The kitchen was especially difficult to navigate because so many of its elements would change their relationships to one another moment by moment. I now appreciated how in the store – surely out of consideration for us – Manager had carefully kept all the items, even smaller ones like the bracelets or the silver earrings box, in their correct places. Throughout Josie’s house, however, and in the kitchen in particular, Melania Housekeeper would constantly move items around, obliging me to start afresh in my learning. One morning, for instance, Melania Housekeeper altered the position of her food blender four times within as many minutes. But once I’d established the importance of the Island, things became much easier.
The Island was in the center of the kitchen, and perhaps to emphasize its fixed-down nature, had pale brown tiles that mimicked the bricks of a building. Sunk into its middle was a shiny basin, and there were three highstools along the longest edge where residents could sit. In those early days, when Josie was still quite strong, she often sat at the Island to do her tutorial work, or just to relax with her pencil and sketchpad. I found it hard at first to sit on the Island’s highstools because my feet couldn’t touch the floor, and if I tried to swing them, they would become obstructed by a rod that crossed the highstool frame. But then I copied Josie’s method of placing elbows firmly down on the Island’s surface, and from then on felt more secure – though there always remained the possibility that Melania Housekeeper would appear suddenly behind me, reach for the taps and make water come out with great force. The first time this happened, I was so startled I nearly lost balance, but Josie beside me barely moved, and I soon learned there was nothing to fear from a few specks of moisture.
The kitchen was an excellent room for the Sun to look into. There were large windows facing a wide sky and an outdoors almost permanently empty of traffic and passers-by. Standing at the large windows, it was possible to see the road rising over the hill past faraway trees. The kitchen often filled with the Sun’s best nourishment, and in addition to the large windows, there was a skylight on the high ceiling which could be revealed or concealed with a remote. I at first worried about the way Melania Housekeeper often made the blind come over the skylight just as the Sun was sending in his nourishment. But then I saw how easily Josie could grow too warm, and learned to use the remote myself if the Sun’s pattern over her became too intense.
I found strange for a while not only the lack of traffic and passers-by, but also the absence of other AFs. Of course, I hadn’t expected other AFs to be in the house, and I was in many ways pleased to be the only one, since I could focus my attention solely on Josie. But I realized how much I’d grown used to making observations and estimates in relation to those of other AFs around me, and here too was another adjustment I had to make. In those early days, at stray moments, I’d often look out at the highway going over the hill – or at the view across the fields from the bedroom rear window – and search with my gaze for the figure of a distant AF, before remembering how unlikely a prospect that was, so far away from the city and other buildings.
During my very first days in the house, I foolishly thought Melania Housekeeper might be a person rather like Manager, and this led to a few misunderstandings. For instance, I’d thought it might be her duty to introduce me to the various aspects of my new life, and understandably, Melania Housekeeper had found my frequent presence in her vicinity both puzzling and irritating. When at last she turned angrily around to me and shouted, ‘Quit follow me AF get lost!’ I was surprised, but soon came to appreciate that her role in the house was quite unlike Manager’s, and that I’d been at fault.
Even allowing for such misunderstandings on my part, it remains hard not to believe Melania Housekeeper was opposed from the start to my presence. Although I behaved towards her with consistent politeness, and especially in the first days, tried to do small things to please her, she never returned my smiles, or spoke to me other than to issue an instruction or reprimand. Today, as I gather together these memories, it seems obvious that her hostility had to do with her larger fears concerning what might be happening around Josie. But at the time there was no easy way for me to account for her coldness. She seemed often to wish to shorten the time I spent with Josie – which of course ran counter to my duty – and, initially, she even attempted to prevent me coming into the kitchen for the Mother’s quick coffee and Josie’s breakfast. It was only after Josie insisted strongly – the Mother finally ruling in my favor – that I was permitted to be in the kitchen for these pivotal moments each morning. Even then, Melania Housekeeper tried to insist that I remain standing by the refrigerator while Josie and the Mother sat at the Island, and I was allowed to join them only after more protests from Josie.
The Mother’s quick coffee was, as I say, an important moment every morning, and it was one of my tasks to wake Josie up in good time for it. Often, despite my repeated efforts, Josie wouldn’t rise until the very last moment, and would then start shouting from inside her en suite bathroom, ‘Hurry up, Klara! We’ll be late!’ even though I was already outside on the landing, waiting anxiously.
We would find the Mother sitting at the Island, staring at her oblong as she drank her coffee, Melania Housekeeper hovering nearby ready to refill her cup. There was often not much time for Josie and the Mother to converse, but I soon learned how important it was, nonetheless, for Josie to be able to sit with the Mother during the quick coffee. Once, when her illness had disturbed much of her night, I allowed Josie to fall back asleep after I’d woken her, thinking it best she rest a little more. When she woke up, she shouted angry words at me, and for all her being weak, hurried to get downstairs in time. But as she was emerging from her en suite, we heard the Mother’s car down on the loose stones below, and we hurried to the front window in time to see her car moving away towards the hill. Josie didn’t shout at me again, but once we were down in the kitchen, she didn’t smile while she ate her breakfast. I understood then that if she failed to join the Mother for the quick coffee, there was the danger of loneliness creeping into her day, no matter what other events filled it.
Occasionally there were mornings when the Mother didn’t have to hurry; when though she was in her high-rank clothes, and her bag was against the refrigerator, she would drink her coffee slowly, even getting off the highstool and walking around with the cup and saucer in her hands. Sometimes she would stand before the large windows, the Sun’s morning pattern over her, and say something like:
‘You know, Josie, I get the impression you’ve given up on your color pencils. I love those black-and-whites you’re doing. But I do miss the color pictures.’
‘I decided, Mom, my color pictures were a major embarrassment.’
‘An embarrassment? Oh, come on!’
‘Mom. Me drawing in color is like you playing that cello. In fact, worse.’
When Josie said this, the Mother’s face broke into a smile. The Mother didn’t smile often, but when she did, her smile was surprisingly like Josie’s: her whole face seemed to overflow with kindness, and the same creases that usually created such a tense expression would refold into ones of humor and gentleness.
‘I have to admit. My cello-playing, even at its glorious best, sounded like Dracula’s grandmother. But your use of color is more like, well, a pond on a summer’s evening. Something like that. You do beautiful things with color, Josie. Things no one else even thought about.’
‘Mom. People’s children’s pictures always look that way to them. Something to do with the evolutionary process.’
‘You know what? I think this all has to do with when you took that very good flyer you made into that meeting that time. The meeting before last. And that Richards girl said something a little ironic. I’ve told you before, I know, but here it is again. That young lady was jealous of your talent. That’s why she said what she did.’
‘Okay. If you really mean that, Mom, I might even go back to the color. And maybe in return, you could take up your cello again.’
‘Oh no. That’s all behind me now. Unless someone’s desperate for a soundtrack for their homemade zombie picture.’
But there were other mornings when the Mother would remain unsmiling and tense, even if the quick coffee didn’t have to be hurried. If Josie was talking about her oblong tutors, doing her best to be humorous about them, the Mother would listen with a serious expression, then interrupt to say:
‘We could switch. If you don’t like the guy, we can always switch.’
‘No, Mom, please. I’m just talking, okay? In fact, this guy’s so much better than the last one. He’s funny too.’
‘That’s good.’ The Mother would nod, her face still serious. ‘The way you’re always willing to give people a decent chance. That’s a good trait.’
In those days, when Josie’s health was quite good, she still liked to eat her evening meal after the Mother had come in from her work. This meant we would often go up to Josie’s bedroom to wait for the Mother’s return – and to watch the Sun go to his resting place.
Just as Josie had promised, the bedroom rear window had a clear view across the fields all the way to the horizon, allowing us to watch the Sun sinking into the ground at the end of his day. Although Josie always talked about ‘the field’, it was in fact three fields adjoining one another, and anyone looking carefully could see the posts marking their boundaries. The grass was tall in all three fields, and when the wind blew, it would move as if invisible passers-by were hurrying through it.
The sky from the bedroom rear window was far larger than the gap of sky at the store – and capable of surprising variations. Sometimes it was the color of the lemons in the fruit bowl, then could turn to the gray of the slate chopping boards. When Josie wasn’t well, it could turn the color of her vomit or her pale feces, or even develop streaks of blood. Sometimes the sky would become divided into a series of squares, each one a different shade of purple to its neighbor.
There was a soft cream couch beside the bedroom rear window which I named in my mind ‘the Button Couch’. Although it faced inwards into the room, Josie and I liked to kneel on it, our arms against its cushioned back, and gaze out at the sky and the fields. Josie appreciated how much I enjoyed the last part of the Sun’s journey, and we tried to watch it from the Button Couch whenever possible. There was a time, when the Mother had come back earlier than usual, and she and Josie were talking on the highstools of the Island – and to give privacy, I’d gone to stand beside the refrigerator. The Mother that evening was in an energetic mood, speaking rapidly, recounting humorous things about the people in her office, pausing every now and then to laugh, sometimes in long bursts that made her almost lose breath. In the middle of this talk, when the Mother seemed about to break into more laughter, Josie interrupted to say:
‘Mom, that’s just great. But do you mind if Klara and I go up to my room for a minute? Klara just loves to watch the sunset and if we don’t go now we’ll miss it.’
When she said this I glanced round and saw the kitchen had become filled with the Sun’s evening light. The Mother was staring at Josie, and I thought she was about to become angry. But then her face softened into her kind smile, and she said: ‘Of course, honey. You go ahead. Go watch your sunset. Then we’ll get supper.’
Apart from the fields and the sky, there was something else we could see from the bedroom rear window that drew my curiosity: a dark box-like shape at the end of the furthest field. It didn’t move as the grass shifted around it, and when the Sun came so low it was almost touching the grass, the dark shape remained in front of his glow. It was on the evening Josie risked the Mother’s anger on my behalf that I pointed it out to her. When I did so, she raised herself higher on the Button Couch and moved her hands to her eyes to shade them.
‘Oh, you must mean Mr McBain’s barn.’
‘A barn?’
‘It’s maybe not really a barn because it’s open on two sides. More a shelter, I guess. Mr McBain keeps stuff in there. I went there once with Rick.’
‘I wonder why the Sun would go for his rest to a place like that.’
‘Yeah,’ Josie said. ‘You’d think the Sun would need a palace, minimum. Maybe Mr McBain’s done a big upgrade since I was last there.’
‘I wonder when it was Josie went there.’
‘Oh, a long time ago now. Rick and I were still quite little. Before I got sick.’
‘Was there anything unusual nearby? A gateway? Or perhaps steps going down into the earth?’
‘Uh uh. Nothing like that. Just the barn. And we were glad of it too because we were little and we’d got really tired walking all that way. Mind you, it was nowhere near sunset. If there’s an entrance to a palace, it might be hidden. Maybe the doors open just before the Sun gets there? I saw a movie like that once, where all these bad guys had their HQ inside a volcano, and what you thought was a lava lake on top slid open just before they came down in helicopters. Maybe the Sun’s palace works the same way. Anyway, me and Rick, we weren’t looking for it. We’d gone out there for the hell of it, then we got hot and wanted some shade. So we sat inside Mr McBain’s barn for a time then came back.’ She touched my arm gently. ‘Wish we’d seen more, but we didn’t.’
The Sun had become just a short line glowing through the grass.
‘There he goes,’ Josie said. ‘Hope he gets a good sleep.’
‘I wonder who this boy was. This Rick.’
‘Rick? Only my best friend.’
‘Oh, I see.’
‘Hey, Klara, did I just say something wrong?’
‘No. But…it’s now my duty to be Josie’s best friend.’
‘You’re my AF. That’s different. But Rick, well, we’re going to spend our lives together.’
The Sun was now barely a pink mark in the grass.
‘There’s nothing Rick won’t do for me,’ she said. ‘But he worries too much. Always worrying things will get in our way.’
‘What kind of things?’
‘Oh, you know. The whole love and romance stuff to figure out. And I guess there’s the other thing too.’
‘Other thing?’
‘But he’s worrying over nothing. Because with me and Rick it got decided a long time ago. It’s not going to change.’
‘Where is this Rick now? Does he live nearby?’
‘Lives next door. I’ll introduce you. Can’t wait for you two to meet!’
I met Rick the following week, on the day I first saw Josie’s house from the outside.
Josie and I had been having many friendly arguments about how one part of the house connected to another. She wouldn’t accept, for instance, that the vacuum cleaner closet was directly beneath the large bathroom. Then one morning, after another such friendly argument, Josie said:
‘Klara, you’re driving me crazy with this. As soon as I’m done with Professor Helm, I’m taking you outside. We’re going to check all this out from out there.’
I became excited at this prospect. But first Josie had her tutorial, and I watched her spread her papers over the surface of the Island and turn on her oblong.
To give privacy, I sat with an empty highstool separating us. I could soon tell the lesson wasn’t going smoothly: the tutor’s voice escaping from Josie’s headset seemed frequently to reprimand her, and she kept scribbling meaninglessly on her worksheets, sometimes pushing them dangerously close to the sink. At one point I noticed she’d become very distracted by something outside the large windows and was no longer listening to her professor. A little later, she said angrily to the screen, ‘Okay, I’ve done it. I really have. Why won’t you believe me? Yes, exactly the way you said!’
The lesson went on longer than usual, but at last came to an end with Josie saying quietly, ‘Okay, Professor Helm. Thank you. Yes. I’ll be sure to. Goodbye. Thank you for today’s lesson.’
She turned off the oblong with a sigh and removed her headset. Then seeing me, she immediately brightened.
‘I haven’t forgotten, Klara. We’re going outside, right? Just let me get my sanity back. That Professor Helm, wow, am I glad I don’t have to look at him any more! Lives somewhere hot, you can tell. I could see him perspiring.’ She got off the highstool and stretched out her arms. ‘Mom says we have to let Melania know any time we go outside. Will you go and tell her while I put a coat on?’
I could see Josie was also feeling excitement, though in her case I guessed it had to do with whatever she’d seen through the large windows during her lesson. In any case, I went to the Open Plan to find Melania Housekeeper.
The Open Plan was the largest room in the house. It had two sofas and several soft rectangles on which residents could sit; also cushions, lamps, plants and a corner desk. When I opened the sliding doors that day, its furniture was a series of interlocking grids, the figure of Melania Housekeeper almost indistinguishable amidst their complex pattern. But I was able to spot her, sitting upright on the edge of a soft rectangle, busily doing something on her oblong. She looked up at me with unfriendly eyes, but when I told her Josie wanted to go outside, she tossed aside her oblong and marched out past me.
I found Josie in the hall, putting on her brown padded jacket, a favorite of hers she sometimes also wore indoors when she was less well.
‘Hey, Klara. I can’t believe you’ve been in this house all this time and never been out.’
‘No, I’ve never been outside.’
Josie looked at me for a second, then said, ‘You mean you’ve never been outside? Not just outside here, but outside anywhere?’
‘That’s correct. I was in the store. Then I came here.’
‘Wow. Then this is going to be so great for you! There’s nothing to be afraid of, right? No wild animals or anything. So come on, let’s go.’
As Melania Housekeeper opened the front door, I felt new air – and the Sun’s nourishment – entering the hall. Josie smiled at me, her face full of kindness, but then Melania Housekeeper came between us, and before I was fully aware, had taken Josie’s arm, tucking it under her own. Josie too was surprised by this, but didn’t protest, and I appreciated that Melania Housekeeper had concluded I might not be able to protect Josie reliably while outdoors due to my unfamiliarity. So the two of them went out together, and I followed.
We walked onto the loose stones area, which I supposed had been kept deliberately rough for the car. The wind was mild and pleasant, and I wondered how it was the tall trees up on the hill were even then bending and waving under its push. But I soon had to concentrate on my feet, because the loose stones area contained many dips, perhaps created by the car’s wheels.
The view before me was familiar from the bedroom front window. I continued to follow Josie and Melania Housekeeper onto the road, which was smooth and hard like a floor, and we walked on it for some time, even when cut grass appeared to either side. I wished to look back at the house – to see it as a passer-by would, and to confirm my estimates – but Josie and Melania Housekeeper kept walking, their arms still linked, and I didn’t dare to pause.
After a while I no longer had to attend to my feet so carefully, and looked up to see a grass mound rising to our left – and the figure of a boy moving about near its summit. I estimated he was fifteen, though I couldn’t be sure since his figure was a silhouette against the pale sky. Josie moved towards the mound, and Melania Housekeeper said something I might have heard had we been indoors, but outside the sound behaved differently. In any case, I could see there was now a disagreement. I heard Josie say:
‘But I want Klara to meet him.’
There were further words I didn’t hear, then Melania Housekeeper said, ‘All right but only short,’ and freed Josie’s arm.
‘Come on, Klara,’ Josie said, turning to me. ‘Let’s go up and see Rick.’
As we climbed the side of the green mound, Josie’s breath became short and she clung tightly to me. This meant I was only able to look back briefly, but I became aware that behind us was not just Josie’s house, but a second house standing further back in the fields – a neighbor house that wasn’t visible from any of Josie’s windows. I was eager to study the appearance of both houses, but had to concentrate on ensuring Josie came to no harm. At the top of the hill, she stopped to recover her breath, but the boy didn’t greet us or even look our way. He had in his hands a circular device, and was looking at the sky between the two houses where a group of birds was flying in formation, and I quickly realized these were machine birds. He kept his gaze on them and when he touched his control, the birds responded by changing their pattern.
‘Wow, they’re beautiful,’ Josie said, though still short of breath. ‘Are they new?’
Rick kept his gaze fixed on the birds, but said:
‘Those two on the end are new. You can tell they don’t really match.’
The birds swooped till they were hovering directly above us.
‘Yeah, but real birds don’t all look the same either,’ Josie said.
‘I suppose. At least I’ve got the whole team taking the same commands now. Okay, Josie, watch this.’
The machine birds began to come down, landing one by one on the grass in front of us. But two remained in the air, and Rick, frowning, pressed his remote again.
‘God. Still not right.’
‘But they look great, Ricky.’
Josie was standing surprisingly close to Rick, not actually touching him, but with hands raised just behind his back and left shoulder.
‘What those two need is a complete recalibration.’
‘Don’t worry, you’ll get it right. Hey, Ricky, you’re remembering about Tuesday, right?’
‘I’m remembering it. But look, Josie, I didn’t say I was coming.’
‘Oh come on! You agreed!’
‘Like hell I agreed. Anyway, I don’t think your guests will be so pleased.’
‘I’m hosting, so I can invite who I like. And Mom will be great about it. Come on, Rick, we’ve been through this enough. If we’re serious about the plan, we need to do stuff like this together. You’ve got to be able to handle it just as well as me. And why should I have to face that crowd alone?’
‘You won’t be alone. You’ve got your AF now.’
The last two birds had come down. He touched his remote and they all went into sleep mode on the grass.
‘Oh God, I haven’t even introduced you! Rick, this is Klara.’
Rick went on concentrating on his remote and didn’t look my way. ‘You said you’d never get an AF,’ he said.
‘That was a while ago.’
‘You said you’d never get one.’
‘Well, I changed my mind, okay? Anyway, Klara’s not any AF. Hey, Klara, say something to Rick.’
‘You said you’d never get one.’
‘Come on, Rick! We don’t do everything we said when we were small. Why shouldn’t I have an AF?’
She had by now both hands on Rick’s left shoulder, resting her weight there as if trying to make him less tall and the two of them the same height. But Rick seemed not to mind her nearness – in fact he seemed to think it normal – and the idea occurred to me that perhaps, in his own way, this boy was as important to Josie as was the Mother; and that his aims and mine might in some ways be almost parallel, and that I should observe him carefully to understand how he belonged within the pattern of Josie’s life.
‘It’s very nice to meet Rick,’ I said. ‘I wonder if he lives in that neighbor house. It’s strange, but I hadn’t noticed such a house before.’
‘Yeah,’ he said, still not looking directly at me. ‘That’s where I live. My mum and me.’
We then all turned to the view of the houses, and for the first time, I was really able to look at the exterior of Josie’s house. It was slightly smaller, and its roof’s edges a little sharper, but otherwise much as I’d estimated from the inside. The walls had been constructed from carefully overlapping boards which had all been painted a near-white. The house itself was three separate boxes that connected into a single complex shape. Rick’s house was smaller, and not just because it was further away. It too had been built from wooden planks, but its structure was more simple – a single box, taller than it was wide, standing in the grass.
‘I think Rick and Josie must have grown up side by side,’ I said to Rick. ‘Just like your houses.’
He shrugged. ‘Yeah. Side by side.’
‘I think Rick’s accent is English.’
‘Just a little perhaps.’
‘I’m happy Josie has such a good friend. I hope my presence will never come in the way of such a good friendship.’
‘Hope not. But a lot of things come in the way of friendships.’
‘Okay enough now!’ Melania Housekeeper’s voice shouted from the foot of the mound.
‘Coming!’ Josie yelled back. Then she said to Rick: ‘Look, Ricky, I’m not going to enjoy this meeting any more than you. I need you there. You have to come.’
Rick was concentrating again on his remote, and the birds rose together into the air. Josie watched them, both her hands still on his shoulder, so that the two of them formed a single shape against the sky.
‘Okay hurry up!’ Melania Housekeeper shouted. ‘Wind too strong! You want die up there or what?’
‘Okay, coming!’ Then Josie said quietly to Rick: ‘Tuesday lunchtime, okay?’
‘Okay.’
‘Good boy, Ricky. You’ve promised now. And Klara’s a witness.’
Taking her hands from his shoulder, she stepped away. Then grasping my arm, she began to lead us down off the mound.
We descended a different slope from the one we’d climbed, which I saw would bring us down just in front of Josie’s house. Its gradient was steeper, and down below, Melania Housekeeper began to protest, then giving up, hurried around the mound to meet us. As we came down through the cut grass, I glanced back and saw Rick’s figure, once more a silhouette against the sky. He wasn’t looking our way, but up at his birds hovering in the grayness.
After we returned to the house, and Josie had put away her padded jacket, Melania Housekeeper made her a yogurt drink, and the two of us sat together at the Island while she sipped it through a straw.
‘Can’t believe that’s the first time you’ve been outside,’ she said. ‘So what did you think?’
‘I liked it very much. The wind, the acoustics, everything was so interesting.’ Then I added: ‘And of course it was wonderful to meet Rick.’
Josie was pinching her straw close to where it emerged from her drink.
‘I guess he didn’t make such a great impression. He gets awkward sometimes. But he’s a special person. When I get sick and I try to think of good things, I think about all the stuff we’re going to do together. He’s definitely coming to that meeting.’
That evening, as they often did during their supper, they turned down all the lights except those falling directly on the Island itself. I was present, as Josie liked me to be, but wishing to give privacy, stood in the shadows, my face turned to the refrigerator. For several minutes I listened to Josie and the Mother making light-hearted remarks as they ate. Then, still maintaining her light manner, Josie asked:
‘Mom, if my grades are so good, do I really have to host this interaction meeting?’
‘Sure you do, honey. It’s not enough just being clever. You have to get along with others.’
‘I know how to get along with others, Mom. Just not with this crowd.’
‘This crowd happens to be your peer group. And when you get to college, you’ll have to deal with all kinds. By the time I got to college, I’d had years of being alongside other kids each and every day. But for you and your generation, it’s going to be pretty tough unless you put in some work now. The kids who don’t do well in college are always the ones who didn’t attend enough meetings.’
‘College is a long way off, Mom.’
‘Not so long as you think.’ Then the Mother said more gently, ‘Come on, honey. You can introduce Klara to your friends. They’d be excited to meet her.’
‘They’re not my friends, Mom. And if I have to host this meeting, I want Rick there.’
For a moment there was silence behind me. Then the Mother said: ‘Okay. We can certainly do that.’
‘But you think it’s a bad idea, right?’
‘No. Not at all. Rick is a very good person. And he’s our neighbor.’
‘So he’s coming, right?’
‘Only if he wants to come. It has to be his choice.’
‘So you think the other kids will be rude to him?’
There was another wait before the Mother said: ‘I don’t see why they would be. If someone does behave inappropriately, that’ll only show how far behind they are.’
‘So no reason Rick can’t come.’
‘The only reason, Josie, is if he doesn’t want to.’
Later on in the bedroom, when it was just the two of us, and Josie was lying in bed ready to go to sleep, she said quietly:
‘I hope Rick does come to this awful party.’
Despite the lateness, I was pleased she’d brought up the interaction meeting, because I was uncertain about many aspects of it.
‘Yes, I hope so too,’ I said. ‘Will the other young people bring their AFs?’
‘Uh uh. Not the done thing. But the AF who lives in the house usually attends. Especially if they’re new like you. They’ll all want to inspect you.’
‘So Josie would wish me to be present.’
‘Sure I want you to be present. It might not be so great for you though. These meetings stink and that’s the truth.’
On the morning of the interaction meeting, Josie was filled with anxiety. She returned to the bedroom after breakfast to try on different clothes, and even when we could hear her guests arriving, and Melania Housekeeper had called up a third time, she continued brushing her hair. Finally, with many voices audible downstairs, I said to her, ‘Perhaps it’s time for us to join Josie’s guests.’
Only then did she drop the hairbrush onto the dressing table and rise to her feet. ‘You’re right. Time to face the music.’
Coming down the staircase, I saw the hall was filled with strangers talking in humorous voices. These were the accompanying adults – all of them female. Younger voices were coming from the Open Plan but the sliding doors had been pulled together, so Josie’s guests weren’t yet visible to us.
Josie, on the stairs in front of me, stopped with four steps to go. She might even have turned back if one of the adults hadn’t called out, ‘Hi, Josie! How you doing?’
Josie raised a hand, and then the Mother, moving through the adults in the hall, gestured towards the Open Plan. ‘Go on in,’ she called. ‘Your friends are waiting for you.’
I thought the Mother was about to say something further to reinforce this, but other adults had gathered around her, talking and smiling, and she was obliged to turn away from us. Josie did seem to find new courage then, and she went down the remaining steps into the crowd. I followed, expecting her to go towards the Open Plan, but instead she went through the adults towards the front door, which was open and bringing in fresh air. Josie kept moving as though she had a clear purpose, and a passer-by might have thought she was engaged on some important errand on behalf of her guests. In any case, no one impeded her, and as I followed, I heard many voices around me. Someone was saying, ‘Professor Kwan may be wonderful at teaching our children mathematical physics. That doesn’t give him the right to be uncivil to us,’ and another voice said, ‘Europe. The best housekeepers still come from Europe.’ More voices greeted Josie as she passed, and then we were at the front door, touched by the outside air.
Josie looked out, her foot on the threshold, and shouted into the outdoors: ‘Come on! What are you doing?’ Then she grasped the doorframe and leaned out at an angle. ‘Hurry up! Everyone’s already here!’
Rick appeared in the doorway, and Josie, taking his arm, drew him into the hall.
He was dressed as he’d been on the grass mound, in normal jeans and sweater, but the adults seemed immediately to notice him. Their voices didn’t actually stop, but the volume fell. Then the Mother came through the crowd.
‘Rick, hello! Welcome! Come on in.’ She placed a hand behind him, ushering him towards the guest adults. ‘Everyone, this is Rick. Our good friend and neighbor. Some of you already know him.’
‘How are you, Rick?’ a woman nearby said. ‘Great you could make it.’
Then the adults began to greet Rick all at once, calling out kind things, but I noticed a strange caution in their voices. The Mother, speaking above them, asked:
‘So Rick. Is your mother keeping well? It’s been a while since she came over.’
‘She’s fine, thank you, Mrs Arthur.’
As Rick spoke, the room became quiet. A tall woman behind me asked: ‘Did I hear you lived nearby, Rick?’
Rick’s gaze moved across the faces to locate the speaker’s.
‘Yes, ma’am. In fact, ours is the only house you can see if you step outside.’ Then he did a small laugh and added: ‘Aside from this one, I mean.’
Everyone laughed loudly at his addition, and Josie, beside him, smiled nervously as if she’d made the remark herself. Another voice said:
‘A lot of clean air out here. Good place to grow up, I bet.’
‘It’s just fine, thank you,’ Rick said. ‘That is until you need a fast pizza delivery.’
Everyone laughed even more loudly, and this time Josie joined in, beaming happily.
‘Go ahead, Josie,’ the Mother said. ‘Take Rick in. You should be hosting all your other guests too. Go on in now.’
The adults stood back, and Josie, still holding Rick’s arm, led him towards the Open Plan. Neither of them looked at me, so I was unsure if I should follow. And then they were gone, the adults once more filling the hall, and I was left standing near the front door. A new voice nearby said:
‘Nice boy. Lives next door did he say? I couldn’t hear.’
‘Rick’s a neighbor, yes,’ the Mother said. ‘He’s been friends with Josie forever.’
‘That’s wonderful.’
Then a large woman whose shape resembled the food blending machine said: ‘Seems so bright too. Such a shame a boy like that should have missed out.’
‘I wouldn’t even have known,’ another voice said. ‘He presents himself so well. Is that a British accent he has?’
‘What’s important,’ the food blending woman said, ‘is that this next generation learn how to be comfortable with every sort of person. That’s what Peter always says.’ Then as other voices murmured in agreement, she asked the Mother: ‘Did his folks just…decide not to go ahead? Lose their nerve?’
The Mother’s kind smile vanished and everyone who’d heard seemed to stop talking. The food blending woman herself froze in horror. Then she reached out a hand towards the Mother.
‘Oh, Chrissie. What did I say? I didn’t mean…’
‘It’s okay,’ the Mother said. ‘Please forget it.’
‘Oh, Chrissie, I’m so sorry. I’m so stupid sometimes. I only meant…’
‘It’s our worst fear,’ a firmer voice nearby said. ‘Every one of us here.’
‘It’s okay,’ the Mother said. ‘Let’s leave it.’
‘Chrissie,’ the food blending woman said, ‘I only meant a nice boy like that…’
‘Some of us were lucky, some of us weren’t.’ A black-skinned woman, saying this, stepped forward and touched the Mother’s shoulder kindly.
‘But Josie’s fine now, isn’t she?’ another voice asked. ‘She looks so much better.’
‘She has good days and bad,’ the Mother said.
‘She’s looking so much better.’
The food blending woman said: ‘She’s going to be just fine, I know it. You were so courageous, after all you’d been through. Josie will be really grateful to you one day.’
‘Pam, come on.’ The black-skinned woman reached forward and began to lead the food blending woman away. But the Mother, looking at the food blending woman, said quietly:
‘Do you suppose Sal would want to thank me?’
At this, the food blending woman burst into tears. ‘Look, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m so stupid, I just open my mouth and…’ She sobbed, then continued loudly: ‘And now you all know it, know for certain I’m the world’s greatest fool! It was just that nice boy, it seems so unfair…Chrissie, I’m so sorry.’
‘Look, really, please forget it.’ The Mother, now making more effort, reached forward and held the food blending woman in a light hug. The food blending woman immediately returned the hug, and went on crying, her chin on the Mother’s shoulder.
There was an awkward quiet, then the black-skinned woman said in a cheerful voice: ‘Well, they seem to be managing okay in there. No sounds yet of an all-out brawl.’
Everyone laughed loudly, and then the Mother said in a new voice:
‘Hey, what are we doing still out here? Let’s go in the kitchen, please, everyone. Melania’s been preparing more of those wonderful pastries from her homeland.’
A voice said in a pretend whisper: ‘I believe we’re still out here…so we can eavesdrop!’
This brought another big laugh, and the Mother was smiling once more.
‘If they need us,’ she said, ‘we’ll hear about it. Please, go on through.’
As the adults started to move into the kitchen, I could hear more clearly the voices from the Open Plan, but couldn’t make out any words. An adult passed near me saying: ‘Our Jenny got quite upset after that last meeting. We spent the whole weekend explaining to her how she’d misinterpreted everything.’
‘Klara. You’re still here.’
The Mother was standing before me.
‘Yes.’
‘Why aren’t you in there? With Josie?’
‘But…she didn’t take me in.’
‘Go on. She needs you with her. And the other kids want to meet you.’
‘Yes, of course. Then excuse me.’
The Sun, noticing there were so many children in the one place, was pouring in his nourishment through the wide windows of the Open Plan. Its network of sofas, soft rectangles, low tables, plant pots, photograph books, had taken me a long time to master, yet now it had been so transformed it might have been a new room. There were young people everywhere and their bags, jackets, oblongs were all over the floor and surfaces. What was more, the room’s space had become divided into twenty-four boxes – arranged in two tiers – all the way to the rear wall. Because of this partitioning, it was hard to gain an overall view of what was before me, but I gradually made sense of things. Josie was near the middle of the room talking with three guest girls. Their heads were almost touching, and because of how they were standing, the upper parts of their faces, including all their eyes, had been placed in a box on the higher tier, while all their mouths and chins had been squeezed into a lower box. The majority of the children were on their feet, some moving between boxes. Over at the rear wall, three boys were seated on the modular sofa, and even though they were sitting apart, their heads had been placed together inside a single box, while the outstretched leg of the boy nearest the window extended not only across the neighboring box, but right into the one beyond. There was an unpleasant tint on the three boxes containing the boys on the sofa – a sickly yellow – and an anxiety passed through my mind. Then other people moved across my view of them, and I began to attend instead to the voices around me.
Although someone had said as I’d come in, ‘Oh, here’s the new AF, she’s cute!’ almost all the voices I now heard were discussing Rick. Josie must only recently have been standing beside him, but her conversation with the guest girls had caused her to turn her back to him, and he was now by himself, not conversing with anyone.
‘He’s a friend of Josie. Lives nearby,’ a girl was saying behind me.
‘We should be nice to him,’ another girl said. ‘It must be weird for him, being here with us.’
‘Why’d Josie ask him? He must feel so weird.’
‘How about we offer him something. Make him feel welcome.’
The girl – who was thin and had unusually long arms – picked up a metal dish filled with chocolates and went towards Rick. I also moved further into the room, and heard her say to him:
‘Excuse me. Would you care for a bonbon?’
Rick had been watching Josie talking to the three guest girls, but now turned to the long-armed girl.
‘Go ahead,’ she said, raising the dish higher. ‘They’re good.’
‘Thank you very much.’ He looked into the dish and chose a chocolate wrapped in shiny green paper.
Though the voices continued all around the room, I realized that suddenly everyone – including Josie and her guest girls – was now watching Rick.
‘We’re all so pleased you came,’ the long-armed girl said. ‘Josie’s neighbor, right?’
‘That’s right. I live next door.’
‘Next door? That’s a good one! Only your house and this one, that’s all there is for miles!’
The three girls Josie had been talking to now joined the long-armed girl, all the time smiling at Rick. Josie herself though remained where she was, her eyes watching anxiously.
‘I suppose so.’ Rick laughed quickly. ‘But that still makes me next door.’
‘Sure does! Bet you like being out here. Must be peaceful.’
‘Peaceful is correct. It’s all quite perfect until you want to go to the movies.’
I knew Rick hoped everyone listening would laugh as the adults had done about the pizza deliveries. But the four girls just continued to look at him in a kindly way.
‘So you don’t watch movies on your DS?’ one of them asked eventually.
‘I do sometimes. But I like going to a real movie theater. Big screen, ice cream. My mother and I enjoy that. Trouble is it’s such a long way to go.’
‘We have a movie theater end of our block,’ the long-armed girl said. ‘But we rarely go.’
‘Hey! He likes movies!’
‘Missy, please? Sorry, you have to excuse my sister. So you enjoy movies. Help you relax, right?’
‘I bet you like action movies,’ said the girl called Missy.
Rick looked at her. Then he smiled and said: ‘Those can be fun. But Mum and I like the old movies. Everything was so different then. If you watch those movies, you can see the way restaurants were once. The clothes people wore.’
‘But you must like action, right?’ said the long-armed girl. ‘Car chases and stuff.’
‘Hey,’ another girl said behind me. ‘He’s saying he goes to the movies with his mom. That’s kinda cute.’
‘Doesn’t your mom like you to go with your friends?’
‘It’s not like that exactly. It’s just…it’s something my mother and I like to do.’
‘Did you go and see Gold Standard?’
‘No way his mom would like that!’
Josie now stepped forward in front of Rick.
‘Come on, Rick.’ Her voice had anger in it. ‘Tell them what you like to watch. That’s all they’re asking. What do you like to watch?’
Several more guests had by now gathered around Rick, partially blocking my view of him. But I could see at this moment something change within him.
‘You know what?’ He spoke not to Josie, but to all the others. ‘I like movies in which horrible things happen. Insects coming out of people’s mouths, things of that nature.’
‘Really?’
‘May I just ask,’ Rick said, ‘why all this curiosity about what kind of movies I like?’
‘It’s called conversation,’ said the long-armed girl.
‘Why doesn’t he eat his chocolate?’ Missy said. ‘He’s just holding it.’
Rick turned to her, then held out the chocolate still in its wrapping. ‘Here. Perhaps you’d care for it yourself.’
Missy laughed but backed away.
‘Look,’ said the long-armed girl. ‘This is like a friendly encounter, okay?’
Rick glanced quickly at Josie, who was staring at him, her eyes filling with anger. The next second he’d turned again to the guest girls.
‘Friendly. Of course. I wonder if it would please you all to hear I like bug movies.’
‘Bug movies?’ someone else said. ‘Is that like a genre?’
‘Don’t taunt him,’ said the long-armed girl. ‘Be nice. He’s doing okay.’
A voice said: ‘Yeah, he’s doing okay,’ and several people giggled. As Rick turned quickly towards them, Josie reached forward and took the chocolate from him.
‘Hey, everyone,’ Josie called out. ‘I want you all to meet Klara. This here’s Klara!’
She was signaling to me to come closer, and as I did so all the eyes turned my way. Rick too looked at me, but only for a second, then he walked off into a small clearing beside the corner desk. No one seemed to pay him further attention because they were now looking at me. Even the long-armed girl had lost interest in Rick and was staring at me.
‘Now that’s a smart-looking AF,’ she said. She leaned towards Josie in a confidential manner, and I thought she was going to say something further about me, but what she said was:
‘See Danny over there? First thing he comes in, he announces how he got detained by the police. No greeting, nothing. When we told him he had to greet correctly first, he still doesn’t get it. Just keeps boasting about him and the police.’
‘Wow.’ Josie looked to the boys on the modular sofa. ‘So he thinks it’s smart to be a criminal?’
The long-armed girl laughed, and Josie became part of a shape the five girls made together.
‘Then his brother over there gives it away. Too much beer, that’s all it was.’
‘Shush. He knows we’re talking about him,’ someone said.
‘So much the better. The cops found him passed out on a bench and took him home. And he’s telling us like he was arrested or something.’
‘No greeting, nothing.’
‘Hey, I didn’t hear you give Josie a greeting just now, Missy. So you’re just as bad as Danny.’
‘I did. I said hello to Josie.’
‘Josie? Did you hear my sister greet you when you came in?’
Missy became visibly upset. ‘I did say hello. It’s just that Josie didn’t hear me.’
‘Hey, Josie!’ The boy called Danny – the one on the sofa with his leg extended over the cushions – was calling from the rear of the room. ‘Hey, Josie, that your new AF? Tell her to come over here.’
‘Go on, Klara,’ Josie said. ‘Go say hello to those boys.’
I didn’t move at once, partly because I’d been surprised by Josie’s voice. It was like the one she sometimes used when talking to Melania Housekeeper, but not like any voice she’d used before to me.
‘What’s up with her?’ Danny got up off the sofa. ‘Doesn’t she take commands?’
Josie was giving me a stern look, so I began to make my way towards the boys on the sofa. But Danny, who was taller than anyone else in the room, came swiftly through the other guests and, before I was even halfway to the sofa, grasped me by both elbows, so I could no longer move freely. He looked me up and down, then said:
‘So. Settling in?’
‘Yes. Thank you.’
One of the other boys from the sofa at the rear shouted: ‘Hey! She speaks! Rejoice!’
‘Shut up, Scrub,’ Danny shouted back. Then he asked me: ‘So what do they call you again?’
‘Her name’s Klara,’ Josie said from behind me. ‘Danny, let go of her. She doesn’t like being held that way.’
‘Hey, Danny,’ Scrub shouted again. ‘Throw her over here.’
‘You want to see her,’ Danny said, ‘get up off that sofa and come over here.’
‘Just throw her over. Let’s test her coordination.’
‘She ain’t your AF, Scrub.’ Danny’s hands were still tight around my elbows. ‘You need to ask Josie about something like that.’
‘Hey, Josie,’ Scrub called. ‘It’s okay, right? My B3, you can swing her right through the air, lands on her feet every time. Come on, Danny. Throw her over onto the sofa. She won’t get damaged.’
‘So uncouth,’ the long-armed girl said quietly, and several girls, Josie included, giggled.
‘My B3,’ Scrub continued, ‘she’ll somersault and land clean on her feet. Back straight, perfect. So let’s see what this one can do.’
‘You’re not a B3, right?’ Danny asked.
I didn’t reply, but Josie behind me said: ‘No, but she’s the best.’
‘Yeah? So can she do what Scrub says?’
‘I have a B3 now,’ a girl’s voice said. ‘You’ll see him next meeting.’
Then another voice asked: ‘Why didn’t you get a B3, Josie?’
‘Because…I liked this one.’ Josie said this uncertainly, but then the strength returned to her voice. ‘There’s nothing any B3 can do Klara can’t.’
There was movement behind me, and then the long-armed girl was standing beside Danny. He seemed to feel both excitement and fear to be near her, and let go of my elbows. But now the long-armed girl gripped my left wrist, though not nearly as roughly as Danny had been holding me.
‘Hello, Klara,’ she said, and looked me over carefully again. ‘Now. Let’s see. Klara, will you please sing for me the harmonic minor scale?’
I wasn’t sure how Josie wished me to respond so I waited for her to speak. But she remained silent.
‘Oh? You don’t sing?’
‘Come on,’ the boy called Scrub called out. ‘Throw her over. If she can’t coordinate, I’ll just catch her.’
‘Not saying much.’ The long-armed girl came closer and stared at my eyes. ‘Maybe she’s low on solar.’
‘There’s nothing wrong with her.’ Josie said this so quietly, it was possible I was the only one to hear.
‘Klara,’ the long-armed girl said. ‘Give me a greeting.’
I remained silent, waiting for Josie to speak again.
‘No? Nothing?’
‘Hey, Josie,’ a voice said behind me. ‘You could have got a B3, right? So why didn’t you?’
Josie laughed and said: ‘Now I’m starting to think I should have.’
This brought other laughs, then a new voice said: ‘B3s are so amazing.’
‘Come on, Klara,’ the long-armed girl said. ‘A little greeting at least.’
I’d by now fixed a pleasant expression on my face and was gazing past her, much as Manager had trained us to do in the store in such situations.
‘An AF who refuses to greet. Josie, will you tell Klara to say something to us?’
‘Throw her over here. That’ll bring her to life.’
‘Klara’s got a great memory,’ Josie said behind me. ‘As good as any AF anywhere.’
‘Oh really?’ said the long-armed girl.
‘And not just her memory. She notices things no one else does and stores them away.’
‘Okay.’ The long-armed girl kept holding my wrist. ‘Okay, Klara. Here’s what to do. Without turning to look. Tell me what my sister’s wearing.’
I continued to stare beyond the long-armed girl at the bricks on the wall.
‘Seems to have frozen. But she’s cute, I’ll give you that.’
‘Ask her again,’ Josie said. ‘Go on, Marsha. Ask again.’
‘Okay. Now, Klara, I know you can do it. Tell me what Missy’s wearing.’
‘I’m sorry,’ I said, still looking past her.
‘You’re sorry?’ Then the long-armed girl said to the room, ‘What’s that mean?’ and people laughed. Then she glared at me and asked: ‘What do you mean, Klara? What do you mean, you’re sorry?’
‘I’m sorry I’m unable to help.’
‘She’s not going to help.’ The long-armed girl’s look softened and at last she released my wrist. ‘Okay, Klara. You can turn and look. Take a look at what Missy’s wearing.’
Though it might look impolite, I didn’t turn. Because if I did so, I’d not only see Missy – I knew of course what she was wearing down to her purple wristband and tiny bear pendant – but also Josie, and t
