‘I am most terribly sorry if you are in any trouble with your parents,’ Angela said after a while. ‘I assume you are. You could have cut the atmosphere with a knife in there. I’m sure it is all my fault, apart from the problems caused by your own reckless curiosity.’
‘That’s not much of an apology.’
‘I don’t get much practice. But I did my best to help.’
‘Mummy did look a bit stunned. It was the idea of a grateful nation which got her.’
‘I suggest that if they do ask, you look secretive, tap your nose knowingly and mutter something about need to know. Now, I need your help.’
‘I’m not sure I want to give it. I’m not upset about my parents. I’m upset about you.’
‘Why?’
‘You want to shut Anterwold down. That’s what you said. I think that’s a horrid thing to do.’
Angela groaned. ‘Oh, really! Rosie, there is no time for this. Something bad is happening, and I may have to go in myself to sort it out.’
‘Can I come?’
‘No. You are already there. That’s what I mean.’
‘But I’m here.’
‘Yes. And there. Probably.’
Rosie squinted at her. ‘Both at the same time?’
‘Indeed.’
‘I hope you noticed how calmly I responded to that?’
‘You are doing very well. What I have realised is that when you came back, the rings you were wearing confused the machinery, as your profile did not match the one you had when you went through. It didn’t know whether to allow you back or block you, so it did both. Which was lucky, as if it had done neither, heaven only knows what would have happened to you. That was the sticky feeling you had. At that moment it duplicated you. One version — you — came back. The other stayed in Anterwold. As long as you are there, I cannot shut it down.’
‘Good.’
‘It is not good. I still don’t know what Anterwold is but eventually a logical sequence of events will connect it to now. Here. When that happens, all sorts of unpleasant consequences might follow.’
‘Why not pleasant ones?’
‘An entire universe rampaging around like a bull in a china shop is unlikely to be pleasant. Anything which doesn’t fit will be erased.’
‘You told me you knew what you were doing.’
‘I may have been a little optimistic,’ she said with the greatest reluctance. ‘I didn’t put you into my calculations. Or several other things either. How much do you know about Anterwold’s origins? Where it came from?’
‘Nothing. The people there talk about the giants. But they never really refer to anything before the return from exile, and I don’t know what that was or where they came from.’
‘It was an idea Henry got from the Dorian Greeks, I think. They didn’t know where they came from either. Or care.’
‘There might be clues in the Story. Jay says his teacher, Henary, is the wisest of the wise, so you could ask him. Or, of course, you could just ask Professor Lytten. It’s his thing, after all.’
Angela stopped. ‘Do you know, that idea never occurred to me? Thank you.’
‘What do you need to know, anyway?’
‘The first thing is whether it is in the future or the past relative to here.’
‘Well, that’s easy,’ Rosie said. ‘The future, of course.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Casablanca. They think of that song in Casablanca as being ancient beyond belief, and the Professor told me it was made twenty years ago. It’s the same with other songs too.’
‘You might have mentioned this earlier.’
‘You never asked. I still don’t see what would be so terrible if Anterwold survives.’
‘It would be catastrophic.’
‘Why?’
‘Well, I wouldn’t be born, for one thing.’
Rosie stared. ‘Wow,’ she said.
‘What?’
‘I have heard of vanity, but never on that scale before.’
‘I didn’t mean...’ Angela began in a flustered tone. ‘At least I don’t think that material existence would be improved if there were two of me.’
‘Good. One of you has made quite enough mess. Think what two would do.’
‘Stupid girl.’
‘I am not,’ Rosie responded stoutly, ‘and don’t you dare talk to me like that. Don’t you dare.’
‘Keep a civil tongue in your head.’
‘I am.’
The two glared at each other.
‘You turn up and decide to meddle with the whole of history just because you want to teach someone a lesson?’
‘It’s not like that.’
‘Well, it sounds like it. And you go and say that a lot of really nice people are going to be snuffed out because you feel like it?’
‘You don’t understand. I didn’t ask you to go nosing around down there.’
‘You don’t understand either. You don’t know what’s happened, or what will happen, or why it’s happened. Do you? Go on. Tell me you do.’
Angela scowled at her. No one had talked to her like that for a long time, and she did not enjoy the experience.
‘I knew it!’ Rosie said triumphantly. ‘You haven’t got a clue.’
‘No. I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I am simply afraid.’
‘That’s the only reason? I don’t know what happens next either. No one does. You’re not meant to.’
‘As you wish. But still, there can only be one future. Either Henry’s story or reality will have to go.’
‘How do you know yours is reality? Maybe it’s just a story as well?’
Angela ignored the remark and walked on. After a few steps she realised she was on her own. Rosie was standing still in the middle of the pavement.
‘What is it now?’
‘All those people, they’re just puppets? Acting out the Professor’s book?’
‘Unfortunately not. If they were I wouldn’t be so worried. They all have perfectly free will, as much as anyone does. It’s all a bit Calvinist, if you like. Just because your choice is predetermined does not mean you do not have a free choice before you take it. In the case of your friends there, for example, they react to you in the way they wish.’
‘It would be interesting to meet me.’
‘That is a bad idea. Besides, what if you thought of yourself as you think of yourself? I would hate this to be resolved by one of you murdering the other. How would you divide up your boyfriend in there? I don’t think Henry built bigamy into his world view. You’d have to put up with someone else having him. Just think what a difficult position that would put him in.
‘One more thing. The reason I’m worried is that they shouldn’t be doing anything. Henry hasn’t written a story, only notes. He never finishes anything. Anterwold was meant to be a snapshot. I designed it so that nothing could happen. No causes, no effects, no consequences. But it has started moving because of you, and I don’t know where it is going.
‘And,’ she said finally, ‘if it makes you feel any better, I don’t know that my world isn’t just a story as well. If you knew the hideous complications that might involve, you wouldn’t be looking quite so smug. Now, come along.’
Angela opened the front door to Lytten’s house and walked into the hallway, then stood there listening for any sign that he was in.
‘Good,’ she said quietly when she was reassured that they were alone, and she walked softly down the old stairs into the cellar.
‘Right then,’ she said as she took off her coat. ‘With luck this will all be easy. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I will tune the machinery.’