by Emma Newman
Zane gasped. “She said that? But no-one should ever be told to do that! Mums are the best things in the world!”
Titus turned and looked out at the strange oak tree. Erin sighed. “I asked her why, but she wouldn’t answer. She said it wasn’t my place to question her … which is right I suppose. But I couldn’t just let it go … and I felt angry … I said that my mum was in just as much trouble as Lyssa so why couldn’t we help my mum too?”
Titus looked back at her. “That was brave.”
Erin shrugged. “Stupid more like. I just lost my temper … it wasn’t fair. She was so nice to you about Lyssa–why be so mean about my mum?”
She fell quiet. Zane went over to her and very slowly reached out and touched her hand. She looked up at him and tried to manage a smile but it didn’t quite work.
“How did it end?” Titus asked.
“She said that normally she’d have someone thrown out onto the street for answering back like I had, but that she’d give me another chance, seeing as I was new to it all and because of who my father is.” She glanced at Zane. “She didn’t say it very kindly either.”
“I suppose she was angry too,” he replied half-heartedly.
She looked down at the floor. “I asked Father about Mum.”
Titus turned back to look at her. “I suspect that didn’t go well.”
Erin began to bite one of her fingernails. “He said I wasn’t allowed to talk about her. That she was a terrible person, and that she deserved everything she got, and if I ever spoke about her again he’d be very angry. He said I was lucky that he was willing to give me a chance even though she’s my mother.”
Her lip trembled and she hurriedly started to chew on a second nail. Zane squeezed her other hand sympathetically and looked to Titus with concern.
“It sounds like he thinks she did something in the past,” Titus commented.
“She couldn’t have!” Erin exclaimed, suddenly angry. “Mum hardly says anything, she just sits there for hours or cries or stays in bed. How could she have done anything bad?”
“Maybe she wasn’t always like that,” Titus theorised, so caught up in the puzzle that he forgot her distress. “And she must have known Luthor before, to have made you with him. So where was she when she knew Luthor?”
Zane cleared his throat and frowned at Titus to make him aware of his insensitivity. Titus realised this quickly and fell silent.
“No-one deserves to be left with the Gardners,” Zane said softly. “I wouldn’t want my mum to ever be unhappy. I’m sorry it’s all so horrible.”
Erin shrugged. “It’s better than it used to be.” She looked over at Titus. “Sorry … we should be talking about the Giant and your dream about Lyssa, not my stuff.”
“I did want to talk about it a bit,” Titus admitted. “I want us to go back to the hospital.” Seeing Zane’s dismay, he continued. “I have to find out more about the Giant and what he was doing there. I think it’s … interesting that he was in your dad’s room.”
Erin gasped. “Maybe the Giant is your dad, Zane!”
Zane shook his head. “No, my dad’s dead.”
“Is he?” Titus said pointedly and Zane began to pick at the thread on the hem of his trousers. “We talked about that. Miri’s lying–I think he’s still alive.”
“I’m right, then!” Erin grinned but Zane shook his head again.
“No, it wasn’t him. I’m sure of it. He would have tried to speak to me, surely. And anyway, I’d be taller if I was a Giant’s son.”
Erin shrugged. “Whatever. I still think I’m right.”
“In the pictures he doesn’t look tall enough to be a Giant, relative to the other people in them,” Titus added and she sighed, nodding in capitulation. He frowned. “We need to go back to that room and see if we can find out more about him though. And the Giant … maybe we could find something that will give us a clue to find the Unders. First chance we get, we go, agreed?”
Erin nodded and then Zane did too, albeit reluctantly. “But in the morning,” Zane added. “Can you meet me in the garden before we start training? There’s something I want to do. It’s important.”
Chapter 20
AN OATH AND A LIE
The next day was the first that suggested the end of the summer. A cold wind blew grey clouds across the sky and prompted Miri to unpack jumpers and blankets from their summer storage.
Zane found it impossible to settle to anything, constantly looking to the corner of the square to see if Jay and Callum had arrived before the morning training was due to start. When he caught sight of them, he beckoned them towards the garden and hurried into the house.
“Mum,” he called, “Can you come to the garden?”
She followed him outside. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he said, seeing Erin enter the garden with Titus and, to his surprise, Luthor.
Luthor picked up on this, Zane still unable to mask his feelings. “Erin said something important was going to happen, so I thought I should be here.”
Erin gave Zane an apologetic look, but he smiled good-naturedly, doing his best to ignore the tension between Jay and Luthor who stood as far away from each other as they could in the small gathering.
Miri smiled at Callum and Jay, and then looked quizzically at her son.
“Thanks for coming, everyone,” Zane began. “I wanted you all to be here because I’m going to do something that’s very important to me. It’s an idea I had a while ago, it just took some time to find out the things I need to know.” He glanced around at the group. “A long time ago, there were people called doctors,” he began, not noticing Miri tense up. “Titus read about them, and when he told me more about what they were like, I decided that I wanted to be one too.”
Both Callum and Luthor raised their eyebrows in surprise; like Miri, they were old enough to remember the time before It happened and were no doubt curious to see where this was going.
“Doctors were nice people who made people better, knew lots about bodies, and took a special oath.”
He glanced at Titus who gently prompted him, “The Hippocratic oath.”
“Yes, that’s the one,” Zane continued. “Me and Mum already try to make people better.” He smiled at Miri, who looked back at him affectionately. “And Titus has found me some more books so I can learn what all the things in the body are called. So that just leaves the oath. Some bits of it didn’t make much sense, so I wrote my own version that has the most important bits in it. I’d like to take it in front of you all, just like a proper oath, so you can all see how much this means to me.”
Zane fished out a piece of paper from his pocket and read out loud, “I, Zane Taylor, do most solemnly swear to always do everything I possibly can to heal the sick, to treat the wounded, and to try to save the life of anyone who is injured or dying.”
Both Luthor and Jay bristled at this, but Zane didn’t notice.
“I swear,” he continued, “that I will remember that sympathy and kindness are just as important as bandages and ointment, and that it is the whole person that should be thought of, not just where they are hurt. If a patient tells me something in confidence, then I will not tell others. If I have the chance to save someone’s life, then I will with thanks, but if I must let them die to end their suffering, I promise that I will do this in a humble and considerate way, and that I will not try to be more important than I really am. May I always heal and find joy in that task.”
He finished and looked around the small circle of people. Titus and Erin beamed at him, whilst Miri dabbed at her eyes with her handkerchief, smiling proudly. Callum nodded at him with respect and Jay winked at him. Luthor stepped towards him.
“If an oath is to be one that binds you, then you should mark it with blood,” he stated, drawing his knife, which made Miri take in a sharp breath. Jay moved forward but Callum put a hand on his shoulder, holding him back calmly.
Zane swallowed hard and looked at the steel tip in front
of his nose. Luthor was clearly waiting for him to do something, but he had no idea what. After a brief pause, Luthor took his hand and pricked the end of his finger swiftly before Zane could pull away. He waited until a large drop of blood swelled onto the tip before giving it one firm shake to make the drop fall onto the soil.
Satisfied, he let Zane’s hand go, saying in a loud clear voice, “With his blood, let the oath be kept.”
All three children shivered.
Zane sucked the tiny wound as Luthor looked at him with something like respect. “One step closer to being a man,” he said, looking into his eyes before stepping back.
“Now you’re a proper doctor,” Titus said with satisfaction.
When the gathering drifted apart, Titus quietly followed Jay to the edge of the square and held a brief hushed conversation with him about the link between the Giant and the Unders that ended in Jay leaving with renewed purpose.
Now that Zane had taken his oath and his nerves were subsiding, he considered going to tell his mother about the Giant, but then Luthor returned with an armful of practice weapons and he was soon swept along into the morning training.
It wasn’t until the end of the day that they were given some time to themselves and the three gathered at the far end of the square near the hospital.
“Mum’s sorting out a sprained ankle, one of the Blooms-bury Boys,” Zane reported quietly. “We should have about fifteen minutes at least.”
“Dad was called back to the Red Lady,” Erin added, “He’ll be gone a while.”
“Good,” Titus nodded. “Let’s go then whilst we have some light.”
They hurried into the hospital lobby, furtively checking that they were unseen. Once again Erin was in the lead with a dagger drawn, Titus close behind her looking just as alert, and Zane following a few paces behind, his heart thrumming so hard that he could feel his pulse in his throat.
They stepped into the stairwell and since it was clear with no new footprints, they steadily climbed to the third floor as quietly as they could. Erin opened the door into the corridor after looking through the round window first. The dust lay still on the other side, save the small swirls stirred by the eddies of air from the door’s movement.
“Looks clear,” she whispered and Titus nodded confidently.
“We’re the only ones here,” he whispered back.
“Why are we whispering then?” Zane asked tremulously.
“Best to be on the safe side,” Erin replied and stepped through into the corridor.
The three crept to the office door, seeing their old footprints and those of the Giant still crisp in the thick grey carpet of dust. They entered the office, Zane shutting the door carefully behind them and staying very close to it.
Titus scanned the room. “I don’t think he’s been back since the last time we came here.”
Zane went to the wall of photos and Titus looked at them briefly too before drifting off to look through the filing cabinets. Erin was twitchy; she went over the window again, rubbing her temples.
Zane frowned at the images of his father and his namesake. His father looked nice enough, happy and friendly, so why had his mother lied? Had he turned into someone horrible? Then another idea struck him and he regretted this one even more.
“Maybe he joined the Gardners,” he said quietly. “Maybe that’s why Mum lied.”
“No silly,” Erin said softly. “I would’ve seen him, and I didn’t.”
Zane gave a huge sigh of relief. “Oh yeah, I forgot about that.”
Erin gripped the edge of one of the desks, shaking. “Um, are you going to be long, Titus?”
He gave a noncommittal grunt, concentrating hard on a file he’d found. Zane went over to Erin. “What’s wrong?”
“Got a bit of a headache. Something about this place … had one the last time we came. I don’t like it here much you know.”
Zane nodded. “I don’t either. Maybe it’s the old air making your head hurt.”
She shrugged. “It’s not a big deal.”
They both watched Titus rifling through the papers in the cabinet for a few moments before returning to the wall of photos, drawn to the glimpses of life before It happened.
“The women looked weird back then,” Erin mumbled. “Their lips are all different colours. Look at this one.” She pointed to a photo of Zane’s smartly dressed father with his arm around a woman in an evening gown. “Her lips are really bright pink.”
Zane peered at it. “That doesn’t look … natural,” he agreed. “Maybe she was ill. But her cheeks are really rosy … I don’t understand.”
“Her eyelids are a funny colour too,” Erin added, fascinated by the puzzle. “Maybe some women used to be funny colours.”
Zane shrugged, captivated by the images of his father and his best friend. He tried to imagine a world filled with women who wore sparkling dresses and who seemed only too happy to kiss and hold hands with men. A world that was clean and shiny, with bright colours and strangely lit rooms. He wondered what the dirty water that they were drinking in many of the pictures tasted like and whether it made them sick. He knew his mother would never let him drink anything that was that colour. But more than anything, he wondered what it was like to be his dad’s best friend, to be in those places with him laughing and talking and putting arms around women with him. He felt a heavy ache fill his chest.
“I wish I knew him,” he whispered, too quietly for the others to hear.
“You nearly done, Titus?” Erin asked impatiently.
“Just one more minute,” he said, giving up on the filing cabinet and starting to rifle through the drawers of the desk.
She returned to scanning the pictures with Zane. “There aren’t any of the Giant in these pictures,” she commented.
“That’s a good thing, right?” Zane asked and she shrugged.
“Guess so.”
Titus slipped a piece of glossy paper into his pocket surreptitiously as Zane and Erin focused on the wall. He sighed with frustration. “I can’t find anything about the Unders or Giants anywhere here.”
“We should go,” Erin said and Titus nodded grimly.
He turned to leave, but as he did so a book mostly buried under the scattered papers on the floor around the filing cabinet caught his eye. He pulled out a leather-bound diary and flicked through the pages, filled with meticulous notes on the weather, compared planting techniques, and relative yields. He was about to dismiss it as nothing more than a scientist’s experimentation with gardening when he noticed how the entries stopped abruptly halfway through the book. “Zane,” he said after reading the last lines. “Look at this.”
Zane went over to see the page that Titus held open to him. He scanned a few lines about planting carrots in an old bath to avoid pests, but then the notes broke off and a thick line carved the page in two, as if scored in by a knife. Scrawled in the same handwriting, yet with less care, was the only personal note in the book:
Miri’s pregnant. Shit shit shit. Should’ve been more careful. What the hell do I do now?
Zane stared at it, Titus reading his face as easily as he had read the page. Zane then noticed the date at the top of the page: 21st March, 2017.
“But …” was all Zane managed to say as Titus nodded.
“I was right,” he said softly. “That date is five years after It happened. He didn’t die then.”
Erin’s eyes widened. “So your mum was lying! Whoa, I never thought Miri would be like that.” Zane shot her an angry glare and she patted the air with her hands. “Sorry, Zane, that came out wrong.”
“You must talk to her,” Titus urged. “You have to tell her about the Giant and find out why she lied.”
“But it’ll upset her!”
“But it might help us to find Lyssa!” Titus blurted out. “The Giant came to this room, only this room on this whole floor–there has to be a reason why! Maybe he knows your dad. Maybe Miri knows where he is and then we could find the Giant and then we cou
ld find Lyssa!”
Zane bit his lip, struck by the open desperation on his friend’s normally composed face. “Okay,” he sighed, “I’ll talk to her … I’ll go and ask her now.”
Chapter 21
UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTHS
Zane closed the front door quietly and went into the kitchen, finding his mother tending to the houseplants on the windowsill.
“Are you hungry?” she asked, not yet turning to face him. “I thought I’d teach you how to make that mash you like.”
He didn’t reply, unable to find the right words to start off the conversation he’d delayed so long. The long pause made her stop and look over to him.
“Zane,” she said softly after a few moments, and he broke out of his thoughts. “Why don’t you tell me about it?”
Zane looked down at the rug, his stomach twisted into one large knot. “Because I’m worried you’ll get all upset,” he replied quietly.
She frowned. “Well, you have to tell me now, otherwise I’ll just worry.”
He sighed and went into the living room, Miri following straight away. He flopped down onto the sofa so heavily that she went to sit next to him and gathered him into her arms. She eased his head onto her shoulder and stroked his long hair, just like when he was small and had fallen over.
He pulled away so he could see her face. “Mum,” he began tentatively. “I didn’t tell you everything about when I went to the hospital where I got Dad’s picture from.” It was clearly the last thing she expected him to say. “There was someone in there … a Giant.”
Miri blinked. “What? Start at the beginning.”
Zane told her about the first encounter, taking care not to mention Dev. He knew if he mentioned Dev, his mum would blame him for tempting him into the hospital. Whilst it was true, he didn’t want his friend to get into trouble for it. Dev’s life was hard enough. Instead, he glossed over his involvement and went on to tell her about Titus’ dream about Lyssa and their realisation that the Giant must come from the Unders. By the time he’d finished, Miri’s cheeks had drained to an awful grey green and his stomach twisted when he realised that it wasn’t all he had to tell her.