Chapter 10

In the morning, Will and I were both awake early. We lay in our bags and chatted until nine o’clock. Few people seemed inclined to move much before then, but after nine the breakfast queues formed rapidly.

There was nothing in my carrier except breakfast. I didn’t know what I thought I needed, it just felt like time for another little something.

I suppose there’s a lot of books around I’ve not read yet. Ought to go in search of a swap. Will and I’ll get tired of each other’s company before long.

Ken arrived before we’d finished breakfast. I handed him his chess set.

‘Ta. I had a brainwave. I told Mum what I wanted the lighter for, and I’ve got it without saying a dickie bird to Dad. She says he’s forgotten he’s got it, and she’ll just slip it back in his bag when we’ve finished with it.’

‘And Mum isn’t the least interested herself, I suppose.’

‘Nope. I knew she wouldn’t be. She’s always keen on my showing a sense of curiosity, but she thinks you’re a couple of big babies. She said not to tell you she said that, and that Dad’s a big baby too.’

Will took the lighter, and collected all our breakfast packaging into one carrier. I went into the middle lavatory. At least they’re still clean. Is anyone or anything cleaning them?

I put my head in the hole and put my towel around it to block our the light from behind.

Will’s taking his time.

After a while Will’s green glows became visible. They didn’t have any clear form or any detail. I began to think again about magic doors to other existences; there was definitely a feeling of vast space down there, but it didn’t seem to be the same vast space as that under the adjacent cubicles.

Perhaps it’s just a very deep shaft, with matt black walls.

If so, Will will see when he drops his papers down. Which he must have done, by now. I’d better let someone else in here.

Will was waiting for me.

‘Frustrating, isn’t it. All this stuff’s non-combustible. I bet the clothes are too. Just at the moment, I wouldn’t want to part with the books.’

‘We could try my towel, it’s pretty grotty already. But I wouldn’t want to part with my clothes until we know if we get any more. I hope Ken isn’t going to wait for a week in there. He surely doesn’t really think you’re still waiting for a cubicle.’

He appeared almost immediately. When we had found ourselves a space on the floor some way from the toilet corner, he said:

‘What happened? Wouldn’t the lighter work? But I saw someone’s pee. You can’t see it until it’s gone quite a way, there’s something in the way, and after a bit further it disappears again.’

‘Quite likely it’s just falling out of the shaft of light. I think the air down there is fantastically clear. The lighter worked well enough. But these cartons won’t burn. Let’s see if you can climb that hawser, Ken. Where’s that grotty towel, Pete?’

Ken swarmed up the hawser like a monkey. It was a good feeling not to be frustrated for once. He disappeared from sight.

‘Hey! Can you see what you’re doing up there? We can’t see you any more! Don’t go up too far!’ Or fall. God! What would I say to his parents?

‘Don’t worry. I’m sitting on the beam. I can’t see a lot, but I can see the hawser all right, to climb back down.’

‘What beam? Don’t worry, don’t tell us until you’re safely down again. Come on!’

‘I’m just having a rest. I want my eyes to get used to the dark first, to see as much as I can, too.’

‘Put your hands on your cheeks then, to shield your eyes from the light from below.’ We’re beginning to attract a crowd, talking so loud and looking up. Damn.

But it was too late. When Ken came down, everyone wanted to know what he’d seen.

At least it’s Ken who’s the centre of attention, not me and Will. We can’t desert him, and everyone knows we’re with him, but it’s his face they’ll remember, and they’ll just think he’s a kid being a kid.

He loves it, anyway.

We’ll let everyone else ask him all the questions. We’ll catch him later.

Will had obviously had the same thought; neither of us said a word.

How can I get up there? He’s seen quite a lot, it seems, but doesn’t know what to make of most of it.

This was obviously becoming apparent to everyone; they were drifting away. I was beginning to think we’d got off lightly, when Irene appeared.

‘There you are Ken! What’s all this I hear about you climbing ropes? What’d happen if you fell? I don’t see a hospital round here, do you?

‘And you, Pete, you ought to be ashamed of yourself, encouraging him like that!’

Ouch. You could have told me off in private, Irene.

At least you don’t know Will.

I felt about two inches tall. I didn’t say a word, and I could feel myself going red. Irene stormed off, towing Ken by his ear. Will and I were soon left alone.

‘Come on, Pete.’

Will led me to another part of the hall. He knows how I feel. He thinks it’ll be better somewhere else, with people who weren’t there.

I still felt very wretched. I had the feeling that everyone was whispering about us, all around us; knowing it wasn’t really so didn’t help at all.

‘I feel pretty bad myself. He’s gone off with your towel, and we’ve still got his dad’s lighter.’

‘That means Irene’ll be back, before she gets caught borrowing the lighter. I wish I could drop down a hole in the floor.’

‘Hopefully she might be a bit less abrasive next time – after all, she knew what he wanted the lighter for.’

‘True. Somehow I can’t imagine her actually being apologetic though.’

But she was positively conciliatory when she did find us, not very much later. She had my towel in her hand.

‘I’ve got a book, too. It’s absolute rubbish. I wouldn’t want to inflict it on anyone else. Maybe it’ll burn. If Ken was a bit younger, I’d go into a cubicle with him to watch myself, but I’ll wait for his report and yours. I wouldn’t want to block yet another cubicle.

‘I bet Ken told you I called you a couple of big babies. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I’m a big baby myself. I’d really like to know a bit more about this place too. I bet Harry would as well, really, but I can’t talk to him about it because I’ve no idea how he’ll react. He might be fine, or he might go off the deep end. He’s so unpredictable.’

Makes two of you, I thought, but I kept the thought to myself. Maybe I can see the same thought going through Will’s mind. Might mention it to him later – if I remember.

Will was braver than me, or just a bit less embarrassed about the earlier fiasco. ‘I think you’re right that sending Ken up the hawser wasn’t such a great idea, but I’d still love to know what he could see. I’ve not managed to think of any way of getting to see up there myself. I tried to make a tube to look between the lights with, but the only thing I’d got to make the tube with was those aluminium cartons, and the light reflected inside it too much. What I need is some black card, but I don’t suppose we’ll get anything like that.’

Irene reddened. ‘I’m really sorry about telling you off in front of everyone like that. I really didn’t think...’

‘That’s okay. You were right.’

Daft bugger, Pete. Don’t be such a wimp.

‘Oh, I know I was right. But I should have done it quietly in private later.’

‘That would have been better, certainly. But your reaction was understandable.’

Will’s better at this than I am.

‘Tell the truth, I’d love to know what he saw, too. But I can’t ask him in front of Harry. Harry doesn’t even know about it yet. I’m not looking forward to when he finds out. It’s bound to crop up in conversation with someone sooner or later. He’ll want to know why I didn’t tell him straight away.’

‘I can understand why very well...’

‘I’m sure you can. But he won’t. Actually, if Ken hadn’t said, “don’t tell Dad,” I might have done. I’m glad Ken’s got that much sense. I’m not looking forward to when Harry does find out, but it could have been ten times worse if I’d told him straight away, while I was still wound up about it myself.’

‘With a bit of luck no-one will say anything. Probably most people within earshot were as embarrassed as we were. They were all asking Ken what he’d seen, no-one had thought about the risks until you arrived.’

Maybe they were all embarrassed. But they can’t have been as embarrassed as me, surely? It was me she told off. But the idea that everybody else was embarrassed too, if only a little, was quite comforting in a way.

‘I hope you’re right. Maybe the biggest risk is that Ken will talk about it to Graham – or, even worse, Leon. Whether they would manage to keep quiet, even if they were asked to, is highly doubtful. I’ll try to impress on Ken the importance of not telling the two little ’uns.

‘I’d better get back to them all before Harry begins to wonder where I’ve got to. He’s playing chess with Ken at the moment, but even he might eventually notice I’ve been in the loo longer than usual.’

Well. She might have all the tact of a bull in a china shop, but her intentions are better than one might have thought.

‘That’s a turn up for the book. I didn’t expect her to realize what she’d done at all, much less come and apologize.’

‘Exactly what I was just thinking. And that I can be pretty tactless too sometimes – just don’t realize what’s going on quickly enough.’

‘Oh, that happens to everyone. It’s a question of how often and how badly. I’ve not seen you do it yet. She made quite a scene. I can’t imagine you doing that.’

‘I couldn’t imagine her coming and apologizing, either. But she did.’

‘True. I wonder at what point she realized it was your towel, not Ken’s?’

‘He probably told her pretty quick, before they got anywhere near Harry. I think he knows his dad.’

Laughter.

There was nothing to do but chat until lunchtime, and that’s what we did. Well, almost nothing. Will realized at some point that the cover of the book Irene reckoned was rubbish was fairly dark, and that if he tore it off he could make a better tube to look past the lights. I wanted to check first whether Irene’s assessment of the book was fair. Without reading very far, I came to the conclusion that she was right – or at least we were of the same opinion. That was good enough for Will and he didn’t bother to read it at all before he tore the cover off, but he still couldn’t see much past the lights.

We agreed we should wait for Ken before trying to drop burning pages down the loo. ‘We’ve got enough to do it more than once, but we shouldn’t occupy the loos unnecessarily too often.’

I reckoned it was fairly certain that the book would burn okay. ‘They can’t have had them specially printed on fire-retardant paper, surely?’

‘No, but they could have treated normal books.’

They had, but we didn’t discover that for a couple of days, when Ken next sought us out. He told us that his mum had said we should keep the lighter. ‘Dad thinks he must have dropped it in the hotel. And you never know when you’ll find a use for it. More likely you than me or Mum.’

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