Before the Storm (16 page)

Yesterday will change, thought Emily. BC and Fox come here, then they cease to be. Daniel and I never get rescued by Fox. In a few days, if BC stops the bombing, I shall be over a week drowned, and the bombing will happen anyway. If BC fails, the dreadful century of war will happen anyway, yet BC and Fox will remain real.

For some minutes Emily sat waiting for her head to stop spinning, then got out of the chair, changed into her nightdress, took Barry's book on human sexual reproduction from under her mattress, and got into bed. This time she read certain sections with considerably more care than before. Hundreds of coyly worded scenes in dozens of romantic novels began to make sense as she read.

Sex was apparently the ultimate means to demonstrate one's love! There were certainly dangers from rather worrying diseases, and the threat of pregnancy loomed large over what Emily now understood seduction to mean, yet it remained the ultimate expression of love. In novels, girls did it with sweethearts about to go away to war. BC was already at war, and was about to face his final battle. Win or lose, he would die. They would all die – or vanish, or never exist, or whatever happened when one travelled through time and did things that changed things that had not happened yet but had happened anyway.

After hiding the book again, Emily blew out the lamp and lay stretched out in her bed. Her mother said that good girls always slept on their side, and that it was rude to lie flat on one's back. Emily thought of BC, and of how they would soon all be dead. Without even making a conscious decision, Emily slipped from her bed, removed her nightdress, then climbed into bed again and lay on her back. She did not sleep very much for the rest of the night, and when her mind was not on BC, she was planning what to do with his crew while he lay in the healing coma. That was not all that she was planning.

‘Trap me, will you, Mother and Father?' she whispered into the darkness. ‘Keep me out of libraries, and bohemian coffee houses, and, and even grocery stores? I lead a squad of killers! Well, apart from Daniel and Barry, anyway. I have a gun that can melt steel. I have been trusted to save the future! No, Mother and Father, you cannot stop me. You have ordered me about for the very last time.'

For Daniel the morning began normally enough. He awoke, washed, checked with Fox that BC was still alive, then went downstairs with Fox to breakfast. Mrs Lang had decided that everyone except for BC should eat breakfast in the dining room. Daniel entered the room, sat down, and gestured for Fox to do the same. Emily was already there, her fingers interlocked, her chin resting on them, and her elbows on the table. As far as Daniel could recall, nobody had ever put their elbows on a table in the Lang household, at least not in his short lifetime.

For some moments Daniel stared in fascination, then he looked up at Emily's face. Her expression told him that he should seriously consider feeling alarmed, or even consider the option of blind panic.

Martha was serving as well as cooking. She brought in a rack of hot toast, and Daniel served himself at once. His theory was that something unimaginably harrowing was about to happen, so that soon nobody would feel inclined to actually eat breakfast at the breakfast table. Daniel glanced at Emily whenever it seemed safe to do so. She was not eating. That was also a bad sign. Emily always ate, even when she was not hungry. She ate with manners so maniacally good that even her parents could not match them. Emily actually read books about manners, memorising lengthy passages and tormenting Daniel with them. Now her elbows were on the table. That was bad manners, and so it was a very bad sign.

Daniel was up to his fifth piece of toast and jam when Mr and Mrs Lang finally entered. They sat down, still discussing BC and whether or not a proper doctor should be summoned to examine him. This suddenly secured Fox's attention. He assumed the expression of a tiger that had been sleeping in the sun and had awoken to find two lambs playing with his tail.

‘How shall I eat thee, let me count the ways,' mumbled Daniel to himself.

Nobody seemed to hear. Suddenly Mrs Lang finally noticed that her daughter had her elbows on the table.

‘Emily, attend your manners!' called Mrs Lang in quite a sharp tone.

Emily let her interlocked hands fall to the table. She did not attempt to move her elbows back. This is it, she's going to take on Mother, thought Daniel. Why can't I get something easy to do, like getting shot while saving BC? Emily turned and glared down the table in the direction of Mrs Lang. Should one have a big breakfast on Judgement Day? Daniel toyed with the idea of having a sixth piece of toast. After all, it was not as if being hungry was going to be much of an issue with the world about to end.

‘Liore needs a proper nurse, so I should have the rest of the week off school to look after him,' Emily announced. ‘Mother, will you inform school?'

‘Well, I …' began a very indignant Mrs Lang.

‘Thank you,' said Emily brusquely before she could say anything else. ‘Now Father, Fox has seen the police, and they have recovered the things that were stolen from him when he arrived in Melbourne.'

‘Your pardon …' began Fox, apparently distracted from thoughts of killing anyone who tried to prevent him caring for BC.

Emily went straight on. ‘That means that Fox has no need to work as a delivery boy for a grocer. He should be going to a mechanics institute and learning about electricity.'

‘Oh, why yes, what good news,' managed Mr Lang, reeling from the barrage of orders from his daughter.

‘Fox, notice, to Aitkinson, submit, this morning,' ordered Emily.

‘Lockdown!' Fox barked back at once.

‘But I could nurse the young lieutenant,' managed Mrs Lang, rallying slightly.

‘Mother, you are busy with all the social engagements leading up to the opening of parliament,' Emily stated in a tone that was not to be argued with.

‘But you will be alone with him!' exclaimed Mrs Lang, deciding to argue anyway.

‘Martha and Henry will be in the house. Besides, Lieutenant Liore is honourable in the extreme, and he is recovering from a bullet wound to the stomach.' Daniel noted that Emily's eyes were huge and unblinking, like those of a cat gathering itself to spring onto a bird. ‘I am in no danger of being seduced.'

What followed was the longest five-second silence of Daniel's entire life. Emily had an odd talent of forcing people to do what they did not wish to, and now her utterly mortified brother realised how she did it. When Emily wanted something minor, and someone did not want to give it to her, she stepped out far beyond everyday, polite, conventional manners. Her victim then had the choice of touching off a major scene, or merely giving in to her for the sake of keeping the peace. Whether parting Barry from his bag at the point of a death ray, or saying something so unimaginably embarrassing to her parents that they would rather give her a week off school than discuss the matter further, Emily always won. Daniel tried to imagine Emily taking her clothes off and getting into BC's bed. Daniel's imagination screamed for mercy.

‘Well, of course I trust you both,' babbled Mrs Lang at last.

‘Splendid, Mother, I just knew everyone would be mature and reasonable about this matter.'

‘Now just a minute …' began Mr Lang, his face flushing red with anger.

‘Besides, Father, you and Mother
were
content to leave me alone in the house with Henry, before I knew the meaning of the word seduce,' Emily continued smoothly. ‘Oh, and I had to find out the meaning of the word for myself!'

The skin of Mr Lang's face faded to a deathly pallor, and his mouth hung open, unmoving. This cannot be happening, thought Daniel. My sister has taken on our parents, and she is winning.

‘I am highly responsible about the temptations of the flesh, Father, even though you and Mother were too embarrassed to tell me about them,' Emily continued. ‘Oh, and Daniel knows too, I thought it my duty to tell him.'

I do believe the truth has just been run down and trampled by a herd of stampeding elephants, thought Daniel, cringing so low that his chin began pressing into the sixth piece of toast, which lay cooling on his plate. On the other hand, I don't suppose that anyone wants to know that I really learned what bums, titties and dicks are for from Barry the Bag.

‘Well then, ah, so you know how babies are made?' asked Mr Lang, staring at Daniel.

If I stabbed my hand with my fork, perhaps it would distract people a little and they would change the subject, thought Daniel. Then again, perhaps they would not notice, and I would go through all that pain for nothing. Daniel flicked a glance at his father. Mr Lang was still staring at him. Well, the alternative is to stare at Emily, thought Daniel. I suppose he only needs to hear me say 'yes', Daniel was concluding when Emily came to his rescue.

‘He also knows how they are
not
made, Father.'

Mr Lang suddenly assumed the expression of a small mouse confronted by a large cat in a very tight corner. Mrs Lang put a hand to her forehead and closed her eyes. Daniel tried unsuccessfully to sink through his toast, his plate, the table and the floor. Fox was aware of tension at the table, but was also aware that none of it was directed at him, and that Emily appeared to be mistress of the situation. Reassured that his commander was winning against superior odds, he continued eating his breakfast, perfectly at ease.

‘Well then, everything is really under control,' Mr Lang said as he turned to the clock. ‘Look at the time, I'm late already, must dash.'

‘Wait, I have to go with you, remember?' called Mrs Lang, getting up so hastily that she knocked her chair over.

Daniel stood up as his mother left the table, and so did Fox. The piece of toast was stuck to Daniel's chin.

‘Standing, are males, when females, leave table,' said Fox as they sat down again. ‘Why?'

‘Manners,' muttered Daniel, peeling the toast from his chin.

‘Manners, teaching Fox? Yes?'

‘Yes,' said Daniel listlessly.

Now Emily turned her gaze on Daniel, and she was smiling. That was bad, Daniel knew from experience.

‘As you have just seen, brother dear, I do
not
need to be holding a death beam gun that can melt steel in order to force people to do what I want. I am going to give you back that, that
science
book about making babies, and Barry can have his bag back too. Bring him here after school. I have orders for both of you. Now go.'

‘Babies, in hatchery, are made,' said Fox, looking puzzled.

‘I have a book that I think you should read,' replied Emily.

Moments later Daniel was out of the door and hurrying for the sanctuary of the railway station.

Press-ganged, thought Daniel. I've been press-ganged into some army that does not even exist, and by my own sister. By the time he reached the station Daniel was singing the old song that he had learned from Fox.

‘Thinkin' of runnin' away to sea, Danny Boy?' asked Barry, who was loitering by the station gate.

‘Life at sea is starting to look good, even if I have to endure floggings and drink rum,' sighed Daniel.

‘Problems at the big house?'

‘Emily has … well, to cut a very embarrassing story short, she is even ordering our parents around. I never thought I would be so happy to go to school.'

‘Any word on me bag?'

‘She will be returning the bag and the book after school today. On the other hand, she expects us to continue spying on the Germans.'

‘Yeah?'

‘Yes. Sorry, but Emmy just has ways of making people do things.'

‘Dunno if that's bad, I sorta fancy this stuff.'

‘What do you mean? This is not an adventure book, Barry, those are real spies with real bombs – and guns, and daggers.'

‘But it's important. Like, when me, Barry the Bag, was hanging about with ya sellin' French postcards, I wasn't just a dirty little cove sellin' French postcards.'

‘But Barry, you
were
a dirty little cove selling French postcards, and so was I. If my Mother ever finds out, bloody hell, don't even talk about it!'

‘Danny Boy, ya don't understand. Yesterday I was a secret warrior of the British Empire, I was important! I'se never been important. I keep thinkin' that the king might give me a medal or somethin', you know, for bein' brave and loyal.'

‘I would rather not get the medal than have my mother find out about yesterday.'

‘Yeah, well, there ya go Danny Boy, but I'm different. One day yer old man will give ya lots of money and a job in 'is business, and yer'll have yer own carriage and house, and be important. I'll just be sellin' tikkies for the rest of me days, but now I can think back and say, oi, I helped the king once.'

‘So what are you going to do?'

‘Reckon I'll dodge school for the rest of the week, an' hang about, helpin'.'

‘But you dodge school anyway.'

‘Oi, that's yer train comin', Danny Boy. See ya, four hours past noon, an' all that toffy stuff?'

‘Well, yes, I suppose.'

‘Barry needs 'is proper bag, Danny Boy. Important spyin' equippyments in the bag.'

School dragged slowly for Daniel, even though it had the attraction of being time spent away from Emily. Predictably, there was a great deal about Australian history in general and federation in particular. Daniel listened to his history teacher speculate on what would follow federation.

‘Australia is destined to become the greatest nation in the Southern Hemisphere!' concluded the teacher. ‘You boys are destined to become the leaders of the very finest nation in the British Empire of the future.'

If only you knew, thought Daniel morosely.

‘And now, I want you all to write an essay on what Australia will be like a hundred years from today. Two hundred words, and you may go home once it is on my desk.'

Daniel contemplated writing an essay about death rays, bombs that could destroy entire cities, the space service, Britain occupied by Germany and Melbourne as the capital of the British Empire. Tempting, he thought, before scrawling out a scenario of Britain's industries transferred to Australia's deserts so that the English countryside did not have to be so spoiled by soot from factories. As essays went, it was not among his best, but given all that was on his mind, Daniel thought it quite a credible effort. At three-thirty he met with Barry at the North Brighton Station, and together they set off for an audience with his increasingly fearsome sister.