The Power(100)

‘I almost was,’ says Roxy.

‘But you came back to life. The one the voice told me was coming. You are a sign,’ says Allie. ‘You are my sign, just as you always were. God’s favour is with me.’

Roxy says, ‘Don’t know about that.’

She undoes the top three buttons of her T-shirt, to show what’s there to be seen.

And Allie sees it.

And she understands that this sign which she hoped would point in one direction is pointing entirely in another.

There was a symbol that God placed in the sky after the last time She destroyed the world. She licked Her thumb and drew an arc across the Heavens, spreading the multitude of colour and sealing her promise that She would never again flood the face of the earth.

Allie looks at the crooked, upside-down bow of the curved scar across Roxy’s chest. She draws her fingertips along it gently, and though Roxy looks away she lets her friend touch her wound. The rainbow, inverted.

‘You were the strongest one I ever knew,’ she says, ‘and even you have been brought low.’

Roxy says, ‘I wanted you to know the truth.’

‘You were right,’ says Allie. ‘I know what this means.’

Never again: the promise written across the clouds. This thing cannot be allowed to happen again.

‘Listen,’ says Roxy, ‘we should talk about the North. The war. You’re a powerful woman now.’ She makes a little half-smile. ‘You always was on your way somewhere. But there’s bad things happening up there. I’ve been thinking. Maybe you and me together can find a way to stop it.’

‘There’s only one way to stop it,’ says Mother Eve, calmly.

‘I just think, I don’t know, we could work it out somehow. I could go on telly. Talk about what I’ve seen, what’s happened to me.’

‘Oh. Yes. Show them the scar. Tell what your brother did to you. There would be no stopping the fury then. The war would begin in earnest.’

‘No. That’s not what I mean. No. Eve. You don’t understand. It’s going to absolute shit up there. I mean, crazy fucking batshit weirdo religious nutcases going around killing kids.’

Eve says, ‘There’s only one way to put it right. The war has to start now. The real war. The war of all against all.’

Gog and Magog, whispers the voice. That’s right.

Roxy sits back a little bit in her chair. She’s told Mother Eve the whole story, every last part of what she saw and what was done to her and what she was made to do.

‘We have to stop the war,’ she says. ‘I still know how to get stuff done, you know. I’ve been thinking. Put me in charge of the army in the North. I’ll keep order, we’ll patrol the border – real borders like a real country – and, you know, we’ll talk to your friends in America. They don’t want fucking Armageddon breaking out here. God knows what weapons Awadi-Atif has.’

Mother Eve says, ‘You want to make peace.’

‘Yeah.’

‘You want to make peace? You want to take charge of the army in the North?’

‘Well, yeah.’

Mother Eve’s head starts to shake as if someone else is shaking it for her.

She gestures to Roxy’s chest.

‘Why would anyone take you seriously now?’

Roxy jerks her whole body away.

She blinks. She says, ‘You want to start Armageddon.’

Mother Eve says, ‘It’s the only way. It’s the only way to win.’

Roxy says, ‘But you know what’s going to happen. We’ll bomb them and they’ll bomb us and it’ll spread out wider and wider, and America will get involved and Russia and the Middle East and … the women will suffer as well as the men, Evie. The women will die just as much as the men will if we bomb ourselves back to the Stone Age.’

‘And then we’ll be in the Stone Age.’

‘Er. Yeah.’

‘And then there will be five thousand years of rebuilding, five thousand years where the only thing that matters is: can you hurt more, can you do more damage, can you instil fear?’

‘Yeah?’

‘And then the women will win.’

A silence spreads through the room and into Roxy’s bones, up through the marrow, a cold, liquid stillness.

‘Bloody hell,’ says Roxy. ‘So many people have told me you’re crazy, you know, and I never believed any of them.’

Mother Eve watches her with great serenity.

‘I was always, like, “No, if you met her you’d know she’s clever, and she’s been through a lot, but she’s not crazy.”’ She sighs, looks at her hands, palms and backs. ‘I went looking for information about you ages ago. I mean, I had to know.’

Mother Eve watches her, as if from very far away.

‘It’s not that hard to find out who you used to be. It’s all over some bits of the internet. Alison Montgomery-Taylor.’ Roxy takes her time with the words.

‘I know,’ says Mother Eve. ‘I know it was you who made it all disappear. And I’m grateful. If that’s what you’re asking, I’m still grateful.’

But Roxy frowns, and in that frown Allie knows she’s made a mistake somewhere along the line, some little minor misalignment in her understanding.