Klara and the Sun(80)

‘Helen,’ the Mother said, ‘is this really getting you anywhere? Going round and round this way? Why not just wait and see. Why torture yourself? You both did your best.’



Josie, on the other side of Rick from me, took Rick’s hand and entwined her fingers with his. She smiled at him encouragingly, but also, I thought, a little sadly. Rick returned the smile, and I wondered if they were exchanging secret messages just with their gazes.

I turned back to the window beside me, resting my forehead against the glass. I’d been watching and waiting since the earliest signs of dawn. But though the Sun’s first rays had come straight into the Second Bedroom through the gap between the buildings, I hadn’t for a second mistaken this for his special nourishment. I’d remembered of course that I should be grateful as always, but hadn’t been able to keep the disappointment from my mind. Then all through the early breakfast, and the packing, and as the Mother moved through the Friend’s Apartment checking security, I’d continued to watch and wait. And now, leaning forward and gazing past Rick and Josie, I could see the Sun, still on his morning ascent, flashing between the tall buildings as we moved past them. I thought then about the Father, closing the door of this very car, looking beyond me towards the yard and the Cootings Machine, saying, ‘Don’t worry, I heard it. The little fizzing sound. That’s the telltale signal. That monster won’t rise again.’ And then a moment later, his face looming in front of mine, his voice asking: ‘Are you okay? Can you see my fingers? How many do you see?’ and I experienced again, as I’d done all morning, a wave of anxiety that the Sun wouldn’t keep the promise he’d made in Mr McBain’s barn.

‘Listen, Rick,’ the Mother said. ‘Never mind what else happened last night, your work, your portfolio, got a thumbs up. You have to take heart from that. That’s all the more reason to believe in yourself.’



‘Mom, please,’ Josie said. ‘Rick doesn’t need big lectures just now.’ The adults couldn’t see, but she tightened her grip on Rick’s hand, and once again smiled at him. He gazed back at Josie, then said:

‘I appreciate that, Mrs Arthur. You’re always being kind to me. Thank you.’

‘There’s no telling,’ Miss Helen said. ‘No telling with Vance.’

I’d been aware for a few moments of the tall building now approaching on my side. It shared some characteristics with the RPO Building, but if anything was even taller, and because the traffic had slowed right down, I could study it carefully. The Sun was casting his rays onto its front, and one section of it had become like the Sun’s mirror, throwing back an intense reflection of his morning light. The building’s many windows had been organized into rows, vertical and horizontal, and yet the result was disorder, the rows often lining up crookedly, sometimes even running into each other. Within some of the windows, I saw office workers moving across, sometimes coming right up to the glass to gaze down at the street. But many of the windows were hard to see at all because of a gray mist drifting past them, and then in the next instant, as the Mother brought the car forward a little more, I saw through a gap between neighboring vehicles the Machine, sitting in its own space, protected from the oncoming traffic by the overhaul men’s barriers. The Machine was pumping out Pollution from its three funnels, and the start of its name – the letters ‘C-O-O’ – was there on its body. And even as I felt disappointment flood my mind, I was able to observe that this was not the same machine the Father and I had destroyed in the yard. Its body was a different shade of yellow, its dimensions a little greater – and its ability to create Pollution more than a match for the first Cootings Machine.



‘Just wait and see now, Helen,’ the Mother said. ‘Maybe there are other options for Rick anyway.’ We moved beyond the New Cootings Machine and the gray pollution mist drifted past the windshield, so that the Mother, noticing, muttered under her breath: ‘Look at this. How do they get away with it?’

‘Even if there were, Mom,’ Josie said, ‘would those be colleges you’d let me go to?’

‘I don’t understand why you and Rick need to go to the same college,’ the Mother said. ‘What are you? Married already? Young people go to all kinds of places, they can still keep in touch.’

‘Mom, do we have to talk about this right now? Rick really doesn’t need this.’

I turned to look back through the rear windshield. The tall building was still visible but the New Cootings Machine had become hidden by other vehicles. I now knew why the Sun hadn’t acted, and for a moment, I might have let my posture slump and my head hang down. Josie, leaning forward in her seat, looked at me.

‘See, Mom,’ she said, ‘you’ve upset Klara too. And she was upset enough, what with her store moving away. We need happy talk right now.’





PART FIVE





Josie began to lose her strength eleven days after our return from the city. At first this phase seemed no worse than the ones she’d gone through before, but then came new signs, such as strange breathing, and her semi-waking in the morning, eyes open but empty. If during these spells I spoke to her, she wouldn’t respond, and the Mother took to coming up to the bedroom early each morning. And if Josie was in her semi-waking condition, the Mother would stand over the bed, repeating under her breath, ‘Josie, Josie, Josie,’ as though this were part of a song she was memorizing.