Monday 2 June 2014

Above the Vaulted Sky - Page 153

                Yates’s door clicks and it swings open. ‘Do you think Graham’s coming for us?’

                ‘If he can find the direction we took, maybe.’

                We’ve learnt ways of reading the Edge. Sometimes, when people travel, they leave a mark on the air behind them. Like Teague’s blue energy, but less pronounced, more like a breadcrumb trail of disrupted atoms. We’d figured that was the way Teague had followed us across the world in the first place.

                I wonder if Graham is following. Is he brave enough? I hope he is, for Yates’s sake more than anyone else’s. Sometimes you find you can take or leave a friend. It doesn’t happen a lot. Everyone deserves second, third and fourth chances to redeem themselves. Sometimes though there’s a backlog of evidence to show how terrible a friend someone can be. Graham’s that friend to me. Selfish to the last. He makes Yates happy, and that’s one of the things I care about. Ever since I met him in the hayfield all those months ago I knew that I was supposed to help him. I lifted the noose from his memories, we liberated him from his stepfather, we found him happiness. I know I have to keep it that way. I know I make Penny proud by doing so. I also know I have to keep going though, I have to continue to show the people who matter my care and attention. Otherwise I’ve deserted them.

                We walk back to Elle and Robin, who now stands on the threshold of the door.

                ‘Easton, Yates, meet Robin,’ Elle proclaims, waving her hand. ‘A woman, a mother, a loving sister and Doctor of Physics at King’s College London.’

                ‘How on earth have you found all that out using the clang system?’ I ask.

                ‘I guess I’m just the far superior conversationalist,’ she replies, crossing her arms and winking.

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