Part Two - 01 (2)

‘Mom, that's just great. But do you mind if Klara and I go up to my room for a minute? Klara just loves to watch the sunset and if we don't go now we'll miss it.'

When she said this I glanced round and saw the kitchen had become filled with the Sun's evening light. The Mother was staring at Josie, and I thought she was about to become angry. But then her face softened into her kind smile, and she said: ‘Of course, honey. You go ahead. Go watch your sunset. Then we'll get supper.'

Apart from the fields and the sky, there was something else we could see from the bedroom rear window that drew my curiosity: a dark box-like shape at the end of the furthest field. It didn't move as the grass shifted around it, and when the Sun came so low it was almost touching the grass, the dark shape remained in front of his glow. It was on the evening Josie risked the Mother's anger on my behalf that I pointed it out to her. When I did so, she raised herself higher on the Button Couch and moved her hands to her eyes to shade them.

‘Oh, you must mean Mr McBain's barn.'

‘A barn?'

‘It's maybe not really a barn because it's open on two sides. More a shelter, I guess. Mr McBain keeps stuff in there. I went there once with Rick.'

‘I wonder why the Sun would go for his rest to a place like that.'

‘Yeah,' Josie said. ‘You'd think the Sun would need a palace, minimum. Maybe Mr McBain's done a big upgrade since I was last there.'

‘I wonder when it was Josie went there.'

‘Oh, a long time ago now. Rick and I were still quite little. Before I got sick.'

‘Was there anything unusual nearby? A gateway? Or perhaps steps going down into the earth?'

‘Uh uh. Nothing like that. Just the barn. And we were glad of it too because we were little and we'd got really tired walking all that way. Mind you, it was nowhere near sunset. If there's an entrance to a palace, it might be hidden. Maybe the doors open just before the Sun gets there? I saw a movie like that once, where all these bad guys had their HQ inside a volcano, and what you thought was a lava lake on top slid open just before they came down in helicopters. Maybe the Sun's palace works the same way. Anyway, me and Rick, we weren't looking for it. We'd gone out there for the hell of it, then we got hot and wanted some shade. So we sat inside Mr McBain's barn for a time then came back.' She touched my arm gently. ‘Wish we'd seen more, but we didn't.'

The Sun had become just a short line glowing through the grass.

‘There he goes,' Josie said. ‘Hope he gets a good sleep.'

‘I wonder who this boy was. This Rick.'

‘Rick? Only my best friend.'

‘Oh, I see.'

‘Hey, Klara, did I just say something wrong?'

‘No. But…it's now my duty to be Josie's best friend.'

‘You're my AF. That's different. But Rick, well, we're going to spend our lives together.'

The Sun was now barely a pink mark in the grass.

‘There's nothing Rick won't do for me,' she said. ‘But he worries too much. Always worrying things will get in our way.'

‘What kind of things?'

‘Oh, you know. The whole love and romance stuff to figure out. And I guess there's the other thing too.'

‘Other thing?'

‘But he's worrying over nothing. Because with me and Rick it got decided a long time ago. It's not going to change.'

‘Where is this Rick now? Does he live nearby?'

‘Lives next door. I'll introduce you. Can't wait for you two to meet!'

—

I met Rick the following week, on the day I first saw Josie's house from the outside.

Josie and I had been having many friendly arguments about how one part of the house connected to another. She wouldn't accept, for instance, that the vacuum cleaner closet was directly beneath the large bathroom. Then one morning, after another such friendly argument, Josie said:

‘Klara, you're driving me crazy with this. As soon as I'm done with Professor Helm, I'm taking you outside. We're going to check all this out from out there.'

I became excited at this prospect. But first Josie had her tutorial, and I watched her spread her papers over the surface of the Island and turn on her oblong.

To give privacy, I sat with an empty highstool separating us. I could soon tell the lesson wasn't going smoothly: the tutor's voice escaping from Josie's headset seemed frequently to reprimand her, and she kept scribbling meaninglessly on her worksheets, sometimes pushing them dangerously close to the sink. At one point I noticed she'd become very distracted by something outside the large windows and was no longer listening to her professor. A little later, she said angrily to the screen, ‘Okay, I've done it. I really have. Why won't you believe me? Yes, exactly the way you said!'

The lesson went on longer than usual, but at last came to an end with Josie saying quietly, ‘Okay, Professor Helm. Thank you. Yes. I'll be sure to. Goodbye. Thank you for today's lesson.'

She turned off the oblong with a sigh and removed her headset. Then seeing me, she immediately brightened.

‘I haven't forgotten, Klara. We're going outside, right? Just let me get my sanity back. That Professor Helm, wow, am I glad I don't have to look at him any more! Lives somewhere hot, you can tell. I could see him perspiring.' She got off the highstool and stretched out her arms. ‘Mom says we have to let Melania know any time we go outside. Will you go and tell her while I put a coat on?'

I could see Josie was also feeling excitement, though in her case I guessed it had to do with whatever she'd seen through the large windows during her lesson. In any case, I went to the Open Plan to find Melania Housekeeper.

The Open Plan was the largest room in the house. It had two sofas and several soft rectangles on which residents could sit; also cushions, lamps, plants and a corner desk. When I opened the sliding doors that day, its furniture was a series of interlocking grids, the figure of Melania Housekeeper almost indistinguishable amidst their complex pattern. But I was able to spot her, sitting upright on the edge of a soft rectangle, busily doing something on her oblong. She looked up at me with unfriendly eyes, but when I told her Josie wanted to go outside, she tossed aside her oblong and marched out past me.

I found Josie in the hall, putting on her brown padded jacket, a favorite of hers she sometimes also wore indoors when she was less well.

‘Hey, Klara. I can't believe you've been in this house all this time and never been out.'

‘No, I've never been outside.'

Josie looked at me for a second, then said, ‘You mean you've never been outside? Not just outside here, but outside anywhere?'

‘That's correct. I was in the store. Then I came here.'

‘Wow. Then this is going to be so great for you! There's nothing to be afraid of, right? No wild animals or anything. So come on, let's go.'

As Melania Housekeeper opened the front door, I felt new air – and the Sun's nourishment – entering the hall. Josie smiled at me, her face full of kindness, but then Melania Housekeeper came between us, and before I was fully aware, had taken Josie's arm, tucking it under her own. Josie too was surprised by this, but didn't protest, and I appreciated that Melania Housekeeper had concluded I might not be able to protect Josie reliably while outdoors due to my unfamiliarity. So the two of them went out together, and I followed.

We walked onto the loose stones area, which I supposed had been kept deliberately rough for the car. The wind was mild and pleasant, and I wondered how it was the tall trees up on the hill were even then bending and waving under its push. But I soon had to concentrate on my feet, because the loose stones area contained many dips, perhaps created by the car's wheels.

The view before me was familiar from the bedroom front window. I continued to follow Josie and Melania Housekeeper onto the road, which was smooth and hard like a floor, and we walked on it for some time, even when cut grass appeared to either side. I wished to look back at the house – to see it as a passer-by would, and to confirm my estimates – but Josie and Melania Housekeeper kept walking, their arms still linked, and I didn't dare to pause.

After a while I no longer had to attend to my feet so carefully, and looked up to see a grass mound rising to our left – and the figure of a boy moving about near its summit. I estimated he was fifteen, though I couldn't be sure since his figure was a silhouette against the pale sky. Josie moved towards the mound, and Melania Housekeeper said something I might have heard had we been indoors, but outside the sound behaved differently. In any case, I could see there was now a disagreement. I heard Josie say:

‘But I want Klara to meet him.'

There were further words I didn't hear, then Melania Housekeeper said, ‘All right but only short,' and freed Josie's arm.

‘Come on, Klara,' Josie said, turning to me. ‘Let's go up and see Rick.'

As we climbed the side of the green mound, Josie's breath became short and she clung tightly to me. This meant I was only able to look back briefly, but I became aware that behind us was not just Josie's house, but a second house standing further back in the fields – a neighbor house that wasn't visible from any of Josie's windows. I was eager to study the appearance of both houses, but had to concentrate on ensuring Josie came to no harm. At the top of the hill, she stopped to recover her breath, but the boy didn't greet us or even look our way. He had in his hands a circular device, and was looking at the sky between the two houses where a group of birds was flying in formation, and I quickly realized these were machine birds. He kept his gaze on them and when he touched his control, the birds responded by changing their pattern.

‘Wow, they're beautiful,' Josie said, though still short of breath. ‘Are they new?'

Rick kept his gaze fixed on the birds, but said:

‘Those two on the end are new. You can tell they don't really match.'

The birds swooped till they were hovering directly above us.

‘Yeah, but real birds don't all look the same either,' Josie said.

‘I suppose. At least I've got the whole team taking the same commands now. Okay, Josie, watch this.'

The machine birds began to come down, landing one by one on the grass in front of us. But two remained in the air, and Rick, frowning, pressed his remote again.

‘God. Still not right.'

‘But they look great, Ricky.'

Josie was standing surprisingly close to Rick, not actually touching him, but with hands raised just behind his back and left shoulder.

‘What those two need is a complete recalibration.'

‘Don't worry, you'll get it right. Hey, Ricky, you're remembering about Tuesday, right?'

‘I'm remembering it. But look, Josie, I didn't say I was coming.'

‘Oh come on! You agreed!'

‘Like hell I agreed. Anyway, I don't think your guests will be so pleased.'

‘I'm hosting, so I can invite who I like. And Mom will be great about it. Come on, Rick, we've been through this enough. If we're serious about the plan, we need to do stuff like this together. You've got to be able to handle it just as well as me. And why should I have to face that crowd alone?'