The Stickman's Legacy
Page 5
"What do your family think?" New Mary didn't understand her own mood, but she found herself grinning along with him.
Lily shook her head and tutted. "He hasn't told them yet."
"They wouldn't care that much, would they?" Dan shrugged, subsided. "They're all hung up on my sister's results right now."
"This matters to you that much," said Mary, and Dan nodded defiant. "You've got to chase your dream."
The words sat there as Mary closed her eyes. The sun was breaking dazzling through the clouds, and she felt as if she were somewhere else - words echoing off high stone arches.
Her mouth spoke alien for her, like her body had moved two days ago. New Mary took hold of both - and it seemed to old Mary that this other self had been growing inside her for some time, hatching as if she were a chrysalis.
New Mary opened her eyes, and the words she'd remembered dried up like yesterday's rain.
"What if it doesn't work out?" she asked Dan. "You couldn't play and stay here, so you'd have to move, and what if it went wrong then? Maybe you couldn't come back."
Dan screwed his face up, worried and thoughtful. New Mary pressed on.
"You've got nothing signed, have you? What if the man changes his mind?" Dan opened his mouth in protest, but she didn't give him the chance. "Are you going to ditch everything you've got, right now, to chase after this?"
Dan had the kind of smile that begs to be liked. "Hey, since when can you see the future, Mary?" He flared up again. "This is what matters to me. I don't get much out of school anyway, you know?"
Mary felt her face go flat. "Is that what it takes to be special, to prove your parents wrong? Because this is stupid, Dan. You know it is."
Dan shook his head. No words. Mary felt far older than the year between them. A child's face asked her to laugh with him and let it go.
New Mary smiled like a hammer. Merciless.
"We've all got dreams, Dan. You'll have a new one soon."
Lily was staring open-mouthed. Dan sagged, his grin crumbling and his energy gone. "Um, I... yeah. I don't know."
Mary could hear a car hum in the distance, like a fly behind glass.
"I'd better get going." Dan looked at his watch, half-raised his hand as he shuffled away.
Lily hung on a minute longer. "Mary, I agree with you, you know, but–" She looked searchingly at new Mary, then clung to her. "I've got to go, too. Catch you later, alright?"
Alone, Mary let her legs fold under her, sitting cross-legged on the grass. The sun had vanished again, and there were dark smudges at the edge of the sky.
Mary Spindle was sure of herself. Focused. Cruel.
Mary Martin couldn't think.
Her head was crammed full of ideas and pictures, squashed shut like a suitcase. Torn paper, the smack of wood on wood, old stones under her. Biggest of all, the house and the name. Both names.
She climbed unsteady to her feet. A few quick steps put the Green behind her and she tried to leave the images with it, hanging spiral in the summer air.
The walk up the lane brought Mary back to herself, and she saw clouds massing across the sky, pressure building. Soon there would be a storm.
She rounded the corner, straight into the man standing there.
He stepped back, all smiles and confusion. Not a sign of surprise.
"Hello! Do pardon me, I'm so sorry."
"Ah." Mary's breath had been knocked from her.
"Looks like the rain's coming in," said the man, standing in her way as if by accident. He had dark hair tumbling over his ears, and a tailcoat to match.
"It does." Mary recognised him from somewhere.
"Forgive me." He made a half-bow, smiled like an oil painting. "My manners are all back-to-front today. You can call me Thomas."
New Mary prickled at that. "I can call you anything I like."
He laughed at her. "At least I know how to address you, Mary Spindle."
Mary stepped backwards. Thomas's face had sharpened, cat-like.
"You were at the funeral," she accused him.
He clutched his chest, mock-dramatic. "I was worried you'd forgotten me already."
Mary shook her head, and kept her distance.
"I wanted to introduce myself then," said Thomas, "but I couldn't speak to you with her around. Rules are rules."
He meant the other stranger, the woman. Mary nodded. "Apology accepted."
Thomas stepped up to her, all smiles. "Now, I can imagine how you must be feeling. With the things you've no doubt seen and heard these past few days, there will be questions uppermost in your mind. Am I not right?"
"Of course." He was too glossy to be handsome, Mary thought; too well-preserved, like wax.
"Well now," said Thomas, "as it so happens, I knew your father well. I would venture I also knew him longer and better than you did."
Despite herself she laughed. "That's not hard."
"So it's understandable that you would want to know more." Thomas stepped away, waved grandly at the landscape. "You desire knowing who he was, and by extension who you are. Recent events have probably shown you a side of the world you never thought possible, and you need to see more of it. What could be more natural?"
Curiosity beat caution, and Mary followed him. "Please, go on."
"I'm going to tell you the first thing." Thomas winked at her. "The most important answer, the one you need to understand before you consider any of the others. Are you with me?"
He was playing with her. Mary bit the inside of her lip, smiled. "I think so."
"Stop."
Thomas's smile vanished. His face hardened, his words came slowly and with emphasis.
"Stop," he said again. "Right now. Ask nothing further. Seek nothing more."
Mary played stupid. "Stop what?"
"Don't pretend with me." He stepped into her space, and New Mary put her hand on his chest and shoved.
"I don't see," she said, as Thomas fell back in surprise, "why I should listen to anything you're saying."
He caught his balance, lost his composure. "Don't be stupid."
Mary breathed deliberately, holding herself together. She was on the edge of something, could feel herself scrabbling for balance.
"Why? Because you came up here to frighten me?"
"Because your father had enemies." Thomas was smiling again, but there was nothing friendly in it. "Most of them less reasonable than I. Your name protected you while he was alive, but now? Now the only thing keeping you safe -" he paused theatrically -"is your ignorance."
This time Mary felt herself walk up to him. Look into his eyes. "Is that a threat?"
Those eyes narrowed. "Yes," he said, "it's a threat. If I see you again, Mary Spindle, it won't be to warn you."
He broke past her, strode downhill.
Mary glared at his back, and the fresh-born part of her called out. "Hey! You'd better hope you see me first."
Thomas spun angry. "Your father escaped me by dying," he shouted. "That won't happen twice!"
Mary waved as he vanished round the corner.
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