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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

‘You’ve suffered a terrible loss,’ she told a short plump woman. The woman nodded, and tears flowed down from her big sad bulgy eyes. ‘A terrible loss, and not so long ago. A child of yours, maybe?’

The woman sobbed.

‘My little boy, Davey.’

‘Davey,’ repeated Mary, her tear-filled eyes gazing at some distant place that no one else could see. ‘Davey. I see him now. He’s in the arms of our Mother, home and safe, happy and warm, waiting for the waking you can be with him again.’

The woman grabbed hold of her hand, pressed trading sticks into it, and then squeezed it closed, so Mary couldn’t return them. ‘Thankyou thankyou thankyou.’

Mary crossed the circle, stood in front of another woman, tall and slender, and looked up into her eyes.

‘But you, my dear, our Mother can’t reach. She calls out to you, but you turn away. She cries out to warn you, but you act like you don’t care. How you hurt poor Gela. She’s crying crying. But she doesn’t cry for herself, you know. She cries for you. She cries because she knows you have forgotten how to hear her, forgotten even that she was ever there. “Reach out to her, Mary!” she begs me. “Please reach out to her and teach her to listen, or her time will come and her shadow will be alone out there in the blackness, and I won’t be able to call her home.”’

The tall woman looked down at her, her face unmoving. You shouldn’t have taken that one on, Mary, I thought to myself. You really shouldn’t have. No way will she bend for you, and now you’ll just look silly in front of everyone. But Mary didn’t look worried at all.

‘You’re hiding something,’ she told the tall woman. ‘You and I know what it is. Our Mother knows what it is. Do you want to tell it to everyone, or do you want to make peace with your Mother on your own?’

Still the woman stared down at her coldly, and Mary’s big square face stared straight back up. It made me think of two men having an arm-wrestling contest, each one straining against the pressure of the other’s muscle. You’ve taken on more than you can handle, Mary, I thought again. But then quite suddenly the tall woman broke, covering her face with her hands and shaking with sobs. Mary put her arms round her.

‘It’s okay,’ she murmured, holding the woman tightly. ‘It’s going to be okay. You’re back with your Mother again, and she’ll help you home.’

People all round the circle were crying as they watched this, and some threw down trading sticks and blackglass arrowheads. It was part of my job to gather up these presents.