F I V E
"I'm afraid you are rather a careless dreamer,"
said Bertie resentfully
—Saki
Ella closed the bedroom door quietly behind her. "She's sleeping," she whispered to Lee, and they went through to the lounge.
"The priest helped me to get her to the car. Not exactly good in a crisis, that one. In fact he was in a terrible state. He seemed more concerned about his statue."
"Honora had actually pulled it down on top of her?"
"That's what it looked like, though she denies it."
"It's crazy. What did she tell you?"
"Very little. But whatever it was, the priest saw it too. He was in a state of shock. He couldn't—or wouldn't—tell me anything about it. He just wanted us out of there. But it was obvious to me that he was just as shaken up as she was." She sighed. "I don't say that I go along with it . . . but Honora is convinced that it's something from dreamside. A demon or a ghost or something . . ."
"Oh for Christ's sake Ella ..."
"Lee, Honora thinks that her . . . child . . . has found a way to come through from dreamside."
"And you think it could be real."
She didn't have to answer. Lee looked very tired. He thought about the box in his attic.
A moan from Honora sent them scuttling along to the bedroom. She was sitting bolt upright. "Am I awake now?"
"Have you been dreaming the repeater?" asked Ella.
"Several times."
"This is awake."
"I wish I could believe you."
"Lee; give her a book."
Lee found a paperback. Honora turned the pages and read the opening lines:
The flood had made, the wind was calm, and being bound down the river, the only thing for it was to come to and wait for the turn of the tide.
It read the same second time around.
"Somehow I still don't trust that," said Honora.
"Why don't you go back to sleep," coaxed Ella. "You look like you need it."
"I'm not going back to sleep!" Honora shouted.
"OK. Listen; I've got another idea."
"Whatever it is," Lee said to Honora, "you say no, and I'll say no."
"Agreed."
Ella bristled. "Why the hell do you both think we're here? Why am I here? Why are you here? Are we just renewing old friendships or what? Do I have to remind you that we're in some kind of crisis? I don't know about you two, but I don't want to spend the rest of my f*cking life frightened to go to sleep! I want to end it!" She walked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
"She's right isn't she?" Honora muttered.
"She's always right. One way or another."
Lee found Ella outside in the garden. He had stocked it with tall flowering plants. In summer it would be a paint box of delphiniums, snapdragons, foxgloves and flags growing up beside the red-brick wall. Along the top of the wall ran an untidy row of blue coping stones which only habit kept in place. In one corner of the garden was a trellis overburdened by a rampant growth of honeysuckle. In another corner, staked against the wall, was an ornamental tree.
She stood with her back to him, fingering the tiny pink match-heads of budding flowers. Lee came up softly behind her.
"Cherry blossom," she said. "I didn't even know it was here. It's getting ready to flare."
"I planted it years ago. To remind me of someone. But now it's pulling up the wall." He pointed at the base of the wall where the bricks, buckled by the tree's roots, pressed in towards the garden. "All it needs is a good push. Let's hear the plan."
"You won't like it."
"Can it be worse than the business in the church?"
"It concerns Brad Cousins."
"It's worse."
"Hear me out."
"I don't like it already. Neither will Honora."
"We've got to do something."
Ella stepped onto a brick protruding from the broken wall. She hoisted herself up and hooked her elbows over the row of coping stones. Lee stood behind her. "You'll have the wall down on us."
Ella didn't reply. She was looking at something on the other side. In the waste ground stood the girl she'd seen that morning, and had followed into the church.
She's bringing this on us, she thought.
She looked up at Ella and mouthed painful, silent words. They were visible, as if painted on the air. The same words: help me help me help me.
"What is it?" said Lee, sensing something.
"Nothing. Lift me down."
"Are you all right?" Lee lifted her down. He looked at her quizzically, before hoisting himself onto the wall, to see what had startled her.
"There's nothing there!" he said.
"No. Let's go indoors. I'm cold."
"Lee," she said when they were inside, "you've seen something of Honora's condition. She's not insane, though you may think you are before this thing is through. And she's only the first, she's not going to be the only one. We're all in danger. Something has started."
"What has started?"
"I just feel it. And it's coming to us all. How is your dreaming lately?"
"Every night a fight."
"To stay away from there?"
"To stay away. I'm afraid more than anything of going to sleep."
"And the repeaters?"
"Worse than ever."
"Then you do know of the danger. All of those dreamside dangers, they're coming home to roost. Only here, while we're awake. We can't hold out for ever. It's got to be resolved."
"But how?"
"I don't know. All I've got is ideas. But I'm not going to hide and pretend it's not happening. And you've got to be strong." She held on to his sleeves. "If you fall, we all will."
"What?" said Lee. "Why me?"
"It's true. You're the solid one."
But he knew she meant stolid. He also knew that it was she who was the strongest one. She was going to have to carry three others. She was just trying to give him some of her strength. He looked at her and knew that if she commanded, he would try to realign the planets.
"Let's hear the plan."
"It's not going to be easy. We've got to take another walk on dreamside, but this time with Brad and Honora. Together we have to bury whatever it is that's out there."
"Or whatever it is that's in there. I'd say you've got about a fifty percent resistance to that dreamside walk taking place."
"So long as it's no more than fifty per cent."
"I said I'll do it, and I meant it."
"Firstly there's Honora. You've got the influence. I know it. She's always harboured a lot of feeling for you. You'll have to persuade her. She'll do it. She's got a much more acute sense than you of the danger, and she's running out of energy. She's been fighting it for longer. Make it clear she either does this thing once and for all or she lives with it for ever. Tell her. Hold her hand. You might even have to sleep with her."
"I hope you're joking, Ella."
"Push her hard. You can bring her to it, whereas I know I can't. I know she'll come. You'll have room to manoeuvre. I'll be away working on Brad."
"Will you be sleeping with him?"
"Only with my space suit on, after what you told me. You worry about your own score. You can't bring Brad along; Honora certainly wouldn't want to try; that leaves me. I'm going to have to bring him, across my shoulder if necessary. I'm calculating on him being in the same condition as Honora. If he is, I'll throw him a line and he'll grab it. I'll go tomorrow, early. I figure we don't have a lot of time before something bad happens to one of us, and I want to be gone before Honora wakes up. I'll have Brad with me in under forty-eight hours or not at all. I'll phone to let you know. And you know where to meet us."
"Yes. I know where to meet you."
"I'll also need to take some things of yours with me."
"Take anything, Ella. You led me into this. You might as well lead me out."
"I led you in?"
"I never told you. All those years ago. I only ever went to that first dream meeting because of you. I stood behind you in a shadowy corridor, feeling horny, and I overheard you say you were going to the meeting. So I went. I never expected the rest."
"None of us expected the rest. Now let me tell you something about that first meeting. If you hadn't stood next to me in that corridor, and I hadn't spoken so loudly to make sure that you'd hear…That's made you look serious! Now kiss me; because it helps."