‘Was there anything unusual nearby? A gateway? Or perhaps steps going down into the earth?’
‘Uh uh. Nothing like that. Just the barn. And we were glad of it too because we were little and we’d got really tired walking all that way. Mind you, it was nowhere near sunset. If there’s an entrance to a palace, it might be hidden. Maybe the doors open just before the Sun gets there? I saw a movie like that once, where all these bad guys had their HQ inside a volcano, and what you thought was a lava lake on top slid open just before they came down in helicopters. Maybe the Sun’s palace works the same way. Anyway, me and Rick, we weren’t looking for it. We’d gone out there for the hell of it, then we got hot and wanted some shade. So we sat inside Mr McBain’s barn for a time then came back.’ She touched my arm gently. ‘Wish we’d seen more, but we didn’t.’
The Sun had become just a short line glowing through the grass.
‘There he goes,’ Josie said. ‘Hope he gets a good sleep.’
‘I wonder who this boy was. This Rick.’
‘Rick? Only my best friend.’
‘Oh, I see.’
‘Hey, Klara, did I just say something wrong?’
‘No. But…it’s now my duty to be Josie’s best friend.’
‘You’re my AF. That’s different. But Rick, well, we’re going to spend our lives together.’
The Sun was now barely a pink mark in the grass.
‘There’s nothing Rick won’t do for me,’ she said. ‘But he worries too much. Always worrying things will get in our way.’
‘What kind of things?’
‘Oh, you know. The whole love and romance stuff to figure out. And I guess there’s the other thing too.’
‘Other thing?’
‘But he’s worrying over nothing. Because with me and Rick it got decided a long time ago. It’s not going to change.’
‘Where is this Rick now? Does he live nearby?’
‘Lives next door. I’ll introduce you. Can’t wait for you two to meet!’
* * *
—
I met Rick the following week, on the day I first saw Josie’s house from the outside.
Josie and I had been having many friendly arguments about how one part of the house connected to another. She wouldn’t accept, for instance, that the vacuum cleaner closet was directly beneath the large bathroom. Then one morning, after another such friendly argument, Josie said:
‘Klara, you’re driving me crazy with this. As soon as I’m done with Professor Helm, I’m taking you outside. We’re going to check all this out from out there.’
I became excited at this prospect. But first Josie had her tutorial, and I watched her spread her papers over the surface of the Island and turn on her oblong.
To give privacy, I sat with an empty highstool separating us. I could soon tell the lesson wasn’t going smoothly: the tutor’s voice escaping from Josie’s headset seemed frequently to reprimand her, and she kept scribbling meaninglessly on her worksheets, sometimes pushing them dangerously close to the sink. At one point I noticed she’d become very distracted by something outside the large windows and was no longer listening to her professor. A little later, she said angrily to the screen, ‘Okay, I’ve done it. I really have. Why won’t you believe me? Yes, exactly the way you said!’
The lesson went on longer than usual, but at last came to an end with Josie saying quietly, ‘Okay, Professor Helm. Thank you. Yes. I’ll be sure to. Goodbye. Thank you for today’s lesson.’
She turned off the oblong with a sigh and removed her headset. Then seeing me, she immediately brightened.
‘I haven’t forgotten, Klara. We’re going outside, right? Just let me get my sanity back. That Professor Helm, wow, am I glad I don’t have to look at him any more! Lives somewhere hot, you can tell. I could see him perspiring.’ She got off the highstool and stretched out her arms. ‘Mom says we have to let Melania know any time we go outside. Will you go and tell her while I put a coat on?’
I could see Josie was also feeling excitement, though in her case I guessed it had to do with whatever she’d seen through the large windows during her lesson. In any case, I went to the Open Plan to find Melania Housekeeper.
The Open Plan was the largest room in the house. It had two sofas and several soft rectangles on which residents could sit; also cushions, lamps, plants and a corner desk. When I opened the sliding doors that day, its furniture was a series of interlocking grids, the figure of Melania Housekeeper almost indistinguishable amidst their complex pattern. But I was able to spot her, sitting upright on the edge of a soft rectangle, busily doing something on her oblong. She looked up at me with unfriendly eyes, but when I told her Josie wanted to go outside, she tossed aside her oblong and marched out past me.
I found Josie in the hall, putting on her brown padded jacket, a favorite of hers she sometimes also wore indoors when she was less well.
‘Hey, Klara. I can’t believe you’ve been in this house all this time and never been out.’
‘No, I’ve never been outside.’
Josie looked at me for a second, then said, ‘You mean you’ve never been outside? Not just outside here, but outside anywhere?’
‘That’s correct. I was in the store. Then I came here.’
‘Wow. Then this is going to be so great for you! There’s nothing to be afraid of, right? No wild animals or anything. So come on, let’s go.’
As Melania Housekeeper opened the front door, I felt new air – and the Sun’s nourishment – entering the hall. Josie smiled at me, her face full of kindness, but then Melania Housekeeper came between us, and before I was fully aware, had taken Josie’s arm, tucking it under her own. Josie too was surprised by this, but didn’t protest, and I appreciated that Melania Housekeeper had concluded I might not be able to protect Josie reliably while outdoors due to my unfamiliarity. So the two of them went out together, and I followed.
We walked onto the loose stones area, which I supposed had been kept deliberately rough for the car. The wind was mild and pleasant, and I wondered how it was the tall trees up on the hill were even then bending and waving under its push. But I soon had to concentrate on my feet, because the loose stones area contained many dips, perhaps created by the car’s wheels.
The view before me was familiar from the bedroom front window. I continued to follow Josie and Melania Housekeeper onto the road, which was smooth and hard like a floor, and we walked on it for some time, even when cut grass appeared to either side. I wished to look back at the house – to see it as a passer-by would, and to confirm my estimates – but Josie and Melania Housekeeper kept walking, their arms still linked, and I didn’t dare to pause.
After a while I no longer had to attend to my feet so carefully, and looked up to see a grass mound rising to our left – and the figure of a boy moving about near its summit. I estimated he was fifteen, though I couldn’t be sure since his figure was a silhouette against the pale sky. Josie moved towards the mound, and Melania Housekeeper said something I might have heard had we been indoors, but outside the sound behaved differently. In any case, I could see there was now a disagreement. I heard Josie say:
‘But I want Klara to meet him.’
There were further words I didn’t hear, then Melania Housekeeper said, ‘All right but only short,’ and freed Josie’s arm.
‘Come on, Klara,’ Josie said, turning to me. ‘Let’s go up and see Rick.’
As we climbed the side of the green mound, Josie’s breath became short and she clung tightly to me. This meant I was only able to look back briefly, but I became aware that behind us was not just Josie’s house, but a second house standing further back in the fields – a neighbor house that wasn’t visible from any of Josie’s windows. I was eager to study the appearance of both houses, but had to concentrate on ensuring Josie came to no harm. At the top of the hill, she st
opped to recover her breath, but the boy didn’t greet us or even look our way. He had in his hands a circular device, and was looking at the sky between the two houses where a group of birds was flying in formation, and I quickly realized these were machine birds. He kept his gaze on them and when he touched his control, the birds responded by changing their pattern.
‘Wow, they’re beautiful,’ Josie said, though still short of breath. ‘Are they new?’
Rick kept his gaze fixed on the birds, but said:
‘Those two on the end are new. You can tell they don’t really match.’
The birds swooped till they were hovering directly above us.
‘Yeah, but real birds don’t all look the same either,’ Josie said.
‘I suppose. At least I’ve got the whole team taking the same commands now. Okay, Josie, watch this.’
The machine birds began to come down, landing one by one on the grass in front of us. But two remained in the air, and Rick, frowning, pressed his remote again.
‘God. Still not right.’
‘But they look great, Ricky.’
Josie was standing surprisingly close to Rick, not actually touching him, but with hands raised just behind his back and left shoulder.
‘What those two need is a complete recalibration.’
‘Don’t worry, you’ll get it right. Hey, Ricky, you’re remembering about Tuesday, right?’
‘I’m remembering it. But look, Josie, I didn’t say I was coming.’
‘Oh come on! You agreed!’
‘Like hell I agreed. Anyway, I don’t think your guests will be so pleased.’
‘I’m hosting, so I can invite who I like. And Mom will be great about it. Come on, Rick, we’ve been through this enough. If we’re serious about the plan, we need to do stuff like this together. You’ve got to be able to handle it just as well as me. And why should I have to face that crowd alone?’
‘You won’t be alone. You’ve got your AF now.’
The last two birds had come down. He touched his remote and they all went into sleep mode on the grass.
‘Oh God, I haven’t even introduced you! Rick, this is Klara.’
Rick went on concentrating on his remote and didn’t look my way. ‘You said you’d never get an AF,’ he said.
‘That was a while ago.’
‘You said you’d never get one.’
‘Well, I changed my mind, okay? Anyway, Klara’s not any AF. Hey, Klara, say something to Rick.’
‘You said you’d never get one.’
‘Come on, Rick! We don’t do everything we said when we were small. Why shouldn’t I have an AF?’
She had by now both hands on Rick’s left shoulder, resting her weight there as if trying to make him less tall and the two of them the same height. But Rick seemed not to mind her nearness – in fact he seemed to think it normal – and the idea occurred to me that perhaps, in his own way, this boy was as important to Josie as was the Mother; and that his aims and mine might in some ways be almost parallel, and that I should observe him carefully to understand how he belonged within the pattern of Josie’s life.
‘It’s very nice to meet Rick,’ I said. ‘I wonder if he lives in that neighbor house. It’s strange, but I hadn’t noticed such a house before.’
‘Yeah,’ he said, still not looking directly at me. ‘That’s where I live. My mum and me.’
We then all turned to the view of the houses, and for the first time, I was really able to look at the exterior of Josie’s house. It was slightly smaller, and its roof’s edges a little sharper, but otherwise much as I’d estimated from the inside. The walls had been constructed from carefully overlapping boards which had all been painted a near-white. The house itself was three separate boxes that connected into a single complex shape. Rick’s house was smaller, and not just because it was further away. It too had been built from wooden planks, but its structure was more simple – a single box, taller than it was wide, standing in the grass.
‘I think Rick and Josie must have grown up side by side,’ I said to Rick. ‘Just like your houses.’
He shrugged. ‘Yeah. Side by side.’
‘I think Rick’s accent is English.’
‘Just a little perhaps.’
‘I’m happy Josie has such a good friend. I hope my presence will never come in the way of such a good friendship.’
‘Hope not. But a lot of things come in the way of friendships.’
‘Okay enough now!’ Melania Housekeeper’s voice shouted from the foot of the mound.
‘Coming!’ Josie yelled back. Then she said to Rick: ‘Look, Ricky, I’m not going to enjoy this meeting any more than you. I need you there. You have to come.’
Rick was concentrating again on his remote, and the birds rose together into the air. Josie watched them, both her hands still on his shoulder, so that the two of them formed a single shape against the sky.
‘Okay hurry up!’ Melania Housekeeper shouted. ‘Wind too strong! You want die up there or what?’
‘Okay, coming!’ Then Josie said quietly to Rick: ‘Tuesday lunchtime, okay?’
‘Okay.’
‘Good boy, Ricky. You’ve promised now. And Klara’s a witness.’
Taking her hands from his shoulder, she stepped away. Then grasping my arm, she began to lead us down off the mound.
We descended a different slope from the one we’d climbed, which I saw would bring us down just in front of Josie’s house. Its gradient was steeper, and down below, Melania Housekeeper began to protest, then giving up, hurried around the mound to meet us. As we came down through the cut grass, I glanced back and saw Rick’s figure, once more a silhouette against the sky. He wasn’t looking our way, but up at his birds hovering in the grayness.
After we returned to the house, and Josie had put away her padded jacket, Melania Housekeeper made her a yogurt drink, and the two of us sat together at the Island while she sipped it through a straw.
‘Can’t believe that’s the first time you’ve been outside,’ she said. ‘So what did you think?’
‘I liked it very much. The wind, the acoustics, everything was so interesting.’ Then I added: ‘And of course it was wonderful to meet Rick.’
Josie was pinching her straw close to where it emerged from her drink.
‘I guess he didn’t make such a great impression. He gets awkward sometimes. But he’s a special person. When I get sick and I try to think of good things, I think about all the stuff we’re going to do together. He’s definitely coming to that meeting.’
* * *
—
That evening, as they often did during their supper, they turned down all the lights except those falling directly on the Island itself. I was present, as Josie liked me to be, but wishing to give privacy, stood in the shadows, my face turned to the refrigerator. For several minutes I listened to Josie and the Mother making light-hearted remarks as they ate. Then, still maintaining her light manner, Josie asked:
‘Mom, if my grades are so good, do I really have to host this interaction meeting?’
‘Sure you do, honey. It’s not enough just being clever. You have to get along with others.’
‘I know how to get along with others, Mom. Just not with this crowd.’
‘This crowd happens to be your peer group. And when you get to college, you’ll have to deal with all kinds. By the time I got to college, I’d had years of being alongside other kids each and every day. But for you and your generation, it’s going to be pretty tough unless you put in some work now. The kids who don’t do well in college are always the ones who didn’t attend enough meetings.’
‘College is a long way off, Mom.’
‘Not so long as you think.’ Then the Mother said more gently, ‘Come on, honey. You can introduce Klara to your friends. They’d be excited t
o meet her.’
‘They’re not my friends, Mom. And if I have to host this meeting, I want Rick there.’
For a moment there was silence behind me. Then the Mother said: ‘Okay. We can certainly do that.’
‘But you think it’s a bad idea, right?’
‘No. Not at all. Rick is a very good person. And he’s our neighbor.’
‘So he’s coming, right?’
‘Only if he wants to come. It has to be his choice.’
‘So you think the other kids will be rude to him?’
There was another wait before the Mother said: ‘I don’t see why they would be. If someone does behave inappropriately, that’ll only show how far behind they are.’
‘So no reason Rick can’t come.’
‘The only reason, Josie, is if he doesn’t want to.’
Later on in the bedroom, when it was just the two of us, and Josie was lying in bed ready to go to sleep, she said quietly:
‘I hope Rick does come to this awful party.’
Despite the lateness, I was pleased she’d brought up the interaction meeting, because I was uncertain about many aspects of it.
‘Yes, I hope so too,’ I said. ‘Will the other young people bring their AFs?’
‘Uh uh. Not the done thing. But the AF who lives in the house usually attends. Especially if they’re new like you. They’ll all want to inspect you.’
‘So Josie would wish me to be present.’
‘Sure I want you to be present. It might not be so great for you though. These meetings stink and that’s the truth.’
* * *
—
On the morning of the interaction meeting, Josie was filled with anxiety. She returned to the bedroom after breakfast to try on different clothes, and even when we could hear her guests arriving, and Melania Housekeeper had called up a third time, she continued brushing her hair. Finally, with many voices audible downstairs, I said to her, ‘Perhaps it’s time for us to join Josie’s guests.’
Only then did she drop the hairbrush onto the dressing table and rise to her feet. ‘You’re right. Time to face the music.’
Klara and the Sun Page 6