• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

"Oh, yeah," she went on and rummaged in her jacket. "I had to give you this."

As she produced the scroll of grey paper from her pocket, she caught sight of her mother's stare. It was that look that always came when the Christmas card from Ace's dad arrived. Far away, lost and bitterly hurt.

"Come back, Dory," she said. "There are things we need to talk about."

Ace turned hurriedly away. In that split second, the Doctor had gone.

"Professor?"

She heard the distant bicycle bell from outside. From the window, she saw him scooting between the footballers on the playground.

"Professor! It's important!"

Out in the last sunlight he rode, past other mothers who waited at the school gate for their kids. Out through the gathering dusk into the labyrinthine roads and avenues and corridors and passageways and dead ends of Perivale.

The bicycle bell merged with the urgent ringing that meant the end of class.

7: Non vultus, non color

The urchin was trying to move the rock, but it was too big for him to manage alone. It was bigger than anything in the whole world. His ball had rolled down a crack under the boulder and his arm was too short to reach it. When he pushed against the stupid rock, he saw his face clearly reflected in its shiny surface where the dust had wiped away.

He gave up and clambered down the mound of rubble, the remains of a side wall that had fallen away from one of the buildings. He lay back next to a tuft of dry white grass. He tried to sleep, because the dreams he had were far better than staying awake. The dreams were in fierce colour like the stars, not shades of grey like the world.

It was no good, the brittle grass stalks scratched at his skin. Wide awake, be stared up at the angular grey walls that towered over him. Above them, stars winked in the black sky. In his satchel, he still had a couple of the biscuits from the machine. He had given the rest to Shonnzi as usual, so he had to make these last. Two bells ago, he had found some berries growing along one of the artery alleys. Shonnzi had told him not to touch them, but they were so glossy and moist that he couldn't resist a couple.

He had been sick for a whole bell and Shonnzi had said, "I told you so."

His stomach still felt like someone else's, but he was really hungry and managed half of the dry biscuit. He had some water too that Shonnzi had brought from the hose spring. Shonnzi always knew what was best.

Sometimes one of the Others, usually Amnoni, would give him some of their food. She would leave it on a ledge somewhere when the guards were not there. He would creep out to take it and sometimes see the work gang watching him from a distance. But they never approached him and he just snatched the food and ran. Sometimes it was the food he had given Shonnzi to give to them. He never told Shonnzi about that either, because he wanted anything he could get.

He heard a high, raucous chitter-chitter and darted for cover into the shadows of a doorway. Guards were coming, their armoured feet tramping in the dust. He peered out of the doorway and saw them pass the end of the alley, marching in a single line along the main artery towards the Dial Square. The starlight glinted off their eyes and burnt red polished heads like the scuttlers in the rubble and dung.

The goik was with the guards too. The urchin hated the goik. The goik had trapped him once on the Middle Phase and nearly torn his arm off dragging him towards the Watch Tower. Shonnzi had caught up with them just outside the gates.

The urchin had run off while Shonnzi and the goik were bashing each other up. He hid where no one would find him and tried not to cry. But Shonnzi still knew where he was. He was hugged and rocked gently as Shonnzi said, "It's all right, kid. It's all right. As long as you're all right, I'm all right."

It was quiet again. The guards had gone. The urchin went back to the mound of rubble. He hunted round for something to use and found an old table leg that would be a good lever to lift the rock.