London London London!
1 May 1973
Message to Ms Jed Kelly, Deadsville, Australia
I’m an assistant editor!!!!! Assistant editors do not make the tea. I’m going to splurge on meat for dinner, a treat that you cannot imagine in your world with fifty million sheep.
Love and hugs,
J xxx
PS Have just discovered how handsome a man can look in a kilt. And out of it! Must fly. Will tell you more next time!
RA ZACHARIA
The wooden path along the river was open to anyone, though it had been built for the River View children. And a fishing line was the perfect excuse to sit there. No one looked at a man with a fishing line. But Ra Zacharia could look at them.
He had been afraid from 40’s description that the baby might die before he could make use of it. Already they had had to use the respirator, clear its throat of mucus. But there it was, as Matron Clancy crossed from her office to the refectory, clasped in its sling against her chest, her hands automatically caressing it, no respirator needed.
He relaxed. If the child had been close to death, he’d have had to kidnap it — easy enough to do, for who would think anyone would want a damaged child? But once it had vanished there would be a search. A baby was hard to hide, even one who didn’t cry. Far better that it should stay here, cared for, till he needed it.
Ra Zacharia stood and stretched, and gazed across the river, delighting that his sight was clear and even, no sign of the haze and zigzags of the horror months before the Elders had made contact.
The tumour was still there. Oneness with the universe meant you knew your body. He knew his extremely well indeed. The tumour might be smaller, but it lurked within his brain. Only when the Elders had the Sacrifice they demanded would he be free, whole and clean, eternal as the universe.
Forever.
Ra Zacharia picked up his fishing rod and strolled back along the river as the woman vanished into the refectory with the baby.