Move (8 page)

Thump! Thump! The teachers had realised they were blocked
out and were trying to budge the doors. No chance. All the same, we rushed back out to the barricades to check.

The other fifth classes were milling around the windows, jumping up to see what was going on. They were making a lot of noise, as if break time were still going on. It was when they
suddenly
went quiet that we knew the teachers were outside.

The Monk, the headmaster himself, was visible through a window in Five C. We had inherited the nickname from those years which had gone before us and had called him it, probably on account of his ragged beard. Although, there was a criminal too, in Dublin, a gang leader, and maybe he’d got the title that way.

‘Liam O’Dwyer, I see you. Come and open this door right now!’

I nipped out of sight.

‘Cover up the windows!’ ordered Hazel, and soon the ledges were filled with our bags, preventing the teachers from seeing inside.

The rest of the day flew by. Each time we checked our watches, we’d say, ‘That’s geography gone’, or ‘that’s chemistry over’. The teachers were pleading with us through the doors and windows, saying we were only hurting ourselves, reminding us of the coming exams. Michael Clarke and a few others were going around saying we should end it. They were afraid of being expelled. But we pointed out to them that if we all stuck together, the school just couldn’t expel everyone.

For a while the Monk tried reasoning with us, with Hazel shouting back through the door in response to his questions.
She kept demanding that the school promise us a trip away, but all the headmaster would do was point out that our
undisciplined
behaviour was exactly why no one would take us. He did promise to look into the issue, providing we took down the blockade, but only the doubters were willing to settle for that.

The best fun was imagining the reaction of the rest of the school. At break time they all must have come over to our buildings to see it for themselves, because we could hear the excited chatter outside. It was pretty amazing really, for us to be doing this, I could hardly believe it. I hadn’t even had to move to get to this universe. Here it was; strange things do happen on their own.

Finally, at quarter to four, we put everything back. The
teachers
had given up trying to get in, so they didn’t even notice. At final bell, we walked out proudly, congratulating each other.

‘Good job, Hazel.’

‘You too, Zed.’

There was a group of our teachers standing beside the Monk, watching us as we left.

‘Liam O’Dywer, in my office, now.’ The headmaster’s voice was quiet, quiet but full of menace. The rest of the teachers looked pretty grim too, with the possible exception of Mr Brown, whose eyes were twinkling as though he were
suppressing
a smile. Did he approve of our protest? I hoped so, but I couldn’t expect any help from him. I was going to be in big trouble and it was time to search the universes to see if I could find a way out.

‘Sir, Liam had nothing to do with it.’ Unexpectedly, Hazel
stepped up to my side. A bunch of my classmates had stopped to watch. I have to say, even now, writing about it, I get
goose-bumps
when I think about the way she spoke out on my behalf. You have to bear in mind that I had nothing to lose really. My parents were used to me being in trouble. But Hazel, she had never been in trouble in her life. If her parents had seen her that day, they would have freaked. Trying to defend me was brave, much braver than anything I had ever done, because of course I could always move out of real hassle. Or at least I could have until recently.

‘Hazel Cartwright, go on home.’ The Monk glowered at her.

‘But, sir, it’s not fair to pick on Liam.’

‘It’s all right, Hazel. You go on, please.’ Only for the sincerity of my voice did she back down.

‘You too, Dean Kirwan.’

To save anyone else from getting themselves into trouble, I set off for the headmaster’s office. He quickly followed and the small group of teachers and my classmates broke up.

Once inside the Monk’s office, he had me stand in front of his desk, while he looked over my file, out and ready-to-hand.

‘Not long ago, O’Dwyer, you wouldn’t have been able to sit for a week after that disgraceful exhibition.’ He glared at me as if inviting me to read his thoughts and the violence in them. I looked straight back at him but I said nothing.

‘Who else was involved? Zimraan Nouri? Dean Kirwan?’

Of course I didn’t reply.

‘You are only making things worse for yourself.’ He shook his head. ‘You know I can expel you for this? Answer me, boy.’

‘Yes, sir.’ Actually, I thought that he could expel me at any time. Did he need to give a reason? Were there constraints on him?

‘Sit down.’

He picked up the phone and tapped out a number. It was my home.

‘Mrs O’Dwyer? Mr Hance here. Yes, the headmaster … It is … He’s in a great deal of trouble and I would appreciate it if you could come here right away. Thank you.’

The Monk then began a long lecture, recalling my troubled record in its entirety. His theme was appreciation versus
ingratitude
, but I wasn’t paying attention. My thoughts were on my mum. She would be worried as she drove over. Almost without thinking, I began to slide into that state from which I could see the nearby universes and move. But I stopped myself. For once, I had done nothing wrong, and, even though I was nervous, I was proud too, in a way, for taking the blame and protecting the others.

What’s more, it all worked out all right. The Monk told my mum that he had considered expelling me, but that instead I was on my final warning. I think he expected me to get hell at home. But once Mum and I were alone, I could tell her the God’s
honest
truth: that I hadn’t started the blockade or done anything more than the rest of my class. She glanced at me from time to time as we drove home, and she believed me.

Dad was great too. He just laughed when he heard about it.

‘Jaysus! I wished we’d have done that when I was in school. Mind you, in our day we’d have been beaten black
and blue for pulling a stunt like that.’

Strangely, from that day I was as popular as ever with my class, and I had earned their friendship without having to move. All this time, deep inside, I thought that the reason everyone admired me was because I’d moved to places where I looked impressive. I felt that they didn’t really know me and, if they did, they’d find out that, instead of wild devil, I was really a shy, indoors, kind of boy. Some part of me was still on that barge, being sick. That day, the famous day of the takeover of the fifth-year block, I won some respect from my class but more importantly, for the first time, I began to get some belief in myself that had nothing to do with being able to move.

It troubled me that I hadn’t really told my best friend anything about my abilities or my fears. The problem with opening my heart to Zed was that it might damage our friendship. As far as he was concerned, Zed was the top dog and I was the sidekick. Zed enjoyed being the one to decide what we would do, who we would see. He liked explaining stuff to me: what music was cool, what clothes to wear, that kind of thing.

One of the reasons I’d hung back from proving that I could move was that it risked changing things between us. Would he admire my ability, or resent it? But I had to tell him. I needed his help.

One day after school, Zed and I were in town to try out the new games in the computer shop. We were walking alongside
the walls of Trinity College when it occurred to me that this time was as good as any.

‘Hey, Zed, let’s go into Trinity.’

‘What for?’

‘It’s quiet there and I need to talk to you about something.’

The college is an oasis of calm at the centre of the busy streets of Dublin. Stepping through the great doors of the entrance is like entering a different world, one of space, light and peace. Stately buildings form the boundaries of great squares of cobblestone or lawn. When you are walking past the libraries, the croquet lawns and the playing fields, it’s easy to forget that outside the walls of the college is a restless noisy city.

It was also a really good place to go skateboarding, until about three months earlier that year, when the security got very heavy about it.

We settled on a bench, watching the students and feeling young because of our uniforms. The girls looked good, but way too old for us and instead of being our usual cocky selves, we sheepishly kept our eyes down.

‘What’s up mate?’

‘Something real serious. Really amazing, but also it might be really bad.’ And I told him the whole story, from the first time I moved on the barge day, which he remembered as being weird, through to the Valentine’s card, the nightmares and then the other day, when I’d been involuntarily moved to the universe where Mr Kenny had drawn on my face and I couldn’t get away. After rushing through my story, relieved to be letting it out, I then, of course, had to prove it all with the numbers trick.

It took ages to overcome Zed’s scepticism and I was
exhausted
when I was done. Suppose I was doing this trick with you, guessing numbers, how many times would I have to do it before you’d begin to believe me? Well for Zed it was, like, the best part of an hour and I had to do really difficult things, such as have a piece of paper blow past saying, ‘It’s all true.’ You can appreciate that there are not many universes where this happens right on cue, so I was in bits by the end. All the time I was watching his face and that, at least, was an amusing distraction from my efforts. Zed is very expressive, and I could visibly see disbelief change to amazement and excitement, then back to concern when I told him about the hungry ghost.

‘Wow, this is so cool.’

‘Yeah, it’s pretty cool alright, in general, but I’m worried it is all going pear-shaped.’

‘Right.’ He rubbed his thumb across his chin, thoughtfully. ‘Why not find a universe where you never jumped in the first place? That way no harm has been done.’

‘Believe me, I’ve tried. It’s way too far away.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, every second, there are thousands of new branches, right?’

‘Yeah, I got that.’

‘Well, suppose you started over there.’ I pointed to the other side of the grass square. ‘And as you were coming this way, at every inch you had a thousand new branches. How many branches would you have by the time you got over here?’

‘Millions, billions.’

‘Exactly. And most of them lost in the dark. I can only see the nearest universes and a few minutes’ worth of each at most,
before
they roll on by.’

‘That’s a bit rubbish then.’ Zed smiled.

‘Yeah, shame I can’t see more, or Ireland would have won the World Cup by now.’

‘Hah, that would be awesome.’

‘Actually, if I went to the games, I could probably swing it. But it would be hard work.’

‘Brilliant! Let’s do it! What else can you do? Could you make us rich?’

‘Zed, listen to me. I’m getting into deep trouble with this. Something really nasty is on the loose, some real bad demon. And it’s after me. The more I mess around, the worse it’s
getting
.’

He pulled a face at this and turned his attention to the girls walking past.

‘You know what I’d do. I’d use it to score some hot babes.’

This made me smile and I simply raised an eyebrow.

‘You crafty bollix! You didn’t!’ Zed sprang up. ‘With who?’

‘Not telling.’

‘You didn’t! You did! Jaysus, Liam, I wish I could do that.’

Which was all very well, but I wasn’t out to impress Zed. I was trying to get him on side.

‘Zed, I need your help.’

He could hear the sincerity in my voice and sat down.

‘All right, you think this demon sent the Valentine card?’

‘Yeah.’

‘And you think it trapped you that time Mr Kenny wrote on your face?’

‘Right.’

‘Is it invisible?’

‘I don’t know. I don’t think so. I think it looks like a monster, with a massive belly and a tiny mouth full of sharp teeth.’

‘So where is it now?’ Zed looked over his shoulder and I would have laughed, but it was a good question.

‘Maybe in hell?’

‘Er, mate, hell? Since when do you believe in hell?’

‘Since I had a demon stalk me. Anyway, maybe not hell, but not in our universe. It’s as though every time I’ve moved I’ve torn a little hole here and there. Until now there are enough gaps for the demon to get through, like, from outside the
universe
or something.’

‘Weird, but, going with it for now, any chance of closing the holes?’

‘Maybe. Maybe if I leave off moving, maybe they’ll heal up of their own accord.’

‘Well, try that then.’

‘Yeah, I will, but I have this terrible feeling it’s too late.’

‘Naaa. Don’t you worry. We’ll beat it.’

Strangely, even though Zed hadn’t offered me anything
practical
to do, his positive attitude made me feel a lot better. That is, until I saw him scrunching up his face into the strangest
distorted
looks of pain I’d ever seen.

‘Zed, what are you doing?’

‘I’m trying to jump universes.’

‘Well don’t. Didn’t you hear anything I was saying? It’s bad. Something really bad is happening.’

At least he had the decency to look a bit sheepish at my
aggrieved
tone.

‘Well,’ he shrugged, ‘let’s think about it again. You don’t
actually
know very much about this demon, right? Just dreams and the feeling you got when you saw the picture.’

‘Yeah.’

‘We need more info, mate. How can we fight it unless we know what we are up against?’

‘True.’

‘Tell you what. Why don’t you move universes to one where you find out what it is that’s giving you grief?’

I thought about this and looked into the alternatives that were streaming away from us.

‘I don’t know. I don’t think there is one. There is something though …’

‘Yeah?’

‘I can feel its presence out there. I guess I could move towards it.’ I spoke with great reluctance.

‘Go for it!’

‘To be honest, Zed, I’m scared. Whatever it is, it’s very strong and very evil.’

‘Don’t let it hunt you. Let us become the hunters.’

‘Yeah.’ Yeah, right. Become the hunters. It sounded good and I wanted to believe that we could. So I did try.

What happened next was a bit like a dream, because a lot of my attention was in the nearby universes. As I moved towards
my fears, I felt scared, but also that I was glad to be doing
something
at last, that I was taking back some control of the situation.

‘Follow me.’

Zed didn’t ask why; he just got up. All around us the weather was changing dramatically, becoming darker and darker. People flickered in and out of existence like a pop video speeding up hours of film to just a few minutes. But overall their numbers grew less as I pushed my way through the barriers between
universes
. The further I moved towards the demon, the emptier the world became.

Soon I was in a universe where only Zed was with me. I’d kept track of him and made sure to move to places where I was both nearer the demon and still with my friend. It meant I wasn’t moving directly towards my enemy but circling around, spiralling in towards a terrible darkness. If there came a point where I couldn’t get any closer and still have Zed with me, I would stop and try to go back to a happier universe. I couldn’t do this on my own.

We were inside the library shop now, where there should have been staff and security guards; all was eerily quiet.

‘The demon is close. I think this might be a mistake. I should go back.’

‘It’s pretty creepy alright.’ I don’t think Zed had thought
seriously
about what it meant to go searching for a hungry ghost. Now, though, he was as oppressed as I was by the gloom that was gathering around us. Outside, the fiercest purple clouds I’d ever seen filled the sky, turning the day to dusk.

‘Here.’ Zed took down two ornamental brass swords that were on the wall, for sale to tourists, and gave me one. ‘Push on.’

‘Up these stairs.’

As soon as we had ascended a short staircase into the Long Room Library, I felt the tangible presence of the hungry ghost and the hairs all over my body rose up. There was no need to move any more. It was in this universe and close, very close.

The library was a huge room, with a tall roof of curved wooden arches. Between each archway was a dark alcove full of ancient books, and either side of us a row of these alcoves stretched into the distance, as if they would eventually meet at a black point, infinitely far away.

‘It’s here.’

Zed looked around in every direction, his flimsy sword wavering.

‘Where?’ He was terrified. His eyes were stretched open wide and his face was paler than I’d ever seen it before.

It didn’t help us that beside each alcove was an alabaster bust of a famous scholar. These white heads, with their blank eyes, looked like the decapitated victims of a horrible fiend. They had been drained of all colour and life.

We continued on towards the darkness at the far end of the library. I heard two footfalls, as though at the same time as I had taken a step, someone had also taken a step towards me.

‘Did you hear that?’ I whispered.

‘What?’ Zed’s nervous voice was barely audible, swallowed up in the immense silence that filled the musty hall.

‘A footstep.’

Again. It happened again. With a backward glance, I sent Zed a look of enquiry, but he just shook his head.

I took another step, then a few more, nearly on tiptoes to keep the noise of my footfall to a minimum. The sounds of the other person were getting closer and louder. But strangely Zed gave no indication of hearing them. He was lagging behind me now, as I stopped just short of the corner of one of the alcoves.

My next step would take me around the bookshelf and into view of the hungry ghost, I was sure of it. My legs were shaking and even if I had wanted to run away, I doubt I could have made them work properly. In any case, there’s no way I could have turned my back on the monster.

How long did we stand there, unable to look around the corner but equally unable to flee? Perhaps only five minutes, but it felt like hours. At last, a change came over me and, all at once, I couldn’t stand being afraid any more. I’d rather face death than prolong this torture of my fast-beating heart. I stepped forward and looked to my left, into the alcove.

It was empty, just a mirror at the far end with my reflection.

My reflection looked up and smiled a very wicked smile, eyes glittering with dark joy.

At last, a body, a world. O I shall fill my emptiness with these humans! Show me your shame, your fear, your acts of rage and despair. Let me feast, O let me feast!

A moment later, I was looking up at Zed.

‘Are you all right, mate? You scared me, but you’re just kidding right?’

‘I dunno. Did I faint?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Did you see the demon, in the mirror?’

At this Zed looked up, puzzled.

‘What mirror?’

It was true; there was no mirror. As I tried to go back over those last few minutes, my thoughts were a complete jumble. I hadn’t exactly fainted. What I had felt was that I was sinking through terribly cold, black waters. Far beneath me were worlds of demons, worlds that I desperately wanted to escape.
Thrashing
all my limbs as though I was swimming, I’d struggled back up to consciousness and Zed.

There was something else as well: a double memory, like I
always
got after I moved. While I could remember struggling not to sink towards a dark demon realm, I was also aware of rushing up giddily towards a world rich with the scents of food. Back then, when I came around, I couldn’t explain what this was, this
feeling of being in two places at the same time, but later I would understand exactly what had happened to me that day.

‘So, is it still close?’ Zed was keeping watch.

‘No. It’s gone.’

‘Really?’

‘Really.’ But where had it gone? Something inexplicable had just happened to me and, whatever it was, I felt my battles with the hungry ghost were only going to get worse.