‘Clever,’ whispered Tina, ‘making us come to them.’
‘No way will we go to them, Tina.’
‘No. You’re right. But how about we just walk out like we happened to be out here hunting in forest?’
That seemed a good plan to me, so that’s what we did. We came strolling out from the trees, and we acted, not surprised (because that would be like admitting we didn’t have a proper lookout system), but like it didn’t matter much to us whether they were there or not.
‘Hi there, Caroline,’ I called out.
And then we sat down by the stream, some way short of where they were sitting, and put our feet in the water, like hunters after a long waking.
Of course they knew we were playacting, just like we knew they were. And we knew they knew, and they knew we knew. Really and truly this was a big big thing for them that was happening, just as much as it was a big big thing for us. Us and Family were big problems for one another and both sides badly needed to talk. But the pretending, the pretending on both sides that this wasn’t a big thing at alclass="underline" that was part of that talk. It was an important part of it. It was a way of feeling our way forward.
But that didn’t change the fact that this really was a big thing, this was one of those moments that people would remember and act out far off in the future, like Angela’s Ring and Death of Tommy, and the departure of the Three Companions and me destroying Circle. It was one of those big big moments, and all of us — me, Tina, Caroline, Secret Ree — we were all in it together, we all had a responsibility together to try to make the story as good as it could be.
‘We’ve one or two things we wouldn’t mind talking to you about,’ Caroline called out.
‘Sure,’ Tina called back. ‘Just need to cool our feet a bit, though. Why don’t you come over?’
She looked sideways at me, and gave me a secret slippy smile, like she might have given back there in Family, the first time we met up over by Deep Pool. And that made me sad sad for a moment because I could see how much all this other stuff — Circle, Bella, all of it — had put distance between how things were then and how they were now. It was as if when I destroyed Circle, I’d stopped just being John Redlantern and put on a kind of mask. Like I said, in the future people would tell stories about this time. Some woman would pretend to be Caroline, some girl would pretend to be Tina, some young guy would act me, just like John Brooklyn had acted Tommy Schneider at Any Virsry back when Circle still lay in place. But what I saw now was that it wasn’t just in the future that this meeting would become a story to be acted out. Even now, even when it was happening for the first time round, it had already become a story in a way, with me as an actor in it, playing a part, and not just being myself. I was acting me.
Still, there was no time to think about that now.
‘No improvement in your manners then, newhairs,’ called out Caroline, glancing at the others with her with a tired look on her face. ‘No sign of you growing up yet.’
They got up and came over to us in a weary, grownup way, like we were naughty littles refusing to settle down to sleep. And the three young men with their glass spears followed behind them. I knew them alclass="underline" Harry, Ned, Ricky.
‘Nice move there, Caroline,’ muttered Tina, like we were watching a game of chess, ‘nice move: making us look like kids.’
We pulled our feet out of the stream, shook the water off them and stood up.
‘We’ve decided to make an offer to you,’ Caroline said. ‘We’ve decided you can be a group on your own — Cold Path group — with your own group leader, and you can have your group over here apart from the rest of Family. But you will still be part of Family. You must still come to Any Virsries and Strornries, and you must still abide by Family decisions, and Family laws.’
‘How about David Redlantern and his friends,’ I said, ‘were they happy with that?’
Caroline didn’t let any expression appear on her face.
‘They’re part of Family and they’ll abide by it,’ she said.
‘We’ll make sure of it,’ added blind old Tom Brooklyn with his eyes rolling about in no particular direction.
‘Good for you, mate,’ I said. ‘But we’re not a group. We’re another family. A separate family on our own.’
Caroline snorted.
‘Don’t be ridiculous, John, you can’t be another family! There is only one. We all come from the same mother and the same father. That’s just a fact.’
‘Tom’s dick and Harry’s, Caroline!’ Tina burst in. ‘That’s a bit much coming from you! You told John yourself he wasn’t part of Family any more. The Laws wouldn’t apply to him, you said. He could be treated like an animal. Like a tree fox or a slinker, you said.’
I put my hand on Tina’s to stop her. I appreciated her standing up for me but I needed her to be quiet because she was missing the point. This meeting wasn’t really about the rights and wrongs of things. I mean, I didn’t like Caroline and she didn’t like me, but this wasn’t about our personal feelings. Funnily enough, me and Caroline both understood that, and we were the only ones there that really did. We both knew we were there to try and build a shape out of words that her lot and my lot could both live with. It wasn’t personal. It wasn’t even a fight between us really, more like a job we were working on together, not so different from Old Roger sitting down with a bit of blackglass to make a spearhead, or one-legged Jeffo London starting to cut open a log to make it into a new boat.
‘We’ll follow the Laws,’ I said, ‘because we need laws the same as you do. But we won’t come to your meetings and we won’t do what you tell us.’
‘We can’t have you newhairs doing as you like,’ murmured Candy Fishcreek in her soft voice. ‘Otherwise any time anyone is told off back in Family, they’ll just run over here to you, or run off somewhere else and set up another family on their own.’
‘Well, who cares . . .?’ Clare started to say, but I interrupted her.
‘No, Caroline,’ I said. ‘We’re with you on that. We don’t want things breaking up either.’
Caroline snorted.
‘Well, for goodness’ sake . . .’
‘So let’s make an agreement,’ I said, ‘an agreement between two families, just like we’d sometimes make an agreement between two groups back in Family, when there was a problem between them.’
Caroline glanced at her two group leaders, checking that she had their support.
‘An agreement, yes,’ she said, ‘but an agreement between rest of Family and Cold Path group.’
‘Harry’s dick!’ our Gela broke in. ‘You can’t expect to come to an agreement if . . .’
But again I interrupted.
‘You can call us what you like, Caroline,’ I said. ‘But it’s got to be in our agreement that we don’t come to Any Virsries or Strornries.’
Caroline looked at the others again. Candy Fishcreek shrugged. Tom nodded.
‘Okay,’ Caroline said, ‘but you mustn’t come near us then. Not past Lava Blob.’
‘That’s not . . .’ Tina began, but again I put my hand on hers to tell her to be quiet. I knew we needed to have some separation from Family, and them from us, if things were going to work out, so I agreed straight away.
‘Alright. We won’t come past Lava Blob, as long as your lot don’t come past it either from your side.’
Caroline glanced at the others. There was no disagreement. She nodded.
‘And you must stop taking our newhairs,’ Caroline said. ‘Stop asking them to come over to you, and send them back if . . .’