Abi tried to cheer him up, but a few days later it was his turn to see her silhouetted in the kitchen doorway, her head bowed and shoulders shaking. She held a torn envelope in her hand. It was her exam results. He’d forgotten all about them.
At first he thought she hadn’t achieved the grades she had hoped for. But when he hugged her, Abi showed him the slip of paper. Perfect marks, granting her admission to every university to which she’d applied. Luke realized then how much his big sister was giving up by coming with them.
Departure Day minus two was open house for friends and family to say their farewells, and Mum and Dad threw a subdued party that evening. Luke spent the day hunkered down with the console and his favourite games, because there’d be no more of those either, where they were going. (How did slaves entertain themselves at Kyneston? Playing charades round the piano? Or maybe there was no downtime. Maybe you worked until you dropped, then slept, then got up and did it all over again, every day for a decade.)
Then the day itself arrived, sunny and beautiful, of course.
Luke sat on the garden wall, watching his family going about its last bits of business. Mum had emptied the fridge and gone round to the neighbours with an offering of leftovers. Dad was dropping off a final box of essentials with a friend a few streets away, who would take it to the storage depot to join the rest of the family’s possessions.
The girls sunbathed on the grass, Daisy pestering her sister with questions and repeating back the answers.
‘Lord Whittam Jardine, Lady Thalia, Heir Gavar,’ Daisy parroted. ‘Jenner. And I can’t remember that last one. His name’s too silly.’
‘You’re halfway there,’ said Abi, smiling. ‘It’s Silyen – that’s Sill-yun. He’s the youngest, somewhere between me and Luke. There’s no Jardine as little as you. And it’s Jar-deen and Kye-neston, like “lie”. They won’t want to hear our northern vowels down south.’
Daisy rolled her eyes and threw herself back down on the grass. Abi stretched out her long legs and tucked the bottom of her T-shirt underneath her bra to catch some sun. Luke devoutly hoped she wouldn’t be doing that at Kyneston.
‘I’m gonna miss that fit sister of yours,’ Si said in Luke’s ear, startling him. Luke turned to look at his friend, who’d come to see him off. ‘You make sure your lords and masters don’t go getting any funny ideas about their entitlements.’
‘I dunno,’ Luke muttered. ‘You’ve seen the books she reads. I reckon it might be them that need protecting.’
Simon laughed. They exchanged an awkward shoulder-bump and backslap, but Luke stayed sitting on the wall, Si standing on the pavement.
‘I hear the Equal girls are hot,’ he said, elbowing Luke.
‘Got that on good authority, have you?’
‘Hey, at least you’ll get to see some girls. My Uncle Jim says all the workplaces are single sex at Millmoor, so the only women you hang out with are your own family. It’s a right dump, that place.’
Si spat expressively. ‘Jimmy got back from there a few weeks ago. We’ve not told anyone yet, because he’s not leaving the house and doesn’t want folk coming round. He’s a broken man. I mean, literally. He was in an accident and now his arm—’
Simon folded up one elbow and flapped his wrist. The effect was ridiculous, but Luke didn’t feel like laughing.
‘He got hit by a forklift or something. He’s not said much about it. In fact, he hardly says anything at all. He’s my da’s little brother but he looks about ten years older. Nah, I’m staying out of Millmoor as long as I can, and I reckon you’ve scored a right cushy number.’
Si looked up and down the street. Looked anywhere but at Luke.
His best friend had run out of things to say, Luke realized. They’d hung out together for nearly twelve years, playing, pranking and copying homework off each other since their first week at primary school. And all that ended here.
‘Don’t go thinking those Equals are folk like us,’ Si said, with one last effort at conversation. ‘They’re not. They’re freaks. I still remember our field trip to that parliament of theirs, that House of Light. The guide banging on about what a masterpiece it was, all built by Skill, but it gave me the creeps. You remember those windows? Dunno what was going on inside, but it didn’t look like “inside” any place I’ve ever seen. Yeah, you watch yourself. And that sister of yours.’
Si managed a half-hearted wink at Abi, and Luke cringed. His friend was a complete liability.
Luke wouldn’t see him for an entire decade.
Abi wouldn’t hear Si’s innuendo ever again, because he’d probably be married with kids by the time they all made it back to Manchester. He’d have a job. New friends. He’d be making his way in the world. Everything that made up Luke’s universe right now would be gone, fast-forwarded ten years, while Luke himself had stayed still.
The unfairness of it all made him suddenly, violently, furious and Luke smashed his hand down on the wall so hard he took the skin off his palm. As he yelped, Si finally looked at him, and Luke saw pity in his eyes.