‘Remember you once asked me about my dad and I didn’t want to talk about him? Well, my dad was a drunk. “You are nothing but an animal,” my mother would sneer as he walked through the door, and it would all kick off. He would hit my mother and my brother, but never me. He loved me. Sometimes when he was very drunk he would fall on the couch and lift one arm so I could climb in and the arm would come back down. It was warm and nice in there.
‘But one day after a particularly furious bust-up my mother packed a suitcase and we left home while he was still asleep. They temporarily housed us in a bed and breakfast on Cromwell Street. It’s gone now. They pulled it down and built something else, but then it was full of other broken people like us; prostitutes, asylum seekers, single mothers and their children.
‘We were having breakfast when my father walked through the door. He was swaying. His eyes were large, glassy and haunted, a drunk’s eyes. “I’ve come for Julie,” he said. My mother did a strange thing. She looked at me with cold, strange eyes and tight lips.
“Let her choose. Do you want to stay with me or go with your father?” I looked at her. At how cold her eyes were and I said, “Stay with mummy.” My father turned around, stumbled and walked away. I think I regretted my decision before he was out of the door, but I didn’t do anything about it. I never saw him again, until I was fifteen and we heard he died in a ditch. I’ve never forgiven myself for that decision. I should have gone with him. He needed me. She didn’t. She had my brother. She would have gone on just fine without me.’
‘It’s not your fault, Sugar. He was a grown man.’
‘And one more thing. Don’t think you’ll have changed my life by giving me that painting or that you can wash your hands of me that easily, because I’ll never sell that painting. It will be with me till the day I die. If you really want to change my life I suggest you take me with you wherever you go.’
‘Will you come with me to Paris?’
I am so shocked my mouth falls open. ‘Say that again,’ I whisper.
‘Come with me to Paris.’
‘Really?’
He smiles.
‘So you do care for me.’
He puts out a hand, pulls me towards his hard body, and starts kissing my neck. ‘Care?’ he murmurs. ‘How blind can you be? I’m crazy about you, Sugar. I have been since that first night. It was a knife in my heart to know that all the time you were with me you wished you were with him.’
‘My poor darling. I’m sorry I was so cruel. Sometimes I would feel it, those invisible strings pulling me towards you, but I was so insanely obstinate, I’d break them by mentioning Jack. The truth is I was only reminding myself because I had forgotten him.’
‘I even started to hate the guy.’
‘Will you ever forgive me?’
‘There is nothing to forgive. I love you.’
It feels as if my heart is going to burst out of my chest. His lips trail delicious kisses along my neck. ‘I can be a bit slow on the uptake. So,’ I pull my neck away from him and look into his eyes. ‘I want to know everything. Tell me what you felt from the first moment we met.’
‘When I saw you for the first time in the church, I could hardly believe my eyes. I had spent years travelling the world looking for something that would fire my blood and bring my canvas to life, and there you were totally unaware of your beauty. I had already decided to ask you to dance when I got an even better opportunity thrown in my path.
‘It was like fate saying, ‘here have this.’ But when I came to find you to say goodbye, I heard you refer to me as the son of a servant, and I thought, maybe I had been wrong. I certainly never expected you to turn up, so when I heard your voice on my intercom it shocked me. I thought to myself, play this cool Vann. And I did until I gave you a forkful of my mash and saw the way you ate it, I knew then you were starving, for food, for attention, for love. From that moment on there was no more resisting you. That night I was not teaching you how to be Yehonala. I was Yehonala and you were the Emperor. I had one night with which to impress and captivate you.’
‘You sure did that. I was astonished. The things you made me feel. You made sex beautiful.’
He chuckles. ‘The beautiful way you owned that pole last night?’
I am suddenly shy. ‘That was a bit brazen, wasn’t it?’
‘Totally.’ He grins. ‘I’ll be wanting a repeat performance tonight, by the way.’
‘You have to deserve it,’ I say with mock severity.
‘Let me see. How about my agent told me last night that I’ve got a Getty Center commission for a series of paintings in the same vein?’
‘Oh! Wow! I’m so proud of you.’
‘I couldn’t have done it without you, Sugar.’
‘Vann?’
‘Mnnnnn.’
‘Who is Monfort?’
He sighs heavily.
‘You are afraid of him, aren’t you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
‘Only a fool with nothing to lose would not fear them. They know no boundaries.’
‘Why is Blake not scared of him then?’
‘Because Blake is one of them. In the strict hierarchy of the brotherhood Blake is far more powerful than Monfort, but because Blake is moving away from the agenda he is open to challenges. His love for Lana also means that he has become vulnerable. It is how they get everybody—find a weak spot, exploit it. But Blake walked away the winner last night.’
‘But you told Lana, it is her love for him that is saving him.’
‘With or without Blake the agenda will be implemented, but because of Lana and his love for her, he has discovered the humanity that he lost to the brotherhood.’
‘What is the agenda?’
‘Why do you want to know?’
‘It has to do with the deliberate poisoning of the earth and the extinction of mankind, hasn’t it?’
For an instant he looks surprised. ‘Lana’s diary?’ he hazards.
I nod. ‘Why? Don’t they, their children and their grandchildren have to live on this earth too?’
‘The answer is staring you in the face. They always hide everything in plain sight. Think. What is the one movement that is more inexorable and unstoppable than anything else? It pervades the entertainment industry, politics, military ‘breakthroughs’ and scientific circles. No matter who you are or where you are you will be exposed to it. You see it in commercials, music videos, movies, and hear about it being discussed at the highest levels.’
I frown. ‘I don’t know.’
‘You watch music videos all the time, don’t you?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Lady Gaga, Will I Am, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Rihanna… What do all their slick videos have in common? What do they glamorize?’
In my old life I would have said, awesome designer clothes, catchy tunes, fantastic dance moves, and brilliant choreography. The new Sugar knows: it is not those things.
I shake my head.
‘Don’t give up so easily, Sugar. This is a little test to see how successful the controllers have been.’
The clue must lie in the names he has given me. I try to think with the destruction of the planet in mind. Lady Gaga coming out of an egg, Beyonce wearing riot police gear, Will I Am with his robot themed videos and Rhianna flashing the one eye symbol—come to think of it all of them flash that.
‘The coming police state and robots?’
‘Bravo to the brotherhood.’ There is no joy in his face. ‘The coming superhuman is disguised as a courageous and exciting project, but its true implications are vast and horrifying. Just like splitting the atom can go both ways. There is no desire or quest to ‘evolve’ all humankind. If there was then the one percent of the population wouldn’t own more than half of the world’s wealth.