The Rainbow Maker's Tale (8 page)

It took me a moment, but as I
squinted in the direction of her gaze I think I saw what Scarlett
was talking about. “There’s something there…?” I asked uncertainly,
trying to work out what the slightly darker area on the wall
was.

“Looks like it.” Scarlett
grinned at me, a wily light entering her eyes.

“So?” I shrugged, swallowing my
mouthful and taking another large bite of the apple I was
holding.

“
So?
” she echoed
mockingly, shaking her head at my lack of interest. “What kind of
explorer are you?”

“What do you mean?” I replied,
bristling at the challenge in her words.

“Well…we were just talking
about what the other Quarters might be like… We’re as close to the
Married Quarter as you can get and that – to me – looks like an
access panel of some sort…” Scarlett’s words trailed off
mysteriously as she planted the seed of an idea in my mind.

“No!” I exclaimed, certain that
she couldn’t be suggesting what it sounded like she was. “You
seriously think we can open the panel up and get through to the
Married Quarter? That’s just crazy!”

“I don’t necessarily think
that
,” Scarlett argued lightly, “it’s probably just some
infrastructure…pipes and stuff, but…”

“But what…?” I asked when she
shrugged off her own words.

“You never know – don’t you
want to see what’s through there? Don’t you want to see what exists
beyond the Family Quarter for yourself?”

All I could do was stare at her
– half in disbelief and half encouraged by what she was suggesting
– I was sure that no one else living in the Family Quarter would be
proposing this kind of dangerous, prohibited activity. But then,
Scarlett
was
different to anyone I’d ever met before.
Sometimes I felt that she was a foreign creature, deposited
randomly into the Green Zone of the Family Quarter just to make me
question myself and work harder at understanding the world I lived
in.

Scarlett’s eyes were hungry:
glimmering with excitement and challenge – but surely she was
joking? Even Scarlett wouldn’t seriously be considering this.

“We couldn’t do that,” I
dismissed, trying not to sound disappointed. “There’s no way we
could get up there – it’s too dangerous.”

“Where’s your sense of
adventure?” Scarlett taunted me, grinning once more. “I thought we
came here to explore? Let’s explore!”

“What if we can’t get up – or
more to the point – can’t get down?”

“You worry too much!” Scarlett
laughed with a shake of her head. “Anyway, maybe your parents don’t
care about you, as much as you
think
they do.”

Her flippant remark about my
parents hung heavily in the air between us for a moment or two. I
genuinely didn’t know how to respond. It sounded as though Scarlett
was joking, but at the same time there was an odd weight to the
words as though she meant to tell me something I couldn’t see.

It didn’t really matter anyway,
as I only had a few seconds to wonder about this before Scarlett
surprised me again. In one swift, fluid movement she was on her
feet and moving towards the rock face behind me. I turned to see
her go, thinking that she was just kidding and would stop when she
got there. But she didn’t.

By the time I was on my feet,
Scarlett had already hitched up her day-suit, to loosen the
material around her knees, and was clinging tightly to the rugged
stone pulling herself up.

“What are you doing?” I asked
pointlessly. I could quite clearly see what she was doing.

Scarlett just grinned and
carried on climbing. By now she was more than halfway up the wall
and showed no signs of stopping. “Be careful,” I called, my voice
breaking a little over the words. I was in two-minds: did I follow
her up there or stay where I was? What if we both got stuck at the
top?

“Are you coming?” Scarlett
shouted down to me. She was just two metres from the top now – or
what looked like the top from where I stood.

“I’m waiting to see what you
find,” I yelled back. “Anyway, you’ll need me here if you get
stuck!”

“Yeah, yeah, sure,” she
muttered, sounding dubious.

“Fine! Have it your way!” I
conceded grudgingly. There was no way I was going to let a girl get
the better of me – especially when it came to being an
explorer!

My hands were reaching upwards
and my feet had found neat footholds at the lower edge of the rock
mere seconds after I’d admitted defeat. The climbing was harder
than Scarlett had made it look – not that I’d confess to that – and
I had only climbed up about three metres from our ledge when I
heard a short gasp from above me. I looked up into a shower of dust
and small resin stone chips. I didn’t see Scarlett until she
dropped past my right shoulder an instant later.

“NO!” I screamed grabbing out
uselessly at the empty air her small body had just fallen
through.

I swivelled, pulling my
shoulder painfully as I tried to grip the wall and turn to look
downwards at the same time. Scarlett had twisted around as she fell
and was looking right at me when her back and head crunched
sickeningly into the ledge we’d been sat on a few minutes before.
The sound was grotesque, surely nothing natural should ever sound
like that? My hand reached out pointlessly towards her, as though I
could still stop her falling. I was helpless.

It felt like an hour had passed
by the time I forced my shaking body to move. My fingers slipped
several times during the descent and I almost fell myself. But I
didn’t fall. Scarlett did. Scarlett
had
fallen. Scarlett
was… I couldn’t finish that thought. One halting step at a time I
got closer to the bottom until I could jump the rest of the
way.

Landing flat on my feet, it
felt as though my shins jarred straight into my ankles as I hit the
ledge. I ignored the burning in my joints and lunged across the
ground, falling to my knees beside Scarlett’s silent body.

Scarlett didn’t move. She
didn’t cry, she didn’t breathe.

I reached out with trembling
fingers to feel for a pulse beneath her jaw and it was only then
that I realised that her neck was twisted at an odd angle compared
to her body. My hand brushed over her soft skin as I searched for
her pulse, but as I pressed on her throat there was nothing. Unlike
my own thin skin, covering the flesh and bones of my body,
Scarlett’s did not yield to pressure: it was hard and firm more
like a muscle. I reached behind her head to feel for blood, but my
fingers came away oddly dry.

“Scarlett,” I whispered to her.
Then I began to shout: over and over again I yelled her name, but
there was nothing. Even though she looked completely normal, I knew
that Scarlett was dead.

What I did after that is
unclear. One minute I was there on the hillside and the next I
found myself sat at home in my bedroom, the picnic bag placed
neatly beside me, fully stocked with the things I’d taken to the
park. I was gazing steadily at the blank wall when Mother popped in
to check on me.

“How was the park?” she asked
from the doorway.

“Not bad,” I shrugged, my voice
a monotone.

“Did Scarlett enjoy herself?”
Mother asked, not appearing disturbed by my lacklustre
response.

My heart froze in my chest.
What could I say?

“I’ve just seen her coming past
the Green Zone junction with her father. I thought you might have
stayed out later than you have.”

I swallowed thickly, my tongue
filling my mouth uncomfortably. “What?” I managed to croak in
disbelief. It wasn’t possible – I’d seen Scarlett fall, seen her
body. There was no way she could have been pretending. And why
would she play such an awful prank? We were friends. “Where did you
see her?” I managed to ask, speaking more coherently now.

Mother appraised me with
curious eyes. “She was with her father heading towards the central
area, just a few moments ago.”

“Thanks Mother.” I called over
my shoulder, already running to the front door of our apartment. “I
forgot to ask her something today, I’ll be right back.” Perhaps
Mother called out for me to stop – she didn’t like running indoors
– but I didn’t really hear properly and I certainly didn’t
stop.

Pumping my legs as fast as I
could, I raced towards the Green Zone junction. There was no one
there. Passing straight through the intersection, I carried on
running, heading to the central area. After a few minutes I saw
Scarlett’s small figure ahead of me, walking beside her father. I
sucked a deep breath into my lungs – chilled a little by the sight
of her – but continued after them.

When I found myself only a few
paces away, I slowed to a walk and tried to match my speed with
theirs. I wanted to shout out to her: make Scarlett speak to me and
tell me what had happened, but I didn’t. I could tell from the tilt
of their heads and hushed voices they were having a serious
discussion. I crept closer.

“From my time spent here, I
cannot see any real benefits from including children as Keepers.
The main influence comes from their parents and other adults – we
do not fit in well as children.”

What was she talking
about?
Scarlett’s words to her father confused me. She said:
“we do not fit in as children,” as if she wasn’t a child herself.
Their conversation was the least of my worries, though. The fact
that Scarlett was walking and talking – at all – after I’d seen her
fall to her death was what I was really interested in. What I was
seeing was impossible.

How could Scarlett have
gotten back? How was she even
alive
?

The same questions rushed
through my head for the thousandth time in a minute.

As her name ran silently
through my mind, Scarlett turned to look at me as if she had heard
my voice. I froze mid-step, frightened by the coincidence. Her eyes
caught mine. In that instant it was as though everything else
around me stopped: there was no other movement, no sound, no one
else in the plaza. All I saw were Scarlett’s eyes…and then I heard
her voice.

“
There is more to life here
than we’re told, Balik. You will find the truth of what is
happening – I know you will – and you will need Cassie to do
it.”

The moment ended. Scarlett was
walking away from me, as I remained locked in place. It was as
though nothing had happened.
Was it possible I was
hallucinating?
First what happened in the park, and now this…?
Was I in shock? I shook my head, trying to clear the confusion and
fog from my mind. I could still hear Scarlett’s voice, but it was
inside my head: her lips hadn’t moved.

Blinking ferociously, I tried
to focus. If it was my imagination, something was still happening,
because I could see Scarlett and her father ahead of me. I had to
find out what was going on!

They were nearly at the edge of
the plaza by the time I stirred my feet to follow. There was a
narrow space between two buildings and I watched them turn into the
dark passage. I was moving again – running now – and raced across
the square, determined to speak with Scarlett and find out what was
happening.

As I reached the corner of the
building I slowed to a walk and turned down the same path Scarlett
had taken a few moments earlier. Ahead of me was a tall grey wall,
with a door cut into the base. A member of The Council stood beside
the entrance – I recognised him by the silver coloured day-suit he
wore, even though I’d never seen a member of The Council in real
life before, only onscreen.

“Can I help you, young man?”
The Councillor asked as I approached.

I tried to look behind him at
the doorway. There was nothing else there and nowhere else to go on
the narrow path. Scarlett must have gone through the door.

“I was looking for my friend.
She came down this passage.” I replied, glancing behind me, then
nervously back at the Councillor.

“You must be mistaken,” he
smiled kindly. “No children are allowed through here, it is one of
the entrances to the Married Quarter.”

“I saw her come down here. It
was only a moment ago – with her father – they must have come by
you!”

The Councillor merely shook his
head, despite my raised voice.

“But I saw her! I saw Scarlett
from the Green Zone walk down this way. You must have seen
her!”

Without warning the Councillor
reached forward and placed his hand on my shoulder. He didn’t hurt
me, but I found myself forced to look up into his face.
“You saw
nothing. Now go home.”

I closed my eyes tightly as a
sudden pain burst inside my head. I’d never felt such a bad
headache before.

“Are you unwell?”

As if from a distance, I heard
the man’s voice once again. I didn’t open my eyes just yet; the
pain was still sharp in my head.

“Yes, a sudden headache.” I
replied. “I want to go home.”

“That’s a good idea,” he
agreed. “I’ll have an adult from the Green Zone escort you home, so
you get back safely.”

* * *

It had been a long time since I
had let myself remember the details of the day Scarlett died, but
didn’t stay dead. Throughout our friendship Scarlett had always
challenged me: she made me look more closely at the world around me
and question what we were told. It was her that had changed the
course of my life, firstly with her questions, and then with the
questions she left me with after she
died
.

Since that day, when my world
was turned upside down, I had explored every avenue available to
me. All except the one that Scarlett had pushed me towards:
Cassie.

Why was I thinking of this
now?

I was close to leaving the
Family Quarter: certain that I would find a route out in the next
few weeks. Above everything else, I wanted to find out what the
lies were protecting. The only thing I truly knew was that the
answers lay beyond the grey walls that I had spent my life
inside.