There. A sort of gangly powered glider. At first I think it’s big and far, but then I see it’s small and near. It’s following Seefin and Peakeen Ridges, aiming towards the Atlantic.
“A drone,” says Declan, his voice strained.
“Magno,” says Rafiq, enraptured: “A real live UAV.”
“I’m seventy-four,” I remind him, sounding grumpy.
“Unmanned aerial vehicle,” the boy answers. “Like a big remotecontrol plane, with cameras attached. Sometimes they have missiles, but that one’s too dinky, like. Stability has a few.”
I ask, “What’s it doing here?”
“If I’m not wrong,” says Declan, “it’s spying.”
Lorelei asks, “Why’d anyone bother spying on us?”
Declan sounds worried: “Aye, that’s the question.”
“ ‘I AM the daughter of Earth and Water,’ ” recites Lorelei, as we pass the old rusting electrical substation,
“And the nursling of the Sky;
I pass through the pores of the oceans and shores;
I change, but I cannot die.”
I wonder about Mr. Murnane’s choice of “The Cloud.” Lorelei and Rafiq aren’t unique: Many kids at Kilcrannog have had at least one parent die as the Endarkenment has set in. “Oh, I can’t believe I’ve forgotten this bit again, Gran.”
“For after the rain …”
“Got it, got it.
“For after the rain when with never a stain,
The pavilion of Heaven is bare,
And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams—”
“Um …
“Build up the blue dome of air …”
Unthinkingly, I’ve looked up at the sky. My imagination can still project a tiny glinting plane onto the blue. Not an overgrown toy like the drone — though that was remarkable enough — but a jet airliner, its vapor trail going from sharp white line to straggly cotton wool. When did I last see one? Two years ago, I’d say. I remember Rafiq running in with this wild look on his face and I thought something was wrong, but he dragged me outside, pointing up: “Look, look!”
Up ahead, a rat runs into the road, stops, and watches us.
“What’s a ‘convex’?” asks Rafiq, picking up a stone.
“Bulging out,” says Lorelei. “ ‘Concave’ is bulging in, like a cave.”
“So has Declan got a convex tummy?”
“Not as convex as it was, but let Lol get back to Mr. Shelley.”
“ ‘Mr.’?” Rafiq looks dubious. “Shelley’s a girl’s name.”
“That’s his surname,” says Lorelei. “He’s Percy Bysshe Shelley.”
“Percy? Bysshe? His mum and dad must’ve hated him. Bet he got crucified at school.” He throws his stone at the rat. It just misses and the rat runs into the hedgerow. Once I would’ve told Rafiq not to use living things for target practice but since the Ratflu scare, different rules have applied. “Go on, Lol,” I say. “The poem.”
“I think I’ve got the rest.
“I silently laugh at my own cenotaph,
And out of the caverns of rain,
Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb,
I arise and unbuild it again.”
“Perfect. Your dad had an amazing memory, too.”
Rafiq plucks a fuchsia flower and sucks its droplet of nectar. Sometimes I think I shouldn’t refer to Örvar in front of Rafiq, ’cause I never met his father. Rafiq doesn’t sound upset, though: “The womb’s where the baby is inside the mum, right, Holly?”
“Yes,” I tell the boy.
“And what’s a senno-thingy?”
“A cenotaph. A monument to a person who died, often in a war.”
“I didn’t get the poem either,” says Lorelei, “till Mo explained it. It’s about birth and rebirth and the water cycle. When it rains, the cloud’s used up, so it’s sort of died; and the winds and sunbeams build the dome of blue sky, which is the cloud’s cenotaph, right? But then the rain that was the old cloud runs to the sea where it evaporates and turns into a new cloud, which laughs at the blue dome — its own gravestone—’cause now it’s resurrected. Then it ‘unbuilds’ its gravestone by rising up into it. See?”
A gorse thicket scents the air vanilla and glints with birdsong.
“I’m glad we’re doing ‘Puff the Magic Dragon,’ ” says Rafiq.
AT THE SCHOOL gate Rafiq tells me, “Bye!” and scuttles off to join a bunch of boys pretending to be drones. I’m about to call out, “Mind your insulin pump!” but he knows we’ve only one more in store, and why embarass him in front of his friends?
Lorelei says, “See you later, then, Gran, take care at the market,” as if she’s the adult and I’m the breakable one, and goes over to join a cluster of half-girls, half-women by the school entrance.
Tom Murnane, the deputy principal, notices me and strides over. “Holly, I was after a word with you. Would you still be wanting Lorelei and Rafiq to sit out of the religion class? Father Brady, the new priest, is starting Bible study classes over in the church from this morning.”
“Not for my two, Tom, if it’s no bother.”
“That’s grand. There’s eight or nine in the same boat, so they’ll be doing a project on the solar system instead.”
“And will the earth be going round the sun or vice versa?”
Tom gets the joke. “No comment. How’s Mo feeling today?”
“Better, thank you, and I’m glad you mentioned it, my mem—” I stop myself saying, “My memory’s like a sieve,” because it’s not funny anymore. “Cahill O’Sullivan’s bringing her in on his horsetrap next Monday, so she can teach the science class, if it still suits.”
“If she’s up to it she’s welcome, but be sure and tell her not to bust a gut if her ankle needs more time to recuperate.” The school bell goes. “Must dash now.” He’s gone.
I turn around and find Martin Walsh, the mayor of Kilcrannog, waving goodbye to his daughter, Roisín. Martin’s a large pink man with close-cropped white hair, like Father Christmas gone into nightclub security. He always used to be clean-shaven, but disposable razors stopped appearing in the ration boxes eighteen months ago and now most men on the peninsula are sporting beards of one sort or another. “Holly, how are ye this morning?”
“Can’t complain, Martin, but Hinkley Point’s a worry.”
“Ach, stop — have ye heard from your brother in the week?”
“I keep trying to thread a call, but either I get a no-Net message, or the thread frays after a few seconds. So, no: I haven’t spoken with Brendan since a week ago, when the hazard alert went up to Low Red. He’s living in a gated enclave outside Bristol, but it’s not far from the latest exclusion zone and hired security’s no use against radiation. Still,” I resort to a mantra of the age, “what can’t be helped can’t be helped.” Pretty much everyone I know has a relative in danger, or at least semi-incommunicado, and fretting aloud has become bad etiquette. “Roisín was looking right as rain just now, I saw. It wasn’t mumps, after all?”
“No, no, just swollen glands, thanks be to God. Dr. Kumar even had some medicine. How’s our local cyberneurologist’s ankle?”
“On the mend. I caught her hanging out washing earlier.”
“Excellent. Be sure to tell her I was asking after her.”
“I will — and actually, Martin, I was hoping for a word.”
“Of course.” Martin leans in close, holding my elbow as if he, not I, is the slightly deaf one — as public officials do to frail old dears the week before election in a community of a mere three hundred voters.