2089. Miles M Hudson
Читать онлайн книгу.
Marmaran sipped at the black liquid and winced. ‘Why don’t the sifters ever send in the feeds of these people making coffee?’ he muttered, ostensibly to himself.
Vicky watched the big, ginger-haired man next to her father laugh and slap the shorter man on his broad back. ‘You and your coffee, Marma. You know you’ll never get it the way you want it; you need to accept this.’ Marmaran cushioned his cup from the physicality of the man’s blow, looked up at him and nodded, pushing his closed lips outward.
Vicky smiled and thought of her mother making coffee for him years before. She knew that she had her mother’s long, English face, but her darker skin had been handed down from her father and his ancestors. She also had her mother’s height and was nose-to-nose as tall as Marmaran. Her mother had been able to produce a cup of coffee that he adored. He would smack his lips in delight at the flavour. Vicky had never been able to emulate the feat, and since his wife’s death, Marmaran himself had been the only person who could make coffee he approved of.
Both men looked up to the dais as Lloyd Lloyd, the Spokesperson for Highnam, began the proceedings. His voice projected naturally, ‘Ladies and gentleman, welcome to Kangaroo for this day, Sunday 3 September 2089. Firstly, let me tell you that the death of Old Man Jones has been punished, as we decreed last week, with the imprisonment of his son at the Bristol Jail. The Bristol Brigade members came on Tuesday to escort him away. Poor young Derek was ill — there was no way we could have foreseen what he would do. You all saw him here last Sunday. It is so sad, but mental illness happens. Indeed, I think we should be thankful that it is only sick people who cause such tragedy; genuinely profound criminal behaviours never get past the planning stages, as they are caught by the sifters.’
There was a light round of applause from the assembled villagers and one shout of ‘Hear, hear.’
‘Fortunately, such things are rare. This week’s Kangaroo should be relatively brief as we have only a few matters to discuss, and these are all pretty straightforward.’
Truva senior’s ginger colleague called out, ‘Old Marma here wants to add an agenda item.’ The assembled crowd looked round at the pair.
Vicky’s father gaped up at the man, almost spilling the coffee himself this time. ‘What are you doing?’ he hissed. Vicky stared at Marma and wondered what was happening. Her right forefinger traced pensive circles looping the mousy hair at her temple.
The bigger man beamed back a gigantic smile from his round, ruddy face. ‘He says the coffee in here is a crime!’ The hall filled with laughter. Some people looked towards the small hatch where two ladies made refreshments, but most returned their gaze to Lloyd Lloyd and his floppy, blond fringe.
Vicky watched her father continue to stare at his neighbour. Marma narrowed his eyes to tiny slits. He muttered again out loud, but at an even quieter volume, ‘And I’ll be able to make my own coffee there too.’
She guessed he had inwardly decided that in future he would attend Kangaroo remotely via his armulet, from the comfort of the sofa in the front room of their farmhouse. Vicky had been only eight years old when her mother succumbed to the snow, but she was certain that her father had become more insular in the years since.
Highnam’s Spokesperson, Lloyd Lloyd, was in his thirties, broad and strong, and looked every bit the country boy. He had an assured air, and on the stage, when he moved and spoke to the assembly, this was amplified to a veritable swagger. Above his head, a huge projection of Highnam’s marketplace on a summer’s day was a placeholder for the programme they would soon scrutinise. ‘Before we watch the KangaReview from this week, we have one item of community business. The chimney on the mayor’s house was damaged by those winds on Wednesday night, so we need to arrange to fix it up. As you know, the house is nearly two centuries old, so it’s not surprising that it needs so much maintenance.’ It went unsaid that the ‘mayor’s house’ was the one that Lloyd Lloyd and his family lived in.
A woman close to the front of the assembled crowd offered, ‘The old Canelkin house across the A40 is empty. Should we take the bricks from its chimney?’
The old road running along the southern side of Highnam village, known to all by its historical designation, the ‘A40’, had not seen fuelled vehicles in nearly fifty years. It was still the major transport link for the village, though, to Gloucester in particular. Decades of seasonal flooding had undermined it in places, giving carts and electric quad bikes some trouble, but for horses, cycles and pedestrians, the surface was manageable, if not good.
Lloyd Lloyd pointed at the woman and replied, ‘From what I’ve seen, we only need a handful of replacement bricks. Well, you know what I mean… ’ He grinned here, with a deliberate pause. ‘… A few bricks, maybe more than one hand could hold, but… ’ He trailed off to offer the people a chance to enjoy his joke.
‘Most of those that fell are fine to reuse, but thanks Mrs B, if we need some new bricks we’ll use those. Anybody see a reason why we shouldn’t?’ The villagers generally shook their heads and looked at each other; nobody demurred. ‘OK, that was the easy part. Now, who’s going to volunteer to do it, and when? Hands up, please, let’s have a working party of six, at least two of whom will need to provide some ladders and tools.’
Two hands went up on the side of the room away from the Truvas. Marma was not paying much attention. He played his small spoon through the coffee. Vicky expected he would pronounce a far-fetched analysis, concluding with what had been done to the grounds to produce it.
Lloyd Lloyd continued to recruit volunteers. ‘Thanks Asa and Tony. Who else? Asa, Tony, when are you thinking you want to do it? My estimate is one to two days’ work for a party of six. At most. And we have stock of cement to make the mortar — help yourselves from the stores behind Kangaroo Hall.’
By this time, other hands had gone up, including the ginger fellow, who poked Marmaran’s arm to engage him in volunteering. He looked into the florid cheeks and copper-coloured stubble, squinted ever so slightly, and raised his hand also. The working party was appointed.
‘Now then, ladies and gentlemen, including those of you attending Kangaroo today via your armulets, what’s happened this week? I can tell you that the submission from the sifters is a short one today, so let’s see what we need to deal with.’
He turned to look up at the projected picture, which faded to black, before a new video started playing. It was a view that one might see if running through woods. At the bottom of the screen, the name George Kendrick appeared. Thus, the audience knew that they were watching the audiopt feeds from the round-faced, ginger man.
Marmaran immediately took a step to the side, directly into Vicky, trying to push them a little between other audience members and away from George. With others making similar small movements, a space appeared all around the man, whose innately red face had become utterly crimson. He was looking across the room, no longer watching the screen. Kendrick muttered repeatedly, ‘Oh, Malthus. Oh, Malthus.’
After a glance at the man, all the audience members returned their gaze to the screens. Vicky followed the ginger man’s stare, and the only other person still looking their way, and not up at the projection, was a thin woman with a big head of dark, curly hair. She wore large, dangling earrings that Vicky swore she could hear jangling against themselves.
She looked back at the screen and saw that the very woman had now appeared in the video, looking back at the viewer. She wore the same earrings, and George Kendrick had obviously been able to hear them, as the sounds they heard were coming from the projected show above Lloyd Lloyd’s blond head.
It was rendered in a three-dimensional manner, so the audience could see it exactly as if they had been Kendrick at the date and time shown in the bottom corner. The curly-haired woman in the room looked down to the ground, whilst her image in the air above looked back towards the viewers with a smile. She gave a shrill giggle and ran off through the trees. The chase continued briefly, but she was easily caught, and the two held each other in a laughing embrace.
One member of the gathered audience called out, ‘For shame.’