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ACT FOUR

Chapter Forty Three

Clanners Way

‘It was snowing red rose petals in Foxford Bridge’

Lucia and Barney narrating

‘Look Lucy look!’-

           

Me and Barney had lucked out. I never met Christy Peters but I loved his pad, he was Clan Orca, like a lot of mariners, and merchants. They still used money for trade, though not in their personal lives.

            It was one big open-plan room, with nooks and cupboards round the sides, a low wooden table and a shell stair to the tower

            As I came in the door a large orange cat got between my muddy legs, meowing pitifully, with her white barred tail in the air. So I checked out the kitchen area, found the cat food, the scissors and a bowl of apples, and followed Barney up the spiral staircase to look for a shower.

 

            The tower was a big solid greenhouse on the flat roof, with a pink water tank on top, like a dinosaur’s nipple.

            He had it done up like the bridge of a boat, with a wheel and a telescope up there, and fantastic views of Foxford Bridge and the wooded islands in the bay.

            The back part was a bathroom and I could hear Barney in there, door open, talking on the phone. I looked in.

            -‘Okay bye bye and thanks a lot.’- He was getting off the potty.

            -‘I’ve asked my recycle group to find Christy Peters. We need a rest.’- he flushed the toilet.

            There was a large bath in there. Which turned out to have limitless solar hot water. He got the shower going and we shared it, soak and soaping the mud off each other. And easing the aching and itching of bruises and scratches.

            Later I was up and clicking the scissors.

            -‘I’m so sorry dearest, but it’ll have to come off, off, off!’- I was snipping in the air to scare him.

            -‘Good idea.’- he said. Glancing down at his groin. -‘Oh you mean my hair!’-

            Those scissors were sharp and fast and I had most of his shaggy wet mane in the compost bin in a few minutes. It was a unique ecosystem but it had to go. He was practically bald by the time I’d finished.

              In fact I’d been dying to cut his hair off since I met him.

            -‘Your turn lovely.’-

            -‘No no I’ll put it up in a bun. I can’t do my Presentations with no hair.’-

            -‘Off it comes. At least part of it. Sure it nearly reaches your waist.’-

            I’d been growing my rasta locks for ten years and most of it went in ten minutes. I couldn’t help crying a little, and it was only then we found the electric shaver!

            Neither of us was specially hairy to start with. But soon he was bald as a new born baby. Not a hair on him. And I wasn’t so far off it.

            We sat cross legged eating macaroni. Stinking of aftershave and antiseptic. Up there sailing on the sofa, on The Bridge in Christy’s cottage.

            From our telescope the army and military police were nowhere to be seen. We took this as a good sign, if they’d cleared off to let the demonstrations against them pass by, it at least showed they were sensitive about them, and these protests could go on forever and ever, so…

            -‘I feel like I’m on Cruise Yacht. I must phone my kids.’-

            -‘Take a rest Lucy. I’ve promised to look at the questions for the Ultimatum demo, the net works here it seems.’-

             He’d got the little portable going, it seemed none the worse in its plastic pouch. 

            -‘Change some phrases, lend my famous common touch. They think I can do magic spells because I was speaking when the soldiers mutinied last year.’-

            -‘Why questions? For who?’-

            -‘Chosen by online voting. They’re to ask the General of the PIF, if he appears. But they’ll use some of them for the fake General, Tootsy Coopers and his gang…’-

            -‘Who’s that?’-

            -‘This guy does comic impressions on TV. A great one of the General. It is pretty funny, and totally political.’-

            -‘But why do that?’-

            -‘Set the mood I suppose. There’s a program of entertainment before the Ultimatum expires. Here they are. Decode..’-

 

            I’d finished my plate. Rolled off the sofa.

            -‘Fancy some fruit? Or shall I roll a spliff?’-

            -‘Both, both please. Oof, these questions are heavy heavy..’-

            I threw a juicy looking apple at him, way off target. But he caught it cleanly with his complete hand.

            -‘Maybe the comedian is on TV.’-  I said, picking up a remote from the table.

            -‘Six o clock, Clanners’ Way, it’s just starting. Put it on why not. Maybe we’ll see what Sol’s group are doing down the road in Foxford.’-

            I flopped down beside him to watch, on my tummy, feet in the air and curving in my back.

            -‘Clanners’ Way. I’ve never seen it. It wasn’t on last year was it?’-

            -‘I think so, but just once a week, and chaotic. Now it’s five days a week, there’s a lot of video CoOps, who do a sequence each. Plus they have writing competitions and editing workshops and…’-

            -‘All that for a soapy serial!’-                                                                          see Glossary  ‘Clan Fashions’ here

            -‘There’s loads of good film groups around just now. It’s gone planetwide on the Free-Net stations. Clanners’ Way is fashionable.’-

            -‘Really?.. Here they are!  Looks like Clan Coppice type kids having a party. Cool and sexy all right, and what, kids from all over watch this?’-

            -‘Trillions of billions. It’s copied and highly collectible. I mean, it’s free, and you can choose your CLAN, fashion and music and do it yourself, um. The fellas get a heroic image of themselves, and good friends and..  like, despising what was essential before..’-

            The screen had flashed to a series of announcements

            -‘You don’t need money to be a Clanner, on the contrary.’-

            I was still stretching on the rug.

            -‘But they do get dignity, some embedded ideas, plus access to the Free-Uni.. And then there’s the online game.’-

            He was finally getting a good picture. I was munching my big sweet apple.

            -‘I should’ve guessed.’-

            -‘You don’t accumulate cash or too much stuff, but making or giving or inventing does raise your levels. Your Skills, your Love and Strength levels, for example. In fact you lose some Cred with excess cash. Danny has a Combined Level 8.35!’-

            -‘That’s good?’-

            -‘Watch out your lot don’t get hooked on it. I mean, it’s a nice video game but why not do it in real life? Look the Earth Clanners have a kindergarten. They’ve got kiddies, ha! They must be getting old. With African rap music.. and jungle tattoos.’-              (see  Glossary  Clans)

            -‘That’s better now..Tell me the plot, then I can watch it. Maybe they dub it in Spanish.’-

            -‘Sure they do.The Clan Orca lot were trying to get a container ship of scrap computers and stuff, for free. Already happened in real life.’-

 

            I was checking the mobile for messages. The cat had decided to curl up against me.

            -‘They all live in a fictional Pools area called Slumburger. Some parts are actually filmed at home in Ragwort. Do It Yourself lifestyle and fashion. They all meet up in the park and the eat-house and De-School and especially the Coppice farm and have complicated romances and conflicts. Plus shocking revelations and adventures. Soapy but copied from real life.

            Floods and climate chaos and squats and takeovers, in the background, like.’-

 

            -‘So this is what they watch. Hey pass that bottle.’-

            -‘Then family feuds and er, a lotta laughs and new dances and music and recycled clothes and inventions and festivals and parties, er, Wise-Mass voting.’-

            -‘It sounds a bit like, too much.’-I was cuddling that slinky cat.

            -‘Exaggerated. Just sparking and, and brimming over with great practical ideas, um, really anything in the news, and they do work sometimes of course and do Free-Uni. Over romantic I reckon with lots of really obvious but discreet sex.

 

            See now these two, Paula and Ricky are in Sol’s film-CoOp group, seems they’re both in love with Lewy but they haven’t told each other, and of course we don’t know if he’s gay or not yet. And the invasion’s coming. But I dunno what happened yesterday or..’-

            -‘Okay okay, I suppose I’ll watch a few. It’s good for learning the English slang.’-

            -‘Mmm, your English is better than mine, sure Sol knows the story, they’re coming to Foxford to interview the CLAN of Oscar and Mary that got killed.’-

            -‘What! But they can’t mix a real life tragedy with a soap serial!’-

            -‘Well yes, they just stop and say -‘Now this is real life.’- Look, they’re Clan Eagle, see the leather patches and tails.’-

            It looked like they were recalling a previous episode.

            -‘Turn up the sound. I see they all wear clothes, more or less, in the serial. And in real life just the fashion part..’-

            -‘Yeah well. They couldn’t show it in India or anywhere at all, I mean, with their bollocks hanging out. Clanners’ Way is banned I imagine on all official channels as it is.’-

            -‘No me sorprende nada.. I’m not surprised. But the obscenity only exists in the cultural hangups of their viewers and censors..’-

            We were just settling down to boggle at the telly, as Barney says, and I was opening the packet of crackers, cat on my lap, when something big and black flashed past the windows.

            -‘What the hell?’- I thought it was an air force attack.

            A giant black bird was soaring up, slower, and much slower, then diving,  and swooping on down towards Foxford.

            -‘Clan Eagle.’- said Barney, pointing up at some more, high in the sky. –‘Showing off their new flying suits.’-

            I tried the telescope, squatting and swinging it up, without success, then something passed, I went back. And then I saw them soaring.

            -‘Oh Barney Barney, look look they’re amazing!’-

            I could see them clear and close, gliding into the wind, relatively hardly moving. A whole gang of Clanners in leather patches, laughing and swooping into each other to pass a flask of something. Obviously at home and rippling through the air. Effortless, amazing!

            -‘I want to fly as well. They really can fly!’-

            -‘I’ll take you for a training flight one day. Maxie and Macker did the course as well.’-

            -‘I know. Please please. But explain me, how is it possible we can fly?’-

            -‘The wonders of modern pneumatic hydraulics, ultralight mini tanks, plus the safety of wrap-around airbags. You can flap your wings for up to half an hour if necessary. With five or ten times our muscle strength. Then if all goes awry, change instantly into a giant beach ball.’-

                                                                                                                      ref 13 Flying

            -‘I can see them perfectly, have a look through this. See the pink one, like a flamingo.’-

            -‘Dyed goose and turkey feathers. See the bridge on their backs? Support cables to the shoulders, elbows and knees.’-

            -‘They have little wings on their legs as well. Look at those two flying together.. Oh wow Barney they’re making love.’- I said. And they actually were.

            -‘In your sexy imagination. They’re probably adjusting straps for a dive.’-

            -‘But they could make love? I saw them.’-

            -‘Not in front of the Clanners Way cameras, look here on the telly.’- he explained, wrongly.

            -‘The brown one’s diving, look!’-  I said.

 

            Suddenly it was snowing rose petals in Foxford Bridge.

            The yunker in the big brown bird suit came whizzing down.

            Right under the wide -‘LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED’- banner. Did a backwards loop, and drifted slowly through the petals to a landing area, amid cheers and clapping, in front of the big posters of Oscar and Mary.

            He’s followed by a white feathered girl, dropping from way, way up high.

 

            She bunches her wings, a blond suicidal angel.

            Diving faster than falling through a cloud of flowers.

            Suddenly low and close.. and much too fast.

            Hair whipping, her mouth and eyes wide with terror.

            A slight flap, a twist and splay of the tail, and she is soaring, easily up and away.

            Gracefully looping backwards, as the purple vulture whistles down.

            Swooping in past her..

 

            -‘She nearly pressed her airbag button. Then she’d bounce like a balloon!’– someone was commenting on the TV.

            -‘I just hope Paco and Duna aren’t watching.’- I said. -‘If they flew like that I’d die worrying.’-

            Bracken, the brown Eagle, was helping Deirdre extricate herself from her white angel suit.       While Hellfire the vulture seemed to just jump out of his violet feathers.

            They raised their arms to the cheering crowd, then cartwheeled together on cue across the runway. Now hugging their companions, Dekko and Gemma, the Eagles who were being interviewed by Paula and Ricky, the visitors from Clanners’ Way.

            -‘And all the rest of them. Aren’t they coming down?’- Ricky spoke evenly into the microphone. Sol had them well drilled.

            -‘No no. They’re having a go at those toy spy planes.’- said Deirdre. Still panting heavily.-

            -‘And then they’re going up to the city.’-

            -‘For the Ultimatum demo?’- asked Ricky, checking his question list.

            -‘That’s right. We’ve been voting on our own CLAN proposal, suggested by the Eagles.’-

–           -‘Oh yeah, what’s that?’- Paula, the star-crossed lover in Clanners’ Way had taken the mike.

            -‘You know already.’- She acted fed up. -‘Oh, okay. We’re going to get rid of being poor and hungry. And stop CO2 and climate change. In all the world.’-                                                                                                                  ref 28 Youth Revolution

            -‘Oh yeah. Just like that, mate.’-

            -‘Why not. With just a few per cent of their military budget they could do it. But we want fifty, allocated within a month, or we declare war.’-

            -‘You must be joking.’-

            -‘Phase one. In a hundred and thirteen countries. Violent pacifist actions.’-

            -‘Like what?’-

            -‘That depends, could be just talking to people.’- said Bracken.

            -‘That won’t scare the fancy pants off them.’- said Paula, pouting.

            -‘We need to close all oil and coal fired power stations, for a start, and stop petrol or diesel vehicles and planes. Also the banks and money system will have to go, like over here. They enforce the debt trap scam behind world hunger.’– Deirdre explained.

            -‘So we just declare war. It does sound barking bonkers!’-

            -‘The war started already. It’s their system that’s totally crazy. Now we got some ideas, and we just got some millions of kids to help us. We don’t got cruise missiles, but we can fly… Okay Jimmy now’s the moment, fire away!’-

            Hellfire was grinning wildly at the camera and repeating the signal into a mobile phone, not knowing what he was supposed to say next.

            -‘Ah yes, um, this is in honour of our friends, Mary and Oscar.’-

            Paula was waving the microphone, hopping and pointing up at the sky. We heard like distant fireworks, in real life and on the TV. But oddly out of sync. Everyone was gazing up, cameras yawing. There was a smoke trail, tiny shapes darting against the black and white clouds.

            A flash of flame and a little plane spiraled slowly down. As it got close we could see it was tangled up in a green fishing net, and it wasn’t so small.. Eventually it exploded, not at all dramatically, on one of the hills behind the village. Seriously scaring a single sheep.

            They’d lost another million dollar toy.

            -‘Hasta la victoria siempre.’- I laughed. -‘Always keep on till you win.‘- Waving my fists and jumping up. Half expecting the army to appear in a rage, but nothing happened.

            We went out on the roof terrace, hugging and cheering, passing each other the plum wine. Barney was bald as a yummy white mushroom and twice as delicious.

            If this was violent pacifism we were all for it.

            There was a jangling from in the glass house. We had a net call from Little Agnes Street, it was Bernie.

            -‘Hello I was trying to get through to Pardy Brown.’- The little camera was working but she didn’t recognize us.

            -‘It’s us Bernie. Big kisses. We had a hair cut, well, every hair on his body.’- I giggled. -‘But where are you?’-

            Her worry face cracked up in laughing angles.

            Then she started coughing, and had a job stopping.

            -‘Oh dear.’- I said. –‘Are you all right? Are Duna and Paco all right? Where’s Moonbeam?’-

            -‘Don’t worry Lucy. Moonie’s here rushing all over the house with Josie and Una. They’re hyper happy to be back. Any news of M and M?’

            -‘Yes we know Maxie went off in a boat with a freelance Orca. But we didn’t find her yet. What about my little babies?’-

            -‘They’ve all gone up to the demo already. Seems like there’s thousands of people wanting to help us get Maxie and Macker back. The street outside was full of people when we got here. All the neighbours were out…’-

            -‘Cool Bernie, you’re a supernova. Did you see Clanners’ Way?.. Sol had his lot down here and the local Eagles did a flying display, we could see it from here.. We’re in this weird captain’s house, eating crackers.’-

            -‘I’m sorry Bernie you got left home with the kids again.’- said Barney.

            -‘No, no I’m more than happy to watch this one out on TV. I’ll see the repeat. But what about the, um, the other thing?’-

            -‘We don’t know yet, we went to search for Maxie. Sure it’ll come on the News at seven. Hey it’s coming up now. I’ll ring back to talk to Moonie a bit later on okay?’-

            -‘Bye for now, monster smoochies.’-

            -‘Bye for now.’- we said together, and laughed.

            -‘It’s seven o clock and this is Pools TV…’- I held my breath.

            The music rose and faded as the camera zoomed slowly in on an enormous burning helicopter.

            With a line of silhouetted Clanners passing in front, lugging some heavy gear.

            Me and Barney were clutching each other’s bald bodies.

            In trepidation for Sol, and James and Jerry.

            -‘Twenty two plain clothes army and mercenaries have been arrested by CLAN defence groups in ambushes near the town of Bradmount this evening. Those detained landed in a large helicopter as part of the terrorist attacks which left six dead this morning. All of them have now been removed to safe refuges hundreds of kilometers away. At least two of the attackers are confirmed to be civilian corporate managers on a murder and torture expedition. There have been no deaths reported but at least twelve terrorists and six Clanners, Defence Volunteers, were injured. The helicopter which transported these troops….’-

            -‘They got them!’- Barney exclaimed. -‘Yes Yes Yes we really got them all!’-

            -‘Yippeee, we got them!’- I repeated.

             Really surprised and relieved, these boys had really won.

            –‘Well done Barney, James and Jerry. Well done Sol!’-

            I thought it was more Eagles flying past. But a flock of black headed gulls were diving and ducking past our tower. Over the ridge, suddenly soaring up together, as a stiff gust of wind caught them back and rattled our windows.

            Screaming like loons as they dived and vanished down the bay.

 

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previous episode

Serial of The Free: Ch 41 Love is all you need/ Ch 42 Back to the City