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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

Mary smiled. ‘Her skin was dark, and Tommy’s was light. But that doesn’t mean that she was black like the sky or that he was white like these stones, and it doesn’t mean there were two different kinds of people. I mean, look . . .’ Mary held her arm against the old woman’s. ‘My skin is a bit lighter than yours, and Angie’s here is darker. But you get that everywhere, don’t you? The same as you get people with different colour eyes and hair. My eyes are grey, look, and yours and Angie’s are brown. Everyone’s different, but that doesn’t mean there were ever black people and white people living apart from one another!’

She gave the old woman a friendly, teasing prod. ‘What an idea! Next you’ll be telling me there are green people and blue people!’

The woman giggled at that. Mary had shown her how she’d got the story wrong, but done it without shaming her or making her feel small or bad.

‘You’re so good at that,’ I told her afterwards when it was just the two of us again beside our fire, the guards a little way off through the trees. ‘You’re so angry with people sometimes, but then with someone like that you’re kind kind. You always seem to know which way will work best.’

‘I only get angry with people if they ought to know better,’ Mary said. ‘I get angry if they know quite well what Gela wants from them but pretend they don’t. But I can’t blame people if they’ve been told the wrong stories and just don’t understand. They’re doing their best with what they’ve got, the same as you and me.’

‘But how can you tell whether someone knows but pretends they don’t, or whether it’s just that they don’t understand?’

‘It’s just practice, Angie, practice and hard work. You’ll be just as good at it as I am one waking, or most likely even better. I’m so looking forward to that. I’m so looking forward to you and me being shadowspeakers together, talking about our work, trying together to understand the mind of our Mother.’

I don’t know why, but I clearly remember that when we lay down to sleep that waking, I couldn’t settle. I just couldn’t stop myself from thinking about the people I used to know at Knee Tree Grounds and how far they were away from me, and I missed them so much I ached inside.