother’s ragged clothing. There’s clearly not much money coming into this house.

“Of course,” I say quickly. “You can come with us today if you like?” Then, to cover my embarrassment, I say with a grin. “You can keep an eye on Leonid and Jasmine for me – make sure they don’t get up to mischief.” Then I blush deeply, because I hear myself sounding just as prudish as Aunty Figgy.

Down on the floating island, a horn blows.

“Food’s ready,” Natasja says, taking off her apron. “Let’s go and eat.”

As Natasja and Alexia set off, I pause on the doorstep, searching the crowd below for Micah. He’s not among the group dancing. He’s not standing chatting around the fires, where some men are turning fish on the braais. I scan the whole island from the furthest point of the inlet to the edge where it looks out into the bay.

Then, suddenly, I see him.

He’s half hidden behind a rain tank, a little way down the hill below me, and he’s talking to a girl. She’s tall, with a figure like a model from the old world. Her long neck is shown off by the bright cloth she’s wound in a turban around her head. She turns slightly, waving her hand as she makes a point and I see her high cheekbones and dazzling smile.

A flash of jealousy cuts through me.

I pause, not sure what to do. I’m scared – she reminds me of Bonita Mentoor, the prettiest girl in the Colony. Bonita had a tongue like a knife and she wasn’t scared to use it. Once, in the recreation room, the girls were all together watching a kinetika about animals; when it was over, she said, “I heard that people with red hair are orang-utans.” Everyone looked at me and laughed, except for Jasmine and Letti.

“Let’s take her up to Level 1 and lock her in one of the animal cages,” Bonita said.

I shrieked as she and her friend Vanessa grabbed me, chanting, “’Rang-utang, ’rang-utang.” The guards just stood there grinning as they dragged me almost all the way to the stairwell. Then Rifda, another Year One, shouted, “Leave her! I heard she’s got witch’s powers. She’ll turn us into frogs or something.”

They paused, then Bonita scoffed, “She’s an ape-witch,” and gave me a shove before she and Vanessa walked off. I heard the others laughing as she said, “She’s not even human. They meant to dump her at the zoo when she was a baby.”

And now I have to walk right past Micah and this girl I’ve never seen before. Do I pretend I don’t know that they’re there, hidden behind the rain tanks? Should I call Micah? Run down and introduce myself to her?

I’m dithering, wondering what to do, when she leans forward, puts her arms around Micah’s neck and kisses him on the lips. Not the way he kisses me, but still there’s something intimate about the way they’re standing together, a bit too close.

I feel like the hillside has dropped away from under me. I don’t stand a chance against her.

She runs off down the hill, turning to wave as she crosses the boardwalk. Micah looks around quickly like he’s checking if they’ve been spotted. He doesn’t see me in the shadow of the doorway.

Then Alexia comes running back. “Hey, slowcoach. Come on. Did you get lost?”

I want to tell her what I’ve seen but I don’t know her well enough, so I fake a smile and fiddle with the strap of my sandal. “Sorry, no. Just taking a stone out of my shoe.”

Sauntering out from behind the rain tank, Micah sees me and waves. “Come on,” he calls. “I’m starving.”

As we line up for food, everyone wants to talk to him – but I hover on the edges, smiling at everyone, trying to show that I’m not like the other citizens.

Still, the people keep their distance.

They don’t know I’m the illegitimate daughter of Darius Maas, their big hero. As far as they’re concerned, I’m the rich girl with the farm. And I’m on the council, so I’m the enemy.

“Come on,” Alexia says when we’ve eaten. “It’s boring here. Let’s go and dance.”

She leads me to where the band is playing at the far end of the floating island, where the fjord meets the sea. I pause, overawed by the view of the ocean stretching out to the vast, empty horizon.

I wish Micah and I could sail out of the bay in a yacht like the one Alexia’s aunt and uncle live in. We could sail around the world, just the two of us, with no beautiful girls trying to steal him away from me.

Alexia takes my hand and I feel awkward as she starts dancing. They’re all going to laugh at me for being so tall and clumsy. But the beat is infectious, and I soon lose my self-consciousness and join in.

That’s when I notice the girl again. The girl who kissed Micah. She’s dancing in the middle of a ring of people, swaying her hips and moving like a snake to the beat of the music. All the men are watching her, and she’s loving it, tossing back her long, dark curls.

“Who’s that?” I whisper to Alexia.

“Oh, her,” she sneers. “That’s Miffy. Well, that’s what we used to call her. Now she’s apparently decided her name is Samantha-Lee. Can’t stand her. She’s so in love with herself. And what kind of a stupid name is that? Samantha-Lee.” She spits out the words.

She’s in love with my boyfriend too, I think, not daring to tell Alexia what I saw, although I’m desperate to.

“Where does she live?” I ask instead.

Alexia points across the island to a faded red wooden house close to the water’s edge. “She lives there with Uncle Chad and his family.”

“Chad the maintenance worker for the city?”

“That’s him. He adopted her when she was a baby. Micah lived with them for a long time when he first escaped from the bunker.”

The music drains out of me and I stop dancing. She looks at least four years older than me, gorgeous and totally self-confident – you can see it in the lift of her chin, the way she stands with her shoulders back. I don’t stand a chance against her.