by Helen Harper
Don carefully laid the phone down. ‘Well, you’re about to be the envy of millions of women, Yuri. I don’t know how she managed to get him to agree at this late date, but he’s going to do it. We have the perfect replacement for a cover story interview. In fact, he’ll be even better than Adamson.’
Thrills of energy rippled through her, and she edged forward on her seat. ‘Who?’
Don smiled. ‘Oz.’
Pinpricks of light flashed before Yuri’s eyes. ‘Oz? Oz O’Connor?’ Even to her own ears, her voice sounded weak.
‘That’s right. From Orpheus.’
The bottom slid out of Yuri’s world.
CHAPTER THREE
TORQUAY, DEVON 2003
‘Before we leave, I need everyone’s permission slips.’
Yuri dug into her bag and pulled out the crumpled piece of paper, hoping her scrawl would pass muster. She really needn’t have worried, however. The teacher gave it barely a cursory glance before adding it to the pile on his clipboard.
‘Now,’ he said firmly, ‘this is not just a jolly. We are not going to coo over the baby koalas or antagonise the lions. We are investigating the value of the zoo. That means finding out about the work the keepers do to promote the well-being of endangered species and surveying the visitors. Not getting in their face if they don’t want to answer your questions, but speaking to them politely. You are representing the school.’
A hand shot up.
‘What is it, Garrett?’ the teacher asked, with the tone of someone who was expecting inanity.
‘Well, sir, what if the lions antagonise us? What if they try and attack us?’
‘They are hardly roaming freely around the walkways. They’re in enclosures, idiot,’ said one of the girls.
‘You might fall in, Kylie,’ Garrett said, ‘I might have to rescue you.’
She snorted in return.
‘Kylie, we do not call our peers ‘idiots’.’
‘Even if they are idiots, sir?’
‘Kylie.’
‘I’m just saying,’ she mumbled.
‘Now, if we can dispense with the stupid questions…’
Another hand shot up.
‘But I thought Mrs. Chibison said there was no such thing as a stupid question, sir.’
The teacher rubbed his forehead. ‘If there are no further questions, then you need to get yourselves into groups of three or four and get onto the bus.’
There was an eruption of movement as students shuffled and jostled around to be with their friends. Yuri stayed frozen to the spot.
‘Join our group,’ said a voice in her ear.
She twisted her neck until she was looking into the chocolate brown eyes of Ozzy. He grinned at her.
‘We need someone smart.’
She scowled. ‘I don’t need you to feel sorry for me because I don’t have any friends.’
His smile remained in place and he gestured at her with open palms. ‘God forbid. You’re far too scary to feel sorry for.’ He leaned in towards her. ‘I’ve got Brittani and Dave in my group. We’re going to need all the help we can get.’
Before Yuri could retort anything further, she was interrupted by the teacher.
‘Osbourne? Is Yuri with you?’
He nodded. She gave him a sidelong glance.
‘Osbourne?’
He shrugged ‘I told you Ozzy was better than the alternative.’
‘It’s still a stupid name.’
Yuri felt herself being shoved from behind.
‘Out of my way, Urine.’ A dark haired lump of a boy pushed past her. Considering she was pretty sure his name was Richard, she didn’t think he was in any position to be insulting her.
‘Sure thing, Dick,’ she muttered.
Ozzy grabbed her arm to steady her and something dark flickered behind his eyes. She pulled away from him.
‘We need to get on the bus.’
She didn’t look at him again, instead stalking forward to join the queue. When she was finally aboard, she took a seat next to someone else, who hissed in irritation. Yuri ignored it. As Ozzy passed by her, she resolutely looked straight ahead. Don’t try to be my friend, she told him silently. I don’t want any friends.
*
It didn’t take long for them to reach Paignton Zoo. The bus pulled right up in front of the entrance, allowing them all to pile out before separating back into their groups.
‘You’ve got three hours then we’re going to meet back here,’ the teacher stated firmly. ‘I will be keeping a close eye on all of you so remember what I said. No shenanigans.’
Brittani consulted a leaflet in her hands. ‘Where shall we head to first?’ Her gaze slid past Yuri and settled on Ozzy.
‘It’s feeding time for the orangutans. There’ll be a lot of people gathering there. What do you think, Yuri?’
She mumbled assent.
‘Sounds good to me,’ Dave chirped in.
Brittani hooked her arm around Ozzy’s. ‘Then let’s go.’
Dave joined her other side and they set off, with Yuri trailing a few feet behind them. She could sense Ozzy attempting to slow down the pace so she could catch up. Stubbornly, she equally slowed her own and focused instead on the sights and sounds around her.
The zoo was well kept. There were large open paths looping around the exterior, and all manner of plants dotted around, giving the area the impression of tropicality even though it was a typically cool English autumn day. They passed clusters of other students, some staring in awe at various animals, others already homing in on bewildered looking tourists and peppering them with questions. In the distance, there was a lion roaring. Yuri idly pondered whether Garrett and Kylie were already there, daring each other stupidly to dangle their fingers into the enclosure.
‘I wonder if Kylie has pushed Garrett in yet,’ mused Ozzy.
Brittani giggled.
‘Dimaleh, dimaleh, dimaleh, dimaleh,’ he sang. ‘In the forest, the trees are green and the river runs blue…
The other two joined in. ‘And the tiger stalks its prey.’
Yuri rolled her eyes. Whatever.
After about ten minutes of walking, they reached the Forest section. ‘We should have a plan of action,’ he said.
Yuri cleared her throat. They all turned to her, surprised. ‘We should split up. One person should try and grab the keeper and find out whether feeding times are designed for the animals’ benefits or for the visitors’. Someone else should make notes on the orangutans’ behaviour. Someone can speak to the tourists and find out what they think and the last person can copy down the display information.’
Everyone shrugged. ‘Okay.’
They divvied up the roles, Yuri agreeing to speak to the visitors and try to get them to answer a few questions. She wandered away, wishing they’d not all looked so shocked that she’d offered an idea. She was fully aware her deliberately prickly ‘don’t talk to me’ vibes were working - but just because she didn’t want to be their friend didn’t mean she didn’t have a voice. Maybe she ought to soften up a bit. She didn’t want Ozzy to continue trying to be nice to her though.
She’d finished interviewing her third person when an odd flicker of movement caught the corner of her eye. Frowning, she turned around, just in time to see someone disappearing round the corner. She blinked. Either that was an ostentatiously elaborate costume, or she was going crazy. Without checking to see what the others were doing, she quickly followed, curiosity getting the better of her. When she jogged up the path, however, she couldn’t see anything. She was about to dismiss it as a product of her over-active imagination, when she saw the sign pointing towards the reptile house.
Yuri paused, then made a decision. She continued quickly up the path until she reached the large wooden clad structure and then ducked inside. There were a few people milling around inside, peering in through glass fronted cages at unblinking lizards and curled up snakes. She took a few steps further in and then spotted her, standing next to a do
or marked ‘Staff Only’ and jabbering something into a walkie-talkie. Yuri stared.
Most of her looked normal enough. She was wearing a standard zoo issue uniform, designed to look like it belonged to a safari guide. It was neatly pressed, with sharp creases down the centre of the trousers. The hand curving round the portable radio had long scarlet red fingernails. Those might have been considered oddly impractical on someone who worked in a zoo. But that wasn’t what had caught Yuri’s attention. Neither was it her beautiful and impeccably made up face. No, what was rooting Yuri to the spot in stunned horror was the woman’s hair. Because it wasn’t hair; it was dozens upon dozens of tiny green snakes, all writhing and hissing.
The woman glanced up, her eyes swiveling in Yuri’s direction. Every single snake on her head raised itself up and turned towards her as well, a hundred forked tongues darting out and flickering at her. Yuri stopped breathing. The woman took a step in her direction. Run, whispered a voice from the deep recesses of her mind, run now. Except Yuri couldn’t run. She couldn’t even move. The other zoo visitors around her weren’t paying any attention. Yuri opened her mouth to call out for help, to try and say something – anything. No words came out, however.
The snake woman took another step towards, then another. Yuri tried to scream, but still no sound came out. She gulped in air and bunched her fingers into fists, feeling her nails dig into the soft flesh of her palms. And then the woman was right in front of her, scant inches away from her face. Several snakes snapped out towards her, jaws flashing. Yuri tried to recoil away, but all she succeeded in doing was rocking back slightly on her heels.
‘So,’ the woman drawled, ‘it would appear you’ve been touched by the gods.’
Yuri could do nothing except stare at her.
‘You wouldn’t be able to see me in all my glory otherwise.’ She reached up to one twisting snake with one gleaming red taloned finger and stroked its head. Yuri could have sworn the thing closed its eyes in ecstasy at her touch.
‘Tell me,’ she continued, keeping her eyes trained on Yuri. ‘What’s your story?’
Yuri still couldn’t speak. Her tongue felt like was a heavy lifeless thing lying useless inside her mouth. She tried to lift her hands up to her throat, and realised she couldn’t. They felt like useless ten ton weights hanging at her sides.
The woman tsked. ‘Sorry.’ She snapped her fingers. All of a sudden, Yuri felt released, as if a massive burden had been lifted from her. She took a step backwards, wanting desperately to get as far away as possible from the freakish snake woman – and yet unable to quite to turn and run. Her mention of gods was more important than Yuri’s immediate safety.
‘I keep forgetting that happens.’ She lifted up a single shoulder in an elegant shrug. ‘Let’s start again, shall we? I’m Medusa. And I’d very much like to know how it is that you can see me for what I really am.’
*
They sat down together on a small bench in a quiet corner of the reptile house. Yuri perched herself on the very edge of it, as far away from the writhing snakes as she could possibly get. Medusa seemed unconcerned.
‘How old are you?’ she asked. ‘Thirteen?’
Yuri smarted. ‘Fifteen.’
Medusa pursed her lips. ‘You look younger. It’s difficult to tell with humans sometimes though.’ She flicked her a thoughtful glance. ‘You are human?’
Yuri bit her lip and nodded.
‘Have you been to Olympus?’
‘What’s Olympus?’
Medusa tapped the side of her mouth thoughtfully. ‘Not a what, a where. It’s where the gods reside. The gods that you must have met. Only true believers who’ve already met the gods can see past the scales of their eyes to the truth.’ She gestured towards her hair. ‘This truth.’
‘Are they…?’ Yuri paused and licked her lips. ‘Are they dangerous? The snakes, I mean.’
She threw back her head and laughed. ‘No. In fact, they’ve been there so long I’m almost fond of them.’ Something in her eyes hardened. ‘Not that I have much choice in the matter.’
Yuri looked at her. The last time she’d attempted to tell the truth about what had happened on that terrible day, her mother had slapped her. The memory of the shock of it still stung. The sad thing was she almost wished her mother would bother slapping her now. At least it would mean there was still a flicker of someone inside her who cared. Sometimes she wondered if her mother thought that she was the only person who’d lost someone that day; she seemed to possess such a monopoly on grief that it was as if there was nothing left for Yuri herself to cling to.
‘My father,’ she said finally. ‘We were in Japan. He took me out fishing for the day.’ She traced a small knot in the wood of the bench. ‘I begged him to take me.’
Medusa’s entire body stiffened. Even the snakes seemed to still. ‘The sea,’ she said in an undertone.
Yuri nodded. ‘The sea. Everything was fine to begin with. It was a nice day. I can remember the sun shining.’ She smiled sadly. ‘Then we heard the music.’
‘Sirens.’ There was a note of distaste in Medusa’s voice which Yuri couldn’t help warming to.
She bit her lip. ‘Yes.’
‘Your father?’
‘He died.’ Her voice was flat.
There was a moment of silence. Then Medusa placed her hand gently on Yuri’s arm. She didn’t pull away. Yuri raised her chin up and looked the woman in the eyes.
‘You believe me.’
‘Of course.’
‘Nobody else did. They thought I was delirious. Or hallucinating.’
‘The fact you remember proves how strong your mind is. Most people would not. Children are often more resilient than people imagine.’
‘Bullshit!’ The words exploded out of Yuri’s mouth. She stood up and took a step backwards. ‘Do you have any idea how many times I’ve heard that? That children are resilient? Because it’s not true. Maybe in the short term but not in the long term. You’ve got no idea what happens in the long term. No-one does because they all think that children are resilient and don’t need checking up on. Except they do. They do need checking up on! They’re not resilient. They need someone to care about them too.’
Medusa remained where she was, regarding her with a serious expression. ‘I’m sorry. I did not mean to sound trite.’
The energy rushed out of Yuri. She looked away. ‘Well, okay then.’
‘Why didn’t you die?’ Her voice was quiet.
‘Huh?’
‘Your father died. You survived. How?’
‘There was a man.’
‘Who?’ prodded Medusa.
Yuri sighed. ‘Poseidon. They called him Poseidon.’
Medusa’s face twisted.
‘Still believe me now?’ Yuri asked half-tauntingly.
One of the snakes reached down and curved across Medusa’s cheek, caressing it. ‘That Poseidon can do some good? He wasn’t there in time to save your father, was he?’
‘Yuri?’
She turned around. Ozzy was standing there, watching her curiously. ‘What are you doing here? You just disappeared.’
She turned back to look at Medusa. Ozzy seemed oblivious to her. The woman raised her eyebrows.
‘You should run along.’
‘But…’
‘We need to be back at the bus, Yuri. Jones will flip if we’re late.’
Yuri nodded.
‘I’ll see you again soon, Yuri,’ said Medusa softly, rising to her feet.
Ozzy grabbed her hand and tugged. The heat of his skin seared into her own.
‘We need to go.’
When she turned to look back at Medusa, the woman had already vanished. Yuri nodded again and let herself be led away.
*
When they finally reached the bus, everyone else was already there and waiting. Yuri was fully aware of the pointed glances and whispers in her direction when she arrived with Ozzy. Her gaze landed on Richard, who had a bloody handkerchief clutched to
his nose. He was staring out of the window, slumped down in his seat.
Without thinking, she turned to Ozzy. He shrugged.
‘Dick had a little fall. He should learn to be less careless with where he puts his feet.’ Then he sauntered to the back of the bus, taking his place amongst his friends.
She stood there for a moment, wondering whether she should be annoyed at him. She was perfectly capable of looking after herself. But in light of what had just happened – that after eight years of wondering if she had some bizarre form of post-traumatic stress disorder, she’d finally met someone who had proven she was entirely sane, after all – she realised she couldn’t care less. Meeting Medusa trumped anything that Ozzy, Richard, or even her mother could say or do.
CHAPTER FOUR
LONDON, 2014
‘She had nothing to do with it, Yuri,’ Sibyl insisted.
‘I’m expected to believe that, out of the blue, out of the dozens of other considerably more experienced writers, I’m suddenly being given the opportunity to write the cover story for January. Just like that.’
Sibyl shrugged helplessly. ‘I admit it sounds strange, but Medusa told me herself. She wasn’t meddling.’
Yuri shook her head despondently. ‘The greatest opportunity of my career and I’ll have to turn it down.’
‘I told you! It wasn’t her! As implausible as it might seem, it’s a real thing. You can’t not do it, Yuri. It would be stupid to back away. This is everything you’ve always wanted.’
Yuri gave her a grim look.
Throwing her hands up in the air, Sibyl gazed at her in exasperation. ‘What?’
‘I didn’t tell you what the story is going to be about. Or rather who it’s be about.’
‘Who could it possibly be about that would make you act like this? Yuri, it’s Yell, not the biquarterly review for the BNP. It’s hardly going to be some fringe lunatic fascist. I know you don’t like all that daft celebrity stuff, but that’s the world you’ve chosen to work in. You can’t be pissed off because you have to interview some stupid model or actor. It’s the freaking cover story! Who cares who it’s about?’