The Chrysalid Conspiracy (28 page)

“A what?”

“A still, for distilling alcohol.”

“I might have known,” answered Amelia. “I suppose that would be important. But it’s a bit risky, isn’t it? And where would we be doing all this?”

“I don’t know, Amelia. You’re right. We couldn’t just send out for takeaway, or an ambulance come to that. I expect I just got carried away, sorry. It can’t possibly work.” The light in her eyes faded and her disappointment was plain to see.

“Unless,” said Amelia as an afterthought. “We introduce a factor that you seem to have overlooked.”

“What’s that?” said Rayn hopefully.

“As my mother is involved, we may be living in a genetically modified forest. One especially designed not to let us fail.”

“I don’t know, Amelia,” Rayn conceded, “there’s probably a dozen explanations for all the things that seem to be going on. Maybe it’s me. Am I searching for some fantasy island of my own? I mean, really, to grow a rain forest would take years. By the time the trees were tall enough to climb, we’d be too old.” Rayn became a bit more negative in her analysis.

“You may be right,” said Amelia. “It does sound a bit like a fairy tale, but my extra sense gives me a comfortable feeling about it. And you know the outdoor life is not exactly my idea of paradise. I like my decadent creature comforts.”

“I must admit,” Rayn smiled, “I dream of owning a microwave oven. But there’s nothing that we need,” she added. “Loads that we want, but nothing we need.”

“Tell me more about this life in the jungle. Maybe we should be allowed to stretch the fantasy a little,” said Amelia.

“You want to hear the bit about when we meet Tarzan?” giggled Rayn.

“And his brother,” chipped in Amelia. “I don’t fancy sharing him.” The two girls laughed together at the thought. “It sounds great, but what about me?” said Amelia after they had explored some indelicate possibilities. “Everybody else seems to be multi-skilled. What do I do apart from hunting?”

“Oh, you know. Leap from bough to bough with skill, strength and precision, like in your dream,” said Rayn, smiling.

“Very funny,” said Amelia. “I was serious.”

“You really haven’t grasped your role in all this, have you?” said Rayn.

“What do you mean?”

“You. You’re the centre of things. You are the leader!” Rayn was emphatic. She spoke with absolute certainty.

“What?” Amelia was shocked. “For heaven’s sake, Ryan. What are you on about?”

“I’ve known since I first met you. You have that quality. I think you’ll grow to understand it eventually,” Rayn told her, deadly serious.

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous,” Amelia remarked, dismissing Rayn’s presumption out of hand. “Anyway, what about my mum? It won’t be much fun for her in a jungle.” Her fantasy was fading fast.

“She’s a tree expert, right? What else does she do?”

“She holds doctorates in micro-biotics and genetic engineering.” Amelia announced fiercely proud.

“She’s a doctor? How come she never calls herself one?” Rayn was surprised.

“She says that once people know, they start telling her about their aches and pains. It saves a lot of bother.”

“That makes sense,” agreed Rayn. “Well, there you are then. She’s a tree doctor. Just the thing for a woodland fairy tale.” She sat back and took a mouthful of cold coffee. Amelia laughed at the grimace she gave at the bitter taste.

“But we’re back to the same old questions,” continued Amelia wearily. “Who?”

“I’m still gathering data,” said Rayn. “I wasn’t planning on telling you all this yet, but it couldn’t be helped.”

“Yes,” said Amelia, “but it’s still only a theory. We have no real evidence, only supposition.”

“Coupled with logic. I told you, we need Claire.”

“No disrespect to you, my friend, but I think you’re right,” Amelia answered. “Good grief!” she said suddenly. “Look at the time. It’s gone four o’clock. Have we been talking all night?”

“I guess so,” said Rayn. “I’m not going to be able to sleep now. Shall we attack this lot?” She glanced around the table.

“Why not?” agreed Amelia. “It’s not going to go away on its own, is it? And there’s plenty more in the kitchen if we run out.”

***

“By the way,” said Rayn, over-packing the dishwasher. “I met Molly’s friend, Lorraine. She’s a maid up at the Hall. You never know, she might prove very useful. And perhaps we’d better make an effort to find out about Lucy Lacey Imports as well? We didn’t follow it through.”

Amelia put the rubbish bags outside the back door and they surveyed the pile of pots and pans. Amelia was all for leaving them to soak, but Rayn insisted they finish what they had started. “You know what bugs me about this conspiracy thing?” she said, arms deep in washing-up water.

“What? The new revised not-so-far-fetched version?” Amelia asked.

“Yeah. Have we put all this together because we are smarter than they are, or are they not as smart as they should be?” Rayn pondered.

Amelia, wondering what she was talking about through her creeping tiredness suggested, “What really blows your mind is whether we’ve discovered all this because we’re smart, or because we were supposed to? Is it all pre-planned?”

“Amelia, for my birthday next week, I’m going to have you put down. This is quite difficult enough to get your head round as it is.” Rayn reminded her friend as they sat at the clean dining room table with fresh coffee.

“Hmm,” answered Amelia. “There’s obviously a much bigger picture we haven’t seen yet. The thing is, are we going to fight it, or go with it?”

“How do you mean?” said Rayn.

“Well,” explained Amelia. “At first we were pretty annoyed when we thought our lives weren’t what they seemed.

“Yeah, I’ll agree with you there,” said Rayn.

“The natural instinct was to fight against it, wasn’t it?”

“I see where you’re going now,” Rayn replied. “Now we know our mums are involved in it – whatever it is – and we both know they don’t mean us any harm, should we quietly go along with it or not?”

“Exactly,” said Amelia. “What do you think?”

“Difficult one.” Rayn thought for a moment, “life on the road does teach you to hedge your bets. So I suggest we continue to collect information, analyse and assess and try and get a step ahead. Then we’ll be in a position to pull the plug when, or if, we think it’s necessary.”

“Good thinking,” said Amelia, very impressed with her friend. “In the meantime, we go along with it then?”

“Without giving ourselves away,” warned Rayn. “I don’t believe we’re supposed to have worked all this out. It wouldn’t make sense. If there is something going on, we’d be able to pull it all down. They wouldn’t want that, would they?”

“But who the hell is
they
. And what if there’s nothing going on and we’re just making fools of ourselves?” responded Amelia.

Rayn laughed. “Then we tell no one and never mention it again until we meet up at reunions. But Amelia, it doesn’t feel wrong to me.”

“Nor me,” said Amelia.

Rayn sat up suddenly. Amelia could see the fire back in her tired eyes. “Here’s an idea,” she said, with fresh impetus. “As hunters we would need to be archers and spear and knife throwers, wouldn’t we? I can throw those big circus knives – badly, but I can do it.”

“I’m not bad with a bow and arrow, but I couldn’t call it archery,” added Amelia. “So what’s on your mind?”

“Why don’t we suggest it to George that we’d like to learn?” Rayn sat back, a look of triumph on her face.

“Rayn, you are a genius,” said Amelia, full of admiration for her friend. “No one would be suspicious if you asked Nigel to teach you knife throwing, you being more aggressive. And I’ll tell George I’m interested in archery. We can join in with each other and both learn. It’s brilliant.”

“We could take up javelin at school!” answered Rayn, enthusiastically. “We couldn’t do it in your back yard; we’d kill half the neighbourhood.” She gave an evil laugh.

“And,” added Amelia, “the beauty of it is, if George comes up with all the gear and training, we’ll know we’re on to something. And I think it may be a good idea if we include some sort of sword fighting. I can’t rely on my dream state. We have to hunt to eat, but we may also have to defend ourselves. You never know.”

“That’s the spirit Amelia. God I’m good. I don’t know how I do it sometimes,” bragged Rayn with a grin. Amelia silently agreed with her friend.

“We’d better get New Year over with first, give everything time to settle down.” Amelia advised.

When Amelia took the cups back to the kitchen she was surprised to see Bridie sitting at the table. Amelia thought how awful she looked. Her eyes were closed and her hair had broken free of its moorings during the night and hung in a tangled mess over her face and shoulders. “At least she’s not in any state to have heard anything?” was Rayn’s immediate response when she learned that her mother was up and she saw the state she was in. She quickly made an extra strong coffee and put the cup in front of her. Bridie’s hands came together and she lifted the cup. Finding a gap in her hair she took a sip and gave a huge sigh as she lowered her head into the elixir of life.

***

The two girls dismantled the cot and took it with the bedding up to Amelia’s bedroom. “I’ve got to get Mum up soon,” she said to Rayn. “I’ll just rest for a minute.” By the time Rayn had put the cot together Amelia was almost off the planet. She slipped out of her clothes and climbed in to bed. Pulling the duvet up she allowed her mind and body to descend into the luxury of sleep.

Amelia woke slowly. Her head felt heavy against the pillow, the blank face of her clock staring at her. It looked very close to tears and she smiled at its suffering. She looked at her wristwatch and that sickening lurch of guilt clutched at her.

Wide-awake, she leaped out of bed, landing on a very much asleep Rayn. The cot over-balanced and they hit the floor in a tangled mess. Rayn came up with both fists clenched, ready to repel boarders with the instincts of self-preservation.

“Whoa,” shouted Amelia. “Sorry, I forgot about you.”

“So did I,” answered a disorientated Rayn. “What’s happening?”

“We’ve slept all day. I’ve got to see to Mum.” Amelia wriggled free and ran down the stairs. Her mother wasn’t in her room and she barged into the living room, terrified of what problems she may have caused.

Lucy was up and dressed and sitting in her carver chair looking very pleased with herself.

“Good afternoon. Are you all right, my love?” she asked her daughter, smiling broadly.

It was then that a wave of embarrassment washed through her as she noticed Molly, Nigel and the twins sitting at the table as well. The twins were eating. Nigel turned away quickly, trying to stop the boys from giggling. Molly’s eyebrows went up at the sight of her.

“Would you like to rethink your entry, Amelia?” she said, with a broad grin on her face.

Realising she was only wearing a blouse and pants, Amelia froze. By contrast, her face went hot with embarrassment. As she fled from the scene she heard Molly call out to her. “I’ll bring your new tracksuits up.”

When she walked back into the bedroom Rayn was getting dressed. “Amelia, what happened to you?” she said.

“It’s lucky you didn’t go first,” and Amelia told her about the events. Rayn almost cried with laughter doubled up on the floor.

“Stop it, Rayn. Please, stop laughing at me, it’s not fair” begged Amelia. But each plea for sympathy just increased Rayn’s laughter.

“Oh Amelia,” Rayn managed to utter through her convulsions, “you really must get over your shyness.”

There was a polite knock on the open door. It was Molly, with their clothes. “Really Rayn,” she admonished the girl in a friendly but stern voice. “If Amelia has a hang-up about her body, as a friend you should support her, not laugh.” She turned to Amelia. “That must have been very embarrassing, Amelia. I’m so sorry.”

Rayn apologised, though she was still laughing. “I’m sorry, Amelia. I just couldn’t help it.”

“That’s okay, I suppose. I can’t help it either. I never thought of it as a hang-up before. Is that what it is, Molly?”

Molly looked at her and remembered the age. Old enough to be knocking on the door of maturity, but young enough to be terrified that someone might open it.

“Don’t you worry, young lady,” she said, trying to ease Amelia’s anxiety. “As you get older you’ll find there’s a time and a place. Everything will be okay, believe me.”

“Thanks Molly,” Amelia replied.

“Is my Mum still down there?” asked Rayn.

“Sort of. Well, at least the shell is. I’m not sure where the rest of her has gone,” Molly smiled. “What a great day that was yesterday. I can’t get over it. Here’s your clothes, I’ll be downstairs,” and she left them to it.

Amelia’s embarrassment had all but died away as she and Rayn stood in the living room in their new day-glow tracksuits. Rayn’s was bright red and Amelia’s was yellow.

“Who did this?” Rayn was incensed and demanded to know who was responsible for the ‘Joke’.

“What are you playing at, mother?” Amelia asked.

Lucy gave a wide grin. “Very nice,” she said.

“Oh Mum,” wailed Amelia. “We can’t be seen out in these.”

“Yes you can. That’s the whole point.” She was adamant. “You go running when it’s dark, and in those you will most definitely be seen. That is precisely why you will wear them. That’s it. No discussion!”

“Think yourselves lucky,” said Molly. “Mine’s bright green. Nigel says if we go out together we’ll look like a set of traffic lights.” When the laughter died down, she added, “I think you two had better swap. That red one really clashes with your hair, Rayn.”

The two deflated girls slumped down at the table, thoroughly dejected, and joined the boys picking at the cold sausages, chicken drumsticks, cheese biscuits and pickles from the day before.

Bridie appeared. She was carefully guiding what appeared to be a self-levitating tray of tea and coffee.

“Oh my God, mother, are you all right?” said Rayn.

“Mryte,” she mumbled as she gently guided the tray to the table. Rayn understood why Molly had called her a ‘shell’. She looked completely hollow as she turned and glided from the room. Amelia was trying not to laugh at the expression on Rayn’s face.