Part Two - 01 (3)

‘You won't be alone. You've got your AF now.'

The last two birds had come down. He touched his remote and they all went into sleep mode on the grass.

‘Oh God, I haven't even introduced you! Rick, this is Klara.'

Rick went on concentrating on his remote and didn't look my way. ‘You said you'd never get an AF,' he said.

‘That was a while ago.'

‘You said you'd never get one.'

‘Well, I changed my mind, okay? Anyway, Klara's not any AF. Hey, Klara, say something to Rick.'

‘You said you'd never get one.'

‘Come on, Rick! We don't do everything we said when we were small. Why shouldn't I have an AF?'

She had by now both hands on Rick's left shoulder, resting her weight there as if trying to make him less tall and the two of them the same height. But Rick seemed not to mind her nearness – in fact he seemed to think it normal – and the idea occurred to me that perhaps, in his own way, this boy was as important to Josie as was the Mother; and that his aims and mine might in some ways be almost parallel, and that I should observe him carefully to understand how he belonged within the pattern of Josie's life.

‘It's very nice to meet Rick,' I said. ‘I wonder if he lives in that neighbor house. It's strange, but I hadn't noticed such a house before.'

‘Yeah,' he said, still not looking directly at me. ‘That's where I live. My mum and me.'

We then all turned to the view of the houses, and for the first time, I was really able to look at the exterior of Josie's house. It was slightly smaller, and its roof's edges a little sharper, but otherwise much as I'd estimated from the inside. The walls had been constructed from carefully overlapping boards which had all been painted a near-white. The house itself was three separate boxes that connected into a single complex shape. Rick's house was smaller, and not just because it was further away. It too had been built from wooden planks, but its structure was more simple – a single box, taller than it was wide, standing in the grass.

‘I think Rick and Josie must have grown up side by side,' I said to Rick. ‘Just like your houses.'

He shrugged. ‘Yeah. Side by side.'

‘I think Rick's accent is English.'

‘Just a little perhaps.'

‘I'm happy Josie has such a good friend. I hope my presence will never come in the way of such a good friendship.'

‘Hope not. But a lot of things come in the way of friendships.'

‘Okay enough now!' Melania Housekeeper's voice shouted from the foot of the mound.

‘Coming!' Josie yelled back. Then she said to Rick: ‘Look, Ricky, I'm not going to enjoy this meeting any more than you. I need you there. You have to come.'

Rick was concentrating again on his remote, and the birds rose together into the air. Josie watched them, both her hands still on his shoulder, so that the two of them formed a single shape against the sky.

‘Okay hurry up!' Melania Housekeeper shouted. ‘Wind too strong! You want die up there or what?'

‘Okay, coming!' Then Josie said quietly to Rick: ‘Tuesday lunchtime, okay?'

‘Okay.'

‘Good boy, Ricky. You've promised now. And Klara's a witness.'

Taking her hands from his shoulder, she stepped away. Then grasping my arm, she began to lead us down off the mound.

We descended a different slope from the one we'd climbed, which I saw would bring us down just in front of Josie's house. Its gradient was steeper, and down below, Melania Housekeeper began to protest, then giving up, hurried around the mound to meet us. As we came down through the cut grass, I glanced back and saw Rick's figure, once more a silhouette against the sky. He wasn't looking our way, but up at his birds hovering in the grayness.

After we returned to the house, and Josie had put away her padded jacket, Melania Housekeeper made her a yogurt drink, and the two of us sat together at the Island while she sipped it through a straw.

‘Can't believe that's the first time you've been outside,' she said. ‘So what did you think?'

‘I liked it very much. The wind, the acoustics, everything was so interesting.' Then I added: ‘And of course it was wonderful to meet Rick.'

Josie was pinching her straw close to where it emerged from her drink.

‘I guess he didn't make such a great impression. He gets awkward sometimes. But he's a special person. When I get sick and I try to think of good things, I think about all the stuff we're going to do together. He's definitely coming to that meeting.'

—

That evening, as they often did during their supper, they turned down all the lights except those falling directly on the Island itself. I was present, as Josie liked me to be, but wishing to give privacy, stood in the shadows, my face turned to the refrigerator. For several minutes I listened to Josie and the Mother making light-hearted remarks as they ate. Then, still maintaining her light manner, Josie asked:

‘Mom, if my grades are so good, do I really have to host this interaction meeting?'

‘Sure you do, honey. It's not enough just being clever. You have to get along with others.'

‘I know how to get along with others, Mom. Just not with this crowd.'

‘This crowd happens to be your peer group. And when you get to college, you'll have to deal with all kinds. By the time I got to college, I'd had years of being alongside other kids each and every day. But for you and your generation, it's going to be pretty tough unless you put in some work now. The kids who don't do well in college are always the ones who didn't attend enough meetings.'

‘College is a long way off, Mom.'

‘Not so long as you think.' Then the Mother said more gently, ‘Come on, honey. You can introduce Klara to your friends. They'd be excited to meet her.'

‘They're not my friends, Mom. And if I have to host this meeting, I want Rick there.'

For a moment there was silence behind me. Then the Mother said: ‘Okay. We can certainly do that.'

‘But you think it's a bad idea, right?'

‘No. Not at all. Rick is a very good person. And he's our neighbor.'

‘So he's coming, right?'

‘Only if he wants to come. It has to be his choice.'

‘So you think the other kids will be rude to him?'

There was another wait before the Mother said: ‘I don't see why they would be. If someone does behave inappropriately, that'll only show how far behind they are.'

‘So no reason Rick can't come.'

‘The only reason, Josie, is if he doesn't want to.'

Later on in the bedroom, when it was just the two of us, and Josie was lying in bed ready to go to sleep, she said quietly:

‘I hope Rick does come to this awful party.'

Despite the lateness, I was pleased she'd brought up the interaction meeting, because I was uncertain about many aspects of it.

‘Yes, I hope so too,' I said. ‘Will the other young people bring their AFs?'

‘Uh uh. Not the done thing. But the AF who lives in the house usually attends. Especially if they're new like you. They'll all want to inspect you.'

‘So Josie would wish me to be present.'

‘Sure I want you to be present. It might not be so great for you though. These meetings stink and that's the truth.'

—

On the morning of the interaction meeting, Josie was filled with anxiety. She returned to the bedroom after breakfast to try on different clothes, and even when we could hear her guests arriving, and Melania Housekeeper had called up a third time, she continued brushing her hair. Finally, with many voices audible downstairs, I said to her, ‘Perhaps it's time for us to join Josie's guests.'

Only then did she drop the hairbrush onto the dressing table and rise to her feet. ‘You're right. Time to face the music.'

Coming down the staircase, I saw the hall was filled with strangers talking in humorous voices. These were the accompanying adults – all of them female. Younger voices were coming from the Open Plan but the sliding doors had been pulled together, so Josie's guests weren't yet visible to us.

Josie, on the stairs in front of me, stopped with four steps to go. She might even have turned back if one of the adults hadn't called out, ‘Hi, Josie! How you doing?'

Josie raised a hand, and then the Mother, moving through the adults in the hall, gestured towards the Open Plan. ‘Go on in,' she called. ‘Your friends are waiting for you.'

I thought the Mother was about to say something further to reinforce this, but other adults had gathered around her, talking and smiling, and she was obliged to turn away from us. Josie did seem to find new courage then, and she went down the remaining steps into the crowd. I followed, expecting her to go towards the Open Plan, but instead she went through the adults towards the front door, which was open and bringing in fresh air. Josie kept moving as though she had a clear purpose, and a passer-by might have thought she was engaged on some important errand on behalf of her guests. In any case, no one impeded her, and as I followed, I heard many voices around me. Someone was saying, ‘Professor Kwan may be wonderful at teaching our children mathematical physics. That doesn't give him the right to be uncivil to us,' and another voice said, ‘Europe. The best housekeepers still come from Europe.' More voices greeted Josie as she passed, and then we were at the front door, touched by the outside air.

Josie looked out, her foot on the threshold, and shouted into the outdoors: