The Forevers

by Chris Whitaker

  Hunter inspected the tear in her shirt. ‘You ever wonder why I hate you so much?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘You could be one of us. But you think you’re better.’

  ‘I am.’

  Hunter smiled at that. ‘That’s what I mean. You’re fearless. And I’d rather you weren’t. You talk to me like I’m nothing. You do it in front of other kids.’

  Mae wondered if that were true.

  ‘You don’t know about pressure, Mae. You don’t know about living perfect, and dying perfect. The all-perfect Silver family. My father will bury this.’ She picked at the blood on her hand. ‘He’ll tell Sergeant Walters and it’ll be swept under. Parents have enough to worry about. It’ll be his first thought, when I tell him. He’ll think about Sacred Heart.’

  Mae thought about the toll of looking after Stella. Her existence was basal. She was an extension of her sister.

  ‘This doesn’t make us friends,’ Mae said.

  ‘Hell, no.’

  Hunter hugged her then, so unexpected Mae did not even push her away.

  ‘Thanks, bitch.’ Hunter limped off towards her side of town.

  25

  The blow came from behind, so hard she fell against the fridge, caught her head, her knee bouncing from the metal door.

  ‘Where’s the food, Margaret? You had money for food. Now what am I going to feed your sister?’

  Mae thought of the night before, Hunter and Sullivan and all that had happened. She bent down and rubbed the pain away. ‘I’m sorry. I got –’

  ‘I can’t trust you to do a simple thing.’

  ‘I’ll sort it.’

  Her grandmother shook her head, then noticed the tattoo on Mae’s wrist. ‘What have you done to yourself?’

  ‘You’ve seen it before.’

  ‘Wash it off.’

  Stella walked into the kitchen, trailed by the dog.

  Mae straightened quickly and smiled.

  ‘Don’t worry, Grandma, it’s temporary. They only last a month.’ Stella said, attempting a wink in Mae’s direction.

  Outside they found Felix waiting at the end of the path, a high-pitched whining shattered the morning quiet.

  ‘What the hell,’ Mae said, clamping her hands over Stella’s ears as Felix nodded to Kitten, idling behind him.

  ‘I’d rather walk,’ Mae said.

  Felix climbed into the driver’s seat and revved the engine.

  ‘What is that? Is an animal in distress?’ Stella said.

  Mae helped her into the back and fastened her belt.

  The seats were pink, fluffy dice hung from the rear-view mirror and Mae saw a dozen perfume bottles in the door card. ‘Was Kitten a madam in a previous life?’

  ‘What’s a madam?’ Stella said from the back seat.

  ‘Duck down,’ Felix hissed.

  Mae saw Candice up ahead.

  ‘Please, Mae. I don’t want Candice to think we’re together.’

  ‘I’m not sure there’s a person alive that would think we’re together.’

  ‘Just do it. Felix needs us,’ Stella said.

  ‘So you’re embarrassed of a blind girl too?’ Mae said.

  Felix shook his head. ‘She’ll see me with Stella and think I’m all charitable and shit. Heart of gold.’

  ‘Exactly,’ Stella said, as Mae sighed heavily and ducked low.

  Felix slowed the car a long way short of Candice. ‘Roll the window down for me. She’ll think it’s electric if she can’t see you.’

  Mae swore at him but slowly rolled the window down.

  ‘I need her to notice me.’

  ‘In this thing?’

  ‘A cat with wheels …’

  ‘A kitten,’ Stella said.

  ‘… I’ll be blipping on her radar, for sure.’

  ‘Oh, for sure. Maybe some music?’ Stella said, as Mae scowled at both of them.

  Felix pressed a button on the antique radio. The music was deafening.

  ‘What the hell is going on?’ Felix screamed, desperately fiddling with the dial. ‘It won’t change. It won’t turn off.’

  ‘Why is it raining men?’ Stella said.

  Kitten crept towards Candice, who stood there, hand on hip, frowning as the music thundered.

  ‘Shut the window,’ Felix hissed at Mae.

  Mae tried. ‘I can’t get the angle.’

  ‘Quickly.’

  ‘Just … be cool. Nod your head or something,’ Stella said.

  Felix began to nod as Mae frantically wound the window.

  ‘She can see your arm,’ Felix said through his teeth.

  Candice took a step back to the safety of her driveway as the freak show rolled past.

  Felix clutched his head in his hands as they dropped Stella at school.

  ‘Why does nothing ever go right for me?’

  Mae squeezed his shoulder. ‘You ever think maybe you don’t need to change for someone else?’

  He smiled sadly. ‘Look at me, Mae. You know how it works – better than anyone you get it. That’s why you and Abi …’

  Mae told him what she’d found in Sullivan’s bedroom.

  ‘You think he did it?’

  She’d lain awake all night asking herself that same question.

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Shit.’

  ‘I tried to reason it, maybe he tried to stop her jumping or something.’

  ‘But then he would’ve gone straight to the police. Or told someone.’

  She nodded.

  Kitten died on Ocean Drive. Felix tipped his head towards the sky and swore. Every curse word he knew as steam smoked from the bonnet.

  ‘We need to water her,’ he said, then set off up the long driveway towards the white house.

  They stood in front of the towering white door.

  Felix pressed the bell a couple of times.

  They were about to turn and leave when the door opened.

  A maid stood there, smiled briefly then disappeared inside.

  ‘Sail,’ Felix called out as they stepped into the cool, cavernous hallway. ‘We need water.’

  ‘Let’s just go,’ Mae said.

  Felix walked through as Mae cursed under her breath. Acres of white marble and glass. Through the back they saw a colonnaded pool house, a collection of gleaming cars and a dozen trees standing to attention in neat lines.

  The house was too quiet, a museum in the making. Polished floors so clean they bounced light into Mae’s eyes.

  Before she could stop him, Felix climbed the marble stairs.

  She ran after him.

  ‘Sail,’ he called again.

  ‘This place is too white,’ Felix said, as he opened door after door. ‘Where’s all the colour?’

  Mae was about to drag him back downstairs when they found it.

  The colour.

  The room was pink. There was a small sleigh bed, an army of soft toys and a doll’s house so beautiful Mae smiled at it. A toy chest sat in the corner, a tutu hung from the wardrobe door. A small desk and chair, pink lace curtains, and letters in an arc above the headboard.

  A L I C E

  They heard a noise at the end of the hallway, backed out of the room and saw the maid again. She frowned at them.

  Outside Felix watched her carefully. ‘You’ve got a bruise coming up.’

  Mae touched her head.

  ‘I heard your grandmother,’ he said.

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘She’s tough.’

  ‘I deserve it. Whatever she says, I’ve deserved it over the years.’

  ‘You know that’s bullshit.’

  Sergeant Walters walked from the station and stopped them, told Felix to go on and Mae would catch him up.

  ‘Hunter Silver,’ he said. ‘Mrs Abbott saw you walking her back. Sullivan Reed took a nasty hit to the head.’

  She said nothing and he nodded, like it was okay. ‘I went to the Reed house. His mother …’

  Her mind ran to Suze, the bible pages and Sull
ivan’s dark room.

  ‘How did you find him?’ Sergeant Walters said.

  ‘Cosmic forces. Does it even matter now?’ She thought of breaking into Abi’s room, seeing her painting.

  ‘I’ve seen his house, his bedroom.’ Sergeant Walters rubbed his eyes, like he was trying to rid himself of the memory. ‘Obsessive. I’ll search properly. I know the tapes are there, he was mumbling something about showing the world the real Abi. The real Hunter. Maybe some closure for the Mantons. Who knows?’

  Mae thought of growing up in that house and what it might do to a person.

  ‘Sullivan won’t speak. I’ve got him locked up in one of the holding cells in the basement. Not designed for long-term use, but I can’t get him transferred right now. Maybe I will in a couple of weeks. He’s eighteen.’

  ‘So he’ll die down there?’

  ‘We’ll stop –’

  ‘He will.’

  ‘I uphold the law, Mae. It’s always black and white. Always.’ He looked down at his shoes. ‘School, it’s getting rough there. The suicides, now this thing with Hunter. You know my mother taught history? She was everyone’s favourite. You have any teachers that really care?’

  She thought of Mr Starling, how he asked after her grandmother, her sister. How he took the time to check she was okay. When she handed homework in late he didn’t question her.

  ‘It wasn’t what this is now,’ he said.

  ‘You sound like you’re surprised. Maybe everyone knew it except for you and your father.’

  ‘The service book. That talk of the Forevers. Someone copied more of them … they’re everywhere. The public toilets. The noticeboard outside the church hall. The pharmacy window. Hell, they even put them through people’s doors.’ He placed a hand on the metal gate, like he was steadying himself.

  ‘I remember my father talking about your dad. They went to school together. Said he was good.’

  ‘He was.’

  ‘And he said your grandmother can’t care for you. He always knew that, even back then. You’ll be eighteen soon though.’

  ‘I won’t.’

  ‘The end. Maybe. The nearer we get, the more I think about it. I have the law, Mae. It’s what keeps us decent, it’s what keeps our world worth protecting. So when Jon Prince blocks his driveway so building control can’t inspect the bunker, it’s me that writes the fine. And when Barbara Sweeny calls me because she can’t get her daughter to stop eating, it’s me that mediates.’

  ‘So eating is a crime now?’

  He shrugged.

  ‘There’ll come a point when you can’t protect us.’

  Sergeant Walters smiled sadly. ‘Maybe, but until then … My father spent his life preserving this town, keeping it safe. I will do the same. No exceptions.’

  Mae watched a group of girls pass. Matilda and Betty nodded towards her.

  ‘So if I find out you’ve done anything –’

  ‘I haven’t.’ She thought of the houses she’d broken into, the things she’d stolen.

  ‘You should get to class, Mae.’

  At school she saw Hugo and Liam, by the steps, sprawled out in matching white vests.

  Jeet Patel headed down and Hugo stuck out a leg. The fall looked painful but Jeet climbed to his feet quickly and walked towards the maths block, not looking back. She wondered at his life, what fresh hell each day brought. He just went about his business, and for some reason that became other people’s business.

  ‘The United States, the European Space Agency, Russia, China, India and Japan,’ Mr Starling said. ‘They’re the only ones with launch capabilities. Selena, if she was much smaller, we could nudge her. West is safer. We break her up and send part of her to the desert. People would die –’

  ‘But not western people,’ Liam said. He looked to Hugo for a high five but Hugo was busy staring out the window.

  ‘So we send her away from us,’ Liam went on. ‘To a weaker country. We evacuate some of them, but the rest …’

  ‘You’re talking about Lexi’s family,’ Hunter said.

  Lexi frowned. ‘But my mother is from –’

  ‘So now we’re onto space wars,’ Mr Starling said. ‘And I’d rather not get into this again after last time.’ He smiled at Amy Harris, who’d been slapped by Sofia Diaz after she suggested aiming Selena at South America.

  ‘Now, can anyone tell me what the smallest are called, less than a metre across?’ Mr Starling asked.

  Liam talked over him, mimicking, holding court in the ugly way that drew idiot laughter.

  ‘Meteoroids,’ Mae said, loud enough for Liam to momentarily quiet.

  Mr Starling smiled a smile of such gratitude she had to look away.

  ‘And what is a meteoroid made of?’

  Liam stood, played to the laughs and mimicked everything Mr Starling did.

  Mr Starling put his hand in his pocket. Liam did the same.

  Mr Starling sighed.

  Liam sighed.

  ‘I feel bad for him.’

  Mae glanced sideways as Hunter settled into Sullivan Reed’s seat, hooked her bag carefully over the back then took a small mirror from her pocket and began fussing with her hair. She pouted, applied lip gloss, oblivious to the stares of a dozen boys around. Or maybe not oblivious.

  ‘Where’s fatty today?’ Hunter said, looking over to Sally’s seat.

  Lexi turned around in her chair. ‘She was crying in the toilets just now. Too funny.’

  Mae thought of Sally, how tough she looked, how much it would’ve taken to make her cry. She thought of Lexi stealing Sally’s clothes.

  Up front, Liam went back to his act, Mr Starling carried on behind, drowned out but still he went through motions. For his part Liam grew louder, reached for a metre stick and used it as a makeshift cane, hobbling around desks till the laughter grew.

  Mae looked at the three boards, the progression and decline. And beside that the word map that stretched from ceiling to floor, heavy canvas, as wide as a car. Stella fixated on lost art, made Mae read her books from the library that referenced statues and mausoleums, pyramids and temples. Seven wonders flattened, a billion years of progress not stalled but rewound.

  Mr Starling moved on to 2011 MD and NASA’s plan to capture an asteroid. Mae strained to listen but could not hear much above Liam, who was now just shouting random words.

  Mining.

  Habitats.

  Robotics.

  Each came a second after Mr Starling spoke it.

  Mae stared at Liam, red-faced and sweating from the exertion. This was what lessons were reduced to. Some teachers kept control, maybe through distance. Shakespeare, fractions, the structure of a symphony. They stayed in their boxes. But Mr Starling, each and every lesson brought them closer to the sky.

  ‘951 Gaspra. Vesta. Eros.’ Mr Starling spoke louder, desperately looking out to see if he was reaching any of them.

  ‘Just sit, Liam,’ Jeet Patel said.

  It earned him a hard slap to the back of the head from Hugo. Most eyes were on Liam, wondering what he’d do next. He grinned, then moved down between chairs and snatched the glasses from the top pocket of Mr Starling’s jacket. The laughter grew as he put them on, then peered over his nose and wagged a finger at a cluster of his friends.

  ‘Liam, please.’ They startled when they heard a clap. A single clap of the hands by Mr Starling. Silence as Liam turned towards him.

  ‘Take your seat now. That’s enough for today.’ Mr Starling spoke quietly again, not meeting the boy’s eye.

  Sally Sweeny entered and walked across the room, her eyes still red as she took her seat.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Mae said.

  Lexi turned again. ‘What’s the matter, Sally. Did the bakery close down?’

  ‘Shut up, Lexi,’ Mae said.

  Liam stood up again. ‘I’m bored of this class. You need to teach us something new.’ And with that he strode towards the front, picked up a board eraser and slowly dragged it across a month’s worth o
f painstaking detail. Asteroids smeared, the detail lost as he trailed from one to the next. When he was done, he walked back to Mr Starling, stood directly in front of him and dropped the eraser to the floor.

  They stood face to face. Liam taller, imposing, smirking.

  They sensed something would happen.

  But no one was truly prepared for the punch.

  It echoed.

  The sound of Mr Starling’s fist colliding with Liam’s chin. Liam’s eyes rolled as his knees weakened and he folded to the floor.

  Out cold.

  They watched open-mouthed as Mr Starling turned back to the board and slowly began to fix the diagrams.

  Among all the chaos, no one noticed Sally Sweeny take the scissors from the drawer beside her.

  And no one noticed her gently take hold of Lexi’s waist-length plait.

  But as Sally cut it free and tossed it out the window, Lexi’s scream could be heard echoing out across the whole school.

  26

  She found the collar caught on the side gate, the lead still attached.

  In the back garden Stella petted the dog.

  Mae slipped the collar over its head.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Stella said.

  ‘I’m taking the dog back.’

  Stella shook her head, the tears filling her eyes. She tried to take Mae’s hand.

  ‘Please,’ she said.

  ‘It’s not ours, Stella.’

  ‘No, Mae. Please let me keep her. There’s not long, they don’t even miss her.’

  Mae said nothing.

  ‘I put up posters,’ Stella said, desperately. ‘Mrs Baxter took me out after the party and we put up posters. I did what you said, but no one has come for her.’

  Their grandmother stood in the doorway. ‘There’s not long, Margaret.’

  ‘You want to pay to feed it?’ Mae fired back. She pulled on the lead. The dog got up but tried to pull back towards Stella.

  ‘I hate you,’ Stella said. ‘You’re mean and everyone knows it and that’s why no one asked you to the Final and that’s why Abi moved away.’

  Their grandmother leaned down and held on to Stella as she sobbed.

  Mae walked in silence, the dog pulling back, her muscles burned, the last days had taken a toll.

  The collar gave an address on Parade Hill, at the top of Ocean.