by Paul Beatty
Tobias stood. ‘I do, Peter, and I will exercise it in accordance with the Rule and the principles of justice common to all humankind.’ Then he sat down again.
‘The Speaker can call others to give evidence for the accused. All those called must respond. The Rule does not allow for excuses. The Council may ask questions of those called.
‘According to the history of Heron Fleet, there has not been an accusation of this nature in many generations. Even disputes, which have to be settled formally before the Council, do not occur more than once in five seasons or so. As a result, this is a unique occasion in our generation. I have had to and will have to rely on the instructions in the Red Book about how to carry out this Testing. I hope all Gatherers will support me in that endeavour.’ There was a murmur of endorsement.
‘It is inevitable that this accusation will stir up strong feelings in many. Can I remind you all that it is the tradition in Heron Fleet to allow everyone a fair hearing? I hope that all will restrain their reactions to what they hear and allow this Testing to proceed without interruption.’ There was a second murmur of agreement.
‘There is one fact that was not known at the informal meeting. The Crèche Nurses have confirmed that Anya is pregnant.’ There was a gasp from the gathering. ‘This means that the future of the child born from Anya’s and Jonathan’s relationship will also have to be settled by this Testing.’
Anya was on her feet. ‘It is mine and Jonathan’s baby. You and the Council may settle whether we can remain members of Heron Fleet but what gives you the right to settle my baby’s fate?’
‘The Rule, girl, The Rule,’ shouted back Peter. ‘The Rule you and that boy have broken. This Testing takes place by the authority of that Rule and not by your selfish wish. Francesca, please make Anya understand that she must be calm during these proceedings.’ Francesca took Anya by the shoulders and, having embraced her, got her to sit down quietly.
When everything became calm again Peter went on. ‘In a moment I will call Tobias to speak for Anya and Jonathan but first, consistent with our tradition of openness, the community will hear the accusation that has been made. Please come forward, Ruth.’
Ruth made her way forward and stood between Peter and the tables at which Anya and Jonathan were sitting. She had clearly rehearsed what she had to say and did not need to be prompted to speak by Peter. To Francesca she looked much as she had at the informal hearing; white cheeks and determined looks.
‘I accuse Anya and Jonathan of having a relationship outside the provisions of the Rule. I saw them three times near the river before the Harvest Festival when Anya was teaching Jonathan to swim after her dangerous assault on him on the bridge coming back from the fields.’ Tobias was right about Ruth’s hatred of Anya, thought Francesca. She would say anything to denigrate Anya’s reputation.
Ruth continued. ‘Twice they were kissing and fondling each other. On the third occasion I believe they were having sex.’ As she finished she looked at Francesca. Francesca stared back at her. Quite quickly, Ruth looked away. She threaded her way back to her seat in the body of the Hall, her moment at the centre of the drama over. Francesca thought Ruth shrank as she walked up the Hall. She felt sad for her since in not being able to face her look, Ruth must have known that any hope she had of getting Francesca back was over.
‘Thank you, Ruth,’ said Peter. ‘Please proceed, Tobias.’
‘Thank you, Peter. I call Francesca, Anya’s partner.’
Though she and Tobias had talked about some of the tactics of the Testing and Francesca had expected to be asked to speak, she had not expected that she would be first. She got up and came forward.
‘Hold on,’ said Peter, seeing she was uncertain where to stand, ‘we’ll get you a stool.’ The Gatekeeper brought one and positioned it just in front of the tables so that Francesca could see Peter and Tobias and also would be heard clearly in the rest of the Hall.
Tobias got up and walked over to her. ‘Francesca, when did you first know about the relationship between Anya and Jonathan?’ he asked.
‘The night of the Harvest Festival, Ruth told me.’
‘Told you? How?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, did she come straight up to you and say, “Anya is having an affair with Jonathan”?’
‘No, she wasn’t as clear as that, she said she’d seen them on the river bank together and then said something about it being a good job that they hadn’t been seen by anyone in the Council.’ Francesca’s voice was firm and confident but she was beginning to have doubts as to where Tobias’s questions might lead.
‘So at that point you were not sure. When were you certain?’ She realised that he intended to take her far from the agreed plan but she had to go on, nothing but the truth was due to the Council and the community.
‘When I saw the look he gave Anya when she came in to light the fire.’
‘And what did you do in reaction to knowing that?’
‘Well, I don’t know exactly. Parts are still unclear to me because of the injury to my head but I know that I must have become hysterical with grief and ran out into the storm.’
‘Were you trying to kill yourself?’
She looked at him wildly but his face was impassive. She would have to answer the question and confess what she had tried to do that night to the whole of the community. She took a deep breath. ‘Yes I believe I was.’ There was a quiet chatter of surprise in the Hall.
‘Please everyone. Do not interrupt the proceedings,’ said Peter. ‘Please continue, Tobias.’
‘Well, whatever you wanted to do, you still had the presence of mind to save my neck when you found me, for which I thank you. But let me go back to how you felt. Why did you think like that? You have a reputation of being sensible and reliable. The way you have coped with all this,’ he waved his hand round at the Council and the whole Hall, ‘has enhanced that reputation.’
Someone shouted ‘Hear! Hear!’ from the back and sporadic clapping broke out. As the noise died away, a voice that was clearly Elizabeth’s shouted, ‘Well said, Outlander. Well said,’ which got a ripple of laughter.
Peter was on his feet again. ‘Will the community please restrain its reactions.’ Despite her own fears Francesca realised that Peter was nervous, perhaps more nervous than she was she thought. Then Tobias was speaking again.
‘You’re not a person known for outbursts of hysteria, are you?’
‘I suppose not.’
‘So what drove you to it that night?’
Despite her nerves, Francesca answered in the confident voice she had started with. ‘Because I love Anya and I could not accept she had rejected me.’
‘Many would find that a remarkable thing to say. Many would wonder how you can be so restrained and calm telling us something that must have caused you so much pain and grief.’
‘I have come to accept things as they are.’
‘If it were possible would you have Anya back even after all that has happened?’
‘Yes,’ she said without a pause.
‘If there was no other way and there was a baby to care for, would you care with Anya for that baby?’
‘Yes.’ Again there was no hesitation.
‘Why would you do that for someone who has hurt you so much?’
‘Because I don’t believe real love stops because a person in a partnership does something wrong, nor in the end is it about who you have sex with. In the future if Anya needs me back, well… I still love her.’
‘And who do you think taught you that?’
Francesca was thrown by such a surprising question. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Did your Crèche Mothers teach you that?’
She thought for a moment. ‘They were good examples of what love is, so is the Harvest time when the whole community works together, as are the friendships between the Apprentice but…’ she paused again ‘…but I think the answer is no. I think it’s inside me, somewhere inside here,’ and
she knocked gently against her chest with her hand.
‘Thank you. Before I finish, I want to take you back to the matter of Anya and Jonathan’s baby. What do you think should happen to it?’
‘Until only a few days ago I would have said that the best place for the baby would be in the Crèche. The Crèche Mothers brought me up well and I believe most of us were happy as children.’ There was another round of approving hear-hears. ‘But I’ve seen cruelty from the Crèche Nurses which I wouldn’t have believed was possible. I’ve started to wonder if other women in the community have been shown the same sort of cruelty and disrespect that they showed Anya. That has given me doubts.’ The Hall was silent, though there were many glances exchanged between mature women Gatherers.
She continued. ‘More than that, I wonder how the safe and secure community of Heron Fleet, the community that I gave my allegiance to only a little while ago, and the community I have loved all my life could tolerate such cruelty. The Crèche Nurses make me wonder whether the community I love is somehow a sham.’
‘Thank you. Now, I really have finished,’ and Tobias smiled at her.
Francesca was just about to go when Peter spoke. ‘ I endorse what Tobias has said about your conduct and so I would not want to make this more painful than it has to be, but I want to be absolutely clear about what you said earlier in your answers to Tobias. If Anya wishes, you would resume your partnership with her?’ Francesca nodded. ‘Please say it so that all can hear and there can be no doubt.’
‘Yes,’ she said in a voice that carried clearly to the back of the Hall.
The Founder’s Diary VII
Day 129
We have been going three days. Once clear of the city we turned southwest. Miriam suggested we could use the outskirts of a local forest to give us extra shelter if the weather got worse. We got to it two days ago. It was one of the forests that had been planted by the government before the cold had come when some of the cityfolk were still trying to reverse the effects of the pollution. The trees on the edges had suffered badly in previous winters. The cold had killed all the broadleaved trees and even the majority of the pine trees. Their dead, leafless skeletons were either grey where all the bark had been stripped off or mottled with red and orange welts of fungus eating what was left of the wood. But there were more living trees further in, though the gloom deepened.
Day 130
We ran out on the top of a ridge today at the forest centre. We’ve decided to camp for the night in a clearing so we could see the sky rather than the dark canopy of the trees under which we have camped for the last few nights. Miriam and I were getting our tent sorted out when suddenly Charlie and Alison came charging in. Charlie’s eyes were wide with astonishment and Alison hid her face in my dress. ‘What’s wrong?’ I said.
‘There’s a giant over there!’ Alison whimpered and pointed across to another ridge running parallel to ours. ‘It will eat us.’ she sobbed.
‘What is she talking about, Charlie?’ I said as I comforted her.
‘It’s not a giant but I’ve never seen anything like it before. Come and look.’ Poking up above the trees, looking away from us, was indeed a giant, his arms outstretched to the sky. But there was no movement, no life in him. James and a few others were looking at his wreck. Charlie went over and put his hand in James’s. ‘What is it?’ he said.
‘It’s a wind turbine Charlie. It was used to make electricity from the wind for the cities. It’s a very big version of the windmill we had a Winter’s Hill. Do you want to have a closer look?’ Charlie nodded. So we gathered up anyone who was interested and climbed down to the stream between the ridges and then up the other side, where we picked up a track that seemed to be going in the direction of the turbine. When we got to the top of the second ridge we could see that the giant wasn’t alone. There were fifty to a hundred others set on the ridge and on the ridges beyond. A couple were still revolving slowly but the rest were still, some with broken sails. We forced open the rusting door at the bottom of the tower of the one Alison and Charlie had seen. Inside there was what James said was the switching gear that directed the electricity generated to the cities. He pointed up at the long staircase that went round the inside of the tower. ‘The generator was up there,’ he said to Charlie. ‘It was mounted behind the blades themselves to maximise efficiency so that the most electricity could be generated from the wind.’ Charlie was obviously fascinated, which worried me. It seems to me that all technology is dangerous. All of it leads to death and plague in the end.
Day 135
It is getting colder. For the last few days the sky has been clearing and this morning it was clear blue but the night-time temperatures have been dropping and the frost in the morning is harder. We cleared the forest the day before yesterday and are trying to travel southeast now. We will have to cross a big river in a day or two on a road bridge but it’s out in the country so we hope it will not be dangerous. After that, according the maps we salvaged from the fort, it looks as though the route should be fairly easy.
Day 136
The weather broke today. We woke up to find the sky was overcast and flurries of snow were falling. As the day went on the snow got heavier, by evening there was a good four centimetres on the ground and the wind was getting up. We found a sheltered valley to camp in. In the night the wind started to gust badly. One of our tents was blown down and three of the men had to stop it blowing away. We have a good collection of tents from the fort but we can’t afford to lose any of them.
Day 137
The wind has dropped and it has stopped snowing. Proper cloud has been replaced by a white haze through which the sun filters. The surface that has been left by the snow is treacherous. In places the snow must have melted as it hit the ground and underneath there is layer of ice. In others the wind has produced drifts which might conceal rocks capable of damaging the lorry wheels. At the very least the drifts make it difficult to see the edge of the green lanes and tracks we are using. At one point the sun broke through the haze and we could see a sort of circular rainbow form. There were four separate rings, orange ones interspersed with blue. There was also some sort of secondary ring reflected from the snow on the ground. Then the haze cleared and it disappeared. An hour later the sky was covered with a think layer of high cloud which came quickly from the south. By the time we camped, a light fall of rough snow crystals was beginning.
Day 144
The blizzard has been blowing for a week and though there has been the time to write I have not had the will, finding it difficult to concentrate in the cold. The temperature plummeted the night after we saw the halo ring. Wind howled through the tent ropes and round the lorries. The tent material flapped and made sleeping difficult. We made it through that night OK but in the morning you couldn’t see more than few metres. It was like looking though thick fog but this fog was made up of snowflakes and ice crystals that were flung about by a sharp, gusty wind. The crystals bit your face if you went out with any area of skin uncovered. The lorries were moved to circle the tents and provide some extra shelter and all the winter clothing we have has been given out. We just have to sit it out. Two days ago we saw our first medical case due to the cold. Two of the children were brought to us with uncontrollable shivering. They didn’t seem to know where they were and the skin was cold to the touch. Their temperatures were low. We made them hot drinks and wrapped them in as many blankets as we could find. Gradually they recovered, but it gave Miriam and me a fright. It was clearly hypothermia, happening even when people were in the tents and sheltered from the snow and cold.
Day 145
The temperature has stabilised at minus ten degrees but the snow has stopped. The camp is one huge snowdrift. We can just see the tops of the lorries but the pickup is completely covered. We had started to dig the vehicles out when Chloe cried out and clutched at her chest. She had been helping dig out one of the tucks. Miriam and I ran over but it was too late. She had had some kind of heart attack and w
as dead in the snow where she had fallen. It must have been the exertion of the digging.
Day 146
We buried Chloe under a cairn of stones, the earth was already too frozen to work. She and Christopher had been two of the first members of Winter’s Hill. Her death has hit James almost as hard as it has Christopher, who seems to have aged overnight.
Day 147
We finished digging out the vehicles this morning but none of them will start. The water systems are frozen and it’s quite possible that, since they are diesel-powered the fuel may be too thick to work. One of the lorries has had a small fire lit under it to see if that will thaw out the engine.
Day 148
Mercifully the weather is still holding, though it remains bitterly cold. We have started two of the lorries and people are still working on the third, but the pickup is irreparable. They say the cylinder head has cracked, whatever that means.
Day 149
On our way again. We have put together a rota of who rides and who walks. All the children will ride wrapped in blankets. Christine and Charlie are taking turns minding a camp stove in the middle lorry. The stove has been set so that there can be regular hot drinks for all those coming off walking shift and the children. People will spend two hours walking and one hour riding.
Day 150
New system working well; it seems that it has even improved our speed. James thinks we have covered about half the distance from the city to the sea.
Day 152
I was walking with Miriam behind the last lorry. The weather was better, the temperature had risen and it felt warmer even though it was still just below freezing. The sky was clear again and the sun was hot enough that the snow was melting in some places and water was running down the track. We were coming down from a range of hills we had just crossed, down into a plain where we hopped it was going to be warmer or at least a little less windy. Below us, about five metres down a steep bank, was a stream. Miriam and I were talking about whether we needed the rota to be used when I heard a shout. ‘Careful!’