He had tainted everything. Even the reunion with Marion.
I get a text from Camille. The text says: ‘????’
A taxi rolls by. The only car on the road.
Then my phone vibrates.
It is not Camille, but Marion.
‘He’s going to see Omai.’
‘What?’
‘He’s just leaving the restaurant. He’s going. He’s just got in a taxi. He’ll be at the house in ten minutes.’
A large yellow-striped lizard scuttles amid palm trees.
‘I just saw the taxi. What’s he going to do?’
‘He didn’t say. He told me to wait. I couldn’t push it. He was suspicious enough.’
‘Marion, has he got a gun?’
‘I don’t know. But—’
I am already running north to Broken Head Road before she finishes her sentence.
Canterbury, England, 1617
‘Father.’
Marion was looking up at me from her pillow. Her eyes were heavy with worry. She sighed. I’d been telling her about the birds that disappeared to the moon and lived there, on the side we couldn’t see.
‘Yes, Marion?’
‘I wish we were on the moon.’
‘Why is that, Marion?’
She frowned, deeply. As deep as only she could frown. ‘Someone spat at Mother. He came up to the stall and he stood there. He was wearing nice gloves. But he made a face like a gargoyle, and said no more words than a gargoyle, and he gave Ma the most horrid look, and then he gave me the same eyes and Ma didn’t like the way he was looking at me so she said, “Do you want any flowers, mister?” And I suppose she asked it a little harshly but that was because she felt nervous.’
‘So he spat at her?’
Marion nodded. ‘Yes. He waited a moment more and then he spat in her face.’ She clenched her jaw so tight I could see the muscles shift beneath her face.
I took this in. ‘And did the man say anything more? Did he explain himself?’
Marion frowned. The anguish in her eyes made her look older. I could easily picture the woman she would become. ‘He said nothing. He left Ma wiping herself, with all the hawkers and folk from town staring at us.’
‘And did he act peculiar to anyone else?’
‘No. Only to us.’
I kissed her forehead. I pulled the blanket up.
‘Sometimes,’ I told her, ‘the world is not how we wish it to be. Sometimes people can disappoint us. Sometimes people can do terrible things to others. You must be careful in this life. You see, I am different. You know that, don’t you? The rest of the world ages forwards and I age to the side, it appears.’
Her face sharpened. She was lost in violent imaginings. ‘I hope that man gets sick. I hope he dies in agony for shaming Ma like that. I’d like to see him hanging and his legs kicking wild and have him sliced into quarters and his innards slip out. I’d like to pull out his eyes and feed them to a dog.’
