On the train back to Berlin, Lena has another conversation with Mike. The motion of the train is coming up through the wheels as she takes me out of the bag and places me on the table. She opens out the page with the map. Pointing the phone down, she takes a photograph and sends it to Mike.
Mike, she says, you’ve got to come over.
It’s a bit difficult right now, he says.
I have it. Henning gave me directions.
Where?
The map I sent you, she says. In the book – Rebellion. On the last page. Remember? Henning told me how to get there.
There’s a lot going on here, Lena.
Mike, she says, there’s something in this. I can feel it. I don’t know what it is. But we need to go, you and me. The two of us, let’s go out there together. Find out where it leads to. It’s like we can step back in time.
Can’t do it, Lena. Not right now.
It wouldn’t take long, Mike.
It’s Mom, he says.
This map, Lena says. This book. It’s beginning to open up a whole new world for me, Mike. There’s a story here that I want to excavate. Bring it to life in my work. I need you to come and find it with me. Us both. You’ll love it.
I can’t leave my mother right now.
What’s going on?
Do you know what the neighbours have now done? You’re not going to believe this, Lena. They’ve put up this gigantic fence around the parking lot. I know it’s their property, they have a right to do that. But it now means my mother can’t get into the house around the back any more. If she parks in the lot, she has to walk back out into the street again to go in the front door.
No way, Lena says.
Yeah, he says. And wait for it. They have now put up security lights. And cameras. It’s lit up like a stadium at night. It’s not just, like, one or two lights. It’s fifteen bright arc lights, I counted them, just to let our lawyers know everything that’s going on. I mean, how is this going to look in court? The judge is going to say they’re being totally unreasonable. They’re creating an atmosphere of hostility.
They must hate themselves.
The place looks like a detention centre. I swear, it’s like a prison yard. All you need is prisoners walking around in a circle twice a day, and armed wardens standing by. My mother can’t even bear looking out there at night. She’s embarrassed when her friends come to play bridge and they ask – what’s that going on out back? She’s got to explain it to them – it’s a parking lot, the neighbours have decided to light it up at night for security reasons. Which is entirely their choice, of course, but it now sounds like it’s a rough neighbourhood, like people are no longer safe if they need all those lights and high security fences. And what’s more, they leave the lights on all night. I had to get my mother some blackout curtains.
They must hate their own lives, Lena says. That’s the only explanation I can think of. The neighbours. Can they not see how ugly it is, even if it is their own lights?
You don’t hear your own noise either, Mike says.
This will backfire on them in court, Lena says. It’s pure intimidation. Is it even legal?
This is it, Mike says. My mother is not going as far as the courts. She’s had enough.
She’s not going to sell up, is she?
What else?
It’s your home, Mike.
She’s made up her mind.
Does that mean they’ve won?
What can we do? She was going to have to sell up sometime. A day comes when you leave it all behind. We’ve all got to keep moving on.
She has been driven out.
The other neighbours have got together in a group to fight this whole thing legally, Mike says. But she’s out. She has no time for that confrontation. She’s been having trouble with her stomach in the last while. Doesn’t eat properly. She used to have a great appetite. She’s a mean cook, you know that, Lena. But this has got to her.
And the old cop at the back, he’s gone nuts. Dan Mulvaney. He’s threatened to shoot the neighbours. If they come anywhere near his property, he’ll shoot without warning. Intruders, he calls them. Interlopers. He’s standing at the back door with his rifle, day and night, just waiting for them to put their heads over the fence.
It’s like war, Lena says.
The neighbour’s kid, playing basketball, Mike says. He used to go in there to get his ball back now and again from the old cop. Dan would have a chat with him. I’ve even seen him in the parking lot throwing the ball into the hoop himself. Now that’s all over. If that ball goes into Dan’s place, it’s gone.
I can see his point, Mike says. The old cop. It’s his whole life, that house. He raised four sons there. He lost his wife only a couple years ago. I see him up there on the roof doing those repair jobs himself. That’s all he has now. That and a bit of hunting at the weekends.
It’s just sad, Lena says.
Hey, it’s not the end of the world, Lena. My mother can have a long life. She’s talking about moving into a condo. She’s quite upbeat, looking up all these properties around the state. This might be the start of something new. Who knows? It might be the best thing that ever happened.