Maddigan's Fantasia (8 page)

They left the gorge
and its green bush, mosses and ferns behind them, burst out onto a scrubby plain, and began to crawl along a rutted road that they did not have to question. Bannister frowned over the maps, looking sideways at some book he was longing to read, but for the present the road was clear and running in the right direction. The wheels might bump but, though of course the vans had to travel carefully, they rolled doggedly on and by midday they could see a long smudged arm of smoke, waving up into the blue, beckoning them forward. Gramth! Gramth was in sight! Gramth a town big enough to trade in. They would be able to set up their biggest tent on the outskirts of this town and do a full performance. Garland felt that she would be able to settle down into real life again.

‘I never really
enjoy
Gramth,’ she said to Maddie, ‘but, right now, I’m glad to see it.’

‘We need stores. More stores!’ Yves was declaring
somewhere
off on the left. He was never far away these days. ‘Food and more fuel! And we might get them now we’re out of the sticks and edging out of winter too.’

‘We need more stores,’ Lilith agreed, bobbing like a performing dog at her father’s elbow, but looking sternly over at Garland just in case Garland started giving orders too. Lilith
was only a little girl of course – ten last birthday – but she seemed to be suggesting that she was the Fantasia’s true princess. But Lilith was not a Maddigan. There was no way that Yves could be allowed to take possession of the Fantasia – no way that Lilith could take over the place that had always been Garland’s.

‘How are you holding out?’ Yves was asking Maddie. ‘You don’t have to try to do everything. I mean there isn’t one person here who wouldn’t understand if you took a bit of time off.’

Garland stared at him suspiciously. She had heard Maddie crying in the night, but during the day she was busy every moment of the day, as always. Garland wanted Maddie to rest and remember Ferdy, but she did not want her resting because Yves suggested it. After all, if Maddie was resting Yves would be able to move in and take over and soon the circus would be called Yves’s Fantasia. Ferdy would be totally forgotten and all Maddigans – Maddigans like herself – would be doing what Yves told them to do.

‘Oh no!’ Maddie replied. ‘I’m not just being brave, either. Somehow flogging myself along makes life easier to bear. I finish one thing and straight away there’s something else waiting there in line, needing immediate attention … now, now
now!
It’s better to be up and doing than lying in my van weeping and snuffling.’ And as she said this, she did begin to weep a little. ‘Come on. Let’s get going,’ she added quickly, ‘or I’ll begin snuffling now.’

Though Garland wanted that place on the front van to be hers and hers alone, she found that, on that particular morning, she did not want to sit beside Maddie. She did not even want to ride Samala any more. Now that her thoughts had settled down she simply wanted to walk with Timon and Eden and to ask them all over again about their claim to come from the future. Of course their story of a mysterious ‘possible’ Solis and a
wicked ruler called ‘the Nennog’ were silly – they just
had
to be silly. All the same when she thought of what they had told her she found she was frightened, and being frightened always infuriated her.

If only she could forget their strangeness. If only she could work her way into feeling Timon and Eden were just ordinary Fantasia boys for, after all, they were good company. She liked Timon’s ruffled fair hair and the blue flash of his eyes as he looked at her. Not only that, he was the right age for a
boyfriend
– older than Boomer who right now was still
skirmishing
around, riding in and out of the tussocks on his motorized bike. As she walked over to Timon and Eden, still watching Boomer shouting and waving and trying harder than ever to get her attention with some irritation, curious mixed-up, this-way-that-way feelings raced around in her head like badly trained mice. She was longing for Timon and Eden to be nothing but ordinary, and yet she kept on wondering if they might – they just might – be planning to make some great change in her own – in Garland’s – time. Was she hoping they would? As she began trying to untangle these thoughts Boomer wove backwards and forwards, shouting and hallooing, now just behind them, now just ahead, darting into their conversations with cries and exclamations of his own. There was nothing important she could ask Timon and Eden without being interrupted.

‘Hey! There are two men riding after us,’ he reported, suddenly skidding to a stop beside them. ‘
Those
two men!’ He looked at Timon and then at Eden. ‘You know them, don’t you? Don’t you? Who are they?’

‘Go and beat on your drum,’ Garland told him. ‘We’re nearly there. We’ll need the usual oompah pah!’ She turned to Timon. ‘We always let people know we’re coming,’ she said.

‘We’re nearly there,’ yelled Lilith like a busy echo. ‘I’m going
to put on my Fantasia dress. I’m going to be princess of the circus.’ And she raced away.

Though the Fantasia was on the road, somehow it was Gramth which seemed to be travelling, advancing towards them in slow, heavy steps.

‘It looks … it looks
guarded
,’ said Eden, sounding hesitant.

‘What are those long lines of people waiting for?’ asked Timon, when they were close enough to make out the queues of people snaking out from the city gates.

‘They’re farmers and traders wanting to get into the markets – wanting to buy and sell, wheel and deal,’ said Garland, pleased to find that she knew more than Timon did. ‘There’s usually a lot going on around the edges of town, but you can make more money if you work your way into the heart of it, which is what we have to do. Because people can’t just come and go. Gramth tries to look after itself. Everyone has to pass the guards and sentries, and fill in all the right forms. But I think Maddie’s done all that form-filling for us.’

‘Why?’ asked Eden. ‘Why are they so careful?’

‘Hey, think about it,’ Garland replied. ‘It’s a dangerous world, right? Probably dangerous here in a different way from the way it’s dangerous in your time – but still dangerous. And Gramth has grown strong through being careful, so I suppose it’s become a sort of habit. Look, Yves is grabbing Boomer. The band’s going to lead us in.’

They rolled on confidently to the outskirts of the city, their band marching in front of them playing the Fantasia’s
triumphant
music. Ozul and Maska rode not far behind them, like careful wolves following a herd, hoping for the chance to scavenge some slow prey from the herd edges. The Fantasia clustered at the main gate, van after van, with riders spreading out around them. A whole tribe of officials came hurrying towards them. Swerving sideways as they approached the town
gates, Ozul and Maska hesitated, then, nodding to each other, chose what looked to them like the shortest queue. Almost immediately other straggling people closed in behind them.

Columns of smoke were rising from behind the city walls and a great mixture of smells, swelling up and out in an
invisible
cloud, came softly over them to sink around the waiting people. Garland sniffed sawdust, hot metal and, above
anything
else, food. Boomer, drum and all, came prancing down from the head of the Fantasia queue.

‘Here we are! Here we are!’ he was shouting.

‘How long will we have to wait?’ asked Eden a little wearily. It was his turn to put on the baby sling and carry Jewel but she kept slipping from side to side, grizzling and complaining. Now he hoisted her straight again, and patted her back just to let her know she was being looked after.

‘I’ll take her,’ offered Timon, but Eden knew that things had to be fair.

‘No, it’s my turn,’ he said. ‘She’s probably a bit hungry.’

‘It’s awful waiting,’ piped Lilith, ‘but I’ll entertain her.’

Garland groaned aloud, but Lilith took no notice of
Garland
. She began to dance and sing, kicking her legs, beaming at Jewel and holding her skirts out on either side.

‘There’s a rainbow round the corner

With room for you and me …’

Her voice wavered and she lost the tune for a moment (Garland often imagined Lilith as being tangled up in lost lines of dying songs). Her kicking sank down into a shuffle. But then she remembered the tune and the words once more.

‘Where all my cares are bluebirds

That fly across the sea …’

A young man suddenly burst out of nowhere and began running alongside the queue, shouting as he ran.

‘No more oil slaves! No more oil slaves!’

He shoved Lilith roughly to one side as he ran by, but already Gramth officers were closing in on him, flourishing the long metal poles they called their rods of office. One of the
officers
reached out, touching the young man’s shoulder with the rod. ‘No more …’ he was crying yet again. But there was a curious sound … half-zing, half-crackle. The man’s words melted into one another, becoming a scream, while his running turned into a shapeless leap. He stumbled; he fell. Officials closed around him.

‘Hey! Awesome!’ said Boomer in a quavering voice.

‘Think so?’ said Timon. He watched two officers hoist the young man onto their shoulders and carry him away, then looked anxiously to the head of the queue. ‘Something’s wrong,’ he said as he watched officials in grey uniforms
studying
the papers Yves and Maddie were passing towards them.

‘No. It’s always like this,’ said Garland, then thought that perhaps it
was
different this time, because it was Yves, not Ferdy, wheeling and dealing at Maddie’s side.

But Maddie was turning and gesturing back along the Fantasia line in her commanding way. Boomer shot off, drum and all, anxious to be part of the band again, and the Fantasia leaped to life. The grey officials passed the papers back to Yves, Garland noticed with annoyance. Then chief guard waved and the great gates opened. To the sound of its own music, the Fantasia marched though down the main street of Gramth making for the big square in the middle of town.

Looking around as they drove through the main gate, Garland suddenly glimpsed Ozul and Maska caught up in the next queue along, trapped by the people in front of them and the people behind.
Surely Ozul and Maska would never let themselves be captured by a mere queue
, thought Garland. Then she smiled. Even if they tried forcing their way to the front the officials, lined up by the main gates, all armed with their rods,
would not let them through until they had all the proper documents, stamped and signed. Perhaps Ozul and Maska might be caged in after all. She could see the Aide, the senior Gramth official representing the Mayor, climbing up into the front of the van beside Yves and Maddie. The Mayor of Gramth, who was like a small-time king (though he was never called a king) lived in the centre of the city, and almost never came out of his office of brick and stone.
Of course
, thought Garland,
he might … he just might … come out for the Fantasia performance tonight for, though he was a strong and serious man, he loved clowns
. The last time they had been here he had actually laughed while they joked and tumbled.

The Fantasia swung on, following their band, not so much marching as dancing down the main street and making for the city centre. People clustered along the edge of the street and the Aide waved to the crowd as if he, not Yves, were the true ringmaster. However no one cheered him or waved back to him. But that was not the Fantasia’s business. They were on their way again, being themselves, half-performing already, band playing, acrobats cartwheeling, horses arching their necks as if they were proud to belong to the Fantasia.

Eden decided to join in like a true Fantasia man. He passed Jewel over to Timon, then clapped his hands. A bright ball
suddenly
appeared, sparkling and pulsating between his fingers. He bowed left and right then tossed the ball into the air. It burst into shooting stars of coloured light. People threw out their own arms, shouting with pleasure. Lilith shouted too, but for a different reason.

‘Shops!’ she cried in delight. ‘Real shops.’

Garland looked around her with unwilling wonder. Though she was older than Lilith, she couldn’t help being enchanted by those shining windows, glimpsed every now and then in between the heads of the jostling crowd. Once the whole world
had been a little like this. Perhaps it had
all
been like this, panes of glass giving off a soft beckoning glitter. Once there had been town after town, tied like knots into the net of roads that had held the land captive, and every town had been filled with shops. But that was back then. This was now. They were the Fantasia, marching into Gramth. The reluctant crowd began cheering and waving, faces were suddenly smiling and Garland waved back, smiling too. Tane the clown put on his red nose, and somersaulted and cartwheeled, spinning in and out of the crowd. Shell even let his parrots fly free and they circled above him, then flew back to perch along his outstretched arms as if they were finding places in a friendly tree.

But up on the front of the first van Garland could see Maddie and Yves were looking suddenly dismayed, while the Aide, who was now sitting in Garland’s usual seat frowned and folded his lips in a determined way.

‘It’s wonderful!’ Eden was crying, enchanted. ‘Wonderful!’

‘Yes, but I think something’s wrong,’ Garland said, staring over at her van. The Aide was shrugging his shoulders.

They had reached main square. The Fantasia, which had marched as one unit, split and spread out into many. They rushed to unfold their canvas, drive in the pegs and raise the poles. The Aide was now watching with satisfaction, Garland thought, but Maddie was frowning as she climbed down from the van. As soon as she could Garland raced over to her mother’s side.

‘Mum!’ she cried. ‘Mum! What’s wrong?’

‘Gramth always feels funny,’ Maddie said, ‘but it feels really strange this time. It feels – well, it feels somehow stormy … dangerous even. But that’s not our business. The thing is they’re saying …’ Maddie stopped, looking curiously unsure of herself.