“I owe him,” pleaded Cecilia.
“Yeah, YOU owe him. I’ve got nothing to do with it.”
Cecilia held up the marble in the light, grasping it tightly before his eyes. Luke stood entranced, his eyes sort of glowing. It was as if the mist inside the marble started to move. Then she snatched it away, this time hiding it in the pocket of her jeans.
“All right, all right. I’ll get you as far as the Corvus Community’s HQ—the Nest—then you’re on your own, kiddo,” he said, jabbing his hands in his pockets and rocking back on his heels.
“Corvus Community. Right.” She nodded. “And that’s when you can have the marble.”
“Cool. Deal. Pray on it,” said Luke.
“Huh?” Cecilia held her two hands together in prayer like she had seen on Sunday morning TV from time to time—if she was up early enough, that is.
“Not like that. Hold your hand up to mine.”
She did as she was told and Luke held his up and pressed his palm to hers, folding his fingers into the gaps between hers.
“Now that’s a promise,” he said after a moment or two.
“OK. Promise,” agreed Cecilia.
“Right then, let’s get a move on. I’m tired and I’ve got things I need to do. I should get home,” said Luke. He looked at Cecilia long and hard, then cracked a smile and sighed, a colourful humour gathering about him. “What am I getting myself into?” he chuckled.
9Layer upon Layer
Cecilia and Luke walked side by side chatting to one another. They stopped to let a group of excited young dwellers pass—they couldn’t have been much older than Cecilia, or Luke for that matter. They were audibly excited about the forthcoming Ride or Sigh competition and a young badger-face kept slowing the rest of the party down to show them his moves. Cecilia spotted a goat-faced guy wearing a leather jacket. He looked a quite a bit bigger than the rest of them; he didn’t really fit in, and just as Cecilia was about to point him out, he disappeared. Cecilia looked back to Luke once the crowd had faded into the distance. Luke was tall and broad. He looked quite big and strong but she could tell they were around the same age.
“How old are you?” she asked.
“I’m old enough,” he said. His smile was warm and comely; his eyes sparkled even in the faintest of light. Cecilia felt herself blush.
“How old are you?” he said, turning his face away.
“I just turned twelve. It’s my birthday, well it was when I woke up this morning. If it even is still today,” she said.
“OK, but are you sure? Because I can’t tell. Who knows what you look like under all that dirt! You could be, like, seventy or something for all I know!” he replied, holding his back as if in pain and leaning on an imaginary walking stick.
“Hey!” said Cecilia, swatting the air, “I’m twelve. That’s something I know for sure. All right?” She laughed.
Luke stopped and held the outside edges of Cecilia’s arms, looking into her face and scanning it. “Yeah, I’d say you look about twelve… times fifty!” And with that he began snorting with laughter.
“Funny,” she said in the same tone she would usually use to annoy Hester. This thought distracted her for a moment.
“Are you OK?” Luke asked.
“Yeah, I just… I miss my sister, Hester. That’s all.”
Luke patted her on the shoulder. He wasn’t sure what else to do. Cecilia trailed slightly behind Luke for a short while once they began walking along again. She thought about Hester and home and inhaling deeply she reassured herself: “I am twelve. I do know where I come from and that I have a family and a cat and a life above ground. I’m not crazy. I’m just lost. I will get out of this place, I will. I know I will!”
Luke waited a moment as she caught up. He could see she was a bit blue; it seemed to hang in the air about her.
“Come on, slow coach!” he called.
Cecilia caught up with him and he put his arm around her shoulder and sort of hung off her the way teenagers do.
“So there’s a few things you should know about Jasper,” Luke said, matter of fact. “First of all, he’s blind. He lost his eyesight in a freak accident, but he’s not likely to talk to you about that so don’t bother asking. And to add insult to injury, as they say, his hearing isn’t crash-hot, but don’t worry because he’s got this really dorky contraption called an ear horn. It’s like the bell of a mini trumpet-crumpet that he wedges in his ear so he can hear you better. I don’t think it makes a difference but he swears by it. Fortunately he doesn’t go out much anyway. Mainly I look out for him and he listens out for me. We’re a team. Oh, and if he’s a bit grouchy, don’t take it personally. That’s just his way. It wears off!”
“Thanks for the information,” said Cecilia.
“Don’t mention it. Right, now walk on, straight ahead.”
“But that’s a wall,” said Cecilia.
“You always take things at face value. Don’t you see that everything has layers?”
And with that Luke ducked down low and slipped away beyond the orange light into a pocket of darkness beyond. A few moments later Cecilia heard an invisible voice calling her name playfully through the wall, sounding like a ghost. She approached the wall with her hands slightly outstretched. Just underneath the glaring light attached to the tunnel wall was a small opening; she could feel the gap with her foot.
“Hurry up! Or someone might see you. Just duck under the light. It’s fine, trust me.”
She crouched under the light running along the wall; it was bright and marked the insides of her eyelids when she blinked. She moved under it like one might in a game of limbo and shuffled into a cool dark spot behind it. It took a few moments for
