by Emma Newman
“So he was a doctor?”
“Zane, how did you know?” She sounded panicky.
He stepped towards her, holding out the photograph. She took it gingerly, as it if were about to explode, and looked at the smiling men. Her eyes filled with tears and her hand flew to her mouth. Zane immediately regretted raising the subject, her reaction was so immediate and intense. She sat on one of the stools, staring at the picture, tears beginning to roll down her cheeks.
“Miri?” Jay called again with more urgency.
“It’s alright, just a dish,” Zane called back, seeing that his mother was unable to answer.
“Where did you get this?” she finally said, breathless with tears.
Zane fidgeted. “From his room in the hospital.” He waited for the shouting, but none came. She just looked at him, speechless. “I didn’t go by myself,” he added. When the silence continued he added, “There’s a whole wall of pictures there.” She looked back down at the photo, her breath ragged as she tried hard not to break down completely. “I look like him, don’t I?”
She nodded and then was on her feet, pulling him into a tight embrace, fierce and strong. He felt his shoulder grow damp as she sobbed into it. He just held her a while, not knowing what else to do. Slowly she let him go to fish a handkerchief from her pocket and blow her nose.
She sat back on the stool and handed the photo back to him. “He was called Doctor James Shannon. The man he’s with was his best friend, Doctor Al Siddique. Zane Al Siddique.”
Zane’s eyes lit up. “So I am named after someone!”
Miri nodded, becoming tearful again. “One of the last conversations I had with your father was when he asked me to name you after him, he missed him so terribly.”
“He died too then?” Miri nodded. “When It happened?” She nodded again. “And then Dad died after that?” Her eyes flicked away briefly and then she nodded.
Zane looked down at the doctors, smiling at him as if he were standing there in front of them.
“Why is his skin so dark?”
“Because his parents were born a long way away, where most people’s skin looks like that.”
Zane puzzled over this briefly but let it go. “What was Dad like?”
“He was very charming,” Miri said quietly, with a pained expression. “Very clever too. I didn’t … I find it hard to think about him, Zane, so I haven’t told you anything about him. I’m sorry, that was wrong of me … it just hurts, that’s all.”
Zane nodded at her sympathetically. “It’s ok. I’m just glad we’re doctors like he was.”
She smiled weakly. “We’re not doctors, Zane, we just help to heal people.”
“But Titus said …”
“Doctors knew lots more about bodies and diseases than we do. And they took a special oath too.”
Zane was thoughtful, his mind full of questions about this echo from the past. But he didn’t want to dredge things up for her as she so rarely talked about before It happened. “I’m sorry I upset you,” he finally said. He briefly considered telling her what else had happened at the hospital but decided that this wasn’t the most sensitive time. Besides, he’d had an idea about something else that was pulling his attention elsewhere.
Erin returned to the square at the normal time the next day, but alone once again. “The hunt is over,” she told the boys, who had been waiting for her in the garden.
Zane couldn’t bear to ask the question, so Titus spoke. “Did Luthor win?”
She nodded and Zane bit his lip. “Did he go through the door?”
“Oh yes. He didn’t even notice me when he turned up at the gates with this huge stag over his back. There was blood all over his shoulders and he just marched right up to her rooms.” She paused. “David’s really upset. He says that Luthor deliberately hit his ankle to make him lose when he should’ve won because he caught the first stag. He was yelling and shouting, but Father just ignored him.”
“Do you think he did it?” Zane asked, intrigued by the possibility that Luthor would cheat.
Erin looked appalled. “Of course not! Why would he? He’s the best. David’s just jealous. He wants to be with the Red Lady.” There was an awkward silence, but then Titus straightened suddenly as if he had heard something.
“There’s a Gardner in the square,” he whispered to them both and Erin was on her feet in moments, knife drawn.
Zane shook his head. “They wouldn’t dare come here– they never do.” He looked at Titus then and was frightened by the conviction in his friend’s eyes.
Erin’s hand shook. “They’re not here for you,” she whispered, alert and tense.
There was a noise from the southeast corner of the square, a very soft footfall. Zane grabbed Titus’ arm, saying, “We’ve got to tell my mum!” He began to pull up Titus, who was staring in the direction of the noise as if trying to see through the plants and trees that obscured his view.
Something flew through the air from that same direction and hit the ground barely feet away from them. Zane cried out from surprise, then horror, as he saw what it was.
A skull, bleached white by the sun with shadowed eye sockets, had landed in a clump of plants. The children stared at it as Titus allowed himself to be pulled to his feet.
Then it moved.
All three of them cried out in fright and backed away as it scraped sideways before tipping off the leaves to roll upside down onto the dark soil. It rocked back and forth a couple of times, then a snout and whiskers appeared from the internal cavity, and a rat poked its head out.
All three breathed again, Zane immediately embarrassed that he’d thought the skull had moved itself. As the creature scrabbled out, Erin took aim and threw the knife, impaling it through the spine.
“Yuck!” Zane exclaimed as the rodent twitched a couple of times and then went limp.
A man’s laughter, devoid of any warmth, echoed around the square. Erin drew in a sharp breath, trembling.
“Not long now, Erin,” a deep voice taunted, drawing the words out like a cat prolongs the death of a captured mouse. “We know where you are …”
“HEY!” It was Jay, from the direction of Zane’s house. “Get gone, or get dead, Gardner filth. You got the time it takes for me to draw my knives to decide.”
“I’m gone, whelp,” the Gardner called back. “I did what I came for.”
They could hear Jay moving now, round the perimeter of the garden, sharpening his knives on each other with a menacing scraping of metal. “You even cough in this direction again, you piece of crap, and I’ll send your guts back to your old Ma tied in nice bows that she could wear in her hair, if the old bitch had any.”
Zane tensed, expecting that to kick off a fight, but they heard nothing more from the Gardner. Jay shuffled into the garden through the south gate moments later, sweating with effort, knives glinting in the sunshine. “He ran off, worthless sack of … You ok?” he asked them and the boys nodded. Erin stared at the dead rat, shaking.
“Bastards,” she muttered, and then rushed forward, scooping the skull into her hand and throwing it as far as she could out of the garden. It smashed into the wall of the Royal Homeopathic hospital and then clattered to the ground. She knelt down to pull the knife out of the rat’s corpse, wiped its blood on a leaf plucked from the nearest tree, and then picked it up by the tail as Zane’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “I’ll get rid of this before your mum sees it,” she said and walked out of the garden.
Jay nodded to himself, impressed. “You know, she’s alright, for a girl.”
Titus was silent as he watched her go. Jay sheathed the knives and sagged. “Gotta lie down, feel like shite.” With that he shuffled off, the adrenaline of the encounter fading and the pain of his injury returning fast.
When he was gone, Titus turned to Zane. “That answers one question,” he said quietly. At Zane’s blank expression he said, “Where Erin comes from. She was one of the Gardners.”
Chapter 15
&n
bsp; ERIN’S SECRET
After Miri had been reassured, the rat disposed of, and Jay returned to the sofa, the three children gathered once again in the garden, unspoken questions lingering between them. They sat on the only patch of grass in the centre of the garden, next to the small bronze bust of a mother cradling her child. Zane believed it was of Miri and him as a baby, as only someone without the knowledge of where things come from could believe.
Erin picked at the grass, Titus watched her, and Zane worried the thread on his trouser hem. It was Erin who spoke first.
“I suppose you’re wondering what all that was about …” Zane nodded. “They’ve never done anything like that before. Mum’s really freaked out.”
She nodded sadly. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” Zane replied, but Titus didn’t show any support for his statement.
“I thought people never left gangs,” Titus said, scrutinising her face.
“I was never in their gang!” Erin fired back hotly. That threw Titus off track. Zane looked confused and she sighed. “If I tell you stuff, I might get into trouble.”
“We won’t tell anyone,” Zane assured her. “Really, I’ll spit and promise on it, just like the Bloomsbury Boys do, if you like.”
“I’ll just promise,” Titus offered.
“Promises are rubbish,” she muttered bitterly. “Everyone who makes promises breaks them.”
“We’re not everyone,” Titus and Zane replied in tandem which made Zane smile to himself.
Erin looked at them uncertainly and said shyly, “I think you are two of the nicest people I’ve ever met.” Zane beamed at that. She thought for a few moments and then took a deep breath. “Ok then, swear an oath that you won’t tell anyone. Not even your mum, Zane. And definitely not my father.”
He nodded earnestly. “I swear I won’t tell anyone about what you tell us.”
Titus did the same and they both waited expectantly while Erin fidgeted.
“My mum is with the Gardners, but she isn’t one of them, she’s just … there.” She shrugged. “I don’t know why. She’s a bit …”
“Weird?” Titus suggested her favourite word.
“Yeah.” Erin stared down at the grass she plucked fiercely. “She hardly speaks … she’s all broken because of them I think. There are a few other women there too. Once one of them tried to run away but they caught her.” She shuddered. “I never saw her again, but I think I heard her crying once, a long while after.”
Titus and Zane glanced at each other, Zane in particular disturbed by what she said. After a few more blades of grass were added to the small pile by her foot, Erin continued.
“Mum made a deal with the brothers. I think that’s what kept them away from me whilst I was growing up.”
“Brothers?” Titus asked.
“The Gardners are men, quite a few of them, but the ones in charge of them are three brothers: Jonathan, Harry, and Doug. It was Harry who threw the skull into the garden just now.” Her face took on a grim stare as she recalled him. “Harry’s really nasty. He’s the worst one because he can seem really nice, and then the next second you’ve got a knife in your belly. Jonathan’s the eldest of them. He and Harry are more in control. Doug is really big and really stupid. He does whatever they tell him to. But they all listen to their mum, old Ma Gardner. She’s really horrible.” Erin glanced up and saw them gripped by her account, encouraging her. “She’s big and fat.” She curved her arms out away from her body and blew her cheeks out for a second to illustrate. “She has this big stick to help her walk, but she hits hard with it too. And she’s only got a tiny bit of hair on her head. And she is so old. Her skin is all wrinkly and baggy.” She shivered in disgust.
“I’ve never seen anyone like that,” Zane murmured. “She sounds like a monster from a story.”
“She is a monster. She has a really croaky voice, but you can still hear it from a whole street away.”
Zane tried hard to picture the hideous woman in his head. Titus remained silent, a small furrow between his eyebrows being the only clue to his deep thought.
“How can Luthor be your father if your mother is with the Gardners? And how did you end up with him now?” he questioned.
“He came and got me one night,” she replied. “Mum always wrote in this book. She hid it from them, especially from Harry … he would sometimes throw me out of the house and tell me to go away for a few hours.” She paused and frowned to herself. “She’d always be worse when I was allowed back. One day he found it and went crazy.” She trailed off as her bottom lip started to quiver. Zane reached out for her hand, but sensing her tension as he did so, he pulled back again. She set her jaw and looked up to the sky, eyes watery. “He said the deal was over, and he …” Her voice cracked.
Titus’ frown deepened as he looked at her, and then a brief flash of grim understanding flickered over his face. “You don’t have to say any more,” he said softly.
She swallowed hard. “Mum wrote a note that night and sneaked out. I followed her. She left it on the edge of the Red Lady’s territory and then went home. The next day, when the Gardners went on a run to the Boys’ square, Luthor turned up, killed a couple of the ones that were outside our house, and broke in. Just like that, like it was easy. Mum said he was my dad and that I had to go with him. It was the most she’d said in months.” She bit her lip, trying so hard not to cry that Zane’s eyes began to mist with tears for her. “And then I was with Luthor. I mean … Father … he prefers me to call him Father. He took me to where he lives … it was only a few days before we starting coming here.” She sighed. “So now you know.”
Nothing was spoken, only birdsong filled the garden. She looked at Zane and his tears threatening to fall. She rolled her eyes. “You’re so soft, Zane,” she chided, but not harshly.
“I think it’s sad,” Zane said, defensively, blinking rapidly. “Don’t you cry when you’re sad?” Both of his friends shook their heads.
“You shouldn’t cry. It shows you’re weak,” Erin stated firmly.
“Boys don’t cry,” Titus said, “At least, not grown up ones. And girls who are tough, like Lyssa and Erin, don’t either.”
Zane looked down at his trouser hem and tried to swallow away the lump in his throat. Titus also looked down at the grass, watching a ladybird struggle up one of the blades.
“She’s not coming back, is she?” he asked as he watched the beetle open its hard outer wings and fly off. “Lyssa, I mean.”
Zane shook his head slowly, filled with sorrow for his friend. “Callum thinks bad people took her away. No-one said anything because they didn’t want to upset you more when you were so badly hurt.” He couldn’t bring himself to say, “The Unders.” Somehow he felt it would make it worse.
Titus pressed his lips together and nodded to himself slowly. “I’m going to go and lie down, I’m aching.” He stood carefully. “Thank you for telling us, Erin. And you don’t need to worry–I won’t tell anybody.”
Zane watched him walk away, wishing fervently that he could bring Lyssa back for him. But he knew he was just a boy, and boys can’t do anything to people who make lightning. He looked at Erin. She was also watching Titus leave.
“He’s tough,” she commented. “Wonder what he’s all about.”
“What do you mean?”
She looked back at Zane. “You haven’t noticed how he knows stuff when he really shouldn’t be able to?”
“Huh?”
She rolled her eyes again. “Just now, when we were here, he knew there was a Gardner in the square, even though we couldn’t see out of the garden at all.”
Zane thought about this and his eyes widened. “Yeah! And after we saw the Red Lady, he said some stuff that was like he knew her really well. He’s really clever. And he reads, too. I wonder how he knows how to.”
“Maybe Lyssa taught him,” Erin suggested.
Zane agreed. “Can you read?”
Erin shook her head. “No
-one ever showed me. Don’t see the point really.”
“Reading’s great, and it’s really useful!” he smiled at her. “You’d be able to read street signs and place names, and books and all kinds of stuff. I’ll teach you if you like.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “What do you want in return?”
Zane’s face was open and honest. “Nothing. I thought it might be nice for you.”
“You’re so weird,” she replied, but then smiled. “Ok then.”
The following day Luthor returned to the square with a confident swagger and training resumed. Zane was convinced he was silently gloating but tried his best to ignore it. Titus and Miri had a long talk, and that evening Titus announced that he was going to move into the house next door once he was better and could clean it out. Zane was thrilled at the prospect and Erin seemed pleased too. It felt good somehow when the three of them were together.
The days quickly settled back into their old routine of training in the morning and work in the afternoon. In snatched moments Zane taught Erin a new letter and sometimes when Luthor wasn’t looking she would trace them out on the ground to demonstrate her progress.
Zane told them both about the Gardner he’d tried to save and what he saw when Titus was attacked, which fascinated Titus to the extent that he hardly said anything for the rest of the day he was so lost in thought.
Every night before blowing out the candle, Zane looked at the picture of his father and his namesake and thought over the idea he’d had after speaking to Miri about his father. He never asked his mother another question about him, even though at times he burnt to do so. He just couldn’t find it in himself to make her feel so sad again.
Jay slowly recovered, Miri insisting he stayed so that he would rest and the wound would stay clean. Callum dropped by every couple of days to report on the Boys, often accompanied by a couple of them bearing some kind of offering for Jay or Miri. A few times Jay tried to speak to Titus, but got nothing but a baleful look in response.