‘Don’t you think Nowhere is a her?’
‘Uh,’ Adam says, uncertain.
‘Let me show her to you.’ Leaf takes a case from beneath his chair. He removes three black cylinders, opens them and spreads the plans out on the table carefully. ‘This is Nowhere.’
Adam looks closely. One is a blueprint for Nowhere House. It hasglass and steel and wood and metric measurements. The next one is a plan for a farmhouse, on yellowing paper. It’s simple, the farmer’s home when this place was an apple farm. But you can see how the builders blasted the foundations out of the mountain, the rock. The last is a crude diagram. The ink is faded to a pale taupe. It shows a small structure with six rooms, around a central courtyard.
‘I’m not sure that one’s real,’ Leaf says, pointing at the oldest building plan. ‘It’s seventeenth century. People say there was a monastery up here once but it’s hard to check. The other two are ok.’
‘This is great.’ Adam knows his voice sounds vague. His brain is lighting up. He can see all the ways the old and the new Nowhere fit together, how what came before was used again. ‘They’re beautiful.’
‘They are,’ Leaf pauses. ‘Look. Would you like some weird advice?’
‘Sure,’ Adam says. He touches the plan of Nowhere Apple Farm with a cautious finger.
‘Sometimes if you hide, you really find things. So you could stay here. Take a break. It might help you work through stuff.’ Leaf keeps his eyes on the hill, the crosses, the rabbits, the ending day. ‘While you build the staircase. It’s much easier if you’re on site.’
‘That’s nice of you,’ says Adam awkwardly ‘but—’
‘It’ll all still be there,’ Leaf says. ‘Believe me. Whatever you leave behind, it will all still be waiting when you get back.’
Leaf looks at Adam and he feels like no one has ever actually looked at him before, or if they have, they didn’t see. His body floods with something. Oxygen, relief, something else he’s not ready to name.
‘Also,’ Leaf says, ‘I’m particular about work on the house. It’s good to keep me happy.’
‘I guess I could stay for a while,’ Adam says, ‘to start it all off.’ He feels dizzy.
‘Good.’ Leaf leans into Adam’s ear. ‘They feed on urine and dung,’ he whispers.
‘What?’
‘The purple emperors. They feed off bodily waste.’ Leaf smiles wide into Adam’s face.
Adam coughs. ‘That’s interesting.’
‘It’s why I relate to them,’ Leaf says. ‘It’s show business in a nutshell.’ He gets up from his chair. ‘Come down to the stable and meet the horses.’
‘Ok.’ Adam’s legs feel numb and clumsy. He follows Leaf as he steps off the porch and walks across the green hill, leading the way through the white crosses. Adam pauses and does not follow. He takes the longer way around the hill. The thought of walking over the dead makes Adam uneasy, even if they’re just pets.
6Riley
She wakes shaking from dreams of Cousin – his grey stiff flesh. Dreaming is a good thing though. Riley only ever dreams when she feels safe. Morning light falls through the cracks in the door, Oliver stirs warm in her arms. There are birds calling outside, so many, in rivers of rippling song.
Riley eases out of the stall, closing the stable door gently behind her. She goes to the barn, blinking in the bright daylight. It’s mostly empty. A girl – tall, big-boned, strong with a ragged pink mohawk – huddles in a corner, singing to herself.
‘I’m Riley.’ She knows she should make people like her, if she can.
‘I know. Midnight.’
‘Uh.’ Riley looks at the morning sun pouring in through the barn door.
‘It’s my name,’ the girl says with exaggerated patience. ‘Midnight.’
Riley sees that Midnight has a baby at her breast – that’s who she was singing to. Riley looks away, uncomfortable. It’s too intimate. She feels like she knows too much about the girl too soon.
On a long table in the centre of the room there are dishes, loavesof Wonder Bread and little packs of butter like you get in diners. There are bowls of tiny crimson strawberries.
Riley crams a slice of bread and butter into her mouth. She puts another slice in her pocket to take back for Oliver. When she looks up, Noon is there, close to. She puts a hand on Riley’s cheek and smiles into her eyes.
