We are Tam
Page 9
"Good," continued the Professor. "Then I'll explain. First, I am not selling information to anyone. You see, I am Darwei's mirror-image. He has visited me before. This time he mirror-imaged just before he comarised, a very dangerous thing to do. he was not in full control of his power. He was too upset at being expelled from Unitec and too determined to prove his reasons for entering Oldcit."
"When he appeared it was a surprise to me. I wasn't prepared. I've been unwell. Nevertheless, I promised to help him. I collected information about this century and the past, wrote about it in Newcit script, placed it in small tubes. These I buried in the Garden of Peaceful Discussion, I mean the Botanic Gardens, outside the forbidden area of Oldcit. I also buried a map marking the spots. Darwei was to return to his century, dig them up and use them as evidence that there was a past.
"At first everything seemed all right. Darwei helped to choose the material to go in the tubes, but then I noticed that he was becoming weaker each day. I was feeling the strain as well. I begged him to return to his home.
"Finally, a week ago, he tried, but it was impossible. His body was locked in comarisation, and without help he couldn't break through. I can't help. I've developed a bad heart condition. if he'd contacted me before he'd mirror-imaged, I would have explained." The Professor wiped his forehead, which was covered in perspiration. "He's lying there, getting fainter each day, and there's nothing I can do about it."
"Lying where?" asked Tam.
"There," The Professor pointed to the empty table.
The two children moved away from the table fast, then stared at it, trying to visualise the body of Darwei lying on it.
"That's terrible," cried Tam. "We must do something. Tameron is waiting."
"What can we do? I"ve been worried sick about it. I've kept my promise. I've buried the tubes. What else can I do?" The Professor paced the room, becoming more and more agitated.
"Why don't you concentrate and help send him back," demanded Steven.
"I told you. I'd have a heart attack if I tried." Then the Professor softened. "After next Saturday. After the cylinder is buried, maybe then I could take chance."
"That'll be too late. We must contact Tameron now. Maybe she can get Older-parent to help."
Tam sat on the floor and Steven joined her. They looked up at the Professor, but he shook his head. Tam clasped Steven's hands and sang silently to Tameron, sending her message forward over the centuries.
"We've found Darwei. We've found your parent."
The words echoed mutely through the room, bouncing off the blank walls.
"Where?" Tameron's voice came back so quickly, filled with delight and relief.
"In Professor Darwin Taylor's house." Tam explained what had gone wrong and how the Professor had been afraid to help.
"He must help. Darwei needs his own mirror-image to release him. Ash him again, please," pleased Tameron.
Tam asked again, but the Professor refused, his face ashen.
"He refuses. Get Older-parent to help," sung Tam.
"Older-parent is sick. He has locked me out. I cannot reach him."
"What about the three of us?" suggested Steven. "Maybe we could do it."
"Tameron says that it has to be Darwei's mirror-image," answered Tam staring hard at the Professor. "He's tied to the 20th century through you."
"Tied for ever, if he dies," Steven insisted, "like a ghost."
The Professor felt nervously in his pocket for his pillbox and stared at the table, as if he could already see a ghost there. Then he sat down between them, placing the pillbox on the floor beside him.
"In case anything goes wrong, I must have two of these," he instructed.
They formed a circle, with their hands clasped together in the centre.
Tameron, Tameron, the Professor is concentrating," sang Tam. She suddenly felt his grip on her hand falter, but she held on tightly.
"I am here at the obelisk. I shall do what Older-parent showed me. We must sing Darwei's name." Tameron's voice sounded stronger and closer.
The four linked forces and willed Darwei to move, singing his name over and over. Tam's hand hurt from the Professor's now very tight grip. Then suddenly his body slipped to one side and broke the circle. Steven scrambled for the pillbox and forced two pills between his clenched teeth. The man lay deathly still.
"Is he dead?" Tam was terrified.
"I don't know." Steven gently slapped the Professor's face, but he didn't move. "You'd better go for help."
Tam unbolted the door and ran down the passage, just as a shadow darkened the glass front door. She flung it open to find Miss Fipps, hand poised ready to knock.
"Miss Fipps! Oh Miss Fipps! Something terrible has happened. The Professor has collapsed." Tam pulled the bewildered Miss Fipps along the passage. "Steven gave him two of his pills, but he won't move."
"How did you get in? How do you know me? What's happening?" Miss Fipps ran heavily after Tam. She rushed into the room and recognised Steven. "You! I knew you'd cause trouble. What have you done to the Professor?"
With a long, drawn-out moan, the sick man rolled his head back and forth. Steven sighed with relief.
"He's not dead."
"The poor man." Miss Fipps had somehow reached floor level and was holding the Professor's head on her knees. "Poor Darwin, poor Darwin," she crooned, rocking him.
"For goodness sake, Miss Fipps. Let go of my head," the Professor groaned peevishly. "I'm perfectly all right. just a slight turn. Do let me up."
Steven and Tam helped him to his feet, then hauled up Miss Fipps as she puffed and panted her pleasure at the Professor's sudden recovery. The Professor leant against the door. "It was obviously a case of recover or have you twist my head off," he growled.
"Is he still there, Professor?" asked Tam.
He turned slowly, his face tight, then it relaxed and he smiled. "No. He's gone. it's empty."
"Of course it's empty! Poor man. You must have hit your head." Miss Fipps advanced towards the Professor. "Let me help you."
"Enough, Miss Fipps, enough." He held his hand out to halt her. Turning to Tam, he asked. "Do you think he reached his home?"
"I don't know. Everything went blank when you passed out, but I'll try to contact Tameron and find out."
"Let me know immediately. I must know immediately." He looked desperately tired.
"Of course you will," said the bewildered Miss Fipps.
"Please put these children into a taxi, Miss Fipps. I think I shall lie down." The Professor looked at them. "They've been a great help."
It was in the taxi going home that Tam voiced her fear.
"If Darwei didn't reach the 25th century before the Professor collapsed, he may be caught in Snow-white Mosquito Land." Her face was full of fear as she remembered the startling white city. "And if he is, that would be awful."
CHAPTER 20. THE TWO TAMS
"What do you think?" Steven asked as they lay on the carpet playing cards.
"Don't know. I've tried every night for a week." Tam cuddled Napoleon and stroked his soft throat.
"What'd you say to the Professor when you telephoned him? You said you'd tell me when the cylinder was buried." Steven played his card. It was an ace. "All right!" he shouted.
Tam ignored the ace and his shout. "I told him that I'd heard nothing from Tameron, and I asked him to put something in the cylinder for her." Tam kept her voice casual. "I dropped them off at the library one school lunchtime. But it's a secret and I only wanted to tell you when Tameron contacts me."
"If she contacts you! What if her obelisk's power was too great and it blew up?" he said morbidly. "Or what if it blew Darwei into the 26th century?"
Tam sat up quickly.
"Don't say things like that!"
"Are you playing cards or not?" he shuffled the cards.
"Not. I'm going to try again."
She pushed the kitten from her lap and folded her legs. Steven rolled over and joined her, taking her hands. T
ogether they sang Tameron's name. This time there was a reply.
"I am coming."
In the corner of the room, beside the bookcase, a pinprick of pink light began to glow. Napoleon sprang through the open window onto the windowsill, then disappeared.
"She's near. I can feel it," Tam said.
Steven opened his eyes. "Where?"
"Over there."
Tameron's image shimmered brightly beside the bookcase. A fine silver line ran from her forehead to the tip of her nose. and her suit changed colour so rapidly it looked like a rainbow.
"I could not come sooner. Older-parent and Darwei had to recover before they could help me to mirror-image. I am too young to do it alone, but when I am older I shall return."
"Is Darwei all right?" asked Tam.
"Yes, he is well. We owe you so much, Tam," Tameron walked towards them. "Your brother is also very brave. I wish he could see me. I wish I had a brother."
"Tell me what's happening," urged Steven.
"Darwei is all right, and Tameron thinks you are very brave, and she wishes she had a brother," whispered Tam.
Steven sat back on his heels his eyebrows raised. "The bookcase said that."
Tameron touched Tam's shoulder lightly. "Come to the window. We have something for you. Darwei and Older-parent have joined with me to send it to you."
"She wants us to go to the window," said Tam standing up.
Together they joined Tameron and looked out over the city Tameron took Tam's hand. Tam felt a strangle tingle up her arm, then her eyes widened in surprise. Before her lay a forest of tall trees, which stretched down to the harbour.
"It is the Forest of Harmonious Walking," Tameron said.
Further away a bright blue light grew even brighter. Instead of high skyscrapers and grey city buildings, Tam saw hundreds of domes of different sizes and colours, like rainbow bubbles surrounded by parklands and gardens. Tall blue night-lights lit up the beauty of Newcit.
"What are you looking at?" demanded Steven, staring down on the tiled roofs and fenced-in backyards that reached to the city skyline smudged with evening smog.
"Take Steven's hand," commanded Tameron. "This will last for only ten heartbeats."
Tam clasped Steven's hand and Steven gasped with shock.
"Can you see it Steven?"
"Can I! It's ... it's terrific."
"This is our present to you, to thank you for all you have done." As she spoke, Tameron also began to fade.
Tam held onto her hand, trying to keep her with them.
"Don't go yet," she begged.
Tameron's face, so like her own, smiled as she shook her head. "Have to but I shall come back," her lilting voice sang from a great distance. "Thank you for the coloured picture books."
"Is she gone," demanded Steven tugging at Tam's hand. "Did she say anything else."
"Yes, she thanked me for the comics in the cylinder."
"What comics?"
"Your superman comics. I hope you don't mind, but they've just been discovered in the 25th century."
GLOSSARY OF 25TH CENTURY WORDS.
Citguards The police
comarise Fall into a natural healing sleep
decade Ten years'living.
Elders Government
Forest of Harmonious Walking City suburbs
Garden of Learned Thought The Park
Growth Centrom Birth and Adoption Centre
Heartbeat One second in time
Learnatec School
Newcit 25th Century city
Oldcit 20th century city
Night-lighting Lamp post lighting
Older-parent Grandparent
Younger Child
Sunning Day
Unitec University
Vision-book Book in film form