City of the Falling Sky

by Joseph Evans

  A few days later, Seckry received a phonecall from Jenniver Layne, telling him that Mrs Plum would be being reintroduced to her son for the first time since being abducted, and that he and Eiya might like to provide her with some support. They had no objection, and were delighted that Mrs Plum would finally be able to see Danney, so when the doctor arrived in the square, they joined him at Mrs Plum’s door.

  “Mrs Plum . . . are you okay with this?” Eiya asked as they got into the doctor’s car.

  “Oh yes, I’m fine, dear,” Mrs Plum said, “It’s just another day for me.”

  “Do you know who we’re going to see?” Seckry asked. “We’re going to see your son, Danney.”

  Mrs Plum smiled politely and raised her eyebrows.

  “I’ll tell you a secret,” she whispered to them. “This has happened twice before. They said they’d found him and they took me to see him. But it wasn’t him. It wasn’t Danney. It was someone else’s child.”

  When they arrived at the facility, Mrs Plum was taken into a separate room where a doctor prepared her for seeing her son and letting her know that he was going to look very different from how she remembered.

  Seckry and Eiya were allowed into the main room where there was a glass wall dividing the space into two. On the other side of the glass sat Danney.

  He was sitting expectantly, dressed in hospital robes and a muzzle that covered his mouth.

  “Is that thing necessary?” Seckry asked.

  “Unfortunately it is,” explained the doctor. “He’s still having violent outbursts. It’s only natural for him to do so, but we have to protect our staff. We can’t afford to take any risks at the moment. Over time, as we see how he progresses, we may be able to take the protective clothing away. We’ll be monitoring his behaviour over a period.”

  “Oh, Gedin,” Eiya said quietly. “Look how much smaller he is. You can see, even with those robes on, he looks more like a human being now.”

  “Danney Plum had been pumped with a chemical known as Anabilo-chrominumsite for seventeen years,” the doctor said. “His body is going to take a while to adjust to the change, but one day he will be back to his normal size.”

  The door behind them opened and a doctor escorted Mrs Plum into the room. She stopped walking as soon as she saw Danney, and stared at him for what seemed like a lifetime. Then she slowly made her way towards him.

  “Danney?” she said softly.

  Mrs Plum sank to her knees and touched her fingertips to the glass.

  Danney’s eyes were wide open like a dog’s, staring at his mum’s face with curiosity and recognition. He kneeled in front of the glass and put his own hand up to hers.

  And then he began humming. It was the lullaby.

  They thought Mrs Plum was going to join him, but she didn’t. She couldn’t because she was sobbing, crying a flood of tears, but smiling. In between sobs she would hum a note or two along with him, and then she’d break out into tears again.

  “We’re going to arrange for Mrs Plum to come and visit Danney three times a week,” the doctor told Seckry and Eiya. “In the meantime we’re going to be doing all we can to bring him back to his natural physical condition and we have a team of experts that will be providing him with essential learning skills. We’re going to teach him how to talk again, how to eat.”

  “Do you think you can teach him how to love again?” Seckry asked.

  They looked at Danney, kneeling in front of his mother, humming away like a child.

  “Even though Darklight tortured him beyond belief,” the doctor said. “I don’t think Danney needs to be taught how to love again.”

  When Seckry and Eiya arrived back at the flat that day, they found a letter addressed to the whole household lying on the doormat. Seckry decided to let his mum open it.

  Coralle, sitting at the kitchen table, frowned as her eyes scanned the letter quickly. Then she raised her eyebrows.

  “Are you gonna tell us what it is?” Leena said impatiently.

  “We are very pleased to inform you . . .” Coralle muttered. “Plans have been withdrawn . . .”

  “Plans withdrawn? What plans?” Seckry asked.

  Coralle looked up at them, shocked, then she broke into a kind of smile.

  “They’re stopping the construction of the Marne extraction site. They’re cancelling the whole project.”

  “Let me have a look,” Leena snapped, and grabbed the letter.

  “Under the policy of newly appointed CEO of Endrin Corp. Dr Jenniver Layne, the production of the Marne extraction site will cease to operate, and all former residents will be returning to their original homes. We thank you for your cooperation in advance and wish you all the best in your previous properties. The accommodation you have resided in over the past months is being sold to Skyfall City Property Developments Ltd. and will enter the property market. Yours sincerely, the National Housing Initiative.”

  “They’re selling the flat?” Seckry said. “How much for?”

  “These are about a hundred and fifty thousand notes, love,” Coralle replied. “It’s lucky they’re giving us back our old house, I could never afford to stay here on the rates that everyone else is paying if they cut that inconvenience benefit discount. And if they said I had to buy the place as opposed to renting it we’d be out of house and home, it’s about double the price of the house in Marne, even though it’s smaller, just because it’s in the city.”

  Leena dropped the letter onto the table.

  “So . . . we’re actually going back to Marne?” Seckry said, more to himself than anyone.

  “Looks like we are, my love,” Coralle said.

  Seckry scanned the letter himself. He hadn’t thought about Marne for a long time now, it seemed. In fact, thinking about Marne didn’t seem to have the same effect on him as it did just after he moved to Skyfall. He was surprised he wasn’t more elated.

  “Wow. I guess we’re . . . going back then,” Leena said absent-mindedly.

  “It’ll be strange not playing Friction anymore,” Seckry said with a pang of sadness. “I was looking forward to next year’s Mega Meltdown. I was planning on training really hard.”

  Thinking about Friction made Seckry think about Tenk and Tippian, and about Loca and Kimmy. He was going to miss all of them. In one year they had become his closest friends.

  “Eiya,” Seckry said. “You’ll come with us, right?”

  Eiya nodded. “Of course. It’ll be strange leaving the city. I don’t know anywhere else than this, but . . . I guess I’ll just have to accept the change.”

  Seckry nodded. He had been excited about one day showing Eiya around Marne, but he always imagined it would be as a visit, not as their new home.

  The next few days were rather solemn. It took them all a while to adjust their mindsets to the thought of returning to the village. Over the last few months, Seckry had almost completely forgotten about Marne. When he first arrived in Skyfall, he had felt ill with homesickness, but now the thought of moving out of Skyfall was giving him the same feeling, but even stronger.

  The next day, Seckry arranged for everyone to get together and hang out at the rusty fountain so he could tell them that he and Eiya were going to be leaving. And not coming back.

  Tenk seemed to take it the hardest; he went into an angry kind of strop, folded his arms, and refused to speak to anyone.

  As Seckry was trying to explain that he’d come back to visit them often, there was a shout from across the road.

  “Seckers!”

  Seckry squinted and saw someone running towards him, someone he hadn’t seen for half a year.”

  “Busbee?” Seckry said.

  Busbee Knowles, Seckry’s friend from Marne, stopped and placed his hands on his knees, panting like a dog.

  “Busbee!” Seckry said. “It’s been a while.”

  “I know,” Busbee said, exasperated. “You’ve heard the news, yeah?”

  “About going back to Marne? Yeah, of course.”
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  Busbee clenched his fists and made an excited growl between clenched teeth.

  “It’s awesome, ain’t it? No more of this Skyfall Board of Education fip. Back to good old maths, literacy and science. It’ll be a fippin doddle after this nonsense. I had to come and see you. I knew you lived over this side of the city somewhere.”

  “Hey Busbee,” Seckry said, as he realised he hadn’t introduced him to anyone. “These are my friends Eiya, Tenk, Loca, Tipp–”

  “Seck!” Busbee cut in, punching Seckry’s shoulder too hard than necessary. “Who cares about the friends you’ve made here. We’re going back to Marne, mate. We don’t have to hang around with city losers anymore. You can ditch the freak show and come back to the boys.” He eyed the group and sniggered. “I mean, seriously, look at this girl’s fippin hat. It looks like she’s being eaten by some kind of cartoon fish.”

  Loca made to swing a punch at Busbee but Kimmy held her back.

  “Who the hell do you think you are?” said Tenk.

  But Busbee didn’t answer. He eyed Seckry and said, “I bet you’ll be glad to get out of here, Seck. When we get back we’ll find you a missus too. A proper Marne girl.”

  “No,” Seckry said suddenly.

  Busbee tilted his head back in confusion.

  Seckry’s mind felt clearer than it had for days. It seemed as though his brain had been working away at something in his subconscious without him even realising it and it had come to a decision.

  “Bus . . .” Seckry said. “I’m not going back.”

  Busbee laughed and made to punch Seckry in the shoulder once more.

  “I’m serious,” Seckry said sternly. “And don’t touch me again.”

  “What the fip?” Busbee said, shrugging.

  “I guess it took me until now to realise it,” Seckry said. “But you lot, you and the rest of them back in Marne, you were never really my friends. I called you my friends because I didn’t know any better, but you didn’t care about me.”

  “Mate, what are you talking about?” Busbee said angrily. “And what are you trying to say?”

  “I’m saying that I’m not going anywhere. I’m not going back to Marne. Skyfall is my home now, and these are my friends. My true friends.”

  “Nice one, Seck!” said Loca, grinning nastily at Busbee.

  “You’d rather stay with these fippin misfits than come back with us?”

  “I’d rather stay with my friends, yeah,” Seckry said confidently. “And misfits? You guys back in Marne didn’t even like The Broken Motion. You’re the misfits in my opinion.”

  “Yeah,” said Tenk. “The Broken Motion rule!”

  Busbee waited a few moments for Seckry to change his mind, before huffing and walking away.

  “Losers!” he shouted down the street before disappearing around a corner.

  “Dear Gedin, Seck,” said Loca. “Did you really use to hang around with that idiot?”

  Seckry nodded shamefully. “I’m really sorry about that, guys.”

  “Never mind,” said Kimmy. “How are you gonna stay in Skyfall? They’re putting your flat up for sale, aren’t they?”

  “Yeah,” Seckry said. “Yeah, they are. And I’m gonna buy it.”

  The group did a few double takes.

  “These flats cost about a hundred and fifty thousand notes and . . . well, when I stole those worms I got two hundred thousand for doing it.”

  The group gawped at him.

  “What?” said Tenk “You never told us that! How come you haven’t spent it all already?”

  “I guess I was saving it for an emergency,” Seckry told them. “And now one’s come up.”

  Chapter Thirty Eight

  Something that was Taken Away