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Back Daughter of Eden
Chapters (68)
  1. Title page
  2. Dedication
  3. Part I
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. Fourteen
  18. Fifteen
  19. Sixteen
  20. Seventeen
  21. Eighteen
  22. Nineteen
  23. Twenty
  24. Twenty-one
  25. Twenty-two
  26. Twenty-three
  27. Twenty-four
  28. Twenty-five
  29. GAIA YOUNG. SUBJECTIVE IMPRESSIONS.MISSION DAY 20. 20:25 MT.
  30. Part II
  31. Twenty-six
  32. Twenty-seven
  33. Twenty-eight
  34. Twenty-nine
  35. Thirty
  36. Thirty-one
  37. Thirty-two
  38. Thirty-three
  39. Thirty-four
  40. Thirty-five
  41. Thirty-six
  42. Thirty-seven
  43. GAIA YOUNG. SUBJECTIVE IMPRESSIONS.MISSION DAY 22. 20:05 MT.
  44. Thirty-eight
  45. Thirty-nine
  46. Forty
  47. Forty-one
  48. GAIA YOUNG. SUBJECTIVE IMPRESSIONS.MISSION DAY 25. 15:30 MT.
  49. Forty-two
  50. Forty-three
  51. Forty-four
  52. Forty-five
  53. Forty-six
  54. Forty-seven
  55. Forty-eight
  56. Forty-nine
  57. Fifty
  58. Fifty-one
  59. Fifty-two
  60. Fifty-three
  61. Fifty-four
  62. Part III
  63. Fifty-five
  64. Fifty-six
  65. Fifty-seven
  66. Fifty-eight
  67. Also by Chris Beckett
  68. Copyright page

Where I grew up we followed Jeff of course, and we used to just laugh at ideas like that, but Mary said the Kneefolk were like people who sit and shiver in some cold place, secretly wishing they were warmer, but telling themselves loudly all the time that they’re warm enough already and that anyway there’s no such thing as fire. ‘Doesn’t the fact you long for a thing show that it’s out there somewhere to be found?’ That’s what Mary used to say. ‘If we feel cold, there’s fire. If we feel hungry, there’s food. If we want a man and his dick, well, there are men with dicks who want us too. It’s the same with the true home we all long for. It’s there, if we can just find our way to it.’

And that’s what the Circle was, Mary taught me, a way home. So I tried not to think of people who stayed hungry, or people who died of cold, or people who longed for someone to hold them but never found one all their lives, and I stood by the Circle with the other Davidfolk, and sang ‘Come Tree Row’.

Afterwards I laid out a buckskin on the ground for my kids, and another for me and Dave, up beside the trunk of a redlantern tree.

‘How do we know the Johnfolk won’t come?’ Fox wanted to know, looking up at me with his big big eyes.

For my kids, I was home, like mothers usually are for little kids. I was the safe warm place they knew they could come back to. But that was a hard part to play when I was scared scared myself.

‘They won’t come, darling. They’re too far away and they’ve got our guards to fight. And anyway, we’ve got Strongheart, don’t forget. He’s strong and smart and powerful and he’ll know exactly what to do. We’re going to Davidstand where he lives, so he can look after us.’

Poor Fox was so tired from all that walking that, frightened as he was, he still sank straight down into sleep. Candy was the same. ‘I saw the boats first,’ she said as she closed her eyes, and then she was gone. Metty took a bit longer to settle, but eventually his eyes closed, and I kissed his twisted little face and laid him carefully down. Dave put his arm round me as I stretched out on the ground beside him. He’d been on buckback all waking of course. He hadn’t had the exercise that I’d had. All the muscles in his body were taut with fear, and I knew he wouldn’t sleep, just worry worry worry, eating himself up inside.